Weightlifting, safety and the young
Here at the Trojans Lifting Club we’re quite fond of Weightlifting as a form of training and as a sport. Weightlifting by deifnittion is the sport lifts: the Snatch and the; Clean and Jerk. For way too long, too many misconceptions have surrounded these fantastic lifts.
Both the Trojans Lifting Club and the educational providers Optimal Life Fitness are often asked about children and Weightlifting. Resistance training and Weightlifitng are safe and in comparison to other sports that children participate in can be considered as extremely safe. This piece will take a look at some of the misconceptions surrounding weightlifting.
Some of the misconceptions surrounding weightlifting are as follows:
- weightlifting is unsafe
- weightlifting stunts growth
- weightlifting makes you slow
There are plenty more, but we’ll deal these for now.
Safety
The notion that Weightlifting is unsafe is completely unfounded, especially when compared to other participation sports. Brian Hamill (Head Coach of South Eastern Counties Weightlifting)in a study from 1994 took a close look at the injury rates of Weightlifting and a host of other sports including Rugby, football and basketball. Weightlifting had an injury rate of 0.0013 injuries per 100 particiaption hours compared to football 0.1400 and Rugby 0.8000. The Weightlifitng injuries in comparison to other sports are almost non existent. In fact parents when looking for a ‘safe’ sport in terms of safe from injury should seriously consider Weightlifting for their children.
Weightlifting stunts growth
This is more of an Old Wives tale as much as a misonception, however it is one that is still upheld in training and sports. As to where this came from originally who knows? Part of it could be that some of the all time best weightlifters have levers and mechanics that are very condusive to lifting high loads. This means that a lot of them have relatively short arms and legs- don’t tell them I said that! However there are plenty of elite lifters who have long limbs. Lightweight boxers and jockeys are of smaller than average stature but boxing and riding horses hasn’t been declared as stunting peoples growth! the American College of sports Medicine says “There is no current scientific evidence to support that early weight training will stunt a child’s growth”.
Weightlifting makes you slow
The final misonception that we’ll take a look at in this piece is that weightlifting makes you slow. This is probably due to the stereotype of hugely muscled up individuals lifting weights with diminished range of movement due to excessively large muscles which could obviously impact the ability to move quickly. The truth of the matter and the reason why the Weightlifting lifts are used by all types of athletes is that as opposed to making people slow training with these lifts actually makes people fast. It has to! Take the Snatch for example, a weight (often above twice bodyweight at international levels) is lifted form the ground to overhead in less than a second- this can’t happen if the weight is lifted slowly! The ability to lift in this manner has massive nervous stimulation the same nervous system that makes us run fast. So contrary to the belief that Weightlifting can make you slow- it wil actualy make you fast!
Important considerations
It is important to note that the term Weightlifting is often misused. Weightlifting is as described above and refers to the competitive lifts and training for the competitive lifts. Training with weights, bodybuilding and powerlifting are not Weightlifting.
When children are Weightlifting it should be under adult and experienced supervision. Progression and overload are not at the expense of technique and form. Even though it is Weightlifting it is more important to foucs on the body moving correctly than the loads lifted.
Who knows exactly why the misconceptions came about and who’s agenda and purpose they suit. I’ve seen first hand 12 and 13year olds Weightlifting and moving brilliantly, there growth definitely wasn’t stunted! Considering all of the benefits: strength, speed, coordination, range of motion, flexibility, posture, bone density and confidence that can be gained from Weightlifting it really is a sport that kids should be encouraged to participate in.
Young and old- get lifting!!
Filed Under: Weightlifting
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Great article, really well put together! and that video of the young boy lifting…
Wow inspiring.
Thanks very much guys!
The myth of stunted growth arose from American observations after they occupied Japan at the end of WW2. They saw that dock workers were short and carried heavy loads. With an impressive lack of scientific and logical thought thay decided there was a causal relationship.
The greater availability of food following the USA occupation saw a remarkable increase in the height of dock workers over the naxt few years. Oddly enough no-one then said that carrying heavy loads makes you taller!
Serious studies by Dworkin in Russia compared athletes, non athletes and weightlifters in Sport schools. The weightlifters’ growth was not impaired.
One of the best youth lifters in UK is Chi Chea, age 14, with a Snatch of 60 and Clean of 80 at 55 kg.. He has been lifting since he was 10. He is already taller than his parents ad growing fast. Naturally his training has been planned and carefully supervised. He is his schools best athlete over all the sports they do.
Brian Hamill
Hi BJ, this article is great. We have the same problem here at V2 convincing people about weightlifting. We explain that the statement originally released in 1990 by the American Academy of Pediatrics relating to weightlifting being dangerous on many levels for a child and pre-adolescent is unproven. They had no scientific backing whatsoever. They state that they do not approve of weightlifting, powerlifting or bodybuilding (As S&C coaches we don’t approve of bodybuilding either. Very often we raise an eyebrow at it!!!). Yet the AAP do approve of a strength program for children and teens…figure that one out!!! It goes to show that if the ACSM have printed that there is no evidence to prove weightlifting will stunt a child’s growth must be true. The ACSM don’t print or publish anything without having collated/undertaken hundreds of studies. There have been many studies from the NSCA and like the one you mentioned by Brian Hamill that were conducted after the AAP released there original statement. More recently, the NSCA and Clive Brewer from the UKSCA have both published many articles actually stating the opposite. Yet the AAP continued to release the statement again in the late 1990′s. However the AAP have revised there original statement in April 2008. They state that strength training (ST) is important for cardiovascular health, strength gains and sport performance. The AAP state that a lot of MSK (musculo-skeletal) injuries can be avoided with proper technique, maximal lifts and supervision.
Another of the most common questions we get is ‘are they going to lift maximally as this will be detrimental to a child’s development?’ The answer to this is yes and no! Do we as S&C coaches ever get you to lift maximally all the time? (All together) NO!!! particularly when starting out there is a long period of conditioning where you must display the stability, mobility and strength to administer the weightlifting lifts. Progression, overload and periodisation means that we continue to get stronger by lifting submaximal weights and that it needs to be progressive. Periodically we will get everyone to lift maximally if the individual can display sound technique and good form with these lifts.
I shall leave people with this statement when I attended the UKSCA weightlifting workshop in 2008. We were watching a video of the Chinese athletes weightlifting. We just watched a junior clean & jerk about 80kilos. The guys from UKSCA asked us how old did we thing this individual was? We replied about 11 or 12 years. They then asked what sport should they do? Their reply was “Lifting that much weight at that age…ANYTHING THEY LIKE”!!!!
Ian Willows – Vital2
Nice article B.J, totally agree with you, conventional wisdom has a lot to answer for!