How young is too young to start weight training?
That's the question fans are asking after Cruz Beckham, the 12-year-old son of David and Victoria Beckham, shared a video of himself weight lifting on Instagram.
"No gains with @chasenfitness @brooklynbeckham and @danieldarri55 ????," Cruz captioned the Instagram post.
Luckily, though, we don't need to worry for Cruz's safety. If you look closely at the video, you'll see there are two people holding the sides of the weight bar. They're the ones doing the actual lifting — and if you look closely, you can see they're squatting with proper form — not Beckham himself. (That also explains why Cruz is smiling in the video, rather than straining himself with the effort of weight lifting.)
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The fact that Cruz himself isn't doing the lifting also explains the "no gain" joke in his caption. He's not bulking up if he's not actually moving the weights! Based on his tags, it looks like his brother Brooklyn and another friend are the ones doing the lifting.
As for the answer to whether kids should be doing strength training, there's no one-size-fits-all answer. If your kids are a part of team sports or take P.E. classes at school, they're probably already doing bodyweight exercises like pushups as a part of their exercise program.
Still, though, using too much weight can damage the growth plates on kids' bones, Men's Health explains. The magazine's fitness adviser Michael Meija suggests making sure kids can do bodyweight exercises safely before piling on additional weights in exercises like bench presses. But if they do have perfect form, strength training might be a safe option — just check with a professional before starting your child on a strength training program.