13 year old starting SS

[DieselBro]

Good stuff man, I just started with my kid. He is in 8th grade 6'2" 240 lbs, wants to try and go right to JV.. we will see.

We are doing the novice program, and skipping a little rope (like 5 minutes) post workout. Just getting back into the lifting game myself and cleaning up the diet due to some health issues (Type 2 diabetes and high triglycerids). I bought the boy SS for Christmas and we both read it.

[GammaFlat]

Good stuff man, I just started with my kid. He is in 8th grade 6'2" 240 lbs, wants to try and go right to JV.. we will see.

It sounds like he's big enough to play varsity. For him it will be about "quicks" and technique. If he has a handle on that stuff, he only need worry about politics .

We are doing the novice program, and skipping a little rope (like 5 minutes) post workout. Just getting back into the lifting game myself and cleaning up the diet due to some health issues (Type 2 diabetes and high triglycerids). I bought the boy SS for Christmas and we both read it.

Sully has lots to say about "Type II" in "The Barbell Prescription". Buy it. I've bought 6 so far for friends and family that I care about. Read the first chapter and you'll have all the "why" you (as a master) will ever need to stick with this program. I could go on and on about the book but that'll be another post.

My son and I have been on the program and we've made nice gains:
Three month period:

13 Years Old, 180lbs, 5'8":
Squat: 67lbs to 210lbs
Vert Press: 55lbs to 100lbs
Dead: 55lbs to 210lbs
Bench: 65lbs to 115lbs

55 Years Old, 210lbs, 5'10"
Squat: 135lbs to 285lbs
Vert Press: 95lbs to 145 lbs
Dead: 153lbs to 260lbs
Bench: 175lbs to 225lbs

This is such a cool thing to do with your son. Both of you are to be commended (DieselBro and bucksweep). We have a rack/weights in the basement for less than the cost of an annual gym membership. My heart is momentarily warmed when I hear the weights clanging... then I realize he's hitting it without me... heyyyy, wait for me! (he can't wait to pass me)

The above gains were from Mid-March to Mid-June. Subsequently he stepped on the football field (8th grade team). Holy shit. All season long, he dominated at nose and center. He played against a kid that was the other team's "star lineman" at about 240lbs. He owned that kid all day (got the video). That was his toughest opponent all year.

As a former football coach, I cannot emphasize enough that not doing this program is an unnecessary handicap.

This stuff is real (as unbelievable as it all seems) and we owe lots of thanks to Rip, Sully, Andy, Stef, etc. Every time you want to do the program your way or modify anything in a way not prescribed in the books, tread carefully... better yet, just don't. There are subtleties and nuances that you can easily miss out on if you screw with anything. This stuff is all time-tested and just solid.

It was wonderful that I was getting to spend incredible bonding time with my son while both getting stronger. Then Sully and Andy (at the behest of Rip) come out with a book that was written to me (The Barbell Prescription). Dang.

I own Starting Strength 3rd edition, Practical Programming and The Barbell Prescription. I refer to them often. I have a "pod" of folks besides my kid that are all "in". This has been (and continues to be) a "transformational" chapter in my life (and some folks around me).

[bucksweep]

In the past month or so with the increased calorie intake and the amount of milk he is drinking he has gotten him stronger and put on weight, but he has also gotten a little soft in the middle. I am currently "battling" the wife on the amount of milk because she sees the weight increase in the middle too. She is all on board with the training but doesn't want him to get a belly ("Like his father!") To be honest I am not trilled with the growing belly either. His upper body has no grown as fast as his legs to offset the belly. How do I balance the need for food, weight gain and strength gains for a 13 year old kid. at 5'7ish" 150 is now the point I can start cutting back a little on the milk and calories.

[Jr_Geezer]

Really great to hear those success stories. My son is also 13 and in 8th grade. He's an inch taller than me at about 5' 11" but I still outweigh him by 30-40 pounds at my 195. He plays goalkeeper during the rec soccer season and runs track (100m, 200m, discus) during the school season. He's grown so fast over the last year he seems to be the ideal candidate for some weight training. I haven't really pushed, just told him that getting stronger will really help both his goalkeeping and his track results. He's seen me going to the gym 2-3 times a week for the last two and a half years and has seen how much stronger I've gotten. Unfortunately, he has no real interest in getting to the gym himself. This weekend, after months of dropping hints and suggestions, I just gave up and told him we were going to the gym this week. His hours of sitting on the couch playing video games pushed me over the edge (yes, we bought the Xbox for him so we take some of the blame, I realize that).

So yesterday we get to the gym with the idea of just showing him the lifts with light weights and see where it goes from there. I wasn't going to put him on any structured plan, just let him develop at his own rate until he got comfortable with things in a month or two and then try to go the SS LP route. I go over the squat technique and demonstrate it a few times and after his first squat I knew this was never going to work. He's one of those who does not have a real good body sense (and has about zero interest in listening to me) and I am most definitely not a good enough coach to fix all the problems he had with his squat. Knees way forward, back flexed, weight on his toes, pretty much everything is wrong and try as I might to offer corrections, after half a dozen reps with any empty bar, we decide to move on. As expected, same issue with deadlifts, press and bench. After less than 30 minutes at the gym (which included a tour of the facility, as this was his first time there), we pack it up and go home. I told him thanks for trying and that I appreciated his effort and to let me know when he wants to go to the gym next, because I'm not going to push this on him any more. I'm fairly disappointed because he's a big kid and if he would apply himself just a bit, he could really get good results on the track, instead of the mediocre results he gets now. Ah well, different kids mature at different rates and have different interests and goals I guess.

In any case, good luck with your son's development.

-RJP

[Polishdude20]

RJP,

Sounds like a typical teenager! Gets a bit of interest in what his dad is doing but doesn't like being told what to do. Being closer to his age than you are, I'd say you can try letting him discover weightlifting on his own. Maybe leave a copy of SS on his table and hope that it piques his interest?

[JLB0]

Really great to hear those success stories. My son is also 13 and in 8th grade. He's an inch taller than me at about 5' 11" but I still outweigh him by 30-40 pounds at my 195. He plays goalkeeper during the rec soccer season and runs track (100m, 200m, discus) during the school season. He's grown so fast over the last year he seems to be the ideal candidate for some weight training. I haven't really pushed, just told him that getting stronger will really help both his goalkeeping and his track results. He's seen me going to the gym 2-3 times a week for the last two and a half years and has seen how much stronger I've gotten. Unfortunately, he has no real interest in getting to the gym himself. This weekend, after months of dropping hints and suggestions, I just gave up and told him we were going to the gym this week. His hours of sitting on the couch playing video games pushed me over the edge (yes, we bought the Xbox for him so we take some of the blame, I realize that).

So yesterday we get to the gym with the idea of just showing him the lifts with light weights and see where it goes from there. I wasn't going to put him on any structured plan, just let him develop at his own rate until he got comfortable with things in a month or two and then try to go the SS LP route. I go over the squat technique and demonstrate it a few times and after his first squat I knew this was never going to work. He's one of those who does not have a real good body sense (and has about zero interest in listening to me) and I am most definitely not a good enough coach to fix all the problems he had with his squat. Knees way forward, back flexed, weight on his toes, pretty much everything is wrong and try as I might to offer corrections, after half a dozen reps with any empty bar, we decide to move on. As expected, same issue with deadlifts, press and bench. After less than 30 minutes at the gym (which included a tour of the facility, as this was his first time there), we pack it up and go home. I told him thanks for trying and that I appreciated his effort and to let me know when he wants to go to the gym next, because I'm not going to push this on him any more. I'm fairly disappointed because he's a big kid and if he would apply himself just a bit, he could really get good results on the track, instead of the mediocre results he gets now. Ah well, different kids mature at different rates and have different interests and goals I guess.

In any case, good luck with your son's development.

-RJP

Give it time. We have a water polo player/swimmer here in the house who is now 18. A few years ago he had zero interest in lifting; we never forced it but rather we would ask if he wanted to join us. Then after he turned 17 he dropped a pretty solid hint that he wanted to get bigger for his senior year in water polo so we started showing him and his friends in our garage (we have a rogue rack w/ pull up bar, bars, plates). He started getting into it but then quit during swimming last spring. Then last summer after swim was done he asked if we would take him to a SSC! So we took him to Paul Horn down in LA to undo our coaching mistakes (Paul is awesome by the way). He has gained about 30 pounds since that session last summer and that's with him backing off a little bit during water polo. Now we have to try and get him to rest/recover. He also got into crossfit, which we support since he's 18 and it keep him focused and out of trouble/off the video games.

If you can get them to an SSC, it really helps. It helps so much for a teenager to hear their instruction and advice on how they need to eat a lot AND recover from someone other than their parents, since parents don't know anything according to teenagers!

Anyway, point is... he may change and if he sees you doing it and changing you may think he's not paying attention to your results, but he is. It really comes down to maturity and when they get over that whole, "it's not cool to do what my parents do" mentality. But, it also just may not be his thing. Also his own realizing that the ladies like a muscular guys may motivate! Only time will tell, just don't force it and continue to set the example. It worked for us and I'm so proud to see his numbers going up; really helps their confidence at this age too, among several other, already mentioned benefits.

[AIMTRUE]

One additional observation. We only made one work out (Monday, missed Wed. and Friday) over Christmas Break for various reasons. He came back stronger the next week and did not seem to skip a beat. It seemed like the break was good for him. It was the only misses since we started in September.

A valuable lesson I was late in learning. For the past 13 years, I am living in Germany. Every time when I would fly home to visit my family, I would visit the gym with my brother. But since I usually stay for a couple of weeks, we always take a little time in getting there. The first week is devoted to catching up with family and friends, lots of good beer, good food. After the first week, after all of the catching up, we hit the gym. And of course, I always head to the squat rack, because the squat is my favorite exercise and most of the gyms I go to Stateside have great power racks that most German gyms just don't provide. I noticed that I was always much stronger on these days, and it took me awhile to put it together, but besides showing off because my brother was there, I NEEDED that time off, and my body recovered and became stronger because of it. A great trick I have come to rely on.

[Nightfly]

Very good. I'm curious how did he respond at first to having a metal bar digging into his back? I have a son who is 14 and wants to lift with me as he is a goalkeeper.

[Jr_Geezer]

Anyway, point is... he may change and if he sees you doing it and changing you may think he's not paying attention to your results, but he is. It really comes down to maturity and when they get over that whole, "it's not cool to do what my parents do" mentality. But, it also just may not be his thing. Also his own realizing that the ladies like a muscular guys may motivate! Only time will tell, just don't force it and continue to set the example. It worked for us and I'm so proud to see his numbers going up; really helps their confidence at this age too, among several other, already mentioned benefits.

Thanks for your input. Since our first and only visit to the gym I haven't really mentioned going back at all, mainly saying the offer is still open and that he can do whatever work he wants there, that I won't coach him on the lifts and he can do curls or whatever, so it would be a no-pressure situation. At this point I'm just trying to keep some interest up, but I fully realize it's completely up to him. He sees me go the gym on a regular basis (and his mother and his older sister on a less regular basis) and I assume realizes how much stronger I've gotten over the past two years, but it's not something he's concerned with at this point, and I can accept that. It is frustrating knowing how much better he would be at track and field if he would put some work into it. If I could somehow convince him that being stronger would help his Overwatch or Battlefield One results, then there wouldn't be a problem!

-RJP

[bucksweep]

Since December to this week: 3 Month gains. Middle of the Winter was hard at times, week long school field trip, sickness, etc. He has really just started to make consistent gains again.

Bench: 45 to 85 lbs NOW as of last training work sets 3x5: 105
Squat: 115 to 165 lbs NOW: 190
DL: 125 to 175 lbs NOW: 205
Press: 35 to 55 lbs NOW: 55 (Not sure why?)
Power Clean: Just started 65 lbs Now: 85 lbs.

Weight: 152 lbs. gain of 12 lbs.

As everyone already knows that I am finding out, food is everything. When I am not on top of his meals it really make a difference.