12-year-old's progress after 1 year on SS

Well technically, 10 months on SS and 2 months on the Texas Method. This shit works. I wish I had found lifting this young. Just happy to be able to pass on what I have learned to these kids! We adhered to SS about 90% just adding some Prowler sprints, Olympic lifting, and conditioning once in a while to keep him from getting bored.

September 14, 2011 -----> September 23, 2012

Age: 11 years, 7 months --> 12 years, 7 months
Body weight 89.2 lbs ----> 119.6 lbs
Squat 3x5 @ 45 lbs ----> 1x5 @ 240 lbs (2x bwt)
Press 3x5 @ 35 lbs ----> 1x5 @ 102.5 lbs
Bench 3x5 @ 45 lbs ----> 1x5 @ 135 lbs (paused 1st rep)
Deadlift 3x5@ 65 lbs ----> 1x5 @ 275 lbs / 1RM 303
Clean ----> 1 @ 170 lbs

He set a few National and American powerlifting records this year, and even better he LOVES it. Just wanted to thank Rip and give a testimonial that this shit can work for anyone.

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

Did he get taller or is that added muscle?

Dastardly - I didn't think to measure him when we started. I'm sure he grew a few inches, but no ridiculous growth spurts or anything. Looking at him, it is obvious he has put on a whole lot of muscle.

So cool! Congratulations to your boy for all his hard work.

That's pretty awesome. I'm also jealous that he gets to do this stuff "from the beginning" instead of meandering about in the gym for a few decades first like decent normal folk do.

One thing though: the title of the thread reminds me of the "14 yo benches XXXXX lbs!!!!" genre of YT videos. I hope that he or you don't get into that age based hype. It always strikes me as being a bit weird in the same vein (but nowhere near the same degree) as "toddlers & tiaras". It's certainly noteworthy that he's 12 and doing this... no doubt about that. Just don't make it THE thing (and i'm not saying that you are).

That is really fucking cool. Congratulations.

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Originally Posted by TBone

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

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This.

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Originally Posted by veryhrm

Just don't make it THE thing (and i'm not saying that you are).

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My main concern would be that like kids pushed to do piano or whatever, by the time he's an adult he hates it. For every pair of Williams sisters there are a thousand bitter former players...

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Originally Posted by Kyle Aaron

My main concern would be that like kids pushed to do piano or whatever, by the time he's an adult he hates it. For every pair of Williams sisters there are a thousand bitter former players...

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I would argue that there are far too many adults who suffer from accepting mediocrity their entire lives than from being pushed to excel. Just because a child is good at a particular sport, doesn't mean that he was pushed unnecessarily. As someone who coaches a good number of children and teens, it is important to recognize when something has stopped being "fun" for a child but also to balance that with the fact that in order to achieve goals, difficult and non-fun things will be involved.