Chapter 9
Special Training Considerations For Women, Masters And Young Athletes
It should be evident to the reader by now that the underlying theme throughout this book has been that athletes need to be treated as individuals. There are a great many principles that apply to all weightlifters, but the application of those principles must be carefully individualized if each lifter is to achieve his or her true potential. If this focus on the individual athlete is maintained, any differences in the needs of athletes of different ages or sexes will be addressed almost automatically. If this focus on the individual athlete is not maintained, generalization with respect to the influences of age or sex on athletes will do very little to enable the coach to adjust the training of particular athletes in any useful way.
For example, it has been noted that the “average” woman has wider hips in proportion to the rest of her body than the average man. This difference causes the femur (thighbone) to angle in more from the hip to the knee joint in the average woman than in the average man. If this inward slant goes beyond a certain point, it is thought by some researchers to make the knee joint less stable. While this anatomical difference between men and women may be of some interest to the coach, it is of little value in the real world. This is because coaches coach not the average man or woman (there is no such person) but, rather, individual athletes who happen to be men or women. Among those individual athletes, there may be some women who have a femur angle that is sufficient to destabilize the knee. But there are men who have this same anatomical configuration as well and many women who do not. What is of real interest to the thinking coach is the contention that an excessive inward slant of the femur toward the knee joint may destabilize the knee. This possibility will alert the coach to watch for such a characteristic in all athletes, male or female, and to pay particular attention to the issue of knee stability in any athlete, male or female, who exhibits this characteristic.
In this chapter, we will examine same of the special concerns and needs of women, younger athletes and more mature athletes. But it should be remembered throughout that we are dealing with statistical tendencies, not immutable laws of nature. As a result, the coach needs to be aware of the issues and how to deal with them, but he or she should not necessarily expect them in all cases. We will begin our discussion with an examination of women in weightlifting, then proceed to the special needs of children and conclude with an examination of the needs of more mature athletes.
Women And Weightlifting—A Great Match
Among the trillions of cells in the human body, only those of the reproductive organs result in physical differences between men and women. There are no significant sex related differences in any of the other organs of the body. For example, a pathologist cannot look at the heart or brain of a human and determine the sex of the body. There are no differences in structure, and any differences is size are related to body mass of the person (i.e.., the size of the heart of a man and woman with the same overall body mass is approximately the same).
The reproductive organs indirectly influence the appearance of males and females by producing certain hormones (testosterone in males and estrogen in females) which are responsible for the development and maintenance of “secondary sex characteristics.” These characteristics include, but are not limited to, muscular and skeletal development and the arrangement and consistency of hair on the body. In terms of skeletal differences, women tend to have shorter, smaller and less dense bones, narrower shoulders, proportionally wider hips and “true” pelvis space (the space inside the pelvis) and smaller joints (except for the knee joint). Women also tend to have more pelvic tilt than men, with the consequence of a greater incidence of lordosis (an excessive curvature of the lower back) and resultant backache. The average woman has a slightly lower center of gravity than the average man, but that is more a function of height and body type than sex.
Women also have, on average, less muscle mass, more subcutaneous body fat (22% to 26% in young adult women and 13% to 16% in males of the same age), with extra deposits in the breasts, hips and buttocks. However, differences in the percentage body fat tend to be smaller among men and women in the same sport than in the general population.
Men and women also differ in their rate of maturation. Women tend to become physically mature earlier than men. For instance, women typically reach their full height and weight (an average of approximately 5’4 1/2″ and 123 lb.) at age eighteen. Men continue to grow for about another two years, growing approximately 5″ taller and weighing approximately 35 lb. more.
Women’s bodies generally consume less energy. Part of this is due to the average differences in body size (larger bodies require more energy). Part of the difference in energy consumption arises because women generally have slightly lower basal metabolism rates than men (37 kilocalories per square meter of body surface per hour for women and 40 kilocalories for men). But this difference is probably due, at least in part, to the smaller lean body mass of most women relative to men of the same size (the metabolism rate increases in proportion to lean, or muscular, body mass).
Note that all of these differences exist between the average man and woman, not between a particular man and woman. Although women are generally shorter than men, particular man may be shorter than a particular woman. He may also have a greater percentage of body fat and be weaker than a particular women. That is why information regarding the average characteristics of a population is interesting but not especially enlightening to people who have to deal with individual athletes (which is virtually all of us).
Strength Differences Between Men and Women
Not surprisingly, research on strength has revealed that males are stronger, on average, than females. A similar conclusion has generally been reached by anyone who has observed men and women in everyday life. However, what is far more interesting is the equalities in strength that exist between men and women when comparisons are made with certain qualifications.
For example, there is no difference in the nature of muscle fibers. (Since muscle fibers grow with use, men typically have larger fibers because they have a greater tendency to use those muscle fibers.) There is also no difference in the distribution of muscle fiber types (i.e., fast versus slow twitch). Not surprisingly, given the similarity in muscle structure between the sexes, strength differences between men and women decrease when appropriate adjustments are made in the data being compared. For example, when differences in body mass are considered, the difference in strength levels diminishes considerably (i.e., the average body mass of men is greater than that of women, but strength differences between men and women with the same body mass is relatively small). Moreover, when lean (muscular) body mass is considered, the differences grow even smaller. (Women tend to have a higher percentage of fat in their bodies than men, so when straight body mass is compared, we are comparing athletes with different muscle masses.) In fact, when the strength of muscle with identical cross-sections is compared, the differences between men and women virtually disappear.
The most important implications of recent research are that the potential for women to hypertrophy and to gain strength with training appears to be similar to that of men. Differences in the apparent level of training response between men and women suggested by some early studies have now been attributed by some scientists to the crudeness of the experimental methods employed. For example, measuring the girth of limbs did not take into account a reduction in subcutaneous fat accompanied by a gain in muscle mass that may have produced no change in limb girth although hypertrophy occurred. The average woman may indeed begin at a lower level of strength and muscle mass than the average man (due in part to hormonal differences between men and women, e.g., in testosterone levels), but her potential for proportional improvement in strength is probably quite similar (i.e., the potential is very great) .
The implications of all of this are that, over time, women’s performances in weightlifting are likely to grow much closer to those of the men than they are today. The women weightlifters of today have an opportunity to build on what the pioneers in women’s lifting have already accomplished. What a wonderful opportunity for women embarking on their weightlifting careers today!
Other Physiological Differences Between Men and Women
Women undergo cyclic changes in their bodies as a result of their menstrual cycles. Premenstrual changes can include an increase in body mass and changes in such indicators as blood glucose, body temperature (an increase after ovulation, higher than average level during the luteal phase with a fall to normal levels at menses), heart rate (which increases during any period of temperature elevation) and breast size. While these changes occur to at least some degree in most women, the extent to which they occur varies considerably from woman to woman.
Approximately 50% of women regularly experience some degree of discomfort during menses and as many as 10% suffer incapacity for one to three days. The most discomfort/disability tends to occur between the ages of twenty and twenty-four, with symptoms tending to increase after the onset of menstruation and to decline gradually in the mid-twenties and thereafter. Do these monthly cycles in women’s bodies cause performance changes? Most of the scientific literature suggests that these changes do not affect such physiological markers as maximum oxygen uptake or heart rate during exercise. Many women experience a greater degree of perceived effort in achieving the same performance during menses. However, in studies of elite athletes, as many women reported improved performance during menses as reported diminished performance. This may be due to higher than average motivation in these athletes or to the fact that women who have more moderate reactions to menstrual cycle are more likely to take up sport. It may also be due to a positive effect of exercise on PMS (a condition which has been reported anecdotally but which has not yet established by research).
Severe dysmenorrhea (painful menses can affect performance negatively. Primary dysmenorrhea (pain without macroscopically identifiable pelvic pathology) can often be treated very effectively with prostaglandin inhibitors (e.g., aspirin or ibuprofen). These drugs counter the elevated levels of prostaglandins which are thought to contribute to primary dysmenorrhea (by causing intense contractions of the uterus that lead to a diminished blood supply and resulting discomfort). The most successful treatment for PMS is an oral contraceptive (which contains progesterone and estrogen). However, many women find oral contraceptives unacceptable, because of the temporary infertility that they cause and/or because of their side effects. It has been argued that for women who need to control their menstrual cycle for a specific event, progesterone withdrawal (to bring on menstruation well before a major competition) is superior to delaying the cycle through the use of estrogen and progesterone, because a high concentration of these hormones can remain in the body during the event and possibly lead to fluid retention. Moreover, such hormonal manipulation should be limited only to important events because of the general inadvisability of tampering with natural body cycles.
There is little in the scientific literature to suggest that vigorous activity has negative physiological effects (although it may be extremely uncomfortable) during menstruation. For certain women, intense or prolonged training sessions may not be a good idea during this time in their menstrual cycles. Nevertheless, regardless of the results of scientific studies and surveys, the principle that was identified at the outset of this chapter needs to be followed. Individual physical, mental and emotional responses to menstruation differ from woman to woman. Therefore, the training and competitive efforts of each individual athlete must take into account her reactions. Some women may need to cycle their training in order to take into account their feelings during various phases of the menstrual cycle.
At an IWF sponsored seminar in the late 1990s, a Chinese coach, Wenyuan Cao, indicated that while some of the women on the Chinese weightlifting team (which currently dominates women’s weightlifting) train right through the menstrual cycle, others do indeed follow a training cycle that includes a significantly reduced training load during the first two days of menstruation. In addition to the intensity of the workout being lower and the load smaller, certain exercises, such as pulls from the floor and squats, are avoided. For the next two days the load is gradually increased, so that by the fifth day after the onset of menstruation, normal training has been resumed. Women who feel a diminished capacity to train during their menstrual cycle should make a point of emphasizing this to their coaches (whether those coaches are male or female).
Although some sport specialists have argued that women might damage their reproductive organs with the strain of athletic effort, there is no evidence of such a phenomenon (at least as long as the natural pelvic support offered by the body has not been seriously damaged by childbirth or some other phenomenon. Even in those cases, reports of any difficulty are minimal, if not non-existent, but a problem is at least possible. Actual experience has shown that the reproductive organs of males are more prone to sports injury than those of females.
The Relationships Between Training and Amenorrhea
Amenorrhea is the absence or suppression of menstruation. Training stress, weight loss and low body fat have been associated with amenorrhea, but these relationships are not consistent across all studies. To the extent that relationships do exist, they may reflect the effect of strenuous training on hormonal levels. For instance, the suppression of gonadotropin and female sex hormones has been linked to strenuous training.
It has been noted that when amenorrheic athletes reduce their levels of training and restore a normal caloric intake, menses typically resume within two months. It should be understood that the relationship between amenorrhea and athletic participation has been found in activities in which caloric expenditure is very high. Weightlifting training does not generally fit this profile (unless an athlete is training very hard for several hours a day). Even under such training conditions, the likelihood of amenorrhea occurring is probably small, unless the athlete is seriously restricting her diet as well as training very hard. Poor diet is also a known factor in amenorrhea (e.g., vegetarian athletes and those who severely restrict their diets are more likely to be amenorrheic than women who have a more normal diet and amenorrheic women are more likely to have zinc and iron deficiencies than women with normal diets). Psychological stress may be a contributing factor as well, but there is no scientific evidence of stress causing amenorrhea at this time.
To the extent that strenuous training affects the menstrual cycles of some women, it also seems to affect the various phases unevenly. For example, many athletes with apparently normal menstrual cycles may in fact have a short luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, which results in infertility. Moreover, this condition may progress to actual amenorrhea.
Amenorrhea is not something that should be ignored. Even if serious medical causes have been ruled out, amenorrhea itself has serious effects. Osteopenia (mineral loss from bones) is perhaps the most serious effect. Reduced estrogenic activity resulting from exercise that is too strenuous can lead to a failure to maximize bone density during the maturation process. In addition, such conditions as uteritis, atrophic vaginitis and endothelial atrophy have all been associated with amenorrhea. Some athletes may welcome amenorrhea as a convenient birth control method, but it should not be assumed that amenorrhea offers absolute protection against pregnancy. Pregnancies can and do occur in women who are amenorrheic.
Therefore, whereas amenorrhea is an unlikely consequence of even the most strenuous weightlifting training, any occurrence of it should be addressed by a health professional immediately. And if that health professional believes that the athlete’s training may be the cause, the training load should be reduced.
Associations between diet and amenorrhea or eumenorrhea have been shown in a number of studies. For example, 82% of amenorrheic runners were vegetarians while only a small percentage of eumenorrheics were. Amenorrheic runners had a zinc deficiency (iron?).
The Effects of Athletic Activity on Menarche
Many young athletes experience late menarche (i.e., a late onset of menstruation). This is particularly true for those athletes who engage in sports which require a large energy expenditure and/or a low level of body fat and for athletes who restrict their diets significantly. This is not surprising when you consider the effect of these same factors on some women who are already menstruating. This kind of problem does not appear to be common among young women weightlifters, but those who artificially restrict their body weight to remain in a certain weight class are at risk (still another reason why this practice should not be encouraged in young athletes). Again, if it appears that an athlete is experiencing menarche, it is appropriate to consult with a physician to determine the cause and address it accordingly.
Pregnancy and Training
While most women who are in serious training for any sport choose to avoid pregnancy until their careers are over, some women do choose to bear children at some point during their athletic careers. These women are naturally concerned about their safety and that of their fetuses during training and competition.
Most of the work that has been done in the area of studying exercise and pregnancy has been done in endurance sports, such as running. The results of those studies have not yet led to the establishment of clear guidelines for exercise during pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has taken what is considered by many to be a very conservative (and perhaps arbitrary) position with regard to pregnancy and exercise. They recommend that any strenuous activity undertaken by pregnant women not exceed fifteen minutes in duration, that exercise in a supine position not be undertaken after the fourth month, that the maternal heart rate not exceed 140 beats per minute, that the athlete’s core temperature never exceed 38o Celsius (just over 100o Fahrenheit) and that activities which involve executing the valsalva maneuver be avoided altogether.
Many medical and sport science personnel who have been seriously involved in athletics take a more individualized and less conservative approach to exercise and pregnancy. They argue that the athlete’s own level of discomfort is the best guideline for training modification. It should be noted that some researchers have argued that lack of activity may be the major cause of certain complaints associated with pregnancy, such as postpartum back pain. Experts agree that any symptoms such as vaginal bleeding or hypertension should be addressed immediately. As a general guideline, they argue that there should be no restrictions on activity for at least the first three to four months of pregnancy. In the fifth and sixth months, a reduction in activity is recommended, and only light activity is recommended in the last three months. It should be noted that many women have competed at high levels not realizing that they were pregnant with no apparent damage to the fetus.
The timing of the return to activity should be guided by the same rules that apply to any return to activity after a layoff. There should be a gradual return to previous levels of training volume and intensity with intermittent “unloading” weeks to give the body a chance to adapt and recuperate as it returns to top condition. A number of women have performed at record levels within a year or less after delivery. Most women can return to competition within five to six weeks after an uncomplicated delivery. C-sections will both sideline the athlete longer and contribute to a reduction in abdominal strength (at least in the short term).
It is not a good idea to take anti-inflammatory medications such as ibuprofen or aspirin while pregnant, as these medications can have an adverse effect on the fetus. Similarly, X-rays of the abdominal area during the early stages of pregnancy present a risk to the fetus. Some writers and medical personnel discourage swimming in the later months of pregnancy on the theory that the cervix may be partially exposed to the water at this stage.
With regard to weightlifting, no research on the effects of training during pregnancy exists. However, many time national champion, national record holder and World Championship medalist Sibby Flowers has competed while pregnant and returned to record breaking levels after delivering a healthy child. While the anecdotal evidence supplied by one person hardly provides a scientific standard for recommending training during pregnancy, a brief summary of Sibby’s experiences may be of great interest to readers.
Sibby discovered that she was pregnant in June of 1990, shortly after she had conceived. She continued training normally for the next two months and then, worried by her physician’s apprehensions, discontinued her training in August and September. She resumed training at the beginning of October and continued to train through the early part of December. During this period she avoided exercises which caused strain in the abdominal area and avoided becoming overheated. She employed full squats with gradually diminishing weights during this period (lifting approximately 100% of her C&J in the earlier part of this period and reducing to approximately 70% by the time her training ceased in mid-December). She also gradually reduced the depth of her squats as the size of her abdomen began to interfere with her ability to descend comfortably into the full squat. Presses were employed during this period to maintain upper-body strength, and dumbbell shrugs were employed to work the upper and middle back while avoiding any contact of the bar with the abdominal area. Sibby did not train at all in January and February. By that time, her body weight had increased a total of 56 lb., from her pre-pregnancy training weight of 102 lb. to 158 lb. Much of this weight gain was attributable to an unusual amount of water retention (when she was released from the hospital three days after her delivery, Sibby had lost 30 lb.).
Sibby delivered her baby via C-Section on March 3,1991, and began a very mild program of exercise within two weeks. By the third week after the delivery she was doing calisthenics, including sit-ups. Eight weeks after giving birth she lifted in the U.S. Nationals in the 48 kg. class (her body weight class prior to pregnancy had been 44 kg.). She managed lifts of 47.5 kg. and 60 kg., taking second in the competition and qualifying for the 1991 Olympic Festival, where she would have an opportunity to qualify for the World’s Championships and 44 kg.. She had a harder time making weight there than ever before but managed to do so after a great struggle. At the Festival, she placed second with lifts of 50 kg. in the snatch and 62.5 kg. in the C&J. This qualified her for the World Championships, which were held in November of that year. At the World, Sibby broke American records in the snatch and total and placed second overall, only eight months after delivering her healthy baby boy, a remarkable performance and a tribute to Sibby’s tremendous courage and desire to return to the platform. By the time her weight class was changed from 44 kg. to 46 kg., Sibby had raised the American records to 65 kg. and 80 kg.. Today, with the advent of the new weight class, she has already moved her personal bests even higher, and she expects to continue to do so in the future. Pound for pound, Sibby is in all probability the world’s strongest mother (not to mention one of the world’s nicest).
Sibby did report an episode of pain in her knees between the Nationals and the Olympic Festival. This pain was generalized in nature and quite uncharacteristic for her. It is known that during pregnancy certain hormonal changes increase flexibility in the pelvic area and perhaps in other joints as well. Sibby reported a feeling of joint laxity following her delivery, and she feels that this may have contributed to her bout of knee pain. It is of course possible that there were other causes of her pain, such as a return to vigorous training after an extended layoff. However, the issue of joint laxity merits further investigation. In the interim, coaches should be aware of the possibility of post-pregnancy joint laxity causing a problem.
Psychological and Social Conditions that Can Influence Women Who Are Weightlifters
While the physical differences between men and women are not sufficient (at least is most cases) to justify significant differences in their training, some women find that a commitment to a sport like weightlifting feels unusual. Because many cultures have not historically valued strength and muscular development among women, some women and men are still uncomfortable with women’s weightlifting.
However, the world is changing quickly and for the better. Models and actresses who are the role models for so many young women are becoming far more muscular. Today, women’s bodybuilding and fitness and strength shows are often more popular than their counterparts with male competitors. Women’s weightlifting, which had its international debut about a decade ago, has become popular throughout the world, with approximately forty nations now being represented at the Women’s World Weightlifting Championships each year. And it appears likely, that women’s weightlifting will soon be an Olympic event, even though the organizers of the Olympics are mightily resisting the inclusion of new sports (whether males or females compete in them). (Men’s weightlifting has of course been part of nearly every modern Olympic Games since their inception in 1896.) In the United States, one of the pioneers in women’s weightlifting and the first country to hold a Women’s World Weightlifting Championship (in 1987), the National Weightlifting Championships features nearly as many competitors in the women’s division as in the men’s division. (Editor’s note: Women’s Weightlifting in fact debuted at the 2000 Olympic Games).
The challenge of getting stronger and more powerful, of developing the technique, flexibility and courage to lift great weights overhead is obviously as powerful an urge for women as it is for men, as it should be. Therefore, no one, man or woman, should feel the least bit self-conscious about wanting to become a weightlifter. On the contrary, men and women should feel proud to have chosen such a wonderful sport, one which can offer them a lifelong challenge and a lifetime of strength fitness to meet both the extraordinary and the daily challenges of living.
A Few Closing Words on the Differences Between Men and Women
At various times it has been argued that women can train harder or less hard than men. It has been said that women are more flexible than men and that they are more emotional. And these alleged differences only scratch the surface of those that have been claimed. However, other than differences in their reproductive systems, very few of the differences that have been reported have also been proven. Even when researchers have uncovered strong tendencies, they are merely tendencies and as such are far from universal. Since coaches do not coach tendencies or averages, they would do well to concentrate on individual athletes and their needs (and not project needs on the basis of gender alone). This does not mean that coaches should ignore differences between men and women, but, rather, that the focus should be on the individual athlete and his or her needs. It may be that the average woman is more likely than the average man to turn their knees in when they squat (placing extra strain on the ligaments of the knee). But whether a man or a woman does this, the coach must intervene to teach proper technique. It may also be that women are more flexible than man and that the typical woman therefore needs less flexibility work before she begins lifting. But every beginner, whether a woman or a man, needs to be tested with respect to his or her flexibility, and wherever there are deficiencies, they need to be corrected.
The same principles apply to all the characteristics of athletes. If a particular athlete has a smaller waist or smaller joints than is normal, it may be appropriate for that athlete to spend extra times with remedial exercises to strengthen these areas. If an athlete is so weak in the upper body that he or she can pull weights overhead in the snatch or drive them overhead in the jerk but has difficulty holding them there, that athlete’s upper body needs to be strengthened. Such a need may be more likely to arise in a female lifters, but some females will require little in the way of additional strengthening in that area while some males will require much work. All weightlifters, regardless of gender, require individualization in terms of technique or training methods if they are to be as successful as they can be.
Weightlifting And Children
For decades, if not centuries or even longer, mankind has feared lifting heavy weights. Folklore regarding hernias, becoming musclebound and a host of other alleged risks has kept many who were interested in weightlifting at a “safe” distance. If parents and educators fear anything more than weightlifting, it is children who lift weights. Nearly hysterical fears regarding “stunted” growth, crippling joint injuries and even psychological damage have curdled the blood of many parents and adults who are responsible for children in any way. Yet the evidence suggests that such fears are wildly exaggerated relative to the real risks. Weightlifting is a far safer sport than most people think. Moreover, its risks, appear to be significantly smaller than those of more popular children’s sports (such as football, basketball, soccer and gymnastics), at least on the basis of what has been observed in the United States. (The information from Eastern Europe, where weightlifting is far more popular than in the United States, appears to support a similar conclusion).
In many countries in Eastern Europe, physical education is far more structured than it is in the United States. Young children are observed for signs of the physical, emotional and psychological qualities that are believed to indicate “potential” for specific sports. Children who exhibit what is perceived to be unusual potential are channeled into sport specific preparation programs. The ages of children who are channeled into specific sports vary from locality to locality and from sport to sport. In weightlifting, the starting age for actual weightlifting training is generally between nine and eleven (although some countries select athletes as young as six or seven or as old as fourteen or fifteen). During at least the first six to twelve months of training (several years in the case of athletes who begin training at a very young age), the emphasis is on general physical conditioning and learning the basic technique of the two competitive lifts with a stick or light bar. Once a base of conditioning has been achieved, basic strength and technique development exercises are added to the program. Over the next one to three years, the young athlete’s training becomes more and more sport specific and more and more intense. Therefore, somewhere between the ages of twelve and fourteen, most athletes have reached the stage of serious specialization and a limited focus on competitive results.
None of the Eastern European countries has thus far reported any ill effects attributable to such early specialization, and many have made claims of favorable effects on the health of athletes who undertake rigorous sport training as compared with their more sedentary counterparts. Of course, since only the best physical specimens are chosen for these programs, the evidence may be biased. In addition, a number of aspects of the Eastern European sports programs have been shrouded in secrecy and there is always the possibility that suppressed reports of damage to young athletes will ultimately come to light. However, the anecdotal reports of the many émigrés who have come to the United States and other western countries from Eastern Europe in recent years seem to support the notion that there are no apparent ill effects from early and carefully controlled sport specialization. In considering the possibility of hidden adverse effects on children it should be noted that while there is always an incentive to suppress information on illegal or advantageous practices (such as doping), there would seem to be little to gain by damaging youth. Few athletes excel at very young ages (this is particularly true in weightlifting). Therefore, if sport preparation were really dangerous to the health of young athletes, there would be little advantage in continuing the practice, since the pool of healthy mature athletes would ultimately be reduced.
A number of medical and professional organizations in the United States, such as the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine and the American Society of Pediatrics, have acknowledged that resistance training can have a positive effect on children (e.g., generating an increase in muscular strength and endurance). However, sports medicine specialists and coaches emphasize the need for careful workout planning, proper exercise technique and selection and adequate supervision. Most of these organizations discourage participation competitive events such as weightlifting and powerlifting and training with maximum resistance until an athlete has reached a certain level of physical maturity (e.g., The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests a “Tanner stage 5”, which the average teenager reaches at approximately 15, regardless of sex but with significant individual variations). There have been many real world exceptions to this guidance (e.g., three time Olympic champion, Naim Suleymanoglu was setting World’s Records at 15 and up until now, having won the 1996 Olympics at approximately age 30, has reported no ill effects from such early training).
Studies on prepubescent children that have lasted as long as six months have not been able to document a hypertrophy response to resistance exercise. Substantial strength gains documented in a number of these studies appear to arise out of training the nervous system to put forth stronger voluntary muscular contractions. Therefore, having prepubescent athletes exercise for the purpose of generating hypertrophy appears to be a questionable practice.
Growth and Maturation
When working with younger athletes, it is important not only to appreciate the different rates at which different athletes mature but also to realize that maturity takes place at differing rates in different parts and systems of the body. By understanding these issues, the coach is in a better position to adapt his or her training to the needs of young athletes.
More than sixty years ago, R.E. Scammon identified four growth curves for the human body. He developed these curves to depict the differences that exist in the maturation process in four general areas of the body. The most all encompassing curve, which he termed the “general” maturation curve, subsumed such characteristics as weight, most external dimensions of the body and most internal organs. This curve is characterized by rapid growth during a child’s early years, a steady (but much slower) growth rate in the later years of early childhood and another dramatic growth spurt beginning in puberty, with growth slowing once again in the later teen years. In contrast, the curve which describes the maturation of the nervous system shows a rapid growth throughout the years of childhood, but then flattens out well before puberty, exhibiting only gradual growth through the teen years. Scammon’s “genital” curve (which encompasses most primary and secondary sex characteristics) exhibits a rapid growth in the first few years of life, then a relatively flat period, followed by explosive growth at the onset of puberty. Finally, the “lymphoid” curve (which includes the lymph gland, thymus glands, the appendix and tonsils) grows throughout childhood, peaking between the years of eleven and thirteen (where it reaches a level approximately double that of adulthood), after which it subsides.
While some of the specific features of Scammon’s curves have been brought into question by later research, the general principle that various systems of the body mature at different rates cannot be ignored. As a consequence, the knowledgeable coach must take into account the maturation process both in terms of the each athlete and in terms of the in the various characteristics of the athlete.
The maturation process is further complicated by the gender of the athlete. Gender influences the maturation process in different ways. For instance, females tend to mature faster in the area of motor performance. In contrast, males experience a more or less linear growth in strength until the ages of thirteen to fourteen, after which there is a spurt in strength development over the next several years. Females continue the linear growth in strength until the ages of sixteen or seventeen, after which growth in strength is negligible. The spurt in strength made by males at puberty is believed to be caused by the increased production of testosterone.
Power development appears to approximate strength development. An example is performance in the broad jump. Females improve linearly until about the age of twelve; from that point progress halts, and some regression often occurs. In boys, there is linear growth in performance until about the age of thirteen, at which point there is a spurt in performance.
Girls tend to be more flexible than boys at all ages.
Maturation is assessed in a number of ways. For example, the shape of bone, the degree to which cartilage has been replaced by bone and the union and/or fusion that occurs at the epiphyses are all indicators of skeletal age. The pattern of pubic hair and the development of the breasts and genitalia are indicators of maturation. Still further indicators are gross measurements and the percentage of adult height that has been attained. Finally, there are dental indicators of maturation, such as the presence of baby teeth and the degree to which calcification of the teeth has occurred. These indicators tend to correlate with one another, but the correlation is not perfect.
The knowledgeable coach can use these indicators in several ways. First, they can suggest to the coach the physical age of the athlete as compared with his or her calendar age. Second, they suggest the sequence of activities in which young athletes should structure their training. Since athletes mature more fully and quickly in the area of motor skills than with respect to strength, it is appropriate to stress skill development rather than heavy weights with young athletes. This emphasis fits well with other areas of maturation (e.g., cartilage which has not fully matured into bone is believed to be mere susceptible to injury than the bone structure that will ultimately develop).
Exercise Prescriptions for Children
There has been a concern within the medical community for many years regarding the practice of strenuous forms of athletics by young athletes. There is special concern with respect to prepubescent athletes and those in the early stages of pubescence. Most of this concern centers around the possibility of damage to growth centers and of outright traumatic injury. While conclusive evidence has not been developed in Western Europe and the United States, it appears that practice of weight training and weightlifting is relatively safe (more so than other sports, such as basketball and football, about which parents and medical authorities appear to have fewer concerns). In Eastern Europe, where the sport of weightlifting has been practiced by athletes as young as ten or eleven for many years, sports medicine authorities have generally detected no reason to restrict the activities of these athletes (as long as well established principles of employing proper technique and gradually increasing the training load over a period of years are followed). (Edtior’s Note: Since the original edition of this book was published, support for weightlifting has only grown in the sports and medical communities. For instance, in the November 15, 2021 edition of Sports Health, in an article titled “Weightlifting for Children and Adolescents”, the authors concluded “If Weightlifting training and competition are age group appropriate and are properly supervised, the sport can be substantially safe and efficacious.”
In order to err on the side of caution, sports authorities such as the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, the American Academy of Pediatric Medicine and the National Strength and Conditioning Association have taken the position that weight training is acceptably safe if the young athletes follow certain guidelines. Among those guidelines are recommendations that are intended to limit the training stress that is applied to young athletes. For instance, one recommendation is that young athletes should never use weights in excess of what they can handle for at least six repetitions.
Unfortunately, recommendations of this type are rather arbitrary and may be inherently dangerous. The six-rep guideline appears to be based on the assumption that weights which an athlete can lift for at least six reps are well enough within that athlete’s capabilities that an injury is unlikely. However, an athlete is at least as likely to hurt himself or herself on the sixth rep of a maximum set of six as on an attempt with a single rep maximum. This is because by the time the athlete has reached the sixth rep of an all out set, considerable fatigue has set in. Under such conditions, motor control deteriorates and stress is more likely to be transferred from muscle to connective tissue than when the muscles are “fresh.” Neither of these conditions is conducive to safe exercise. A more reasonable standard would be that young athletes should never attempt weights that they cannot perform comfortably and that they should avoid high reps altogether on the Olympic lifts. They should never perform more than five reps in any Olympic or related lift, and reps this high should only be performed with weights that permit the last rep to be performed crisply and rather easily.
Research in Eastern Europe suggests that younger athletes can gain strength with far lower intensities than older athletes. In fact, high intensities appear to be counterproductive in terms of generating strength gains in youngsters (not to mention the threat of injury that they pose).
Injuries to athletes (young or old) usually result from pushing too hard and employing improper technique. Pushing too hard can occur either when athletes compete against their peers (particularly when these athletes are not well matched in terms of size, sex, maturity and experience) or when overzealous coaches and/or parents push athletes to their limits and beyond. Therefore, giving children or their supervisors the license to push to the maximum as long as the weight can be handled for six or some other number of repetitions can be at least as dangerous as permitting them to try single rep maximums.
In attempting a single rep maximum, errors and accidents can occur as a result of unrealistic expectations, fear, over-excitement, technical errors (which are more likely to occur with maximum weights) and the sheer stress of a maximum effort. But these same factors can contribute to failure in the later reps of a six-rep maximum attempt as well. And, as noted above, on such a late repetition there is the additional and significant risk factor of muscular and nervous system fatigue. Most bodybuilders use fairly high repetitions (six or more) in most of their training, and injuries among body builders on the later reps of high rep sets are not uncommon.
In training young athletes (and athletes of all ages) it is important to emphasize proper technique and gradual progression. The coach should never push or permit the young athlete to attempt any all out maximum, regardless of the number of repetitions. No attempt should ever be made at a weight that may be beyond the athlete’s limit on a given day, irrespective of how much an athlete may have lifted in the past. It should be emphasized to the young athlete that the true measure of his or her success is technique perfection and gradual conditioning to the demands of high level performance, the foundation of all subsequent performance. Moreover, as was indicated in the earlier chapters of this book, research in Eastern Europe suggests than young athletes actually experience faster strength gains when they exercise with moderate loads than when they lift heavy loads.
Great care should be taken never to overtrain the young athlete. Patience should be exercised in eliciting the body’s adaptive capabilities. Young athletes require their energy for growth and maturation as well as sports improvement. Exhaustion may divert such energy. In addition, an overtrained athlete is prone to injury and illness, both of which are to be especially avoided in young athletes. Finally, there is evidence (though it is not directly related to weightlifting) that heavy physical exercise over a sustained period can cause damage to growth cartilage, with resulting bone deformation, pain and/or disability. Joint pain should never be ignored in any athlete and this is doubly true in young athletes.
All young athletes should be carefully supervised in order to assure that proper training methods are applied, to teach them proper technique and to prevent their attempting lifts that are beyond their capabilities. Finally, all young athletes should be taught how to handle situations in which misses occur. As was noted in Chapter 2, one of the first things any lifter should learn is how to handle a miss safely. Once that is learned, the chances of any subsequent injury are greatly reduced.
As has been emphasized throughout this book, the coach should pay attention to the physical and mental characteristics of the athlete. While the maturation process takes place in all young lifters, the rate and precise character of the maturation process varies substantially from athlete to athlete. Athletes who are psychologically, emotionally or physically unprepared for weightlifting training should not be permitted to engage in such training regardless of their age. Those who are ready should not be arbitrarily restrained (though they should be rationally managed). That is, they should never be pushed, and their training should always emphasize proper technique and careful conditioning, but if the athlete demonstrates an ability to tolerate a little more (not necessarily heavier) training, there is no reason to discourage or forbid it, as long as the increase in training is gradual, periodic and carefully monitored.
Although it has long been feared that bone growth would be inhibited by weight training, there is a growing body of evidence that weight training has positive effects on bone growth. Little or no evidence developed in the United States suggests any negative effect of resistance training (or other exercise) on the growth of bones, and considerable evidence now suggests that bone density is improved through resistance training. Similarly, long term studies performed in Eastern Europe (at least those that have been widely reported in the West) do not indicate that resistance training adversely affects bone growth.
It is important to note that the “growth cartilage” of children is particularly susceptible to injury from trauma. This growth cartilage is located at three primary sites: the growth plate of long bones, the point of tendon insertion onto a bone and the joint surfaces. Severe damage to the growth plates prior to their ossification (late in puberty) is believed to interfere with further bone growth. Any or all of the growth cartilage sites can be damaged by a single trauma or by repeated smaller traumas (microtraumas), with damage (e.g., fractures) to the growth (epiphyseal) plate being perhaps the most common type of joint injury in children. Low levels of stress stimulate epiphyseal growth, but excess stress may suppress the development of epiphyseal cartilage and consequent endochondral ossification.
Growth plate fractures have been reported as a result of weightlifting by children. However, the majority of these injuries have occurred among unsupervised athletes who were lifting near maximal weights. Recent studies involving closely supervised resistance training among children suggest that the injury incidence among such children is quite low. While no serious research has been done in the United States with respect to weightlifting or powerlifting among children, work done in Eastern Europe suggests that with close supervision and carefully applied training loads, weightlifting is a relatively safe activity for young athletes (as long as the emphasis is on skill development and maximal and near maximal efforts are absent or strictly limited).
As has already been noted in earlier chapters, frequency, duration and intensity of training are the key variables which can be manipulated to manage the stress that is presented by training. However, these are certainly not the only variables with which the coach needs to be concerned, particularly as pertains to injury prevention and management in young athletes. In this area, technique and the selection of exercises require careful attention as well.
Adaptations in the functional performance of pre-pubescent athletes as a result of training appear to parallel those of adults. However, as was noted earlier, the ability of prepubescents to generate muscle hypertrophy appears to be significantly smaller than that of adults. Research on adults suggests that resistance training increases bone density and helps to prevent certain kinds of injury, but no such effects have yet been documented in children. (There has been very little research in this area at all.)
When training with children is being conducted under conditions that are not climate controlled, special care should be taken. Children have less resistance to short term changes in temperature, and they adjust more slowly to changes in climate. Therefore, this fact should be taken into account in all activities in which children participate.
Dietary restrictions are far more problematic in children than in adults. Children require adequate nutrition for growth and development. Dietary restrictions in order to remain in certain weight classes are definitely contraindicated. Some coaches who are anxious to push their athletes to high performance and/or to score team points encourage artificial weight control. This kind of behavior can undermine the athlete’s growth and development and, hence, the athlete’s long term potential.
It should be noted that the potential for increasing an athlete’s muscle mass is never greater than during the athlete’s late teens and early twenties. Consequently, artificially restraining increases in muscle mass during this period undermine the fulfillment of the lifter’s potential in a way that can never be overcome.
It is important for coaches to realize that increases in the height and weight of young athletes during puberty may outrun increases in strength. Flexibility may also fail to keep pace with rates of bone growth. In addition, it will also take time for many young athletes to adjust their motor skills to changes in body mechanics that occur as a result of growth. Therefore, young athletes may undergo stages of increased awkwardness during the maturation process.
Adults who engage in large training volumes tend to suppress the effectiveness of their immune systems and therefore can be more susceptible to infections. This has not yet been studied extensively among children, but because infectious diseases often affect the young (and the elderly) more profoundly than adults, special care should be taken to avoid training loads that could adversely affect the immune system. Similarly, increases in cortisol (which are associated with stress) can stimulate collagen synthesis in the short term, but prolonged treatment with related compounds (gluccocorticoids) restrains it. This suggests that overstress may negatively impact collagen growth and synthesis.
Some of the keys to safety and effective training for youngsters are:
1. Never permit the very young athlete to attempt a maximum or near maximum weight;
2. Teach proper technique and require that such technique always be employed;
3. Inculcate a desire to learn proper technique at the outset;
4. Convey the message that overall progress will actually occur more rapidly if the athlete trains with lighter loads than if he or she trains with heavier ones;
5. Emphasize that lifting without proper supervision in unacceptable and that weights are not toys;
6. Develop an understanding in the athlete that competition and attempting heavy weights at this stage are unimportant. What is important for the athlete is to lay a foundation of sound general physical preparation and perfect technique, so that championship weights can eventually be lifted (this is the method used by the champions).
In summary, the following guidelines should be followed when training prepubescent athletes in the sport of weightlifting:
1. The training of young athletes should emphasize the development of general physical qualities and not overemphasize weightlifting.
2. Training should be limited in volume and intensity. (Beginners neither require nor benefit from excessive loading, and in children the risks of such loading make it even more important that moderation be stressed.)
3. The training load should be only gradually increased, and the increase should be cyclical in nature, so that there is an overall increase but high and low loads are interspersed throughout the training process.
Athletes should be carefully evaluated and monitored to identify those at increased risk for injury or those who have any negative reaction to training (e.g., delayed menarche). The biological, psychological and emotional age should be considered along with the chronological age in planning the training. In sports which have a relatively high incidence of certain kinds of injuries, athletes should be monitored and examined frequently to assure that no injury is being incurred. This is particularly important for those who have a physical characteristic which places them at increased risk. Careful instruction in technique and modification for individual needs are required in order to develop skills that are both safe and efficient for that athlete.
When training young athletes, the emphasis should be on the development of a love for the sport and for training. Such a foundation will carry a lifter much further than any physical capabilities that are developed through early training.
Weightlifting And The Mature Athlete
While weightlifting has not yet been widely accepted as an activity for more mature athletes, its popularity has grown dramatically over the past decade. Weightlifters participating longer and at higher levels than ever before as our understanding of the training process improves. Contrary to popular beliefs, you are never too old to begin or continue resistance training. Quite the contrary. The older one gets the more essential it becomes to train if one wants to maintain a satisfactory level of functioning. However, in order for one to cope with the aging process one must understand it.
Losses in Physiological Functioning with Aging
With aging come a number of physiological changes which influence an athlete’s performance in training and competition. For example, the body’s ability to regulate homeostasis (the maintenance of a relatively stable state within the body) declines. As a result, more time is needed to adjust to changes in activity levels, and more rest is needed to perform the same tasks. With aging, muscle fibers are lost (up to 30% of fibers may be lost by age eighty), and this loss occurs to a greater extent in white than in red muscle fibers. The remaining fibers lose tension, generating myofibrils, which leads to a reduction in muscle fiber diameter. (“Fast twitch” fibers atrophy earlier than “slow twitch” fibers.) There is a lower absolute maximum aerobic capacity and strength level as an athlete grows older, but most of this change can be explained by the change that is occurring in lean body mass. This loss of lean body mass may be the result of reduced synthesis of new muscle proteins, a loss of motor neurons (which contributes to atrophy) and reduction in the synthesis of acetylcholine (which reduces efficiency of muscle contractions).
The percentage of body fat in men tends to increase dramatically with aging, nearly doubling from age twenty-five to age seventy-five. Part of this change is due to in increase in fat deposits, but most of it is probably due a loss of muscle tissue. Women begin with a significantly greater percentage of body fat, but the change with aging is far smaller (approximately a 33% increase in the percentage of body fat), probably because they have less muscle mass (as a percentage of body mass)to lose.
Basal metabolism drops 1% to 3% each decade from age three through age eighty. After age thirty, this reduction in the metabolic rate is believed to be primarily due to the normal decline in lean body mass.
The losses in aerobic and anaerobic power that occur with aging are far smaller among people who exercise vigorously than those who do not. For instance, research has revealed that cardiovascular fitness and a number of other markers of aging are similar in highly trained women who are in their seventies and untrained women in their twenties. Therefore, it appears that many aspects of the general decline that is normally attributed to aging are due at least as much to a reduction in activity as to aging itself. It is believed that the gradual decline in skeletal and cardiac muscle tissue can be reduced by at least 50% if the athlete continues to exercise vigorously.
Exercise produces less of an absolute training effect in older athletes (although the rate of improvement experienced by older athletes can rival that of younger ones). Hypertrophy, strength increases and other physiological adaptations to training are still possible in older athletes with proper training. However, because the older person is starting with lower levels of physiological functioning, the absolute levels of performance he or she can expect to achieve are not a great as those of the younger athlete. But the greatest joy in training is improving and that is possible for healthy athletes of any age.
Training and the Mature Athlete
Weightlifters and other athletes often lose their commitment to their sport as they grow older (although this has probably been less true of weightlifters than most other athletes). However, with the advent of “masters” competitions for athletes who are considered to be too old to be truly competitive in the open divisions of their sports (typically athletes 40 and older, but younger in some cases) and the current fitness rage, many more athletes stay with their sports to rather advanced ages. (In the sport of weightlifting, masters competitions begin at age 35 and proceed in five-year age brackets, e.g., 35 to 39, 40 to 44, and these brackets continue through the 80’s or even later, depending on the organization governing the event).
The human body tends to undergo significant changes during the aging process. But, perhaps to an even greater degree than in the process of maturation (which can vary from individual to individual), the rate and nature of the aging process differs, at least in some respects, from person to person. The complex effects of aging make training the older athlete a challenging process. The athlete who has responded in a certain way to training for many years can gradually find himself or herself reacting in quiet different ways as he or she ages. Some athletes will respond to those changes by redoubling their efforts, in hopes that extra effort will help them to outpace the aging process. Other athletes merely accept what they see as an inevitable decline and lose their commitment to continued progress. The more successful athletes will search for training modifications that will compensate for the effects of aging. In effect, the challenge of aging can trigger an entire new wave of creativity to address the altered responses to training that are brought on by aging. On the basis of my experience and that of others I have observed, it is clear that many lifters can perform far better than they think they can and for far longer if they make appropriate adjustments in their training. On the other hand, failing to heed the warnings that the body is providing about how it is being affected by aging can lead to unnecessarily shortened careers, or at least make those careers far less pleasant.
Physiological changes due to aging lead to slower recuperation from training and slower recovery times from injuries and inflammations, decreased flexibility, stiffening of the joints and muscles in between bouts of activity and a greater likelihood of developing a wide variety of health problems. Increases in the time needed to recuperate from a heavy workout can be dealt with by performing heavy workouts less frequently. (As I indicated earlier in this book, in my younger days I could recuperate from a heavy squat workout in a week, while today I need ten days to recover from the same level of training stress.) Slower recovery times can be overcome by an increased use of therapeutic modalities and other restorative methods, but the most practical way of dealing with slower recovery rates is to plan your training even more carefully, so that overtraining and consequent overuse injuries are avoided.
Exercising care to avoid overtraining and fatigue prior to a competition is particularly important for the older athlete. Joints and muscles do not recuperate as rapidly from a maximum effort, particularly in the classic lifts. Consequently, the athlete must complete his or her heavy sessions further in advance of the competition than a younger athlete. Added rest will benefit the older athlete’s nervous system as well as the athlete’s muscles since many older athletes find it more difficult to get “up” to lift, and find their nervous systems take longer to recuperate from a maximal effort than it did when they were younger.
Mike Huszka, who tied for first and lost to the great Alexander Kurinov on bodyweight at the 1963 World’s Championships (Mike represented the Hungarian team at that time but emigrated to the US in the late 1960’s) has performed at a higher level for a longer time than virtually any other athlete in weightlifting history (he has also been a coach of some of the US’s best lifters).
As a many time World Masters Champion and often the winner of the “best lifter” title as well, he has learned to adapt his training to the to changes that aging has imposed on his body. In a recent article in International Olympic Lifter magazine, Mike provided his advice on preparing for a competition as a Master lifter.
First, Mike suggests that an athlete must be fully recovered from his or her workouts prior to the competition by the day of the competition. According to Mike, arriving at such a state is dependent on what the athlete has done during the two weeks before the competition.
Huszka does not go above 70% of maximum in the classic lifts during the last two weeks before the competition. In his strength and power exercises, Mike uses between 80% and 90% of his maximum two weeks out of the competition, applying 80-100% effort on each lift. He feels that by performing his lifts with the greatest speed possible gives him a positive last minute training effect. The week before the competition, weights on the power exercises are reduced to 70% of maximum. During that week Mike performs power snatches and power cleans, military presses and squats with no training on the classic lifts at all. He does a significant amount of stretching before, during and after his workouts and continually massages his muscles during his workouts.
His last workout before the competition is three days out. During that workout he lifts only 40 kg. for 4-5 singles focusing on speed. Mike emphasizes that after 45 years in competition he knows what he can do and does not have to prove himself in training. For instance, he knows that if he can power snatch 70 kg. for 3 reps in training he can start with 90 kg. in the competition. Naturally, a good diet, appropriate supplementation, rest and relaxation all play a role in competition preparation.
It is interesting to note that Tommy Kono has advocated some training techniques that are similar to Mike’s for older athletes. Tommy has indicated that toward the end of his competitive career, which came in his late thirties, he often rested from the classic lifts altogether for two weeks prior to competition, training on bodybuilding exercises instead. According to Tommy, these exercises maintained his strength but gave his nervous system a well needed rest and made him very hungry to lift at the competition.
I have had similar experiences in my training and, even relied on pulls and squats to maintain my strength before successful competitions when I was younger (heavy classic lifts took a great deal out of my nervous system so pulls and squats maintained the strength and power while giving my mind a rest).
Perhaps the most extreme case of using pulls and squats to prepare for a competition comes from Ben Green, who in addition to having coached some of the US’s best athletes has been one of the top Master lifters in the world. Ben snatched more than 300 pounds for the first time in his life when he was 42 years of age. He had been training for about a quarter of a century to achieve that goal. Making a lifetime personal record at 42 (when one has trained since ones teenage years) is a remarkable enough achievement, but it is even more so when one considers that Ben snatched more than 60 kg. only once in his preparations for his record breaking performance. Instead he relied entirely on pulls to a height gauge in his snatch training.
Ben was unable to perform the classic lifts in training because of two knee injuries that he sustained while in college (they were unrelated to weightlifting). These injuries caused his knees to swell up whenever he did the competition lifts (or anything else stressful on the knees) so Ben was forced to develop his unique approach to training in order to continue to compete.
While Ben hardly advocates his program for other athletes, with enormous thought, dedication and courage, he arrived at a means for coping with his limitations. That is why Ben is one of the finest coaches in the US and why lifters flock to him for advice. If he figured out a way to perform at such a high level with few of the tools that are available to most athletes, imagine what he can do with athletes who have no such limitations.
Decreases in flexibility that normally occur with age can be dealt with by paying more attention to performing mobility exercises. A tendency to lose elasticity in the muscles and joints between sets can be dealt with by performing gentle mobility exercises or other light activity between sets of exercises with the bar. Health problems can be dealt with by seeking the advice of a health professional who is familiar with the challenges of activity for adults with health problems. Any athlete with arthritic, cardiorespiratory, neuromuscular, endocrine, metabolic or psychological disorders should exercise special caution when engaging in resistance training, and this is particularly true for the older athlete.
The older athlete is more prone to such disorders than the younger athlete and he or she may be unaware that such a problem exists. Therefore, the older athlete should have a thorough physical before beginning or continuing any strenuous exercise program. Should a limiting condition exist, a special program needs to be developed by a health professional who is trained in dealing with patients who have medical problems.
Summary
Women are just as strong, pound for pound of muscular body weight, as men, and they are just as capable of achieving success in weightlifting when they are matched with competitors who have similar lean body masses at same body weight (generally, other women). The desire to be strong and physically well developed is as “natural” for women as it is for men, but certain genetic differences between men and women (e.g., lower testosterone levels in women) will prevent most women from achieving the same degree of muscular development as most men. Therefore, women weightlifters will not look like men, but, rather, like strong women with firm and shapely muscles. There are no physical differences related to gender that make it inappropriate for women to lift heavy weights (except during pregnancy).
Athletes of any age and gender can enjoy and benefit from the practice of weightlifting. Pre-pubescent athletes should never train with heavy weights for medical (avoiding injury and any interference with growth) and practical reasons (young athletes improve their strength with light weights more quickly than they do when they lift heavier weights). Technique, safety and the development of overall athletic qualities should always be stressed with young athletes, and they should always be carefully supervised in their training.
Resistance training is more important for older people than younger people because only through such training can older people retain much of the strength and muscular development that they had in their youth. However, older athletes need to exercise more care in their training. Older athletes do not recuperate as quickly from their training. They are more subject to injury and slower to heal when they are injured, so they must be especially careful in observing the rules of proper programming. No one is too old to begin training, but no one can or should make up for years of inactivity by a sudden increase in activity. Older athletes need to go through the developmental process of training every bit as much , if not more so, as young athletes. Middle-aged and elderly people should only begin resistance training with the approval of their physicians. Those with health problems must adapt their training to their physical limitations with the help of the appropriate health professional.
Weightlifting has something for everyone, regardless of age or gender. Who, whether male or female and regardless of age, does not want to be strong and have well developed and shapely muscles? You can have all of that and more through proper training. You need only apply intelligence and effort to the training process. A discussion of achieving top performance in weightlifting would not be complete if it did not cover the nutritional needs of athletes in general and weightlifters in particular. That is the subject of the next chapter.