Kids Can Pump Iron Too

By: Mujuthaba

It was a while ago since I went with my Kiwi friend, to see his three sons play rugby. I was overwhelmed to see kids as young as five, running and thumping on to each other, in the kid’s rugby league here. I always thought that rugby was a violent game, and it is. Increasing talent and game discipline for the future of the game was underway. To start early is the best way to achieve excellence for the future of any sport.

In this article I will be discussing on prescribing a resistance training program for the pre-pubertal population. Resistance training is a type of exercise that is done using a weight (or simply a resistance). Training children using weights isn’t familiar in the Maldives. But, this conception may change given the benefits from resistance training. Before I start talking about training children with weights, I will clear some misconceptions on the topic.

I have always heard back home, that starting a resistance training program at a young age would occur in a premature or stunt growth. Although, to date I haven’t found any study which states that there is a link between resistance training in pre-pubertal children and premature growth or effect on height. Therefore, we can clear our mind that height is in no way affected by strength training.

How about the picture in our minds that after our children take on the dumb-bells, next time we see them, they would have the Arnie posture? Well, that’s not going to happen. Pre-pubertal children don’t have enough testosterone levels in their bodies to increase musculature. Musculature (especially in males) comes after puberty, as their testosterone levels build up their sexuality. The pre-pubertal child will have increased strength rather than a massive bulky body, from resistance training.

Now that the main misconceptions are moved to a side, let’s discuss the training. It is not acceptable to introduce the child to a resistance training program, unless without the guidance of a trained PT in this specific area. It is recommended that the training should be no more than three times a week, with a maximum of 90 minutes per session. It is also important not to make them lift weights of more than 80% of their maximum lifting capability. It would be a challenge to abide kids to the proper lifting technique of the exercises. But it is extremely crucial that proper form is used to avoid injury and accidents.

In the initial stage of training, the child should be imitating the movements, rather than lifting the weights. One thing a trainer should remember is that children are very playful, and are exposed to injury much more than an adult client. Therefore, the technique should be taken up by the child, mainly to engage in training discipline. Throughout the training session, the child should be supervised by a professional trainer and s/he should look for signs of loosing proper form. To avoid blackouts, make sure that proper breathing technique is used by the child at all times during the training. Weight should not be increased if the child cannot perform three sets of eight repetitions comfortably with the proper technique. As with all physical activities, the child should perform a warm-up-stretching session before training, and a warm-down-stretching session afterwards.

One of the challenges that may face us would be to find the appropriate exercise machines for children. In this case, dumb-bells or light-weight barbells can be used, although free weights would be trickier than the much stable resistance training machines. Try to avoid prescribing the child with exercises that include bouncing actions while holding weights (such as bouncing squats). The child should not perform exercises that are complicated to perform. Each of the exercise should be very basic and easy to perform by the child, in which case, the child’s individuality and capability should be noted very closely by the trainer.

The main benefit from resistance training would be strength gain, but without an increase in child’s musculature. This would indicate the link between resistance training and neural adaptation (brain correspondence) in increasing muscle strength. Muscular strength would also increase joint stability in the child, decreasing their chances of injury. Strength training also ensures that the child is ready for any sport in the field, by increasing their own confidence and strength for competing with others. Starting to train early will also help the child to be exposed psychologically for any future coaching instructions in their sport of preference.

This article contains the basics in prescribing a resistance training program for the pre-pubertal child. For training a pre-pubertal child, a lot of factors should be considered. One of the main factors is good nutrition with hydration. Since the pre-pubertal child is undergoing a rapid growth phase, a good diet is important to notice the benefits of a training program. Proper gear and environment for a child would also make a difference for the child’s long time interest in the activity. I hope that this article helps to understand the importance and benefits of resistance training, even for our little kids.

Bibliography:

ACSM (2006) ACSM’s guidelines for exercise testing and prescription (7^th Ed.) Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia

Baechle, T.R. & Earle, R.W.(2000) Essentials of strength training and conditioning (2^nd Ed.) Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL

Blimkie, C.J.R. (1993) Resistance training during preadolescence. Issues and controversies. Sports Medicine, 5(6), 389-407

Bruckner, P. & Khan, K. (2005) Clinical sports medicine (2^nd Ed.) McGraw-Hill, New York

Sadres, E., Eliakim, A., Constantini, N., Lidor, R. & Falk, B. (2001) The effect of long-term resistance training on anthropometric measures, muscle strength, and self concept in pre-pubertal boys. Pediatric Exercise Science, 13(4), 357-372

http://www.sunrisehealthclub.com/kids.html

Creating Creatine

By: Mujuthaba

Creatine has been around for a while as a supplement in our health and fitness shops. This has been proven to be a quite popular supplement, especially among our body builders. The intake of creatine as a supplement came into action after the 1992 Olympics, where a couple of gold medallists used it for their success. I’m not sure about the Maldives, but in the world, the consumption of creatine is supposed to be an estimated three million kilograms a year. From this you can fathom the popularity of this supplement.

Creatine is a non-essential nutrient, 95% of which is present naturally in our muscles. These include the heart muscles, skeletal muscles and smooth muscles (lining of the intestines...etc). The remaining 5% are based in the brain, liver, kidneys and testes of males. The naturally occurring creatine is orally derived from diets containing fish and red meat. This could prove a challenge to vegetarians (not that we have many in our country), who would only get trace amounts of creatine from plant foods.

Creatine is mainly used in muscle contraction of the human body. This is a major element which makes short burst activities possible, for durations lasting 10-12 seconds. Usually in sports performance, supplements are used to increase overall performance by increasing the naturally occurring form of the nutrients. Aim of supplementing creatine is to increase the duration at which the muscles can perform at a 100% maximum. A normal person can use their muscles at maximum for no more than 10-12 seconds. You can experience this when you start on a full sprint, and after a while you would need to slow down as you would not have enough creatine available. I’m trying to explain this in very basic terms without getting into any detail of muscle movement using creatine.

Creatine is mainly ingested as a supplement in powdered form of creatine monohydrate. It has been proven that proper supplementation of creatine increases the muscle creatine concentration by 40%. The recommended intake or loading of creatine supplement is 20g/day. This amount should be taken in 5g at four different times for six continuous days. After the six days are complete, a dose of 2g/day is enough to keep the level of muscle creatine at a higher level. Increasing the dosage doesn’t have any effect on improving performance. This method of loading is also recommended in creatine supplement containers. Creatine, being a protein, it is always helpful for it to be used by the tissues if taken with a carbohydrate. Most athletes ingest this supplement by mixing with high carbohydrate drinks.

Supplementing creatine is useful in short burst sports, such as squash, gymnastics...etc. Although it doesn’t have much proven effect on performance for endurance sports, such as long distance running. Creatine has a tendency to increase the body weight by 0.5-3.5kg. This is mainly due to its effect on retaining water in tissues, increased protein production and decreased protein breakdown. This would prove to be positive effects if you are a body builder, since protein is the building blocks of the body structure. Creatine supplementation has also proven to increase strength of weight trainers by 25% and increase their fat free mass (muscles and bone mass) by 60%.

As with all other supplements, creatine doesn’t come without detrimental effects from over loading or individual ignorance. Such ailments as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, kidney complications, liver complications, muscle cramps and increased blood pressure have been linked to creatine supplementation. Creatine supplementation should be taken into good consideration. Creatine has been proven to be one of the most effective supplements in the market, with almost no side-effects (with proper loading) and a history of exemplary results.