Crying during strength training?

[bigtiny]

Do the girls at your gym cry during strength training?

My daughter is on level 5. The do an hour of strength training/conditioning per practice (four times/week). Each time they are doing strength training, I see at least two of the girls - sometimes four of five of them- crying through it. There are a couple of girls who start crying before practice even starts. I find the whole thing troubling. Is this normal for a gym to have strength training this intense?

My daughter seems to be handling it alright, but she is a little bit older than some of the girls (she just turned 11). I think it bothers her to see her teammates get so upset. I said something to the coach about the strength training being difficult, and she just said that my daughter is handling it well.

Do the girls at your gym cry during strength training? Do you think that's okay?

[gym law mom]

No strength program should reduce kids to tears. Do you know if they're crying because they physically hurt, are being yelled at or getting very fatigued? It may be a combination of several things. The fact that now you have girls crying before they even go into the gym is not a good sign at all. Strength is not everyone's favorite thing(some actually like it), but they shouldn't be at a point where just the idea of having to go in and do strength gets them that upset. How many times/week do they do the intensive strength? To me, 1 hour for L5 is too much if they are doing it at every practice. Sometimes the strength can be more effective if broken up---say 20-25 minutes at the beginning and another 20 minutes at the end of practice.

I'm sure seeing the others cry upsets your dd and she may be wondering why are we all suffering through this and what is it going to accomplish? Some gyms tend to rev up the strength training in the summer because they can do longer or more practices, but reality is there will continue to be strength training even during the season. How do the girls do after they're done with the strength? Are they tired working skills and routines and are there girls crying then too?

[Gymcrazzzy]

my gym trains us from 10 am till 5 pm. we do over 3 hours of strenth training. its tough but we manage. its been so intense it brought a 13 year old to tears. he was so upset he got sick. a problem at our gym is hydration. we bearly ever get water breaks.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gymcrazzzy my gym trains us from 10 am till 5 pm. we do over 3 hours of strenth training. its tough but we manage. its been so intense it brought a 13 year old to tears. he was so upset he got sick. a problem at our gym is hydration. we bearly ever get water breaks.

Um.... this is hyperbole, right?

[9bob8]

Quote:
Originally Posted by bigtiny Do the girls at your gym cry during strength training? My daughter is on level 5. The do an hour of strength training/conditioning per practice (four times/week). Each time they are doing strength training, I see at least two of the girls - sometimes four of five of them- crying through it. There are a couple of girls who start crying before practice even starts. I find the whole thing troubling. Is this normal for a gym to have strength training this intense? My daughter seems to be handling it alright, but she is a little bit older than some of the girls (she just turned 11). I think it bothers her to see her teammates get so upset. I said something to the coach about the strength training being difficult, and she just said that my daughter is handling it well. Do the girls at your gym cry during strength training? Do you think that's okay?

yes all the time

[Megley]

Quote:
[Do the girls at your gym cry during strength training? Do you think that's okay?

I have seen some of the girls cry during TOPS training at our gym, but not because the coach was pushing them but because they were pushing themselves. Some of these little girls are just incredibly driven and competitive and they will push to the point of tears. To his credit, the coach always gets these girls to stop immediately and tells them that if it is that hard, they need to back off. My DD has done the same thing, but the coach always tells her to stop and try an easier version of the excercise or he helps her complete the exercise. I think there is a difference between kids pushing themselves and the coach doing the pushing. If they are crying because the coach is yelling at them or pushing them to do more, I think that would bother me more.

Meg

[GymnastRaeRae87]

My coach sometimes will do some in the beginning of class or some at the end. She likes to do it at the end so we don't get really tired when class just begins. My coach also does most of our strength with us and we talk to her and tell stories while we do our strength. It doesn't seem as bad.

[GymnastRaeRae87]

We've cried from laughing really hard at a story or silly things we did in class but that's it.

[gracefulone]

^^^Have you ever noticed how difficult it is to do abs when you can't stop laughing? We do pyramid abs and we sit in a circle and take turns counting. When it was my coach's turn, she would always do really strange voices and no could stop laughing!

[Blackie6]

My daughter's L4 practice starts with a hour+ of TOPS training (3Xweek) and I never noticed crying really. I know my daughter used to hate being pushed down in splits by the coaches but now that she's got them all down to the floor they leave her alone, LOL

Maybe it depends on the kid? My daughter actually enjoys the TOPS stuff while most of her friends hate it...weird I know.