2023 Live Q&A 1: How to Program Barbell Strength Training for Youth & Adaptive Athletes
Barbell strength training for youth athletes and adaptive athletes it’s not only possible, but extremely important for sports performance and injury prevention. However, there is a common belief that it’s dangerous for youth and adaptive athletes to do resistance training and lift heavy barbells.
This episode was recorded live during a Podcast Q&A session in our free Facebook group, The Secret Society of Barbell Mastery where we were asked:
“How to program/incorporate Strength training for youth or adaptive athletes.”
For youth athletes, it’s important to consider their:
Movement abilities
Body awareness and control
Main sport practice and training schedule
School schedule
Other extracurricular activities
Overall desire to train
For adaptive athletes, it’s important to consider their:
Training goals
Available equipment
Abilities to perform particular movements
Ability to maneuver and manipulate their training environment with and without assistance
Check out this short episode to hear our perspective on how to safely help youth and adaptive athletes resistance training with or without barbells and why!
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Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:00:01] All right. So this question was brought to us. Actually, we have two questions from Hannah Pearlman. "How do you program or incorporate strength training for youth or adaptive athletes?" So this is a really great question because. We believe young adults, adolescents, teenagers, and even kids can start strength training early. And at various stages, depending on their cognitive skills, their motor skill development, their interest, and their abilities, we're going to program strength and their sports. You know, what other sports they're playing outside of resistance training or strength training. So I would say the younger the person is, the less it's going to look like barbell training and the more it's going to look like play or other exercises in the gym. Um, and for the younger athletes or the younger trainees who are in, I would say the youngest that we probably start is like ten years old, is probably the youngest. Um, that's when they, you know, depending on their motor skills and their movement abilities, that's when some people are ready to barbell train. Although you see it all over the Internet these days, all over social media, you see like the five-year-old's barbell training or doing the Olympic weight lifts. So cool to watch, you know.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, CSCS, PRSCC: [00:01:41] And the youth division for USA powerlifting starts at age eight. Seven.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:01:45] Yeah, eight. Um, so listen, if someone, if that particular kid expresses direct interest in using the barbell, we just have to find equipment that works for them. So there are training bars, light bars, there are training plates that are as light as 5 pounds or two and a half kilos. I think that's the lightest. But they sell.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, CSCS, PRSCC: [00:02:12] Yeah, it's hard. The plates. Or the. Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:02:18] Yeah. Like the training plates. Yeah. Big size.
Dr. Alyssa Haveson, PT, CSCS, PRSCC: [00:02:21] Yep. But they're, they're hard to find in there. Those are expensive.
Dr. Rori Alter, PT, PRSCC, SSC: [00:02:26] And the, you know, they have aluminum bars training bars that are appropriately weighted and sized for a seven-year-old. So if that person or that kid expresses direct interest in doing these movements, then we do them. There's no reason why they shouldn't do them. And the program is really going to be the exact same as the concepts for programming for them are going to be the exact same as they would be for anyone else. We would start them on a novice linear progression and as their adaptability and their recoverability. Started to decrease. We would change the program in response to how they're responding now because youth athletes are growing. Their bodies are going to be consistently changing. So they might be on a linear progression for a very, very long time because of how much weight they gain, how much their body grows, and they're, you know, changing and their body has to re-adapt to their new size. So we cannot say how specifically to program for them, but I would start them on a novice linear progression and utilize all the same principles that you would when you're adjusting the program to match the person's response to training. And as they continue to progress from novice and transition into intermediate and then transition into advanced. Something that I would say that we need to consider and Alyssa we've talked a lot about this is that children or adolescents have less body awareness and less control over their bodies than we do, and also because their bodies are changing so much. We do need to be a little slower and more careful with how fast we're progressing them and how hard or how high of an intensity we're allowing them to train at and for how long. So I think that the biggest difference for youth athletes is the equipment that you're using because it needs to match their size and their ability and how the rate at which you're progressing. Would you agree?