Advice For a 16 Year Old

Well i started working out about 1 year ago and have seen some small changes. right know i am a very very light kid i am 5’6 and 115 pounds with 12.7 in biceps. with body fat around 4% (they checked at the gym).

anyways my the max bench press i can do is about 155 or 50 10 times now that may not seem like a lot of weight but I am only 115 so i think thats pretty good for my size.

so i was just wondering if theres any advise you guys could give me for gaining some weight i have been playing football for 7 years now and my weights never affected me in till i saw my time on the football field in high school slowing down because of my size. Not because I am not good at football(i played rep football for 4 years before high school, you can probably guess my position (WR, DB, K/P) and its a very competitive football team we came in 3rd place in all of Ontario high school’s.

So just some advise on how to gain weight weight over the summer. if its even possible i would like to weigh about 125 pounds by this upcoming football season especially because I am playing senior this year.

[quote]italianstallion1 wrote:
well i started working out about 1 year ago and have seen some small changes. right know i am a very very light kid i am 5’6 and 115 pounds with 12.7 in biceps. with body fat around 4% (they checked at the gym).

anyways my the max bench press i can do is about 155 or 50 10 times now that may not seem like a lot of weight but I am only 115 so i think thats pretty good for my size.

so i was just wondering if theres any advise you guys could give me for gaining some weight i have been playing football for 7 years now and my weights never affected me in till i saw my time on the football field in high school slowing down because of my size. Not because I am not good at football(i played rep football for 4 years before high school, you can probably guess my position (WR, DB, K/P) and its a very competitive football team we came in 3rd place in all of Ontario high school.

So just some advise on how to gain weight weight over the summer. if its even possible i would like to weigh about 125 pounds by this upcoming football season especially because I am playing senior this year. [/quote]

Well if you want to gain weight you must EAT! You say you’ve been lifting for a year now and weight 115. Now obviously I don’t know your starting weight, but i would assume it wasn’t much less. So you probally havn’t been eating NEAR enough food. Post up an average days diet for us to critisize and that will help tremendously.

Eat Big, Train Hard, Sleep Well and you WILL grow.

Remember that you will be growing naturally, so the size and strength gains will come with time. I started lifting around your age and struggled with a 95 lb bench.

Try to focus on just eating lots of clean food, and staying away from the crap and junk that most of your friends have. Its better to learn good eating habits now than later. Keep at it man, we were all in your shoes at one point. Good luck paisano .

alright at the end of the day ill tell you what i ate.i started at just over 5’5 and 110 pounds so about about 5 pounds my weight fluctuates from 115 to 118.

when they did measurements at the gym my
biceps were 12 inch now 12.7
forearms 9 now 10
calfs 11 now 12.5
thighs 17.3 now 19

not a very big kid. but still is benching 155 10 times good for my weight because im 115. because i no some other kids around the same weight who cant even come close to that

getting Berardi’s “Scrawny to Brawny” would be a great start.

yea i no i gotta keep at its just kind of discouriging seeing some of my freinds at the same height as me weighing 170+ that arent fat at all just big kids …but hope fully it comes with time:)

Squats and milk.

Your just going to have to eat man, I remember a year ago I was ~135. Now I am 175. Have only been lifting seriously for about a collective 5 months. Do you squat? Do you deadlift?

You are only 115lbs and can bench 155 for 10x?

You can bench the bar with a 45 and 10 on each side?

I dunno, I consider myself very strong for myself (135lbs) and can only bench 135x5.

[quote]friedrice683 wrote:
You are only 115lbs and can bench 155 for 10x?

You can bench the bar with a 45 and 10 on each side?

I dunno, I consider myself very strong for myself (135lbs) and can only bench 135x5. [/quote]

Now that I think about it, that is a little strange. Are the bars your using standard 45lb bars, are you sure yours at 155x10. Not to doubt your honesty man, but that sounds a little fluctuated for a guy your size.

If you are truly 4% bro you need to CRAM you face with Anything Calories just to get to a healthy BF% 4% is sickly or stage ready low.

Work hard EAT HARDER!!

Phill

Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore.

and eat. more.

i do eat a ton of food i eat 6 meals a day just nothing seams to work

a gallon of milk per day? i’d say skim, but you might need 2%. just spread it out throughout the day. and get another gallon the next day. that’s the kind of stuff in Rippetoe’s book that would help you. also, to gain size drop any looong cardio you are doing, get in the gym 3 times a week…squats, bench, deadlifts, rows military and pull ups.

do 3-4 lifts with a good about of weight per workout. ex: monday:squats, bench, pull ups wed: squats, military, deadlift fri: squats, incline, bb row
or something like that. work up to a weight you do for 3 sets of 5 reps, adding weight(5-10lbs) each workout.

it seems like you are getting pretty strong on the bench, keep it up.

oh yeah, and eat like you are in addition to the gallon of milk/day. don’t let up on the food.

this what i do with my football players in the off season, this is the way i learned to lift and this is similar to rippetoe’s system, but is NOT a substitute for his book.

sb

You keep on bringing up how your bench is good for your weight. If you wrestled, that would matter, but you’re playing football. I don’t think anybody whose outweighing you by 80 pounds cares what your relative strength is.

[quote]Naphta wrote:
You keep on bringing up how your bench is good for your weight. If you wrestled, that would matter, but you’re playing football. I don’t think anybody whose outweighing you by 80 pounds cares what your relative strength is.[/quote]

good point. he does want to gain weight, which is why I am telling him to squat and EAT and deadlift and EAT. i don’t see him saying anything about his squat, unless i missed it up thread somewhere.

in any case the BIG muscles in your lower body will gain weight faster than anything else, and make you functionally (jeez that word is becoming cliched) strong. that is what its all about. lift heavy, eat big.

sb

[quote]italianstallion1 wrote:
i do eat a ton of food i eat 6 meals a day just nothing seams to work[/quote]

MORE No really simple as that MORE intake be it from denser source otr or more. Read in massive eating what JB had to do. the meals Plus PB and bagle sandwhiches, whole milk, if you want it youll get it done

sometimes the food is the hardest thing and many times today ppl MAKE the food the hardest thing. If need be for you your goals Dirty up that diet, Poptarts like Dave Barr would suggest, Lots of liquid calories Pizza, Chinese Buffets, bags chips, nuts etc

Get er done, EVERYONE had there hurdles for there goals your in no worse or better spot you have to face yours that being getting enough food.

Will you do it??

Phill

ill deffenently do it ill make another thread at the end of the summer to show you my gains thanks for the great information guys, it will help alot

Luke Pascucci-mitchopoulos

I dont see how gaining weight is a problem for people. Dont get me wrong gaining muscle is hard, Gaining weight is not. But your definatley not gonna gain much of any muscle without gaining weight.

They are already eating enough to maintain weight so how hard is it to put down 2cups of milk some honey and a big spoon of peanut butter before bed?

Here we go…

two cups of milk mixed with honey and some peanut butter would in no way fill you up and it would help your sleep.

Worry about this when your fat, it will make you gain weight and it will help you put on muscle.

To bad, the way your doing things now isnt working to well.

I was annoyed as a kid and dont want to help you.

No you need to put on muscle wait until you are actualy ganing a decent amount of weight.

Case and point you will make great gains if you do what you have to. If you want to do things your way dont come here and say “but Im trying realy realy hard” There is no trying when it comes to eating enough and that is your problem.


Advice, dont pick a 3x8 or 5x5 program. Do a couple easy warmup setts and rep out with heavy weight and raise that weight as often as posible after that heavy set do a few more sets to finnish off that excercise and then do that with about 4 excercises per bodypart.

N3wb

Your 1 RM is 155 but your 10 RM is only 50? Ideally, you should be able to lift 115lbs 10 times if you have a 155lb 1 RM.

Anyway as for gaining weight, train 3x10 style and eat a lot (10 RM is great for hypertrophy). If you’re that light and have that much body fat, you’ll surely bulk up with this basic program.

Don’t forget to incorporate Squats and Deadlifts in your program. They will surely make you grow. As much as possible to standing exercises because they stimulate growth more that sitting exercises.

If you’re bulked enough, switch to a strength-speed program like Dynamic Effort. This is essential to all athletes.

Oh yeah, drink lots of milk, preferrably non fat, but if you want to gain weight a little faster and have no problems with fat milk, then why not, right?

[quote]friedrice683 wrote:
You are only 115lbs and can bench 155 for 10x?

You can bench the bar with a 45 and 10 on each side?

I dunno, I consider myself very strong for myself (135lbs) and can only bench 135x5. [/quote]

You’d be surprised. I’m 16, I weigh in at about 130 pounds and I max at 175lbs bench. My 5RM is ~165. I know a few people who have even better looking numbers than that, granted they weigh more but bench well over 50 pounds over their weight at my age.

Not trying to toot my horn or anything, just saying that I think you’d be amazed how quickly your bench can go up. I get comments from people all the time in the gym who remember when I was still struggling to put 135 up, now they walk in and see a 130lb kid working towards 180.

I feel like I went from putting 135 up for one rep to twelve reps in no time, and I know plenty of people who feel the same way.