T Nation

I'm 16 and Need Help

Beginners
#1

Ok im 16 just thinking about starting out.
I’m about 5,10 to 6 foot and weigh 160 pounds i would like to gain 20 pounds in muscle by next july. How should I start? I will start playing football next year so I need to be in shape for it.

So how would I start? What are your recommendations and reading materials I’m out of shape as in no non written physical education for the last 3 years. I have jogged and road a bike but i cant make it more thant 1/3 to 1/2 a mile straight running.

Yesterday I tried 12 minutes of going at least 30 mph on a exercycle and then running about 1/3 of a mile taking a break and doing some running on a hill. But I have read that those kind of exercises make me actually lose weight and I’m afraid to continue.But i do whant to keep my speed while gaining weight if it is possible and get alot more endurance.

#2

first off you need to eat correctly.
second off you need to eat correctly.
third off you need to eat correctly.
then you just need to lift some weights.

#3

20lbs of muscle in 12 months for someone with no training history is a very good goal, but also very easy to pluck out of mid air and type on a keyboard :slight_smile: much more difficult to actually do what it takes to get it done.

Couple of recommendations to get you started:

Find a heavy tyre and a length of polyprop rope, tie the rope around your waist and onto the tyre. Start doing tire drags for short and varied lengths until you are exhausted/ready to throw up. When you can easily move the first tyre get a bigger one or add rocks or run up hills with it.

Find a good training partner or group who train hard and stick with them like shit, target the weakest one there and catch him.

Start educating yourself, reading back issues on this website is a great place to start.

There is no substitue for doing hard work yourself.

Good luck

#4

Just incase anyone does’nt know what i mean by football I’m going to be playing american football not soccer.

#5

I think that was pretty obvious since America doesn’t know how to play soccer…

Going back to your question it is simple.

  1. You need conditioning (aerobic and anaerobic)

  2. Need to eat correctly (junk food, sweets and other crap out)

  3. Need to train correctly.

Divide the week into 3 days for lifting 2 days for conditioning and 1 day for restoration and diet analyisis

Training at your stage doesn’t have to be complicated. Keeping it simple will give you more benefit. Make 2 workouts

Workout A
Full Squats
Barbell bench
Deadlifts

Workout B
Full Squats
Overhead Presses
Rows

Accesories to be done 1 a week on friday
Abs
Chins
Dips

Conditioning workouts
2 days per week you will go out and try to make 1 mile either running, walking and or crawling. Keep at it until you can make the whole mile without ever stopping.

When you can make 1 mile plan on doing some laps fast and others walking when you run out of breath. When that is easy increase speed. If some days you are beat up do more walking but keep the 1 mile constant.

Nutrition (Easiest)
Drink all the milk that you can. Eat Meat, fish and fowl (in that order) as much as you can. Don’t worry about measuring anything and being afraid of fat. Carbs must come from clean sources so no pizza, cheese puffs, mini cakes or ice cream. No soda or any sugar beverage but water. No 0 cal sodas or no sugar-free anything!!!

If you are not getting stronger you are not eating enough protein. If you are getting too fat you are eating too much carbs or eating too late. Adjust as needed.

That is it, you can gain more than 30lbs of muscle in 1 year trick is to eat quality food and rest adequately. If you go out drinking, partying, smoking don’t expect to go from zero to hero.

#6

jck524 said something very important about nutrition: Eat correctly. That both includes the right things and the amount - losing weight is because of the caloric deficit, so you can train as hard as you want and eat the right stuff, if you don’t eat enough, you’ll still lose weight.

JamFly’s recommended endurance workout is pretty cool, too. Just remember to do pulls both forward and backward for variation.

sawadeekrob is right about the conditioning part.

I just think that it is a bit imbalanced, since there are two push movements (overhead, bench) and only one pull movement (row).

I’d go for something more along the lines of:

Workout A
Full Squats
Barbell bench
bent-over row

Workout B
Deadlifts
Overhead Presses
Chins (or lat pulldowns, if you cannot do chins)

…which is a tried & true workout, but I don’t know if that is the optimum setup for american football. But in the beginning, everything works, so don’t worry too much. Just train like this for 6 weeks.

#7

Dude if you are 6’ and 160, eat everything you see. Small children, animals, your sister, EVERYTHING. Try and find a good hardcore gym with real lifters and train hard as hell while shovelling food down your gullet.

#8

[quote]JamFly wrote:
20lbs of muscle in 12 months for someone with no training history is a very good goal, but also very easy to pluck out of mid air and type on a keyboard :slight_smile: much more difficult to actually do what it takes to get it done.

Couple of recommendations to get you started:

Find a heavy tyre and a length of polyprop rope, tie the rope around your waist and onto the tyre. Start doing tire drags for short and varied lengths until you are exhausted/ready to throw up. When you can easily move the first tyre get a bigger one or add rocks or run up hills with it.

Find a good training partner or group who train hard and stick with them like shit, target the weakest one there and catch him.

Start educating yourself, reading back issues on this website is a great place to start.

There is no substitue for doing hard work yourself.

Good luck[/quote]

12 months? From mid-October to July you counted 12 months?

#9

Also, I can’t believe that at 6’ and 160lb you can’t run more than 1/3 to 1/2 a mile when you play football.

#10

[quote]firenoodles wrote:
Ok im 16 just thinking about starting out.
I’m about 5,10 to 6 foot and weigh 160 pounds i would like to gain 20 pounds in muscle by next july. How should I start? I will start playing football next year so I need to be in shape for it.

So how would I start? What are your recommendations and reading materials I’m out of shape as in no non written physical education for the last 3 years. I have jogged and road a bike but i cant make it more thant 1/3 to 1/2 a mile straight running.

Yesterday I tried 12 minutes of going at least 30 mph on a exercycle and then running about 1/3 of a mile taking a break and doing some running on a hill. But I have read that those kind of exercises make me actually lose weight and I’m afraid to continue.But i do whant to keep my speed while gaining weight if it is possible and get alot more endurance.[/quote]

Listen to “sawadeekrob”, he pretty much layed out everything for ya. Well you’ll need to read up on some articles to come up with set/rep shcemes buts that’s the easy part.In general most people recommend keeping your reps 8 - 12.

The part about alcohol is very true, you have to limit your drinking to a minimum if you want to succeed.