One of the main reasons some teenagers get into trouble is a lack of discipline. The teenage years are tricky for parents: it’s important to let teenagers experience more independence than they had as children, but sometimes the new-found independence leads to discipline problems. Just how much independence the teenager should be given at which point, and in which area of her life, is impossible to predict with certainty. And once the independence has been given, taking it back only breeds resentment in the teenager.
Building muscle and discipline
But there’s another solution: instill some additional discipline in the form of an assignment – a strength training routine is an excellent choice. It improves your teen’s health, teaches her discipline, gives her an outlet for working out frustrations, and teaches her that her health is something she has the ability to control through her actions. And if your teen understands that building muscle will mean looking more fit and/or being able to eat more without gaining weight, he or she may even develop some enthusiasm for strength training.
Building muscle also builds self-esteem in both girls and boys. Feeling strong engenders a sense of confidence. Kids develop better feelings about their bodies and selves, and may gain the confidence to try new things such as dancing or sports – or even applying for a school they previously thought would never accept them. Strength training in a gym environment can lead kids to learn about teamwork, which will serve them well throughout life.
Strength training and girls
Boys have long been encouraged to get into strength training to build confidence, help them perform well in sports and improve their physiques. But only in recent years have we begun to encourage women, let alone girls, to develop muscle. There used to be a lot of myths about strenuous exercise being somehow unhealthy for girls, or causing them to develop bulky muscles. I’m sure some people still believe those myths, so:
Should you start a teenage girl on a strength training workout? Absolutely! Not just for all the reasons listed above, but also because:
- Girls are inundated with messages about how “skinny” they must be to garner social approval or rate get a second glance from boys.
- Girls are pressured to see themselves as not-quite-adequate no matter how skinny they are. This is why girls who are perfectly slim often think they are fat, or start to worry about the shape of their noses or the size of their breasts or their hair.
- As I said above, building physical strength builds emotional confidence. As girls increase physical strength, they learn to feel better about their ability to face a sometimes hostile or difficult world.
- Strength training gives girls a new metric by which to judge their bodies and their abilities. Girls who spend time focusing on how many sets they can do, or how big a weight they can lift, or how their strength training is developing a nice muscle tone in their arms have less time to worry about meeting impossibly beauty ideals from the media.
Filed in Strength Training
Updated: April 7, 2011
Copyright: April 7, 2011
