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Youth Training for Girls

<<My 14 year old daughter is trying to get ready for softball in the spring. She's a high school freshman - (freshgirl?freshwoman?). Since under 16 can't work with me in the gym, I bought a flat bench and some light db's, along with a new jump rope. I thought to start with light weight and hi reps for chest/shoulder/back and bodyweight resistance along with lots of cardio. Will what you suggested to Og for the 13 y.o. boy work the same for my daughter? She has 3 older brothers so I'm in uncharted waters for me with the daughter. THANX! Ed.>>

Daughter's no different than the sons in terms of beginning weight training. (I first typed "daughter's no different that the sons" and stopped. Realized pretty quickly I'd get some razzing over that.)

Does what I wrote to Og look somewhat like what you did with the boys? I just wrote out a workout that I'd show a complete beginner doing their very first workout, with the main variable being how much weight to use. Start light, light light. With the boys, it's more likely that you had to hold them back from using too much weight; with the girls, they'll pretty much do what you tell them in the weight room - for a while anyway. My understanding is the girls are much easier to train as beginners since they have no preconceived notion of muscles and weights, whereas boys want to bench press and curl. (That's all, and it has to be heavy and they want to be BIG today.)

I should tell you, Ed, that I don't even have kids, so others may be able to help more. Just the same, the workouts don't need to be any different male or female.

See ya, Laree

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