Stuart Stegall

Professor Erin Bullok

ENGL 1302

Summer II

8/1/2017

Weight Training – a Benefit to Children

Children obesity is becoming more and more of an issue for us as a society. While there

are many causes for this situation, some experts believe it can be directly linked to inadequate

physical fitness. It starts among preschool children with declining physical activity and

continues through childhood leading to adults who do not get enough physical activity. I

believe that one of the best solutions to this dilemma is increased resistance exercise through a

properly designed and supervised resistance training program. A program such as this is safe

for children, it improves performance in many sports and can help event he mental health of

children as well.

Weight training or resistance training is a form of exercise where the person performing

the exercise is working against something that resist movement. These include free weights

like barbells, dumbbells, or kettlebells. There are also specialized machines that use plates

made of iron or steel to resist movement. There are even resistance exercises that can be

performed with just the human body that are commonly called calisthenics.
 Adults are commonly thought of when most people think of weight training. People

have seen the Olympics on TV and seen lifters performing the snatch and clean and jerk

performed. Some people may have also seen powerlifting or perhaps been to a gym and lifted

weights themselves. Most adults who participated in sports likely also performed some type of

weight training as part of their training during the off-season of their sport.

Children also usually perform some level of resistance training through a limited amount

of calisthenics and then later in school as part of off-season training for sports. However,

according to Story, Nanney, and Schwartz, “Only 4 percent of elementary schools, 8 percent of

middle and junior high schools, and 2 percent of high schools provide daily physical education.”

(Story 85) In school, it’s common for children to learn exercises like jumping jacks (which

targets the whole body and increases cardiovascular performance,) push-ups (which targets the

arms and chest,) lunges (which specifically target the back of the leg), and squats (which

specifically target the front of the leg.)

Resistance training can skills that are fundamental to sports activities. Improvements

have been noted in both young children and older children in various sports related activities in

previous studies. (Youth Resistance Training 8-9) Resistance training can also enhance

performance later in life through continual activation of the neurological pathways required for

certain types of fundamental movement patterns. This can give children a leg up on future

sports performance. There has actually been quite a bit of research into this area and it

suggests that with physical activity during the school days, student’s academic performance is

either enhanced or neutral given the addition. (Raspberry S19)

 Much of the focus on youth exercise has been on endurance exercise also known as

cardiovascular exercise, known for its ability to improve the function of the cardiovascular

system. What’s less well-known is that resistance exercise is also able to improve

cardiovascular function. (Youth Resistance Training 6-7)

Another consideration of resistance training is that it actually enhances the ability of

children to resist injury. It has been shown that resistance exercise “improves bone health and

body composition.” (Overuse Injuries and Burnout 15) Resistance exercise also enhances

neuromuscular performance leading to fewer lower extremity injuries. (Overuse Injuries and

Burnout 15)

Not as mentioned or well researched is the benefit that weight training provides a form

of direct self-competition which is less common than other fun physical activities. Some

existing physical activities like racing or tug-of-war are a competition between students, which

make it harder to tell when you individually have increased performance. Other existing

physical activities like kick ball and dodge ball require a level of luck above any physical

requirement. All those activities are common among school physical education programs.

However, in weight training, the individual youth can compete directly against themselves in a

real measured way. For instance, if a student can bench press 115 lbs. one week and then the

next week they can lift 120 lbs., they have increased in performance in a direct and obvious

manner. This increased direct measure of performance can in many cases extend from early

childhood all the way into adulthood as they grow physically larger and strong and then as they

push further and further, this provides a very long term and directly measurable scale of

improvement.
 One issues that has influenced weight training in schools is a rise of academic testing

that allows schools to compare their performance using standardized testing across a broad

range of children both in the United States as well as internationally. With this increase focus,

schools have diminished the amount of time allotted to physical education, including recess,

which concerns some parents that their children are actually suffering academically since they

are not allowed to “blow off steam” so to speak.

Children and adolescents should definitely have access to physical activity. It’s a habit

that they need to learn from an early age to help establish a life time of physical activity in their

every day’s lives to keep their bodies healthy. In the article “Exercise Deficit Disorder in Youth:

Play Now or Pay Later”, the authors declare that “children who do not develop the prerequisite

motor skills early in life may not be able to break through a hypothetical ‘‘proficiency barrier’’

later in life that would allow them to participate in a variety of sports and activities with

confidence and vigor.” (Faigenbaum and Myer 196) Along this line, resistance training is a great

way for them to learn this healthy habit of physical activity since it can also be performed by

even children with mobility limitations that cannot participate in many physical activities due to

mobility impairments. These students can, depending on the type of impairment, still use their

other limbs to performance specific resistance exercises that are isolated to just the unimpaired

limbs.

Children are suffering from rising amounts of overweight and obesity. This is a huge

issue for children, as many as 43 million children were overweight and obese and another 92

million were at risk of becoming overweight. (de Onis 1257) This amount has risen dramatically

since 1990 and there is a need to reverse this trend. (de Onis 1263) Weight training provides a
way to reverse this trend by becoming part of a program that allows overweight and obese

children to reduce their levels of bodyfat without the high impact of ordinary endurance

exercise. (McCambridge 835)

One of the main concerns of both parents and educators is that children will get injured

performing resistance exercises. Current research has found that resistance exercise has a low

risk of injury. Weightlifting (a sport involving resistance exercise) has one of the lowest injury

rates of any sports and in comparison, rugby has an injury rate of 0.8 injuries per 100

participant hours whereas weightlifting has an injury rate of 0.0013 per 100 participant hours.

(Youth Resistance Training 2-3) As you can see there’s little worry about injuries, especially

when following a well designed program specifically tailored for youth participants and closely

monitored by a well trained physical education educator.

Another concern of parents and educators is that weight training will impede the grow

of children. In a review of twenty-two reports previously published, Robert M. Malina found

that there did not show to be any difference in height or BMI during childhood and pre-/early-

adolescence. (Malina 486) Some doctors also may suggest to parents that there will be growth

impediment as well, but this is outdated thinking and does not follow the policy of the

American Academy of Pediatrics. (McCambridge 837-839) Parents who hear their children’s

pediatrician use outdated recommendations should also consider what other outdated

recommendations they may be following.

I believe most children can directly benefit from increased resistance exercise. As a

father of three children, I have personally encouraged them to participate in weight training
and have seen them grow to be strength healthy young men, free of disease as well as able to

have fun participating in group activities without any physical limitation they might have

acquired due to lack of sufficient strength. I can understand that some parents are worried,

fearful that their children will come into harms way, but is little risk of additional injuries

directly from weight training. Weight training lowers the risk of children being injured as well

as assisting children in establishing a life-long habit of exercising regularly. It enhances their

ability to participate in sports by increasing their performance. It also improves their general

health both through increase cardiovascular performance as well as helping them have a

healthier BMI, lowering their risk for various diseases. In conclusion, educators and parents

should consider encouraging schools and the children under their care to embrace weight

training as part of a broader system of exercise that has shown to be safe and beneficial to

children.

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