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Now, I'm no gym-monkey...
..the places bore me to death, although when I did used to go I remember the views being quite spectacular 😳
BUT, what sort of minimum age for starting a lad off in a gym? and there is a specific reaon for this.
My son is doing quite well at dance, and it has been suggested that now he is 11 he should start to think about some gym work to improve his strength. To complement his dance he needs core strength, but doesn't want to build bulk or loose flexibility / agility.
Most of the places around here don't want to take kids below about 14-16, which is understandable, for many reasons.
Any laws / guidance that these gyms are following or is down to their own individual policies?
would have thought something like pilates would be best?
- think gyms are cautious on topic - next year we'll be watching teenage gymnasts and divers etc - think consensus is avoid actual weight training per se but i'm not sure if walmart have ever been sued for selling a spotty youth a bench and 500lbs of weights - here's an interesting article from BMC on training for climbing - over the years this has been subject some controvery
[url] http://www.thebmc.co.uk/Feature.aspx?id=4228 [/url] edit need to read think it is p4 on bone development
Bodyweight exercises and yoga.
I've heard pilates is good for dance.
I started my lad at 14. He made excellent progress. That was in my home gym though. I'm quite surprised they allow U16s in commercial gyms.
I wouldn't bother with gyms until he hits puberty. Weights without testosterone don't do much.
I'm no expert, but I know when I used to ski race alot we were told that too much gym work too young is bad for you.
I wouldnt be bothered about laws, more the impact on his health.
I'm no expert, but I know when I used to ski race alot we were told that too much gym work too young is bad for you
Too much gymnastics too. Too much of any kind of exercise I'd imagine.
"Too much" is to do with olympic athlete training loads though, not 30 minutes in the gym 3 times a week.
IIRC the advice is to avoid doing resistance training untill the end of puberty, however that was based on the numbers of kids getting injuries, which isn't especialy accurate as generaly men will MTFU and not report them, skewing the stats somewhat to show more kids being injured.
Look at bodyweight resitance excercises, not much you can't do with a floor, table, chair and a door frame and generaly much harder to cause an injury.
At one gym round here you can start at 12, but you can only attend supervised classes. But still I'd just get started with bodyweight exercises at that age personally
From what I've googled, some ballet schools start them on press ups from 8 😯
He does a fair bit of mtbing, and is always doing pull ups on suitable boughs when dog walking.
Time to start with more routine press-ups methinks.
When he does do press ups he seems to knock out 30-50 without thinking too hard about it...!
Father & son time at your local climbing wall??
Get him a dip/chin station.
[img] 
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They're cheap, don't take up much space and fun to use.
I reckon natural muscle development through a specific activity would be better such as climbing.
TSY's suggestion is good.
I'm no expert but I believe that 'weights' in the gym are going to develop specific muscles, whereas doing something like climbing will develop the main muscles but also build core strength too.
What about thai boxing...I wish I had started this when I was young. They'll also do body weight exercises as part of the fitness element of any class.
id second the indoor climbing/bouldering idea. he'll probably find that as a dancer hes pretty good already. in fact you could rapidly find him changing sports if he enjoys it!
rkk01 - Member
From what I've googled, some ballet schools start them on press ups from 8
I started Judo around 6/7 and we used to do press ups/sit ups/squats etc. Once you could do 20 press ups you moved onto claps. Always felt it helped when I started kayaking around 11/12, don't recall any injuries...
there was a bbc documentery about eastern block bodybuilders getting their kids to get hit the weights, the increased muscle strength restricts bones growing to full length.
i'd be thinkin bodyweight only.
i'd be thinkin bodyweight only.
Very few people can use weights that weigh more than they do, so that's a bit meaningless.
Gymnasts are the classic example of growth restriction and all they do is bodyweight stuff.
Come on 5th you know what he means!
Come on 5th you know what he means!
No I don't! 😯
Well, I do, he's just wrong.
It's training load that stunts growth, not weights. Spend all day hammering bodyweight exercises and your bones will fuse over in the same was as hammering the weights all day.
Having said than there's a lot to be said for bodyweight stuff. Especially with a chin and dip station...
Get him a dip/chin station.[img]
They're cheap, don't take up much space and fun to use.
Is that thing height adjustable?