In today's day and age, there is no shortage of information and data surrounding health, fitness, and working out. The problem is that this abundance of information has also led to an abundance of misinformation.
This is especially true when training youth athletes in the weight room. Many parents and guardians still cite debunked research from the 1980s or repeat false claims made by their old football or softball coaches decades ago. Additionally, some doctors and practitioners inadvertently spread misinformation about strength training for youth athletes due to a lack of understanding of the subject. Unfortunately, strength and conditioning is one of the most misunderstood professions in health, fitness, and performance. Thanks to shoddy, anecdotal research from the 1900’s and in many cases, incorrect, unfounded inferences from individuals unfamiliar with exercise science, many parents are afraid to let their sons and daughters participate in strength and conditioning programs.
This article aims to do 2 things:
For this article, we will identify “youth athletes” as kids aged 10-23.
Who Am I and Why Should You Care What I Have to Say?
I have a Bachelor's degree in Movement and Sports Studies and a Master's in Exercise Science with a concentration in Strength and Conditioning from Springfield College, along with the top certifications available to coaches in the field of S&C. With over nine years of experience training youth athletes—ranging from eight-year-olds to Division 1 athletes at a Power Five school. I now own Elias Sports Performance, a premier youth strength and conditioning facility in central Connecticut. I consider myself an expert in this field. My goal is to help as many people as possible through strength and conditioning.
So what are the most common myths surrounding training youth athletes and what is the truth?
MYTH 1: Resistance training will damage my child's growth plates and stunt their growth.
TRUTH: There has been no clinical research in history that has been able to show that resistance training damages growth plates. Now yes, if your ten-year-old walks into the gym on day one with no experience, puts hundreds of pounds on a barbell and attempts to back squat it, ya, they’ll get hurt. But that’s not reality. That’s not what’s happening in these programs. Research states that when resistance training is progressively overloaded and performed with proper technique under the direct supervision of a professional trainer, resistance training will increase bone mineral density (Benedetti et al 2018).
We need to eat/drink calcium to grow strong bones, i.e increase bone mineral density, but without resistance training, that calcium has nowhere to go. Every time we strength train, we are placing a load on our skeletal system. That load puts pressure on our bones, that pressure causes bone collagen fibers to slide against each other creating a charge called piezo ignition (Oladapo 2023). This is the same principle that allows lighters to create a spark. This friction-caused ignition stimulates the creation of osteocytes (also known as calcium ion channels). The formation of these channels leads to a series of events that ultimately stimulate new bone growth.
As we age, we are at a greater risk of developing osteopenia and osteoporosis. Individuals who participated in regular strength training throughout their lives are at a significantly lower risk of developing these age-related ailments. So not only is strength training for youth athletes not dangerous from a skeletal perspective, but it is also extremely necessary for long-term skeletal health and performance. An additional benefit of strength training for bone health is that increasing muscle size gives you a biological suit of armor that will help protect your body from impacts, especially during contact sports. Strength training is arguably the only modality that allows you to increase bone mineral density, thus helping you stay injury-free!
MYTH 2: Strength training makes you slower.
TRUTH: Strength training can help you increase your speed dramatically, especially in the early stages of acceleration commonly known as “first step quickness”. First and foremost, the best way to get better at sprinting and moving quickly is to sprint and practice moving quickly with sprinting and agility drills. That being said, sprinting, cutting, and moving quickly all require great deals of force production. FORCE = MASS x ACCELERATION. When sprinting, the human body can experience ground reaction forces up to 5x the person's body weight. The best way to train the body to produce and withstand force is to get the muscles in your lower body stronger, and more depth at forcefully contracting. Larger, heavier lower-body compound movements like squats and deadlifts can be extremely useful in their ability to recruit high-threshold motor units, which are mandatory for producing high levels of force very quickly.
These lifts along with smaller accessory lifts will also help to strengthen your muscles and joints against pulls, strains, and other injuries associated with high-speed movements.
MYTH 3: Strength training will make me bulky.
TRUTH: Strength training helps build lean muscle mass. This myth tends to discourage a lot of female athletes from strength training because they are afraid of aesthetic outcomes. This fear is simply unfounded. Yes, if you strength train like a bodybuilder 5-7x per week and are in a serious caloric surplus, yes, you will get visibly bigger and bulkier. However, growth like that takes A LOT of intentional effort.
The truth is, that strength training, paired with good nutrition and appropriate caloric intake can help people lose weight while building performance-enhancing muscle mass. First, building muscle isn’t all about building muscle size; bigger does not automatically equal stronger. Building lean muscle is about increasing muscle density, which requires heavy resistance training (80% + 1RM) utilizing larger, compound movements. This type of strength training also helps with force production, as we discussed in the previous myth.
On top of building useful muscle, strength training is by far and away the best and healthiest form of weight loss training. Why? How? In the past decade, research has proven that sugar intake is the number one culprit for increased cases of obesity. Glucose is a common sugar and is the number one source of energy that our cells like to use. In the human body, stored glucose is known as glycogen. Glycogen is stored in muscle tissue and the liver. Whenever our muscles contract, they use glycogen to create the energy to accomplish muscle contraction via anaerobic metabolism. Virtually all athletic activities require glucose to power energy production. When glucose is chronically consumed and chronically underutilized, it turns into fat in the human body. It can also leave glucose circulating in the bloodstream, increasing blood sugar levels leading to insulin resistance and eventually left unchecked, diabetes. The best way to build lean muscle, stimulate insulin production, and enhance glycogen utilization is strength training!
MYTH 4: Strength training will make you tight and immobile.
TRUTH: Progressively overloaded strength training through a full range of motion can help athletes not only increase mobility but help them gain strength and produce force through a full range of motion. For this myth, I will hone in on two movements. The squat, and an upper body horizontal row. One of the best exercises I can give him/her to help increase their ROM is a goblet squat. Why? Squatting to deep ranges of motion requires the ankles and hips to flex a great deal while maintaining an upright posture. It’s a great exercise to expose immobility.
Step one would be to elevate the athlete's ankles anywhere from 10-20º. Elevating the ankles makes It so the ankles require less dorsiflexion throughout the squat motion. Next, I would have athletes hold a light to moderate amount of weight in their hands because it will help counterbalance their weight, allowing them to shift their weight on their heels while maintaining good posture which allows for greater stabilization. Lastly, I would place a box or chair underneath them to limit the depth of their squat to a level that they can achieve without compensation. Now over time, I can progressively decrease the incline that the ankles require, while decreasing the height of the box that we’re using, all while slowly increasing the amount of weight that we are using.
As time goes on the athlete will be able to squat deeper with heavier weight meaning that their joints will be able to move through fuller ranges of motion while their muscles can produce force through these ranges of motion giving the athlete greater access to more athletic abilities. This is probably the easiest and simplest example of progressively overloading and exercise to not only increase the amount of weight we can use but also increase the range of motion that we can access.
Next, one of the biggest areas of immobility we tend to see with our youth athletes is shoulder mobility. We train a lot of swimmers at my facility so this is no surprise. Strength does not limit mobility, it can help enhance it!
I’m sure there are more myths out there surrounding youth strength and conditioning but in my experience, these are the most prominent ones. But all of them are just that, myths. I hope I’ve done enough in this article to dispel any concern about youth athletes participating in strength and conditioning programs, because it is not only safe, but it is extremely necessary for long-term growth, development, and safety. There is nothing more dangerous in the competitive landscape than a weak athlete. Furthermore, nothing is more detrimental to human health, than weakness and a lack of athleticism.
Citations:
Benedetti, M. G., Furlini, G., Zati, A., & Letizia Mauro, G. (2018). The Effectiveness of Physical Exercise on Bone Density in Osteoporotic Patients. BioMed research international, 2018, 4840531. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/4840531
Oladapo, B. I., Ismail, S. O., Kayode, J. F., Ikumapayi, O. M. (2023). Piezoelectric effects on bone modeling for enhanced sustainability.