Click here to view video “A guide to muscles for a teenage boy”
Had quite a few requests to do an article for youngsters who want to build muscle.
Few things are so healthy looking than a young guy with a good aesthetic looking physique!
So as a young guy…what must you do to grow and what must you avoid? (under 16 do preferably just body resistance exercises not weights.)
I am going to give you a quick and easy guide.
The easiest way is to look at what to avoid since this will tell you by implication what to do. Things to avoid is things that will limit muscle growth and even results in smaller muscles! Many guys into their 30’s and even 40’s never learn these basic muscle building errors and they can never understand why they do not put on size. LEARN! By cutting this out of your gym/lifestyle will ensure you create an optimal environment for growth and fat loss from a young age.
15 THINGS TO AVOID by a youngster (over 16) who want to grow muscles:
- Overtraining – you cannot train more than 6 days a week. Remember each of these sessions is going to be intense and very hard on the body. The body need at least 1 preferably 2 days a week to recover and build.
- Too long training sessions. Muscles do NOT grow in gym. They actually getting torn down and hurt and literally become smaller. In gym is only where you STIMULATE the muscle for growth. Healing and repair must first occur before growth sets in. Never train a muscle still sore from previous workout. Growth occurs outside while your rest and recover. So do not spend more than 60 minutes in gym!
- Junk food! What you eat is what you will be. Outside the gym your muscles need the right food to grow…junk food is NOT it!
- Too little food. The muscles cannot (!) grow if the body thinks it is in a famine environment…then your body will use the muscles for energy and go catabolic (equals smaller muscles) and only as a last resort use the fat storage. You must eat enough food to grow and to lose fat!
- Too little sleep! The most important ingredient to help muscles grow is getting in enough sleep. You cannot expect muscles to grow with just 2-3 hours sleep a night. At least 6-8 hours of solid sleep.
- Bad Form – bad form or technique will not stimulate growth and will open the door for serious injury. NEVER throw a weight! Slow controlled movements.
- Showing off in gym. The sooner you get the ego under control the sooner you will start growing. NEVER show off. Lift the weight that you can manage in a controlled fashion. You WILL hurt yourself showing off and you will make your name an ass!
- Listen to everything everyone says in gym and taking it for the gospel! Be carefull what you believe and to whom you listen. Verify the facts before following someone’s suggestion or trying something new. VERIFY! VERIFY! VERIFY!
- Training with the wrong partner. Having a training partner not focused will seriously hamper your success. The training partner you choose must add to your success not take away!
- Exercise technique/breathing. Learn to breathe correctly. Positive and negative moves of an exercise must be equal speed. Try and squeeze the muscle when reaching the top of the move.
- Good bodies are NEVER created through exercise machines. They are created by free weights. Why? Well very simple: free weights uses and activates all the stabilization muscles which are crucial for a balanced looking aesthetic physique. Machines bypass all these stabilization muscles and result in an unbalanced muscle development…full stop!
- Do not trust on supplements to be the answer. VERY FEW supplements actually work. Consider only the following: Creatine, Whey protein, BCAA’s, L-glutamine and maybe a caffeine pill while training. The rest is just money down and empty pit!
- Anabolics is not a good idea, especially for a youngster. You got more than enough testosterone and HGH in your veins. USE IT! Using anabolics WILL result in smaller balls and it WILL result in impotence and no desire for sex…just for starters. You really, REALLY need to know what you are doing venturing this road and if you MUST do it, only after you had your kids!
- Alcohol! Want a rippling 6-pack? Well this is NOT going to happen with regular consumption of alcohol. Keep it to one day a week and NOT more than 500ml of wine or the equivalent. Alcohol in males create a fat layer around the internal organs and result in a bloated looking tummy which is very difficult to get away. No good body is ever build on regular alcohol consumption no matter what the Hollywood perception is!
- Training too light. If you do not stimulate the muscle for growth, no growth will occur. Stimulation only happen when the muscle is challenged. One sure way to do this is to train regularly to absolute muscle failure! The muscle must have at the very least a slight ache the next day…that is a sign that you have done a good job!
I have a blueprint system developed for young guys to create the environment for growth and make optimal use of the high testosterone and HGH levels…have a look here: https://gertlouw.com/my-transformation-secrets/
Wish you all happy training!
Gert Louw
