The biggest discussion around people is about what the youngest age to start gymming is? Honestly, exercise is a natural movement of limbs and trunk right from the first month of life. The baby in the very first year of life, develop flexibility, power, and stamina. Crawling, running, walking and cycling are sort of gymming exercises where the muscles get exerted against resistance.
If there is no age to start cycling, running, walking, swimming in among children then why there is an age limit to start the gym. In fitness classes in Panipat, if you ever see the gym exercises, you will observe that all the movements are natural and normal in an environment. Movements like squats, chin-ups, barbell curls, front press, pushups etc. are natural bio-mechanical movements where the muscles exert against the resistance along with the biological movement of the muscle group. This leads to less pressure on joints and ligaments and strengthening of muscles.
But all this only makes sense if the activity is age appropriate, progressive and under the supervision of a trained Fitness Expert! Children between the ages of 2-5 are just learning fundamental motor skills and mobility. Their body is creating neuromuscular pathways for proper coordination. The appropriate exercise for this age group would be picking up and throwing a ball.
Children between the ages of 6-13 should be allowed to play sports but should not be limited to a single sport. That can cause boredom, the stress of excelling, lack of interest, and repetitive motion injury. Like running, for instance, is not good in excess due to repetitive motions. That can lead to weak joints and spine problems. Also, this age group should be encouraged to socialize and build up self-confidence. Lack of which might have negative Psychological effects.
Children from ages of 14-21 can be trained for strength and conditioning, but the emphasis should be on socializing and building self-esteem. They should be taught discipline and trained in a disciplined manner! While on the other hand, sports like boxing, kabbadi, wrestling and all the other ball and racket games are prone to injury if played at very high intensity. Usually, in these sports the next move is very uncertain which ligament, joint, muscle or tendon has to exert. For such sports and movements, the body has to do unorthodox movements like rowing, rotation, dorsiflexion, circumduction, pivoting etc. These movements can lead to unwanted strains and sprain if done to difficult and strength full actions. Again, if monitored and trained correctly, as is done at Gold’s Gym Panipat, children can be taught strength, mobility, endurance exercises but with proper knowledge and experience.
While the gym exercises are flexion and extensions of the muscles during the normal physiological movements, it spares the tendons, ligaments, and joints but strengthens the muscles because of accurate bio-mechanics. Children below the age of 14 lack in involvement, safety, balance, seriousness, stability, awareness, concentration and result orientation etc. which leads to unwanted injuries and drop off from gym exercises. It’s the duty of the trainer to guide them, teach them the basics of the gym, practice right movements of the exercises to the newcomers so that they learn the right techniques from the beginning and develop an interest in it, as gym exercises are slightly boring which may not attract the young one for a long time and let them leave in between.
The best activities where the advantage of the gym can be achieved is recommended around the age of 14 without any problem. At this age, the flow of hormones among men and women increase and natural growth factor is potentiated by gym exercises leading to good lean, muscular, strong, and healthy physique in men and shapely, lean healthy with good contour among women.
Be careful that children are physically and mentally healthy for gym and are under the well qualified and motivating trainers of Gold’s Gym,Panipat, a world-class, state of the art fitness studio for all your fitness, holistic wellness, and bodybuilding needs.