Parents Of CityGym Athletes

Welcome,

We are so excited your daughter or son are training with us here in CityGym. I am a parent and know there can be worries around any and every sport so I have complied a list of FAQs and resources for you to make sure you are 100% in the know and stress free.

 

Location

You can find us here at 17 Sexton Street, Limerick, V94 N5NH or click this Google link (https://goo.gl/maps/RejAeijRuruCnuHeA)

Best place to contact us

You can reach us at info@citygymlk.com if you have any questions

Safety of the sport

This is huge for parents. Understandably. You want to make sure that your kid stays healthy and doesn’t get injured.

While ALL sports have injury risks, believe it or not, powerlifting is amongst the lowest. Typically injuries are looked at per 1000 hours in studies.

For example Rugby would have an injury rate of 6.5-10.6 per 1,000 hours played. This rate increases as a player ages as well. Another example would be tennis which has an an injury rate for men of 17.7 injuries per 1000 sets played and for women 23.4 injuries per 1000 sets played.

Powerlifting then has an injury rate much lower than either of these, sitting at 5.8 per 1000 hours and this rate of injury reduces as an athlete progresses and becomes stronger and more in tune with the movements to 3.6 per 1000 hours. You can see the scientific studies done on these injury rates by clicking above.

So we can see in terms of injury, powerlifting is lower than more commonly played sports and the risks are less as the athlete develops.

Another bonus to consider is that all conditions are controlled within powerlifting. In rugby and tennis you have opponents, varying weather conditions and a whole host of other factors that can change. Powerlifting will always be indoors, with the same racks, bars, plates etc, this is one huge reason the injury rate is lower.

On top of this, athletes have coaches which guide them on what weights to lift and will not be given a weight they cannot handle. This, in conjunction with “Spotters” which is a group of lifters who know how to catch a failing athlete, make this a safe sport to train.

Rumours - lifting weights stunts growth

This is a very common myth. Without a doubt, the answer is no, lifting weights does not stunt a developing youths growth. (Second study showing the safety)

Can powerlifting decrease injury risk in other sports?

Yes, it is possible that powerlifting can actually decrease the risk of injuries in other sports. “In addition to enhancing strength and power, regular participation in a preseason conditioning programme that includes resistance training (resistance training is weight training) may facilitate injury risk reduction during sports participation; Comprehensive resistance training programmes have been found to enhance movement biomechanics, improve functional abilities and reduce the number of sport-related injuries in young athletes”

Supplements

Supplements are very different to drugs. Some people get these mixed up from time to time.

Supplements are safe to use and even though we have a “food first” motto here in CityGym, which means that we prefer people to get all nutrients from real food, we do understand that supplements can help athletes performance in the gym and in the classroom.

The only supplements we recommend for teens are in our nutrition eBook which you can grab (HERE)

The two most commonly asked about supplements are whey protein and creatine. You can find in detail answers below to each of these:

But when researching supplements we want you to look for two things:

  • Their safety and use on Examine.com - This site is the most up to date scientific site you will find and will have all the necessary info you need https://examine.com/

  • To make sure the supplement brand you purchase is approved from Informed Sport, the company that regularly tests supplements to make sure they are not contaminated. Check them out here https://www.informed-sport.com/

Travel for comps and hotels

Our sport involves competitions in Limerick, nationally in Ireland and if an athlete does well enough international representation of the country too.

When travelling for competitions we have no problem guiding parents to where everyone is staying and you can get the down low on all comp info by emailing your kids coach, either Stephen or Jack at (stephen@citygymlk.com or jack@citygymlk.com)

However, we do not handle money on anyone’s behalf, we do not book rooms on anyone’s behalf, lastly we cannot watch over anyone for the nights they stay in the hotel. When we travel as a team, we will most definitely look out for everyone, no questions asked, we love our athletes. But depending on the comp we could have a team of 30-60 people travelling and handling that much money or looking out for each individual logistically couldn’t work, so we ask parents/guardians to travel with their kid or assign someone to travel with them if they are not comfortable with their kid spending the night somewhere else.

That’s a wrap on the most commonly asked questions we get from parents!

I hope you can see from above that CityGym isn’t a gym but a community built on education and team bonding. Our coaches will always have your wee one in mind when they are in the gym or competing and if you ever need us, we’re there! :)

Thank you,

Gar