I’ve been working out with my 19 year old son for about 4 months now, doing the same workout with the same weight or mine slighty heaiver. He is getting huge and looks great at 47 I can bearly see any results what can I do
[quote]jamesjeffords wrote:
I’ve been working out with my 19 year old son for about 4 months now, doing the same workout with the same weight or mine slighty heaiver. He is getting huge and looks great at 47 I can bearly see any results what can I do [/quote]
As a beginner and teenager, your son is bound to be able to more quickly reap results from just about ANY program. What kind of program is it that you’re doing? At your age, progress is going to be slower, and you need to understand that regardless of what you do (short of steroids), you won’t have the gains of a 19 year old.
There are ways for you to improve though, so just tell us what your routine is like and what your diet looks like. If you’re dedicated to a program and get in the gym 3-5 times a week, you’ll be able to make gains, regardless of your age.
If after tweaking your program and diet, you still fail to make gains, you may want to look into a natural testosterone boosting agent, like TRIBEX or Alpha Male. That’s down the line though, as you should first try to figure out where you can positively tweak your diet and training.
Good post, dhuge67!!! I’m hoping James will take you up on your recommendation and provide us with some more information.
My work goes like this Monday is chest and back. I lift a weight I can only do 12 times. Then I rest while he does his. Then I do that same weight again until failure then drop 10 pounds and lift that to failure then drop another 10 and repeat until I’ve done 4 sets… I do 4 chest exercises this way and the same for the back.
Tuesday is triceps and biceps done the sane way Wednesday is an off day then Thursday is legs and Friday is shoulders… I run 30 min every morning and we do abs 5 times a week
[quote]jamesjeffords wrote:
My work goes like this Monday is chest and back. I lift a weight I can only do 12 times. Then I rest while he does his. Then I do that same weight again until failure then drop 10 pounds and lift that to failure then drop another 10 and repeat until I’ve done 4 sets… I do 4 chest exercises this way and the same for the back.
Tuesday is triceps and biceps done the sane way Wednesday is an off day then Thursday is legs and Friday is shoulders… I run 30 min every morning and we do abs 5 times a week[/quote]
This doesn’t sound horrible, but you could try doing things differently. Here’s a suggestion:
Monday - 4 sets of 8 reps on all exercises, going as heavy as you can for those 8 reps. On your last set, go to failure.
Do 2 upper body compound movements and 2 lower compound movements, then select some single joint exercises for the area of concern for the day.
Maybe do Bench Press and and Pull Ups for upperbody and Squats and Lunges for the lower.
After that, you could do any number of things. Maybe push ups, bodyweight dips, or some curl variations.
Wednesday - Pull Ups, Military press for upper and Deadlifts, leg press, and calves for lower. Then you could do dips, rows, and forward raises.
Thursday - Do a workout where you select a lagging body part and go crazy on it.
Friday - Incline DB Bench and seated rows for upper, and then Squats and step ups for legs. You could then do side raises, work your calves again, maybe pull-downs, or shrugs.
James, adding to dhuge67’s good advice, I’d like to add a few things …
Just conceptually, hypertrophy involves providing your muscles with a stimulus for growth. If you do the same workout, using the same weight, the same number of sets and the same number of reps, you’re not going to grow because you’re not providing your muscles with the requisite “stimulus for growth.” I’d recommend that you read some of Chad Waterbury’s articles or Charles Staley’s EDT (Escalating Density Training) articles here on the site.
In a nut shell? Change up your programs every so often. Well designed programs run for x number of weeks, usually 4 to 6 weeks (sometimes 8 or 12), at which point you pick a NEW (entirely different!) program. Change/vary the exercises you do. Change the set and rep schemes. If you’re currently doing 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps, go up in your weight and do 8 sets of 3 reps!!!
And then there’s diet. Are you eating a gram of protein per pound of body weight? Have you optimized post-workout nutrition? Are you weighing each week, and is the scale going up? If you want to increase the amount of LBM (Lean Body Mass) you carry and reduce fat mass, you need to eat in a way that supports/reflects your goals.
There are a ton of articles here on the site on diet and workouts that will help you achieve your goals. Check 'em out, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
Welcome to T-Nation, by the way! (grin)
Ok havent been here in a while I know no excuses but it happen. I havent had the results I wanted in my workouts so after hounding my DR for a few months he finally checked my testosterone levels and like I thought low!! now I am taking abdro gel topical anything I can do to help this along I realy like to see some benifits from my (German Volume Training)workouts thanks JJ