Teen bodybuilding has gained popularity over the years. Young teens hit the gym every day, whether they are working out to gain strength for sports or simply to get fit. Like eating well, physical activity plays a crucial role in developing and maintaining good health.

According to the Center for Disease Control, the staggering statistics of children who are overweight is 30.3%, of which 15.4% are obese. Not only does this condition lower self-esteem, increase feelings of anxiety and depression, and reduce ones self-confidence, but even worse, it can lead to diseases such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, type 11 diabetes, etc.

Therefore, it is important for teens to become more physical. A good bodybuilding program will help them control their weight, build lean muscle, strengthen their bones, increase flexibility and balance, and at the same time, reduce their risk of certain debilitating diseases. Bodybuilding also has possible emotional and social benefits, as well as promoting a disciplined lifestyle and strong work ethic.

Conditioning Your Body Properly

Before starting any program, it is important for teens to be examined by a doctor and give the o’kay for them to do so.

Also, to reduce the risk of injuries while bodybuilding, it is important to make sure you’re treating your body properly. Therefore, before working out, whether lifting or running, be sure to stretch out. Most experts recommend a light jog for 5-10 minutes, followed by 5-10 minutes of stretching. Stretches are held for 30 seconds (without pain!). Then, at the end of the workout it is important to stretch again. This will loosen up the muscles.

Stretching is the most under-rated physical quality. This is unfortunate, because shortened muscles perform weaker and slower and have a higher incidence of injury. Weight training shortens and tightens connective tissue that you train and stretching counter-acts the effect and ensures your muscles have room to grow!

Overtraining

First and foremost, we would encourage teens to start out slowly, by engaging in light weight training exercises, which provides a fun cardiovascular program and a healthy eating plan. 

Training must be scheduled in a certain way, initially long, but light routines and gradually, long but a bit more intense. Unless you are in a teen bodybuilding competition, it is not necessary to work-out for more than one hour. If it takes longer than 20-30 minutes of even moderate intensity lifting to fully exhaust a muscle, then something is not right. 

Bodybuilding supplementation also important in balancing a good bodybuilding program. The daily caloric intake must match the recommended daily allowance plus exercise output. If the caloric need is 3000 calories, 55-60% should come from carbohydrates (sugars), 15% from protein, and 25-30 from fat. Meals are usually light and eaten 2-4 hours before a workout. Carbohydrates should come from foods like apples, oranges, yogurt, whole-wheat breads, oatmeal, brown rice, potatoes, veggies, and power bars. Focus on eating a variety of clean protein such as tuna, chicken, fish, cottage cheese and protein shakes. Balance out meals with clean fats like olive oil, natural peanut butter and nuts. After the workout, it is good to eat (within 2 hours) foods like pizza, bagels, and breads, to rebuild the stores of sugar in your body.

Also, drinking adequate fluids will help prevent overtraining. It is recommended that you drink 16 ounces 1-2 hours before exercising and 5-10 ounces every 15 minutes during exercise. Water is sufficient if exercise under an hour; otherwise, select a drink like Gatorade.

Develop Full Range of Motion

Initially, teen bodybuilding should involve building strong muscular attachments, such as tendons, ligaments and bones. Think of building muscles as the finishing touches on a house. You would not want to start framing the house until the foundation has been built. By the same token, strengthening your tendons, ligaments and bones would be considered building a strong foundation to build from. This would entail developing a full range of motion with each weight training exercise to ensure all the muscle fibers get activated and all the supporting tissues are fully involved.

Partial movements will only develop partial muscle. Full movements will develop full muscle. Involving entire range of motion with a lighter weight will involve more musculature, improve your mind-muscle connection quicker and strengthen all the supporting tissues more rapidly. Initially, as a teen bodybuilder, you should never sacrifice range for load.

Beginner’s Routine

A good routine for beginners would be to choose Monday /Friday (or any combination that allows a minimum of three rest days in between weight training workouts), and work on the following:

Push-ups (could be done with knees on the floor)

Squats

One Arm Rows

Wide Stance Squats, (pressing with heels)

Lateral Raises

Biceps Curls

Overhead Triceps Extensions

Crunches

Leg Raises

>Perform each exercise for 3 sets of as many repetitions as can be performed with good form. The goal is to do between 15-30 repetitions.

>Rest 30-60 seconds in between sets

>Only use a resistance of 2.5 lbs on exercises such as one arm rows, lateral raises, bicep curls, and overhead tricep extensions. The other exercises can be used without any resistance and the bodyweight will suffice.

>Concentrate on practicing perfect form in each exercise and only allow for an increase in resistance when more than 30 repetitions are performed with absolute perfect form.

As you progress further along, after approximately 8 weeks into the program more exercises can be incorporated, if desired. However, unless you are competing in bodybuilding, what we have suggested above will suffice.

So, if you are a teen looking to become fit and develop and maintain optimal health, now is the time to start a program.

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