Teen BodyBuilding 101

By Wesley McDermott 

What You Need to Know to Have Your Dream Body

Many teens turn to strength training and weight lifting to stay in shape, bulk up for sports or to simply better their appearance. If done correctly, this type of training can serve as a beneficial way for teens to learn about fitness and adopting a health-conscience lifestyle. If done incorrectly, however, it can lead to injuries, health problems and a misconception about what good nutrition is. If you are a teen who is considering starting a strength training program, it is important to learn how to safely build muscle while getting the nutrition you need.

The first thing you need to know is that muscle building for teens is different than muscle building for adults. Teens typically lose fat and gain muscle much more easily than adults, so your diet and workout routines will differ from those of older people.
While adults may take supplements, such as creatine, glutamine, fat burners, testosterone boosters and NO2 products, to boost their muscle building, teens should steer clear of them. Most supplements are not FDA-approved and teens are more susceptible to possible unknown side effects because their bodies are still growing and going through hormonal changes. You should keep taking your multi-vitamin, though. It safely gives you the added nutrition you need, and taking your vitamins daily is a good habit to get into as early as possible.

You Don't Need Steroids

It goes without saying that the taking of steroids is not only illegal, but extremely dangerous and harmful, especially to a teen’s evolving system. As a teenager, your hormones provide you with all of the extra “boost” you need to gain muscle. Once you start working out and eating correctly, you’ll probably be amazed at how fast you start building muscle mass. But, if you begin taking steroids at your age, your hormone levels could be screwed up for the rest of your life.

Getting The Best Nutrition For Muscle and Weight Gain

As for nutrition, establishing the diet you’ll need to build muscle is an excellent basis for learning how to eat healthy for the rest of your life. A diet full of lean protein, whole grains, fruits and vegetables is essential for building muscle, and if you learn to eat this way as a teen, chances are you’ll continue these eating habits well into adulthood.

First you need to make sure you’re getting enough calories to compensate for the energy you’ll burn during workouts. To do this, you should eat six meals a day that are full of lean proteins and complex carbs. Some excellent sources of lean protein—and lean is the key—are eggs, liver, beef, poultry, milk, yogurt, cheese, nuts, beans, peas and some grains, especially barley. You should eat some type of lean protein every 2 ½ to 3 ½ hours, and take in a total of 1 ½ grams of protein per each pound of your current body weight, each day.

The key is to keep your body in an anabolic state, which maintains a positive balance of nitrogen. High protein foods are composed of amino acids, which are all rich in nitrogen. Your body takes the amino acids in these foods and selects the ones it needs to build new tissue. The protein your body takes in is rapidly broken down by cell enzymes, so you have to continually give your body more protein in order for your muscles to keep building. You can take protein shakes to replace meals when necessary, but this should be limited to one shake per day at most. Shakes just won’t provide you with all of the nutrition you need for a healthy, muscle building diet.

In addition to protein, your diet should include items from all four basic food groups. Eating a lot of fresh vegetables, fruit, low fat dairy and whole grains will provide you with a well-balanced diet that will maximize your muscle mass.

Very few, if any, of your calories should be “empty” ones. For this reason, avoid large consumption of sugars and simple, refined carbohydrates, such as candy, soda, cakes, pies, cookies, white bread, pasta made with refined flour and white rice. While some people assume that these things give you energy, any boost you get is from a spike in your insulin, which quickly crashes your metabolism and takes you along with it. If you’re friends go out for pizza and burgers every day, don’t let them influence what you’re eating. If anything, you should strive to be a good example to your friends of the benefits of healthy eating. Even if you have to take your punches, so to speak, and endure some teasing because you’re eating healthy, just wait until your body starts changing and those same friends are asking you for nutritional advice so they can look as good as you!

Getting The Best Out Of Your Muscle Building Routine

In addition to a healthy diet, your muscle building routine shouldinclude a safe,effective workout program that focuses on the entire body. If you focus on only one body part per workout, you run the risk of overtraining that muscle group, which could result in injury. It’s best to work on every part of your body, three times per week. Even though your friends will probably ream you for not joining in on their hour-long bench pressing session, you’ll be able to show them up when your entire body is sculpted—and the only part of them that’s built is their chest. You should also incorporate some cardio exercise into your routine. This can be running, stair climbing, hiking, biking or whatever you enjoy. This will not only give you a well-sculpted physique, but a healthier body overall.

Lastly, you need to learn how to train correctly before you ever pick up a set of weights. If you have the chance to get a personal trainer, do it. Otherwise, ask an older bodybuilder or coach how to properly train. If you jump into it without knowing how to use the safest techniques, you could be setting yourself up for a lifetime of injuries.

Teen bodybuilding will not only help you be better at sports and give you a body worth envying, but, if done right, it will teach you how to eat healthy and live healthy for the rest of your life.