Teens participating in muscle-building exercises build optimal muscle and bone mass. The American College of Sports Medicine reports exercise-induced increases in bone mass during the younger years are maintained into the adult years. Teens may participate in muscle-building exercises as long as they are able to follow directions. Teens should use a weight heavy enough that they can complete six to 15 repetitions. Complete four sets per exercise.
Chest and Back
A teenager must be closely supervised during muscle building workouts, utilizing a spotter or spotting rack to ensure his or her safety. Free weights instead of machine weights should be used if you are of a smaller frame; adult machines do not have proper body alignment and support for small-sized adolescents.
On Mondays, pair chest and back exercises---flat bench presses with one-arm dumbbell rows, incline bench presses---with chin-ups, flat dumbbell flies with lateral pull downs, push-ups with your feet on a bench and seated rows. Do alternating sets for each pair of exercises. You need to rest for one minute between sets and two minutes between pairs of exercises.
Legs and Abdominals
Free weight exercises for the legs are effective at building muscle, improving a teen's sports performance and reducing the risk of lower back injuries while weight training. On Wednesdays, you can pair exercises for legs and abdominals---squats with sit-ups, lunges---with medicine ball throws, dead lifts with planks, dumbbell sumo squats with standing medicine ball twists.
Shoulders, Biceps and Triceps
Include shoulder exercises in a teen's workout program as the shoulder is the link between the strong muscles of the trunk and the smaller muscles of the hands. Biceps and triceps exercises will build your arm muscles and enhance your ability to do pull-ups and push-ups. On Fridays, you can pair a shoulder exercise with arm exercise---dumbbell shoulder presses with dumbbell curls, lateral raises using an exercise band with triceps dips, bent-over dumbbell flies with EZ barbell curls, dumbbell upright rows with two arm triceps extensions.
After four weeks of training, vary your workout to continue to build muscle. Use different exercises, increase the number of sets or decrease the amount of time you rest between sets to 45 seconds. Do only six reps instead of 6 to 15 reps per set. Change the tempo of your reps; perform them a little faster or a little slower.
References
- American College of Sports Medicine: Youth Strength Training
- "American College of Sports Medicine's Health & Fitness Journal"; Strength Training in Children and Teens; Pat Vehrs, Ph.D.; July/Aug 2005
- "Personal Trainer Manual"; American Council on Exercise; 1997
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