Our precious gifts from above, our pumpkin munchkins, our little monsters! Whatever we call them, our kids tend to be our number one priorities. When it comes to their safety and their well-being, erring on the side of caution is typically the name of the game. Why? Well the maternal instinct kicks in and of course, we don’t wanna screw them up to be all weird and messed up like we are! Sound strategy, I know, but allow me to blow your mind! What if I told you that lifting weight could, in fact, be good for your kids?! Yes, I can hear the gasping from here, but hang in there and by the end of this, you may have your kid on the squat rack working a 5×5 all while filling out their consent form for their first powerlifting meet!
At some point we were all told “No kids should lift weights, it’ll stunt their growth!” That misconception all started with injuries brought upon by poor training in children. Believe it or not, proper programming and training can actually strengthen children’s bones while improving their body composition. That’s basically fancy talk for, your child that will tick all the healthy check boxes at the doctors office. So as a parent, isn’t it a good feeling to go into the doctor’s office and hear your kids are perfectly healthy? You can go straight over to your PTA meeting and brag to all the other parents about how your kid is the fittest kid in their grade! Research shows that the only way that letting your kid lift weights makes you a bad parent is if you let that little turd out lift you! #parenting #winning
That being said, we are not encouraging any training for a child that is not ready to take the weight room seriously. Goofing around in the gym is the best way to start your kid off on the wrong foot. Not only do you wanna avoid a negative first impression of the gym, you don’t want to start a kid in the gym until they are ready to take it seriously. Much like adults, every kid is different, but unlike adults, each kid is not gonna need to hit the gym right away. Simply put, they might just not be mentally ready for it and that’s okay!
Research has continued to support the idea that working out and lifting weights is great for kids, but where do you start? Well first off, no matter what, they need to be under constant, proper supervision to ensure that each rep, set and session is a safe one.
Now that our first rule of fight club is out of the way, we can help you get your kid on the right track! Make sure to emphasize the importance of warming up. If they’re not warmed up, you’re gonna break your kid, plain and simple. Unlike your brand new sunglasses, kids don’t come with receipts and you can’t exchange them for a new pair. Before lifting weights, try to perfect each movement that you plan on programming into their training at the base level first. So that means perfect their body weight squats, deadlifts, presses, pulls and everything in between. Once they’ve nailed that, start light with a weight they can crank out 10 to 15 reps safely with a couple reps in reserve. We try to do 3 to 4 sets, but feel out how they’re doing and adjust from there.
I wouldn’t encourage training going anywhere over an hour. Kids will lose focus after about 2 to 3 minutes per year of age. To put that into perspective, a 10 year old has about 20 minutes of focus in them. This is not the time to over-complicate things so keep it simple and somewhat short. Don’t overload them with information, if they’re not getting the squat mechanics in the first session, that’s okay, move onto the next exercise and build on it next session! After the workout is done, much like the warm-up, STRETCH! The thing we neglect now doesn’t have to be passed down from generation to generation. Your kid may move like a slinky now, but when they’re not frail and fragile like us at our age, they’ll thank you for making them stretch.
Still here? I hope you’ve got more of an attention span of your 10 year old because this has become quite the read. Don’t worry, we’re gonna wrap things up here with a couple exercise suggestions on where to get started with that sweet, precious angel of yours! The movements you’ll want to prioritize for your kid are gonna be much like yours.
• Lower body pushing movement (We recommend Squats)
• Lower body pulling movement (We recommend Deadlifts to also master the Hip Hinge)
• Upper body Pushing movement (We recommend Dumbbell Bench Press)
• Upper body Pulling Movement (We recommend Standing Rows)
• Rotational Movement (We recommend Medicine Ball Rotational Toss)
• Split Stance (We recommend Lunges)
• Core/Bracing (We recommend Planks)
• Jumping and Landing (We recommend Broad Jumps)
Those seven exercises are great places to start for any program, but your kid is gonna be kicking so much butt that they’ll be kicking in the NFL every Sunday in no time! As they master those movements, you can mix and match while finding out what type of training is best for your little gym demon. Like we said before, each kid is different so find out what they like the most and after safety, the second most important thing is making sure they’re having fun to ensure a happy and healthy lifelong relationship with fitness. Plus, you gotta make sure your kids are in tip top shape to take care of us one day! They’ll owe us for making them super shredded kids, it’s their turn to change our diapers!
