Thread: How to increase my strength?

Hi I'm a 13 yr old boy

I'm really skinny and I find that I'm really weak in my arms. I'm wondering how to make myself stronger and to make myself more buff and make my upper arm muscles bigger

Working out is all you really need to do. Just go running, do pushups, anything that gets you moving.

It will take time to build up muscle, so you will need to be dedicated.

For strength training you have to lift a weight that you can only manage 1 - 5 repetitions of. For building muscle you should lift a weight where you can manage between 6 - 10 reps.
I would start with the three main compound lifts;

BENCH PRESS - works your PECS, front DELTOIDS and TRICEPS
DEADLIFT - works your lower BACK, QUADS, TRAPS, BICEPS
SQUATS - works your GLUTES, QUADS, HAMSTRINGS AND CALVES

They are called compound lifts because they involve more than one muscle group. These three compund lifts are very important for building strength and muscle mass.

seeing as you're only 13 I would focus on muscular endurance - press-ups, running etc..then when you get a bit older you can start the heavy stuff

*click this*

Simple and effective.

Make sure you've got a good diet to. Extra protein really helps recovering muscles. Another thing you'll want to do when building muscle quick is to be working for fatigue. You should be sore the next morning. That's your muscles ripping so that they can be repaired stronger than before.

My arms are quite weak too, but pushups have really helped me. I went from doing 5 in a row, to 7, 9, then upwards from there. I've noticed I can lift and push things easier, even if the pushups don't really help all the different parts of my arms.

Most people try to get big arms by doing a bunch of bicep work, but triceps make up 2/3 of your arms. Do some french curls and dips. When using weights, make sure it's difficult to do 8 reps while maintaining proper form. You want to use heavy weight to force muscle growth.

If you're trying to add bulk, cut way back on cardio (once a week), and eat a lot of protein and carbs.

Look up Rippetoe. If you're looking for strength and bulking it's a great place to start. The program is all over the internet so it's free. Hell, here's a link directly describing the program:

Rippetoe Workout

The type of workout you do depends on the type of results you want. If it's strength you want, core work and all that is great. You'll put on a lot of weight with new gains and become much stronger. But you have to be consistent. Make sure you eat A LOT, but that you eat WELL. Too many people who bulk go all out and eat whatever crap they want. That's all fine and good, but then they're gonna have to work that much harder to cut fat gains (which are somewhat inevitable while bulking).

Just read up on it, and make sure the sources you read are well supported and well researched. Too much bro science will have you doing pointless things. :O

You're young, so it's great that you want an early start at a fit lifestyle. Just be careful when going to the gym and don't rush yourself either. The quality of your reps is much more important than the number of reps you can do. I've had friends who started lifting early on in high school. I started early in college, but I'd say read up on it and get educated. When you're ready and a little bit older, you'll know exactly where to start and how you want to progress. You'll be ahead of the game

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