Can youth athletes (6th-8th grade) lift weights?

[OG Goat Holder]

Very simple question. I’ve not seen a single study that says they can’t. Bottom line, do stupid shlt, you get hurt, just like a 40 year old. How heavy depends on the person, in my view.

What does the pack think?

 

[Maroon Eagle]

I’d personally suggest they wait until they’re 21 when it’s legal for them to raise a pint, but you know how kids are… **

 

[mcdawg22]

Very simple question. I’ve not seen a single study that says they can’t. Bottom line, do stupid shlt, you get hurt, just like a 40 year old. How heavy depends on the person, in my view.

What does the pack think?

We did in Jr High (7th-8th) in the 90’s. Most of us were benching the bar but we got stronger.

 

[SteelCurtain74]

Very simple question. I’ve not seen a single study that says they can’t. Bottom line, do stupid shlt, you get hurt, just like a 40 year old. How heavy depends on the person, in my view.

What does the pack think?

Yes is my very simple answer.

 

[85Bears]

Yes. Light weights good technique especially for a sixth grader. 8th-9th they can start going heavier. Younger than sixth body weight stuff and climbing ropes.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Yes. Nothing heavy though until 9th grade.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Yes. Nothing heavy though until 9th grade.

Based on anything specific?

Reason I ask, my son is all on me to lift, and all I have is bro science that says you may stunt your growth because reasons from back when I was a kid in the. 90s. Why not heavy if they can handle it?

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Based on anything specific?

Reason I ask, my son is all on me to lift, and all I have is bro science that says you may stunt your growth because reasons from back when I was a kid in the. 90s. Why not heavy if they can handle it?

Most important thing at that age is simply learning how to lift correctly and lift with repetition with mostly lighter weights until they’re acclimated to the weight training.

If you want to lift heavy just do it every once in a while once they’ve got the lifts down pat.

 

[DerHntr]

We did in Jr High (7th-8th) in the 90’s. Most of us were benching the bar but we got stronger.

The bar… speak for yourself**

 

[ZombieKissinger]

I didn’t read this, but I searched PubMed, and this was the review that best matched my search: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3483033/

It’ll summarize the research as of 2010 and have citations to specific papers if the review itself doesn’t get into how heavy to go and at what age. Even though it’s dated, you could probably search the author names and see what they’ve come out with since 2010

edit: I also frequently cold email authors of papers like this, and they almost always are happy to respond/help/opine

 

[bigbub50]

I definitely wouldn’t go remotely heavy until form is perfected. I also wouldn’t go heavy until the first major growth spurt. Boys hit this at different times. When his voice drops is a great indicator. I would take 7-8 grade to perfect form. When the form is correct, you will get a lot stronger in less time and greatly lowers risk of injury. Present it to him like this, you can earn the right to attempt a slightly heavier weight when the form is right. If he is a bigger kid (lineman). Really work on his hip flexibility. This will allow him to squat at a correct depth and also get in a proper stance and maintain lower leverage generating more power. Use to coach jr high football, hs football, powerlifting, etc. the biggest problems with kids that age are bigger or taller kids that can’t reach the proper depth in a squat.

 

[bigbub50]

It’s a lot easier to teach a 7th grader great form than an 11th grader that has been doing it wrong for 4 years.

 

[mcdawg22]

The bar… speak for yourself**

Now the bar lifts me. What a country!!

 

[bigbub50]

As far as stunting your growth by lifting heavy at a young age, I’m not taking either side of the argument. But what I do advocate for is learning form at a young age and Immediately dropping weight if form is ever compromised. They got plenty of time to lift heavy 9-12th grade years.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

As far as stunting your growth by lifting heavy at a young age, I’m not taking either side of the argument. But what I do advocate for is learning form at a young age and Immediately dropping weight if form is ever compromised. They got plenty of time to lift heavy 9-12th grade years.

The old school farmers will tell you they were throwing around all kinds of weight back in the day. And they weren’t lying. There’s an element of old man strength we are missing. Can’t put my finger on the secret sauce.

 

[mstateglfr]

Yes they can lift weights.

And yet...
- Teach form in middle school. Lifting measurable weight is largely unimportant and possibly detrimental to short term and long term progress since it may compromise form.

- Focus instead on training with body weight. Push-ups, sit-ups, crunches, calf raises, lunges on a balance bosu ball, burpees, etc.
Proper form will make kids stronger and healthier.

- Running for distance, running for speed, and and footwork drills with ladders and cones will increase cardio capacity and endurance.

 

[Herbert Nenninger]

Slight thread hijack, but I don’t understand why squats are still such a standard part of youth workouts. There are soooo many other good exercises for leg strength and explosiveness that don’t risk strain on lumbar vertebrae (box jumps, jump rope, hill sprints, stadium steps, stair climber, tire pulls, leg extensions, etc). And most of those provide extra cardio benefit as well. And squats require a bulky and relatively expensive set up as well. I’ve been working out regularly for 27-28 years now, and I’m not a stout guy but I’m at least as fast as I was in high school, and I haven’t touched a squat bar since then.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Slight thread hijack, but I don’t understand why squats are still such a standard part of youth workouts. There are soooo many other good exercises for leg strength and explosiveness that don’t risk strain on lumbar vertebrae (box jumps, jump rope, hill sprints, stadium steps, stair climber, tire pulls, leg extensions, etc). And most of those provide extra cardio benefit as well. And squats require a bulky and relatively expensive set up as well. I’ve been working out regularly for 27-28 years now, and I’m not a stout guy but I’m at least as fast as I was in high school, and I haven’t touched a squat bar since then.

Yeah it’s an interesting concept. Darren McFadden didn’t do a single squat at Arkansas, due to some injury. But then again he’s a freak athlete. I do think there are alternatives to just straight up, spine killing squats.

I do like dead lifts though

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

The old school farmers will tell you they were throwing around all kinds of weight back in the day. And they weren’t lying. There’s an element of old man strength we are missing. Can’t put my finger on the secret sauce.

I’m not “old school” but yeah I know what you’re talking about.

 

[mcdawg22]

I’m not “old school” but yeah I know what you’re talking about.

It doesn’t hurt that you are built like Juggernaut

 

[Hot Rock]

I am not an expert but I did sleep last night. Here is my two cents.

read that link thoroughly, that dude posted if you really want to know. I tried but lost interest. Ignore the rest of my post as it’s just another uneducated guess.

Lifting can be safe for all ages but… lifting wrong is unsafe for all ages.

I lifted wrong for years, I thought I had supervision as I lifted with someone that had been lifting for years, but he never corrected my technique that caused me pain every lift. I just pushed through as I thought it was normal. After Shoulder surgery, I find out from my surgeon, my shoulder looked like an OL SHOULDER that had been taking blows from 300 lb men for years. I had not.

Stay lighter, higher reps and take the time to find proper training and not just gravitate to the strongest guy in the room to see what he is doing.
I like body weight training myself and staying active doing things that work the body much better than weight training but I never had a proper trainer.

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

No idea if it's factual or not, but I did a lot of lifting starting in 7th grade. And I went as heavy as I could. I developed osgood-schlater's by the 8th grade. I didn't play basketball, just baseball and football and the causes are lots of running and jumping or other repeated stresses to the ends of the growth plates on your legs. So at the time, the doctors blamed squats and leg presses.

It's a fairly benign condition, other than the bumps on the top of the shin/bottom of the knee was extremely tender and painful from about 8th-10th grade. I remember lightly bumping them on a bar/support under the cafeteria table in 9th grade a few times and it was more painful than if Daniel Larusso had crane kicked me in the nuts.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

No idea if it's factual or not, but I did a lot of lifting starting in 7th grade. And I went as heavy as I could. I developed osgood-schlater's by the 8th grade. I didn't play basketball, just baseball and football and the causes are lots of running and jumping or other repeated stresses to the ends of the growth plates on your legs. So at the time, the doctors blamed squats and leg presses.

It's a fairly benign condition, other than the bumps on the top of the shin/bottom of the knee was extremely tender and painful from about 8th-10th grade. I remember lightly bumping them on a bar/support under the cafeteria table in 9th grade a few times and it was more painful than if Daniel Larusso had crane kicked me in the nuts.

I had osgood-schlater. The pain didn’t go away until my senior year of high school. I was so scared my knees were going to hurt like that for the rest of my life.

 

[40mikemike]

DK Metcalf was lifting weights in the 5th grade.

 

[mcdawg22]

No idea if it's factual or not, but I did a lot of lifting starting in 7th grade. And I went as heavy as I could. I developed osgood-schlater's by the 8th grade. I didn't play basketball, just baseball and football and the causes are lots of running and jumping or other repeated stresses to the ends of the growth plates on your legs. So at the time, the doctors blamed squats and leg presses.

It's a fairly benign condition, other than the bumps on the top of the shin/bottom of the knee was extremely tender and painful from about 8th-10th grade. I remember lightly bumping them on a bar/support under the cafeteria table in 9th grade a few times and it was more painful than if Daniel Larusso had crane kicked me in the nuts.

Is that why you have to go Driver Driver 3-Wood on an average Par 4?

 

[greenbean.sixpack]

My youngest started lifting at 14, he'll be 18 in a couple of months and is 6 ft 2 in and weighs 200 lbs.
Hire a trainer for the first 6 months or so.

 

[ZombieKissinger]

Slight thread hijack, but I don’t understand why squats are still such a standard part of youth workouts. There are soooo many other good exercises for leg strength and explosiveness that don’t risk strain on lumbar vertebrae (box jumps, jump rope, hill sprints, stadium steps, stair climber, tire pulls, leg extensions, etc). And most of those provide extra cardio benefit as well. And squats require a bulky and relatively expensive set up as well. I’ve been working out regularly for 27-28 years now, and I’m not a stout guy but I’m at least as fast as I was in high school, and I haven’t touched a squat bar since then.

It’s hard to break 1000 with bench and deadlift alone

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

Is that why you have to go Driver Driver 3-Wood on an average Par 4?

 

[85Bears]

Yeah it’s an interesting concept. Darren McFadden didn’t do a single squat at Arkansas, due to some injury. But then again he’s a freak athlete. I do think there are alternatives to just straight up, spine killing squats.

I do like dead lifts though

Safe lift is a trap bar deadlift, hexagonal bar With handles. get a horse mat for the garage floor and some 45 pound plates. I bought one for my son when he was in junior high. Much safer than a squat on your spine, you get combined benefits of a squat and a deadlift.

i don’t do squats, I’m getting older don’t need herniated discs, but it’s tough to play high school football without squatting, especially if you are a lineman or linebacker.

 

[Mobile Bay]

We did in Jr High (7th-8th) in the 90’s. Most of us were benching the bar but we got stronger.

In 8th grade summer lifting (going into 9th) most of our linemen including myself were benching over 300lbs

 

[Mobile Bay]

The old school farmers will tell you they were throwing around all kinds of weight back in the day. And they weren’t lying. There’s an element of old man strength we are missing. Can’t put my finger on the secret sauce.

Full body work. It only takes a few muscles to bench. It takes the entire body to throw a hay bale up into a loft. So they get a lot more muscles worked in coordination with each other.

Best explanation I have heard so far.

 

[bigbub50]

The deal about lifting heavy young stunting your growth is really difficult to prove if you think about it. Mainly because no one knows how tall you were gonna be if you didn’t lift heavy while young.

probably the only way to truly test that would be to take multiple sets of identical twins and have one lift like hulk hogan at a really young age and the other not lift then compare when they are 18. But no one is signing up their kids for that experiment. Scientists can theorize, but probably never be able to prove.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

Full body work. It only takes a few muscles to bench. It takes the entire body to throw a hay bale up into a loft. So they get a lot more muscles worked in coordination with each other.

Best explanation I have heard so far.

Lot of theories that men used to have a lot more testosterone back then. Basically because they worked all day doing what you say. Who knows the real reasoning, but I think the T part has some research behind it.

Look at King Jackie and all those dudes like him. Old crusty guys with huge hands and firearms and wide shoulders. Nowadays guys have more overall muscle mass, but it’s like baby muscle or something.

 

[msualohadog]

Heavy lifting and excessive repetitive movements can also cause growth plate issues. Those are ugly and painful for the athletes since they're bone. Growth plates don't start closing until 15-17 yr olds. Just be careful.

 

[mcdawg22]

In 8th grade summer lifting (going into 9th) most of our linemen including myself were benching over 300lbs

That’s great Al Bundy! I guess I should have clarified that day one of Jr High lifting everyone started with the bar unless they had already been lifting on their own. Some immediately started adding weight. Some didn’t.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

In 8th grade summer lifting (going into 9th) most of our linemen including myself were benching over 300lbs

Come on mane. In my hey day at the Sanderson I maxed at 275 one rep. Hard to believe an incoming 9th grader pumped 300. That’s a load.

 

[bigbub50]

if there is a decrease in testosterone compared to the old days in our youth it could also be attributed to diet. Less processed foods and steroid fed meats. But increased physical activity does contribute to higher T levels.

 

[Mobile Bay]

Come on mane. In my hey day at the Sanderson I maxed at 275 one rep. Hard to believe an incoming 9th grader pumped 300. That’s a load.

It's not my fault you are a little manlet. But this was a few years before Sanderson broke ground. The team was lifting in a tin shack behind Hightower and Duggar.

 

[GloryDawg]

I started lifting in 8th grade. I have pretty much lifted six days a week since except when I was deployed overseas in the Marine Corps. I am fixing to be 60 and I can still bench 395 pounds. I warm up with 295 pounds. I have no issues. I am 6'2" 235 pounds with 36-inch waist. My son started going to the gym with me when he was 12 years old. He is 20 years old now. He is 6'2" 210 pounds with 7% body fat. He probably has 18" arms and big legs. He is going to be bigger than me. I say let him work out. Do basic stuff. It's not going to hurt him if he does it correctly.

There's a medical doctor working out in my gym. He brings his 13-year-old son with him every day. The kid works out hard.

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

There's a medical doctor working out in my gym...

By the name of Scully?