Teen Body Building

In this section on Teen body building, it is my goal to cover every aspect of weight lifting for teens. This weight lifting program for teens is just what you need to know to reach your goals.

I want to inform others of the importance of exercise and nutrition early on in life to maximize the potential for success in the future. I want to help you make unbeleivable gains in size, strength and performance and avoid all the mistakes that most people make when starting out. Even if you aren't into teen body building, this information will be valuable for anyone just getting started in weight training. You are never too old to get started, so start learning all you can now.

I started bodybuilding about a month before my fifteenth birthday. My brother had just returned home after serving four years in the Marine Corps, and I was able to get a membership to a local gym and start training with him. I was six foot about 130 pounds and my strength, if you can call it that, was pretty sad. In most exercises I was using the same weights as my brothers’ wife. At that time we were using a training program called Serious Growth.

This is a great program for teen body building. It is set up for you to train six days a week, training your entire body three times a week in the beginning. I made good gains with this program, increasing my strength to a more respectable level while adding 35 pounds of lean muscle mass in 6 months. Looking back, I feel I could have made better and longer lasting gains by focusing on building my core strength first.

teen body building picture

Teen Body Building requires training properly.

In the beginning I couldn’t get enough of teen body building. I read everything I could get my hands on, trying to learn as much as I could about training, eating right and good supplementation.

The majority of what I was learning came from bodybuilding magazines like Flex or Muscle and Fitness. While I learned a lot from the articles, it was probably all the impressive physiques of the pro bodybuilders that kept me wanting to train hard in the hope of one day looking like that and having some serious teen muscle. This is one thing I encourage everyone reading this to do, read and learn all you can early on. This will help you make the most of your time and effort by training, eating and supplementing properly, in your teen body building efforts.

A book like "50 Tips for Bodybuilding Success" would have made it alot easier to get huge and ripped as quickly as possible.

My main objective when I started teen body building,was building a big, lean muscular body. I wasn't thinking about anything except looking better. Their isn't anything wrong with trying to look better, but you will still get those same results by focusing on building strength instead.

The most important thing to do in the beginning is to build strength in your core. Focusing on technique and building functional strength through a combination of powerlifting and Olympic style lifting is best. Of course it is still good to do some bodybuilding exercises for each muscle group, but only as secondary exercises to the main lifts.

Another area of teen body building that I overlooked was the value of aerobic conditioning. Whether you are big or small, skinny or fat, everybody should do some kind of cardiovascular exercise to strengthen your heart which is the most important muscle in your body. Especially if you are going to play any sports, you need to be in great shape to play well and excel. Two to three times each week try to run at least a mile. Gradually build up to as much as 4 or five miles. Start nice and slow and gradually increase your distance just as you would with adding weight when you get stronger in weight training. Get to where you can push yourself a little harder each time, trying to run the same distance faster or a longer distance. Doing this will also build a mental toughness that will help you in your teen body building and in your sport performance. For variety you should rotate between running for distance and doing some sprints.

A lot of people think that if you start teen body building too early you could stunt your growth. This might be possible, but not if you slowly work your way into it and always use proper technique and good form. Starting weight training at an early age could mean the difference between you making the team in whatever sport you play or just missing out because you are too small and weak to compete at the level necessary. Now I started at the age of 15, which is still pretty early compared to a lot of people, but I really wished I had started at least a year or two earlier.

Before the age of ten, you should be doing pushups, sit ups, calisthenics and running to be in good shape and good health. After you are ten, start slowly working your way into some weight training. First try pull-ups and dips. You might not be able to do any yet, but that is ok this is just the next step up from the exercises I have recommended for 10 years old and under. The first weight training exercises I would recommend you do are; bench press for chest, standing barbell presses for shoulders, bent over barbell rows for your back, barbell curls for biceps, extensions for triceps, and sit ups and crunches for abdominals. Your legs will get plenty of work from running regularly. If you want your legs to get a little extra work, run hills and do some mountain biking. If you are strong enough,do pullups for back and dips for triceps. Try these exercises in a full teen body building workout 3 times a week. Do 3 sets of ten on each with 2 minutes rest between sets. Gradually increase the weights you are using each workout while maintaining perfect form.

Once you are twelve you can start using the most important exercises for teen body building. Squats, power cleans and push press. And hopefully by now you can do some dips and pull-ups if you couldn’t do them in the past. You should also still be running regularly to stay in shape and keep the fat off. You should keep doing full body workouts until you are at least 16. Thenyou can really start to focus on getting stronger with the main power exercises.

On Mondays do squats, bench press and power cleans for 5 sets of 3 reps. This is the heavy day, so focus on getting stronger. By the last 1-2 sets you may be only able to complete 1 or 2 reps. Once you can do all five sets of 3 reps, add a little more weight next week. After you are finished with these 3 exercises and you want to do some arms, abs or calf training that is ok, just make sure you complete the main exercises first.

Wednesday is a light workout. Do 3 sets of 8 reps on squat, incline and pull-ups. If you can’t do that many pull-ups, just do as many as you can. On your third set of each exercise you should not be able to do any more than 8 reps. If you can,then you need to add more weight. Again if you want to do anything else after you are finished with the three main exercises that is ok.

Friday will be our medium intensity teen body building workout. Do 5 sets of 5 reps on squats, clean and press and barbell rows. On clean and press only clean the weight one time and press the weight for 5 reps on each set. Once you can do all 5 sets of 5 reps with the same weight add weight the next week. Add curls and crunches if you like and go home and eat.

Focus on using good form on every repetition, lowering the weight under control and lifting the weight explosively. This workout will build plenty of strength, speed and lean muscle mass. If you are playing sports this workout will allow plenty of time for sport specific training or practices. If you have a weight training program at your school, go ahead and do that program and this can be good for an off season teen body building workout.

Once again if you are serious about playing sports in high school and into college and even the pros, you need to build your foundation of strength early, so you won’t have to try and catch up with everyone else later on. While you definitely need the skills necessary for the sport you are playing, size, speed and strength are invaluable no matter what sport or what level you are playing at. If you want to increase your vertical leap, here is a great book on the subject. Just Click Here!

For suggestions on proper eating, check out our nutrition section. If you are skinny and you really want to put on some serious muscle, you have to eat a lot. Try eating peanut butter and honey sandwiches on wheat bread with a big glass of whole milk twice a day in between yourregular meals. Add some protein by mixing your milk with some protein powder. Focus on eating high calorie meals like pasta and whole eggs and drink a glass of whole milk with every meal. Make sure you also eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. Don’t let yourself get fat. Fat is not functional weight, so if you start gaining too much fat then cut back on your extra meals.

Training in your teens is fun. You will make some of the best gains of your life. Continue reading all our articles and learning as much as possible, and you will definitely make good progress. Train, Eat, Sleep, No Limits Physique .