Training Youth Lifters Without Overdoing It

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

my son who is 14 & 1/2 yrs old has been training for almost a year now. He weighs 82kgs at a height of 1.81 and snatches 58kg and C&Jd 81kgs. Back squat at 110kgs, front at 95kgs and bench at 60. Olympic lifting is the only sport that he has maintained an interest in. I The trouble is that next year all of his classes will end at 16:30 as of next September plus final exams are getting tougher.

So far he has been training 3 times a week and lately for about 2 hrs plus but only Wednesday is a long day at school. friday is his longer day while the other 2 days are over in a bit less than 2 hrs.

I am afraid of pushing him too much with both school and sport and he is already thinking about how difficult it will be and so on.
Any experiences with coaching such young kids under these circumstances? His coach has his programme from which he doesn’t want to deviate much but I wonder if it will be for the better if we push him to complete his workouts or if he will just overdo it and quit.
We already had a junior in our club who felt burned out and quit altogether even if his programme was producing excellent results and I don’t want to have that happen to my son.
any ideas would be appreciated.

2

If he wont keep an interest in Weightlifting because of the stress that a 14 year old boy goes through, then how is he expected to keep it up when he gets older and has to deal with university and/or working full time etc…

If he quits now then its almost guaranteed that he would have quit latter on anyways. you can try and make curtain things easier on him, but just about everyone on this board has more stresses then simply being in JR high and Weightlifting.

3

Kids interests come and go and your son will only be young once, support him and love him in all his endeavors wherever those roads may take him.

4

[quote]tork94 wrote:
If he wont keep an interest in Weightlifting because of the stress that a 14 year old boy goes through, then how is he expected to keep it up when he gets older and has to deal with university and/or working full time etc…

If he quits now then its almost guaranteed that he would have quit latter on anyways. you can try and make curtain things easier on him, but just about everyone on this board has more stresses then simply being in JR high and Weightlifting.

[/quote]

Indeed.

Tell your son to man the f0ck up and stop being such a pu$$y. Life is complicated and tough. He either wants to be the f0cking best of a a f0cking NOBODY. The choice is his. Does he have the mindset, the hunger, the fire that it takes to get to the top?

Yes it is harsh but it has to be said.

I have 2 brothers. One is 25, the other is 15. The 15yr old one has been lifting 3yrs now. First 18months when he started at around 12-13.5 he trained twice a week. 13.5-15 he has been training 3x a week.

The youngest bro has a sick talent for weightlifting

Bw 55.5
Snatch 63
C&J 81, cleaned 83
Front squat 100kg, back squat 110kg
British Champ for his age and weight class 3yrs running

He is starting to get the hunger and fire to lift. Sometimes he’s soft and a bit of a pu$$y and petulent but he’s young and should just get on with it and get the training done. If it was easy everyone would be lifting huge weights.

He has it all. He just has to stick with it and continue training. It’ll be up to him if he goes further as he gets to be an adult or not. He doesn’t really realise how good he has it, a club literally 10mins away from his house, a coach, 2 brothers and a bunch of lifters at the club to support and help him.

Around exam time he just does a shorter routine and studies at home. It’s about time management but luckily for him he actually knuckles down to do the studying in advance of his exams and not leave it to the last minute.

Set your son say 80-90mins to do his session. Gets whatever he can get done and then get him back to to his studies. It’s about time management. The coach should be more accomodating also and realise around exam time the lifter has to do a bit more studying.

Koing

PS as you can tell there is not much sympathy her on tnation LOL

5

I would largely agree with what everyone else has said. At the end of the day it’s down to him, he has to be getting something out of weightlifting, either just a love of the sport or maybe a love of competing and the dream of being great. If he’s not then maybe weightlifting isn’t for him.

If he is ever going to succeed with the sport then he’s going to have to want it himself. I agree with tork when he says if he quits now chances are he is going to quit later anyway. I think the best way of making him continue is just to keep supporting and encouraging him and make him believe he has the potential to be successful. And everything Koing said about time management is great advice.

6

Guys thanks for the input. All the comments were welcome. I also enjoyed watching Kooing’s little bro’s video. He looks like a solid lifter. However, I am looking for some more specific input. You have to understand that the school my son goes to is very demanding. Nothing like the high schools in the States for example, and I speak from experience. Plus, their hours (8.45 to 16.30) are really not conducive to maintaining extracurricular activities. As far as he is concerned, though he goes “flat” some days, he is really getting into it. He is more stressed with school than with going to the gym.

I am concerned that he won’t be able to get in his 2plus hours of work in as he does now, and I am wondering if he can get away with less sets/exercises and still have decent results. 80 to 90 minutes as Koing suggests would be grand. Here my son’s workout from Monday…

C and Jerk- warmup from 20k bar adding 10kgs until 67,5 x 2 for 5 sets
Clean Freeze - 75kgs x 15 seconds 4 sets
Clean Pulls - 75kgs x 3 sets of 3
Squat - warmup from 60 adding 10 kgs to 90kgs x 4 sets of 4
Goodmorning 35kgs x 6 reps for 4 sets
Bench - warmup from 30k adding 5kgs to 50kgs x 6reps x 4 sets (went down to 45 for last set)
Lat pulls - 70Ks x 6reps for 4 sets

All that and ab work with hyperextensions for warmup and some leg extensions before clean and jerks, took him 2 hrs 15 min. I find it a bit much timewise unless he gets fitter and starts to do it in much less time. His other workouts on Wednesday and Friday are similar in duration but with other exercises (snatching and jerks e.g.)

I would like to compare this with Koing’s bro’s workouts. If it’s similar, I guess that’s how it goes and we have to see how he handles it. It would be a shame though for him to get pressured at this age and be forced to quit due to feeling that he can’t combine training with school work or even because of burnout.

Please understand that I am only trying to form an opinion. I don’t even interfere with his coaching except to offer encouragement and spotting. In the beginning, when I tried to help I made things worse. Teenagers don’t like to be pushed by their dads!

Again, many things for any comments. Everything is appreciated and it would be great to hear from other’s experiences.

7

If time is an issue on some days then I would say make sure he gets in the full lifts and the squats. Then add in the extra exercises as time allows but never miss out on the lifts and squats

8

Why doesn’t he just train on the weekends?

9

[quote]KGeorge wrote:
Guys thanks for the input. All the comments were welcome. I also enjoyed watching Kooing’s little bro’s video. He looks like a solid lifter. However, I am looking for some more specific input. You have to understand that the school my son goes to is very demanding. Nothing like the high schools in the States for example, and I speak from experience. Plus, their hours (8.45 to 16.30) are really not conducive to maintaining extracurricular activities. As far as he is concerned, though he goes “flat” some days, he is really getting into it. He is more stressed with school than with going to the gym.

I am concerned that he won’t be able to get in his 2plus hours of work in as he does now, and I am wondering if he can get away with less sets/exercises and still have decent results. 80 to 90 minutes as Koing suggests would be grand. Here my son’s workout from Monday…

C and Jerk- warmup from 20k bar adding 10kgs until 67,5 x 2 for 5 sets
Clean Freeze - 75kgs x 15 seconds 4 sets
Clean Pulls - 75kgs x 3 sets of 3
Squat - warmup from 60 adding 10 kgs to 90kgs x 4 sets of 4
Goodmorning 35kgs x 6 reps for 4 sets
Bench - warmup from 30k adding 5kgs to 50kgs x 6reps x 4 sets (went down to 45 for last set)
Lat pulls - 70Ks x 6reps for 4 sets

All that and ab work with hyperextensions for warmup and some leg extensions before clean and jerks, took him 2 hrs 15 min. I find it a bit much timewise unless he gets fitter and starts to do it in much less time. His other workouts on Wednesday and Friday are similar in duration but with other exercises (snatching and jerks e.g.)

I would like to compare this with Koing’s bro’s workouts. If it’s similar, I guess that’s how it goes and we have to see how he handles it. It would be a shame though for him to get pressured at this age and be forced to quit due to feeling that he can’t combine training with school work or even because of burnout.

Please understand that I am only trying to form an opinion. I don’t even interfere with his coaching except to offer encouragement and spotting. In the beginning, when I tried to help I made things worse. Teenagers don’t like to be pushed by their dads!

Again, many things for any comments. Everything is appreciated and it would be great to hear from other’s experiences.[/quote]

Dude you don’t want to know the session my bro does…it’s sickening…he has ridiculous fitness in his session and smashs through it in ridiculous fashion.

e.g.

Snatch from floor 3reps x 6sets
technical: 2-3repxs x 4-5sets
Front squats: 25-30reps pyramiding up or so, but this varies wildly depending on what he is donig
Bench press 8-10reps x 3sets
Pull ups or curls or whatever non leg exercise he wants
Pulls 3-4reps x 5-6sets
jumping

He is fast in his session and takes relatively little rests but he’s use to it. I could not do a session like him without dropping down a decent amount of weight due to my training fitness is no where near his level and I push a higher % relative to my squats.

Your son just needs to manage his time better and worry less. Bro gets in from school on a Mon and Wed and hits the gym. Comes back and eats and studies. Bam done. Other days he comes back, chills for a bit and studies. He doesn’t do any after school activities on Tue, Thur and Fridays. He als helps out at the family takeaway Friday and Saturdays 5 till 9. Trains Sat at 11am.

We’ve drilled it in to him he has to study. He did shorter sessions around exam time wh ich was just some lifting and some squats. Then off home to study.

Focus on while your son is worried about school. Talk to the coach who should be reasonable around his exam times and should be aware that he has to do a shorter session so can fit extra studying in.

My bro is very organised in terms of his studies though, shockingly so since his 2 older bros would start wrok at midnight and finish at 4am then go to school with 4hrs sleep!

Koing

PS get rid of
Pulls
Goodmorning 35kgs x 6 reps for 4 sets
Bench - warmup from 30k adding 5kgs to 50kgs x 6reps x 4 sets (went down to 45 for last set)
Lat pulls - 70Ks x 6reps for 4 sets

during his exam time. Do the ab and back work or at least 2-3sets worth.

10

Great feedback. Thanks. Panos did a 60kg snatch today. that was a PR for him and he did it twice (second time for a photo). He also went up to a 75kg C&J but then felt tired and didn’t feel sharp to continue. It’s the end of the year before holidays so I let him play around a bit. His coach was on a vacation.

Krayon, Saturday would have been a great alternative but unfortunately our gym is closed the weekends. It’s a damn shame but for the price we should get shot if we complained. (25 euros per year for athletes, 75 euro for hobby lifters). It’s a shame we don’t have more lifters (just 6 active lifters for the moment). Unfortunately, our sport is not immensely popular in this country.

Koing, Panos read your brother’s workout and finds that it’s similar to his. It’s important for him to read what others his age are doing and how they cope. The fact about helping out in the family business also put things in perspective for him. Thanks.

Now I have to start a thread for training old geezers like me without overdoing it! My knees haven’t coped well this year at all. At least I learned the value of proper streching especially as we get older and of proper warm up.

Have a great summer folks. I’ll be going back home to Greece for a month and hitting the beach every day. We’ll try to get to the gym at least once per week. hopefully you will hear from us again next year.

thanks again to all for the feedback.

11

Keep us updated, your sons got some pretty solid lifts for his age! I hope you both stick with it!

12

My gym has quite a few teenagers and they train 6 days a week. I can post the training routine if you’re interested. Their routine seems a lot different than the one posted by op and koing. I know we have 15 year old 56 kg lifter who’s done 72 snatch and 84 c&j and he’s been training for 2 years.

13

KGeorge, yeah keep us updated mate!

[quote]krayon wrote:
My gym has quite a few teenagers and they train 6 days a week. I can post the training routine if you’re interested. Their routine seems a lot different than the one posted by op and koing. I know we have 15 year old 56 kg lifter who’s done 72 snatch and 84 c&j and he’s been training for 2 years. [/quote]

Bro is doing my coach’s routines. He has a few weaknesses to sort out and he does a variety of exercises.

Post it up, it would be interesting to see what your lifters do.

Oxman and Regieski are under my coaching.

Koing

14

[quote]Koing wrote:
KGeorge, yeah keep us updated mate!

[quote]krayon wrote:
My gym has quite a few teenagers and they train 6 days a week. I can post the training routine if you’re interested. Their routine seems a lot different than the one posted by op and koing. I know we have 15 year old 56 kg lifter who’s done 72 snatch and 84 c&j and he’s been training for 2 years. [/quote]

Bro is doing my coach’s routines. He has a few weaknesses to sort out and he does a variety of exercises.

Post it up, it would be interesting to see what your lifters do.

Oxman and Regieski are under my coaching.

Koing[/quote]

We’re coached by Abdallah Alsebaai and Alexander Varbanov. Here are some vids of the coaches.

Alex started coaching about 6 months ago and most of the younger lifters have switched over to his program. From the top of my head I believe the program is

Monday
Max power clean
10min break
Max front squat
10min break
clean pull + 5kg 5x2

Tuesday
Max snatch
10min break
Max c&j
10min break
Max back squat

Wednesday
Max power snatch
10min break
Max back squat
10 min break
snatch pull + 5kg 5x2

Thursday
Max snatch
10min break
Max c&j
10min break
Max back squat

I don’t really remember Friday and Saturday. I’ll write the program down and post it the next time I’m in the gym. After every max attempt we go back down and do some volume and we do 5x10 back extension everyday as a finisher.

15

Your coach has slick technique mate. I like it. He doesn’t look hugely dynamic in his Snatch, just a super strong line and smooth line. But I like it :slight_smile:

His Clean recieve is like a pro. Love it. Jerk is very good! Jealous!

The schedule looks hardcore, let alone for a young lifter!

When you say young, what age range are they? My bro is 15.

Looks pretty fun mate. I may have a go sometime.

When you say volume what reps and sets are you talking about? 2 C&J x 4 or 5sets? Roughly what %? Always interesting tos ee what others are doing.

My sessions are

Mon:
max snatch, max C&J maybe back squat

Wed:
Same as mon

Sat:
Same as mon

I haven’t done squats in about 3 or 4 sessions. I should get some squats in but I’m not limited by squat strength in my lifts. Just a bit of technique on my Jerks. I finish my sessions with some wide grip pull ups and ab work. Going to do more back work. I use to routine like my bro, but as I have gotten older I’m going heavier more often.

Koing

Koing

16

Here’s the full program

Monday
Max Power Clean - drop 10kg 3x3
Max Front Squat - drop 15kg 3x3
Max Clean Pull + 5kg 5x3

Tuesday
Max Snatch - drop 15kg 2x2
Max Clean and Jerk - drop 15kg 2x2
Max Back Squat - drop 10kg 2x2

Wednesday
Max Power Snatch - drop 10kg 3x3
Max Back Squat - drop 20kg 2x5
Max Snatch Pull + 5kg 5x3

Thursday
Max Snatch - drop 15kg 2x2
Max Clean and Jerk - drop 15kg 2x2
Max Back Squat - drop 10kg 2x2

Friday
Max Back Squat - drop 10kg 2x2
Max Block Power Snatch - drop 15kg 3x3
Max Clean Pull + 5kg 5x3

Saturday
Max Power Snatch - drop 10kg 3x3
Max Power Clean and Power Jerk - drop 15kg 3x3
Max Front Squat - drop 10kg 2x2

-Everything is a daily max except the pulls which are based on all time max
-10min break between exercises
-Back extensions 5x10 at the end of every workout
-Usually between 1-2 attempts at max, but I’ve seen the coach allow people to make more attempts and sometimes they’ll go back down and work back up
-Most of the kids are snatch between 70-90kg and clean and jerk between 80-120kg
-The top lifter is 77kg snatch 87kg and clean and jerk 122kg
-The youngest kid was born in 1996 and is 14

Most of them have around 2-4 years of training and 1 has been training for about 7 months.

17

Aight. The kids Snatch is at least 13kg down! Flexibility issues?

@ 77kg and 2.5yrs training I did 100/120, hard to belive an additional 7.5yrs training, 13kg and I’ only on 120/145 :frowning: FAIL, I’m f0cking close to 122/150 and aim for 130/160 by the end of the year. I’ve had one big injury that was nearly lifting ending that took 9months out of no training in 04-05 and another 3month thing in 08. I better get a f0cking move on to 125/155 in the next 3months!

The kids don’t do general strength work at all?

Koing

18

I doubt it’s flexibility, because the kid can do a full squat jerk. He has trouble finishing his 2nd pull and he can get away with it more on the clean. He catches his clean really deep and he’s really fast. It almost looks like he needs to only pull it to navel height to clean it.

They use to do more general strength work like shoulder press, bench press, push press, etc., but even then it wasn’t very frequent.

19

It’s weird to have such a big cap and not have flexibility issues, but he can squat Jerk so he’s alright in that department!

With a decent C&J you’d have thought his 2nd pull would be alright? I generally find that people who can Snatch well generally Clean well but the opposite is not necessarily true. But neither the Snatch or the Clean have much of a bearing on the Jerk as it’s completely different to either Snatch or Clean.

A guy I know Snatchs about 108-110 tops but he has C&J 160-163, Cleaned 165 @ 73kg bw…he has shoulder flexibility issues and the fact that he only C&J for the first 18months of training…

Koing

20

He was at a comp over the weekend. He snatched 80kg and clean and jerked 120kg hahahahaha. Maybe it’s a mental thing, because his clean and jerk is 50% higher hahahaha. He hit his 80 opener and missed 85 twice and go all his clean and jerks.