16 Years Old & Skinny...Help

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
21

Skinnydude, your 16 so there is a chance if you start lifting weights someone, most likely someone older, is going to say “ooooo don’t lift too much now, youl bend your bones/stunt your growth/turn into a hairy-chested hobbit”. This is in fact a load of crap. If they do give you this, direct them to this review article,

Hind, K. & Burrows, M.(2006) Weight-bearing exercise and bone mineral accrual in children and adolescents: A review of controlled trials, Bone 40, 14�??27

Basically point out that resistance training (such as weight lifting) increases bone strength. Its also a review so covers a lot of work, not just one experiment. There are several problems with the experiments covered but it is still interesting stuff that can be used to get people to shut up.

Also when trying to get protein powder, providing you dont have a job, try the old “your not happy with your body and you get ignored by most girls for being too skinny”. Basically guilt trip your parent’s into getting you the stuff, use what ever you think will work.

Hell if they say you should be focusing on your studies let them know supplements can enhance mental capacity. If that’s true or not i have no idea (apart from fish oil).

Other than that, just follow the advice already given and for god’s sake (well really your own, i don’t think god has teeth) stop drinking fizzy shit.

22

[quote]oculus wrote:
Skinnydude, your 16 so there is a chance if you start lifting weights someone, most likely someone older, is going to say “ooooo don’t lift too much now, youl bend your bones/stunt your growth/turn into a hairy-chested hobbit”.

This is in fact a load of crap. If they do give you this, direct them to this review article,

Hind, K. & Burrows, M.(2006) Weight-bearing exercise and bone mineral accrual in children and adolescents: A review of controlled trials, Bone 40, 14�??27

Basically point out that resistance training (such as weight lifting) increases bone strength. Its also a review so covers a lot of work, not just one experiment. There are several problems with the experiments covered but it is still interesting stuff that can be used to get people to shut up.

Also when trying to get protein powder, providing you dont have a job, try the old “your not happy with your body and you get ignored by most girls for being too skinny”. Basically guilt trip your parent’s into getting you the stuff, use what ever you think will work.

Hell if they say you should be focusing on your studies let them know supplements can enhance mental capacity. If that’s true or not i have no idea (apart from fish oil).

Other than that, just follow the advice already given and for god’s sake (well really your own, i don’t think god has teeth) stop drinking fizzy shit.[/quote]

Hobbits have hairy feet, some people need to watch/read LOTR sometime.

23

[quote]zephead4747 wrote:

Hobbits have hairy feet, some people need to watch/read LOTR sometime.[/quote]

Wow, that’s going to help the skinnyasiandude isn’t it?

Some members of the older generation (seems to be 50/60+) believe weight lifting stunts growth and covers you in hair (in Scotland at least) leading to a hairy chested hobbit appearance. Also I’m pretty sure that hobbits can grow hair on more parts of their body than their feet.

24

hmm… interesting… Lol ok, I tried the first day today(monday). Funny thing is these 2 are giving me trouble.

dumbbell military press (3x8-10)
standing db curl (3x8)

I found out i haven’t done any curls and military press and my forms is still messed up… should i stick to it untill i get the form right? because i am using very sad weights…

25

[quote]skinnyasiandude wrote:
hmm… interesting… Lol ok, I tried the first day today(monday). Funny thing is these 2 are giving me trouble.

dumbbell military press (3x8-10)
standing db curl (3x8)

I found out i haven’t done any curls and military press and my forms is still messed up… should i stick to it untill i get the form right? because i am using very sad weights…[/quote]

yes. LOWER the weight that you are using (don’t worry if it seems sad to you… it’ll pay off in the end) until you are confident about the form. These ARE two exercises where it is common to use low weights when you start.

If you find that the lowest weight that you can find is still too heavy for you to get the form right, that’s okay… in that case, switch to barbells (so you’re using two hands and get the opportunity to decrease the weight further in order to perfect your form). however, i suspect that you’ll make progress quickly here…
but yes, stick to it!
dan

EDIT: heh. as they say, “stick to your guns”.

26

Sorry to annoy you guys again >.<

I have a couple questions…

Will doing push-ups before i sleep, playing basket ball, doing chin ups interfere with my workout

O.o

Is drinking too much milk bad O.O (reading something in forum saying it makes you get fat)

Is eating too much eggs a day bad ( with yolk, not wasting it…) like 3-6 a day…

I also heard that ceareal is bad, is a organic ceareal with rasion, pumpikn seed and whole wheat flakes better or vector?

Is the miltary press standing up?

Can i replace pull ups with chin ups?

That’s it for now… =D >.>

27

[quote]skinnyasiandude wrote:

Is drinking too much milk bad O.O (reading something in forum saying it makes you get fat)

[/quote]

Eating more calories than you burn makes you fat. Milk is in liquid form and pretty caloricly dense making it easy to over consume if you liked milk.

You are predisposed to being skinny, so eating more is going to help you, and most likely not cause you to gain fat.

Its more of an overall calorie thing and whoever said “milk makes you fat” was making a pretty ignorant statement.

What you should be doing is logging everything you eat for a long time, if you don’t notice your weight going up, add 500 calories after a week or two. Still not getting bigger? 500 more. You need to find your own “sweet spot” when it comes to eating, no one can tell you where thats going to be. If you find yourself gaining a LOT of fat, drop it back a bit. But, be advised fat gain is expected.

As you get bigger, you’re going to need to eat even more, keep that in mind.

Edit: no, eating eggs is not bad. 3-6 a day isn’t very many. Personally I sometimes eat 12-20 a day. 6-10 for breakfast and 6-10 at nighttime for a snack. Even this isn’t that many.

Cereal? This ones a little tricky. If youre having trouble getting enough calories, keep eating the cereal. You’re naturally skinny and at this point, more food can only do you good so take your calories from wherever the come from. No, this doesn’t mean go hog wild at mcdonalds every single day, just use some common sense. If cereal is your breakfast make sure you get some protein with it as well. I don’t think there would be anything wrong with eating some shitty cereal and eggs for breakfast for you.

28

leg press
bench press
seated row

repeat these three workouts 3 x 12, 4 - 6 times a week for one month. start squatting instead of leg presses when you learn how, however you may do that.

diet
3 whole eggs milk and bacon
snack on nuts in class
grilled chicken/roast beef or turkey sandwich for lunch
snack on more nuts or fruit
workout
protein shake(you need to get this)
mama’s cooking for dinner, just tell her that you are obsessed with steak or mad meat and you need it every night or your grades will start to drop.

thats it man
keep it simple

29

[quote]skinnyasiandude wrote:
Sorry to annoy you guys again >.<

I have a couple questions…

Will doing push-ups before i sleep, playing basket ball, doing chin ups interfere with my workout[/quote]

Not really as long as you are eating enough

[quote]skinnyasiandude wrote:
Is drinking too much milk bad O.O (reading something in forum saying it makes you get fat)[/quote]

Read Defekt’s post. Additionally, I myself would limit the amount of milk in a day to 2.5 litres

[quote]skinnyasiandudewrote:
Is eating too much eggs a day bad ( with yolk, not wasting it…) like 3-6 a day…[/quote]

6 eggs in day is fine. I’m not actually sure what the limit should be, I actually just started a thread about this in the nutrition forum.

[quote]skinnyasiandude wrote:
I also heard that ceareal is bad, is a organic ceareal with rasion, pumpikn seed and whole wheat flakes better or vector?[/quote]

Some cereals like the ‘lucky charms’ stuff is pretty much like eating cardboard, organic cereal with raisens etc. is fine.

[quote]skinnyasiandude wrote:
Is the miltary press standing up?[/quote]

Yep, it’s called a military press because you are supposed to stand like a guy in the military while performing it.

[quote]skinnyasiandude wrote:
Can i replace pull ups with chin ups?[/quote]

Of course, use any grip variation etc. that you like.

[quote]skinnyasiandude wrote:
That’s it for now… =D >.>[/quote]

Any questions you have ask here and i’m sure you will get the responses you need.

30

[quote]ZeusNathan wrote:

leg press
bench press
seated row

repeat these three workouts 3 x 12, 4 - 6 times a week for one month. start squatting instead of leg presses when you learn how, however you may do that.

diet
3 whole eggs milk and bacon
snack on nuts in class
grilled chicken/roast beef or turkey sandwich for lunch
snack on more nuts or fruit
workout
protein shake(you need to get this)
mama’s cooking for dinner, just tell her that you are obsessed with steak or mad meat and you need it every night or your grades will start to drop.

thats it man
keep it simple

[/quote]

I like your advice. However, the guy already has a good diet/training idea laid out for him that he appears to be following.

Skinnyasiandude remember if you want, you can add meals like that no problems.

31

thanks, i just thought making it extremely simple would make it even easier for him to get started. i can only imagine how overwhelming it could be to receive advice from 20 people.

32

[quote]oculus wrote:
zephead4747 wrote:

Hobbits have hairy feet, some people need to watch/read LOTR sometime.

Wow, that’s going to help the skinnyasiandude isn’t it?
[/quote]

damn right it will.

33

Lol… Another dumb question. I’m sick right now, should i continue my workout plan? or rest up and chagne the plan

34

Start taking vitamin C, 3000mg at least, in the morning and before/after workout.

How sick are you feeling? On a scale of 1 to 10? If it’s under 5 then i’d advise to keep training, maybe do 1 less set per exercise.

if it’s 5-7 then i’d say only do 1 set of each exercise, and keep up with your diet. But if you feel really sick then don’t train until you feel better.

One thing you’ll get to know about training is that when you really get into it with a good diet you hardly get sick at all, and when you do it fades quickly.

35

Thanks for all the help so far xD…

Well… i still got more questions (Gasp >.>)

Should I do the set in a row or alrenate between types of sets?

If i can’t do 8-10 pull ups, only 4-6 should i do something else?

36

[quote]skinnyasiandude wrote:
Should I do the set in a row or alternate between types of sets?[/quote]

You perform your sets like this:

(Lets say your working weight for Dumbbell bench press is 50lbs)

Dumbbell bench press, 4 sets of 8.

Warm up set 1: 12 reps using 25lb dumbbells.
rest 20-30 seconds.
WORK SET 1: 8 reps using 50lb dumbbells
Rest 2 minutes.
WORK SET 2: 8 reps using 50lb dumbbells
Rest 2 minutes.
WORK SET 3: 8 reps using 50lb dumbbells
Rest 2 minutes.
WORK SET 4: 8 reps using 50lb dumbbells.

If you can’t do 8 reps for all 4 sets it doesn’t matter. Either try to increase the amount of reps you do each session by 2-3 (over the 4 sets*), or increase the weight very slightly.

*example:
You do 4 sets, 8 reps, 7 reps, 7 reps, 6 reps. Thats 28 reps. Next time you do the exercise, try and do 30-31 total reps.

Don’t worry about alternating between sets/exercises, just keep it simple for now.

[quote]skinnyasiandude wrote:
If i can’t do 8-10 pull ups, only 4-6 should i do something else?[/quote]

For the next 3-4 weeks I would do pull ups, and do them as your first exercise of that session. Try and do 1-2 more reps (over the amount of sets you are doing) or more if you can until you hit 8-10.

37

Love it or hate it, I’m Back!! =D
With more issuses Lol…

Problem #1

Not gaining weight (maybe flu) Also, I have been shitting alot, watery kinds…

Problem #2
Going on holiday for 2 months and can’t get my hands on any equipment, how can i excersie?

… ON the brightside, i’ll sleep right because i haven’t been sleeping right for months

That’s it folks xD…

38

If you’re not gaining weight, you’re gonna have to troubleshoot what you need to do to gain. No one can tell you accurately because none of us are as familiar with your situation as you are. Some ideas as to why you’re not gaining:

  1. you’re not eating enough
  2. you’re not sleeping enough
  3. you’re sick all the time (flu)
  4. your training lacks sufficient intensity (unlikely)
  5. you have a tapeworm

And from there it gets more outlandish.

As far as traveling, often hotels have gyms. Sometimes you can pay to use a gym for the day, and if nothing else there are a slew of bodyweight exercises to choose from.

39

I am going to have to disagree with the poster who suggested the leg press. Coming from a guy who had (currently fixing) extremely weak gluteus medius muscles as a result of using the leg press, I strongly suggest you do free squats (no smith machine). Likewise, step-ups to a 24" inch box would be great for single leg stability.

The one dimensional motion of the leg press does not cause substantial activation of the glut med, and you will find yourself in a world of shit (like me, a runner who has not run in 4 months) with unstable hip joints.

With the squats, just start small. Who cares if you can’t do 135 to start off, no shame in starting with 95 to get the technique right. Quality over quantity, every time.

EDIT: To answer another question.

"Going on holiday for 2 months and can’t get my hands on any equipment, how can i excersie? "

Easy. Read Nick Tuminello’s article on the pushup and you will be praying for mercy. Pushups or various sorts have recently dominated my upper-body-push routine and they are excellent as a complex exercise with sufficient stabilizer recruitment. You may also want to pick up some therma-bands … they can add resistance to many exercises and make your life more miserable still.

Consider Crossfit workouts. They are effective (I am not a 100% crossfit guy but I respect their doctrine) and some of the workouts only require a pullup bar. Even if you dont have this, here is an old time behind-the-barracks shocker that I used to do on my free time:

-Max set of nonstandard, difficult pushups of your choice
-Max set of abs (not crunches)
-Max set of pullups
-Max set of abs (not crunches)
-Max set of body weight squats while holding gear (heavy object) above your head or out in front of you

Repeat this cycle at least twice and you’ll be glad you did.

40

…Hmm If I don’t do crunches, what other ab exersise can I do because i heard cruches are better than sit-ups.