Fit for Life: Teenagers - Handle With Care
Monday, April 15, 2019
The discussion centered around some kids playing every sport, one after another, throughout the year, and how it can become borderline “overdoing it.”
If professional athletes need time off to rest and recover between seasons, wouldn’t you agree kids need time to rest and recover too.
Think about it: When football season ends, kids are banged up and battered, so I don’t agree with jumping right into another sport until you fully recover from the previous one.
If an injury and / or muscles don’t have the required time to recover and get stronger, then you become more susceptible for further injuries.
Another reason to limit your sports is so you can focus and get great at them. If you are playing football, lacrosse, basketball, baseball, volleyball one after another, you can’t really hone in your skills and get great at one particular sport, because it takes practice and consistency to become great at anything you do.
Here is the article I wrote a few years back. Hope you can find it useful to your teenage athlete.
Throughout my career my "type" of clientele has fluctuated greatly, and I even market myself as someone that doesn't specialize, I make everyone better stronger faster.
I have trained everyone from age 14-90, and over the years my client base has shifted, oddly enough by age group.
There was a time that I had a lot of forty-something women clients, then 30-year-old men were my majority, then it shifted to 60-year-old women and men, and so on.
Mainly because my occupation is mostly referral, and everyone tells their friends how great my programs work.
Over the last high school football season, I volunteered to help my friend’s team with their conditioning, and the other coaches and players were happy with the results it produced.
We didn't win the title, but the team over exceeded the coach’s expectations, and injuries were lower than usual, and the team maintained high levels of energy throughout the fourth quarter.
During the season I would post workouts and scores and talk about everything I was doing with the team, enthusiastically with my clients.
I even played a game of pickup football with my friends and their teenage sons and presto, guess what my base age is now?
Teenagers!
I have had on and off experience with this age group, some athletes, some non, mostly girls, and have had great success helping them with physical and mental well-being, but as of lately, my exposure to this age group has increased, and so has my awareness of how important it is for them to train and eat properly.
My observations are that teens in general, are awkward. They have weak cores, poor balance and stability, and lack coordination.
This goes for most teenage athletes with exception to gymnasts, and a small percentage of naturally gifted kids.
Part of this is due to poor programming and improper training, like when they get their workouts off you tube, and muscle magazines, and lack of attention to core and proper movement patterns.
Even on an athletic level, most coaches at high school levels, know the game and strategy of the game, but lack resources and time to provide proper strength and conditioning training.
Even on the pro level, do you think Bill Belichick knows how to get someone in shape? So how many high schools have a coach that specializes in strength and conditioning?
Another reason for their awkwardness is that they are not fully developed at this age. They are still growing and sometimes not uniformly. Their bones grow faster than their muscles in some cases, causing long lanky limbs, with loose unstable joints.
With all that being said, think of an athlete trying to perform at a high level without the proper training and conditioning.
It is backwards, and dangerous.
These kids playing contact sports without the proper conditioning are at higher risk of injury. It's like your spine in an accident without a seatbelt.
Doing the proper types of exercise is extremely important at this age because their bodies are still developing and high-risk exercises that load the spine should be avoided until an individual is strong and stable enough to support such activities.
Attention must be paid to movement patterns and addressed accordingly.
When trained and fed properly, this age group responds quickly to exercise and conditioning. Whether your child is an athlete or not, it is a good idea to give them incentive to and educate them about exercise.
It will pay off in the long run.
When I train younger individuals, I try to develop a mutual respect between us, and explain what and why we are doing something.
I also never “punish” kids with extra laps, or pushups because I don’t want them to associate exercise with punishment. I want them to look forward to their workouts, and understand how beneficial it is, and it’s not some form of torture.
Girls need to be handled carefully, especially when it comes to eating. With all the public pressure, stereotypes, and body image issues, it’s important that we explain the true meaning of proper nutrition, and how important is for performance reasons, and not just to be “skinny”.
I helped a friend’s teenage daughter lose 65 lbs by educating her on food quality, then she took over and did it on her own in a healthy way.
Exercise is important at any age, but safe exercise and proper nutrition is essential at this age.
These are important developmental years and should be handled with care!
Committed to your success
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