Posted by: Bill (bill@bill.com) on Wed Aug 11 10:04:35 2010

First off, if he swings a weighted bat, let it only be a few ounces heavier than his normal swing and do it as part of a workout, using a reasonable number of swings (not 100 or 500). BUT, don't ever let him hit BP with a bat heavier than the one he is actually going to use though. It will mess with his swing. Also, if the swing with the heavier bat doesn't resemble anything like his normal swing then it is too heavy.

As far as weight lifting, it should be fine for your son to do it. Although some people say that heavy lifting can stunt growth, etc. there are other people who say this isn't true (I'd say an argument against this would be that some of the Olympic weight lifters probably start out when they're kids training) I'd err on the side of caution and not have him do any exercise with less than 6 reps or more than 10 (accumulated fatigue hurts technique)

Bench press, overhead press (also known as military press), squats and deadlifts are the exercises to focus on. I recommend a book called "Starting Strength" for how to correctly do the form for these lifts, it is where I really learned how to do them (I'm 22 now). You could really try to teach power cleans, but it is a more technical exercise so I wouldn't really recommend it at his age (although some Olympic weight lifters start out when they're very young)

You need to make sure your son has the motivation to do this and not allow him to lift anything he wouldn't consider light until he has perfect form. Maturity is also something you should look into because training with weights has great potential for injury if you are really careless or stupid about it (lifting more than you can handle, poor form, trying to lift by himself/without a spotter).

If your son is mature enough and will do the lifts with correct form, then I'd recommend doing something like this (all lifts are preceded with warmup sets):

Mon, wed
2-3 sets squats
2-3 sets bench alternate w/ overhead press
2-3 sets of pullups (as many as he can do, if he can't do any have him do jumping pullups)

Fri
2-3 sets squats
2-3 sets bench alternate w/ overhead press
Only ONE set of deadlifts.

Your son hasn't really started to have the testosterone pump through him yet so he isn't going to see the rapid progress that a guy in the 15-24 age group would. He still will make progress though.

Just be reasonable with the weight and don't push him to the limits. Err on the side of caution and if one of the reps he does looks like he won't be able to do the next one or if he does, he'll have to strain really hardn I'd just stop him. He'll still get stronger without lifting to the limit. If he has any medical conditions that could affect him exercising ask the doc first. I'd think that a young kid like that wouldn't have any problems at all that would affect him that way.

I'm not an expert, I'm just a semi-eduacted guy who has a few years doing heavy strength training and I started benching when I was 14 and doing squats, etc. when I was 15. If your son starts now, and trains smart, by the time he gets into high school he could be pretty far ahead of the other guys in his grade.