Risks and Recommendations for Resistance Training in Youth Athletes: A Narrative Review with Emphasis on Muscular Fitness and Hypertrophic Responses

The aim of this manuscript was to review the evidence regarding the risks, concerns, and efficacy of resistance training (RT) on measures related to muscular fitness and hypertrophic responses of youth athletes, while also establishing recommendations to assist the prescription of RT in this population.

PubMed and Google Scholar databases were searched for studies that met the following inclusion criteria: (a) published in English as a full-text manuscript or thesis; (b) inclusion of RT protocols lasting > 6 weeks; (c) involvement of youth individuals (≤ 19 years) engaged in sport modalities.

Twenty-nine studies assessing muscle strength, power and/or endurance in young athletes were identified; only one of these studies did not show significant improvements with RT, specifically in muscle power, but improvements were substantially heterogeneous across the studies. The literature is still inconclusive regarding the occurrence of muscle hypertrophy in response to RT among youth athletic population, but this was drawn from just seven studies in non-athletic populations. Injury rates among youth participants were low and less concerning in well-designed, progressed, supervised and technique-oriented RT programs.

RT is an effective method to improve muscular fitness-related measures in young athletes. The varying experimental designs across studies still represent an obstacle to the establishment of precise guidelines for RT prescription in this population. Nevertheless, some suggestions about RT frequency, resting interval, intensity and volume were elaborated in this review to assist coaches working with youth athletes to optimize muscular fitness-related measures gains.