Training

The kettlebell training session with a kettlebell

Improve your fitness with just one kettlebell and your body weight. Here is the training plan.

This short training session covers all the basic human movements. You only need one kettlebell and the workout can be adapted with sets, repetitions and load to suit everyone. Don't be fooled by the simplicity of this workout:

• 15 repetitions of kettlebell swings
• 5 goblet squats
• 3 push-ups (any variation is possible)

Test the training program by performing 5 rounds without resting between exercises. Work your way up to 20 rounds. 20 rounds is equivalent to 300 repetitions of kettlebell swings, 100 squats and 60 push-ups. That's a respectable workout.

To make it harder, you can first increase the number of push-ups. Next, use a heavy kettlebell. This is an excellent workout that you can do anywhere, anytime and on any surface.

Use these 3 training techniques to burn fat

Perform advanced, finishing sets to burn more calories and free up your muscles

By Nate Palmer

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-use-these-3-lifting-techniques-to-burn-fat

Turn your body into a fat-burning blast furnace by extending the last set of your exercises. These "finishing sets" have always been a staple of bodybuilding because they allow you to perform more reps than a traditional straight set. Recent studies also show that these sets lead to fat loss while fully maintaining existing muscle mass.

Rest-pause training

1. On your last set, go to technical muscle failure - the point at which you can't perform another repetition without your form dropping significantly.
2. Pause for 15 seconds or 10 breaths.
3. Pick the weight back up and go to technical muscle failure again.
4. Put the weight back down and pause for another 15 seconds, followed by the final set.

Rest-pause sets are best used on assistance exercises rather than basic exercises because your form can deteriorate on heavy exercises such as squats and deadlifts, increasing the risk of injury.

Back-off sets

Immediately after performing the last set of an exercise, reduce the weight by 30 to 50% and perform as many more repetitions as possible with the new weight, aiming for 15 to 25. As you should already be slightly fatigued from your previous sets, you will not be able to perform as many repetitions with this weight as you would if you were fresher and more rested. Use this technique for main or assistance exercises.

Descending sets

Start with a weight that you have been using for your working sets and perform as many repetitions as possible before you have almost reached the point of technical muscle failure. You should keep 1 repetition "in reserve" to get the most out of this technique.

Immediately after you have completed the last repetition, reduce the weight by 20 to 25% and train again to near muscle failure. Three descending sets are ideal, with the last set being performed to absolute muscle failure with a weight that should be 50% of the starting weight.

Drink 3 to 4 cups of coffee per day

Turns out coffee is actually pretty good for you

From TC Luoma

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/tip-drink-3-4-cups-of-coffee-per-day

Coffee is a bit of a mystery in that we're not sure how it does some of the things it does. At the end of the day, coffee contains over 1000 biologically active compounds. However, one thing seems certain: the more coffee you drink, the better it is for you. In fact, the more coffee you drink, the longer you live.

In 2012, a mortality study of 400,000 people published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that coffee drinkers had a 6 to 16 percent lower risk of death. According to a Japanese study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, coffee drinkers were also 24 percent less likely to die during the 19 years of the study.

The optimal amount seems to be three to four cups of regular or decaffeinated coffee per day, but in a study where 6 cups of coffee were consumed per day, a 33 percent reduction in diabetes diagnoses was observed. Other diseases that are positively influenced by coffee include cancer, the development of fatty liver, alcoholic liver disease, heart disease, strokes, depression, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

Of course, consuming very large amounts of coffee could reverse some of the positive effects. As with most things, moderate amounts seem to work best.

Build your latissimus with these two techniques

Use these strategies to make gains and perfect your pull-ups.

By Lee Boyce

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-build-your-lats-with-these-two-techniques

These pull-up techniques will not only make you stronger, but will also teach you how to perform better quality, more effective pull-ups.

Negative pull-ups

Relearn pull-ups with the help of negative repetitions. If you can't do a single pull-up, a common piece of advice is to start with negative-only pull-up repetitions. Jump or climb to the top pull-up position and then slowly lower yourself down. The same approach can be used when it comes to relearning pull-ups with additional weight.

Let's say you've decided to strap an extra 20 kilos around your waist. There's nothing wrong with using pull-ups with extra weight where you focus on good form when lowering. Simply prevent yourself from falling down like a stone under the weight.

Paused pull-ups

Perform repetitions with pauses to build muscle. Using a pause with complete stillness during bodyweight pull-ups ends the stretch reflex, 'kills' any momentum and creates the perception that far more weight is being moved. Simply pausing in the full extension position (at the lowest point of the movement) can be enough of a change in tempo to provoke a huge response from your latissimus. This technique also increases the time under tension, which can be great for hypertrophy - especially for the muscles of the back.

Alternatively, to make your concentric repetitions (the part where you pull yourself up) more challenging, try pausing at the highest point of each repetition. This will put the contractile strength of your latissimus to the test. In addition, this approach can help you better focus on maintaining latissimus engagement throughout the repetition. Holding for a second at the highest point of each bodyweight pull-up can make all the difference.

Get stronger by using deadlifts with pauses

This will teach you to use your latissimus more effectively and it will increase the time under tension for hypertrophy

By Tony Gentilcore | 12/22/15

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-get-stronger-using-paused-deadlifts

Deadlifts with rests are brutal. Basically, it's regular deadlifting where you don't pull the weight to the highest position in one movement, but pause with the bar at mid-shin height for about 2 to 3 seconds. This will teach you to engage your latissimus when deadlifting and also serves to increase the time under tension, which will increase overall muscle growth.

Deadlift with pause

You can't be the hero here and use maximum weights. Instead, it's best to start at around 55% of your 1RM weight and work your way up over the course of a training block. A month-long training block could look like this:

Week 1: 3 x 5 at 55% of your 1RM weight
Week 2: 3 x 5 at 60% of your 1RM weight
Week 3: 3 x 4 at 65% of your 1RM weight
Week 4: 3 x 3 at 70% of your 1RM weight

Lose fat. Maintain your muscle mass. Know how much you should eat.

Use simple math to get your body fat percentage where you want it to be.

By Paul Carter

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/tip-lose-fat-keep-muscle-know-how-much-to-eat

Approach fat loss by focusing on maintaining your muscle mass. Why? Building and losing fat is significantly easier than building muscle. And as long as you're not pressed for time, your best approach is to take as much time as you need so that you can maintain all your muscle while getting lean.

The key is to control your calorie deficit in a smart and well-timed way and adjust your training based on your personal goals. If your calorie intake drops too low, this will lead to low energy levels, a lack of ATP and a lack of glycogen when training at high levels. Don't give up on your body recomposition process because of short term dips in strength. Hand your ego in at the checkroom and realize that you won't feel weaker forever - and you shouldn't feel significantly weaker in the first place if you're doing everything right.

And how do you adjust your diet to eliminate the pitfalls of someone who gives up after a few weeks? It's simple. All you need is some basic math.

Do the math yourself.

• Protein: Eat 2 grams per kilogram of body weight
• Fat: should make up 20% of total calories

The rest of your calorie intake should come from carbohydrates. Once you have determined how many calories should come from protein and fat, give carbohydrates the remaining percentage.

Your starting point for the first week of your "diet" is the amount of calories you need to maintain your body weight. Here's the catch: only consume these calories in the form of high-quality food and don't eat junk food. Your maintenance calorie intake will depend on your age, activity level and genetic factors, but a good starting point is your body weight x 33 per day.

Adjust your calorie intake downwards after 2 weeks if you have not lost weight. If you have lost weight with this amount of calories, stay at this amount for another week. If you lose weight again during this week, then continue with this amount. Your weight loss should not exceed 1.5 pounds per week.

Once the scale stops moving for a week or two, reduce your calorie intake slightly. So if your calorie intake was your body weight x 33, reduce it to your body weight x 30 and repeat the process.

Perform heavy squat stand-ups

Break through plateaus and increase the weight on the bar using this simple technique By Rob King

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-heavy-squat-stand-ups

Squat stand-ups are one of the simplest, yet most effective things you can do to get more confidence in your squats and pack more weight on the bar. The execution is quite simple:

1. Let's say your 1RM weight for squats is 200 kilos. Work your way up to one repetition with your 1RM weight, but don't perform a full squat repetition. Simply load the bar in the rack with that weight, get under the bar as if you were going to do one hell of a squat repetition and just lift the weight out of the rack. Do not perform a squat. Do not move. Just stand still and hold the weight on your back for 8 to 10 seconds.
2. Put the bar back on the rack and increase the weight by 10% so that the bar now weighs 220 kilos - more than your 1RM weight. Take the weight off the rack again as if you were going to perform a squat. Keep your back and core under tension and simply stand upright with the weight. Hold this position for 8 to 10 seconds while keeping all muscles contracted and then put the weight back down.
3. Increase the weight again by 5 to 10% when you are strong enough to handle it and repeat the process. Try to work your way up to 15 to 20% above your current 1RM weight for squats.

The benefits

Once you get used to the heavy weight on your back, your normal squat weight will feel much lighter. Standing there with a heavy weight will also make your upper back, trapezius and core work extremely hard. Simply holding a heavy weight in place will get your body to adapt and work hard with very little risk of injury.

Two new ways to build a more muscular trapezius

Give your trapezius a workout with these unique exercises

By Christian Thibaudeau

Source: https: //www.t-nation.com/training/tip-two-new-ways-to-build-bigger-traps

Shoulder lift on the calf machine

1. Stand normally in a calf raise machine.
2. Raise your shoulders. Hold this position for a full two seconds. This is important as the range of motion in this exercise is quite small.
3. Keep your glutes and abs engaged to protect your lower back.

Single arm barbell shoulder raise

1. Perform one-arm shoulder raises using a power rack and barbell
2. Lean forward slightly to increase the range of motion

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/tip-do-the-one-kettlebell-workout

From Dan John

Putting together an exercise program can be an intimidating task - and for good reason. Quite frankly, there are a lot of ways to screw it up:

• There are a lot of variables you need to consider: your body, your goals, your schedule, your lifestyle, your preferences, your training experience, and more.
• As for the workout itself, there are a lot of other variables such as the choice of exercises, the set and repetition schemes used, the intensity, volume and frequency
• There are a lot of different opinions on what is best for building muscle mass and strength, losing fat and improving athletic performance - and many of these opinions completely contradict each other.

It's no surprise that gyms around the world are full of people using all kinds of strange and ineffective exercise programs. I should know, because I was once one of those people myself.

Fortunately, however, you don't need a degree in biomechanics and a few thousand hours of experience to put together an effective training program. The truth is that you only need to know and apply a relatively small number of training principles to get the most out of your training.

Of all the possible knowledge you could acquire about training and nutrition, 20% will deliver about 80% of the results. And that's exactly why I'm not going to overwhelm you with every possible training split and training plan in this article. I want to save you from the dreaded "paralysis by analysis".

So I'm going to keep things relatively simple here and present you with the opinions that work best for most goals and lifestyles. And by the end of this article, you'll know exactly how to put together an effective training program for yourself that fits your goals and lifestyle.

Let's start by putting together your weekly training split.

How to put together your weekly training split

Although achieving good form doesn't require nearly as much time in the gym as most people think, an effective training program generally meets the following criteria:

1. It includes 3 to 6 workouts per week.
2. Each training session lasts 25 to 75 minutes.
3. The training includes both resistance training and cardio training.

So if you can dedicate 4 to 6 hours a week to training and train 3 to 6 days a week, then we're in business. With that out of the way, let's take a look at a handful of training plans and see how you can use them to put together a training program that will help you reach your goals.

The 3-day training programs

I would recommend you stick with a 3 day training program...

The push pull legs training program

The push pull legs program has been around forever - and for good reason: it's simple, it makes sense from a biomechanical perspective and it works.

The whole thing looks like this:

• Day 1: Push
• On this day you train your chest, shoulders and triceps
• Day 2: Pull
• On this day you train your back and biceps
• Day 3: Legs
• I think this day is self-explanatory

In terms of the weekly time split, I would recommend taking a day off between each of the training days, so your weekly training split would look like this:

• Monday: Push
• Wednesday: Pull
• Friday: legs

Alternatively, you can also plan two days off between your upper body and lower body training days, which could look like this:

• Monday: Push
• Tuesday: Pull
• Friday: legs

Using the latter split, your legs will likely be more rested, as your pull day will include heavy leg training, which will put a lot of stress on your hamstrings.

(It's worth noting that soreness in the hamstrings is a more relevant issue for beginners, as they will generally experience slightly more soreness than more advanced or intermediate exercisers).

The chest & triceps, back & biceps, legs & shoulders training program

This is an old-school training program that has stood the test of time.

• Day 1: Chest & triceps
• As the triceps are heavily involved in your chest training, it makes sense to train them directly on this day too
• Day 2: Back & biceps
• The back & biceps relationship corresponds to that of chest & triceps, which is why back and biceps are usually combined.
• Day 3: Legs & shoulders
• These muscle groups are obviously unrelated, but they are what's left, which is why we combine them - and together they make a tough workout.

Which 3 day training program is best?

I wouldn't say that one of these training programs is objectively better than the other. Which of these programs is better for you depends on your personal preferences and your level of development.

If you feel that you still need a significant amount of development in your chest and shoulders, then I would recommend using the Chest & Triceps training program. Training your chest and shoulders separately will allow you to work each of these muscle groups more intensely, which will help you maximize progressive overload.

The 4 day training program

Here is a 4 day training program that I would recommend...

• Day 1: Chest & Triceps
• The same applies here as the corresponding 3 day training program
• Day 2: Back & biceps
• Day 3: Shoulders
• In this program, the shoulders get their own training day, giving them the extra work they need to grow in proportion to the rest of the upper body
• Day 4: Legs
• Training the legs is by far the hardest and most exhausting, which is why giving the legs their own day can help.

Isn't it true that training each muscle group just once a week doesn't work?

The question of the right training frequency is a very controversial topic and opinions vary widely. While this topic is very complex and there are a lot of personal variables (some people's bodies can do things that others are not capable of), this is the simple truth:

Regardless of training frequency, you can only do a certain amount of training for a muscle before more training becomes counterproductive.

This means that you can only force a muscle through a certain amount of repetitions before the body will no longer be able to keep up in terms of recovery. Regardless of whether you train a muscle group one session a week or five sessions a week, that muscle group can only cope with a certain amount of stress before it enters a state of overtraining.

No one will dispute this. However, there is a lot of debate about the best way to perform these weekly repetitions: Within one training session per week or split over two, three or even more training sessions?

Training each muscle group two or three times a week seems to be more popular these days than training each muscle group only once a week, but that doesn't necessarily mean that two or three times a week is better.

Let me explain this further:

Training programs that only train each muscle group once a week have developed a bad reputation for good reason: many of these programs aren't worth the paper they're written on.

They get so much wrong:

• They emphasize isolation exercises.
• They emphasize "high repetition pump training that often includes things like supersets, descending sets, mega sets and the like.
• They have you work each muscle group to death with 100+ reps per session.

Yes, this type of split program by muscle group is garbage. I should know, because I've used these types of programs myself for years with modest success.

However, a properly designed split program by muscle group is a completely different story. If you train each muscle group once a week with the correct amount of reps in each session and focus on heavy training with multi-joint exercises, then you can make exceptional gains.

I speak here not only from personal experience, but also from my experience with thousands of clients I have worked with. This type of training is consistent with the current scientific understanding of the relationship between training intensity, volume and frequency, which is as follows:

Scientific research suggests that total weekly training volume and training intensity are more important than training frequency.

This means that as long as you train each muscle group with the right amount of heavy repetitions, it won't make a significant difference whether you perform these repetitions within one or three training sessions.

And I would even say that a well-designed split program by muscle group is superior for slightly advanced and more advanced exercisers because it allows you to overload each muscle group to the maximum.

If you train the whole body two or three times a week, this means that you combine several large muscle groups within one training session. For example, you could use the pull push legs template and do it twice in 7 days or split your exercises into upper body and lower body workouts that you do several times a week.

Once you've built up a reasonable amount of strength on the push, pull and squat, these combination workouts will get really tough. And you simply can't do every heavy multi-joint exercise with the same intensity that you could use if you were doing them during different workouts.

For example, if you perform squats and deadlifts during the same training session with heavy weights, then the exercise that comes second will suffer. You simply won't be able to use as much weight on that exercise as you could if you performed squats and deadlifts on two different days.

And that means less progressive overload over time (a smaller increase in training weights over time), which will result in smaller long-term gains. True full-body workouts are even harder. While they are a viable option for beginners, they will become a real torture once you have built up significant strength.

Many people also struggle with time issues with workout programs that have them training each muscle group two or three times a week. Most of the better put together programs require you to alternate your weekly training days from week to week and they require additional weekend training.

This may be fine if you're 20 years old and can do whatever you want whenever you want, but it doesn't work for the majority of people who train and have to fit their training into a busy schedule that includes work, family and social commitments.

While I'm not against training muscle groups multiple times a week, I'm not going to recommend it at this point.

The 5 day training program

• Day 1: Chest
• Day 2: Back
• Day 3: Arms
• Day 4: Shoulders
• Day 5: Legs

This is my favorite training regimen for maximizing muscle growth and strength. Each workout lasts about 45 minutes, each muscle group gets maximum stimulation, your muscles and nervous system get plenty of time to recover and it fits perfectly into most people's schedule (Monday through Friday with weekends off).

The 5 day program also gives you room to add a few extra sets for your weak points. For example, exercisers who complain of insufficient chest development can add three additional sets of incline bench presses on day 4, which can be performed before the shoulder workout.

Many women are focused on improving their butt and legs and could add 3 sets of squats on day 2 after deadlifts and 3 sets of hip thrusts on day 5 after leg training.

In the second part of this article series, I'll go into more detail about the best exercises for building strength and muscle mass. I will then look at other things such as the best repetition ranges, the correct number of training sets and the length of rest intervals between sets.

Source: https://www.muscleforlife.com/how-to-build-a-workout-routine/

By Michael Matthews

Here's a quick summary

1. 1If your idea of how to teach a teenager to train with weights is to just let them do whatever you do, then you will ruin both their motivation (and their body).
2. A simple 3 day a week program of just bodyweight exercises will get him used to the idea that we train every week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
3. The coolest thing about helping a young person find his way into the weight room and start training with weights is that - if you do your job well - this could be something he could do for the next 50 years.

After months of him nagging and pushing you, you finally agree to take your younger brother to your gym. It might seem like a good idea at first, but then you start to wonder what he's supposed to be doing there.

Your instinct might tell you that you could just have him do the same thing you do, set after set, exercise after exercise. But unless you're a beginner yourself, you'll overwhelm him, ruin his motivation, torture his body with unbearable muscle soreness and probably put him off training with weights for the rest of his life.

The first program: Basic exercises with your own body weight

The aim at this point is to introduce an unathletic 14 to 18 year old to the world of training. This means teaching them the basics of how, what and why, while helping them to build a strong and healthy body.

If the golden rule of any personal trainer is "do no harm", then this concept takes on an even more important meaning when it comes to training teenagers. When motivation, enthusiasm and uncontrolled ego meet new movement patterns, unknown capacities and barbells loaded with weights, it can quickly end in disastrous ways.

The most effective way to introduce a young trainee to training is to start with an intelligently designed program of bodyweight exercises. This allows the trainee to build a base level of strength, muscle coordination/body awareness and conditioning. A little more muscle mass is another very welcome side effect.

Not only do bodyweight exercises promote intermuscular coordination and balance better than free weights (are you really going to put a 20 kilo Olympic bar on the back of a teenager who can't do clean squats using only their own bodyweight?), but they are also good for promoting what Tudor Bompa has termed anatomical adaptation - AA for short.

AA is a phase of training with relatively high repetitions designed to prepare a beginner or deconditioned exerciser for an intense training program with weights. AA is used to prepare the ligaments, tendons and smaller supporting structures before training with heavier weights, lower repetitions and higher intensity.

This type of training also encourages the habit of working out on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays during every single week, while introducing our beginner to muscle fatigue and, to some extent, soreness, which they will come to know and love even better later.

Three days a week

This program may look simple, but it's a lot to start with as long as you force clean technique on each repetition and don't rush through the sets.

• For squats, keep your feet flat on the floor the entire time and don't stand on your toes or heels.
• Push-ups are performed on your toes, with your legs straight and through the entire range of motion. You can rest your hands on a bench to make the exercise easier if necessary.
• For lunges, alternate repetitions with the left and right leg, ensuring that the hips move up and down and not forwards and backwards.
• Use bands for support during pull-ups if necessary or use the multi press as an alternative for horizontal rowing. The neutral grip involves training most of the arms and puts the exerciser in the strongest pulling position.
• The planks are the easiest part as you just hold the top position of push-ups in a super strict form from neck to ankles.
• And the 4-second burpees (no jumping required) finish the workout with a little bit of everything - some cardio, some mobility, "hidden" plank training and "hidden" squat training.

"But training with weights stunts growth in teenagers!" Uhh, nope.

A key concept - and perhaps even the most important concept when it comes to training with weights and teenagers - is avoiding muscle failure. Every single set should be completed well before reaching muscle failure, and ideally you should have two reps in reserve.

The old school mentality may be to continue each set until the bar doesn't move another inch, but when it comes to young adults and their still-developing bodies, the underdeveloped underlying structures surrounding the muscle will have been pushed well beyond their limits by the time the muscle has finally reached the point of failure, posing a serious risk of injury.

This is the one aspect of training where the old "training with weights will stall children's growth" myth has merit. Although well-supervised, intelligently designed training programs are beneficial and useful for adolescents, a poorly designed training program and/or poorly supervised training can cause great harm.

Avoiding muscle failure should be a top priority in any training program for younger exercisers up to the end of puberty (or as a general rule of thumb up to the age of 18). And even after that, it's debatable whether training to muscle failure or beyond muscle failure is necessary for everyone.

Phase two

Once the young padawan has built up a useful amount of strength, conditioning and patience with bodyweight exercises, he is ready to move on to a lower body/upper body split program in the weight room. This will allow him to pay more attention to each muscle group per training session, add new exercises to his training vocabulary and, best of all, complete not one but two leg days per week.

Lower body 1

Upper body 1

Lower body 2

Upper body 2

If it seems like we're overwhelming a teenager with a ton of exercises, don't worry about this. It's only about 5 exercises per session and his enthusiasm and eagerness to train will help him internalize all those exercises quickly.

Using a training diary will make things a lot easier as the names of the exercises and notes can be written down during training.

The nutrition of young exercisers and supplements

Young exercisers are about as interested in nutrition tips as they are in who the Secretary of State was under Rutherford B. Hayes. Well, that's too bad, because (at least according to the following popular sayings) "Bodybuilding is 75% nutrition" or "Your results will depend 90% on your diet" or "Eat the hell out of it if you want to grow." The conclusion is always the same.

Just as avoiding training to muscle failure is crucial when training for adolescents, there is one fundamental idea that should be the basis of any nutrition plan for young exercisers: adolescent exercisers are not little bodybuilders. They are still developing and therefore need plenty of quality food.

"Mass building" and "definition phases" are not relevant in their situation. Sure, if a teenager is a little heavier and wants to get leaner, then they will eat less to try and lose weight. But what's really important for teens is to develop smart, well-balanced eating habits that promote recovery and growth. Save thoughts of mass-building phases and definition phases for after you've developed a good foundation.

We want to keep things simple at this point with the help of practical and easy to follow guidelines. Teenagers training with weights should eat at least three meals a day, seven days a week. Skipping meals means sacrificing results and progress.

In addition to these three meals, you could add one protein shake per day and a basic training shake on training days to aid recovery after training. And that's it for now on the supplement front.

Once a teenager is training four or more days a week and eating three meals a day, seven days a week, then they can add something like creatine to their diet. And dear parents, calm down again, creatine is not a steroid - and is healthier than much of the fast food that teenagers eat every day.

For teenagers, however, supplements should be kept to an absolute minimum and the primary focus should be on eating good quality food.

Protein sources

• Meat: Chicken breast or drumsticks, steak, minced meat, minced turkey, pork
• Whole eggs - and not just the whites. Egg whites are for competitive bodybuilders and you're not one of them, at least not yet.
• Seafood: Any kind of fish (tuna, salmon, tilapia, etc.), crab
• Dairy products: Milk, cottage cheese, any kind of cheese, cottage cheese
• Sandwich meat: roast beef, ham, turkey.

Carbohydrate sources

• White or brown rice
• High-fiber bread (not white bread)
• Oatmeal, semolina porridge, rice porridge
• Quinoa - a form of grain that contains some protein and can be cooked like rice
• Potatoes: table potatoes, sweet potatoes, red potatoes, etc.
• Corn
• Beans, but more along the lines of red beans, black beans, pinto beans or kidney beans and not baked beans
• Fruit. Fruit is healthy, so eat it. Just remember that in nutritional terms it is a carbohydrate.
• Vegetables. Vegetables are also very healthy, so eat them.

Sources of fat:

• Olive oil
• coconut oil
• Butter (real butter, not margarine)
• avocados
• Nuts: Walnuts, almonds, cashews, other nuts, such as natural nut butters of all kinds
• Any fats that occur naturally in protein sources: Fish oil, fat in red meat, fat in dairy products, etc.

A combination of foods from these three categories should make up by far the majority of a teenager's diet, but if they also want to eat a few soft drinks, some sweets or other junk food from time to time, then it's not the end of the world.

Yes, we are trying to develop a healthy lifestyle, but telling a teenager to give up 'bad foods' all day long is unrealistic with a teenager and will almost certainly lead to them becoming a social outcast.

If you want to take Junior's diet to the next level, familiarize him with the three essential techniques in the kitchen:

• Preparing scrambled eggs
• Cooking hard-boiled eggs
• And frying some meat in the pan

Knowing how to do these three things can go a long way in helping a teenager meet their daily protein needs.

Train hard and grow

Now, we could talk about studies that have linked training to better performance in school, or we could talk about how a well-structured training program could get a teenager on a team, make them a better athlete, and ultimately give them an edge over their teammates and opponents.

But at the end of the day, the coolest thing about guiding a young person in the weight room and giving them a good start in their training with weights is that if you do your job well, this is something they could do for the next 50 years. And you were a part of that! That's pretty cool, right?

If you get the opportunity to literally shape the next generation of trainers, then it would be a shame to shirk it. Especially if it means you have the opportunity to guide a youngster into a life of iron and strength.

Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/teaching-a-kid-to-lift

By Chris Colucci