The value placed on the importance of winning in professional sports has hit an all-time high. The astronomical amount of money being spent in the entertainment field of athletics has dictated a win-at-all-costs mentality that has trickled all the way down to negatively affect our youngest athletes - the prepubescent. The athletic world has forever been exploiting our youth as a source of athletic potential, sacrificing the health, safety and welfare of these child-athletes to satiate the intense nationalistic pride of the country and more dishearteningly in the name of the Almighty Dollar. This has caused coaches and athletes to take drastic measures which are sometimes illegal and usually unethical in order to improve performance levels. One of the most controversial training practices center around the impact of strength training in prepubescent children.

There has recently been increasing scrutiny debating the merits of strength training in our youth and more importantly the unsafe and unethical training practices that tend to be utilized in implementing strength training programs in all levels of amateur athletics. These controversies have enabled many people as

The last studied area that prepubescents are able to benefit from strength training is in improvement of their motor performances. One study stated that the criterion for improved strength acquisition is the concurrent improvement of motor performance - in particular the ability to jump. (Cahill, 1994) Strength training helps to prepare the child mentally and physically in the performance of motor skills. It improves muscular coordination and physical endurance - important factors needed to be successful in athletic competition. (Metcalf, 1993) Similarly, various components of motor skills can be enhanced and perfected through a strength training program including power, coordination, flexibility, speed, reaction time, muscular strength muscular endurance and cardiovascular endurance. (Cahill, 1994)

Surprisingly enough, there has been a alarmingly large number of documented injuries that have occurred in young boys participating in strength training programs. All of the injuries documented in the studies were musculoskeletal in nature and the vast majority happened during the use of heavy loads , usually in competitive lifting. (Sale, 1989)

Metcalf, James A. and Scott O. Roberts. Strength Training and the Immature Athlete: An Overview. Pediatric Nursing. Vol. 19. 325-332. August, 1993.

Exercise physiology has previously proven that in order to increase muscular strength and endurance, the frequency, intensity and duration components of a workout must be gradually and independently increased. This has brought up several important questions regarding the effects of strength training in the burgeoning field of prepubescent exercise physiology. The most important and most asked question is can and/or will prepubescent strength training cause developmental-inhibiting musculoskeletal injuries such as epiphyseal plate fractures. These types of fractures can lead to the stunting of limb growth in the affected area(s) and are obviously injuries that can negatively affect the normal development of our youth (Thomas, 1995). The next obvious question was two-fold; what are the benefits, if any, of prepubescent strength-training and do the benefits warrant risking possible physical harm? The last and the least obvious question asked wanted to know what exactly was prepubescent strength-training and what were its safety guidelines?

For the purposes of these studies and this paper, strength training will be defined as the use of progressive resistance methods such as body weight (i.e. pushups), free weights, isotonic and isokinetic machines utilized in an attempt to increase one's ability to exert or resist force (Cahill, 1995). Prepubescence will be defined as a child, male or female, typically no older than 16, who has not yet developed secondary sex characteristics. More simply put, the individual has not yet "hit puberty"(Buturusis 1994).

American society has entered into an era in which strength training has become the standard and most popular method of keeping the musculature of the body in aesthetic shape. Fitness centers and personal home gyms have emerged as important catalysts for people, providing everyone with equal opportunity and incentive to exercise and strength train in safe and instructional settings. This fitness boom along with the growing concerns and questions regarding the safety of prepubescent exercise has spurred several gatherings of pediatricians, fitness center owners, exercise physiologists and other related exercise scientists. Together, these groups are involved in active research studies, discussion of the methods, safety issues and effects of strength-training on prepubescent children. Subsequently there have been numerous articles documenting the effects of prepubescent strength-training many of which are incorporated into this paper.

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Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)