Teen Gym - Is it a good or a bad thing?

We asked top coach Mark Staiger is it ok for teens to hit the gym. The myths surrounding it will astound you.

Mark Staiger runs one of the top private gym practises in Woking

A client told me his 13 year-old was interested in starting weight training and he had some concerns about it. This was a particularly interesting conversation as he asked what I would consider to be number of myths or mistruths.

Here are some of the things that he said to me.

“They can’t do weight training because the impact on their joints is too intense and it affects their muscular and skeletal development.”

I told him that he was right, but not in the way he thought. It has a very positive impact on their muscular and skeletal development but more so on their motor mechanics and physical robustness. Strength training is often recommended to athletes for injury prevention and that hold true for teenagers as well. In fact the National Strength and Conditioning Council (NSCA) advocates it for teenagers.

Other benefits include improved bone density, reduction in body fat and enhanced sports performance. The first two can increase there life long health and fight of diseases like osteoporosis, obesity and cardiac problems.

Get typing "gyms for teens near me" they are going to need instruction

The hardest part when training teenagers (boys more so) they generally improve strength quite quickly and tend to get bit cocky. Personally this is great stuff as a performance coach, but then they can over lift at every opportunity. This heavier lifting can cause problem later on in the form of injury if they can not maintain technique properly. Therefore supervision of them when lifting is important.

Children would more than likely however be subject to more physical stress in their chosen sport and in general play with their friends. For example the forces from sharp turns in skiing or even a piggy back race can be greater than those produced by weight training. If weight training was a problem than these would also have a negative effect.

“Weight training has no effect on teenagers and youths because they have low levels of testosterone.”

When I asked him what does testosterone do, he didn’t really know

What is testosterone?

Testosterone which is a hormone the body produces to help with development of male and female muscles, bones, genitals, reds blood cells and sex drive. Levels maybe similar or different in younger children or early teens but the fact is that levels of testosterone are generally higher in mid to late teens than most adults can get to without help. Boys have higher levels than female but the the age relationship from teens to adults is the same.

What is the role of Testosterone?

It has numerous roles in the body but it is the hormone related to increasing muscle size and bone mass. This would lead to the question of is testosterone needed for strength gains. Structurally an increase muscle size and bone density will provide the body with a great mechanism to produce more force.

Strength however is more related to motor unit recruitment or level of impulse which refers to the activation of motor units to accomplish an increase in contractile strength in the muscle. Motor unit recruitment means the nervous system is trying to use and recruit more of the existing muscle fibres to create a larger force output of the muscles meaning when there is a contraction there is an increase in strength.

find a personal trainer will be the best way to get them lifting safely

This principle works the same for adults as it does in adolescents. Which you could say is more of an improvement is skill level of the body when performing a task meaning that skill = strength in a round about way of speaking. Therefore teaching the teenagers to lift correctly alone would have a positive increase in their strength levels.

Make no mistake that increase muscle mass can help but can also provide the body with increased weight. In some sporting events increase weight is not ideal so best to determine which result is more important.

So in a nut shell unless there is a problem weight training or strength training for mid to late teens is a great time to start. However younger teenagers are still producing high enough levels to make gains but the focus should be more on the skill and technical side of training which is more important.

“Gym training stunts your growth”

What is Stunted Growth?

Stunted growth is reduced rate off growth in the body and therefore not meeting a median standard which has be set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

An interesting part of the conversation was that gymnastics stunts growth with all the pounding on the joints damaging the growth plates. I returned that with “are you sure that gymnastics is not sport that is better suited to shorter people?”.

To stunt someones growth through pounding and jarring you would need to damage the growth plates (Epiphyseal Plates) which would take an larger amount of force than lifting provides such actually breaking the bone at the location where growth plates are located. However stunted growth is more likely due to poor nutrition or low levels of macro nutrients rather than exercise related. Amino acids generally is the one if you don’t have the required amounts this can have a negative affect on your growth.

It could also be is some form of growth disorder which can be from birth or initiate later in life. Another way is through bad cases of illness such as diarrhoea and worms (helminthiasis). The disorder would have to have an effect on the pituitary gland so it doesn’t release of growth hormone (GH).

Another way is through bad cases of illness such as diarrhoea and worms (helminthiasis). There also could be a problem with he relationship between signal from the hypothalamus to the pituitary so if there is a problem between the two this could also lead to growth issues.

Part of the myth was based around a study due to historic research on fairly small children who did high loads of physical labour. Jeff Nippard has a good myth buster video on this:

Here are some must do’s for teens in the gym - the conclusion

Any training undertaken by a youth or teenage person whether they are athlete or just general fitness should be done under the supervision of a qualified strength professional.

Training program should be designed from the core outwards.

Start with lots of body weight exercise for the duration they can hold proper technique and then stop. Work specifically towards activating and strengthening core muscles which is basically any muscle connected to their trunk which helps in stabilisation of the body during functional movement.

Push ups is a good one to start with as it can be broken down it some key stages. Starting position, Lowering and the raising again. Each one of these part have areas that need to be preformed correctly. For example the starting position has the plank like position at the top, the external rotation force that needs to be humorous to help fix the scapulars back in toward the body.

Basically place you hand on the ground in line with he chest a thumb width out side the shoulders. Then pretend to have you hands on dinner plates and spin the plates clockwise from the shoulder.

Go for Technique over repetitions. Whilst the old no pain no gain adjective is still around and personally like I do like to remember Pat McNamara’s from CST Combat Strength Training, “It’s fit-ness not broke-ness!” adjective. Obviously we want them pushing themselves but if form can not be adequately maintain then they should stop the exercise. Instead do more sets to get your targeted reps and progress from there.

Once body weight exercises can be exercises can be perform well then start to introduce some weight or other resistance equipment like bands, sand bags, vipers etc.

And Marks last stamement - "I have trained a lot of swimmers in the gym from the early teen years, and I they have at least 12-18months of body weight, technique and core work conditioning before we do anything on the heavier side."

Mark Staiger is an award winning coach and runs a woking gym. His clientel extend from celebrities, models and actors and he is concidered to run one of the leading gyms in woking Surrey. Mark is constantly promoting physical high performance and has done away with lengthy and costly contracts so more people can benefit from healthy fitness. You can see more on marks gym at www.markstaiger.com