What is safer for children? Lift weights or watch TV? Some might argue that watching television is safer because the child does not move and is at risk of injury. However, studies show that strength training, when performed under qualified supervision and properly sized training equipment, can provide immediate and long-term positive effects. Let’s dig into the reasoning and assume that children who participate in strength training do so in a supervised environment with appropriately sized equipment.
1) Reduces the risk of injury during sports. Like the weekend warrior, if a child is taken from doing relatively nothing to a sport in which he really struggles without proper muscle development or coordination, the child is likely to end up hurt. Strength training will help your child develop coordination and develop growing muscles. Strength training may also improve athletic performance, which could lead to more activity for the child outside of sport.
2) Increase bone density. We all hear growing up to drink milk for strong bones, well, strength training does the same. Strength training adds stress to the bone so the body responds by increasing the density of the bones making them harder and less likely to break.
3) Better body composition. We all know that there is a serious obesity problem in today’s world. Too much easy food and little mobility. A good way to combat this is strength training. Strength training = more muscles that help burn calories even when exercising. Even if the child does not have the best diet, the muscles that he has developed can help keep the child in a healthy weight range.
4) Self-esteem. As a parent, you always want your child not to fall into depression and to have a positive outlook on life. Reasons 1 and 3 above are a good start to a life of positive self-esteem. Who wouldn’t want to be the fastest kid in their class or the tallest jumper in a basketball league?
5) Develop good clothes. What better time to make a change in the future than to reach out to the people who will eventually rule this world? Teaching children how to be their best through proper nutrition, positive thinking, and hard work sets them up for success throughout their lives. All of this can be accomplished through strength training. To properly recover from weight lifting, you need a balanced diet. To progress in lifting heavier weights, you must think positively and want to be successful. And it will finally show kids that when you work hard, good things will come.
