How fit is the .ORG?

[John86]

Seriously guys, I don't want to sound all matriarchal but you should not even be considering training with weights at ages of 13 and 14. At your tender ages you should stick to calisthenics and leave the barbells until you are more mature, around 15 - 16 years old.
It is part of the growing up process with young men to want to build strength and the best approach when starting off is through exercises like push ups, chins and sit ups.
As for using isolation exercises, forget them, your body does not work this way. Compound exercises like bench press and squats use multiple muscle groups and are much better at building strength and size. Worth remembering is the fact that arms are used directly in the upper body exercises and so become easily overtrained. When using a good training routine there is no, or at least very little reason to train arms at all since they will be getting all the work they need from the other BIG exercises

......Orda

I agree with you to a certain extent. The only problem is the world of American football is really competitive. If I at 14, did not lift free weights before and after the football season, I would never survive my sophmore year.