More Reasons why choose a Youth Fitness business
2.) Sedentary Lifestyle – Most adults that work are inactive due to desk jobs, laziness, or boredom. Unlike youngsters involved in scholastic sports, there is no structure involving financial accountability and job performance. Youth athletes benefit from a different kind of structure. They follow a routine consisting of academia, social thrivers, and sport. So if the expectation is not there, don’t expect adults to get off their couch to do something unless that are forced to.
I think I’d be splitting hairs to disagree with this point outright, but it should be noted that most teenagers also sit in desks some 5 – 6 hours per day and compound that issue with homework and TV/video game play in the evening. Professionals who don’t work with young people regularly may be quite surprised to find out how sedentary many young athletes truly are outside of their competitive season.
Having said that, I absolutely understand John’s point about sedentary lifestyles and expectations, but to a degree that point could be flipped by suggesting that adults have more incentive to ‘get fit’ due to their advancing age and sense of mortality. I’ve never met a teenager who felt concerned about their health with respect to inactivity – kids, by in large, feel themselves to be ‘bulletproof’ which can make for creating an incentive to become active very difficult.
3.) Health Issues – Most adults suffer from a host of health problems beginning with the BIG 3:
Hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes. The genesis of these ailments is inactivity which leads to obesity and overweight-ness. Although many youngsters are experiencing the same illnesses that adults experience; athletes have an ability to prevent and bounce back due to the resources available to them from their school or organization.
Great point and certainly one that can’t be considered incorrect. We are looking at a youth obesity rate of nearly 35% in the United States however (kids 5 – 18) and the entire re-classification of a disease due to its new pattern of effecting children who engage in inactive lifestyles (Adult-Onset Diabetes to Type 2).
I do agree entirely the human organism is more robust at correction when younger, however.
4.) Overweight – Obesity rates are higher than ever and that even includes today’s youth. Combined with the first 3 reasons described above, adults that are overweight suffer from other disease and medical conditions much more swiftly than younger, more active clients.
No disagreement here per say, but something worth considering on the matter is socialization.
The tightly-webbed world of youth peer-hood makes it very difficult for young people pigeon-holed as the ‘fat’, ‘lazy’ or ‘un-athletic’ ones to break those stereotypes. You could argue the alternate angle – adults are more fearful or mortality and lack the hyper-socialized peer influences that exist in school, so therefore more able to motivate themselves to become fit without the constraints of ‘what will they think?’
5.) Depression – In today’s age of mis-diagnosis-quick to prescribe medicine–adults suffer from depression due to stress from family, job, and finance. Adults lack control of their lives and suddenly retract into a dark world of misery and loneliness. With the onslaught of prescribed medicines to “combat” depression; we find that most adults really only fall further into their spiral of dark despair.
Fair point, but depression effects teenagers in disproportionally higher incidence than it ever has before. And along the lines of mis-diagnosis and over-medicated look no further than ADD, ADHD and the mass prescriptions of mood stabilizers present in today’s youth.
Youth Fitness Business Specialist Certification —> CLICK HERE https://iyca.org/fitspecialist1/
– Brian
Having said that, I absolutely understand John’s point about sedentary lifestyles and expectations, but to a degree that point could be flipped by suggesting that adults have more incentive to ‘get fit’ due to their advancing age and sense of mortality. I’ve never met a teenager who felt concerned about their health with respect to inactivity – kids, by in large, feel themselves to be ‘bulletproof’ which can make for creating an incentive to become active very difficult.
3.) Health Issues – Most adults suffer from a host of health problems beginning with the BIG 3:
Hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes. The genesis of these ailments is inactivity which leads to obesity and overweight-ness. Although many youngsters are experiencing the same illnesses that adults experience; athletes have an ability to prevent and bounce back due to the resources available to them from their school or organization.
Great point and certainly one that can’t be considered incorrect. We are looking at a youth obesity rate of nearly 35% in the United States however (kids 5 – 18) and the entire re-classification of a disease due to its new pattern of effecting children who engage in inactive lifestyles (Adult-Onset Diabetes to Type 2).
I do agree entirely the human organism is more robust at correction when younger, however.
4.) Overweight – Obesity rates are higher than ever and that even includes today’s youth. Combined with the first 3 reasons described above, adults that are overweight suffer from other disease and medical conditions much more swiftly than younger, more active clients.
No disagreement here per say, but something worth considering on the matter is socialization.
The tightly-webbed world of youth peer-hood makes it very difficult for young people pigeon-holed as the ‘fat’, ‘lazy’ or ‘un-athletic’ ones to break those stereotypes. You could argue the alternate angle – adults are more fearful or mortality and lack the hyper-socialized peer influences that exist in school, so therefore more able to motivate themselves to become fit without the constraints of ‘what will they think?’
5.) Depression – In today’s age of mis-diagnosis-quick to prescribe medicine–adults suffer from depression due to stress from family, job, and finance. Adults lack control of their lives and suddenly retract into a dark world of misery and loneliness. With the onslaught of prescribed medicines to “combat” depression; we find that most adults really only fall further into their spiral of dark despair.
Fair point, but depression effects teenagers in disproportionally higher incidence than it ever has before. And along the lines of mis-diagnosis and over-medicated look no further than ADD, ADHD and the mass prescriptions of mood stabilizers present in today’s youth.
Youth Fitness Specialist Certification —> CLICK HERE https://iyca.org/fitspecialist1/
– Brian
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2.) Sedentary Lifestyle – Most adults that work are inactive due to desk jobs, laziness, or boredom. Unlike youngsters involved in scholastic sports, there is no structure involving financial accountability and job performance. Youth athletes benefit from a different kind of structure. They follow a routine consisting of academia, social thrivers, and sport. So if the expectation is not there, don’t expect adults to get off their couch to do something unless that are forced to.
I think I’d be splitting hairs to disagree with this point outright, but it should be noted that most teenagers also sit in desks some 5 – 6 hours per day and compound that issue with homework and TV/video game play in the evening. Professionals who don’t work with young people regularly may be quite surprised to find out how sedentary many young athletes truly are outside of their competitive season.
Having said that, I absolutely understand John’s point about sedentary lifestyles and expectations, but to a degree that point could be flipped by suggesting that adults have more incentive to ‘get fit’ due to their advancing age and sense of mortality. I’ve never met a teenager who felt concerned about their health with respect to inactivity – kids, by in large, feel themselves to be ‘bulletproof’ which can make for creating an incentive to become active very difficult.
3.) Health Issues – Most adults suffer from a host of health problems beginning with the BIG 3:
Hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes. The genesis of these ailments is inactivity which leads to obesity and overweight-ness. Although many youngsters are experiencing the same illnesses that adults experience; athletes have an ability to prevent and bounce back due to the resources available to them from their school or organization.
Great point and certainly one that can’t be considered incorrect. We are looking at a youth obesity rate of nearly 35% in the United States however (kids 5 – 18) and the entire re-classification of a disease due to its new pattern of effecting children who engage in inactive lifestyles (Adult-Onset Diabetes to Type 2).
I do agree entirely the human organism is more robust at correction when younger, however.
4.) Overweight – Obesity rates are higher than ever and that even includes today’s youth. Combined with the first 3 reasons described above, adults that are overweight suffer from other disease and medical conditions much more swiftly than younger, more active clients.
No disagreement here per say, but something worth considering on the matter is socialization.
The tightly-webbed world of youth peer-hood makes it very difficult for young people pigeon-holed as the ‘fat’, ‘lazy’ or ‘un-athletic’ ones to break those stereotypes. You could argue the alternate angle – adults are more fearful or mortality and lack the hyper-socialized peer influences that exist in school, so therefore more able to motivate themselves to become fit without the constraints of ‘what will they think?’
5.) Depression – In today’s age of mis-diagnosis-quick to prescribe medicine–adults suffer from depression due to stress from family, job, and finance. Adults lack control of their lives and suddenly retract into a dark world of misery and loneliness. With the onslaught of prescribed medicines to “combat” depression; we find that most adults really only fall further into their spiral of dark despair.
Fair point, but depression effects teenagers in disproportionally higher incidence than it ever has before. And along the lines of mis-diagnosis and over-medicated look no further than ADD, ADHD and the mass prescriptions of mood stabilizers present in today’s youth.
Youth Fitness Specialist Certification —> CLICK HERE https://iyca.org/fitspecialist1/
– Brian
Hey Brian, I really like this series, and especially the way you have gone about it. As you said in part 1, it’s not an attack, and obviously you are presenting good arguments. Having worked with both populations (although certainly not to the extent of you or John), I think that kids are easier to work with, as they simply haven’t had as long to get “screwed up.” Basically, the postural problems and muscle imbalances that seem to come up and take forever to fix on adults just don’t seem to be quite as ingrained in kids. Additionally, I do think kids are a little easier to coach, and they usually pick things up a little quicker. That is just my $.02, keep up the great work!
Great comments, Brock. Appreicate your input and valuable feedback! BG
The premise that training one demographic over another could be ‘easier’ is a question that invokes thought. Any attempt at promoting contemplation of what fitness professionals do and furthermore how well they may or may not do it should be applauded. That said, I wish the article pointed to the differences and unique challenges of working with clients of varying demographic was of more emphasis rather than who has it easier. This article is a well written and thoughtful commentary however I disagree with it on several levels.
My thoughts and comments as they relate to each of the 10 points Mr. Izzo declares are of no consequence for this memo. I would likely precede any comments by bringing to light my disagreement with the very premise of his article. Oddly enough, I need to agree with Mr. Izzo in order to make my argument.
It IS easier to get results from a young athlete compared to the general adult population…depending on the results you are looking for.
Comparing results that any trainer would experience training the “general” population versus that of a young athlete has no merit if the results in question purely are biometric in nature.
Because young athletes are developing (growing) human beings, biometrics such as strength, speed and power will increase with virtually any training stimulus that is presented to them.
If we delineate between biometric evaluations of performance and that of movement proficiency and the principles of human development, what is illustrated is the fallacy that training young athletes is an easy way to become lucrative in the fitness industry. This thought process is one of the problems with our industry – no matter what market niche is chosen.
Mr. Izzo’s opening question serves of my main point of contention. “How can 2 professionals with almost similar approaches to program design experience different outcomes on the training spectrum?”. SIMILAR approaches (not the same exact approach) and ON THE TRAINING SPECTRUM (in this case completely different training populations) cannot be fairly compared because they are mutually exclusive. The notion that the results attained by one over the other does not lead to ease of task, only the possibility to the ease of results.
It takes a very special person with an education to match his/her passion to train and coach adults to reach their fitness goal. It takes an equally exceptional person with the knowledge of how to work effectively with young athletes that elicits long lasting skill development and athletic intelligence. In addition, does it not depend on the temperament, belief system and education of the individual trainer to determine which is easier?
Post Script: Training young athletes is not inclusive to the ages of 12 to 24 only. An accomplished professional with be providing quality programming for children 6-9, 10-13 and 14-18 years old. Once more, there are far more children who do not fit the mold of “elite athlete” than those who do. Training a low skill low motivation young person is a challenge that will rival the difficulties of training any adult clientele.