Supposing that your young child of say age 6 or 8 is really intent on weight training and exercising making the right call as a parent can involve quite some amount of consideration. While some parents may be of the opinion that it is okay to let the youngster train, some parents may think that the child is too young to indulge in this sort of fitness.



The best advice that can be offered to parents who are caught up in this situation is that it is okay to let the kids go into training. However, some issues must be taken into perspective. It should be clear from the start that these children are obviously very young. The best training techniques for this age set will greatly differ with those for more grown children, the teenagers and the grown ups. The kids are not well advanced in terms of physiological development, anatomical and emotional aspects.

Basically, children have largely undeveloped skeletons. The skeletons and the bone structure don't get to the full maturity level until the ages of 14-22 years. With girls, the issue of the skeleton structure is more critical in that the activities that affect bone health in their young age are carried long into the future. For these reasons there must be caution when selecting the type of training to suit them.

Kids are more predisposed to a variety of growth related ailments and conditions such as the Osgood Schlatter Disease. Given their small body sizes, children are prone to inefficient temperature regulation with respect to the greater surface area that their bodies have. With this in mind, parents will have to be careful and insistent on proper warm-up before any workouts. This is all in a bid to minimize the proneness of injury.

Because children tend to perspire the least, at least when compared to adults, they are more prone to conditions of heat exhaustion in addition to the possibilities of heat strokes. Their undeveloped hormonal systems and the fact that they have the least muscular mass is a contributing factor to the difficulty that they encounter in trying to gain in speed and strength. Their scope of exercise is largely limited by their breathing and cardiovascular responses.

Conversely, young girls and boys have the capacity to benefit greatly from the weight training programs in terms of strength development as compared to adults. The main difference in this case is that while adults will grow in response to factors of muscle growth, the young boys and girls will be responding more to neurological factors. Prior to designing a training program for children it will be necessary to first get hold of medical clearance.

As you design the program regimen maintain the work-load at an amount that is convenient for a range of 8-12 reps. Keep the workouts well spread out and ensure that the children get adequate rest; 1-2 full days of rest will do. Your main emphasis should be on the type of exercises that the children will do and not the amount of weights that they will lift. Last but not least ensure that they are always fed on a balanced diet and that they also drink lots of water.