CONS

1. It can contribute to a chronic lack of sleep.

The importance of sleep for teenagers cannot be overstated—especially for teenage athletes.



In recent years, there’s been a lot of research conducted around the importance of sleep for children and adolescents, especially those engaged in athletics. Not surprisingly, there seems to be a direct correlation between chronic lack of sleep and sports-related injuries.



In a 2014 article published in the Journal of Pediatric Orthopedics, researchers found that sleep deprivation is “associated with injuries in an adolescent athletic population” (2). Other studies show that teenagers need between 9 and 9.5 hours of sleep every night, but only average around 7 (3,4). Lack of sleep is associated not only with sports injury, but also with weight gain and decreased cognitive skills (something to consider if teenagers are driving themselves to early morning workouts). Lack of sleep can also affect fine motor skills, which can make performing technical weightlifting tasks potentially dangerous first-thing in the morning.



2. It can lead to athletes working out on an empty stomach.

In the early morning rush to get to the weight room on time, many athletes forget or forego eating breakfast. That, combined with a night of fasted sleep, can leave athletes in a glycogen-depleted state early in the morning. If teens don’t wake up early enough to eat a good breakfast before a training session, the quality of training ultimately suffers. Plus, it could lead to the development of a bad habit that can be hard to break later in life.

3. It can inhibit recovery and tissue repair.

An athlete will only get stronger if they have sufficient time between weight room sessions for the body to repair itself, and early-morning workouts can sabotage this recovery—leading to performance decrements and, potentially, injury. This is especially important if athletes have evening practices or games the night before an early scheduled workout.



“The recovery process for high schoolers seems to be an afterthought for many coaches,” says Coach Nitka. “High school workouts are about progressively developing strength and power in our athletes. Where do we help them improve their diet choices? Where do we educate them on how to rest and recover between practices by discussing sleep needs to maximize their ability to compete?”

In other words, if we as coaches don’t equip young athletes with the right recovery tools, like proper nutrition and sleep hygiene, we are doing them a disservice.

4. It can lead to increased stress for athletes.

This reason for foregoing the “zero hour” training session is often overlooked, but can greatly affect an athlete’s psychological health and well-being. Competitive athletes already tend to be stressed about performance in sports and academics—and lack of sleep can contribute to excessive thinking, worrying, and planning (5). We already know that athletes are more prone to injury during periods of high academic stress (6), so adding the physical stress of training compounded by a lack of sleep can create a perfect storm of stress for teen athletes.

5. Who is supervising 6am workouts?

If you’ve read Coach Nitka’s articles on liability for strength coaches, you know that lack of qualified supervision during weight room sessions is the biggest common denominator in liability-related lawsuits. And in Coach Nitka’s experience observing various high schools across the country, more often than not, the early-morning training sessions are not properly supervised.

“I’ve been to schools where the weight room is open at all hours, so kids can get their lifts in. I’d find the door unlocked and kids lifting unsupervised—or supervised by someone other than a qualified strength and conditioning coach, like the seniors on the team,” he says.



“If you’ve got 17-year-olds playing the role of strength coach, that is NOT adequate supervision,” says Coach Nitka.