We’ve all likely at some point heard the idea that lifting weights at a young age can stunt growth. The concept is that weight lifting can cause fractures in the trainee’s growth plates, therefore causing less growth. However, I’d like to show you why this really isn’t the case and that it is safe for young teenagers to participate in weight lifting.

Disclaimer: I want to preface this by saying this is assuming that the adolescent trainee is using loads (weight) that is appropriate and proper form on each lift. As long as the youth individual in question is working out within these parameters, the research indicates that it is safe and is in fact optimal.

Is weight training actually dangerous?

The vast majority of the research shows that resistance training programs are no more dangerous, and in fact much safer, than common recreational sports. Of course, there is risk associated with all types of physical activity; however, the degree of risk of injury looks much different between common sports and resistance training. Zaricznyj et al. [1] surveyed 100,000 school aged children from elementary school age to high school age. Among those, 1576 subjects reported injuries. Of those injuries, only 0.7% came from resistance training protocols. American football, gymnastics, and wrestling made up the majority of the injuries reported. In general, observational research is not the most credible of data, but this is a vastly significant difference in injury prevalence. Besides, it wouldn’t be very ethical to put children through physical endeavors just to see which gets hurt first.

Resistance training and injury prevention

In the beginning of this article, I mentioned that not only is resistance training safe for younger people, but it actually is optimal to do regularly. Adolescents who regularly resistance train become more physically literate and durable [2,3]. What does this mean? Physical literacy essentially means they move in ways that are less likely to cause injury. For instance, when in the middle of a basketball game, the athlete will naturally perform proper biomechanics when performing a jump or sprint without having to think about it. By becoming more durable, the athlete not only gets bigger muscles but also gets bigger and denser bones, ligaments, tendons, etc. After all, they all have to adapt to accommodate increased loads over time. When these all become thicker they are less likely to tear or fracture.

Considerations for Training Young Athletes

Many of the same safety procedures for training untrained adults should be followed when training children or adolescents. Although the risk seems to be low compared to other recreational activities, injuries at a young age can bear greater consequences than injuries at an older age. Therefore, it’s worthwhile to pay extra attention.

It’s commonly recommended to start out using compound movements (exercises that involve movement around 2 joints) such as squats, overhead presses, rows, or push-ups. These should not done with a heavy load, and should ideally be done with good technique under supervision. Rather, a load in which 12-15 reps is more appropriate. It also would prove beneficial use a low frequency, volume, and frequency in the beginning of training. An example could be two full-body workouts per week at a difficulty level of 7/10. Over time, you may increase any one of these variables as tolerated by the athlete.

A nuance: why it can be hard to measure progress in youth trainees

When a young person starts a resistance training program, it can be difficult to measure exactly how much they progress from the training program [4]. I say this because of the following. Resistance training produces adaptations in the body such as more muscle, denser bones, thicker ligaments, etc. However, aging also produces all of these results (up to the point of physical maturation). In adults, this isn’t an issue because they are past the point where the more they age the more muscle and bone they build. However, school aged individuals who practice resistance training gain a much higher degree of these adaptations and at a faster rate. They also tend to hold on to these results for longer than those who don’t resistance train. Therefore, it is undeniably optimal for young people to resistance train, however it might be difficult to know how much of the muscle gain came from the training and how much came from aging.

References

1.     Sports-Related Injuries in School-Aged Children

• PubMed ID: 7416348

2.     Resistance Training Among Young Athlete: safety, efficacy and injury prevention effects

• PubMed ID: 19945973

3. Resistance Training in Youth: Laying the Foundation for Injury Prevention and Physical Literacy

• PubMed ID: 28447880

4. Free-Weight Resistance Training in Youth Athletes: A Narrative Review

• PubMed ID: 32578028