During your years as a Teen, what training program do you think gave you the best results?

When I started training when I was about 12 or 13, I was working out with my friends at home using my home barbell set (110 pounds) and we did a basic routine consisting of one exercise per muscle group. That was a good starting routine. When I got to 14 years old, I started training six days a week, twice a day (in the morning before school and after school). This was obviously overtraining but I gained 20 pounds of muscle training this way (from 135 lbs to 155 lbs). When I was 15 years old, I was training each muscle group twice a week and training four days a week. This was the best routine for gaining mass and getting stronger.

When trying to gain mass as a Teen, what kinds of food did you eat, and how much did you eat? & How do you think teens should structure their diets?

I didn’t know that much about nutrition when I was a teenager. I was eating very strict and I totally eliminated any foods with sugar in them. I would eat a lot of protein (eggs, tuna fish, beef and chicken) and lots of complex carbs (oatmeal, whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta and rice). My metabolism was so fast, it was really hard to gain weight and put on muscle. When I dieted for a contest, I would only have to diet for 3-4 weeks to be ripped.

I think teens should eat a good amount of protein (about 1.25 grams per pound of bodyweight) and also lots of complex carbs if you have a fast metabolism. Many teens are skinny and their metabolisms are going super fast so they have trouble gaining weight and muscle. By eating more good bodybuilding foods (complete proteins and complex carbs), you can provide your body the fuel it needs to build muscle. If you have a slower metabolism and gain fat easily, eat a higher protein diet (1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight) but less complex carbs and more vegetables. Experiment with eating more fats (from flaxseed oil, peanut butter and salmon) to provide your body with the energy it needs.

What do you feel is the best way to bring up weak body parts?

This is a good question. If you train these weak muscle groups first thing in the week (on Monday) and train them first before other muscle groups, this will help to concentrate on them more. Sometimes, the body just needs more time to bring up certain muscle groups. Typically, everyone has 1-3 muscle groups that grow very easily and 1-3 that are very difficult to grow. Some muscles grow from just using the basic exercises (squats, barbell rows, bench presses) with heavy weight for 6-8 reps and it’s just a matter of building up your strength on these exercises to build up the muscle mass. That’s what I did to make my legs respond. I just kept squatting heavier until my legs had no choice but to grow. Other muscle groups are made up of more red muscle fibers, which means they respond better to higher reps and pounding away with heavy weights won’t make them respond. You might have to get creative with these muscle groups and include supersets and drop sets for these muscles after you do the basic exercises.

What is an example training split that you would recommend to a beginning teen bodybuilder?

Well, a rank beginner should spend at least 3 months just doing a basic routine of one exercise per muscle group for 3 sets of 10 reps. This will develop the foundation for the physique and slowly allow the bodybuilder to build up strength and some muscle size before advancing to a more complex routine. From here, they should move to an intermediate routine, training each muscle group twice a week and focusing on the basic exercises. You should focus on building muscle mass by using heavier weights in the 6-8 rep range. This is the time to build more size when you are young and growing easily. By only training each muscle group twice a week, you will be giving the body plenty of time to recuperate and should make substantial gains each year.

What were the biggest bodybuilding mistakes you made during your teen-age years?

The biggest mistake I made was to compete too much. I started training when I was 14 years old and I did my first contest when I was 16 years old. After that first show, I was hooked on competing and I was entering 2-3 shows a year. This was too much competing because I was always dieting for all the contests I was entering. I would have been better off only doing one or two contests a year and then spend most of the year training for size. As it was, I really didn’t make a lot of gains inbuilding up muscle mass when I was a teenager because I was competing so often. When I finally turned 20 years old, I couldn’t compete in any more teenage contests so I took a full year off and didn’t compete again until I gave myself a chance to really bulk up and gain some muscle mass.

Another mistake I made was overtraining. When I read that Arnold trained six days a week, twice a day, to get ready for the Mr. Olympia contest, I decided to do the same thing. That was too much training to grow from. When I switched to four days a week, training each muscle twice a week, I made much better gains. Teen bodybuilders, as I mentioned before, should focus on using the basic exercises with barbells and dumbbells to build the muscle mass and strength. This is the foundation of your physique. Once you have the muscle mass, you can worry about doing other shaping or isolation exercises. I see way too many people in the gym using the hammer strength machines or cables or isolation movements and they are trying to get bigger. Keep the sets low by focusing on a few key basic movements to build more muscle mass. Do exercises like barbell squats, barbell rows, power cleans, shrugs, barbell and dumbbell bench press and incline press, dips, t-bar rows, dead lifts, standing military press, upright rows, etc, etc. If you can really build good size, you will have such a big advantage over your competition once you start competing.

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ABOUT JOHN:

John Hansen is a 2 time Natural Mr. Universe winner and was the first Mr. Natural Olympia winner.

His 25-year competitive career included many Natural Bodybuilding titles. He has written his own column in IronMan Magazine since the year 2000. John is also the author of the book, “NaturalBodybuilding” (Human Kinetics, 2005) and has produced two Natural Bodybuilding DVD’s, “RealMuscle” and “Natural Bodybuilding Seminar and Competitions”.

Currently a personal trainer in Tampa, Florida, John also promotes two Natural Bodybuilding and Fitness competitions in the Chicago area

each year. John was inducted into the Natural Bodybuilding Hall of Fame in 2008 and the National Fitness Hall of Fame in 2009. John is also the host of the Internet radio show, Natural Bodybuilding Radio at: www.naturalbodybuildingradio.com.

He works as an athlete representative for Optimum Nutrition and American Bodybuilding and he writes a weekend blog at: www.abbperformance.com.

Check out John’s website at www.naturalolympia.com.