Youth weight training

[Chipper Jones]

Hello, I purchased SS BBT 3rd Ed a while back and began getting barbell equipment for my garage. My wife has since picked up on it as well as one of my seven kids who is a 7 yo boy, 58 lbs. Since he became very passionate about doing it with me, I got him a 5 lb kid barbell and taught him the Press, Squat, and DL so he could bond with me through the activity. Well, fast forward 5 months, and he's pressing 40 lbs, squatting 81 lbs, and pulling 95 lbs in typical 5 rep sets according to the program. He lifts with me every couple days, and we add 0.5-1.0 lbs at a time or keep the weight the same. I've taken weight off at times to slow him down and correct his form. I have no rushed interest in creating a child weight lifting monster, but I can tell he's benefited from it...jumps with energy when we are done and he knows he "got stronger". He also eats better now, more "real food" like meat, less junk. Home schooled kid, plenty of play time at home with siblings, plenty of "kid" time.

Any risk in slowly getting higher in weight to larger multiples of his bodyweight on the bar as long as his form is good? Note: I always assist him with the eccentric portions of Press and I kneel next to him for every squat rep ready to catch him should he fail, so I never step away from immediate support distance while he performs a maneuver under the bar. Because of this, I am not very concerned with injury risk as the physicians might claim. He does not bench press. I do see risk in him holding weight over his neck, so no point for me in teaching him that until puberty.

Thank you

[Mark Rippetoe]

Here are a couple of things to read:

Why Your Kids Should Be Lifting Weights | Mark Rippetoe

Can You Put Your Kids on a Strength Training Program? | Mark Rippetoe

It sounds like you're doing this correctly, but be careful about pushing him past his ability to recover, which won't be optimal until Tanner 4/5.

[Chipper Jones]

Thank you for the resources, I enjoyed reading those. I agree we should let the kids spend most of their time playing and not force weightlifting down their throats for our own parental pride.

To your point on pushing him past recovery: do children need more time to recover than an adult would or is it the same/less? He is NEVER sore. I notice he sleeps more at night and often will sleep for 10-11 hours with no problem (last one to wake up of all my kids), but his body never exhibits the typical signs of fatigue...I guess it's good to be a kid. He has never once complained about his legs being tired or hurt, but trust me, he complains about plenty of other things so it's not like he's well behaved in that way.

So all that to say, I've never seen him "need" any recovery, let alone more than 48 hours which is what he always has if not more.