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Weightlifting is for all ages.

How old is that young man?  How much weight is he lifting?  I was always given to understand that it wasn't wise for a youngster to lift weights.  Care to debunk that?  I was told it would give them hernias.

Kudos go to him, and the picture is well taken!

It certainly looks as though he's lifting more than his own weight! 

      This boy is lifting well over his bodyweight. He couldn't have been weighing more than 80lbs. He is lifting between 110 and 120 lbs. People have said that its not good for kids to lift because it stunts their growth. There is absolutely no scientific evidence to support this claim. What Olympic Weightlifting does for kids is that it helps them with motor skills for other sports such as football baseball basketball or hockey or any sport whatsoever. A Snatch (One of our two competition lifts) Is literally one of the most difficult movements in all of sport. The Clean and Jerk (What this boy is doing) is pretty difficult too. I equate it to trying to master and build up to a 500 lb golf swing. Learning these lifts helps you to be quicker, faster and stronger in any sport ( Some of our best female lifters are ex gymnasts).
    What Weightlifting also does is train the nervous system. There is a window between 9 years old and about fifteen years old where the nervous system mature and you can build it up. The nervous system is very important in all of sports. The faster your brain can send the message to the muscles to contract the faster and stronger the athlete will be. At this age you are training the nervous system more so than the muscles. Now Bodybuilding is far different. The earliest a youngster should do that is about 15 or 26 years old. You are training the muscles more than you are training your nervous system, thatr could actually hurt a child. Most of the guys that win the Mr/ Ms Olympia are i their thirties and fourties. Arnold Schwartzenegger looked his best in his fourties.
     As far as safety measures for training youngsters is to teach them the technique and be focused on it. To do this you need a good competent coach. This is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing you need in this sport especially when you have a lifter this young. In the United States this is hard to come by. Still they are around. Go to www.usaweightlifting.org and they have a list of clubs and coaches to teach your child to lift. Also one of the most important areas for a child that young to train is their abdominal and back muscles. The stronger those muscles are the less likely they get hernias.
     Recently there have been books, papers, and dissertations on this topic. It is currently a hot topic in excercise science. Forgive me fo writing a dissertation on this, but weightlifting is one the things Iam passionate about. I am looking to start a club myself and coach in the very near future.
     

Good for you.   Thank you for the explanation.