Training Your Kids | Starting Strength Radio #203
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For your next ‘ask a Jew’ section, try Mick the SS App developer; leave poor ol’ Ray alone! Good podcast by the way. My 12 year old is into basketball but he has the build of a lifter. When he’s ready and about 16-17 I’ll take him through the NLP.
This was a great episode, clarifying topics mentioned in previous episodes. I've been training my nephew for the last 15 months and it's been incredibly rewarding watching him develop physically, mentally and emotionally.
At 14 years old, 5'6" and 173lbs, he was a little dough ball. He's always loved sports but turmoil at home meant that he ended up what one might call self medicating with food. His Dad is a real piece of shit so once he was out of the picture, lifting weights finally became a possibility (lifting was dangerous, not intellectual etc.)
My nephew was worried about how fat he was, reassured him that it would take care of itself once he started lifting. Got all his lifts to a decent level, and the progress he was able to witness on the big white board was incredibly useful. Once he was able to safely squat 100kg/220lbs I let him do it for a very easy single. The weight started to come off and then he decided he wanted to lose much, much more weight. His body, his choice, I did my best to supervise his diet but he eventually put himself on 800 calories a day. This is where I think it gets very interesting in terms of teenagers and access to instagram influencers and so on. It is very tricky to counter that almost constant barrage of misinformation. This is where the resources of Starting Strength and the knowledge gained from actually going through the process oneself is so useful. I told him about reading Muscle and Fitness and wondering why I wasn't massive and shredded and that Instagram and TikTok have similar snake oil salesman who never mention genetics, training time, steroids etc.
Three times a week I was able to make a dent in this constant stream of social media. This was also in part due to the extra carrot I was offering. If he showed up 3x a week I'd give him £5. This helped him quite a lot when chatting to his friends about training and thanks to them he was able to appreciate his fortunate position of being paid to train. I was able to convince him that a crash diet wouldn't be productive long term and he eventually came around. That all being said, I'm shocked at how easily it seems an eating disorder can start, and how teenagers looking for a sense of control can easily move towards the self destructive. Again, another benefit of seeing the progress of barbell training. I was able to use the "pound for pound" argument with him for his strength which worked.
My nephew eventually got down to 129lbs, a total loss of 20kg/44lbs. This did wonders for his confidence but now he wanted to get much much stronger. We started back with a gradual increase of weight over time accompanied with an increase in bodyweight and he's so pleased with himself. He's the strongest kid in his year (mainly because none of them squat or deadlift) and the other day went to a public gym with friends and squatted 242lbs for sets of 5 at 15 years old.
Today he squatted 253lbs for a set of 5. Last week he deadlifted 286lb for a set of 5, having previously pulled 308lbs (140kg) for an easy single, purely because he wanted to deadlift three plates each side.
What you said on the podcast is 100% correct. His ability to now see what hard work can accomplish sets him apart from other kids the same age, who might be more genetically gifted.
A lesson Rusty mentioned on a previous podcast was that not every session needs to be a grind. I have found this nugget of wisdom to be tremendously useful for days when he's just not feeling it. He does what he can, we have a laugh and then he gets it next time. The other thing training has afforded him is the ability to have a male role model when the one he was supposed to have was a piece of shit. We've had many a heart to heart and and he's been able to manage his emotions in a safe environment, whilst also using some of that emotion as motivation to better himself. On top of all this, his performance on the Rugby pitch is much improved.
There are so many lessons to be learned under the barbell, and all he wishes he'd done is start earlier. I tell him I started at 32 years old and he realises he's way ahead of the game.
I bought little prick his shoes and belt too. Plus birthday and Christmas bonuses. I must be getting close to shelling out a grand on him. Worth every penny.
This was a wonderful story. Being young enough to still remember what it was like to be a young teenager, I wish I had someone with this wisdom to guide me, it would've saved me a lot ot unnecessary drama and self-hatred.
Tell your nephew we're all very proud of him and he kicks ass!
I have been training my 15yo grandson for a little over a year. He did lift a little before that but just fooling around. I'm 73, and years ago at 50 DL 405 in a contest; now that's out of the picture for me. But the kid keeps getting stronger. He seems to favor higher reps, last week did 195 x 20. It's on Instagram @ brooklynjerry. The week before he did 210 x 8 x 3 sets. He does great at farmers walks, came in first at Dr. Kens contest in the teen division. Planning to enter the Trap Bar (heaven forbid) rep of contest next month. All I can say is it's good to be young.
Great episode and content on training kids. As a parent who went "balls to the walls" with my son as that is how I am wired does not mean that genetic predisposition was gifted in my DNA to him. After 5 months of training my son has been through a lot with lessons learned while training with a SS coach. Failure, success, injury and learning how to deal with setback and keeping things fun. School schedule was more of a monster than what I planned. Sickness is another obstacle. Between school work, sports and band things get busy and conflict with the training schedule. My advice/question I would ask to a parent who is paying the bills and the HS athlete wanting to train is "what is the best window" during the school year. For mine, it was January and February. Had a solid 8 weeks/24 sessions with minimal self induced schedule conflicts. Once spring showed up, concerts, sports spring training takeaway from quality LP.
