With a decrease in physical activity and muscular fitness being evident over the last 2 decades, we have all been educated on the importance of exercise in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Physical activity guidelines generally hold aerobic exercise as the focus, and resistance training is often thought of as being too dangerous for kids.
There are however a number of reasons why exposing our children to resistance training will not only benefit them now, but also the rest of their lives.
Resistance training, like many forms of exercise has been proven to reduce unhealthy body fat/weight gain, and reduce the likelihood of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
In addition to this, RT is a great way to increase our bone density, reducing our risk of fractures and injury when playing sport.
There has also been a positive relationship found between RT, academic performance and also our mental well being.
Luckily, lifting weights isn’t going to affect the height of children or make them slow.
Infact resistance training (including plyometrics) can have a great effect enhancing movement biomechanics and functional abilities (whether this be running, jumping, flexibility etc), which can again goes a long way in reducing sport related injuries.
Although most of our community may disagree (being very keen runners), statistics show resistance training to be the more enjoyable of the two. This becomes very important when we have children that aren’t the most confident or motivated to be physically active.
Participation in gym programs resulted in similar social and disciplinary aspects as team sports, and shows a large increase in physical activity motivation/compliance sustained later in life .
This is due to the improved body composition, motor control, and mental well being.
Our Strength and Conditioning Coach is very passionate in the development of youth athletes, so don’t hesitate to get in touch!
