Page 15 - Priorities #12 2000-April

Start Carefully With Weight Training
By Kim Mason
PE Chair
Weight training machines look exciting and fun to use...almost like toys. The problem is, they’re not toys. When used improperly, especially by younger athletes, weight training equipment can cause serious damage.
Most experts agree that children
under the age of 13 should avoid
heavy training loads of any kind,
whether it’s weight or sport-specific
training that intensely develops just
one set of muscles. Children’s
muscular and skeletal systems just aren’t developed enough to bear the heavy load intense training puts on them. Too much too soon can lead to all kinds of serious sports-related injuries - something physicians report seeing more and more of in recent years.
This doesn’t mean, though, that correctly designed weight and strength training routines don’t have a place in your teen’s fitness program.
The safest approach to training for children and
preadolescents is one that lets them experiment with different sports that allow them to develop fitness and motor skills and work on greater flexibility. As the growth spurts of early adolescence pass, and adolescents gain muscular and skeletal strength, they can increase the use of weight training equipment.
Weight and strength training can increase flexibility and endurance, and even help teens gain in self esteem and positive body image....big issues for just about any adolescent.
The most important thing to remember about weight and strength training for athletes of all ages, though, is don’t try it without proper supervision and training. Sports trainers and coaches can determine the most appropriate program for your teen, and more importantly,
teach them how use free weights and machines correctly so as to avoid injury.
To read the American Academy of Pediatrics’ statement on Strength and Weight Lifting for children and adolescents, go to : http://www.aap.org/ policy/03327.html
Ed. Note: Woodside Priory has a new and nicely equipped weight room. To start a program, any student (athletic or otherwise) can talk to any of the coaches, or Corinna Schmidt, WPS’s sports trainer, who is on campus after school.
...don’t try it without proper supervision and training.
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