Strength is a muscle quality that has raised notable controversies in the scientific and sports field, both concerning its spontaneous development and that obtained by means of training. Although the specific training of strength has. always produced long discussions to its usefulness, the main debate has been centered on two extremes of life: infancy, and old age.
As regards infancy, which is our main concern in pre-adolescent strength training, those who oppose overload training have, over the years used a series of reasons, most of which were born from incorrect observation and philosophies with little or no scientific content.
Fortunately now lots of research have contributed to the elimination of taboos, and have provided more accurate evidence as to the instructions and counter indications of this type of training.
Developmental Exercise Physiology
The roots of research involving exercise physiology can be traced back as far as the 1930s with the studies of Robinson in the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory.
However it was not until contemporary times that a series of concerns regarding children and exercise prompted a dramatic interest in the study of developmental exercise physiology. These practical concerns have led parents, children and coaches amongst others to seek guidance from the scientific community .Questions that are being asked are:
1. Is strength training safe in the immature athlete?
2 Are significant strength gains attainable by the pre-pubescent?
3 Does strength training help prevent injuries?
4 Does hypertrophy cause inflexibility?
5 Does strength training affect the motor performance of the child?
6 Can overload training bring about alterations to the growth of the child athlete?
1. Is strength training safe in the immature athlete?
Up to the 70s and 80s it was thought that strength training in the pre-pubescent athlete could cause musculoskeletal injuries. There is no evidence of this providing it is carried out in a safe environment and under supervision. Resistance training developing muscular strength has many advantages for the child and also in later life. It helps prevent injuries and is thought to help prevent lower back disease in adults.
It contributes to guarding against osteoporosis of the bone in adult life.
* In 1986 Wellman reviewed the effectiveness of strength training in 26 immature athletes. They developed no evidence of musculoskeletal injuries after a 14 week supervised strength training course. Thus they concluded that supervised strength training was safe and effective in pre-pubescent boys.
* In 1990 Ramsey and. Blinkie, evaluating the effectiveness of strength training in pre-pubescents demonstrated no evidence of damage to the muscoskeletal system after strength training.
* Faigenbaum in 1993 reported on the effectiveness of twice a week strength training programme for improving strength and improving body composition in the immature athlete
*Metcalfe also in 1993 reported strength training may be performed safely and may offer strength gains to aid the immature athlete.
2. Are significant strength gains attainable by the immature athlete? Once traditional dogma held that the absence of circulating testosterone precluded the development of strength with resistance training in children. A recent series of studies have quite conclusively proven otherwise; strength can be improved in both boys and girls after a period of resistance training before as well as after the age of puberty. Most studies indicate that these changes occur in children in the absence of muscle hypertrophy, - strengthening the argument that neural and other adaptations can have an important bearing on strength development.( Thomas W. Rowland Director of pediatric cardiology Massachusetts.)
In strength training the male hormone has been , is, and will continue to be the most frequently discussed in the development of strength, since, in general terms men are stronger than women and the difference can be imputed to the lower level of testosterone present in women. Continuing the same reasoning and since in children the hormone levels are extremely low it would be very difficult for hypertrophy to be produced, although considered as the main mechanism in strengthening of the muscles. Because of this it does not seem likely that the male hormone performs a determined function in the traversal growth of the muscles, nor ,therefore in strength in the period before puberty (Vorobyev.)
Many of the detractors of the use of the overload system in children, claim that the strength increases obtained with this type of training are almost completely due to the alterations experienced by the child's organism during growth. However, the rigorous studies of Sewall and Micheli, of Rion et al. of McGovern, Pfeiffer and Francis, of Sailors and Berg, of Sale, of Siegel et al. As well as those of Servedio and et al. and Weltman et al, have demonstrated, without any doubt, that the increases of strength following overload training are independent of those produced by growth, and that, when carried out under supervision by qualified personnel , they do not cause any damage for the participant.
3. For some authors as Michell and La Chabrier the most effective method to avoid injuries of the locomotor system of children that practice physical activity is the joint training of strength and endurance. Similar conclusions are reached by Hellebrant and Hout, Cahill, Hefna, Rosenberg, Buturusis and Krieger Fleck
and Faakel.
In the opinion of the American Association for Conditioning and Strength, the use of weights by children that practice any type of sport, reduces injuries of the locomotor system by 33% at the same time shortening the time of rehabilitation by 50%.
As Malina has demonstrated in undernourished children with little development of lean tissue, and those effected by neurological alterations, training with weights 3 times per week , shoulder, thigh and pectoral muscles improved their strength considerably. Those confined to wheelchairs improved considerably their ability to propel their wheelchairs. This supposed a huge benefit for their quality of life.
4. Strength training and flexibility.
As we how flexibility is very important in physical sports .Conflicting opinions have arisen over the years as regards the impeding of flexibility brought about by hypertrophy, particularly near the joint of the muscle in question. Those who share this opinion, forget or do not know the study by Jensen and Fisher, in which it is indicated that the weight lifters are amongst the athletes who boast greater articulator flexibility. Only gymnasts surpass them in this aspect. The shoulder flexibility of the weight lifter is greater than that of — power lifting, bodybuilding and American footballers. (Beedle et al.)
For the American Academy of Pediatrics, strength and flexibility are usually trained at the same time, as in a weight liming programme , after warm up and in the cool down phase. The same criterion is shared by Brown et al. Clairbourn and Donolli.
In a training programme carried out on a weights circuit where boys and girls between 9 and 11 years of age participated, observed, at the end of the programme that, in addition to increased muscle strength and resistance, also enhanced articular flexibility of the limbs involved in swimming, a fact also reported by Wellman et al. For Sewall and Mitchell, the increase of flexibility obtained with strength training is about 5% and for Siegel et al, the increase may reach 12%.When stretching is added to this type of training, flexibility is further enhanced. [Sewall and Micheli].'
5. Strength training and the motor performance of the child.
For some there is a belief that strength training interferes with the child's motor performance. However, studies by Weltmen and those by Brians et al. Have demonstrated exactly the opposite. In the opinion of Allingham when Olympic movements are performed with the correct loadings for age, strength training during childhood develops both motor ability and strength in terms of sports results, these have been reported in swimming also by Blanksby, Gregor, and Nielson and Weltmen in explosive sports as high jump.
6. Can overload training bring about alterations to the growth of the child athlete.
One of the facts that have worried parents, doctors, physiotherapists, etc. is the subject of alterations of growth produced by overload training. A large part of parent's refusal to allow their children to practice weight lifting, or simply to use weights in training to improve their physical condition, are
based on the fear that their children will not grow as tall as their contemporaries, however, none of the numerous studies published to clarify this issue have demonstrated that those children who use overload training during childhood are smaller than the general population or than other athletes.
Rather the contrary has been demonstrated, in experimental as well as epidemiological studies, carried out by such accredited specialists in the field of sports research as Gurkof Motl7ianskaya, Baroga, Podkotski, Dvorkin, Wellman, Sewall and Segel et al Therefore only the attention to the & proven facts should be paid to the myth of nanism.[ condition of dwarfing in weight lifting.
In conclusion:
Any way you look at it strength training with weights is of tremendous benefit to all walks of life from those effected by neurological alterations, to the healthy pre-pubescent, to adult.
The evidence from hundreds of references agrees overwhelmingly in favor in both effect and safety.
As regards the importance of this research to the sport of weight lifting: all research to date points to the benefit of training with weights from a very early age coupled with a wide variety of training, providing we adhere to the safety guidelines already in place in B.W.L.A.
In the British Weight Lifting Association we. are very safety conscious and advocate and practice. excellent coaching procedures, always with the prime concern being the athlete.
Because of lack of research carried out in Great Britain on this very controversial issue of strength training with weights by the pre-pubescent, it has caused much unnecessary fear for parents, teachers, doctors, physiotherapists, etc. It has, and is, reducing our capabilities of acquiring a much higher volume of young weight lifters participating in this excellent Olympic Sport.
We now have, with the help of much research by the leading countries in weightlifting a complete system of training for our immature athletes as well as the mature, this is very similar to the system of the elite weight lifting countries of the world. As these countries are producing world _ champions by starting their lifters in the pre-pubescent years with specialised training methods, we must also do the same, adhering to the safety aspects and guidelines.
The importance of producing a much healthier nation, must be high on the priority list of everyone, particularly parents, what better way than introducing them to a sport
Our aim in B. W.L.A .must be to have our young athletes on par with the best in the world at the age of puberty as well as at junior and senior level By starting them at a very young age is now proven without doubt totally
safe and tremendously beneficial. This means at this young age they will be in excellent physical condition , which means an excellent start to a healthy adulthood , giving a good example to others. It also installs self discipline, something much lacking in some society today.
From a project by the effects of strength training in the pre-pubescent. By Cyril Martin B.W.L.A. Staff Coach and Youth Chairman.
