What is the best supplement to help my teenager build muscle?
Meat and eggs. And then enough fats and carbs that they have the energy for building muscle.
Most teenagers have terrible diets, and trying to throw a supplement at it is just putting a bandaid on a shark bite.
If diet is squared away, a protein supplement, like Metabolic Drive, can be helpful for meeting protein needs.
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Whole foods… i left a lot of gains on the table because of over reliance on supps… most of which offer little to no benefits.
Maybe creatine and a protein powder, otherwise meat and eggs
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Pretty much everything been covered…
Ill just add make sure your teen eats. Most teens are too worried that they will get fat, thanks to social media. So many wont eat enough calories to support hard exercise plus recovery along with growth.
The only supplement id suggest is a multivitamin just to cover the basics.
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This.
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I want to echo what @T3hPwnisher stated. Whole clean foods focusing on meat, eggs, starchy carbohydrates and leafy green vegetables should make up the core of the diet. Whole eggs and meat are the building sources for muscle. Avoid low fat anything to allow his hormones to pump ample testosterone to those androgen binding sites.
He can eat his favorite junk food only if the core diet stays in compliance. If his food choices are narrow, he could take a multi-vitamin/multi-mineral supplement. Make sure he is getting magnesium. If he is eating whole vegetables and fruits he should be getting his magnesium needs.
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To be fair… the old Champion Wight gainer 900 was SOOOOO good tasting
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Since the nutrition part was covered I’ll throw in Sleep.
Less screen time before bed to ensure a good nights sleep.
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Im curious is the goal to gain for athletics or for his self esteem?
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It’s for football next season
Yeah… make sure he eats like a athlete.
What position does he play? Has the coach expressed a desire for him to gain bodyweight, or is this his own undertaking?
I know there is a desire to always want to be bigger for American football (as the game goes on, people get slower, but no one gets lighter), but there is ALSO a frequent instance where young kids prioritize bodyweight above all else and end up with worse field skills because they become slower and less agile with a bunch of useless fluff.
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My assumption, if correct, is your son is a hard gainer? I’ve been one all my life but was able to put on muscle weight with concerted effort with this twice a day: 1 cup of low fat milk with one scoop of whey, a banana, 1/3 cup of walnuts. And dinner should be a quality meat, quality vegetable, quality starch. He’s young, get him on the most important routine now, eating quality food.
One other piece of advice, if his genetics are hard gainer then suggest to him swimming with the current. Shredded with some muscle that pops will likely be very much within his grasp. Getting higher mass jacked isn’t impossible but it’ll be a tough mountain to climb that has a high likelihood to over rely on gear.
To that very point, I think we’ve seen a bit of a trend toward “shrinking” in favor of speed - especially at positions like safety or defensive end. It doesn’t always show up statistically because of the height of these monsters, but speed kills. With the exception of interior line, you rarely see guys that just aren’t strong enough for their position anymore (Bryce, cough, Young, cough).
Anyway, just agreeing with your point. The “gain weight or die” approach kills a lot of young athletes. I’m seeing a lot of chubby freshmen right now that are in for disappointment when they try to show up for varsity next year (unless the summer is kind). Eat to support your training, stay in the weight room and on the track, and the weight will come.
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Troy Polamalu was like the epitome of “speed kills”. Dude was superhuman.
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Yes! He was insane. When he’d line up across the C gap, the whole world knew he was going to jump the line, abandon the RB, and rush the QB… and he still pulled it off. Ridiculous
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He plays DE. He has several D3 and a couple D2 colleges looking at him. D1 colleges love his speed and hands but have all said he needs to get bigger and stronger.
Are you keeping track of his daily calories and how much protein he’s getting in?
Have you been tracking his weight to see if he’s eating enough to gain?
Do you have a rough idea of how many cals/grams he needs?
If not, tell us his bodyweight and let somebody give you some numbers.
Height and weight?