How To Choose Safe Youth Strength Training

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to There is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell, and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's fitness programs, and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and most importantly why things work. Hence the name, There is a Method to the Madness. Before I get to today's show, I want to thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group at Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. All right. How's everybody doing today? This is Coach Rob here, picking up on a new podcast to get us rolling for the week. And I believe this is going to be a good one. I'm sure I say that with all of them. You know, but I think that's true because I only do podcasts on things that I feel like are really important and things that I'm passionate about. And uh this week and today, it's going to be about training for our youth. All right. And it's funny, you know, whenever you get something on your mind and things are popping up in your conversations, and uh this specific topic came up when I was talking to one of my trainers who has four of her boys playing baseball. And uh their dad works out with me here as well, and they're uh they're a baseball family, passionate, you know. And uh her and I were talking about the problem with training for the younger kids, you know. Pretty much, I'm gonna focus more on today, like pre-adolescence and younger, so beginning of adolescence, but there is a major, major problem with that. That's gonna be the highlight of this podcast. So going back to what I was saying, but whenever have you ever noticed whenever we start to think about something, it just keeps coming up. Like more and more we're seeing different things. So it blows me away. It's not completely related, but it's definitely related. When I uh, you know, opened up Facebook some point this morning, and uh right across my news feeds, and and I know there's a logarithms that find stuff you're interested in, but it was a story that was from one of the major general news stations, like it was one of the more legit local news or whatever, and I don't even really remember which one it was at this point, but it was talking about a national study that was just done that's proven again that kids who participate in recess, you know, just outside activities are far better students that though than those that don't, and that like taking away recess is one of the worst things you can do for punishment. So that's what the article was about, and I just found it so interesting because here I go getting ready to do a podcast on that, and they're talking about youth sports, uh albeit like different, like for sure. Like I'm gonna focus on training for the kids, and this is more just on the general state of affairs of the sedentary lifestyles of kids, which unfortunately we adults have propagated and made worse over the last two or three decades with our really I don't, you know, I shouldn't even bring this part up because I'll go on a rant and I'll never get to the main topic, but it is one of my rants. You know, we have really screwed with the curriculum so much in schools, um, I think around the country, but I know for sure in the state of Florida and all the schools are testing to become A schools and all this ridiculous stuff. And the curriculum is all based on trying to help the kids place better in these tests so they can go to better, even high schools and then colleges. And, you know, I mean, that's really trying to over-control the inevitable when you get down to it. I mean, there were plenty of kids 30, 40, 50 years ago that like, you know, we weren't doing that and they made it into the best colleges. I mean, so I mean, I don't know. That that to me, it's totally ridiculous. And it's definitely ridiculous when we start taking things out in order for that to happen. And that has been one of the things we've done over the last two or three decades. We have more and more and more basically deprioritized fitness. I mean, there are some schools where you can take uh a semester online of physical fitness in high school, ninth grade, or whatever it is, and then never have to do it again. I mean, I'm sorry, but that's just ridiculous. What are we really, really teaching people? I mean, what priorities are we really, really focusing on that we're trying to do this? I mean, I can go on and on and on, but I think you get the point. There it's a major problem. The study was shouting like it's like any groundbreaking news to anybody that's got a head on their shoulders that can look around and see that kids are gonna do far more better when they're allowed to go outside and play than they are if you don't let them. I mean, come on, it takes a real, you know, genius to figure that out and another waste of people, people's money doing these kind of silly studies when common sense told us that years ago. So we have a problem. And like so much of life, it's like a feast or famine type thing that I'm noticing in our country. So we have kids that essentially don't do anything, and I'm not gonna blame them. I mean, I'm not. I mean, I'm not, you know, I'm not one of those people that just knocks the younger generation. I mean, they are what we've taught them to be. I mean, you know, if there's a problem, then it's a problem within all of us. You know, the old saying, what's good for the bee is good for the hive, what's bad for the bee is bad for the hive. So, like, if we've created a bad bee, well, that's because the hive isn't well. So, you know, I'm not gonna sit here and just take shots at kids and be one of those people. They don't know any better. It's what we have mostly taught them with our priorities. So we have kids that do almost nothing because a lot of the leagues have dried up, you know, the recreational leagues have dried up because so many of the kids, again, feast or famine, that have more ability or more money or whatever, are playing in travel ball of all, you know, baseball, soccer, volleyball. I think everything has travel ball with the exception of football, because it's kind of impossible to do that safely or whatever. I mean, maybe there is some leagues like that, but I haven't seen them. And by the way, I'm not knocking that. I'm not knocking the parents that are able to do that by any means. I'm just saying that with everything, there are pros and cons. The one con to that is it has kind of dried up the resources to have more rec leagues for kids that maybe aren't at that level. And a lot of the kids that are in Travel Ball, by the way, aren't at that level, but their parents think they are. But that's a whole nother story. Um, but like I said, if they have the means to go, great for them. In most cases, I'm sure that's true, but it has hurt the overall leagues, and then even in high school, sports have become deprioritized because so many of the coaches are kind of like going towards travel ball and things like that. So, like I said, the only way that that's kind of different, or the only area that's a little bit different, is in football, but like in baseball, maybe some of your best baseball players aren't even playing high school baseball because they're playing travel ball, but it's definitely happening at the lower levels for sure. And again, in basketball, volleyball. So we we have sort of a feast or famine thing going on with youth sports. They're either all in, spending a lot of money, traveling all around, kids are getting a lot of training, a lot of advice, and that's where I'm going with this. Or because there is less recreation in school, there is less of a priority for kids to play sports, there's less of a priority for kids to encourage kids to have recreation and physette in school. You have either they're playing all the time, specifically one sport, which again, I don't know how many times I'm gonna say this today, but is a whole nother area I can go off on. But typically that's not what's best for your kids. They should generalize and play a lot of different sports until they really hone in and figure out what that sport they want to focus on is, if they really are, you know, that kind of level. And I'll wrap up this segment of it by just saying that, just so you know, less than 1% of kids actually really go on to be able to do something with competitive sports. So keep that in mind when you think your kid is the next Johnny Bench or uh I'm just gonna name a bunch of Cincinnati Reds for some reason. I'm not even Reds fans, but I guess because there's so many elite players, everybody knows who they are. All right. So, you know, less than 1% actually are able to go on and earn money at it. So, you know, just keep that in mind, all right. It's supposed to be fun and a way to make the body strong and fit, which a strong fit, strong mind, or a strong body leads to a strong mind, and a strong mind leads to a strong body. Iron shapes iron. All right. So now let's go off on the main subject here. Let's go in that direction. So, you know, again, speaking with one of my trainers and other people constantly, kids are getting hurt all the time in their strength and conditioning programs for their youth sports. I mean, there's it there's a bunch of reasons why this is happening. But ultimately, what it comes down to is the level of supervision in most cases is not qualified. In most cases. This has been one of the areas I've been hammering against for the last 30-something years in my career. Unfortunately, you know, what happens is there's not a ton of money working as, say, a conditioning coach at a high school. I mean, that doesn't even really happen, right? I mean, it I don't think it happens. So you're gonna say, well, so-and-so does it at my high school. It's like, okay, but I seriously doubt so-and-so has a degree in physiology or sports medicine, and is certified by the NSCA as a national strength and conditioning coordinator or coach. So, what it probably is, is a history teacher, an English teacher, somebody who really has good intentions, is trying to help, well-meaning, but not qualified. That's what happens most of the time. You know, it happened when I was a kid. The ones who taught our weightlifting classes in high school were the football coaches. You know, we have learned so much about training in the last 30 years that that's really not acceptable. All right. So we don't necessarily have people who are fully educated, experienced, and trained to work in sports medicine with kids or adults, because you know, that is going to warrant a decent salary. And most schools do not have the money to pay that. I mean, they just don't. And I mean, I'm gonna say there's almost nothing we can do about it, but that's not completely true because you it, you know, if you want your kid to say, excel, if you want your kid to most importantly, not get hurt, you are going to have to challenge people's credentials. Not be that rude person at the school challenging a person who's been told he's got to watch 25 kids in a gym and he's not qualified. It is not his fault. You have to make sure, though, that if you want your kid to get proper conditioning, you need to seek out the right types of people. I mean, they should be at a minimum working with a trainer that have one of the four accredited certifications, either the ACSM American College of Sports Medicine, or NASM National Academy of Sports Medicine, or ACE, American Council on Exercise, or the NSCA, National Strength and Conditioning Association. At the minimum that they're certified in one of those personal training certifications, I would also suggest that the person does have an education in health science, exercise physiology, sports medicine. They're going to know a lot more. In an ideal case, you would want them to have what we call in my industry the CSCS, which is the certified strength and conditioning specialist. Now, that's the certification that requires a four-year degree to sit for, and it's the certification that all major colleges and all professional teams hire strength coaches. Are they perfect? No, like every industry, you're gonna have your good, your bad, and you're terrible. You're gonna have your great, your good, your fair, you're terrible. I mean, of course, certifications and and education and all that don't like necessarily mean the person's now elite, but it does mean that they're at least going in the right direction. So those are like the things you need to watch out for. Now, let me tell you why. Let me give you some of the physiology. So small humans, kids are not small adults, they're kids. It's a totally different physiology, it's a totally different maturity level. They are not just small humans. Now, a good strength and conditioning coach or personal trainer understands that their physiology is completely different. So if you take a 17-year-old, I'm just gonna say male, 17-year-old male who has fully developed. They're still gonna grow in their skeleton. I'm not saying they're not gonna grow a little more in inches, but they're fully mature. How do they know? I think we all know when boys are mature, right? They have heron, all the places, their voice has changed. That is a far different specimen than a nine-year-old who isn't even pre-pubescent yet. So it's a totally different physiology. Not only is the skeleton different in their growth plates, but also their metabolism is different. Now, our body has three ways that it can regenerate ATP in the system, and we call that the energy system. We have the aerobic system, which means that ATP is regenerated aerobically. We have the anaerobic system, which means ATP is resynthesized anaerobically, so between 30 and 90 seconds of effort, the anaerobic system kicks in to do the job. And then we have the immediate energy system, which means that ATP happens right at the cell level, and that happens between 10 and 15 seconds thereabouts of movement. Guess what? Any kid under adolescent, so in other words, if they're not physically mature, it's hard to put an exact age on it. It could be 13 for your kid, it could be 16, we don't know. That's why we have to look for signs of maturity. But any kid that's not fully matured, the only system that can be used is the immediate system. So, in other words, they don't have a mature anaerobic system. So if you're having them out there at 9 running wind sprints and things like that, you're defeating the purpose. You're not helping them. They don't have the metabolism to be able to do that kind of thing. Haven't you ever seen kids at a 5K? Like a nine-year-old, a 10-year-old running a 5K. I mean, I see it all the time. And they sprint as fast as they can. And then they run out of gas and they walk. And then they sprint and they walk. And I'm almost like, oh, this poor kid, like he is gonna have one hell of a 3.1 miles to get through. He's gonna feel awful. It's because he doesn't have an anaerobic system and he doesn't have an aerobic system. I mean, in a way, you know, not to be dramatic here, but it's almost like abuse to make the kids run these 5Ks.

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SPEAKER_00 18:14

I can't stand it when and I'll see these parents behind him going, come on, Billy, pick it up, Billy, quit walking, Billy.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

You know, meanwhile, they're like on their beach cruiser and they're overweight and you're shouting at their kids. I mean, yeah, I mean, do I sound a little uh irritated there? But I see it all the time. It's like they're not ready for that yet, man. I mean, give them a break. I mean, I know when I was nine, if you had asked me to run to the mailbox, I probably would have revolted. So, I mean, you know, it's silly, but from a physiological standpoint, they're also not mature. They're not able to do that, they're not able to have an anaerobic system, they're not able to have an aerobic system. So the only thing they can do is sprint. So that's one of the issues. So when you have kids doing like high rep sets, like the anaerobic system would kick in, like let's say they're doing 15 reps of something. I mean, they're not going to respond to that. They're not going to respond. Really, the only type of strength training or whatever kids should be doing is just learning movements. They should never go to failure. They can't go to failure, meaning you're not doing any good. Because guess what? Most people don't know this. I would say almost no people know this. No one knows this. And that is kids under the age of adolescence, whatever that age is, full maturity, can't hypertrophy. Meaning they can't grow bigger muscles. It is physiologically impossible. So any strength gains that are going to happen is going to come from what we call recruitment. So when the brain is able to send the message to the muscles, and the muscles are able to lift the weight and then tell the brain roughly what it feels, that's improving the recruitment. So kids can get a little stronger for sure because of that, because of recruitment, but they aren't gaining muscle size. So when we have kids doing these types of sets, oh, let's put some quads on little Jimmy and little Jimmy's eight, okay. Jimmy's quads aren't going to grow from that. You're basically just doing something really stupid and counterproductive. So the only types of movements kids under the age of adolescent should be doing are exercises to learn how to do the movement pattern correctly. And they should never be lifting over their heads because the growth plates are not developed yet. They shouldn't be doing any kind of compression exercises such as back squats or front squats, because the growth plates are not developed yet. They should be learning maybe how to squat with no body weight. They can do some light dumbbells in their hands and do things like curls, shoulder raises, and things like that. They can do learn, maybe potentially learn how to do hangs and pull-ups and learn how to do push-ups, although they can be it can be very difficult for kids. But that's what they should be doing conditioning-wise. And then young kids really just need to be active, active, and they're going to be fine. If you want to teach at a young age, like let's say they want to play baseball, so you want to teach at a young age things they can do to not get injured and to get better, and great, more power to you, but you have to know the physiology of what you are dealing with. Kids should know how to properly warm up because they can warm up. You know, it's as simple as teaching kids to kind of, you know, run a little out on the field, walk, run a little out on the Field, walk, run the bases a little bit, you know, swing a bat without any ball a few times, like little things like that to warm up. They should be taught that. But we shouldn't be teaching them things that they physically and emotionally can't handle yet because they're not mature. And ultimately, you know, I've taught this for 31 years. I've taught school and I teach my trainers. Know what not to do. And ultimately, you know, the old Hippocratic oath, you know, first do no harm. So when you're working with kids, I don't care if they're 17, 18, or younger, whatever, the first thing you want to do is make sure they never get hurt. And I see way too many kids in these sports leagues getting hurt. ACL injuries, meniscus injuries, rotator cuff injuries. And what's kind of crazy is it's not happening out on the field, it's happening in the gym way too often. And guess why it's happening? Oh, you know, Jimmy's bench pressing. Oh, why is Jimmy bench pressing? I mean, you know, if you know anything about strength conditioning, bench pressing is not one of the best exercises, no matter what, anyway. I mean, it's not a great exercise. It's it's okay. I used to bench, I used to be really strong on the bench, I still do push-ups, I still do chest presses, but it is not a great exercise to develop the pecs and triceps. There are far better ways. You're rarely going to walk into a legitimate, serious collegiate athletic program and pro program and see guys benching. If they are, they're doing it on their own. Meaning, and they will sneak it in, trust me. I mean, old athletes can be as brighty as young athletes. I've worked with them. They might sneak it in because they're still trying to bench because they just can't get it out of their mentality, right? Well, it's true. I'm asking you, right? It's true. They can't get it out of their mentality, but it's not programmed, you know, because it's not very productive. There are far better ways to develop that. Matter of fact, Hammer Strength developed a machine called the Jammer. It's a great machine for offensive linemen. And what it is, is it's built kind of like a chest press, but it's it's uh you're standing up when you do it. And you kind of squat down, bending your knees, you grab the handles, and as you're coming up, you push out explosively, just like an offensive or defensive tackle would. So that is um an exercise you're gonna see far more common than a standardized bench press. All right, but that's how they're hurting the rotator cuffer. I hear of kids doing front squats or back squats on the Smith machine or other types of back loaded squats, and then they're like, you know, their meniscus hurts. I'm like, well, of course it is. Like the spine isn't built up enough yet to be able to sustain that kind of work. So we're not supposed to be doing that. We're supposed to find other ways to strengthen the kid's legs. And don't get me wrong, when they've reached adolescence, they can get stronger, they can hypertrophy. So if your kid's 14 and they're already, you know, starting to grow a little mustache, hair in other places or whatever, okay, you know they're going through maturation. So they can start to gain muscle so they can get stronger because they're hypertrophying and recruitment. So yes, they can, but they need to be trained how to properly do that. They should not be doing back squats or front squats, they should not be doing unsafe exercises. Squat, absolutely. It's one or two of my favorite exercises, but we don't need to put a load on our spine to squat to get stronger. We don't need to. All right. So the main reason kids tend to be getting hurt is because they're getting hurt in the gym. And by the way, just because they are not getting hurt immediately in the gym, like you know, it happens maybe a little bit later, they're probably developing muscle imbalances in the gym and they're overdoing things because they're already on an insane playing program. And then, like on rest days, they're strength training. So you could be just creating an overuse issue. Now I'm gonna close by saying this because it's very critical. I'm by far not knocking conditioning and strength training. It is the foundation of all exercise, I believe. It's what I teach, it's what I preach, it's what I do. I do prehab all the time, not only for my clients, but for myself. I play softball. It's very easy to get hurt out there, so I'm constantly working on areas to strengthen my joints so I can continue to play and strengthen my muscles so I don't pull muscles. So I am the biggest fan there is. There's no bigger fan of strength training and conditioning than me. I'm saying it has to be done correctly, and it drives me nuts when there's so many hacks out there getting paid, making my industry look bad, because it's not strength and conditioning hurting kids. It is improper use of strength and conditioning hurting kids. I say it all the time here at my gym. We are only as strong as our weakest joint. And so many of these kids are not being taught how to strengthen from the stabilization muscles, the foundation muscles, inside out approach. They're doing outside in approach. So they might do bench press. Oh, I'm making my shoulders stronger. No, you're making them weaker. What should they be doing is bandwork for their rotator cuff muscles. So you're strengthening the muscles from the inside out because you are only as strong as your weakest joint. I don't care what your bench is. If you have a very weak rotator cuff, your bench isn't going to be worth a shit because you're going to be hurt. And it could be like life-changing hurt if you hurt a rotator cuff muscle early on. So, no, I'm not dissing any kind of strength. Well, I am dissing some kind of strength and conditioning, and that is the kind done by unprofessionals, by people who just don't know what they're doing. But, you know, you need to be buyer-beware. You know, you just need to be smarter on your social media choices, who you follow, who you listen to. Check the credentials. And again, I'm not blasting any of the school systems because I really know that they're underfunded in this area. They're truly probably doing the very best that they can. But that doesn't mean you don't need to make sure that your kids are getting absolutely what they need. So both can be true at the same time. All right. Please share this, send it to people. We're really trying to encourage people to get their kids exercising, being fit, having fun, doing all these things so they can have a very, very, very long time of strength training, conditioning, and being active because that's what we want. So please share that. And uh, if you have any questions, feel free to hit me up. All right. Thank you everybody for listening to today's show. I really appreciate it. I want to remind you to please hit automatic download. It really helps me and it helps the show. And now I'd like to thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, the area's premier garage door company. They have the best product and the best service. I personally vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. They are great. They're going to get you exactly what you need. So if you have any garage door needs, give them a shout at 386-222-3165. And now I'm very excited to add another sponsor. 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