Novice Deadlift progress slow

[Destrier]

My 15 year old son is very athletic and has strong legs and glutes. His back has been the weak link and so deadlifts challenged him at first. He had to start at a weight less than his squat so after two weeks his squat and deadlift are about even in weight. Should we go on to power cleans next week or give him some more time with deadlifts to establish the deadlift ahead of squats as the book mentions?

Thanks!

[Michael Wolf]

An argument could be made either way, and there's probably no clearly right and wrong answer here.

That said, if he can still progress in the DL every workout without any fatigue causing problems in his next squat workout, I'd stick with that for a bit longer.

[Destrier]

Thanks! I'll let you know how it goes.

[Destrier]

Coach, we have reduced squat progress to 5 lbs/workout and increased DL to 15 lbs/workout with good result. With 45 lbs increase in DL for a week I thought it prudent to reduce work sets to only two. I heard Rip say in his podcast that a young male can double his squat (work set weight) in 5 weeks. My son has double his squat in only 3 weeks. Am I pushing him too fast? He is eating and sleeping well and has a lot of enthusiasm to improve.

[Michael Wolf]

We only program 1 work set for deadlifts, so if you've been doing more, switch to one. If he can continue to increase the weight while using good form, and is still enthusiastic about it, no need to slow down.

[DaveJF]

He is eating and sleeping well and has a lot of enthusiasm to improve.

Whoa now! A teenager who: a) is eating well, b) is sleeping well and c) has lots of enthusiasm for weight training? Here on planet Earth??

Seriously though, more power to you and to him!

I have two sons of my own, 17 and 16, and if I try to coerce them into lifting, they will probably never touch a weight again after they leave the house, not to mention that it probably will not do them much good if their heart isn't in it.

Nonetheless it would do them a lot of good to start now in their 'prime'.

I have a feeling that a) & b) have a lot to do w/ the enthusiasm too, but do you have any other secrets to getting a teenager enthused about training?

[Michael Wolf]

Whoa now! A teenager who: a) is eating well, b) is sleeping well and c) has lots of enthusiasm for weight training? Here on planet Earth??

This was my thought as well, Dave.

[Destrier]

Gents,
My son is generally pretty disciplined. But, he is a rather thin young man at 5-11 and 150 lbs. At school he's been required to lift weights alongside upperclassman football players and he was discouraged that the weights were so heavy for him. So I set up a squat rack and barbells I bought off Craig's list in the garage and gave him a pep talk that if he worked at it he could sneak up on the other kids and go back into the school gym around Thanksgiving stronger than they are. I watched the kids work out at school once and their training sessions are a chaotic mess! Squatting high, horrible form with too much weight. It is a miracle they are all not crippled with injuries, forget making good gains! The going to bed part is easy. I just make sure he's so wasted with fatigue that he crashes hard at 9:00. So far, this program seems to work. BTW, I find that most of the time the carrot works better than the stick. Good luck!

[Sean Herbison]

I have a feeling that a) & b) have a lot to do w/ the enthusiasm too, but do you have any other secrets to getting a teenager enthused about training?

You could always try bribing him somehow. Not really a substitute for enthusiasm, but it may be enough to get him started. For a lot of people that's the hardest part, but once they see results they'll stick with it.