I am 15. I’ve been lifting for about two years. I have been using higher rep ranges for all exercises. Bench Press, Chin up, deadlift, squat…
I have heard that growing kids should stick with the higher rep ranges so the joints aren’t damaged, and growth isn’t stunted. Is this true? Is there anything that I should change? or not?
I wouldn’t work with singles or doubles, but anything above that is fine, so long as FORM IS MAINTAINED.
Youth (all beginners, actually) aren’t neurologically very efficient. Your 1rm isn’t that much higher than your 3rm. Therefore, shooting for your 1rm isn’t as productive.
Perhaps more importantly, most youth are idiots, and pile more and more weight until ATTEMPTING to make the lift they hurt themselves (seen mostly with powercleans, benching, and squats).
Rippetoes is fine.
Key Points
You’re a 15 year old doing squats, deadlifts and chins…that’s pretty rare right there.
stick to higher reps and master your form and the technique of the complexe exercises,
Follow the Key Points above that Otep gave.
I started at about 14-15 years old and I work with low reps all of the time. I’ve grown from 5’7" to 6’2" and i’m 17 now. If anything weightlifting has helped me grow.
[quote]Otep wrote:
I wouldn’t work with singles or doubles, but anything above that is fine, so long as FORM IS MAINTAINED.
Youth (all beginners, actually) aren’t neurologically very efficient. Your 1rm isn’t that much higher than your 3rm. Therefore, shooting for your 1rm isn’t as productive.
Perhaps more importantly, most youth are idiots, and pile more and more weight until ATTEMPTING to make the lift they hurt themselves (seen mostly with powercleans, benching, and squats).
Rippetoes is fine.
Key Points
good advice, Unless you’re training for a better one rep max, staying in the 3-8 rep range will probably give you the best developement. I never really caught on to high reps for hypertrophy. I honestly don’t think it’s a noticable difference until you’re actually on the verge of being a big hulk-like beast. The key to gaining size and strength is weight and rep progression. A lot of people forget that and end up using the same weight for months.
[quote]austin_bicep wrote:
I started at about 14-15 years old and I work with low reps all of the time. I’ve grown from 5’7" to 6’2" and i’m 17 now. If anything weightlifting has helped me grow.[/quote]
I work with low reps mostly too.
thank you all for the advice. I do believe what everyone has mentioned about 3-8 reps being best for development, but I have also heard that it can be hard on the joints for long term, if growing
[quote]ABenns wrote:
thank you all for the advice. I do believe what everyone has mentioned about 3-8 reps being best for development, but I have also heard that it can be hard on the joints for long term, if growing[/quote]
accumulated stress on the joints without proper recovery is bad for them. You’ll be fine.
I am 15 and I do all my work between 3-10 reps. (10 for some smaller muscle groups at times and for warm-ups).
I agree with austin_bicep weightlifing doesn’t stunt growth. I started lifting somewhat when I was 5’2", but now I am 5’10".
I would have to say that sleep is very important for you now. Without adequate sleep, especially at 15, you are just going to injure yourself.
I started lifting heavy at 14 when I was 5’8", now im almost 16 and 6’2"
I always find this “don’t lift heavy while you’re still growing thing kind of weird.” I know guys who didn’t reach full height until like 20…but nobody is telling 18 and 19 year olds to stick to the pink dumbbells.
There are no differences between how a 14 year old and a 24 year old should train. There is, however, a difference between experienced and inexperienced lifters and how they should train.
[quote]Tmmmey wrote:
There are no differences between how a 14 year old and a 24 year old should train.[/quote]
Not true, on the whole the two age groups can train alike But you won’t find a 24year old developing Osgood Schlatters disease, but you will find 14 year old males getting it.
I agree with your point on experience though, also known as training age. Higher training age seems to go along with lower rep schemes being more productive. This is certainly true in my own training.