Dangers of muscle building

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jimmy33

jimmy33

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Dangers of muscle building

I was just curious if there were any dangers involved in a person my age building up muscle. i was wondering this because my health teacher said that if i gain muscle to quickly then i can tear the muscle off the bone. that said its hard to trust her because she was trying to teach us about healthy eating when shes not quite the ideal weight herself :p
 
Re: Dangers of muscle building

I've heard from numerous people that if you're under 15 you should stay away from intense weight lifting, but I'm not 100% sure.
 
Re: Dangers of muscle building

Jonesy said:
I've heard from numerous people that if you're under 15 you should stay away from intense weight lifting, but I'm not 100% sure.
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Stick to body weight until you are 17 imo.
 
Re: Dangers of muscle building

jimmy33 said:
my health teacher said that if i gain muscle to quickly then i can tear the muscle off the bone.
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Well I never heard that one before.

What I can say is this: at 15 you are either growing really fast or about to grow really fast (this is called peak height velocity) so your muscles are growing fast too. Even if you did nothing the massive boost of testosterone would grow your muscles.

So you don't need to do a lot of training designed to grow your muscles but training helps teenagers in a number of other ways.

Very heavy lifting, intense plyometrics and possibly long runs should be cut out altogether.

My view about other fitness training is a bit controversial. I feel teenagers can easily learn correct technique in a gym so I have no issue with teens in gyms per se.

The problem is that it's hard to find a gym with a trained fitness instructor who can coach you if you are under 18.

That's why the general recommendation is for bodyweight training. It gives all the benefits with few costs.

So if you can find a gym that will take you and knows how to teach you safely then go for it. If not (and the chances are not) then use bodyweight.
 
Re: Dangers of muscle building

I can only agree with everything David has already posted.

Building muscle naturally at your age is great for you; a healthy diet and bodyweight exercises is the way to go and as David says... "Very heavy lifting, intense plyometrics and possibly long runs should be cut out altogether.

As a Personal Trainer, I would have no problem in taking you on and teaching you the techniques but not sure if you could afford me ;). I do not think you will find a commercial gym to take you; they must follow too many health and safety regulations ;)

If you think a Personal Trainer is worth the investment, make sure you choose one with speciality knowledge not only of the teenage anatomy but also the demands of cricket.
 
Re: Dangers of muscle building

Liz Ward said:
As a Personal Trainer, I would have no problem in taking you on and teaching you the techniques but not sure if you could afford me ;).
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Yeah and the fact that you live in England and i live in Australia :p
 
Re: Dangers of muscle building

jimmy33 said:
i was wondering this because my health teacher said that if i gain muscle to quickly then i can tear the muscle off the bone.
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I can remember being told the same thing when aged about 13/14. I'm sure it put more than a few people off ever using weights.
 
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I am not sure whether such information is kindly meant through ignorance or kindly meant to put the fear in to teenagers.

It is certainly wrong for guys of 13/14 to be using heavy, extra bodyweight resistance [free or machine]. I have seen so many men, irreversibly damaged through misuse at such a young age.

However, resistance work is essential at this age to maximise potential. It is just a case of knowing what to do and when to do it.

I believe that if we would rather teenagers not perform these exercises, we should tell them why and give good, clear explanations. When the time is right, it is the best, not just for strength and power but also to burn fat.
 
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Like Stan I can remember being told something similar, and that was on a GCSE Sport Studies course, however, as soon as we hit 16 we had a free reign, which was something I never quite understood!

I think it was largely through lack of knowledge and would hope that teachers etc are more aware these days.

I agree that explaining properly the reasons why is the best way forward, stops people being put off exercising for one thing.
 
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Im getting in some dumbells soon but im not going to overdo it, it annoy me about the 16 year old rule as at the moment most my friends can go to the gym and do reasonable weights but being born in july means i have another 7 months to go!
 
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Oh, don't be too downed mouthed Will; in my opinion, 16 is far too young :D

The age thing is supposed to protect you guys from growth cell damage. Basically, you are not supposed to be let loose in a gym unsupervised until you have stopped growing. You guys stop growing at different ages, some not until 21... but that's good.

As a word of caution, I stood in a gym with a colleague of mine before Christmas when a group of 17/18 year olds came in, full of testosterone. I can honestly say, I felt sick. The stresses they were putting on their bodies was not sustainable. On top of this, there was no warm up at all. :eek: A gym instructor came in after about 5 minutes and did not even look at them and if he did, he would probably not have known what was wrong.

Having said this, that does not mean you must not use weights, you just need to know what you are doing so get yourself a personal trainer. I am happy to take guys from 14 years!
 
Re: Dangers of muscle building

I think everyone should be taught the techniques of weightlifting as young as possible. The actual weight can come later but it's never to early to learn how to squat, clean and snatch.

The earlier people learn how to move the better they will be at any sport.
 
Re: Dangers of muscle building

Harrowdrive said:
I think everyone should be taught the techniques of weightlifting as young as possible. The actual weight can come later but it's never to early to learn how to squat, clean and snatch.

The earlier people learn how to move the better they will be at any sport.
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Oh, how true David.

As you know, I specialise in the Long Term Athlete Development Programme ("LTAD"). In its true form, it is great, especially the FUNdamentals of Movement stage. If you can get a child young enough and teach them to move unilaterally with correct technique, you have the Acorn of a great performing Oak; sport specific movement as well as fitness movement.

Take cricket as an example, we can teach 4/5 year olds to run so that when they are old enough to play, they can run efficiently and fast without injury. We can teach them to bat, bowl, throw, catch etc. with their left arm as effectively as their right. We can teach them spatial awareness and how to use their core so that it is first nature. All in such a fun way that the children are not even aware of it. Imagine it!
 
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I'm coaching some 6-9 year olds this year. You will have to send me some tips. I'm not used to such a young age group.
 
Re: Dangers of muscle building

micoach;8037 said:
I think everyone should be taught the techniques of weightlifting as young as possible. The actual weight can come later but it's never to early to learn how to squat, clean and snatch.

The earlier people learn how to move the better they will be at any sport.
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Thats real obvious, i completely agree with you...
 
Re: Dangers of muscle building

Wow, I'm digging the spammer that brought this thread back to life.

From the research i've done (which isn't much more than different strength and conditioning journals, and reading up on some pretty respected strength coaches), this is still a really grey area for me - it's a bit like splenda - there's as much evidence saying that it's bad, as there is saying that it's okay, sa there is saying that it's brilliant.

I guess, for the sake of safety, I would err on the side of caution - not because i'm convinced that strength training (as opposed to body building) is harmful, but because online, there's no way of knowing that it's being done right. If you had access to a decent coach, or were well researched and worked with a similarly well researched spotter, it'd be a completely different story though.

MASSIVE DIGRESSION/ RANT: I'm with you Liz when you say (or said 9 months ago, haha), that walking into a gym and seeing a bunch of 18 year olds can be a little disconcerting. I can't go to the gym without seeing a group of them doing their chest routines together - routines that generally consist of 5*Failure on the bench, 5*failure- Incline bench, 5*Failure - Decline Bench on the smith, 5*Failure - Flat bench dumbell press, 5* Failure - Incline dumbell press, and hell, maybe a set of dips. Needless to say that form goes out the window in the first set on the Bench press, and the rest is just... horrific. (Note to anybody getting into weight training for the first time - you will see results on this type of program... for about three weeks- why? Not because it's right - it's very, very, very wrong- but because you're generally so unconditioned that calf raises will help your bench. STOP STOP STOP). I hate the topic of young kids - especially young blokes (of which, at 19, I am one) - working out so wrong.
 
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