Should I ask the (female) high school counselor? It’s a kind of sporty school but also I feel like here in CA it’s a pretty accepting climate!
To me, this just seems like a (hopefully) dated mindset and the only way to really know what things are like now is to try them. As OP said, SoCal is a unique environment too.
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Weightlifting. It’s a great lifelong skill to develop. My middle will also be a freshman next year and he’s built really slender. Like 5’7”, 115. His school requires a weight training class for freshmen. He started working with a personal trainer this summer and he’s doing awesome. Those skinny guys can be stronger than they look.
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My daughter took weight training and really liked it. There were only one or two other young women in the class but they managed it well.
Good weight training should not focus on maxing and muscling out classmates. Many coaches will use a ratio of weight lifted to body weight. Or hopefully focus on form and repetition versus stereotypical lifting big things. The leadership will come from the teacher, but in general I've found high schoolers to be way more generally accepting and celebratory of each other for all efforts than what I remember from my years. Yes, another woman's perspective. DH says he's seen similar. He was the 5'1" and 90 pounds freshman and he did all the things 35 years ago in the midwest.
Well, once again the crowd has spoken. A class strictly for freshman is completely different from mixing all classes. I am not speaking about strength here, it is about physique. Rightly or wrongly, males compare each other just as females do. Best of luck.
Last edited by bcafe; 06-18-2021 at 02:47 PM.
In college I had to pick either PE or weight lifting. I picked weight lifting. The first few classes were about how to use the different equipment, and then after that it was a come in and work out on your own kind of class. It was a much better fit for me than a PE class.
No I get this. Again, this is my DHs concern. DS2 is just so confident! The points the other posters are making are exactly the reason why I thought this was the right choice in the first place. FWIW, it is a class MAINLY for freshman. All HSers in CA must take a PE class (even the athletes!) in freshman year. They must take one more year of PE to graduate only if they don't do sports. So it is mostly freshman and then non-athletic sophmores.
I think I'll ask the HS counselor about it. And then talk to DS2. But I do think it is worthwhile to get DH's opinion as he was another skinny teenage boy!
My DS1 has always been very long and very skinny. He was a bit traumatized by some locker room bullying in 7-8 grade PE that spilled out into the PE classes. This is in southern California, but granted it was at the junior high. He is still dealing with some of the emotional fallout from it (being very self conscious of his build). So I have to say, it's possible that your son will get teased in either the weightlifting class OR the PE class or just in the locker room. It all depends on the mix of boys, presence of supervision, and the target's reactions. You just never know. So let him take whichever one he wants and let him own the decision, and if something bad happens, you all deal with it as a loving supportive family.
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