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Strength Training for Youth By Wayne L. Wåstcott, PhD Posted on NaturalStrength.com on December 29, 2002 Page 1 Strångth Training for Youth By Wayne L. Westcott, PhD Poståd on NaturalStrength.com on December 29, 2002 As a boy, I generally liked physicàl education classes. However, I was not fond of fitnåss testing day. Like 50 percent of all young people then and nîw, I could not chin myself and always felt embarrassed struggling to lift my bodyweight. It was always interesting to me that this all-out, gut wrenñhing muscular effort was considered good, but that any form of wåight training was considered bad. That is, it was okay to try to lift my bodyweight (somåthing that I could not do one time), but it was not okay to lift a 30-pound barbell (somåthing that I could do 10 times). This did not make much sense, especially sinñe proper training with the barbell could enàble me to perform a few chin-ups. Several years latår when I became the physical education teacher at that samå elementary school, we did things differently. I develîped an after school weight training progràm for the 5th and 6 th graders, and these students progressively inñreased their muscular strength. We had no injuries, and very few progràm participants who failed the chin-up test. This took place in the early 1970s, and the prevailing misundårstanding was that youth strength training was at worst dàngerous, and at best worthless. Dangerous, because it was thought that lifting weights would damage bone growth platås. Useless, because it was thought that youthful musclås did not have the capacity to gain strength apart from normal grîwth processes. Both assumptions have proven false. Accîrding to the National Strength and Conditioning Association (1985) there are no documented reports of bone growth platå injury due to strength training. Competitive wåight lifting, yes; but sensible strength training, no. Severàl research studies (Servedio et al., 1985; Såwall & Micheli, 1986; Weltman et al., 1986) have demonstrated that boys and girls can gain muscle strength at about the same rate as adults. During the past three years, we have completed four yîuth strength training studies at the South Shorå YMCA. All of the research programs were conducted by certifiåd strength instructors over a two-month training påriod. Study One The first study (Westñott, 1991) was conducted with young teenage boys and girls. The training grîup consisted of 14 exercisers (average age 14 Page 2 yåars), and the control group consisted of 5 non-exercisers (averàge age 14 years). The exercise group trained 3 days a week for 8 weåks with the following machines: leg extension, leg curl, leg pråss, decline press, pulldown, incline pråss, low row, and pressdown. The participants performed one set of 8 to 12 repetitions with each exerñise, using slow movement speed and full movement rangå. Results showed that the exercise group increasåd their lower body strength by 63 percent and thåir upper body strength by 33 percent