Teenagers Working Out
Guidelines
The NHS suggests that teenagers should aim to exercise for an average of at least 60 minutes of physical activity a day across the week, take part in a variety of exercise intensities to development movement skills, muscles and bones and to reduce the time spent sitting or lying down. Teenagers should try to break up long periods of inactivity with some activity.
What are the benefits of teenagers taking part in exercise?
Regular exercise can help you age well and can be one of the reasons that you have a good quality of life as you get older. How many times have you heard someone utter the term ‘I wish I started this years ago’? Well, now is your chance!
It has been proven that when you create healthy habits when young, then you are more likely to be active as an adult, and we know the benefits – improved brain health, maintain a healthy weight, strengthen bones and muscles and makes day-to-day activities easier.
But why specifically should teenagers exercise now – what will affect them in the present and now?
Exercise performed on a regular basis can improve mental health. It will release endorphins that will lower stress hormones. It has been proven it reduces the risk of depression and can improve self-esteem/self-worth.
Being more active can give you more energy, (as long as it’s not too much!) With more energy, school performance can be improved in the classroom – not drifting off in class and staying focused on the task at hand.
 If none of those really hit home, the reason which I put at the top of the list is that it can create a passion. If you’re not having a good a day at home or school, or things just aren’t going your way, exercising can take you somewhere else, free your mind by focusing on goals, things which are perceived by them, the teenagers, as important, not what someone else tells them is important.
Okay Nick, the benefits are clear, but how can I motivate my teenager to start?
I’m glad you asked! Over my time here at EGCC, I’ve trained quite a lot of teenagers and I’ve learned a few important things to consider.
Exercise can be fun. They don’t just need to run on a treadmill for 30 minutes, or just do press ups, etc. There are plenty of different styles of exercise that can be performed. You could do interval training where it’s intense, rest (which builds the focus on the next intense part), then intense again and so on. I find this is great as it keeps teenagers focused so they can’t drift off – even in the rest they’re waiting for the next intense part. When thinking about incorporating resistance or strength work, supersets could be employed where doing exercises back-to-back without rest, or pyramid sets, where getting heavy or lighter each set, but reducing or increasing reps each time. That’s just to name a few!
Exercises themselves can be more fun than others. The feeling of tension on a muscle, or the soreness the day afterwards on the muscle can be a badge worn with honour, to know that you trained effectively the day or days before – once again though, let’s not go too hard too soon!
Exercising can be social. Exercise doesn’t need to be a solo or individual outing, you don’t need to just put your head phones on and exercise, although you could if you prefer. Exercise can be a great way to meet up with friends, or to even make new friends. You don’t even need to talk about the exercises,
can do your sets and in the rest periods, have a natter or catch up about other things.
Gym work can help and improve ability of other sports. Long gone are the days where if you were a professional athlete, you’d just practice that same sport time and time again. Nowadays, we can train smarter, not always harder! Looking to improve your football, but you’re flagging in the second half? Let’s work on aerobic fitness and keep your best efforts for the whole game, not playing 100% for the first half then dropping your ability for the second. Playing rugby, but feel to get to the next level, you need to increase your muscle mass? Let’s start working on the 8-12 rep ranges on compound exercises!
Once you start in the gym, this doesn’t apply just to teenagers, but to everyone, it can create a habit, a routine. To really see the benefits of exercise, it needs to be consistent. You can’t just hit it hard for a couple weeks or a month, stay committed and you’ll see the benefits!!
Right Nick, got it, but what exercises should teenagers start with?
This all depends on age. In a gym setting, I would only focus on cardiovascular machines and bodyweight exercises until the age of 14.
Squats, Press ups, the treadmill, the upright bike – these would be a good mix of exercises to increase muscle mass, bone mass, cardiovascular fitness and overall functionality.
For those aged 14 and above, we can stick with the bodyweight exercises, but you are limited in how much harder they can get. I would start with a move over to the resistance machines. As long as they are set up correctly, they will have to work the correct muscle groups in the correct range of movement. Once again, once we are happy with these, we don’t need to forget about them, but we should then be looking to incorporate some free weight exercises into the workout plan. Free-weight exercises can work the core a little more as you don’t always rely on benches/seats for the correct position, it will be your core that keeps you in position.
For those 14 and above the resistance machines I would definitely incorporate into my plan would be: Leg Press, Chest Press and Pull Down. The free-weight exercises I would start with would be: Incline Dumbbell Chest Press, this will hit different to the chest press and regular press ups and will work the upper chest more, Cable Row, my personal favourite exercise, which is a great one to incorporate the lats and traps in one exercise, Calf Raises, this is the best exercise to target the forgotten leg muscle, the calves.
