I’m blessed with a gorgeous fiancee who’s life’s ambition is to provide me with strong sons. Of course we will be just as excited and loving if we get a girl, or both girls, but we want boys.
We plan on getting her pregnant in the fall if we can.
Problem is that I was a rather small kid with health problems. This of course caused me a great deal of grief on the playground. I don’t want my sons to have this problem. I’ve learned so much about being athletic, assertive, strong and masculine since my childhood that I intend to share. I also got big in the gym and dojo.
So my question is… When is the right age to get them into weightlifting? I know that training young can cause incredible neural development in the exercised muscles and that translates to optimal recruitment later.
So what’s an age that’s OK to start them? I’d really like to hear from Christian on this one as well as dad’s who have gotten their sons into lifting.
I’m not a Christian, but I am a father of two boys and I raised a younger brother so let me ask you this- will you son or daughter WANT to lift weights?
I had a training partner that pushed and bullied his son into football and lifitng weights. His boy was about 12 or so. The kid could really care less about lifting or playing football.
He wanted to play video games and ride skateboards and hang out with his friends. But he was still kind of passive and just wanted to make his dad happy (or keep his dad from jumping his shit), so he half-assedly played along.
Looking at that kid kind of made me glad I had a free and fatherless existence growing up, where as long as I did my chores, I went to school and got home by dinner, nobody gave me any grief.
I would not force your kid into anything he does not enjoy. You should show him sports, almost all will get right into. Yet some kids just are not athletic, and forcing them to do sports would be worse for them.
He might be good at other stuff, like school ext. I saw a lot of kids try out for sports because their parents forced them too, and well they just sucked and it hurt them socially and mentally.
I think around 8th grade which is like 13 would be youngest you could show him real weightlifting, though any high school sport will get him lifting if he does choose to do that.
he might not enjoy lifting at the time you start him doing it. Basically you could start him young, but if he is not into it its not going to work. Maturity would be the biggest issue you would face with a young lifter, if he is mature for his age then he starting younger could work well.
Elitefts.com has some awesome books on this topic. Check it out.
Overall, I think Pinto’s response is pretty apt.
My youngest son has been training since kindergarten. He is now 8, heading into 3rd grade.
We usually deadlift and light bench at the home gym and we go through periods of having our teen and juniors training all three lifts here 3-4 days a week on top of open and masters guys coming over for meet prep so to say he is immersed in it is an understatement.
He always wants to train during wrestling season but then fades quickly after and maybe comes down and does something once a week. Mostly goofs off and talks smack to the teen agers. He is a pretty active kid though, so I don’t sweat it.
He has a 3 day a week routine posted on the gym wall. Most of it is based on push ups, sit ups, pull ups, BW squats or squats with a 1" bar and moderate weight. That part is pretty infrequent and never less than 8-10 reps.
Last year we bought some 5 kilo bumper plates so he and his sister could start deadlifting which they both like a lot. I think it makes them feel like one of the gang so they will come down and pull with us probably most frequently.
Even my 11 yo daughter has been training on and since she was probably 7 or 8. Now I am just trying to keep her from becoming a bench specialist as this is what she likes to do. (Kind of kidding but not really…)
I guess the point is try to help them cultivate an interest and let him set the pace.
In particular if they view it as contributing to their sports performance which is frankly a big part of what motivated my youngest. It helped his wrestling and he is known in the region as a strong little shit which he is proud of.
I guess my biggest piece of advice for you early on is to encourage all types of sport. Start them almost as soon as they can walk in gymnastics, which may or may not take, but will build coordination and body control, and then let them play every sport they want to. Just like any kid, if it’s fun and they feel a part of something then they will be likely to continue.
I took my 8 year old son to a Saturday tennis clinic and he had a blast. My friends were giving me shit but he is now playing in a tennis league this summer and loves it. I told them he’s 8 years old.
Who fucking cares what he plays? It’s helping build his base and keeping him active. In fact, our whole family is having fun with it. We ride our bikes over to the court and hack it up. It’s a riot.
Bottom line, encourage a healthy interest in sport and the rest will take care of itself. Don’t be one of these parents who lives vicariously through their children.
Ya as a teenaged lifter, first off make sure he wants to do it. Took me the longest time to want to lift, until I almost had to for a sport. (Hockey). All that that lifting makes you short or stunts your growth is bull***t in my opinion.
Also, you can build a pretty impressive physique and get crazy strong from pushups, pullups, and plyrometric jumps. Also, doing some good old farm work helps to. (Carrying big things, flipping stuff, hauling stuff lifting stuff) is great for the body to.
[quote]MightyMaus wrote:
Problem is that I was a rather small kid with health problems. This of course caused me a great deal of grief on the playground. I don’t want my sons to have this problem.[/quote]
One of the hardest things to do as a parent is not try to live your hopes, dreams and make up for your regrets through your kids. My father was really good in this regard, probably a little too much so and I wish he’d got a little more involved but that wouldn’t have been practical with so many of us and a business to run.
My mother is very bright but got so busy having kids she didn’t get to follow her dreams and wanted me to live her dreams for her. It back-fired, I dropped out of high-school. I regret being that stubborn now, although I have a good life it’s been much harder than if I’d had an education.
My intentions with my daughter are to lead by example, and if she shows interest in something I can help her with, to simply offer the help.
That said, I am restoring an old racing dinghy so that when she is old enough she will get her chance to go sailing. It was something I really wanted to do as a kid. So I’m really hoping she’ll enjoy it! Or some other kid will get a very nice boat with my daughter’s name on it.
[quote]LiftSmart wrote:
My parents threw me into all of team sports they could find when I was a little kid.
I never obeyed the coaches and just screwed around the whole time, wasting my time and their money.
Then in my late teens I CHOSE on my own to start lifting with absolutely no encouragement from my parents.
Now I’m recklessly in love with the iron.[/quote]
See, now that’s interesting b/c I have coached kids like you and they frustrate the shit out of me.
Some kids just lack the drive and often times the parents let their kids run wild and I become a baby sitter which really irritates me.
However, I have to temper that with my wish their kids have fun and want to continue at some level in sports. Frankly, I have gotten some of the nicest post season cards from parents of kids like you.
My wife and I were just talking about one we got last week at the end of soccer season. I literally wanted to choke them and their kid but instead tried to motivate him and make him feel good about what he was doing.
It is encouraging to hear you like to lift now. I think one of the unique things about PL, or weight training for that matter, is you can come back to it at any point in your life and I use my wife and I as an example to our younger lifters.
Good thread. I want my best friend’s brother to start lifting weights. I just see so much potential that I am sure he will succeed. He’s going to be a freshman in high school in the fall and is well built for his age. But like many have said here, its up to the person and how mature he is for his age.
Another set back from my situation is that he says that he does not want to lift weights because he does not want to be short. His mom tell him the same thing, so how can I prove him otherwise? Anyways, I wish I had some encouragement when I was younger to lift weights.
As a teenage athlete i got into lifting because of football and now i love to lift ive been lifting since 8th grade i wish my parents would have intruduced me to it earlier
This is a FANTASTIC post and it sums up nicely the way I think we as parents should handle our kid’s aspirations, or lack thereof!
Another thing to consider is that kids usually follow after your lead, if they see you doing something you are passionate about, they will develop an interest for it most of the time - including your bad habits; THEN you can guide them appropriately.
I have a five year old boy and quite often he wants to “exercise” with me, so I will do a bunch of body weight stuff with them, I think that the best way to do it, then introduce them to resistance training later on…
[quote]apwsearch wrote: Elitefts.com has some awesome books on this topic. Check it out.
Overall, I think Pinto’s response is pretty apt.
My youngest son has been training since kindergarten. He is now 8, heading into 3rd grade.
We usually deadlift and light bench at the home gym and we go through periods of having our teen and juniors training all three lifts here 3-4 days a week on top of open and masters guys coming over for meet prep so to say he is immersed in it is an understatement.
He always wants to train during wrestling season but then fades quickly after and maybe comes down and does something once a week. Mostly goofs off and talks smack to the teen agers. He is a pretty active kid though, so I don’t sweat it.
He has a 3 day a week routine posted on the gym wall. Most of it is based on push ups, sit ups, pull ups, BW squats or squats with a 1" bar and moderate weight. That part is pretty infrequent and never less than 8-10 reps.
Last year we bought some 5 kilo bumper plates so he and his sister could start deadlifting which they both like a lot. I think it makes them feel like one of the gang so they will come down and pull with us probably most frequently.
Even my 11 yo daughter has been training on and since she was probably 7 or 8. Now I am just trying to keep her from becoming a bench specialist as this is what she likes to do. (Kind of kidding but not really…)
I guess the point is try to help them cultivate an interest and let him set the pace.
In particular if they view it as contributing to their sports performance which is frankly a big part of what motivated my youngest. It helped his wrestling and he is known in the region as a strong little shit which he is proud of.
I guess my biggest piece of advice for you early on is to encourage all types of sport. Start them almost as soon as they can walk in gymnastics, which may or may not take, but will build coordination and body control, and then let them play every sport they want to. Just like any kid, if it’s fun and they feel a part of something then they will be likely to continue.
I took my 8 year old son to a Saturday tennis clinic and he had a blast. My friends were giving me shit but he is now playing in a tennis league this summer and loves it. I told them he’s 8 years old.
Who fucking cares what he plays? It’s helping build his base and keeping him active. In fact, our whole family is having fun with it. We ride our bikes over to the court and hack it up. It’s a riot.
Bottom line, encourage a healthy interest in sport and the rest will take care of itself. Don’t be one of these parents who lives vicariously through their children.[/quote]
I agree, great post apwsearch. I think with young kids you have to kind of “trick” them into stuff like this.
I think this is where quasi-strongman stuff can be exciting for kids. I work with young kids (very young, but middle school and some elementary) and they love stuff like sled drags or farmers walks. As long as you are not over the top with the intensity or the weight, it’s stuff that kids enjoy more. They also love doing stuff with medicine balls.
Basically stuff where “strict form” is not important is great with the kids because they like to focus more on the action when they are young. So stuff like that can help build strength and fitness while seeming like a game to them.
[quote]Jetric9 wrote:
Another set back from my situation is that he says that he does not want to lift weights because he does not want to be short. His mom tell him the same thing, so how can I prove him otherwise?[/quote]
I am a pastor, and I have raised two sons, and about a dozen more through the church, and only one of them didn’t like to train with me. I don’t want girls or boys training before 12. First off I believe their legiments and bones aren’t ready for the pressure that weight lifting brings upon the body. In over ten years of training young people I have not had one major injury to one of my kids. The key is proper tech. and patients. Don’t force them to do anything, if they don’t want to do it, then fine! But, that doesn’t mean you can’t push them. Like one of the above posters said they will most likely follow your lead, therefore lead by example.
[quote]MightyMaus wrote:
So my question is… When is the right age to get them into weightlifting?
So what’s an age that’s OK to start them?
[/quote]
5-7years old
Using broomsticks, PVC pipes, emphasizing correct technique and SAFETY…setting the stage for low injury rate, having fun, enjoying hanging out with the “men”.
Child must show compliance, weight room etiquette, and proper technique. Otherwise, the kid needs to be elsewhere.
The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.
[quote]MightyMaus wrote:
I’m blessed with a gorgeous fiancee who’s life’s ambition is to provide me with strong sons. Of course we will be just as excited and loving if we get a girl, or both girls, but we want boys.
We plan on getting her pregnant in the fall if we can.
Problem is that I was a rather small kid with health problems. This of course caused me a great deal of grief on the playground. I don’t want my sons to have this problem. I’ve learned so much about being athletic, assertive, strong and masculine since my childhood that I intend to share. I also got big in the gym and dojo.
So my question is… When is the right age to get them into weightlifting? I know that training young can cause incredible neural development in the exercised muscles and that translates to optimal recruitment later.
So what’s an age that’s OK to start them? I’d really like to hear from Christian on this one as well as dad’s who have gotten their sons into lifting.[/quote]
Dude, forget about weight training, superb physical development is a product of superb nutrition.
Feed them cod liver oil and red meat from a young age. Hold off on carbs for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. NO CARBS before age 5, at least. Give them animal fat and protein and they will grow up strong, solid, healthy and robust.
Also, your wife NEEDS to be doing the same right now because healthy development starts before birth. Get her off carbs immediately and increase fat/protein intake.
Do not give them candy or pasta, ever. No junk food. It is NOT worth the permanent reduction in physical capacity.
Get your priorities straight: What do you care about most: a strong and healthy son or a smart son? Don’t force them to go to school if they don’t want to. School = poor nutrition, lack of sleep which contribute to reduced hormone production and possibly stunted growth.
You have to get your priorities straight. Do you want a jock or a nerd for a son? Don’t expect them to be both.
Sit down and calculate the cost of feeding your kids on a yearly basis for the next 18 years. Do it now. Then, allocate your funds so that you’ll have more income to spend on organic foods and quality stuff.
A) You are joking
B) You’re from another planet
C) You’re full of shit
D) You have no idea what you’re talking about, have no kids of your own, but decided to talk out of your ass
D) You’re 19 years old
E) You’re the dad of that bodybuilding freak kid (Forgot his name)
F) A combination of all of the above
Even though I agree that we need to teach good eating habits to our kids, watch what we serve to them and invest in their health, your suggestion are awfully weird, unfounded and downright silly.
[quote]Nominal Prospect wrote:
Dude, forget about weight training, superb physical development is a product of superb nutrition.
Feed them cod liver oil and red meat from a young age. Hold off on carbs for AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. NO CARBS before age 5, at least. Give them animal fat and protein and they will grow up strong, solid, healthy and robust.
Also, your wife NEEDS to be doing the same right now because healthy development starts before birth. Get her off carbs immediately and increase fat/protein intake.
Do not give them candy or pasta, ever. No junk food. It is NOT worth the permanent reduction in physical capacity.
Get your priorities straight: What do you care about most: a strong and healthy son or a smart son? Don’t force them to go to school if they don’t want to. School = poor nutrition, lack of sleep which contribute to reduced hormone production and possibly stunted growth.
You have to get your priorities straight. Do you want a jock or a nerd for a son? Don’t expect them to be both.
Sit down and calculate the cost of feeding your kids on a yearly basis for the next 18 years. Do it now. Then, allocate your funds so that you’ll have more income to spend on organic foods and quality stuff.[/quote]
[quote]m1sf1t wrote:
Your post makes me think of a couple things:
A) You are joking
B) You’re from another planet
C) You’re full of shit
D) You have no idea what you’re talking about, have no kids of your own, but decided to talk out of your ass
D) You’re 19 years old
E) You’re the dad of that bodybuilding freak kid (Forgot his name)
F) A combination of all of the above
Even though I agree that we need to teach good eating habits to our kids, watch what we serve to them and invest in their health, your suggestion are awfully weird, unfounded and downright silly.
[/quote]
It’s not unfounded.
What’s sillier: Resigning yourself to mediocrity, or doing something exceptional when you are ABLE to?
You live once. You grow up once. You get ONE chance to become great and the greatness you achieve is entirely dependant on the level of greatness that you are born with (or “earn” during maturation).
Your genetic blueprint is influenced by environmental factors from the moment you are conceived.
Good genetics alone doesn’t create exceptional human beings…good environment does. And when you combine good genetics with good environment, that’s when you get one-of-a-kind superhumans.
Why would you POSSIBLY set your goals and standards ANY LOWER than the absolute maximum that you can conceive of? I just don’t get it. Who the fuck says, “I’ll take a reduction in height, intelligence, or appearance even though it could have been avoided if I had followed healthier habits when I was younger”?
Creating a new human being is SERIOUS business. Let’s not pretend that factors such as height, strength, physical appearance, intelligence, etc are “irrelevant”. Let’s not kid ourselves and pretend that these factors are all up to genetics, either. “Toss the cards to the wind and let them fall where they may.” That’s bullshit. I don’t buy it for a second.
I believe that if someone is raised on an ultra-strict diet and training routine from a young age, that person is going to turn into one hell of an exceptional athlete in adolescence.
I think in black and white terms. Sugar is a bad thing. Bad things have no place in the diet of someone who is still developing. Thus, no bad thing, no sugar, ever - no exceptions, not while I can help it. It’s very simple. If something is bad, you avoid it.
You don’t equivocate. You don’t get wishy-washy, fuzzy wuzzy, “see in grey”, or any of that bullshit. You establish your priorities in STONE before you have a kid so that you’ll never be at a loss for what to do.
You have to plan out the next 18 years of your life. The more detailed, the better.
Feed your kid raw milk, fresh-cut bacon, and plenty of meat and he will grow up to look like this.
6’4, 240 lb. 18 year old Kris Von Kiel from Pennsylvania who grew up on a farm, eating raw organic food.
He obviously had the RIGHT environmental input.
Think he’d look like that if he had been fed on soy formula and carbohydrates? His parents could have said, “Well, a little bit of carbs won’t hurt.” That type of mentality is precisely what produces mediocre individuals.
At some point, your wife or someone else will try to feed the kid carbs. You need to be prepared and STOP IT before it happens. Think and plan ahead. Eating sweets can completely ruin the appetite of a young person. A single exposure is all it takes. The way I see it, if your son has never seen a chocolate cake in his life until he turns 18, what he has lost? Absolutely nothing!
Only a sloppy bastard would have a kid without planning out every meal for the next 5 years, both financially and in terms of nutrition content. Record everything your kid eats…from day 1. This is the computer age. It’s perfectly doable for anyone who isn’t a lazy and sloppy bastard. Never settle for mediocrity. Go to RIDICULOUS heights in the pursuit of exceptionalism.
Everybody wants to be great.
Nobody wants to do what it takes to be great.
All it takes is a little bit of fore thought and planning. It’s NOT that hard. To deny this to your future children is simple negligence.
Phenotype influences quality of life more than any other factor. Phenotype can be influenced by environmental factors.
If you have a male son, every inch of height above 6’ is going to have massive and positive ramifications on his quality of life. The reality of male existence is a struggle to procreate. A 6’4, decent-looking male can procreate anywhere in the world with anyone he chooses.
So, you’ve just solved a problem that plagues billions of males on a daily basis. Entire populations live and die struggling to achieve something that comes naturally to you. What kind of idiot would NOT consider this to be advantageous and strive for it at all costs?
Is height influenced by nutrition? YES. So why the hell wouldn’t you do something about it when you had the chance? Seems like the absolute dumbest thing in the world to me. Throwing away the most precious thing you’ll ever have, and even worse - doing it on someone else’s behalf, when they have no say over it.
If you want to have a kid, get real about life first. Figure out what life is about. Reduce it to the most basic elements in the equation. Life is about sex, wealth, and power. That’s it. Figure out how those things are obtained, and eschew everything else.
If you are 6’5, 250 lb. at age 20 and can’t count to ten…you are set for life.
Counting can be acquired at any age. A superb phenotype CAN’T. You get ONE chance, that is it.
Another thing to consider is that kids usually follow after your lead, if they see you doing something you are passionate about, they will develop an interest for it most of the time - including your bad habits; THEN you can guide them appropriately.
[/quote]
I was in about 7th grade when we started working out in gym class. My dad worked out all the time, still gets up at 5 am every morning and either lifts or plays raquetball, and he is going on 55. I saw him doing it, and I wanted to be like dad.
So he got me a set of push up handles, and I did push ups and sit ups every other day. I did this until the summer of my freshman year of highschool, when he got a power rack type set up. It wasn’t a full cage, but it had safety bars and a pull down station. He also had a pull-up/dip/push up station in the garage and a bunch of dumbbells.
I would come home from school and work out for about 2 hours every day. I also rollerbladed and did what I wanted with friends, but for the most part I just worked out.
My only regret is him not showing me how to train legs properly, ie squats and deads, but he has a bad back so he didn’t do those himself. Regardless, I started drinking and getting into drugs my junior year of high school, fell into a hole, and have been climbing out of it. I also regret putting my dad through that since he has done so much for me.
But, I started with pushups about 7th and 8th grade, trained about halfway through high school and have only been back in the gym for about 4 months now, but still have the base I built at a young age.
I hope my kids will work out if I ever have any male or female, and I will not force them to. Chances are if they see you lift consistently, they will want to do it.