Muscle development in children and adolescents
Muscle growth in childhood must not be compared with the targeted muscle growth in adulthood. The development of muscles is particularly sensitive to training stimuli during puberty, but this training should not take place in the sense of dumbbell training in the gym, but through exercises in which children and adolescents have to carry and move their own body weight. Once the growth in length is complete, training in the gym can be started, but the progression in training should be taken into account. In toddlers, there is also a development of the musculature, but this takes place playfully in the form of climbing, hanging, shimmying, jumping, throwing etc. It is important that the motivational aspect of playing is always in the foreground with children.
Hazards and risks
The dangers of strength training are similar in childhood as in adult life. The musculature is overstrained in the rarest cases. Rather, damage is caused to the bony skeleton or the ligamentous apparatus, as this adapts later than the muscles.
Although the bone structure of adolescents is much more elastic than that of adults due to the low calcium deposits, it is also more susceptible to pressure and bending loads. Since the ossification of the skeletal system is only completely completed between the ages of 17 and 21, the loads should not be too great before this age. This does not mean that the training stimuli should be too weak, because targeted training stimuli of the musculature strengthen the bone structure.
In order to minimize the risks in childhood and adolescence, the following points should be observed. In the past, strength training was not recommended for children because it was said to have a negative effect on growth. More recent studies have rejected these concerns.
Targeted strength training, including the use of weights, increases bone density, promotes muscle growth and reduces the risk of injury in children. However, in order to avoid negative consequences such as overstraining joints or muscle attachments, proper instruction and expert, precise control of training in children is essential. The exercises must be performed technically correct, with appropriate weights (even strenuous training) to avoid mistakes.
Regeneration pauses should always be observed to avoid overloading on the one hand and to ensure adaptation and thus training success on the other. Growth is not influenced by strength training, there are no physiological explanations for this and no studies that support this claim.Long-term, severe overstraining can lead to fatigue fractures in the area of the growth joints, which can then contribute to disturbances in growth. However, the risk of fractures is much higher in active contact sports.
