More Teens are looking for the competitive edge by getting into the Gym this Xmas

With families not going away for Christmas this year, many are opting to improve their children’s fitness by put their tweens and teens into professionally operated gyms and teaming them up with qualified Personal Trainers. They want their son or daughter to be coached how to train and ultimately lift weights safely and properly.

The object is to get an all round training program to reduce the chance of injuries in and out of the gym so they don't do the usual silly things, kids tend to do when they first start strength training like ALL chest exercises and just ab crunches.

They key to avoid injuries and create balance and a leaner body is to having variety and focus on technique first before isolating muscle groups (if ever) and adding more resistance to the growing child.

Training teenagers is very different to training adults. Even though we can begin adding resistance to their workouts. Teenagers are already performing a kind of resistance training in their sports like soccer and rugby such as tackling, jumping, running and pushing, changing directions but generally they are doing it wrong. Firstly, they need to demonstrate, for example, how to squat (which we use to jump) with perfect form. Once they have learnt this then we can begin adding resistance (weight) slowly to challenge the central nervous system as well as their muscles and joints to create strength, power and resilience. Thereby the body will adapt.

Strength is not the only aspect needed to safely improve performance. We must also look at coordination, flexibility, speed, power, endurance, balance and agility. This is crucial to improve the performance and reduce the chance of injury to the child.

So if your teenager needs to improve their performance in sport and wants to build size and power click on the link below to get them involved this Christmas and New Years in our Strength and Conditioning Camps