How Much Strength Training?

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Mack_the_Ripper

How much strength training do you/your kids do at the gym? I'm asking just to get a feel of how much my gym does. We do 30 minutes per practice, 3 days a week. That comes out to 1 hr 30 min a week, which is 1/8 of our total practice time. This is for level 4's and 5's.

Sometimes it seems like all we focus on is strength. I know it's really important, but sometimes I get caught up in "Oh, I didn't do as many pull-ups as I usually can...I'm not getting stronger...-panic-."

Also, I'm not ripped. D: I have very huge/defined leg muscles, also due to ice skating, but even though I'm 2nd strongest out of all of our level 4's and 5's, I barely have any ab definition. It's true that stomach strength is not my strong point, but I do have enough to keep up to level standards and such.
 
I do between an hour and an hour and a half of strength five or six days a week (I'm elite). My boys do about 45 minutes total of strength and flexibility per practice (twice a week for my level 4s, three times for my level 5s, four for level 6 and up), and my girls (low-level prep-op; the equivalent of about level 3.5) do half an hour twice a week.
 
Ab definition is simply a matter of body fat percentage/composition with some abdominal musculature. One of my weakest boys has his abs showing but he is very weak for the most part.

Strength and power should be the focus of most of your conditioning with some anaerobic threshold.

The last half hour of practice with my L4-5 is conditioning and flexibility, about 20-10 split. We do a strength circuit (rope climbs and L's and presses on PB and planche/lever ) after warmup followed by handstand work/conditioning/presses.
 
At dd's gym (she is almost 6 years old and Level 4) since they are off season have been focusing alot more on conditioning. They do straight conditioning for the first hour and half of class. DD goes 3 times a week so that 4.5 hours of conditioning a week-:eek:. WOW I didn't realize how much she actually does!! They also have a conditioning test every other wednesday!!! Lucky for dd she LOVES conditioning and the testing!

She too is less defined but with big muscles!! Like someone else said: It's body composition!!
 
Ditto. One of my boys loves that as well, but I don't think he is as keen or hardworking with skill training. Typical boy ADD.

I would probably do even more S&C at this point but our team workout is coupled with rec boys who are considered "advanced rec". This means they are roughly L2-L3 ( but can behave and not a pain and possibly may have talent for team ). I'd take any kid in this group to competition in time but they may not compete. They workout with the other 2 teamboys ( used to be 3 ) for two hours and then go home while the teamboys stay for extra hour after a short snack ( err 50 more minutes after snack break ).

So, in that first 2 hours is stuff like trampoline work, games with still a focus on handstand development and some general strength work and some apparatus ( 2 events typically + some floor work ). The last hour we hit 1 or 2 events and finish off with more S&C and stretching.

I know at one of my old gyms, off season training would probably be WU, basics, and conditioning shapes, 1 event&trampoline work and final S&C and stretching.
 
Dd goes to gym 5 days a week and is there for 4 hrs at a time. They do approximately 45 minute rotations between the events and conditioning is considered an event. The last rotation is usually an hr long and they finish on conditioning maybe 2 nights a week, so she probably is doing about 4.5 hrs. Realize though it is necessarily how long you condition for, but what you do during that time. They also have to do 10 press handstands before every rotation in addition to the conditioning. I am not a fan of this from a parental standpoint (I don't believe that your wristing should be doing that many in a day especially when my dd's growth plates are wide open), but it is what they do.
 
My dd goes four days a week and they spend 45 minutes to an hour on conditioning each practice. If it's a meet week, they might spend more time on routines and a bit less on conditioning. If there are a few weeks before the next meet, they will spend more time on conditioning. I think it probably comes out to about three and a half hours a week. My dd is not particularly muscular but is more of the lean type with very defined muscles (she's 7) - definitely has a sixpack. We have a couple of girls at gym who are very very muscular, but it seems in large part to be genetic. You can see that their little sisters (who do only rec gym) are also quite muscular. It's genetic body type I guess. From what I can tell, it doesn't make too much difference strength-wise whether they are lean or more muscly. Some of the very lean girls are the strongest.

Meg
 
My dd goes four days a week and they spend 45 minutes to an hour on conditioning each practice. If it's a meet week, they might spend more time on routines and a bit less on conditioning. If there are a few weeks before the next meet, they will spend more time on conditioning. I think it probably comes out to about three and a half hours a week. My dd is not particularly muscular but is more of the lean type with very defined muscles (she's 7) - definitely has a sixpack. We have a couple of girls at gym who are very very muscular, but it seems in large part to be genetic. You can see that their little sisters (who do only rec gym) are also quite muscular. It's genetic body type I guess. From what I can tell, it doesn't make too much difference strength-wise whether they are lean or more muscly. Some of the very lean girls are the strongest.

Meg


I totally agree. I have seen girls with big, well defined muscle but lack strength and the opposite is true too. Skinny, bony looking girls with super strength. Body composition seems to be genetic and has little to do with strength and success in the sport.

WOW a six pack at 7years old....doesn't it seem unnatural....My little one has her coming through too and sometimes I think it looks "wrong"......heehee!
 

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