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CrossFit for teenagers: from what age, and is strength training safe?

CrossFit Wilanów

Your child is 12 or 14, spends more time in front of a screen than you would like, and comes home from PE bored. You want them to move, but when you hear “barbell” an alarm goes off: weights stunt growth, damage the spine, they are not for children. This piece is for you. It sets out what is known about strength training in young people, and how CrossFit TEENs classes run at our box.

Do weights harm children?

In short: no, if the training is supervised and suited to their age. At more length: this is the position of the largest organisations in sports medicine and strength training.

The 2014 International Consensus (Lloyd et al., British Journal of Sports Medicine) grew out of a position statement by the UK Strength and Conditioning Association and was reviewed and endorsed by leading organisations in sports medicine, sport science and paediatrics. Its conclusion: appropriately supervised strength training is safe and beneficial for children and adolescents.

The NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association, Faigenbaum et al., 2009) says in its position statement that many of the benefits adults get from strength training are available to children and adolescents who train according to guidelines for their age. The worry about stunted growth is not supported by the research the NSCA reviews.

Where injuries come from. Faigenbaum and Myer (2010) reviewed reports of injuries in young people doing strength training. Most were accidental, and some could be explained by a lack of qualified instruction: poor technique and the wrong load. The authors say plainly that strength training is safe and worthwhile for children and adolescents provided a qualified person supervises every session and teaches age-appropriate technique. They add that such training may reduce the risk of injury in other sports.

How much activity a teenager needs. The World Health Organization (2020) recommends that children and adolescents do an average of 60 minutes of moderate or vigorous activity a day, with muscle- and bone-strengthening activity on at least 3 days a week. An hour of CrossFit TEENs twice a week covers a good part of that, but not all of it: the rest is school, cycling, playing outside.

The conclusion from these four documents is the same and comes back in each one: supervision. The problem is not the barbell; it is the barbell without a coach.

From what age at our box

We accept young people for CrossFit TEENs from age 11. Whether a child is ready is decided by the coach, not by their date of birth: an 11-year-old who can listen to instructions and follow the rules in the room is ready, and a 13-year-old who cannot yet will wait. We do not coach younger children, so if you are looking for a class for an eight-year-old, we are not the place.

The programme is led by Nicole Krawczyk, a CrossFit Level 2 Trainer, at the club since 2024. On her profile she writes that she feels most at home working with people who have just walked into the club for the first time, and that she envies them knowing their first push-up or first pull-up is still ahead of them. Meet Nicole.

What the hour looks like

Teenagers train in their own group, with people their age, not with adults and not with small children. The hour always runs in the same order:

  1. Briefing at the board. The coach shows the movement, its range and the common mistakes.
  2. A short warm-up. Enough to get the body ready to move.
  3. Technique. Repeating the movement until it is clean. We start with no weight or with a PVC pipe and add load only after that, in the smallest possible steps.
  4. A short workout. Often with a game or a surprise.
  5. A second technique block. Short again.
  6. Stretching and mobility. That is how we finish.

Two things make this hour different from an adult class. First, the balance: plenty of technique, not much workout. Second, it is matched to the person, not the age: we scale every workout to the teenager’s level and maturity, so that everyone can finish it and the competition stays fair.

What the coach watches

  • Dropping the bar. Before anyone lifts a serious weight, they learn how to let go of it safely.
  • Volume. Teenagers push hard, and during a growth spurt muscles and tendon attachments are more prone to overload, so the coach controls how much is done, not only how.
  • Health. Before the first class, tell the coach what she should know: medication, asthma, injuries. If something changes, let her know.
  • Water, trainers, no jewellery. That is all.

A parent does not have to stay for the class. Many parents train in their own class at the same time if the timetable fits, but that is not a requirement.

How to start

  1. Download the eFitness app and search for the club “CrossFit Wilanów”.
  2. Choose a pass in the app.
  3. Send the parental consent by email. Ready-made wording is on the CrossFit TEENs page: copy it and fill it in.
  4. Book a class from the timetable. TEENs currently train twice a week in the afternoon; times can change, so the current timetable is in eFitness.
  5. Arrive 15 minutes early, with sportswear, trainers to change into and water.

All the details, with answers to parents’ questions, are on the CrossFit TEENs page. If you have health concerns about your child, see a doctor first, then talk to the coach.

Sources

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