Teenagers and Weightlifting - Are There Additional Risks?

Weightlifting is becoming an increasingly common hobby for teenagers and this trend has left some parents concerned that their child may be putting themselves at risk by engaging in body building.

While there has been a concern that lifting extremely heavy weights can stunt bone growth by causing premature growth plate closure, there is no actual proof of this. At best, studies have suggested it as a possibility. A large number of very large professional athletes started lifting weights at a young age and if their growth was stunted, I shudder to think how big they would be if it hadn't! Until there is scientific evidence proving this possibility, it should probably be dismissed as a myth.

With that out of the way, however; there are some realistic concerns that should be addressed about weightlifting done by teenagers. The good news is that they can nearly all be eliminated by the presence and guidance of an adult.

Truly, adhering to the same basic guidelines for safety that adults adhere to is enough to protect most teenagers from harm in the gym. That adult presence, however, is often necessary to ensure such adherence.

As most adults know (and most teenagers vehemently deny), teenagers can sometimes act impulsively, on minimal information, or with total disregard for established protocol and practices. This is due to a lack of experience and an understandably immature reasoning capacity.

One common result of this problem is the feeling of invulnerability; basically the (often subconscious) belief that bad things may happen to other people but nothing bad will happen to me. It leads teenagers to race cars on open highways, casually experiment with illicit drugs, practice unsafe sexual habits and, in the gym, attempt to lift weights beyond their physical capacity.

As with adult weightlifters, using weights which are too heavy exposes the teenage bodybuilder to risks of serious injury. The same is true of not following proper form standards, which is something that can occur too frequently when groups of teenage boys lift weights together without an adult present. Joking leads to messing around and goofing off which leads to a momentary lapse in focus and concentration while in the process of lifting. Again, the injuries sustained due to improper form can be extremely severe.

The other risky behavior seen among teen bodybuilders is a bit more difficult to prevent: supplement abuse. Many teenagers believe that they are too intelligent, savvy and hip to be persuaded by advertiser's blatant attempts to sell them products or services. In many ways, this is true, as overt advertising directed at teenagers tends to be heavy-handed and transparent.

Within the bodybuilding community, however; the advertisements for many supplements are not nearly as obvious. Columns and articles frequently appear in bodybuilding magazines promoting the superiority of a particular supplement line. Given that these are portions of the magazine, not paid advertisements, they fly in under the radar of the advertising conscious teenager…and, for that matter, many adults as well.

The trick is in the fact that a large percentage of these magazines are produced by companies who also produce supplement lines. This fact is not particularly advertised, which allows the articles to appear completely unbiased when, in fact, there may be a company bias behind them.

Supplements, used properly, don't tend to be dangerous. However, falling back on the invincibility complex, teenagers are more likely to use too much of the supplement and/or ignore the instructions and rely on the supplement instead of eating. The results of this behavior are risky, in theory, though the dangers haven't yet been scientifically proven.

Overall, as with most activities engaged in by teenagers, their youth and inexperience makes the teenage bodybuilder more susceptible to problems than their adult counterparts. Proper form and safety procedures will make the hobby safe, however; so an adult should lend guidance to the young bodybuilder to make certain they are being safe.