Is It Dangerous For A Teenager To Work Out In The Gym?

If you are reading this blog, it may be because of two main reasons: You are a parent and are trying to find out if you should let your kid get a gym membership or you are a teenager and are trying to convince your parents to let you start working out.

No matter in which category you are, you found the right article!

With this blog, I will cover both sides of the spectrum, consequences of starting the gym early, alternatives for a gym, nutrition basics, workout routines, gym terms you might need to learn and a personal story of mine.

There is a lot to unpack so let's get started.

Is it dangerous?

The Main concern parents have when thinking about letting their kids go to the gym is whether it will affect their height and the way they develop.

But this is a tricky question.

There are a lot of people that will tell you that lifting will stunt your growth. That is a myth that has no scientifical research or proof. So, NO, the gym won't affect your height or anything related to that.

But.....

That doesn't mean it isn't dangerous. Actually, the gym can be very dangerous for newbies who don't know have any gym knowledge, but we will help with that deeper in our blog.

That's why I recommend to always get a personal trainer if you don't know much about nutrition or sport, because he will help you a lot in both of the departments.

Danger does not refer only to immediate danger, like weights falling, but it can mean exercises done wrong which can affect your muscles and have bad side effects. The most common example of that is problems with the spine. There are a lot of exercises which, if not done correctly, can affect your spine in a very bad way and can lead to back pain

So, at what age is ok to start working out in the gym?

Well, from personal experience, I would let my kid go to the gym from age 12, but with a personal instructor until he is 14 or 15. After that, he can easily create his own workouts and diet

Alternatives for a gym

If you don't want to choose the gym because of financial or other reasons, there are many other ways to get a full body workouts.

The most common way is to join a sport club. Be it football, tennis or basketball, it will not only help with the physical aspect of things, but also with the social and mindset part. Being part of a whole is a great experience and, most importantly, a fun one. It doesn't even matter what sport you choose if you like it . It is all about regular exercising and having a blast!

Another good way of exercising weekly or daily is starting your own home gym. It is a more expensive way at first, but it can pay off in time. There are a lot of things that need to be talked about when getting your own home gym, but, if you are interested, we got just the article for you here, and, if you decide to go for it, we got the Top 10 Most Important Equipment .

If you don't want neither of those 2, you can buy a mat and do body weight exercises( push-ups, crunches, etc) and start running in your local park. The only downside to this is that you will not get a lot of arm work done as you will need dumbbells for that, but if you want to buy adjustable dumbbells you will have a complete workout, which you can buy here for the best price!

Nutrition Basics

This is going to be a chapter in which I will explain the basics of nutrition and sport. If you already have medium to high knowledge of these 2 topics, I suggest skipping this chapter to not waste time.

Let's start with the nutrition:

The daily average calorie intake is around 2200 kcal, but it varies a lot depending on your weight, height, physical activity, age , gender and metabolism.

There are 6 Essential Nutrients for your body:

Protein: Protein is essentially what makes your muscles grow after a gym session. So you can see how important protein is for a healthy diet and a balanced life. The recommended intake of protein is 0.8 grams of protein/kg or 0.36 grams of protein/lb. Protein Sources are anything from meat to eggs or cheese. 4 kcal per gram.

Fats: Even though their name might not sound very healthy, your body requires healthy fats to be able to absorb minerals and vitamins. Healthy fats are the ones coming from eggs, fish, cheese, but the king of it all is the avocado. 9 kcal per gram

Carbohydrates: Carbs are what your body works on most of the time. Why? Because carbs are easier and faster to consume so they are the first in the row. That can mean both good and bad. Even though some people prefer to restrict their carbs intake( The Keto Diet) so that the body focuses on the fat, carbs play a very important role in your body. Just think. All vegetables and fruits are carbs. 4 kcal per gram

Water: There is not really much to tell about water that isn't probably already known by you. Just make sure you drink over 2 L of water per day, even more if you exercise.

Vitamins: There are 13 vitamins from which 4 are fat-soluble(A, D,E & K) and 9 are water soluble (8 B vitamins and C). The easiest way to get your daily intake of every vitamins is through fruits and vegetables. If you have a balanced diet no vitamin drinks or any other supplements are required.

Minerals: There are 12 minerals that have a required minimum intake for a balanced diet(zinc, iron, etc). Minerals can be found in all kinds of food, but they are the most prominent in fruits and vegetables.

Now that we got the nutrition basics, let's go through a sport lesson.

There are 6 Major Muscle groups:

Abs: The abs are the midsection muscles you can find under your belly. They are formed by 4 other muscles: Internal and external obliques, Transverse abdominus, Rectus abdominus. I could go on and explain every one of them in detail, but I know you are probably going to skip that part so I'm not going to waste your time.

Back: Your back is formed by 11 muscles, but there are 5 important: Latissimus Dorsi, the biggest muscle in your whole body, Trapezius, Obliques, Rhomboid & Erector Spinae.

Chest: Well, this is pretty simple. The chest is formed by only 2 muscles, the Pectoralis Major & Pectoralis Minor.

Arms: The arms are formed by 3 muscle groups, the anterior(biceps), the posterior(triceps) and the forearm. The biceps and the triceps are muscles that can never be used at the same time because they serve opposite designations( push and pull)

Legs: There are 5 sections of the leg: Thigh, Crus and foot, Extrinsic, Intrinsic & Hip. Please, do not skip leg day. Even though you might think it won't help you, after some time you will realize how important it is.

Shoulders: The main categories are the deltoids which are split into 3 and the rotating cuff. Every time you train you shoulders, make sure you got the right posture as it may affect you growth in a bad way if you don't.

OK, that was more than enough anatomy for today.

Workout Routines

There are a lot of ways to plan your workout depending on how many times you go at the gym, in what stage you are and what are your goals, but some are more effective than others.

If you are a newbie, you need to do full-body workouts as it will help you grow all your muscles at the same time, while not putting too much pressure on a particular one.

But if you have a lot of time on your hands, that tactic won't help you very much because you won't be able to go to the gym more than 3 times per week just cause of the soreness. In this case, I would recommend workouts which either focused on certain muscle groups(chest-triceps, back-biceps) or focus on push and pull workout which can work out in your favor.

Gym terms you need to know.

When you go in the gym, you need to know how stuff is called so you don't embarrass yourself, so here is a list of all you need to know:

Repetition(Rep): A complete movement of an exercise.

Set: A number of reps done one after another.

Circuit: It refers to a number of exercises, each having its own number of sets and reps for every set

Max: The maximum weight you can do in one rep at a machine

Cardio: Exercises which involve constant movement over a longer period of time with the aim of weight loss.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): Cardio which alternates fast pace with slow pace at a fast rate.

Spot: To provide assistance for somebody lifting heavy weights by standing near them and making sure the weight won't fall on them.

Plate: Weight used for bars to increase the weight.

My Story

I found myself in the situation described at first.

As I kid, I was pretty chubby, but I decided I wanted that to change at about age 13. I started by going in the park and running. I wasn't athletic at all and it was very hard for me at first. But, after some time, I started getting the hang of it.

But I had a major problem.

My diet was very bad. At that time, I was eating chips and drinking sodas almost daily and, as you can imagine, that isn't something that will benefit your health very much. So, I wasn't losing any weight and I was pretty sad about that.

Then, I had the idea of going to the gym. My brother was already going there so why not go with him?! But my parents didn't let me at first. I was very pissed at them for that because I wanted to go the the gym so hard.

After one more year, when I was 14, they let me join my brother's gym, but they didn't let me do anything involving press. I was happy anyway because I could go there.

Slowly but surely, I was losing weight even though I didn't have a good diet or really a lot of knowledge about the gym. But after some time, I plateaued. I wasn't making any progress no matter what I was doing.

But then, it clicked. The reason I wasn't improving was because of my diet. My diet was so bad it was destroying my growth. I started trying a lot of diets and trying to restrict the way I eat, but it took me almost a year to get me to give up on sodas and chips. It was hard, but I was motivated enough to do it.

From my experience, I learned a lot of things, many of them being in nutrition and sport, but the most important was in my mindset. I expected quick result, and when they didn't come, I was disappointed, but I moved forward. And that is what I am so proud of. If I haven't had moved on, right now you wouldn't be reading this , and I wouldn't have a blog. Patience and determination are key in everything.

Conclusion

Well, I know this started as the question in the title, but I decided to take this more in-depth because it felt personal and, by telling my experience, I hope to help other people who are looking for motivation and guiding.

If you have any questions, be sure to leave them directly in my inbox or in the comment section. See you soon!