14 year old male, very skinny arms and wrists.

[jon1]

Hi, my names Jon, 14 year old freshman in highschool. I made an account on this website in need for help on something that has been literally making me rage. My skinny writs and arms. I've been wrestling for 5-6 years and I love it, but at varsity practices my coaches and upper-class men always tease me because of my arms and wrists.. and i'm so sick of hearing it. And I look down at JV and other wrestlers that weigh less than me and they have some firm meat, and girth on their arms and wrists. I'm 5'7 and I weigh 112 pounds. I know this may sound extremely silly but sometimes I don't even wear short sleeve shirts to school because I feel deep down embarrassed about this.

One night I was wrestling and lost to someone like 10 to 8 and I've beaten the guy in the past, I just wasn't feeling it that night, my allergy's were acting up and I could hardly breath. When I shook hands my coach frustrated me so bad, telling me "you need to hit the gym", "you're arms are tiny", "take steroids if you need to, goddamn". And sometimes it just gets OLD.. Like I know he's my coach, but somethings hurt down deep.

So ever since, I've been working out in my room and local community gym with my buddy. Simple dumbells and lifting the bar, nothing too special. I see improvement in my biceps, abs and whatever a typical 14 year old works on, and i feel that extra "umph" when i wrestle. But my arms and wrists remain bony, i mean you can see the veins through my hands and i hate it so much. i feel like if i had that extra meat in my arms and wrists i could wrestle more aggressive, crossface harder, and take bigger shots.

What is it that i have to do? I honestly don't care. I'm at the point where i'll do anything to get this help.
I don't want any large paragraphs about it being "genetic" or some bull about it being "normal", will they grow as i grow through puberty? more meats, more meals? I honestly don't mind putting on another 10 pounds.

Anyways, spring and summer is coming up and i want to be able to show off a tank top with pride.
Thanks to all that take the time to inform me.

-Jon

 

[Goldfish2.0]

Firstly, I'm going to link you to a beginner program I've written up that should get you started: http://training.fitness.com/weight-training/basic-novice-program-strength-muscle-54545.html

Now, in order to get bigger, you need to eat. You can do the most intense bodybuilding workouts, but you won't gain a pound unless you eat enough to gain a pound. You want most of your food to be the good, nutritious, natural variety: meat, eggs, dairy, vegetables, fruit, nuts, whole grains. If you can get yourself gaining about 0.5lb/wk whilst progressively getting stronger, you'll be doing well. Your coach will want you to gain weight quicker than that, and you probably want to gain weight quicker than that (after all, 2lb/month isn't going to send you into beast mode uber quickly), but more rapid weight gain is usually just extra fat, rather than extra muscle. When it comes to strength sports, pretty much any weight is good weight, but muscle is still better than fat, and when you factor in weight classes, that makes it advantageous to minimise fat gains. Besides, 0.5lb/wk (even though you won't gain exactly that much every week) adds up to about 26lb/year -- do that for 2-3 years straight, and you'll have put a lot of muscle on your frame.

Lastly, don't worry about specific foods making you fat. You get fat when you give your body more calories than it has a use for elsewhere. This can happen eating nothing but wholesome foods, and it can be avoided while eating nothing but McDonald's, even though it's easier to rack up the calories to gain weight by eating fast food. You'll be training, and only aiming to gain a little bit of weight each week, so the weight you gain if you eat at least some things that resemble real food should be primarily lean body mass.

 

[jon1]

@Goldfish2.0 i will definitely try you're program and take you're advice. But, BUMP, i'd love some more help.

 

[PJ Wisniewski]

Hey man!

You shouldn't be too hard on yourself, but I can tell your COMPLETELY fed up with all the nagging from your friends and coach. I can only image how frustrating that is; nonsense like that would drive me nuts. But if I may, look at it like this - you're only 14 and already 5' 7, craziness! You're body is STILL growing and lengthening out.

BUT IN THE MEAN TIME, I know you'd like to have something to start building legitimate muscle mass (not just pounds) and Goldfish 2.0 has posted at fantastic beginner program.

But there's something I'd like you to keep in mind: in exercise physiology its called the overload principle. This simply means that if you are to have ANY physiological adaptations (increase in muscle mass), you MUST overload the given muscles WELL past to what their used to – you gotta push to failure. So when you're at the gym, remember to choose a weight where you can do NO MORE than 8-10 reps of the given exercise WITH PROPER FORM each set; you should be completely fatigued by the 8th or 10th rep. This concept equally applies to your conditioning training during practices; I know you know how tough that can be lol.

Just keep in mind your age, though. You're still young and to begin lifting too much too soon may end up not being a good thing, especially in your sport. Regardless, you're a fit and dedicated athlete Jon. Keep practicing your craft and training hard because man...you're time is JUST beginning!

I hope this finds you well buddy,

PJ

 

[Goldfish2.0]

^ I agree strongly with overload, however I'm going to nitpick here and say that the evidence is plentiful that you don't have to reach failure in order to cause overload. Progression and overload are two sides of the same coin, which is why "progressive overload" is seen as one of the top priorities in most strength and hypertrophy programs. Overload stimulates the need for the body to get bigger and stronger; being bigger and stronger allows progression; progression causes new overload; rinse and repeat. Some programs work well specifically because they avoid reaching failure, others work well because they use tools such as spotters/assistance or drop sets to train beyond the point of failure. Overload is generally delivered by means of either intensity, frequency, or volume. All good strength/building programs I've encountered will use one or two of these factors in a progressive manner to ensure progressive overload; programs that max out all three of these factors at the same time tend to cause as much, if not more, harm than good.

 

[PJ Wisniewski]

All good strength/building programs I've encountered will use one or two of these factors in a progressive manner to ensure progressive overload; programs that max out all three of these factors at the same time tend to cause as much, if not more, harm than good.

Great point and definitely agree with "progressive overload". Appreciate your response.

I was just stressing the importance of intensity; too much volume with less weight would gear more towards to endurance training - increased muscle vasculature, less hypertrophy.