My dad just signed up my 12 year old brother with our gym and I was hoping to get him started working out. He is very sedentary right now and I would like to get him in much better shape by high school. Since he is so young, should I go by the recomendations in the begginer blast off program or should I do anything special such as particular exercises, reps and tempo so as to gaurantee that he does not cause himself any injury or potentially stunt his growth?
No exercise will stunt his growth. And no amount of pushing and prodding will inspire him to want to exercise. He has to make the decision to do it himself.
I agree with DD. That “little Hercules” kid was on Howard Stern a few months back and his father/trainer made a comment that the human body does not stop fully growing until the age of twenty-five roughly, so under that logic no one should do anything intense until then. Made sense to me as I have seen Chinese weightlifters between eleven and thirteen training just as hard as anyone else; and they don’t have the benefit of T-Mag!