14 Year old friend wants to hit the gym with me and get strong some advice

[Bruce44]

So my second cousin has seen my progress since I've been powerlifting. He wants to get strong as well and asked if he could join me. Now I am by no means a coach or am I equipped to be one. I told him to look for the starting strength program. I also told him to watch plenty of videos on proper form for the 3 main lifts. We do not have any powerlifting coaches in my gym as it is not a big sport. The only coaches around charges 100$ a month which is a little steep for a 14 year old.
Other than that all I can do is check his form to the best of my ability. Now at 14 years old is he too young to start lifting heavy. He wants to train to be a lineman in football. I am trying to point him in the right direction because he will lift with or without my help. The last thing I want is for him to be bench pressing and bicep curling every other day. Football in his school doesn't have a weightlifting program for them. All they do is pushups, run drills and jog.

[LeachGymRat]

Too young to start lifting heavy...


.....


Anyways tell him to lift with great form and not to cheat himself, pretty simple Jeff. Start with the bar and increase by 2.5kg each workout.

Edit: forgot the PL section is a little behind in sarcasm/wit/etc., i put the periods to emphasize the fact OP's statement is invalid. (He made the same statement).

[csday924]

So my second cousin has seen my progress since I've been powerlifting. He wants to get strong as well and asked if he could join me. Now I am by no means a coach or am I equipped to be one. I told him to look for the starting strength program. I also told him to watch plenty of videos on proper form for the 3 main lifts. We do not have any powerlifting coaches in my gym as it is not a big sport. The only coaches around charges 100$ a month which is a little steep for a 14 year old.
Other than that all I can do is check his form to the best of my ability. Now at 14 years old is he too young to start lifting heavy. He wants to train to be a lineman in football. I am trying to point him in the right direction because he will lift with or without my help. The last thing I want is for him to be bench pressing and bicep curling every other day. Football in his school doesn't have a weightlifting program for them. All they do is pushups, run drills and jog.

14 is fine to start. I started at 13, benched 200 @ 14 and squatted 315. Just do your best to guide him and keep him from becoming a bench monkey. Buy him starting strength and make him read it.

[SPFjudge]

Too young to start lifting heavy...
.

No its not.......



I'd give the coach a call and see if he could maybe just do a couple beginner sessions to give him some hands on form cues. After that just stick to SS and he should be good.

[LeachGymRat]

No its not.......



I'd give the coach a call and see if he could maybe just do a couple beginner sessions to give him some hands on form cues. After that just stick to SS and he should be good.

I put the periods in my post to emphasize the statement OP made is preposterous.

[littlebones6]

I agree, Starting Strength would be a great intro to the big lifts an basic training principles.

[Rusty56]

school doesnt have lifting for the ball players? I'd transfer if he was at all serious about playin' ball. Its 2013..... how does the school not have a weightroom and a mandatory PE class for the football players.

[smokibrah]

school doesnt have lifting for the ball players? Its 2013..... how does the school not have a weightroom and a mandatory PE class for the football players.

21st century, most morbidly obese period in human history.

[Bruce44]

school doesnt have lifting for the ball players? I'd transfer if he was at all serious about playin' ball. Its 2013..... how does the school not have a weightroom and a mandatory PE class for the football players.

that's the canadian northern British Columbia school system for you. They have a weight room but its only open to high school students signed up specifically for phys ed and no extracurricular activities.
When I was in wrestling and football all we got were sprints, drills and pushups. Any weightlifting we had to go to the gym outside of school. This lead to a large amount of quarter squatters and half benchers.

This is why american high school athletes always had the edge on western canadian athletes. I'm not sure what its like in eastern canada though.

[71Avido]

This is why american high school athletes always had the edge on western canadian athletes. I'm not sure what its like in eastern Canada though.

Not entirely true everywhere here. My old HS didn't have a single piece of weight lifting equipment on-site.
They just had some cardio equipment, jump ropes and stuff like that. Come to think of it, none of the high schools in this area have weight training equipment.

Really disappointing actually, the school today is more concerned about getting sued than being of actual benefit.

[Partyrocking]

Starting strength is a great place to start. A coach to go over his form would be ideal, but if it's too expensive, youtube is free. Make sure to use videos made by strength coaches and not people looking for form advice or bros w/ no credentials. The ss book has lots of info on form as well and rippetoe has plenty of videos available on the internet.

[Rusty56]

that's the canadian northern British Columbia school system for you. They have a weight room but its only open to high school students signed up specifically for phys ed and no extracurricular activities.
When I was in wrestling and football all we got were sprints, drills and pushups. Any weightlifting we had to go to the gym outside of school. This lead to a large amount of quarter squatters and half benchers.

This is why american high school athletes always had the edge on western canadian athletes. I'm not sure what its like in eastern canada though.

that would seriously suck man. I'm from Alabama and I cant think of a single school that does not have a weight room for athletics. Hell my school had two. The one in the football field house was really nice and there was a smaller one in the basketball field house or whatever they called it.
When I went to O-line camp in birmingham, the school that it was held at had a 3 story field house with a state of the art training facility. I've even heard from people that went to little schools that they would keep all their equipment in a storage room in the school and lift after school in an empty classroom or the regular PE gym.

[Bruce44]

that would seriously suck man. I'm from Alabama and I cant think of a single school that does not have a weight room for athletics. Hell my school had two. The one in the football field house was really nice and there was a smaller one in the basketball field house or whatever they called it.
When I went to O-line camp in birmingham, the school that it was held at had a 3 story field house with a state of the art training facility. I've even heard from people that went to little schools that they would keep all their equipment in a storage room in the school and lift after school in an empty classroom or the regular PE gym.

Yeah my the local school districts nor the BC government cares about after school sports. If it can't be graded then it's not getting any funding. They wonder why obesity is rising in canada.

[nevergain]

Yeah my the local school districts nor the BC government cares about after school sports. If it can't be graded then it's not getting any funding. They wonder why obesity is rising in canada.

That's an unfortunate thing about living up north. Where are you at? My Junior high and high school both had weight rooms with bumper plates and were open to the students for 2-3 hours after school closed. This was in Coquitlam (Vancouver suburb). I wish I had taken the time to learn how to do the lifts properly back then when I had access instead of being a bench and bicep kid.

[Bruce44]

That's an unfortunate thing about living up north. Where are you at? My Junior high and high school both had weight rooms with bumper plates and were open to the students for 2-3 hours after school closed. This was in Coquitlam (Vancouver suburb). I wish I had taken the time to learn how to do the lifts properly back then when I had access instead of being a bench and bicep kid.

Prince George buddy. Yeah when I was in high school I used to wrestle. My school would dominate the rest of the northern schools but the moment we start facing you southern guys, man were we manhandled. We used to wonder why you guys were always friggin huge for the weight classes. Then we found out that weight lifting was a part of your training. Unless you're a hockey player, you're not getting squat.
Yeah I used to be a half benching, quarter squatting guy. When I first joined this forum I claimed that I beat my school record for a 600lbs squat. After a year of properly training I finally am able to see how stupid I was. 600lbs with 3 inches of ROM isn't that hard lol.

[Forrrest]

He needs to work on quick bursts of speed. Football plays average under 8 sec.'s a play. Sideline to sideline as fast as he can.. hit the gaps. Have him pull old tires, old weighs, a sleigh, a parachute.

[Rusty56]

Ya know if none of the schools around where yall live have weight equipment then that might be fawkin awesome.
/brb goin against 175 lb lineman/120 lb running backs