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.

I read A LOT of research and from time to time I come across some that is pertinent, or of interest, to even the most general fitness enthusiast. This particular piece is important reading for the parents of young, female athletes. If you weren’t already aware, female athletes are far more prone to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury than their male counterparts. Girls as young as 12 years of age are already going under the knife. This study gives us some insight into why.

From the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s “Performance Training Journal”:

Female soccer players appear to be at a greater risk of anterior cruciate ligament injuries than their male counter parts. One hypothesis for this occurrence suggests that there is a difference between the lower extremity muscle activation patterns of male and female athletes. In order to test this hypothesis researchers from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill compared the muscle activation patterns of male and female Division I soccer players during 2 side-step cutting maneuvers.  Twenty male (age = 19.4 ± 1.4 years; height = 176.5 ± 5.5 cm; weight = 74.6 ± 6.0 kg) and twenty female (age = 19.8 ± 1.1 years; height = 165.7 ± 4.3 cm; weight = 62.2 ± 7.2 kg) soccer players performed a running approach side-step cut and a box-jump side-step cut. During each cutting task the electromyographic activity of the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, medial hamstrings, lateral hamstrings, gluteus medius and gluteus maximus were recorded.

The results of the study revealed that the female soccer players exhibited greater vastus lateralis activity and quadriceps to hamstrings co-activation ratios during the preparatory and loading phases of the cutting activities. The increase in quadriceps to hamstrings co-activation ratio suggests that female soccer players did not increase their hamstrings activation to compensate for the increased quadriceps activation seen during the cutting task. This occurrence may explain why a greater number of non-contact anterior cruciate ligament injuries occur in female soccer athletes when compared to their male counterparts. While this data is interesting it is important to note that much more research is needed in order to fully understand why female soccer athlete are at greater risk of anterior cruciate ligament injuries.

Muscle activation during side-step cutting maneuvers in male and female soccer athletes.
Hanson, AM, Padua, DA, Troy Blackburn, J, Prentice, WE, and Hirth, CJ.
J Athl Train  43:133–143. 2008.

There are other factors to be sure. The beautiful thing, however, is that research has also shown that a properly-designed strength training program can reduce the potential for injury tremendously.