[morbidhulk]

what is a good age to start lifting my son wants to but hes to young i didnt start till i was 18 almost 19 hes still got a few years but what is to young

[ibanezman88]

i started to play around with weights when i was 13
i'm 5'4 but so is the rest of my family

that's got nothing to do with it.

weights do not stunt your growth

steroids do. big misconseption. it's was all those little kids on juice that were lifting that people thought were short because they lifted.

[allstar]

there is nothing wrong with having your kids start at 5 or 6, just doing situps/pushups/pullups keep it simples when they are young maybe a little running, im not talking about training the shit out of them, just keeping them healthy because obviously your not gonna have them on a great diet, but i would start incorporating weight training slowly around 12 or 13.

[Painislove]

I'm 6' and I've lifted since 5th grade did'n't get serious till 9th grade

[JDuB]

Like Allstar said - Keep it simple, just keep him to body weight exercises and he will grow and progress from there.

what ages are we talking about here?

[Luscious Lou]

i'd say when they start jr. high school, its a big myth that weight training will stunt ur growth

[ZiR RED]

Did you know running and jumping puts more compressive stress on your bones than a back squat done with equal body weight (ie: a 100 pound child squatting 100 pounds 10 times).

So, if lifting weights stunted growth by closing growth plates, then every kid that has ever jumped out of a tree or ran down the street after his friend...........well, we'd be a civilization of midgets.

Resistance training poses numbers of benefits to adolescents, including increased motor control, improved coordination, and greater bone mineral density to name just a few.

Teach him the fundamentals, and try to concentrate more on process goals (the ability to perform a set of squats using perfect form) than performance goals (lifting more than his peers).

Br

[Pedro C]

Actually it has been documented that if addolcents train heavy. I am talking 2-3 rep range over 100% of body weight etc, that there is a real risk of damage to their growth plates.

It is recommended that children or teens, should not train heavy weights that they can not perform 10-15 reps on.

Of course, I would like to point out that, training heavy increases only the likelyhood to damage to your growth plates, not that it does this in each and every single case.

So at the end of the day it is all down to Genetics and a predisposition to it, but my personal opinion would to keep it to 100% max of body weight, which the child should be able to complete 10 reps on!

[Teamorbit]

Originally Posted by ZiR RED

Did you know running and jumping puts more compressive stress on your bones than a back squat done with equal body weight (ie: a 100 pound child squatting 100 pounds 10 times).

So, if lifting weights stunted growth by closing growth plates, then every kid that has ever jumped out of a tree or ran down the street after his friend...........well, we'd be a civilization of midgets.

Resistance training poses numbers of benefits to adolescents, including increased motor control, improved coordination, and greater bone mineral density to name just a few.

Teach him the fundamentals, and try to concentrate more on process goals (the ability to perform a set of squats using perfect form) than performance goals (lifting more than his peers).

Br

Well said.

[Kaboom]

I think 13 or 14 is a good age for the simple reason they are more coordinated and disciplined.My little girl has been doing gymnastics since she was 4 and has been doing reg exerceise with it like situps pushups and jumping jacks.You can actually tell she has been doing it for 4 yrs.Seriously she does more correct pushups than my 15 yr old son.

[mm1snapper]

I started lifting weights at 13 for my high school football team. I didnt get serious till about 15 or so.

But imo i would have my kids start doing some of the basics between 10-13years old. And this would just be the *basics*

[FronttaBackThickness]

Originally Posted by ZiR RED

Resistance training poses numbers of benefits to adolescents, including increased motor control, improved coordination, and greater bone mineral density to name just a few.

Br

i read an article recently that provided weightlifting to autistic kids as a method of improving motor skills.
it went over with great success.

[warrior111]

im only 15 but ive still lifted serious and just messing around for around 2 years. i got my first set of 3kgs dumbells when i was 13 im just around 6 ft and still growing, it might seem risk now but theres nothing wrong with excercising at any age.