8. Focus On Bodyweight Strength First
It amazes me at how many teen bodybuilders can barely do a set of 40 push ups, 20
chin ups and 30 dips. In my opinion, these are some standard upper body fitness
tests that should be accomplished with ease before loading is introduced (it might
take your 3 or 4 months to achieve this if you can't do them right now). I once
heard a famous fitness coach say, "You have no freaking business using a load
if you can't stabilize, control, and move efficiently using your own bodyweight."
I would have to fully agree.
What's the point of a sloppy 150 pound lat pulldown if you can't do 10 bodyweight
pull ups? What's the point of a 185 pound bench press with microscopic range reps,
if you can push up your body a couple dozen times? What's the point of a 500 pound
leg press if you can do a set of one legged squats down to the floor? Believe me,
after a few months of conditioning your body to
body weight training, you
will be blown away by how quickly your weights climb when you introduce loading.
9. Keep Your Workouts Under 1 Hour
Unless you are in a teen bodybuilding competition for
the longest workout possible,
it bewilders my mind what you could possibly be doing for longer than a hour!
Unless you go to the gym for
mirror workouts (that's when you spend more
time looking in the mirror than actually lifting)I suggest getting some help with
your workout program. If it takes longer than 20-30 minutes of even moderate intensity
lifting to fully exhaust a muscle, I have to question your workout intensity. Shorter
more intense workouts will always
trump longer less intense workouts.
Your goal should be in fact to complete your workout faster and faster. This will
force your muscles to condition and adapt to a greater
work load. The more
work you expose your muscles too, in a shorter amount of time will improve your
muscle density. Your bodies ability to tolerate greater workloads.
10. Develop Full Range Of Motion
Initially, teen bodybuilding should involve building strong muscular attachments,
tendons, ligaments and bones - text books refer this as
anatomical adaptation.
Look at building your muscles as the finishing touches on a solid house. You would
not want to start framing the house until the foundation has been built. Strengthening
your tendons, ligaments and bones would be considered building a strong
foundation
to build from.
What is the best way to begin a strong foundation for a house to stand on? Build
from the bottom up or in our case, from the inside out. This means developing a
full range of motion with each weight training exercise to ensure all the muscle
fiber gets activated and all the supporting tissues are fully involved.
Think about it. Partial movements will only develop partial muscle. Full movements
will develop full muscle. What would get you better results? Squatting 135 pounds
with your butt to the floor or squatting 225 pounds for about ¼ of the way?
That's correct, involving the 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.
Conclusion
If you are serious about doing
teen bodybuilding safely and effectively than take all of the
tips very seriously. Do not pick and choose the ones you wish to follow. They will
all result in a long and fruitful bodybuilding lifestyle. To your teen bodybuilding
success!