If you are in high school and have already started hitting the gym, that’s fantastic! Training can improve your health, increase your performance, and transform your body. However, if you make the mistakes most high school guys make, you will at best waste your time (and likely get hurt). If you are serious about getting the best possible training results, here are 10 things you must know (10 things I wish someone told me when I was lifting in high school).
1. Most fitness influencers are not experts
I still remember devouring the muscle magazines as a teen trying to find the training “secrets” to their massive muscular bodies (hint: it wasn’t their training programs). While magazines have been replaced with social media, the same fact remains; most influencers rise to fame because of their elite genetics (and all too often a hefty dose of bodybuilding drugs). Few have extensive training knowledge. Few train other people and very few have put in 10,000+ hours training real people in person. At best these influencers may inspire you and provide the occasional good idea. However, social media algorithms usually reward the novel extremes, not the effective basics. Thus, the algorithms influence the influencers to be more even extreme with their content making it less helpful and appropriate for you.
2. There is a lot you don’t know you don’t know
Years ago, someone much smarter than me (sorry I don’t know who it was) came up with the knowledge pie. It is a pie graph that shows what you know, what you know you don’t know, and what you don’t know you don’t know (that last part is the scary part). Below is what it often looks like for most high schoolers (no insult intended, this was definitely me at 18) and what it can look like if you are humble enough to admit you don’t know it all, stay hungry to learn more, and develop the habit of being a life-long learner.
3. You must earn the big weights
Every guy wants to jump straight to the big weights. However, without proper technique, you won’t get results and you will likely get hurt. You earn the big weights by first demonstrating proper form with the light weights. You also have to maintain proper form and range of motion while you add weights. For example, while loading up the bar and being Captain Quarter Squat may impress your buddies, you need full-range (as appropriate for your structure) squats to build strong, impressive legs.
Bonus tip 1: to learn more about proper exercise technique, check out my YouTube channel for an extensive library of exercise technique videos
4. Stop testing your 1-rep max
Nothing is more exciting than piling on as much weight as you can and testing how much you can bench (especially if it is more than your friends). As a result, many high school guys try a 1-rep max almost every gym session. However, testing is not training. The volume of a 1-rep max test session is too low to cause muscle growth. As a result, every time you test your 1-rep max, you waste a workout. This leaves many guys wondering why they can’t increase their 1-rep max. Instead, commit to training in the 5-8 rep range. If you have the patience, this rep range will allow you to build tremendous muscle and strength. Soon, you will be doing 5 reps with your previous 1-rep max! Once you have great technique and are substantially bigger and stronger, you can on occasion (i.e., 2-3 times a year) test and see what you can do with perfect form and decent bar speed for a heavy single rep (i.e., best not to do a true 1-rep max). This could be preceded by a 2-week peaking phase where you do some work in the 1-3 rep range to learn how to do low reps before testing. However, you could never test your 1-rep max again and be just fine. If you are adding weight to what you can do for 5-8 reps, you know your 1-rep max is going up.
Bonus tip 2: remember that if the spotter touches the bar, the rep doesn’t count.
Bonus tip 3: keep a training journal and seek to gradually progress your weight.
Bonus quote 1: “Come to the gym to build strength, not to demonstrate it.” Author unknown
5. You must train all your muscles
Many young guys care only about select mirror muscles – chest, arms, and possibly abs for the beach. Legs? That’s what pants are for! Back? Who cares, you can’t see it in the mirror! This is a HUGE mistake! It also rarely works as the body will only allow so much asymmetry. Think for a moment about someone you thought had the ideal male physique. Was it someone with a massive chest and arms who had narrow shoulders, a bony back, and chicken legs? No, it was someone who had a balanced, symmetrical physique. Think why you started lifting in the first place. For many young guys, it is often to earn the respect of men and the admiration of women. However, if you just train a few mirror muscles, you will never be a strong man. You will never earn the respect of other strong men or the admiration of the ladies. Your body will look better, perform better, and be more resilient if you train ALL your muscles!
6. Energy drinks don’t give you energy
Many high schoolers live on “energy” drinks mistakenly thinking these drinks are giving them energy. Wrong! Food gives you energy. Energy drinks drain energy from your body. While you may get some fleeting energy from the sugar, energy drinks “work” by giving you a hefty dose of stimulants. These stimulants increase adrenaline, heart rate, and blood pressure, and dump fat and sugar into your bloodstream. In the short term, you feel more energy, but you are left more drained in the long run.
Bonus quote 2: “Stimulants are borrowed energy, it’s not real and it has to be repaid.” Lee Haney 8x Mr. Olympia
7. Food makes a HUGE difference!
From grade 9 to grade 12 I was only able to gain 10 pounds of muscle. Why? Because I didn’t know how to eat (and I trained too much). I had several times where a big, strong man told me the truth – you have to EAT! When I finally applied this simple advice, I was able to add an additional 40 pounds of muscle (drug-free and with bad genetics). For guys, just trying to meet the demands of teenage life and a growing body requires a tremendous number of calories and nutrients. Most guys fail to adequately provide basic physical growth needs let alone the additional demands of training and muscle growth. If you want to get bigger and stronger you will have to eat like it is your job. Learn to cook and help with the cooking and dishwashing. Plan ahead. Eat a big breakfast. Pack a big lunch and a lot of healthy snacks for school each day. Follow that up with a large dinner and possibly a bedtime snack. Don’t get lazy and think that calories from fast food and junk food is all you need. You need to give your body calories, proteins, fats, carbs, vitamins, and minerals from real food! Supplements are overrated. Yes, there are times when they can offer some small additional benefits. However, supplements can never replace real food.
Bonus quote 3: “Taking supplements and not eating right is like wearing deodorant and not showering. It just doesn’t cut it.” Author Unknown
8. Sleep and rest are a REALLY big deal
The single best period of muscle growth I ever had in my life was when I got the most sleep. Proper sleep positively affects every part of you (mental, emotional, physical, performance, recovery, hormones, nutrition, etc.). Lack of sleep negatively affects every part of your life. You don’t hear enough about the importance of sleep because nobody makes money off telling you to sleep. However, it is one of the most important things you can do to transform your body. While you may think you can get away with 6 or less hours of sleep, you have no idea how much better you could feel, perform and grow muscle with 8-9 hours of sleep a night. If you are serious about results, get off your phone, turn the TV off and get to bed earlier! In addition, take time each day to lie down, relax and do deep breathing.
9. Train less, but better
High school is a time when you have lots of time. Daily marathon workouts filled with plenty of scrolling and hanging out are the norm. However, when you enter phases of life such as university or job training, starting a family, or building a business you won’t have all day to train. Instead of blindly following the masses, train 3-4 days per week for no more than an hour. This gives you 3-4 growth days per week (remember you grow outside of the gym). Pick great exercises, do less sets and exercises, train really hard, stay focused, and stay off your phone. Less is more.
10. There are no shortcuts
You live in a world with tremendous time-saving technological advances. You have instant access to things that I would have had to wait weeks or months to get. However, one thing never changes – it takes time to build your body. Forget 6 weeks to a big chest, 12-week transformations, and all the other silly marketing smoke and mirrors of the fitness industry. There are no secrets, magical training programs, special exercises, miracle supplements or bio hacks that will give you a shortcut to the body of your dreams. If you are serious about getting bigger and stronger, you can’t get distracted by “shortcuts.” You have to dig in for the long haul. Apply the basics week in, week out. Forget weeks and think in decades.
Bonus tip 4: the one shortcut you might be tempted to try is steroids. While they will temporarily give you a quick surge in strength and size, they come at a HUGE cost (financial, health, injury, legal, ability to have kids, longevity, and even long-term results). Now in my 40s, I’m so thankful that when I was young, I made the decision to stay drug-free!
There you have it. If time travel was real, I would go back in time and give these 10 tips to my teenage self. If you want a complete guide to getting bigger and stronger, grab a copy of my book Size for Skinny Guys. If you are a parent, teacher, trainer, or coach, please share these tips with any teenager who will listen.
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