Why Your Kid Needs Strength Training

Parents seem hesitant to allow their kids to participate in a structured strength training program. They want their kids to run around, play sports, and be active but think that strength training is dangerous and/or unnecessary. Not only is strength training safe and beneficial for kids of every age but it’s benefits extend beyond just making your kid a better athlete- it’s integral to preventing injuries and creating good patterns in kids for life

Children/young adults have incredibly malleable nervous systems. That means that whatever motor patterns they learn at that age will stick with them or life. The kids that don’t learn how to properly use their bodies and muscles at a young age are the ones who will develop problems as adults and hurt themselves not just with poor form in the weight room but from every day activities such as picking up a box from the ground.

Aside from the obvious benefits of making your kid a better athlete, strength training actually prevents injury. Stronger muscles, bones, joints and tendons all help the body withstand the toll that sports takes on it. Kids spend most of the day sitting around at school or home being sedentary and don’t build up the necessary strength in their daily activities which puts them in a position to get injured once they participate in sports and other physical activity. Even if your kid doesn’t play contact sports, the body needs to withstand the major compressive forces of running, jumping, stopping, and turning- which everyone does. The children that know how to use the right muscles in their bodies and who have the right patterns are the ones who will not only excel at sports, but will also avoid injury.

Your kid will only be as good at their sport as their body allows them to be. If they aren’t strong and can’t utilize their bodies properly, not only will they fail to reach their potential but they will also be at a much higher risk for minor to season-ending injuries. So build up their strength- and their confidence- and get them in the weight room.

-Coach Lily