I get a lot of email from folks who have young daughters (or sons) interested in weight training. They worry about what they have heard of the ill effects of training too young: stunted growth, injury, impaired development, etc. However, an appropriately designed, monitored, and instructed weight training program is probably much safer for a young person than other sports and activities in which they commonly engage: football, baseball, soccer, tree climbing, skateboarding, etc. (which isn’t to say that they shouldn’t do all these things and more, but just that worry over weight training is somewhat misplaced).

Here is a link to the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s position on youth weight training, which states that weight training is a safe activity for children. [Update August 2009: See the full text of the updated 2009 statement below.]

By the way grrls, this should make you think twice about using the pink dumbbells. The Mighty Quinn is only a few weeks old and already he can use them.

For young women in particular, I believe weight training is an excellent activity. Girls are very vulnerable to negative messages about their bodies as they enter adolescence. In North America, nearly a third of girls are dieting or preoccupied with their weight by the time they hit fourth grade. Obesity in young people is on the rise, accompanied by troubling health conditions such as the predecessors to heart disease and diabetes.

Weight training helps shift the focus from looks to achievement, teaches skills and self-discipline, provides a base of functional strength for sports and daily life, and gives girls a sense of positive physical accomplishment. It can be done by just about anyone, even nonathletic dorks like me, and it can be a solitary activity or done as part of a social event. Personally I hated team sports as a kid and always loved individual activities like riding my bike and hiking, but some girls prefer to do things in groups.

guidelines

There are some guidelines to follow when considering and implementing a weight training program for young people.

1. Proper supervision by adults

You don’t have to be a strength and conditioning coach to watch your kid, you just have to be aware of lifting safely and correctly. This includes serving as a spotter when necessary, ensuring that she is always working within her abilities and using proper technique, and establishing a rule that your daughter does not train potentially dangerous lifts like the bench press unless an adult is around.

Training should be fun, but trainees must also respect the risks involved, so it is wise to convey a sense of gravity and respect to the wee one; make a rule that there is no fooling around while using the weights. I think it’s great for mom and daughter to work out together if mom is also into weight training, but then again, in my early teens, I would have been, like, ohmigod, soooo grossed out if my mother was my workout partner, euw.

2. Awareness of growth and development

Girls mature at different rates, so what is appropriate for one 13-year-old might not be appropriate for another. In general, by the time a girl gets her period, she is approaching the final stages of physical growth and maturation, but the process might continue for several more years, albeit more slowly. The physically (rather than chronologically) younger the girl, the more care must be taken in order to ensure that workload is not too heavy.

3. Awareness of overall activity level

If your daughter does other activities such as organized sports, swimming lessons, etc., it is important to make sure that she has lots of time to recover. If weight training is her only activity, then she will be able to dedicate more resources to it, but should still be careful of total workload. Think of the program in holistic terms such as total hours per week, and be on the lookout for budding overload injuries. You may also choose to tailor her program to complement her other activities. I give tips on how to do this here.

4. Deal with early injury signs immediately

Weight training is very safe compared to many other sports. Ideally she will stay injury-free, but every now and again, trainees get little aches and pains, and accidents can happen. Encourage her to distinguish between soreness from a workout, and pain that signals a potential injury. She should not be told to walk off bad pain or “suck it up” if there is a real problem. Sure, it’s good to create an ethos of meeting challenges and not making a fuss over every little thing, but it is not okay to promote the idea of working through an injury which could result in permanent damage. I would like to hunt down and shoot my youngest sister’s cheerleading coach for leaving her and most of the team with major lifelong injuries such as destroyed wrists and herniated lumbar disks.

5. Start with low intensities for at least the first year

Using lower intensities (percentage of maximum) will provide a good stimulus but allow connective tissue to recover and get stronger. It will also reinforce technique. Beginners of all ages can see results from intensities as low as about 30% of max (so, if a person’s maximal squat is 100 lbs. for 1 rep, then the working weight will be 30 lbs.). But this is pretty boring to use for a weights workout.

A good intensity for a young beginner is somewhere around 50-65% of max. Since it’s not advisable to do one-rep maxes with beginners to determine their max, this will be a bit of a guesstimate and trial and error. I’d say try to shoot for a weight that is controllable and doable for 12-15 reps per set, whether or not you actually do sets of 12-15 reps (I’ll explain that a little more later). Once all sets can be completed in good form, then you can add a little weight. Weight should be increased in small increments. If you want smaller plates than the commonly available 2.5 lb., hit the local Home Depot for large washers to tape together, or get some fractional plates from PDA.

6. Substitute calisthenic-type or bodyweight exercises for weighted exercises wherever possible

These can be a fun, safe challenge, and young people often have a great time with these because they have such an optimal strength to mass ratio. When I was 12, I could scuttle up a rope like a monkey on speed. Pretty easy to do when you only weigh 75 lbs! By the way, climbing is a great activity for kids, so maybe book the indoor climbing gym for the next birthday party.

Ideas for bodyweight exercises include various types of pullups, pushups, unweighted squats and lunges, rope or wall climbing, jumps and hops (including rope jumping), hill/stair runs, and medicine ball throws. Check out Bryce’s page, Body by Fish, and Crossfit for ideas on bodyweight stuff. Pushups can stand in for bench pressing, rope jumping and hill running for calf work, horizontal pullups for rows, superman exercises for back hyperextensions, etc.

She might find the local playground too babyish, but if not, there can be cool things there to play with: horizontal ladders to swing from or do pullups on, steps or ladders to run up and down or climb using only arms, etc. Hell, I wish I had one of those near my house! I’d boot all the little toddlers off so I could do the ladder thing and walk the rope bridge, just like in the army!

7. Emphasize skill acquisition and mastery over weight

This means that proper technique is essential, and should always take precedence over adding weight. When she loses form on an exercise, that set is done. No working to failure or allowing messy reps to count. There’s always time to work with heavier weights a few years down the road. As my former art teacher used to say, “First you learn the rules, then you learn how to break them”.

Setting goals can also be a useful motivation, if that is desired (some girls won’t like it, but some will thrive on it). Goals, if they are set, should be strength-oriented (e.g. lifting X lbs. or working up to Y pushups), fitness-oriented (e.g. increasing running time or ease) or technique mastery-oriented (e.g. learning a squat properly), rather than weight loss oriented.

8. Emphasize good nutrition for athletic performance, health, and meeting of goals, rather than dieting to be skinny

I cannot overstate this point enough. Girls receive an unbelievable amount of destructive messages about their body, and they are much more receptive to this negativity in adolescence. Don’t be part of that cycle, and as much as possible, don’t exhibit that body-hating behaviour yourself. Point out that she needs to eat, and eat well, to fuel performance.

9. Be on the lookout for signs that she is training too hard

These will include disordered eating behaviour, sleep disruption, ongoing injuries, excessive weight loss, and irregular or absent menstruation (I know, I know, I can hear the anguished cries of “Mo-om!” now). She should start with weight training two to three times weekly, for about thirty minutes per session. This can be done on its own or in conjunction with other activities. Over several months the duration of the session can be increased minutes if desired, but be aware of the teenage attention span! If exercises are well chosen, it’s really not necessary to go over about 45 minutes per session.

10. Training should be fun and never a chore

It should be the child’s choice and not an obligation to please a parent. If possible, include workout “toys” such as the swiss ball, lightly weighted sandbags or sleds to pull, etc. Make sessions into games or timed circuits, if she would enjoy that. If you can stand it, let her listen to her music.

11. Young people can do challenging compound exercises such as squats, pullups, rows, presses, etc. provided that they learn good form and use a weight which is manageable

Renowned strength coach Chris Thibaudeau taught Olympic lifts to young figure skaters (and there used to be some really adorable pics of the girls still wearing their skating costumes while hauling weight around). The adult in charge will have to make a judgement call about how to teach skills based on what s/he knows about the girl’s intellectual and emotional maturity levels.

12. Use a full body routine instead of focusing on one or two body parts

It’s fine to do different parts on different days if you prefer to organize training that way, but make sure everything gets some attention in the course of the cycle. Kids need to learn motor control and coordination more than they need to work on their upper pecs.

13. Use free weights and body weight

Because she may have a smaller body than the average adult, free weights and bodyweight/calisthenic activities are probably a better choice for most exercises than machines, which are often too big for a teen’s body (hell, some are too big for my body). Free weights allow her to adapt the movement to her own needs. If you are concerned about barbells, there are lighter ones available, and/or she can use dumbbells for many things. A complicated setup isn’t necessary for a great workout.

sample workout

Here’s a sample workout I suggested for a teenage girl interested in throwing sports (shotput and discus), to augment her beginner technique training in that sport. It would work well as a general beginner routine, though. This could be done 2-3 days weekly, alternating Day 1 and 2. Notice that although a couple of exercises are done with 5 reps per set, it doesn’t mean that her 5-rep-max weight is used.

Day 1

1. Deadlift to shrug on toes, 5 x 5 @ 50-65% of max
2. Pushups, 3 x as many as possible (once these get really easy for her, have
   her elevate her feet, and once those get easy, have her try them one-handed
   or do clapping pushups)
3. Squat jumps, 3 x 10-15 (these are done unweighted; squat down, jump up as
   high as possible, land and immediately drop down into the squat position
   again, jump up, etc.)
4. Ab exercise of choice, 2 sets
5. Rope jumping 5-10 min, or hill/stair run, 10 min

Day 2

1. Front squat to overhead press 5 x 5 @ 50-65% of max (using clean grip, do a front squat, then return to standing position, drop elbows and press bar up overhead, return bar to clean grip position across collarbones, front squat, etc.)
2. One-arm dumbbell row 3 x 12-15
3. Close-grip bench press (close grip pushups are another fun challenge if she
   likes) 2 x 12-15
4. Ab exercise of choice, 2 sets
5. Rope jumping 5-10 min, or hill/stair run, 10 min

Faigenbaum, AD, Kraemer, WJ, Blimkie, CJR, Jeffreys, I, Micheli, LJ, Nitka, M, and Rowland, TW. Youth resistance training: Updated position statement paper from the National Strength and Conditioning Association. 2009.

Current recommendations suggest that school-aged youth should participate daily in 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity that is developmentally appropriate and enjoyable and involves a variety of activities (219). Not only is regular physical activity essential for normal growth and development, but also a physically active lifestyle during the pediatric years may help to reduce the risk of developing some chronic diseases later in life (196).

In addition to aerobic activities such as swimming and bicycling, research increasingly indicates that resistance training can offer unique benefits for children and adolescents when appropriately prescribed and supervised (28,66,111,139,147,234). The qualified acceptance of youth resistance training by medical, fitness, and sport organizations is becoming universal (5,6,8,12,18,33,104,167,192,215).

Nowadays, comprehensive school-based programs are specifically designed to enhance health-related components of physical fitness, which include muscular strength (169). In addition, the health club and sport conditioning industry is getting more involved in the youth fitness market. In the U.S.A., the number of health club members between the ages of 6 and 17 years continues to increase (127,252) and a growing number of private sport conditioning centers now cater to young athletes. Thus, as more children and adolescents resistance train in schools, health clubs, and sport training centers, it is imperative to determine safe, effective, and enjoyable practices by which resistance training can improve the health, fitness, and sports performance of younger populations.

The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) recognizes and supports the premise that many of the benefits associated with adult resistance training programs are attainable by children and adolescents who follow age-specific resistance training guidelines. The NSCA published the first position statement paper on youth resistance training in 1985 (170) and revised this statement in 1996 (72).

The purpose of the present report is to update and clarify the 1996 recommendations on 4 major areas of importance. These topics include (a) the potential risks and concerns associated with youth resistance training, (b) the potential health and fitness benefits of youth resistance training, (c) the types and amount of resistance training needed by healthy children and adolescents, and (d) program design considerations for optimizing long-term training adaptations.

The NSCA based this position statement paper on a comprehensive analysis of the pertinent scientific evidence regarding the anatomical, physiological, and psychosocial effects of youth resistance training. An expert panel of exercise scientists, physicians, and health/physical education teachers with clinical, practical, and research expertise regarding issues related to pediatric exercise science, sports medicine, and resistance training contributed to this statement. The NSCA Research Committee reviewed this report before the formal endorsement by the NSCA.

For the purpose of this article, the term children refers to boys and girls who have not yet developed secondary sex characteristics (approximately up to the age of 11 years in girls and 13 years in boys; Tanner stages 1 and 2 of sexual maturation). This period of development is referred to as preadolescence. The term adolescence refers to a period between childhood and adulthood and includes girls aged 12-18 years and boys aged 14-18 years (Tanner stages 3 and 4 of sexual maturation). The terms youth and young athletes are broadly defined in this report to include both children and adolescents.

By definition, the term resistance training refers to a specialized method of conditioning, which involves the progressive use of a wide range of resistive loads and a variety of training modalities designed to enhance health, fitness, and sports performance. Although the term resistance training, strength training, and weight training are sometimes used synonymously, the term resistance training encompasses a broader range of training modalities and a wider variety of training goals. The term weightlifting refers to a competitive sport that involves the performance of the snatch and clean and jerk lifts.

This article builds on previous recommendations from the NSCA and should serve as the prevailing statement regarding youth resistance training. It is the current position of the NSCA that:

1. A properly designed and supervised resistance training program is relatively safe for youth.

2. A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can enhance the muscular strength and power of youth.

3. A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can improve the cardiovascular risk profile of youth.

4. A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can improve motor skill performance and may contribute to enhanced sports performance of youth.

5. A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can increase a young athlete's resistance to sports-related injuries.

6. A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can help improve the psychosocial well-being of youth.

7. A properly designed and supervised resistance training program can help promote and develop exercise habits during childhood and adolescence.

(C) 2009 National Strength and Conditioning Association

• genetics: if mom has osteoporosis, you are also at risk
• age: risk increases with age
• menopausal status: menopause initiates changes in hormone levels which eventually can decrease bone density (by the way, improving bone density post-menopause is one useful application of testosterone supplementation)
• smoking: you all know you shouldn’t smoke, so I don’t have to tell you
• history of drastic dieting: this takes its toll on your bones
• high caffeine intake
• corticosteroid use (e.g. Prednisone)
• thyroid disorders
• body composition: if you are too thin, especially if you have been amenorrheic (your periods have stopped) for lengths of time, this increases your risk

Osteoporosis and osteopenia are distinguished by the degree of bone density present. Healthy bone looks like havarti cheese: mostly solid with a few little pores here and there. Bone that has lost its density resembles Swiss cheese that’s been left in the sun: giant holes predominate and it seems that only a few strands of solid matter are holding it all together.

We tend to think of bone as inert, sort of like a Tinkertoy construction that holds our bodies together. In fact, bone is a responsive tissue that reacts constantly to the demands imposed on it. It is always breaking down and remodelling itself. Astronauts exposed to zero-G rapidly lose muscle tone and bone density, while weight training improves bone density. Much of the bone loss associated with “normal” aging is simply a result of poor nutrition, inappropriate lifestyle choices, and lack of proper activity.

A fitness/diet strategy aimed at bone density health and osteoporosis must incorporate the following things:

• Weight bearing exercise (to improve functional strength and bone density)
• Balance and stability training (to prevent falls)
• Adequate vitamins and minerals, particularly calcium, but also magnesium and vitamin D (to provide the building materials for bone, and to help calcium be absorbed)
• A diet that is not hypocaloric (taking in fewer calories than the body needs) for long periods of time, and a bodyweight that is healthy, not underweight

The rest of this article will deal with the first and second components, and discuss how to put together a fitness program that will give you bones of titanium!

weight bearing exercise

Well, duh, we should know by now that that’s weight training. But what kind of weight training is best? Ideally, your workout should include movements that load the bone along its length. That means a squat is better than a leg extension, for example. The weight in a squat is transmitted down along the spine, through the hip, and down along the bones of the leg. The weight in a leg extension is transmitted across the shinbone, and mostly just puts pressure on the knee joint. Most types of presses, such as bench presses, pushups, and overhead presses, are another good choice for bone loading.

A second type of weight bearing exercise is impact exercise. This can be walking, running, jumping, skipping rope, hitting a heavy bag, or any other type of plyometric exercise like clapping pushups. This is also good to incorporate into a workout.

One study found that even a single bout of high-impact exercise can increase bone turnover. Study participants jumped up and down until they were exhausted. Afterwards, markers of bone formation (procollagen type I amino terminal propeptide [P1NP] and bone resorption (carboxyterminal crosslinked telopeptide [CTx]) were both elevated, signifying that the body was busily fixing the damage and rebuilding the bones to be stronger.

Rantalainen, Timo, et al. Short-term bone biochemical response to a single bout of high-impact exercise. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2009) 8, 553 – 559.

While other forms of exercise like swimming, yoga, and tai chi are also good for you in general, fun to do, and can help train balance (see below), they don’t provide the same kind of loading that weight training and impact activities do. Indeed, a recent study found that cyclists had surprisingly reduced bone density despite plenty of exercise, because cycling doesn’t really load the bones along their length — the combo of training plus lack of bone loading led to significant problems. So, feel free to do these types of activities, but just make sure to do the bone-loading stuff at least twice a week.

what’s right for me?

Your existing level of fitness and bone density will determine your exercise choice. If you’re a bit older, a bit less fit, and/or already showing signs of degeneration, don’t start right off with two-metre plyometric depth jumps or pounding a cement wall. Start with lighter versions of the recommended types of exercises. Avoid excessive rounding of the spine, especially under load.

Level 3 would be done by someone who is already fit, and interested in prevention. You may find that you can’t progress past Level 1, or Level 2, but that’s okay. The main thing is that you do at least something. I’ve suggested some ideas below. These aren’t the only exercises you should do, of course, but you should include at least a few of them.

There are many ways to integrate these into a workout. You can do a conditioning-type workout where you do them all at once, in a circuit (e.g. jump rope 1 min, 10 pushups, jump rope 1 min, 10 squat jumps, jump rope 1 min, 10 walking lunges, repeat). Or you can just make sure to put one or more movements into your workouts, 2-4 times weekly.

balance training

As we age, if we do not train it, we lose our balance. Falls are one of the chief dangers for people with osteoporosis, and loss of bone density combined with loss of balance presents a very risky situation. However, balance, like other physical qualities, can be trained. Regular free weight exercises such as squats, deadlifts, Olympic lifts and their variations, and performing exercises standing (e.g. standing press) are all a big help. But there are lots of other ways to train for balance. One of the best ways I know is martial arts. If you are a Level 1 – Level 2 person, something like tai chi, yoga, or even dancing might be better. Below I’ve listed some ideas for training your balance, again sorted into levels of difficulty.

There are exercises here called “perturbation stimulus”. This means putting yourself into a position which is a bit unbalanced, then having someone else supply further instability by pushing you. You are then forced to respond. Make sure your partner is gentle initially and doesn’t shove you. Gentle pushing and pulling will be fine. All you need the partner to do is unbalance you enough so that you have to respond.

This is a personal story of how I created a hybrid training protocol with punching bags to strengthen weak tendons. I have some unique genetics. I am big in back and legs, but small in arms and shoulders. The net effect of this is that I am strong in some movements and weak in others. I have always had problems with my forearms. After any kind of physical work or a workout my forearms would be sore for days. This greatly affected my ability to continue work or workouts. The tendons were definitely the weak area of my forearms and slow to heal. The tendons in my forearms just did not seem to get stronger even when I trained using the usual forearm exercises. The solution to my problem came about in a most unusual manner.

I was interviewing a number of martial art schools in the area. I had a very interesting conversation with one gung fu instructor who built some innovative training equipment to train his students. He was a good teacher and the equipment obviously did perform the tasks that he designed them for. He also had some unique theories about exercise and conditioning. Although intrigued, I did not feel that this was what I wanted to do just then. So I talked to some of his students and went on to do other things.

Several months latter I was reading a book by Fred Hatfield (Dr Squat) in which he described in detail how he used plyometrics to increase strength in various lifts. I know the use of plyometrics for this purpose is very controversial. You would never catch me doing the exercises that were mentioned in the Hatfield book. They just seemed too risky. But in the middle of this material was the little gem that certain kinds of shock, particularly very short, fast jerky movements could cause an increase in tendon strength.

A light bulb came on over my head!! I immediately recalled the conversations I had at the gung fu school. Some of the punching exercises that were demonstrated for me could easily be modified to accomplish the plyometric criteria that Dr Squat had presented. And I would NOT have to do them with 700 lb deadlifts!! I have had some martial arts training and I knew just what to do. I immediately ordered a Wave punching bag. This is a punching bag with a water bladder in the center of the bag. This gives the bag weight while reducing the hardness of the bag. It is much easier on the hands that a traditional punching bag. I also ordered a good pair of leather punching gloves. When the bag arrived I filled it with water and hung it in my garage.

First a little biomechanics lesson. When a punch is delivered there are two primary functions of the arm. The first function is to transfer the force generated by the body to the target. The power of the punch is directly attributable to how much of the force generated by the body is transferred to the target. This is where form comes into play and each fighting style has their own particular method of accomplishing this task.

The second task that most people are not familiar with is to transfer the force (or shock) back to the body. This is a tremendous safety issue. How the fist strikes the target, the angle of the elbow, your stance and many other factors determine your ability to deliver a punch without injuring yourself. The ideal of course is to transfer as much as force to your opponent while experiencing as little of the shock yourself as possible. A poorly thrown punch will hurt you more than your opponent.

What this gung fu instructor had pointed out to me was that certain punching techniques created unique stresses in specific parts of the body. He used this knowledge to work out special punching and striking exercises to target areas and techniques that were lagging in his students. This helped both conditioning and motor skills. This was particularly true of the arm which was my primary interest. He had created some punching exercises that could be easily modified to fullfil the plyometrics criteria Mr Hatfield had outlined in his book.

Soooo… I put the two of these together and created my own unique punching plyometrics routine.

I will now describe what is done with the punching bag. It may be hard to visualize if you have never worked out on a heavy bag before, but it is really very easy to do. Stand in front of and slightly to one side of the heavy bag. Line one fist up vertically with the center of the bag. Push the bag gently into a slow gentle swing away from you. Follow the bag with your fist. Now pull back your fist and place it near the end of the swing. Make sure your stance is solid enough to keep from getting knocked over. What you do is brace yourself and allow the bag to bump into your hand which is attached to a totally rigid body and an almost rigid arm.

Start off really gently with this. You can easily hurt yourself if you do this very hard. Keep working with the swing and various arm, foot and body positions to develop a feel for delivering a shock to different parts of the arm.

This is not an exercise for muscles or fightng technique. It is a shocking technique. If done properly it feels like a shocking vibration or an electric shock. The total purpose is to deliver just enough shock to wake up the tendons. Don’t overdo it. A few reps to any one area is all that you will need. Just keep shifting the emphasis around to different areas. You are not going for the burn or fatigue here. Just a little “electrical” stimulation.

Wear bag gloves. Be very protective of your hands. By assuming various positions you can shock different parts of the arm, shoulder, etc. Feel free to move around to get in a good position to shock the area that you want. Experiment with different hand, palm and fist positions. Always work from a solid stance as this technique can easily floor you.

Another variation of this movement is to hit the bag lightly while it is moving into your hand with a heavy force. The whole idea is to do a lousy punch. Actually many people do this technique quite spontaneously the first time they punch a heavy bag. It is often referred to as lousy bag technique!! Remember our second biomechanical function listed above is to transfer shock. You allow the body (and arm) to absorb the shock. You direct the shock to where you want it for the express purpose of increasing tendon strength.

This technique worked very well for me. I would do about three to five minutes of the punching plyometrics two or three times a week. I felt that the forearms were getting stronger. My workouts were better. But I did not have any way to test them at a real work type of task for awhile. Several weeks later I was pressed into service at a friends house where a freezer and several large, heavy cabinets needed to be moved from a basement onto a truck and unloaded at another location. Since I owed this person a big favor I could not decline. While wrestling with these big uncooperative items I kept thinking that my forearms would ache for at least a week. The next morning my back was a little sore but for the first time in my life my forearms were not totally trashed from the stresses experienced the day before. I was very happy that my home brewed punching plyometrics did exactly what I had hoped for.

It has been almost 15 years since the above events have taken place. I have shared this technique with others and continued to experiment with it. These are some of the lessons learned to date.

Take it easy!! Remember the shock is being delivered to a small area. Any more shock than what is needed, you begin to transfer the stress to other areas. This reduces the adaptive stress to the tendon. Remember, work the tendon and nothing else. This is a hard point for some people to understand. You are working tendons. And working tendons in this manner is different than almost anything else you have ever done. If you don’t do it right, you will not get the desired results. I must say for the time and effort put into this, it has produced faster results than anything else I have ever done.

The stress must be padded and movable!! The punching bag is a perfect vehicle for this type of training. Do not try this with fixed objects or straps. These have great injury potential. The same caveat applies to any form of gym equipment or weights.

You can do punching plyometrics after your regular workouts. I have seen results from as little as one workout a week to every day. I think best results are from two to three times weekly.

You can work the biceps tendon by putting a small bag up high. Strike it with the palm (or other hand positions) towards you. Keep you head out of the way!!

You can do this technique with legs as well. You can use your regular bag or go to a special horizontal kicking bag; These are readily available from a good martial arts supplier. These are particularly good for working the hip flexors. I have set up programs for ballet dancers, sprinters and running backs by having them do high knee strikes against a heavy horizontal bag. Some chain, eyebolts, ceiling rafters, a punching or kicking bag and you are in business! The chain allows you to adjust the bag to any height.

You can use this technique for many more purposes than rehabilitation of an injury. Think about it. Where could you use a little more tendon strength? Be creative. Once you understand this technique, you can figure out many kinds of movements based on your particular needs. Just find a position that you can deliver a shocking type of movement to the target area. By moving the bags to different heights, you should be able find something that works.

Look in martial arts magazine to buy various punching bags. I am sure a web search will reveal many more sources. Don’t buy junk. Buy the good stuff. Be sure to get your hand and/or foot protectors at the same time. The foam protectors do a good job.

After your tendons are in good shape, hitting or kicking the heavy bag is an excellent warm up for your workouts. Being able to hit something hard is a very useful self defense skill. Interval training on a heavy bag is an excellent aerobic workout.

I should point out that this is an unusual technique that should be done carefully and precisely. If you have an injury, definitely get a medical opinion. This will help give you the proper information to make a sound decision.

I don’t claim that this will help all problems, but it certainly helped mine. This is an unusual technique. When people observe you doing punching bag plyometrics, they want to know what you are doing. One problem that many people (including editors and publishers) have had was trying to catagorize this technique. Is it rehab, martial arts, strength training, tendon training, etc?? I just consider it to be my home grown solution to a problem. It is unusual enough that most people won’t do it. But unusual and effective has never been a problem for me.

As for my professional credentials, I have none. I am just your typical 50 year old, eclectic, pragmatic, techno-nerd farmboy. I do business research and writing. Training and nutrition are serious hobbies of mine. I train in my garage because I can’t stand commercial gyms. I also build most of my own gym equipment.

Happy punching,
Big Lee

Clubbell exercises are “the most useful and beautiful exercises introduced into physical education”, and have “vast advantages over dumbbells” for women.
—from Exercises for Ladies Calculated to Preserve and Improve Beauty, Donald Walker, 1835, cited in Clubbell Training for Circular Strength by Scott Sonnon

Ever notice how sometimes it really does seem like destiny is at work? Not long ago, I was experiencing the pleasures of sledgehammering down several walls (to be clear, dear reader, I was renovating, not attacking random walls). While in the throes of gleefully pulverizing drywall, I began to think about what a great workout this type of implement would provide for people requiring rotational strength, such as in golf, tennis, and martial arts. Weighted at one end, the sledgehammer provided an unequal load, and swung in a circular, cross-body motion, it provided plenty of work for arms, back, shoulders, and midsection. I began thinking about how I could incorporate this type of unevenly weighted implement into my own and clients’ workouts. I read up on sledgehammer training in Mike Hartle’s excellent series (links to this below). But much as I loved my trusty little sledge, at the time I didn’t have any room for whacking it into truck tires in my postage-stamp-sized backyard (and I don’t care what Mike says, I’m not going outside when it’s -20C).

As it happened, shortly afterwards, I found out about clubbells.

Turns out that I had inadvertently stumbled on one of the classic training tools. Strong men and women had trained for hundreds of years using some kind of implement with a handle and a weighted end. The most notable examples come from Asia and the Middle East, but Western athletes and wrestlers also used them in their training. There are many applications of this type of tool: martial arts, tennis, golf, baseball, any sport with a rotational and/or upper body component.

That was good enough for me. I had to have them. Clubbells can be ordered from the website at http://www.rmax.tv. Coach Scott Sonnon has produced a variety of clubbells, along with information resources. One thing I immediately liked was the range of weights available, from five to forty-five pounds. With clubbells, you want to err on the side of much less weight than you think you can manage. Ten pounds doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re swinging it in one hand, it suddenly feels like two hundred. After some discussion about correct sizing, Sonnon suggested I try both the five and ten pound versions. This proved to be a good idea. The five pounder was ideal for the lighter swinging motions, while I could manage the ten pounder for easier exercises like cleans. The difficulty of the clubbell can also be adjusted by the hand placement on the handle: the closer to the weighted end you grip, the easier it is, and vice versa.

The clubbells arrived before the instructional materials, so for a couple of days the clubbells sat around our house not doing much of anything. We took to referring to them as “snake whacking sticks”, after the Simpsons episode about Snake Whacking Day. When the video and book appeared, a friend and I sat down while waiting for delivery pizza to watch Sonnon in action. We were immediately enthralled. The pizza was forgotten (hetero grrls, it’s worth mentioning that Sonnon does the entire video shirtless). When food arrived, we nearly ignored it as we were excitedly trying to master the clubbell clean.

Morning exercise with Indian clubs. Budapest, circa 1910

The video is basic. No fancy production values here. Just Sonnon and a clubbell. I appreciated the fact that Sonnon is a bit of a SafetyFascist^TM. Throughout the video he indicates how to apply proper lifting techniques with the clubbells, and which exercises are considered advanced or contraindicated for people with various limitations. The video is more useful than the book in this regard, since it’s always so much easier to understand an exercise when one sees it demonstrated. The book provides more of a history of clubbell use, as well as details of how to integrate clubbell work into a training program, both in general and for particular sports. It’s clear from the book that Sonnon has read many of the significant authors in the field of strength training: Zatsiorsky, Bompa, Siff, et al.

Folks with some background in Olympic weightlifting will pick up many exercises rapidly, though likely martial artists will also grasp the concepts quickly. The key to clubbell lifting is using strong parts to provide the drive for the lift, and weak parts to do the supporting work. This is not unlike Olympic lifting or martial arts, where the momentum for a clean comes from the legs, and a punch is driven from the hips, not the arms. At first it appears that the exercises are putting a fair bit of strain on delicate joints. But when you understand this principle of using the stronger parts to drive the movement, you begin to see that the exercises are quite biomechanically appropriate.

The five and ten pound clubbells, sitting innocuously in my study. They've told me that they think the canoe paddle next to them is really cute. I'm a bit afraid to leave the three of them alone in case they get up to something weird.

For example, the cast-type exercises, such as the head cast, at first look like a recipe for rotator cuff damage. This is because the temptation is to try to extend the arm and bring the club forward by pushing the forearm up while relaxing the shoulder and allowing it to drift into hyperextension. However, it becomes apparent that in fact, the shoulder girdle and upper arm, with stabilization from the lats, serratus, and pecs, are what provide the drive. Everything around the shoulder is held tight and stable. The forearm is almost an afterthought, finally extended at the end of the “whiplash” chain which was initiated by much stronger body parts. Sonnon is also pretty explicit, though, that if shoulder pain is experienced, certain exercises should not be performed.

Many strength training implements have a butch “anti-aesthetic” aesthetic: they’re gray metal, not much attention is given to their design, and they’re meant to be stored in the garage. The clubbell, in contrast, is visually pleasing: clean lines, the right diameter to the handle, a basic streamlined shape. It’s even, perhaps, deceptively friendly looking. Just looking at it makes one want to pick it up. And so we did. The presence of the clubbells generated immediate interest in our household, and everyone who I showed them to wanted to pick them up and play with them.

Aside from my friends, I “road tested” them with a couple of clients, a couple in their 50s who both love golf and tennis. They were also intrigued. The husband suffers from a degenerative neurological disorder known as Multiple Systems Atrophy. He is losing his balance over time, and I have tried to incorporate exercises into his program which help him focus on retaining as much of this ability as possible. Clubbells seemed like a perfect little tool for this: non-intimidating, fun, and deceptively easy. I tried him out with the basics, a simple clean to order (the order position involves holding the clubbell perpendicular to the floor, with weighted end up, like holding a baseball bat in one hand). He did this one-handed, to increase the demand for balance. It proved to be an enjoyable alternative to our regular balancing exercises, so I plan to incorporate light clubbell balance training into future work. We’ll have to wait till summer comes for overhead work, though, since he’s 6’4″ and we train in his low-ceilinged basement.

Overall, I would definitely recommend clubbells for any trainee who has advanced beyond a beginner level. For a real beginner, clubbells might be a bit much if they’re just figuring out how to get their arms and legs working together. However, for folks already participating in a sport, or familiar with the basics of weight training, clubbells are a fun, interesting challenge. Currently the clubbells are parked in a corner of my study. Every morning I pick one up and do a quick series of clean to overhead press with it. In future I will definitely integrate them into my training program to both improve upper body strength and contribute to my boxing training.

More clubbell links:

• http://bigsteel.iwarp.com/Articles2/Clubbell/ClubbellTraining.html
• Clubbell grip strength training FAQ
• http://www.trainforstrength.com/workingwithclubbells.shtml

• For the do-it-yourselfers, a fun link about making your own weighted training clubs. Perfect for those folks with no cash but who want lots of variety!
• Reader Evan writes: “I noticed the page about Clubbell training on your site, and thought you might be interested to know that Mr. Kim Taylor in Guelph is making traditional wooden Indian Clubs. Here is the link.”