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Barbell Program for growing 16 year old

ForReal

Level 1 Valued Member
I'm 16 and people in my family are telling me to get taller. The advice they give me is get muscles, drink milk and eat loads(high protein and just a lot of food in general). They also want me to be strong and healthy and want be to be able to defend myself.

Goal: get taller, stronger and more muscular and healthier. Also beter cardio- i just friendly spar with my friends-i dont do martial arts or any sports at all. Dont want to focus on aestethics because they will come.

Weight: around 50-55kg

Height: 5,6 or 5,7

Body composition: i have a dad bod. And a bit of gyno(the most relevant information you have heard in this thread)

1RepMaxes: so i read deadlift dynamite and learnt the deadlift, zercher squat and bench press form. I 1 rep maxed them on sunday 6th 2023(last week) august and found out i was overconfident in my lift form since i went over the form in the book and realised i didnt explode, i grinded for all of them. I also didnt try to load the feet on the descent of the bench press. So my 1 rep maxes are dodgy. I did the zercher, then fhe bench and then deadlift. The zercher took a while since i kept making mistakes by relaxinf when putting the bar on my knees and putting the bar on my thighs so i ended up doing the zercher again righr(except having grinded it) and eventually getting a 1 rep max. May have tanked my recovery on the others. I dont know. I rested 3 minutes between the hard sets to find out my max.

Zerched: 57.5kg
Benched: 35kg
Deadlifted(conventional): 65kg
(I will pull up when i can do a pull up)

Time constraints: not really. It's summer holidays. I still want to save time not going gym. I would say that 45 minutes daily 6 days a week of strength and muscle training on top of my cardio(sparring) is too much. I really like high intensity low frequency workouts but if i want to get tall i want to put in the work. I know its mostly genetics but i still want to try. Ive already probably hurt my height.



Recovey issue: no idea how long to recover from max lifts. I probably will hit maxes on those 3 lifts on sunday 13th august. I just want to do somethinf while i am waiting on the forum to respond since imperfect action is better than inaction. I know i will not be able to last 2-6 weeks(more advanced means more close to 2 weeks).

Also if you give me a plan i have no idea how long i should rest before commencing such plan.
Also whatever routines you give me. Mention the rest periods between sets.


Stagnation: dont like it. Please dont give me a plan and run away leaving me stagnated in the abyss while suffering from no gainz.
 
Starter of thread here:


Maybe i just need to stimulate growth hormone release or some other hormone or multiple hormones. No idea on what kind of training makes more growth hormone.


Possible that it would be counterintuitive to focus on growth hormone release

Possible that i should focus mostly on size and do a 70s powerlifter routine:


Or do a ed coan routine that i read about purposeful primitive where he did the squat, bench and deadlift and augmented them with assistance.

Possible that i should focus on adding size and size and size like a bodybuilder and not caring for strength or just passivley getting it like dorian yates and mike mentzer. Dorian yates was really strong for a bodybuilder and maximised his muscle growth. Plus i can always just get it later in my life after i stop growing
 
ForReal said:
I probably will hit maxes on those 3 lifts on sunday 13th august.


I did hit maxes. Didnt want to wait for stuff so i hit a bench press max- it was the same. Maybe my warm up was off. Then a deadlift max. Something looked off about my technique and i went home and realised my hips were too high. Then a zercher max. Kept squatting with weight not going on my knees. Got home and realised my lower back wasnt arched and i was being stupid.

Other than that. No form issues, i think.


Bench: same
Deadlift: 75kg(probably due to ego lifting)
Zercher: 65kg (incorrect form)



What is the advice to give for me?
How shall i progress from where i am at?
Click to expand...
 
My son is 16 and is doing 5/3/1 with kettlebells as assistance work. He eats like a horse and is slowly growing.

5/3/1 is basic and very good. Don’t do 7000 different exercises, just do the basics.

Lifting with someone who can check your form is a really good idea. And be patient
 
Mark Limbaga said:
How tall are your parents? Siblings? Grandparents?

That will give you a clue as to what is your potential ceiling height
Click to expand...

Dont know about my grandma but my grandpa was quite tall(don't know his exact height)
My dad's 5,11
My mum's around 5,2
My older brother's 5,9 but he is 17 so he may grow a bit taller later

But i dont think putting a limit will help. I'll just do what i can to grow and if i don't then i don't. All the things that will help me grow will make me healthy.
 
Dead hangs for height, lol.

I was just listening to Dan John today and he thought someone your age should be “learning”. So learn the moves, already sounds like you have attention to detail. I’m going to echo @silveraw here. I think deadlift dynamite will pack on some good meat to ya. When your competent in those lifts or at least finish the program pick a new program that focusses on different lifts. Dan was also speaking of training in terms of years/decades and not weeks/months. Later in your life you can focus more on hypertrophy but for now learn the lifts and the results will come with them.
 
When I was about 13 I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger on the TV, took the vacuum cleaner pipe and filled it with typeset (my dad worked in printing), taping up both ends. For about six weeks I performed what years later I learned were called floor presses and bicep curls, until the house got dusty, mum found the vacuum cleaner pipe under my bed and I got a smack and a membership to the local police boys club (gym). For about the next four years I just frequented the gym and tried to copy whatever the big guys were doing - which appeared to be every exercise possible at 3 sets of 10. Or else I just did what looked like fun! By the time that phase of my training was over I’d actually grown an enormous amount - height and width. I was amazed at how successful this strategy - go to the gym and lift - was for a young man. Fair enough I did reach the point when I needed something more - such as to read a book or talk seriously to someone qualified, like a coach - but until I was about 18 or 19 just going to the gym and following what I thought everyone else was doing or what I enjoyed worked wonders. I would recommend that approach to anyone at that time of life
 
Starter of the thread here:

My takeaway is i need to get as strong and muscular as possible

(By the way on the 3rd post of the thread i accidentally put some new content in the quote box where i said how my max out session went yesterday)

Now that I've maxed out twice in 2 weeks, how long should i rest before starting a program because maxing out is draining?
 
ForReal said:
Starter of the thread here:

My takeaway is i need to get as strong and muscular as possible

(By the way on the 3rd post of the thread i accidentally put some new content in the quote box where i said how my max out session went yesterday)

Now that I've maxed out twice in 2 weeks, how long should i rest before starting a program because maxing out is draining?
Click to expand...
A day or two is normally plenty.
When I test my RM the volume tends to be low so easier to recover from.
 
ForReal said:
My takeaway is i need to get as strong and muscular as possible
Click to expand...
Yes I think the general consensus is that you should focus on getting strong. But don't overcomplicate it. It's simpler than you think.

You aren't going to be able to alter you height so I wouldn't spend any mental energy on worrying about that. If you are 16 you may still continue to grow taller or you may not. It all just really depends on your genes. Personally, I grew to my current height by the time I was 15 and then just stopped. My brother didn't stop growing until he was like 22. We both wound up at roughly the same height as my father eventually.

I would just focus on eating sufficient quality food. Try to limit junk but make sure you are eating slightly in excess. Try not to eat way over your maintenance calories. Shoot for maybe something like 200-400 calories over what an online calculator says is you maintenance caloric intake. And then go to the gym and lift weights. These things will prime your body to grow and put on muscle (not height unfortunately).

As far as working out, focus on the basics. Don't get too hung up on the program, just pick something and follow it for at least the program length if not longer. Try to stick to the same program for at least 12-16 weeks. You will get results that way and your body will get better at performing the movements.
 
I’m not addressing the original post directly.

Today I thought that if I had a young son who wanted to get big and strong I would be very mindful to teach him joint/spine health. Big lifts make strong people. However my main hope would be that at a young age he would heed my advice and train in such a way that he can still be lifting pain free when and if he hits his 40’s,50’s and 60’s.

I train at a CrossFit gym and visit planet fitness. At the CrossFit gym I see people in their 30’s and 40’s rehabbing and folks in their 60’s working with personal trainers as opposed to training on their own (some started late in life). At the planet fitness many of the old timers who did bodybuilding or the big three complain much about achy shoulders, backs and knees etc. I understand life and things happen but it would truly be a blessing to have bodily strength and good joints/mobility if you get to a high age. It is possible.
 
ForReal said:
Now that I've maxed out twice in 2 weeks, how long should i rest before starting a program because maxing out is draining?
Click to expand...
I'd recommend finishing reading Deadlift Dynamite... Or reread with special consideration to the "program" section.

You shouldn't be maxing out twice in two weeks.
 
Let me start by saying that having a coach/mentor or at least a reliable training partner would help IMMENSELY. I don't know where/when you are training, but a real-life community is going to make it easier to keep going when things get hard, and will give you feedback and constructive criticism that will potentially save you years of floundering.

Jim Wendler's stuff is always good. I read this article by him when it first came out (and I was working in a high school weight room at the time) and thought "DAMN, this guy knows his stuff!". This was well before he put out the 5-3-1 program. Training High School Athletes

This video is mostly for parents/coaches, but it might be worth your time:
 
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