Muscle and Fitness for Teens: Tips For Building Muscle at 15 or 16

Steroid Freak. What the F***

The pressure on young teenagers, even at the young age of 15 or 16 to build muscle and get in shape grows each day.

You simply cannot get away from it.

Lean muscular bodies, pecs, delts and six-packs. Movies, television, the internet and magazines are full of seriously jacked dudes, ripped and shredded with big biceps. You marvel at the beach-bod of Chris 'Thor' Helmsworth or the seriously jacked muscular Dwayne 'the Rock' Johnson.

You flex your biceps, look at your under-developed chest and slender legs, and think, man, I ain't got muscle-one. Guys with big muscles have all the fun. Girls like guys with big muscles. You've got to get buff and gain muscle. You've got to hit the gym.

Building Muscle

Hitting the gym to work out and build some muscle is a lot healthier than sitting at home working little more than your thumbs and fingers on your X-box, Playstation or Nintendo-Wii .

But working out and building muscle can also be unhealthy and lead to injuries if in your haste to get jacked real quick you do the wrong exercises, do the exercises incorrectly, workout too frequently, spend too long in the gym and take dangerous shortcuts.

Gain Muscle Safely

Your first time in a gym can be pretty daunting. You are faced with an array of machines and racks of dumbbells and barbells. It's all very exciting if a little bit intimidating. Armed with little more than the bro-science of some of your friends who have done a little bit of weightlifting, you are can't wait to get started.

But gaining muscle and improving your fitness takes a lot more than simply lifting weights. You need to structure your workouts. It may sound pretty stupid, but as a beginner you need to start at the beginning.

This means starting with basic exercises that will get you stronger in the shortest possible time, strengthen your tendons and joints and prepare you for the other exercises to come as you progress.

Weightlifting, particularly with heavy weights puts significant stress on your shoulder, elbows and knee joints, but the right exercises done properly will strengthen your joints, ensuring you are able to safely handle heavy poundages needed to build muscle as you become more advanced.

As a 15 or 16 year old beginner, focus on resistance machine exercises that work your main muscle groups. For example, the seated chest press for your chest, seated shoulder press for your shoulders, lat pulldowns or row pulls for your upper back and the leg press for your legs. As you get stronger and your body accustomed to resistance training, you can safely introduce free weight exercises.

Build Muscle Healthily

Research reported at the end of 2012 suggested that increasing numbers of teenagers are turning to anabolic steroids as they seek shortcuts in their haste to gain muscle. Steroids are unhealthy and you should never consider using them. They damage your heart, liver and your body's ability to produce testosterone. Testosterone is a muscle building hormone produced in your testes. Your body produces increased amounts of testosterone between the ages of 16 and 19. So, from a purely muscle building perspective, it is pretty dumb using steroids, as your body is naturally kicking out vast amounts of muscle-building hormone.

The research also reported increased use of protein shakes and other muscle-gaining supplements among teens. At 15 or 16, you don't need protein shakes or supplements. You focus should be on eating a wholesome nutritious diet.