*** The 2012 Gym Rats Thread ***

[icecold]

I think one would only presume they're American since it's on an internet video. There are many... many more children training like this in China and some Eastern European countries.

Saw a video on my oly lifting workshop yesterday of a ~13 year old Chinese boy jerking 70kg

 

[Delvis]

I know, I'm doing all the other stuff I can but I'm sooo tempted daily.

Hah! Likewise!

Although luckily I can bench at least

 

[SMed]

Saw a video on my oly lifting workshop yesterday of a ~13 year old Chinese boy jerking 70kg

Yeah, exactly, there are several vids of kids from these other countries lifting. They're mostly weightlifting though. But I just don't think they tend to post of as many vids of them as the Americans do.

 

[Chris1712]

Good reads on children & strength training.

http://startingstrength.com/articles/young_strength_starr.pdf
http://startingstrength.com/articles/young_strength2_starr.pdf


In other news. Some strong kents in the gym today, my mind=blown at 'athletic' strength.
The gym I go to is at a cricket ground, and occasionally the team train there. It's pretty annoying actually as obviously there's loads of them and they take over the whole place, unfortunately I timed it perfectly to arrive in the middle of their session .
Anyway I stood around waiting for a rack to be free, and some of these guys were mad strong.
They're just cricket players so you can imagine physique wise they look like well, cricket players! But anyway I guess there strength & conditioning coach actually understands the benefits of oly lifts & powerlifting for power/speed etc. because these guys were doing 160kg pause squats all day long. Then one of them was doing nice 220kg box squats . Mind=blown.

 

[N19h7m4r3]

Hah! Likewise!

Although luckily I can bench at least

Darn bench monkey!!!!

 

[Begbie]

Me personally wouldn't let my kid (at that age anyway) lift competitively. At least with football, rugby etc they are playing with kids of their age.

That 100kg squat that for some reason was scaring me - boom 105kg today. 100kg was well easy really, explosive up and damn good form.

 

[kai]

Talking about kid's yesterday the sign went up at my local DW - Junior 14 - 16yr old membership coming soon. Loads of people have complained already, there is no chance of getting in the squat rack now! bicep curls will be rife!

 

[Begbie]

Talking about kid's yesterday the sign went up at my local DW - Junior 14 - 16yr old membership coming soon. Loads of people have complained already, there is no chance of getting in the squat rack now! bicep curls will be rife!

That sounds terrible, throw them out the way. I was the only person in my gym today

So looks like I may be doing a marathon this year! Throwing weights about may need to take a hit and start losing some muscle

 

[Disco Boy]

Had a pure chest day today* and I am realyl pleased with my numbers. On 10th April my 1 rep max for flat bench was 50kg (just, I barely got it up). But that weight flew up today... repeatedly.

BB Bench 5 * 47.5 5 * 47.5 5 * 50 5 * 50 5 * 50
Hamstring curl 12 * 45 12 * 45 12 * 45
Incline Bench 5 * 40 5 * 40 5 * 40 5 * 40 5 * 42.5
DB Fly 12 * 10 10 * 10 8 * 10
Incline DB Fly 12 * 7.5 12 * 7.5 12 * 7.5


Pleased as punch

* okay I lied, I did some hamstring curls too as a rest.

 

[Begbie]

EASY

 

[semi-pro waster]

As has been said, zero evidence to support any detrimental harm to children weightlifting, and that's not for a lack of investigation. It has been investigated many times. Not just for injuries and such, but for the often quoted "height development". Scientists have investigated a potential relationship between lifting weights and height and have so far failed to find any relationship at all. Lifting weights as a child does not make you shorter.

Some of the most dangerous sports a child could possible take part in is football and rugby, by a long margin. And I'm not talking about total numbers of reported injuries, I'm talking rates of injuries. Weightlifting is way way down near the bottom of the table.

It may be odd to think about it over here, but in China and other Eastern European Countries, they all start lifting as children.

Now, there could be some other issues with overtraining and what these kids might be having to go through, but that's not specific to lifting.

Think of it in terms of children playing on climbing around on frames, running and jumping, and fighting each other for fun. All basically the same movements and the same and sometimes greater stimulus and stresses.

I was chatting to a strength and conditioning coach who said he would see no problem with getting 12 year olds doing cleans.

I think we would all agree that the utmost care is required, not just for children's physical development and well being, but also the psychology of a young mind. This is where I think there might be a problem for that girl, but I wouldn't want to judge without knowing more.

I don't think we'd fundamentally disagree on the subject but from the looks of it I think you've both taken it that I'm against any form of weight training for youngsters and that's not what I was attempting to say - what I do mean is simply that care should be taken and for it not to be at the exclusion of everything else. I'm not doubting that to be the best of the best it helps to start young and be almost obsessive in pursuit of that goal but equally I'd suspect it's probably not the most conducive environment to produce well adjusted individuals - that's what I'm really driving at when I'm suggesting a bit of moderation.

 

[SMed]

I don't think we'd fundamentally disagree on the subject but from the looks of it I think you've both taken it that I'm against any form of weight training for youngsters and that's not what I was attempting to say - what I do mean is simply that care should be taken and for it not to be at the exclusion of everything else. I'm not doubting that to be the best of the best it helps to start young and be almost obsessive in pursuit of that goal but equally I'd suspect it's probably not the most conducive environment to produce well adjusted individuals - that's what I'm really driving at when I'm suggesting a bit of moderation.

In that case, I cannot agree with you more.

 

[Freefaller]

I agree with SPW. There is a fear that you can cause long term injury or issues, but we're talking at elite levels, I know of a few family friends who took gymnastics and sports very seriously as youngsters, and they now, as a result, have had issues with joints etc...

 

[SMed]

Yeah, training almost anything to an elite level, especially from a young age, is almost by definition going to be unhealthy and problematic.

 

[Freefaller]

I think that's all people are probably thinking of... I'd be a little sceptical of putting a young person through so much stress if you do it in an ill informed way.

 

[Djdom56]

Awesome session today, even though had to do it early in the day due to holiday closing hours.

I did my light day squats paused just for fun and it felt great, really easy which is nice. I'm finding that every session I'm getting better which is what I want to see happening .

Video is uploading now ( taking an age!) and then it'll be in my log if anyone is interested .

 

[icecold]

I don't think we'd fundamentally disagree on the subject but from the looks of it I think you've both taken it that I'm against any form of weight training for youngsters and that's not what I was attempting to say - what I do mean is simply that care should be taken and for it not to be at the exclusion of everything else. I'm not doubting that to be the best of the best it helps to start young and be almost obsessive in pursuit of that goal but equally I'd suspect it's probably not the most conducive environment to produce well adjusted individuals - that's what I'm really driving at when I'm suggesting a bit of moderation.

I agree with SPW. There is a fear that you can cause long term injury or issues, but we're talking at elite levels, I know of a few family friends who took gymnastics and sports very seriously as youngsters, and they now, as a result, have had issues with joints etc...

Yeah, training almost anything to an elite level, especially from a young age, is almost by definition going to be unhealthy and problematic.

Agree with all.

I think the ideal would be a little bit of gymnastics, a little bit of olympic lifting and general weight lifting, plyometrics, and the usual team based sports.

Oh, and obviously max shirted bench 3x per week.

 

[Buffman]

Powerclean 85kg today, failed 90kg. Not bad, weighed in at 84kg today and not powecleaned in a week or so (very sporadic training atm while doing exams)

 

[Djdom56]

Oh, and obviously max shirted bench 3x per week.

Don't forget daily steroid injections and max effort deads against 200kg of chains and 9 monster bands

 

[MoNkeE]

Great shoulder sesh today, really feel happy with my OHP. Tight core and glutes, no leg drive, good power.
Did 40kg 3x8 OHP and straight in to PC2PP, 2x5@50kg, and 1x5@55kg. Then did 12 reps with the 55kg on deadlifts just to get the heart pumping.