1 kilo weights for 13 year old girl?

[chatnicknameyousuggested]

I am about to buy some light 1k handheld weights for myself, to do some arm workouts (5 mins a night) to get rid of my ageing upper arms.
At the moment DD and I are using bags of rice - it's only a matter if time before they burst and we have a clean up disaster in our hands.
We are holed up in our apartment in one of the most depressing cities in our pretty depressing country. It's really pretty miserable for DD, who hasn't been outside for more than 50 days now.
I was thinking of buying her the 1k weights too. It would really cheer her up.
Is she too young? She has just turned 13.

You can perfectly well develop muscle hypertrophy (increases in volume and mass) with low weights. Sport medicines says so. Medical papers say so You are the one misinformed @Pinkyplonky

sci-hub.tw/10.1007/s40279-017-0795-y
.../....

The strength-endurance continuum hypothesis dictates that increases in muscle strength and mass are dependent upon proper resistance training (RT) load manipulation [1]. Accordingly, for many years high-load RT (HL-RT; i.e.,[65% of one-repetition maximum [1RM]) has been indicated to maximize both functional (i.e., strength) and morphological (i.e., hypertrophy) adaptations [2–5]. How- ever, recent evidence has shown otherwise. Specifically, low-load resistance training (20–50% 1RM) associated with blood-flow restriction (BFR-RT) has been demon- strated to be effective in promoting increases in muscle strength and mass in different populations, from athletes to severely diseased individuals [6–9].

.../...

4.2 Muscle Hypertrophy
BFR-RT has been widely advocated as a valid strategy to induce gains in muscle mass, with allegedly comparable results to those of HL-RT. The present results corroborate with these assertions and add to the current literature by demonstrating similar efficacy between protocols by means of a robust meta-analytic procedure.

Will she end up with over developed shoulders?

I very much doubt it. What the heck are 'overdeveloped' shoulders anyway?

My DD (who is now 21) has shoulders I envy ... developed by doing a lot of windsurfing from about 11 onwards. Goodness knows what that equates to in terms of weights! She's small but she's strong, which is a good thing.

1 kg and getting an exercise habit is good, but get a size up as well (and then maybe more later) - you can do different exercises as PP have said.

low-load resistance training (20–50% 1RM)

1kg is unlikely to be anywhere near OP's 20-50% 1RM. You are right that you can gain muscle mass as long as you train until failure, but how long would you need to train with 1kg to get there?

Hi
Just a small word of caution as my gym advise against children under 14 using weights as their bones and muscles are still massively developing
The few replies I've read on here are from adults who - like me - should be using heavier weights. I'd personally take professional advice before giving weights to a 10 year old.

Sorry just seen she is 13 not 10. I'd still consult with a pro.

I forgot to mention she rows.
I am just worried about doing damage to her body as she still hasn't stopped growing.
When all this is over I will consult with a doctor, but at the moment it's just MN and the internet!

@G5000 precisely! 1kg isn’t enough.

@LeGrandBleu I don’t want to click the link but what’s the methodology? The level of bias disclosed? Was it a literature review? Where was the article published? What medical databases are they on? Pubmed? Cochrane? Rather than copying and pasting just as anyone can and hoping it sounds impressive, in my profession we prefer evidence based practice

Should only be using body weight for strength training at that age.

The same article on pubmed for @Pinkyplonky
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29043659/ which only gives you the abstract unless you pay or .... use sci-hub . Not sure what profession you claim to be in, but anyone in research knows about sci-hub. Feel free to read all the pages and tables and references on there or not.

And I would like to remind you that I already put two other pubmed articles for your benefit. (reposted here so you don't have t scroll up

LeGrandBleu Sat 02-May-20 22:30:45

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25853914/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28834797/ )

On the hand, you haven't provided a single one.
In my profession, I also like see science based evidence. You personal experience in the gym is not science.

To the OP and other interested, you can make good use of low weights to gain muscle volume and muscle definition. If however you wish to gain muscle strength then you will need higher weights or specific exercises.

The title of this discussion is "1 kilo weights for 13 year old girl?"

I would also add that 1 kg is appropriate for a 13 years old girl. Body weight is best, but adding a little resistance can be done. Yes there are risk not if done properly "on fully examining the risks of Resistance Training it is quite apparent that, though some risk of injury does exist, this is comparable to that of sports these children are already participating in. "
So again for those who want every affirmation backed by science

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445252/
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5532191/

There are plenty more articles where I took those links from.

A dumbbell is way better than awkwardly holding a 1kg bag of rice which could increment risk of injury as to maintain the wide grip, improper alignment of elbow or shoulder could cause injury .

Go for it and have fun OP.

I was recommended very specific exercises using 1kg weights after I had surgery. I had never used any weights before but I was astounded at the difference. I was required to do many repetitions twice a day and it most certainly made a difference to me. I use
very slightly heavier now but I'm happy with the result.

@G5000
When doing my Y-W-T raises, I use 1 kg on the raised bench, and I can guarantee you, I reach failure pretty quickly. The same when doing horizontal arm circles.
OF course, I don't use 1 kg for deadlift, but doing butt exercises on my 4 with 1 kg behind my knee, I reach fatigue quicker than without.

Here you can calculate which weight for which exercise according to age, gender, bodyweight and fitness level
strengthlevel.com/strength-standards/dumbbell-curl/kg#standardsFemale

Will she end up with over developed shoulders?

I'm trying for overdeveloped shoulders and it's hard! Women don't build muscle as easily as men

chunky exactly, I'm an instructor and I have women telling me that oh they only want the tiny pink weights, because they don't want to accidentally bulk up. If you lift that 1 kilo and end up looking like Arnold, I will be most surprised.