The Weight Lifting Myth

Another post, another myth to correct. The most important years for training a future collegiate or professional athlete are most often between the ages 14-18 years old. Some kids mature earlier or later, but for the most, these mid to late teenage years are extremely important. Yet, most training programs botch these years. They WASTE them and actually often do more harm than good. I've seen this at three different high schools.

Students walk into the school weightroom in the summer prior to their freshman year , ready to hit the weights in anticipation for the upcoming seasons. They can't wait to start bench pressing and doing bicep curls (these lifts are generally more beneficial for getting a girlfriend than performing well in any sport). The big seniors and some juniors are in the weight room lifting heavy. The young kids walk in, the macho trainers approach them and scream, "hit the weights!" They throw them some pieces of paper with lifts on them and that's about the end of it.

Inevitably, the young athletes want to lift heavy so they sacrifice form and thus meaningful strength gains. Well, I shouldn't even have said that because guess what? Almost every single one of them isn't ready for strength gains!! They are too young. They've barely started puberty, if that, and aren't ready to put muscle on. They are ready to gain speed, to gain quickness, to gain specific skills, to become more coordinated. Essentially, they are ready to become more athletic.

Yet, ignorant training programs and 24/7 training programs neglect these principles. They think more is better. They think 15 year olds should run the same training regime as 21 year olds in the National Hockey League. They are ignorant of the very science that a few letters next to their name claim to give them legitimacy.

If you want to have smart training, that's what Fortis does. Fortis realizes that young athletes are ripe for athletic gains. In our camps, we have taken unathletic and slow athletes and transformed them. We have seen them make huge gains because they put in the hard work. That is, they didn't just do bench presses, they did explosive exercises, they ran sprints, and they performed agility drills.

If you want to see these gains yourself, then come check out what Fortis is all about at www.thefortisacademy.com.