Armond Willis

When is the right time for a kid to participate in a resistance training program?

A question with a wide spectrum of opinions from parents and coaches alike.

In short, if a child is ready to partake in competitive sports, then most likely they are ready to participate in a thorough resistance program based on two factors:

They are physiologically and psychologically mature.

Each of equal importance.

However, if a child is ready to participate in sports, then he or she needs to make sure their muscles, joints, and tendons are also ready for the rigors and demands of the sport.

And while some kids are more physiologically inclined to withstand higher degrees of those demands, training outside of their sport with an appropriately designed strength (and or speed) program is crucial for longevity,biomechanical integrity, and performance integrity.

Benefits of strength training for young athletes include

– Increased muscular strength and local muscular endurance

– Improved sport performance

– Injury prevention

– And development of lifelong exercise habits

The Strength Gain

Young athletes want to get faster. Parents want their kids to be quicker.

They want their daughter to excel in softball, break down faster in front of the ball, run around bases faster..

Parents need their athlete to be a step faster on the football or lacrosse field..

In each of the instances, a well planned progressive strength training program enhances results.

The mantra goes you don’t get faster playing sports, you get faster preparing for them.

Increasing strength means increasing muscle and joint integrity which are the backbone for speed and quickness enhancement.

Research has shown that as much as a 74% muscle strength increase has occurred in untrained youth athletes after 8 weeks of training.

On average, gains of 30% to 50% are observed in youth athletes.

However, when a young athlete stops training, detraining occurs, and if ceased long enough, the competitive advantage gained from strength training is lost as natural growth rates of peers help them to catch up.

In other words, once an athlete begins training at a young age, they should not stop training for an extended period of time in order to maintain and continually get stronger over time.

Devoting at least 1 day per week to training (outside of sport practice) is sufficient for young athletes to begin to have a competitive advantage.

Improved Sport Performance

Once a youth athlete has developed a solid strength base, training movements and muscles that are specific to their respective sports are keys to successfully transferring strength acquired.

Rather than just training general movement to enhance youth athlete performance, the particular biomechanics of the sport and demands should be calculatedly implemented so the muscle contraction patterns, velocity of movement, and contraction forces are correctly trained to elicit the best adaptations.

For instance, when training a youth softball player, after establishing a base strength foundation, this is the appropriate time to really focus on developing lateral movements, inside outside edge-work of the feet, rotational strength of the trunk, shoulder scapular integrity, and energy system development.

Specificity is key to successfully enhancing sport performance. Proper exercise selection and training technique should be especially emphasized during this phase, and not random exercises chosen just to make athletes work.

The amount of training is also an important factor as sport season should always be taken into consideration in order to vary and assign the correct training loads.

HOWEVER, regardless of in season or not, performance training outside of the sport should not be discontinued.

Injury Prevention.

The most significant benefit of strength training for children is the injury prevention factor.

Youth athletes will not “play themselves into shape” because the actual loads and demands of the sport don’t stimulate improved muscle and connective tissue growth and relative strength.

Training does.

Training and preparing the muscles for sport help create longer lasting strength and endurance throughout the season.

Supplemental strength and performance training are key to enhancement.

Lifelong Exercise and Training Habits

One of the most rewarding aspects of strength and performance training from a coaching perspective is witnessing the psychological development occur in youth athletes.

Every athlete that I have had the privilege to train experiences a mental maturity and confidence gain from training.

Physiologically, benefits range from improved bone density to improved body composition, two additional factors significant for health in the long term.

But can’t strength training for children stunt growth??

No.

Contrary to popular belief, research indicates proper strength training does not have adverse effects on growth.

Strength training can actually influence growth at any stage in development but will not affect the natural maximum height a child can achieve.

It is vitally important however to understand that strength programs need to be appropriate for the age of young athletes and their training background, and the importance of a child to be psychologically ready for training.

Here are a few guidelines that we go by at Willis Performance Training:

Every athlete should be properly assessed before beginning any training program and continually monitored

A firm strength base should be established before any “rigorous” training

Focus on trunk and spine or “core” strength for sport carryover

Program intensity should match the sport season

Never overload the athlete

Allow adequate rest and recovery

Reassess to measure progress

*******

Preventing injury is key, thus common sense and a correct programming should be implemented.

Conclusion

Is strength and or performance training right for your kid?

Yes.

There are more advantages than disadvantages in terms of sport performance, general fitness, and overall preparedness for sport that will provide a competitive advantage.

Also, keep in mind that strength and speed are closely related. So even though it might look the part to just throw kids into activity where they are running through ladders and pulling parachutes, a foundational strength building phase will further enhance speed and balance;  when speed mechanics are broken down, it boils down to individual muscles, joints, and tendons working together to generate, redirect, and absorb force.

A youth athlete should be prepared.

Principle based training with effective structure is the perfect solution for a parent or competitive youth athlete looking to get ahead.

Too many parents miss the boat in this area by assuming that fundamental strength and speed happen through playing only sports and is not a necessary aspect of development.

Not only is it beneficial from many aspects, it’s absolutely necessary to withstand and exceed the demands of sport.

The age old dilemma that has yet to be proven scientifically goes that “too much” resistance training for women is bad because they get too bulky.

Despite this common belief, research and evidence beg to differ, only directing us to the fact that there are more benefits to resistance training for women than there are cons.

There are several major benefits to strength training for women:

– Enhanced bone modeling to increase bone strength and reduce the risks of osteoporosis
– Enhanced joint integrity
– Increased general strength for daily activity and or sport
– Increased lean body mass and decreased nonfunctional body fat
– Improved confidence and self-esteem
– Increased metabolic rate from increased muscle math and fat decrease

Just like any other specialized strength and conditioning program, training should consists of periodization that rotates between increasing strength, power, increasing lean muscle mass, and burning fat.

Essentially, The myth is that lifting weights for women causes bulk and too much girth,
when the reality is that strength training REDUCES body fat and increases lean weight.

However, there are 3 trainable effects to focus on when developing an efficient regimen for female athletes and a fitness program for women that is sure to have long lasting results, and they are:

1.) Developing Lean Mass
2.) Max Strength Development
3.) Power Development

Developing Lean Mass

Again, the fear of getting too big and getting too much muscle is not founded on anything. This essentially limits most women to any real development because of the fear of increased resistance.

In women, development of lean muscle mass is important, specifically in regards to the upper body (explaining most looks on faces when I say we have pushups.)

In order for the larger muscles to be stimulated, there needs to be a sufficient amount of motor unit activation. The more resistance applied, the more motor units containing larger muscle fibers are stimulated.

In regards to further stimulating those muscles, proper variation of exercise should be involved, including varying joint angles and the direction of force, or doing different types of exercises to stimulate muscle when necessary.

The most successful method of developing lean mass for women is proven through using a well-planned, periodized training program.

The main takeaway in terms of developing lean mass for women is to activate as many motor units as possible to stimulate real muscles growth through variable resistance.

Developing Max Strength

Creating maximal strength is directly proportional to the resistance loaded schemes used throughout a training program.

Increasing total strength means high loads close to the one rep max (3-5 rep max or >90%). In order to develop the one rep max, women will need heavy resistances just as established science dictates.

The “goal amount” of strength should be dependent on individual wants and needs. However, for female athletes, adding strength is a critical component of increased performance and should be implemented correctly.

The current athletic standards and competition place demands on female athletes that call for the need to develop max strength in order to perform at the highest levels.

The benefit of incorporating max strength training for women’s general fitness includes activating more muscle tissues and the improvement of connective strength and tissue, thus further improving lean mass.

How does this translate to fitness?

More definition and less fat.

Developing Power

Training explosively is another component that makes up a complete regimen.

While strength and lean mass are a big part of developing overall fitness, developing power has a significant impact on performance and functional improvement as well.

While strength in large part deals with developing a high force to move against resistance, power specifically involves the velocity or speed of movement.

This further enhances muscle and neural coordination while also developing quick twitch fiber muscle.

Developing power is a very important aspect for female athletes in terms of being able to generate force rapidly, whether with an external resistance or the athlete’s body weight.

Power exercises for the general fitness population add another dynamic to the fitness program, and should be developed along with true strength training as both power and strength closely interact and need to be addressed.

Research shows that rate of force development (power) is significantly slower for the average woman, than the average man. Thus, training for explosive power is crucial for female athletes to overall improve power performance.

Stop fearing. Physiology Speaks for Itself

So as we mentioned earlier, most women are fixated on the idea that strength training will make them look like a man, when the truth is, without anabolic drugs, there is a very small chance of that.

This is belied by the fact that women have smaller muscle fibers than men.

Though this be the case, untrained women have more of a strength potential than men for lean mass, fat burning, and strength gains if trained properly since research suggests that 75% of untrained women have slow twitch muscle fibers that are bigger than their fast twitch muscles fibers.

It has actually been shown, the responses of muscle fibers are more rapid in women than in men. Research has also proven that in as little as 2 workouts that muscle responses in women develop more rapidly than in men.

Thus, a few guidelines exist to developing the most efficient training program for female athletes OR fitness enthusiast to elicit the best response:

1.) Programs should cycle between developing strength, lean mass, and power at variable intensities to create the most efficient training results.

2.) You should always develop a solid strength base BEFORE developing power in order to generate more force in a short period of time and elicit the intended response. Exercises should be explosive in nature (push press, resisted box jumps, clean pulls etc)

3.) Programs should include multi-planar, multi joint movements, and functional exercises to further enhance intramuscular coordination, proprioception, and balance in order that the transfer is great in sports or in daily life.

4.) Do not be afraid to break barriers and challenge your current physical state.

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Regarding the actual training systems, there really is not too big a difference between the structure and science of strength programs for men or women.

The only difference is the strength potential and physiological adaptation that more heavily favor untrained women since they have more untapped strength.

In terms of the elite female athlete, or the serious female fitness enthusiast, partaking in an intricately structured program that utilizes training concepts of strength, muscle gain, and power, performance enhancement is guaranteed whereas increased physical definition is inevitable in reaching your perfect body.

I was asked an interesting question the other day by one of our fitness members who  approached me about a friend who asked her what the difference between Willis Performance Training and Orange Theory Fitness was.

I’ll start with the obvious:

We are not a studio gym.

You won’t find a line of treadmills.

You won’t find row machines.

You won’t find a coach with a headset microphone attached to loud speakers.

You won’t be attached to a heart rate monitor blue tooth connected to a flat screen monitor to see your heart rate zone.

Not at WPT.

Orange Theory Fitness has an extremely great concept by focusing on high intensity interval training and aiming to elevate Exercise Post Oxygen Consumption (EPOC).

It is a high energy environment that is non stop.

However the main difference between Willis Performance Training and OTF, or ANY other gym for that matter starts with our Mission Statement:

“To enhance athlete and non-athlete performance through a science based,  multidisciplinary approach to training while educating and inspiring the community through compassion, integrity, and heartfelt service”

This is the backbone of our system and everything we do ensures that our Mission is executed to the best of our ability.

As far a training goes, yes we do utilize high intensity training when necessary or when we are in that phase.

However that is not the basis of our training program.

What we offer is a full out strength and conditioning program geared towards complete fitness using micro and mesocycles as well as periodization and variable intensity.

Programs are designed to enhance strength, increase muscle, burn fat, create energy, pain management, and correct imbalances in the body.

Some weeks are high intensity, some weeks are low intensity with a heavy weight focus.

Training cycles are put together to elicit specific and intended responses from the body.

Nothing new. Just principle based.

We take the time to assess, evaluate, and establish goals on a monthly basis.

More than just monitoring heart rate, we monitor overall movement and joint integrity and adjust accordingly for overall enhancement.

Do we use weights? Yes.

Heavy? On occasion when the member is READY.

Do we run? Yes.

We do agility? Yes.

Are we a $20 per month type of gym? Heck no. You get what you pay for.

Is it hardcore everyday? No. We vary  the intensity of the program and implement recovery days/weeks and progressive intensity and movement.

HOWEVER,

Even with all of the “science” and “principle” behind our training systems, it is the community and environment that we take pride in.

We educate.

We inspire.

We motivate.

We highlight.

We stay connected.

How?

Everything from our private social media groups, to our very inspirational emails and newsletters, to workshops, to networking, to our monthly articles and blog posts, to filming our in house mini series highlighting our members and athletes and recognizing people for their hard work and breaking down the exercise of the week.

Even offering additional materials such as Nutritional Guides and Goal Sheets for everyone.

We want to establish a community that provides exact resources for everyone to stay motivated, informed, inspired, and goal oriented like our mission says.

This we ensure happens inside and out of the gym.

Now, this is NOT a rant about what each company does not have and who is better as EACH of them have the opportunity to change someone’s life.

This is just an answer to a great question.

That is it.

We are not a franchise or a studio gym.

We are an authentic, rapidly growing training and sports facility available to anyone who believes in coaching combined with precise training as a solution to their needs and who loves community and fun in the process.

There you go.

If you would like more info on our Adult Fitness Program, please visit

https://www.willisperformance.com/wptfitness

You know that it is time for change. You have finally motivated yourself to start going to the gym, may be a little nervous underneath, but ready to start the journey.

You have a $20/month membership to XX gym that you have been paying for for the past several months, but only went here and there and hopped one of the 50 treadmills usually isolated from the rest of the gym.

Finally this time you go in, and you are ready to begin a REAL program…but there is just one problem.

You don’t really have any idea where to start.

Here are 3 things you should be pretty concise on before you even begin your fitness program:

1.) Be Very Clear and Very Realistic About What You Want To Do

This is where a good amount of people struggle. You walk in the gym and start doing exercises but fail to understand why you are really doing them.

Establish your goals.

Do you want to “lose weight”?

Do you want more energy?

Do you want to get “toned”?

Put something down. But also keep in mind that the more specific you are in your goals, the more clearly you will be able to see them.

Lose weight is vague.

Losing 10 pounds in 2 months is a lot more specific.

Don’t just workout to workout.

Work out to achieve something.

Also, be realistic about your goals. Do not try to look like the girl from the video on Facebook or Instagram doing burpee backflips through a swing set and bound up 10 steps at a time.

Thats not for everybody. In fact, that’s not for a lot of people.

Keep it real with yourself.

2.) Understand the Body and How Different Types of Training Affect It.

Announcement: Treadmills and running are not THE solution to complete fitness.

If you are trying increase your energy levels, or accelerate fat loss and put on more muscle, understand that you will need to incorporate resistance training into your routine.

While running makes for a good aerobic exercise and is a solid way to lose some calories, you won’t get “leaner” just from cardio.

When you have a better understanding of the different energy systems that the body uses and the adaptations that take place, then you are better able to manipulate your results.

For instance, knowing how to increase or decrease reps during sets will affect your strength and or endurance.

Knowing when to decrease rest in between those sets will also not only effect muscle growth, but also fat burn long after the workout is over.

Steady state, or cardio training lacks this effect.

If you are training for strength, use challenging resistance with low to moderate reps but increase your rest between sets to allow for adequate recovery.

If training to get toned or muscle growth, you can increase the amount of reps, while also reducing the amount of rest between sets, and slowly progress your work to rest ratio to increase the challenge.

Knowing this simple fact can greatly change your results.

Understand the difference between fat loss and weight loss. Though they are closely related, fat loss is not necessarily a result of weight loss, since you can burn fat without actually losing weight. If your aim to to get lean and you are looking to accelerate fat loss, then incorporating the right strength training program is essential.

…which is a good lead into our next point.

3.) Incorporating Loaded and Unloaded Power Exercises

Adding explosive exercises to your program like box jumps, kettle bell swings, burpees, hang cleans, squat jumps are a great way to stimulate muscle growth and really activate the central nervous systems and elicit different hormonal responses within your body.

They can be a combination of Olympic lifts like barbell deadlift, to hang cleans, or if not that advanced yet, partial Olympic lifts like clean pulls.

Essentially, full body explosive movements will recruit more muscles and promote muscle growth and accelerate fat loss.

Advanced explosive exercises like hang cleans or power cleans/snatches should only be performed if properly coached and your are ready.

Starting off with simple bodyweight squat jumps, or box jumps are still an extremely easy and efficient way to train explosive muscles.

As you start to get adjusted then you can simply add resistance through holding dumbbells, increasing height of the box, increasing weight of the dumbbells, or move on to more advanced exercises.

The following are Power exercises that you can add to your routine in order of beginner to more advanced.

Beginner:

Squat Jump
Box Jump
Single Leg Box Jumps
Hurdle Jumps
Lateral Hurdle Jumps
“Burpee”

Intermediate:

Hang Pulls
Clean Pulls
Clean Shrugs
Clean High Pulls
Dumbbell High Pull
Bounding (Body Weight)
Kettle Bell Swings
Push Press

Advanced:

Hang Clean
Power Clean
Dumbbell Snatch
Seated box Jump

Though these might seem like an extensive list, these are just a few that we sometimes use at WPT.

Incorporating full body explosive movements in your routine as they target large and small muscle groups, stimulate muscle growth, and also can enhance overall movement patterns.

***

So the next time you walk into your gym, take these few simple tips and incorporate them into your routine.

One of the best things you can do is arm yourself with knowledge, which will give you the ability to directly manipulate he results you want.

I was listening to a really great podcast the other day about strength. What it means to be strong. What you should do to get strong. The different types of strength. And what relative strength is.

There are a good amount of people who only equate strength with being “weight room” strong, when the reality is that strength has more aspects to it than that.

Hence the term relative strength.

There are also those people who believe, parents and coaches in particular, that kids should not strength train because they are not biologically ready for strength training and it could stunt growth or cause injury.

A few things on both of these issues:

1.) There is more than one type of strength. To put it simply, there is weight room strong, and there is being strong for your sport. Both are interdependent to an extent.

If you are weight room strong but not able to carry that strength over to your sport, then you need to work on fundamental strength.

Fundamental strength involves body control, motor coordination, and a solid plyometric foundation.

Because being able to push weight is a bit easier to quantify in terms of specific measurement, too often do athletes and coaches chase ONLY numbers in the weight room.

While bench pressing and Olympic lifts are certainly important in improving strength, just because you produce high numbers does not mean you are the best athlete on the field or court.

However, I am NOT discrediting this strength component by any means, but…

If you can not maneuver around efficiently using your own bodyweight, then the transfer between the weight room and field will be more difficult to execute, and increase your chances for injury.

2.) That same fundamental strength is a significant factor for performance for any young athlete who participates in sports.

A solid training program that builds fundamental strength for youth athletes is important for their sport and in helping prevent injury.

To say strength training will increase chances for a kid to get hurt, but consume him with sport practice every day is contradictory.

You don’t get stronger or faster playing or practicing it. You just get better at that sport.

And to meet the demands of that sport, you should be fundamentally strong and train the muscles to fire efficiently FOR that sport.

The problem comes when coaches and parents equate strength directly to training with weights, when the truth of the matter is a solid body weight and plyometric program when executed correctly is key.

Building fundamental, or basic strength is not always the most exciting process, but is absolutely necessary in preparing the body FOR sport.

3.) There should be a solid base of fundamental strength, and movement efficiency before doing in heavy strength or overspeed training.

Often parents will say that “my kid needs to get faster and better footwork” by some set amount of time, and often will expect right away for the kid to be going through some type of insane sled pushing, or ladder drill as if that is the immediate solution and see half a second off of their forty time.

While there is definitely a time for this when the athlete is ready, if the child can not even lift her leg and have stability at the hip joint which is crucial in any speed movement, then training starts there.

What you end up seeing is coaches and trainers throwing kids through these motions who aren’t ready (mainly because lack of assessment), strapping them up to whatever machine, burning them out, and saying this is “speed training”.

I will also get the “My kid needs to get stronger. His bench press is only 90 pounds”

In my head I’m thinking, do you want your kid to become a better athlete, or get better at the bench pressing?

This goes back to separating weight room strength with transferable strength.

Not every drill to build fundamental or even sport specific strength will “look” that appealing, but it does have a specific role.

Developing basic strength, then weight room strength, and doing specific drilling to properly execute that new found strength is the trick.

Once again, if the athletes is struggling to remain stable during a basic push up exercise, then they are not quite ready to overload on weights just yet.

A good amount of time should be devoted to each component of strength training, and put together to meet the demands of sport. Too much time in one phase can create and imbalance that is sure to get exposed during competition at some point.