I doubt Benjamin Franklin was talking about the training of young athletes when he coined the phrase but he might as well have been. Getting an early jump on resistance training can go along way towards preventing injuries later on.

How early is “early”? According to the position stand of the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), “if a child is ready for participation in sport activities, then he or she is ready for some type of resistance training”. This can include children as young as 7 or 8 years of age. Some parents might think that a bit too early. Most, unfortunately, give the idea no thought at all.

For the vast majority of young athletes, their first exposure to resistance training comes during their freshman year in high school. Research shows that that may be a little too late – at least when it comes to injury prevention.

In looking at the graph above we can see that the incidence of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries spikes quite dramatically from 15-19 and more so in females. The reasons for this are quite varied and beyond the scope of this post but the take-home message is two-fold:

1. the liklihood of injury (especially ACL injury) is greatly reduced with a properly designed resistance training program
2. waiting too long to get started can be detrimental to your child’s health.