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GangGreen

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Yeah, I started lifting weights about 10 months ago when I joined my football team and I was wondering how much I should be lifting. I'm currently 5' 10", age 15 and 220-230 lbs. Here are my maxes and I want to know if they're average, good, or bad for my size. If they're bad, I want to know what I can do to improve.

Bench: 225 x1

Squat: 225 x3

Deadlift: 300 x1

Clean and Jerk: I'm not sure, but I believe last time I only did 155 x5 or x3

Leg press: Last time I tried, I only did 430 x6, but I could do it alot more times than that, I just didn't want to try too much and it was the first time I tried that much, so I wasn't sure what my limits were

I know these aren't that great weights, but I want to know what the average 15 year old my size can do. Thanks.

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Don't worry about your maximum. Why do you think they have them bench 225 for as many reps as possible at the combine? Endurance is more important for what you want to do.

This man's got it right. Focus on more reps or more time per rep (ie six slow leg presses is a lot better than eight really fast ones). By focusing too much on maximum, you might bust something up, which is never good (especially at your age). Just keep with those weights until you do it easily (not much struggle) and then up the weights carefully. You should be fine.

Just don't neglect your legs by doing only upper-body workouts, that's never good for you.

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Start reducing your weight and increasing your reps (3 sets of 8-12) otherwise you are just wasting your time. Forget about the max that you can lift.

Not true at all. If it is strength you are after, lower your reps and up your weights. For example, alot of strength trainers follow a 5x5 method. They find their weight that they can do for 5 reps, no more, and do 5 sets of that. It is not optimal for building size, but it will add strength alot faster. If you are going for size, you want to go in the 3-4 set range with 6-12 reps. Anything over that in reps is more for endurance. Here's how you should determine your wieghts in reps:

1st, find your 1RM (1 rep max). To do this, you can simply find a weight amount that can only lift once, or, you can use a slight bit of math to calculate it. Here's how:

Reps Pctg

1 100

2 95

3 90

4 88

5 86

6 83

7 80

8 78

9 76

10 75

11 72

12 70

2nd, set your reps up to match this chart. Using the examples you provided with squat, for example, here's what you would get:

Reps Pctg weight

1 100 250

2 95 237.5

3 90 225

4 88 220

5 86 215

6 83 207.5

7 80 200

8 78 195

9 76 190

10 75 187.5

11 72 180

12 70 175

So, if you were going for strength gains, you would try to do a 5x5 set, so in your case do 5 sets of squats at 5 reps each at 215 lbs. If you are looking to add mass and still add strength gradually, try doing a set of 12 @ 175, 8@ 195, and 6 @ 207.5. You can throw a 4th set of 4 @ 220 if you like. Slowly and carefully add weight each week, DON'T OVER DO IT!!! But this is a good guideline to go by for how much weight you should be using by number of reps. Just remember, lower reps with higher weight, more strength gains. Middle reps (6-12) size and strength gains. High reps (over 12), endurance.

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Everyone here has given you solid advice. Never worry about your max, you're libel to get hurt. Concentrate on the number of reps, that will increase your endurance which is what you need for football. RULE #1 : NEVER EVER sacrifice form for weight. Use the right form so you don't wind up straining or pulling something. Good luck.

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Don't worry about your maximum. Why do you think they have them bench 225 for as many reps as possible at the combine? Endurance is more important for what you want to do.

Since all I did was work out in the desert, I was able to do 225 18 times just 3 weeks ago. At my age, I'm happy with that. When I was 17 I couldn't even do that weight once so your doing great. If I could give you the most important piece of advice after all my time spent in the gym I would tell you that what you eat is MORE important that what you lift to get the results you desire. Learn about your diet, its the #1 key to meet your goals in the gym. Good luck, and keep your form. Don't worry about what what everyone else in the gym is lifting, just worry about yourself, put your ego on the back burner while weightlifting.

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If I could give you the most important piece of advice after all my time spent in the gym I would tell you that what you eat is MORE important that what you lift to get the results you desire. Learn about your diet, its the #1 key to meet your goals in the gym.

BINGO!!! I didn't add this in my post, but the most important aspect of gaining strength and size is EATING! At 15 years old I'm sure you have a ravenous metabolism. You have to make sure you eat enough to satisfy it, and then some to gain lean mass. Just make sure you eat clean.

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Might suggest more cardio workouts for you legs-elliptical,stairmaster, bike(be it on road or lifecycle) or running, or some combonation of them. Squats as you get older tend to do bad things to you back. Gym owner way back told me he thought that squats had been designed by a chiropractor or a sports orthopedist. And once you get back pain, you can forget about the gym for a while.

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Since all I did was work out in the desert, I was able to do 225 18 times just 3 weeks ago. At my age, I'm happy with that. When I was 17 I couldn't even do that weight once so your doing great. If I could give you the most important piece of advice after all my time spent in the gym I would tell you that what you eat is MORE important that what you lift to get the results you desire. Learn about your diet, its the #1 key to meet your goals in the gym. Good luck, and keep your form. Don't worry about what what everyone else in the gym is lifting, just worry about yourself, put your ego on the back burner while weightlifting.

This is so true. If you are too busy keeping up with what others are lifting, you stop using proper form. Then suddenly one day you have a bad back or something.

Use proper form when lifting. the results will come. IMO a healthy lean diet high in protein is important too. I prefer to drink 2-3 Whey protein shakes a day too.

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Yeah, I always remember to have great form. I never have bad form when doing squats, cleans, or deadlifts. I work-out every other day at school in my weightlifting class, I accomplish the cardio during football practices, and I usually lift weights every other day after practices. I'm not worried about my form or getting injured, because I'm not injury prone and I always have perfect form, I just wanted to know what I should be working on right now. I'm not very satisfied with my squatting, and I want to try and find a way to strengthen my back muscles with just a bench press, and obviously the bar with weights. I use MuscleMilk and it has worked very well for me, but I'm kind of down right now and I've hit a plateau at 225. As for the 5 sets of 5 reps, I can only do 185 x5, and I don't think that workout is enough. I'm not too concerned about my max, but I want to rep more. Also, what are your age, height, weight, and maxes? I just want to know where I should be for my size and age.

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Yeah, I always remember to have great form. I never have bad form when doing squats, cleans, or deadlifts. I work-out every other day at school in my weightlifting class, I accomplish the cardio during football practices, and I usually lift weights every other day after practices. I'm not worried about my form or getting injured, because I'm not injury prone and I always have perfect form, I just wanted to know what I should be working on right now. I'm not very satisfied with my squatting, and I want to try and find a way to strengthen my back muscles with just a bench press, and obviously the bar with weights. I use MuscleMilk and it has worked very well for me, but I'm kind of down right now and I've hit a plateau at 225. As for the 5 sets of 5 reps, I can only do 185 x5, and I don't think that workout is enough. I'm not too concerned about my max, but I want to rep more. Also, what are your age, height, weight, and maxes? I just want to know where I should be for my size and age.

You're 15, you're way ahead of your size, strength and age. Don't worry about that. As for the 5x5's, trust me they work. You need to do them at a weight where the last rep is difficult, meaning you would not be able to do 6 of them. Each week you up the weight slightly. This is the quickest way to get your STRENGTH up. If you want to get bigger, then do the 8-12 rep range, just us the calculations I gave you as your guideline for what weight to do 12 times, 10 times, 8 times, etc.. Just realize training for strength and training for size are 2 totally different things. If you see bodybuilders with perfect physiques and huge muscles I can show you guys 2/3rds their size that can lift more. There IS a difference.

As for strengthening your back, Dealifts, stiff leg deadlifts, and good mornings will strengthen your lower back and legs. T Bar rows, bent over rows, shrugs, and behind the back shrugs will strengthen your upper back. All you need a a barbell and weights to do any of these.

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You're 15, you're way ahead of your size, strength and age. Don't worry about that. As for the 5x5's, trust me they work. You need to do them at a weight where the last rep is difficult, meaning you would not be able to do 6 of them. Each week you up the weight slightly. This is the quickest way to get your STRENGTH up. If you want to get bigger, then do the 8-12 rep range, just us the calculations I gave you as your guideline for what weight to do 12 times, 10 times, 8 times, etc.. Just realize training for strength and training for size are 2 totally different things. If you see bodybuilders with perfect physiques and huge muscles I can show you guys 2/3rds their size that can lift more. There IS a difference.

As for strengthening your back, Dealifts, stiff leg deadlifts, and good mornings will strengthen your lower back and legs. T Bar rows, bent over rows, shrugs, and behind the back shrugs will strengthen your upper back. All you need a a barbell and weights to do any of these.

What's a good morning? And I don't like doing stiff-leg deadlifts in fear of my knees snapping baqckwards.

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Oh yeah, and I studied your chart for a sec, and I finally got it. I should be able to do 193.5 5x. I just did 5 sets of 5 with 185, and I don't think I can do the 193.5. Because in football we did our 3 rep max and I can do 195 only 3 times. I'll still try it, though.

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Oh yeah, and I studied your chart for a sec, and I finally got it. I should be able to do 193.5 5x. I just did 5 sets of 5 with 185, and I don't think I can do the 193.5. Because in football we did our 3 rep max and I can do 195 only 3 times. I'll still try it, though.

I thought you said you did 225 3 times in squats, which is what I calculated it by. Just change the calculation based on what you can do 3 times.

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Yeah, I know it's like impossible, but I'm always afraid of that. I don't know why I think that'll happen.

Do em anyways, you won't have a problem and will get over that fear pretty quickly. By the way, my physical build at that age was totally different so there'd be no point comparing, but that's a good amount for a lineman to be doing at that age. I suggest doing the max weight you can at 5 reps, or if you don't mind the slower strength gain go for 8.

Just remember to balance working out between the upper body, arms, legs, and cardio. And a good diet can't hurt. For football you'll need all of those things, not only with strength but endurance too.

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That's for benching. The 193.5, that is.

OK, so then apply the calculations. First get the 1RM. To do that, take what you can do however many reps (in your case 193.5x3) and find the applicable % for that number of reps. divide the weight by the applicable percentage in decimal form, in your case 3 reps equals 90% of 1RM. so, divide the weight you can do 3 times (193.5) by .90 and you get 215. 215 is your 1RM according to the calculation. You said you can do 225, which is reasonably within range of the calculations.

The point of the calculation is to keep you relatively within range of your max ability for each set. If you are doing a set of 12, 10, and 8 reps of an exercise, you want every one of them to maximize your efforts. I see alot of people start off with 135 on the bar and bench it 10 times. Meanwhile they were likely capable of lifting that weight 15 times or more. So what was the point of only doing 135 or only 10 reps? You can get more out of yourself and should. You find the weight that you can complete 10 reps, and not 11, and so on. Conversely I see alot of guys overload the bar going for say 8 reps. They end up only getting 6 reps in. They've shorted themselves of 2 lifts. See what I mean?

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Yeah, I usually do 135 x10 as a warm-up very, very easily. I've never checked my 10 rep max, though.

Up the weight a little then. The chart I gave is a guide, it is not an ultimatum. Everyone is a little different. I know guys that can only press 135 10 times, yet can easily bench 225. The chart is meant to keep you close. For me I go in with the mind set (for bench I do 12, 8, 6) that I am going to do every rep, and I don't want to be able to do any more, and I sure as hell don't want to do less.

Another technique you can throw in once in a while is call drop setting. You need to move quickly between reps, and you'll need a spotter. After doing your normal routine, ie 12, 8, and 6 reps, drop the weight down to about 20 pounds less than your 12 rep weight. Do it to failure (this is why you need a spotter). Drop the weight about another 10-20 pounds and quickly do that to failure again. Drop the weights again another 10-20 pounds and again to failure. Do this for 3 or 4 quick sets. Don't do this every time you exercise as it puts an enormous amount of strain on you body. Once a month is about right for each exercise. Drop setting really kicks the crap out of you.

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Not true at all.

It is true for a kid of his age. Too many people get caught up in trying to force the heavier weight issue and end up getting hurt. When he is more fully developed (18 or so) then he should start trying to pack on the bulk if that's what he wants. More people get injuries from over lifting while trying to feel macho. I've lifted off and on for over 30 years and have made most of the common mistakes (tennis elbow or joint pain, torn labrum, hernia etc.). Now I am more of a lift lighter to stay in shape type, despite my belly :).

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Not true at all. If it is strength you are after, lower your reps and up your weights. For example, alot of strength trainers follow a 5x5 method. They find their weight that they can do for 5 reps, no more, and do 5 sets of that. It is not optimal for building size, but it will add strength alot faster. If you are going for size, you want to go in the 3-4 set range with 6-12 reps. Anything over that in reps is more for endurance. Here's how you should determine your wieghts in reps:

1st, find your 1RM (1 rep max). To do this, you can simply find a weight amount that can only lift once, or, you can use a slight bit of math to calculate it. Here's how:

Reps Pctg

1 100

2 95

3 90

4 88

5 86

6 83

7 80

8 78

9 76

10 75

11 72

12 70

2nd, set your reps up to match this chart. Using the examples you provided with squat, for example, here's what you would get:

Reps Pctg weight

1 100 250

2 95 237.5

3 90 225

4 88 220

5 86 215

6 83 207.5

7 80 200

8 78 195

9 76 190

10 75 187.5

11 72 180

12 70 175

So, if you were going for strength gains, you would try to do a 5x5 set, so in your case do 5 sets of squats at 5 reps each at 215 lbs. If you are looking to add mass and still add strength gradually, try doing a set of 12 @ 175, 8@ 195, and 6 @ 207.5. You can throw a 4th set of 4 @ 220 if you like. Slowly and carefully add weight each week, DON'T OVER DO IT!!! But this is a good guideline to go by for how much weight you should be using by number of reps. Just remember, lower reps with higher weight, more strength gains. Middle reps (6-12) size and strength gains. High reps (over 12), endurance.

On the contrary! i used to work out a lot . 5x5`s added a lot of strenght,and mass if done correctly. What i did was everytime i finished my 5x5 ste without a help.,or a spot would add ten lbs then next time i did my bench. My max was 465 for 1 rep, 405 for 4-5 reps!!! i have muscle pics to prove it

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It is true for a kid of his age. Too many people get caught up in trying to force the heavier weight issue and end up getting hurt. When he is more fully developed (18 or so) then he should start trying to pack on the bulk if that's what he wants. More people get injuries from over lifting while trying to feel macho. I've lifted off and on for over 30 years and have made most of the common mistakes (tennis elbow or joint pain, torn labrum, hernia etc.). Now I am more of a lift lighter to stay in shape type, despite my belly :).

I'm going with the assumption that he will know and abide by his limits, keeping him form.

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On the contrary! i used to work out a lot . 5x5`s added a lot of strenght,and mass if done correctly. What i did was everytime i finished my 5x5 ste without a help.,or a spot would add ten lbs then next time i did my bench. My max was 465 for 1 rep, 405 for 4-5 reps!!! i have muscle pics to prove it

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying 5x5's don't put mass on you. 5x5's are probably the best way to add STRENGTH. They do add mass, however it's been shown that higher reps in the 6-12 range will give you more size, but not necessarily as much strength.

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1) the ket to success is variety of workouts. Mucles grow to adapt to what you are doing. To challenge them, do something different once a week like swimming or get on a real bike or whatever. the key idea is to keep changing your routine

2) man will never be able to match mother nature in the nutrition dept. screw the expensive stuff and stick to whole foods

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Oh yeah, and I studied your chart for a sec, and I finally got it. I should be able to do 193.5 5x. I just did 5 sets of 5 with 185, and I don't think I can do the 193.5. Because in football we did our 3 rep max and I can do 195 only 3 times. I'll still try it, though.

I tried today and I could do 195 5x for 5 sets. I tried a 6th set at 205 and I only did 3, but I still went over what I thought I could do and that makes me satisfied. Hopfully I'll be able to do at least 225 5x for 5 sets by the end of the school year.

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The game was on Monday and we lost 19-0 to Suncoast due to 4 fumbles in the red zone and 7 turnovers overall (6 fumbles, 1 int). I only played two plays, but made the most of it. Hopefully, when we watch the film, they can point out who's doing their job and who's not, and I might actually become the starter again. There's no game this Friday, and next week we will beat Park Vista!

Shouldn't your title under your name be 1-1 not 0-1 ? Just askin......

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I saw someone wrote that they drink 3 whey protein shakes per day, this is not needed. The only time you need to drink liquid protein is immediately after a workout when your body is screaming for immediate protein. Eat lean protein at other times, let the body digest the food this way its going into the body a little at a time, and take it with some healthy fats to stretch out the digestion time even more.

Liquid protein taken at any other time will be gone as waste, and don't buy that 50 grams of liquid protein crap. The body can only digest around 20 grams of liquid protein, and around 35-40 grams of solid protein, all other protein will be pooped out....ever get protein farts?...yea, like I said, waste.

One more thing to take post workout is 30 grams of dextrose with that protein shake to cause an insulin spike. This insulin spike combined with the protein acts as sort of a shovel to get that much needed protein to the muscles and dextrose is the quickest sugar to induce an insulin spike. You can buy a tub of it for cheap, or its also in Gatorade.

Don't buy into the supplement wars or gimmicks, its just a money making scheme. The only supps I would recommend are a good whey protein, animal pack (best multi vitamin on the market hands down), and some fish or flax seed oil, and creatine if you must, other than that its all garbage.

One more tip....Eat low fat cottage cheese before bedtime, its got cassien protein in it, and cassien protein is the slowest digesting protein available, and as everyone knows, when your sleeping is when your body repairs its muscles the most, thus needing valuable protein at that time to do so.

Hope all of this helps, this is from years of reading, trial and error, and mistakes I've made over the years. If you have any more questions, just ask. Enjoy

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