Weightlifting and Youth

Choices and Diversions

Today more than ever our youth are bombarded with countless choices for extracurricular activities. Television, video, electronic games, and other passive activities dominate larger slices of their spare time. Physical activities have taken a back seat to mindless and destructive pass times. The music industry, desperate to make money at any cost, promulgates low-minded lyrics from hip hoppers, rappers, and other regressive primitives to children at a tender age. Schoolteachers sacrifice religion, virtuous behavior, and honorable organizations such as the Boy Scouts at the altar of political correctness. College professors, many who are hippie throwbacks to the 60s, overwhelmingly espouse leftist agendas, which are anti-American and anti-religious to their impressionable students. Presidents pardon millionaire felon contributors, while victims of conscience languish in prison. No wonder our youth is in turmoil.

Right and Wrong

It has become a bizarro world: Right is wrong, left is right, bad is good, and good is bad. Self-control and humility are replaced with mindless abandon and self-centered pride. A teenager flipping hamburgers at McDonalds is more accountable for his behavior than a Hollywood star or a professional athlete yet is treated as mindless lemming by the popular media. Our youth are confused. It is paramount that upright men stand up for moral values, accountability, and common sense and imbue these traits in our youth.

Weightlifting as a Metaphor for Life

What has this to do with weightlifting? Lots. Weightlifting is a metaphor for life.

• In life, you work hard and reap the fruits of your labor. In weightlifting, you train hard and your lifts improve.

• In life, you learn, study, observe and your performance improves in various activities. In weightlifting, you learn technique, listen to your coach, and observe your peers and your lifts improve.

• In life, you cooperate in constructive activities and a greater good is accomplished. In weightlifting, you cooperate with your fellow lifters and your team wins.

• In life, you apply proper care to your mind and body and you will attract the opposite sex. In weightlifting, proper training builds a muscularly balanced body that attracts the opposite sex.

Benefits of Weightlifting

Weightlifting transforms our youth into physically fit and mentally balanced adults. It defines behavior and habits that are consistent with a healthy and happy life. The benefits of weightlifting span a lifetime. Throughout their lifetime weightlifters are more physically fit, have a healthier and longer sex life, and are more robust, physically attractive, and mentally active than are the public at large.

Experiences and Observations

As a youth of the 60s, the streets were our playground. Content with a ball we participated in all sorts of physical activities (stoopball, stickball, two-hands touch football, base on balls, manhunt, tag, leapfrog, etc.) All these involved running, jumping, and rolling – now they call these activities plyometrics and you have buy a spandex jumpsuit and join a fancy health club where they play music while you plyomate [sic]. The sad truth is that self-assembling groups of children playing in the streets or playgrounds are almost non-existent today. Moreover, today physical activities are not undertaken unless they are sanctioned or organized by a school or organization and this involves uniforms, shoes, equipment, meddling parents, etc.

As a teenager in the 1970s, surrounded by street gangs, bullies, drugs, and life changing choices, my enthusiasm for weightlifting set me on a straight course. Weightlifting was a font of hope and inspiration in difficult times. The lessons of weightlifting enabled me to overcome many obstacles both on and off the platform.

About the Author

Leonard Bacino started weightlifting in the early 1970s. He stopped weightlifting in 1981 to pursue a career in Chemical Engineering. After a 22 year hiatus he started weightlifting again as a master and has won several medals in the 105kg and +105 kg classes. He currently lives in Queens NY and when not weightlifting he works as a technical writer and computer consultant. He can be contacted at lbacino@hotmail.com.

The Author

Now as a man in my 40s, I see many of my non-weightlifter peers paying the price for having neglected their bodies. Trapped in physically degenerate, obese, pear shaped bodies, some look like a stomach on legs. Sadly, many of their children are following suite: A larger percentage of today's youth are overweight; some are morbidly obese, creating all sorts of health problems such as diabetes and asthma.

Organized Sports – Good or Bad

Monopolization of physical activities by organized sports is not a healthy trend. Many weightlifters started by lifting weights in a garage or cellar with a friend or solo, learning the lifts by aping the pictures in the early muscle magazines. There is nothing wrong with this. The primordial pool for many a weightlifter is a simple barbell in a garage. As the lifter evolves he will seek like-minded weightlifters, join a gym, and participate in a weightlifting organization. This sequence is a natural phenomenon and should not be discouraged. I believe that individuals lifting alone or outside an organization are actually good for the sport in that it encourages new lifters. These "solo" lifters will eventually join the fold and participate in the organizations when they are ready.

What to Do Next

It behooves all weightlifters to make a concerted and organized effort to attract more young people to weightlifting. This has to be done at a grassroots level. In a future  installment I will discuss ways to attract our youth to weightlifting.

[ Home ] [ News ] [ Guest Editorials ] [ Technical Articles ] [ Previous Weightifting Meets ] [ Location & Hours ] [ Links ] [ Members ] [ About LBH Weightlifting ]

Copyright 2007 ― Leonard Bacino