Whats a good age to push weight training?

i think some exercises are ok. form over weight when you're young is always key. and i would not advise anything heavy.

but i've always read that, because the shoulder joints aren't ready for it, overhead exercises should not be done before the age of 12.
i'm sure that that probably differs from kid to kid, as we all grow/mature at different times and rates, but i would advise no overhead before jh.

having said that, although i've been involved with weights since i was 10-12 years old, coached it and competed, i am far from an expert. i'm sure there's some nscs people on here who know what all the latest literature says. i don't.

Thanks for the in put I really appreciate it. It's amazing to me how different the opinions can be on this topic. I coach with a guy who played football for Navy, both our kids are on the team and are both 13 years old. He's an incredible athlete himself and had obviously spent a ton of time in the weight room over the years. He's the reason I posted the topic to the board. He says that he will absolutely not let his son even enter a weight room until he's a freshman in highschool... Just blows my mind how all over the place people are on this.

I drink the Jim Wendler punch. I don’t use all of it when I train my son or my athletes but I use a lot of it.

Here’s a read on how he trained his own kid when the kid was 10. www.jimwendler.com/blogs/jimwendler-com/the-summer-of-change-youth-training

I think you can start working kids pretty early if you focus on range of motion, form and conditioning.

I’m a believer in staring with plates, dumbbells, medballs and body weight movements before introducing the bar.

I trained my son in his middle school years and I didn’t let him use a bar until he could do 50 pushups, 50 straight goblet squats @ 50 lbs and a 3 minute plank. These numbers may be off a little but I think pretty accurate.

That was a good starting point for him and served him well as he got into high school. He is above average in our weightroom and one of the top three kids in his class strength wise. His squat brings him down a little because he ATG squats so his number is lower but we feel like it’s worth it. He definitely is not the recipient of great DNA athletically. He got a 4.0 gpa from his mom and a 5.4 40 from me.

My biggest point is use those younger years to build a great base and solidify the normalcy of great form and fundamentals and they will pay great dividends as they mature physically in high school.

To me they can start doing the exercising as early as possible. No weights just body weight stuff. In 6th grade or 12 or 13 yrs old they can start doing some weight but form is main thing