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.

Is there reason to suspect that you have lower-than-normal testosterone levels? If so, do you weight train? Heavy resistance training has been shown to raise testosterone levels in men independent of diet. The acute (exercise-induced) and chronic (resting) anabolic response, however, will be unique to the structure of the exercise program (e.g., intensity, volume, duration, rest periods, muscle mass involvement) and individual characteristics (e.g., age, health, fitness level). Assuming that a properly designed weight training program is in place, there are a few things that you can do nutritionally to ensure that the hormonal response is maximized.

Eat enough. If calories are insufficient you risk lowering your testosterone levels.

Eat a moderately high-fat diet. Approximately 30% of total calories should come from fat with an equal proportion of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats. Reducing dietary fat intake has consistently been shown to lower circulating androgen levels. In addition to insufficient fat intake, excessive protein may also compromise the anabolic hormonal environment.

Ironically, protein is not the most anabolic macronutrient. One study found a low-protein diet (10% of total energy) was associated with higher levels of testosterone compared with a diet higher in protein (44% of total energy). Another found that replacing dietary carbohydrate with protein actually decreased testosterone concentrations. That being said, protein is still very important.

Eat meat. Approximately 15% of your calories should come from protein with the bulk coming from animal sources. Cutting back on animal protein (or eliminating it altogether) is a surefire way to get your testosterone levels to plummet. While a rich protein source, animal flesh is also high in saturated fat which promotes anabolism. Vegetarians consume less total fat, less saturated fat, and have a higher polyunsaturated/saturated fat ratio compared with omnivores. As a result, vegetarians exhibit lower concentrations of testosterone.

Consume a pre- and/or post-workout shake with protein and carbohydrate. Doing so can drastically alter the metabolic and hormonal responses to heavy-resistance exercise.

Get plenty of sleep. Disturbances in sleep and light/dark cycles can decrease testosterone by almost 50%.