Are these children just bad?

I’m often asked:
“When is the right time for my young athlete to begin lifting weights?”

Well, lets pretend that we are in the year 1832 and America’s economy still depends heavily on farmers and agriculture.

Young men (9-14 years old) at this time had to help ‘Pop’ with chores around the barn (or the horse whip would do some talkin’) – and more than likely his list of chores would include:

1. Bailing Hay (Squats & Twist)
2. Transporting buckets of milk (Farmers Carries)
3. Loading Trucks (Dead Lifts, Push Presses)
4. Pushing Stubborn Mules (Bench Press)

So, it would be safe to say that young men “lifted weights” since the 1800′s (and beyond) without any problems.

The issue today is that most kids never do any “Work” and they are plain ol’ weak. Most adults want to blame the tee-vee or Nintendo Wii – I say it’s a lack of creativity and understanding on the part of the parents. I especially love the parents that want their little fatties to lose weight but they, themselves are 73lbs. overweight and have jaundiced eyes with a side order of arm acne (but that’s a story for another post).

Below is my list of the best exercises for young weaklings, also you will find the exact training template that I am currently using with the group of young athletes that are training at my gym (I call these kids “Young Guns”:

1. Bodyweight Squats
2. Bodyweight Lunges
3. Bodyweight Push Ups
4. Bodyweight Chin Ups
5. Bodyweight Step Ups
6. Conditioning Games (Tag, Bear Crawls, Tree Climbing)
7. Chasing Squirrels
8. Getting Chased by hungry dogs
9. Climbing trees
10. Pulling little girls pony tails
11. Throwing rocks at nasty neighbors windows
12. Hop Scotch
13. School Yard Brawls

“Young Gunz” Training Template (June 2008)

Day 1 -
1. Dynamic Flexibility
2. Sandbag Circuit (squats, lunges, step ups & chin ups)
3. Prowler Push
4. 3 Way Core Holds

Day 2 -
1. Dynamic Flexibility
2. 22″ Box Jumps (fwd & lat)
3. Fwd & Bkwd Sled Drags
4. DB Farmers Carries

Day 3 -
1. Dynamic Flexibility
2. Triple Jumps
3. Tire Flips
4. Wheel Barrels
5. Speed Ladders

What do you want? What are you willing to do?

Coach Elliott “The Strength Coach”

We put your young punks to WORK!
http://www.StrengthCamp.com/athletes.htm