Guys who train/workout---opinion needed

Ok, I worked out for more than 5 years, now I'm back in the gym after a break, I read it a lot and consulted fitness gurus etc.

The general opinion is - It's not good to start with weights if he's so young.

He can work out with his own weight, pull ups etc. that's not a problem at all as any other sport.

But it's risky to pull weights at such a young age, it's risky to pull weights while he's still growing.

Practically once he reaches his height, I would say then he can safely start to pull weights.

he is fine to do anything in the gym. he doesn't have any special requirements about what he can and cant do. its just an issue of goals and a training program for those goals.

I agree with Carlos here. Your son is too young now and excessive work out with heavy weights can lead to hormone disbalance which eventually will affect his physical development.

I'm not seeing any issues in working out with light weight or his own weight though. If he needs to control weight, then consult a doctor and let him do cardio excersizes.

It's perfectly fine at his age as long as his expectations/goals are reasonable. (In other words, he should expect to gain muscle and strength, but not want to be huge right away or have immediate plans to be a power lifter.) Restrict him to working only the major muscle groups, which I think a BowFlex would limit him to anyway. Higher repetitions will tone while slowly building muscle.

At his age, the truest goal of moderate weight lifting/bodybuilding is self-esteem and confidence. I never had any as a teenager, but I hear it's a good thing.

after 8th grade... for most kids.

Playing with heavy weights could cause some damage.

If he sticks to lower weights with a decent amount of reps and working on major muscle groups, he should be fine. If at all possible, have him join a gym. There will be lots of people there who will gladly give him some advice when he needs it.

Most cautionary tales about lifting weights at a young age are actually about serious lifting, not about simply working out. If he trains for exercise rather than buffing up, there's no problem at all.

It's fine for him to work out. Have him focus on core and speed training. Stick with light weights, more reps.

Most important make sure that he does the exercises with proper form. Most lifting injuries are the result of improper form.

Proper Nutrition. Recovery Time.

One common idea out there is that weight training will cause stunted growth among teenagers. While it may not be a good idea for very young teens to go out and try lifting massive amounts of weights as if they were training for a bodybuilding competition, lifting weights that are appropriate for their strength levels is very beneficial.

Be Very careful about his age and body.

When I was 12-14 yo I was doing strength training and ended up having 3 hernia opperations overall.

He's body might not be ready for it so be very careful that he starts small and allows his body to adapt.

I didn't and ended up with having 3 ops (and balls like melons ).

Just make sure he takes his time, gives himself good recovery periods and doesn't rush into it.

The Arnold's Answer:

Interesting questions.

So far, the general advice above has been pretty good... Many doctors / trainers, believe that heavy resistance training under age 15 or so is not a very good thing.

So again, light weights, body-weight exercises are fine...

You mentioned taking him off the BB team b/c of grades - I understand completely - but there are other benefits of your son being active... It could be that the decline in academic performance was more related to the family stress / legal issues. Team sports at the Jr. High school level can do a lot for a kid: stress relief, burning off excess energy, discipline, teamwork, etc. You might consider letting him re-enroll in a spring sport, track & field, swimming, tennis - soccer, wrestling, etc, or if possible, one of my favorites: Martial arts.

Comments re: pushups, core strength exercises (crunches, etc) pull-ups, bodyweight squats, etc are all a-ok. regarding the bowflex - I say give it a try, supervise him, maybe work out with him, see how he likes it...if he sticks with it. just keep the resistance light, stress slow, controlled movements, form, form form. Again, you said his interests can change quickly - so don't invest a lot of money.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his "Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding" (pg 104 in my edition) says this:

"I don't like to see very young children lifting weights. Their bodies are too unformed, their bones still too soft, to stand up to the stresses of weight training.

"Preteen training in my opinion, should rely on lots of athletic activities to develop all of the bodies physical potentials, with the emphasis on calisthenics or gymnastic exercises rather than weight training - exercises that use body weight resistance such as Push-ups instead of Bench Presses, Knee bends instead of squats, and so on..."

"Once the body begins to mature, weight training can begin. I began at 15... It takes a few months, maybe a year, simply to learn the exercises and begin to understand the experience of training. Still, it is important during this phase to use light weights and keep reps relatively high."


Hope that helps!

By the way - you might have your own opinions about the Arnold's wisdom in running the state of Kalifornia, but I think his advice on weight training is pretty solid.

I've always heard 16 before serious weight-training, maybe even later.
For his age I think training with his own body weight (there are a surprising number of exercises that can do that) would be better. There are a ton of DVDs and websites with those exercises explained and demonstrated.

he is too young .his body isnt fully developed yet and i think weight training could have a negative effect on that .

nothing wrong with football. he should start weight training after 16 y

before you get all freaked out about everyone saying "he's too young to lift heavy weights" etc... bear in mind that he won't be. if he's going to be with a trainer, he'll be fine. on his own, its highly unlikely he can get to that point.

its not like someone is going to be shooting him full of roids and trying to get him to squat 700 pounds. he would be a very exceptional kid if he had the drive and focus and determination to push that hard to where he might be seeing adverse effects, assuming there is that potential. its highly unlikely.

i've seen tons and tons of young kids working out in the gym with trainers, with their parents and even local junior high/high schools using the gym because of scheduling conflicts with other classes at their school. ... what does anyone think he will be doing in school PE? we started weight training in school in the 7th grade... oddly enough, we all survived.

this idea that kids are going to somehow see adverse effects from exercise is moronic. i mean what the hell? no one here had a football team in junior high/middle school? what did they do... sit around knitting and arranging flowers for a couple hours a day? we had to bust our asses until we puked and it included a lot of weight training among every other kind of physical abuse available at the time.

there is nothing inherently harmful with lifting weights in your early teens. its no different than any other physical activity that fatigues your muscles.

he's not training for Mr Olympia... he's just looking for something to keep him busy.

too young...body not developed, may cause problems down the road

so let me get this straight...

you cause stress with your son because of your issues with his father.. then you punish him (your son) for it by taking him off the basketball team? maybe basketball was his escape from the drama?

13 is way to young to be strength training... how about buying him a skateboard, rolerblades or something along those lines.. as for video games they are not as bad for you as people think... studies have shown they improve hand eye better than most would think

Sorry, you still don't have it straight, but that is all good.

Thanks everyone for the input. As long as he just uses very light resistance, I think I'm going to go ahead and let him. We don't have a local gym, but I may be able to make arrangements to get him a few training lessons on form elsewhere. To clarify, yes, we are most certainly just talking about more of a toning thing than actual lifting.

Plus he will be running to get ready for cross country season. He has a serious love/hate relationship with cross country. So that will help too.

Useless Warrior pretty much nailed it on it being a confidence/esteem thing thing with him. Those are also code words for wanting to impress hot girls.

I am also going to look into exercises involving his body weight, which more than one of you have mentioned.

Thanks guys, it is much appreciated!

I think people missed the point that he would be working out on a bowflex. It would very hard, if not impossible for a child to harm himself working out on a machine. Fact is, kids just aren't strong enough to put enough stress on their joints to cause problems.

That being said, you don't want to use pro level training techniques like forced reps or anything like that. Compound movement (involving multiple joints) exercises like bench presses would be best.

Very high reps are actually more dangerous because he can develop overuse injuries if his form is not proper. 15 or so reps per exercise should be sufficient so adjust the weight so the 13th, 14th and 15th are difficult, but not impossible or causing extreme strain. Make sure he takes days off, don't train the same body part more than once a week.

Key here is supervision and making sure he doesn't get carried away but instead focuses on form and technique. He won't build much muscle but he will get stronger and tone up.

I think the upside far outweighs the very small risk. If he gets into a good routine he may adopt a healthy lifestyle that he will keep the rest of his life which will pay off huge dividends for decades to come.

Some bad advice and some good in here. Lifting weights will not stunt your growth, I started at 12, and I'm 6'1". From a family where the average is in the mid 5' 5 range.

Light weights will not just tone muscle, nor will heavy weight just build muscle. Both will accomplish that, it's the actual intent of the exercise, whether functional stength or muscle building.

At his age, he should go for functional strength. Core exercises, body weight, and most important flexibility drills. And yes dearest, please go see a professional, you've been to the goddamn shows, you know most webmasters are in a shape, round.

Excellent post. Yours and Pleasure Pays.

Here is what many doctors claim, they claim weight training when young will stunt a kids growth, the real truth is its like playing Russian roulette, Arnold started young he is 6'2 Lou Ferrigno started young hes 6'4 but then you see many who are short and some super short, granted in order to add mass being to tall goes against you but a while ago I researched this and some say it will stunt growth others say it wont.

Franco Columbo was 5'4
Danny Padilla 5'2
Mohammed Benaziza 5'3
Lee Priest 5'4
Current MR. O Dexter Jackson in his own words blamed not being taller for starting to young with weights

I cant sign off on this but if it was my kid based on what I know id allow him to do weight lisfing but have him avoid the things that hammer the spine allot, for example no deadlifts even light, no squats with the barbell or even too heavy machine squats, id get his growth plates checked out on a regular basis and ask the doctor to monitor it.

Free weights has always been the foundation of building muscle and secondary are the machine and third are all those resistant based machines like bow flex etc.

Starting with machines like bow flex and some free weights I think is a good mix, hes young and growing a weight belt and wrapping joints would also help avoid possible injuries.

In addition callisthenics should also be mixed in such as pushups chin ups etc. and can be a good start to all this.

And you want someone who truly understand whats up to oversee his movements, even adults get injured let alone a young kid.

Good luck

Probably a little early to be doing strength training

Get him into wrestling or grappling, great way to stay in shape and fun

I started lifting weights in 8th grade. After school, a group of us lifted with our social studies teacher. If no access to a weight room, I would recommend getting him into doing push-ups, steps, lunges (exercise w/o weights)

He'll have access to a weight room in High School I'm sure.

When I started highschool I was 13/14 (average age to start highschool) and that's when me and the rest of my Gym class started doing weight training.

We were supervised and had training on the equipment and were taught what to do and how to do it so we weren't wasting our time and didn't hurt ourselves.

I wouldn't just send him to a gym by himself to figure it out on his own.

I also would have never took him out of basketball. Playing team sports does A LOT for a kid.
Also being a part of the basketball team will give him access to a gym and coaches and etc..

Using things like that to punish him will not help his grades and hurt your relationship.

I better add before I get flamed to hell.

If your kid does respond to punishments like that and his grades improved it shows your kid has a good head on his shoulders.

A lot of kids will just get angry.

I think hes at a good age to start lifting weights. Get in the habit now and he'll be healthy for the rest of his life. But weight lifting isn't as important as diet. And he should still do other activites. sports jogging. staying active and off the computer and off his ass is important.

basket ball, biking, baseball, football. those are important too.
But I'm pretty sure I started lifting weights at about 13. I have taken classes at NASM. national association of sports medicine and the rule they have for 13 is a concent form from the parent. There is no reason not to start now.

He must wait till he is 18...He can start if he is a couple of years younger but this depends on the people who look after him in the gym and their knowledge...

Oh, iam a fitnessinstructor btw