I am curious to see what others think on this topic.
The topic of, “when should someone begin to lift?”
I began to lift at 14 yrs old hitting the weights hard from the begining. I saw great results and benched 440lbs by 17yrs old.
However, I have noticed that many more athletes who begin weight training (intense) in college flourish more than the high school athletes. For instance Brynt Mckinnie (MIAMI grad and NFL Pro), I played football against him in high school when he was 6.9ft and 225 pounds (he was even in the marching band!) Now he tips the scales at 320+ lbs.
Could this be due to external factors such as coaches or facilities or money?
Could this be due to internal factors such as “pushing yourself”, mental or physical maturity/skill development?
Or maybe it’s written in stone?
I would like to hear what T-Nation memebers have to say on this topic.
Ps… I had to stop my other account cause it was acting up so this is my new one.
After puberty years training and your starting point are both more important than age. And if you’re big and strong before and during puberty you will have a better base after it.
The sooner someone starts training, the better, but some people are just born to be athletes. You can take a less gifted individually, put him/her through well-designed training program where he/she works brutally hard, and they might end up at the same level as a more gifted athlete might half-assing it on a shitty program.
Its no excuse not to train hard and smart, and I think the sooner anybody starts training, actively adapting and experimenting w/ different methods, and figuring out what works for them, the better. Gifted, semi-gifted, or even cursed w/ all the odds stacked against them.
