Nowadays, despite the demand for young people by physical exercise programs, especially weight training, there is still a taboo that goes from parents to the more cautious health professionals.
Therefore, was performed a search for studies related to the topic and found interesting results about weight training for children and adolescents.
Weight training shown interesting by causing increased muscle strength, bone mineral density, reduced risk of osteoarticular lesions and is a safer activity that contact sports (Lazzoli, 1998).
The method is efficient even for obese children, regardless of sex, where the combined training the diet causes loss of body fat and increase muscle strength (SCWINGSHANDL et al. (1999). In addition to body composition, in a study by Saccomani et al. (2008) conducted a training session with weights in adolescents consists of 60 minutes of circuit activity to evaluate the reaction of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR). The authors reported a reduction of SBP, DBP, MBP and HR after training.
Another factor often cited to argue about training method is to say that affect the growth of young people in maturational stage. Campos Neto and Fambrini (2011) studied the effects of 12 weeks of weight training on body composition indicators and motor performance in adolescents, analyzed youth 12 to 16 years during puberty and found an increase in lean mass, flexibility, muscular strength (mainly upper limbs) and even a slight increase in height, suggesting that the practice of a supervised training protocol does not limit the growth of young people.
Therefore, training with weights shown suitable for children and adolescents provided care is taken as the volume and intensity according to Monteiro (1997). In their study, Faigenbaum et al. (1999) suggests that high reps with moderate load is more efficient and safe for young untrained compared to low reps and high loads. However, young people with experience in training should have a major stimulus to achieve further adjustments if making necessary adjustments according to experience.
As a suggestion for professionals who deal with adolescents, avoid overloading exercises shoulders with high load is interesting in this growth phase.
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