AboutRick Karboviak Expertise ATTENTION: I will not be taking any more questions from kids, ages 17 & under, through this site. If any kid wants some help, their parent must ask the question.
Plese be specific, no more "I need to gain weight and get a 6-pack, pleeez help, thanx" types of questions. I will no longer reply to these.
I can help you with most questions regarding strength training for a wide variety of sports, primarily for the youth, high school, college, and recreational athlete levels. I can also assist with general fitness concerns.
I also will not respond to generic "I need to lose weight fast, please help' type of questions either. This is a waste of my time. You need a strategy, not a program alone, for this type of assistance.
Also, I DO NOT GIVE PROGRAMS through this service. Do not ask for any program, please, because chances are that I know nothing about you to even begin creating a program. As a professional, I need many pieces of information to even begin constructing something for my client, and this sometimes takes up to 45 minutes in a face-to-face visit. There's just no way I can do it in one email!
Thank you.
If you need just new cardio workouts, you can subscribe to my mobile phone text messaging workout service, FiText, at http://fitext.speeddialcoach.com
Experience
Past/Present clients Various athletes in North Dakota, Ohio & Minnesota, from youth to Division I college athletes.
Question hello, i have a 14 year old son who is a hardgainer.
i want to know if this is a good workout for him:
Monday
bench press 5x5
dips 5x5
squats 5x5
20 leg raises
30 bicycle crunches
Wednesday
deadlift 5x5
calf raises 5x5
pushups 5x5
20 knee raises
25 reverse crunches
saturday
shoulder press 5x5
squats 5x5
dumbbell rows 5x5
1 plank
25 vertical leg crunches
will this get him bulk and strength?
will this stunt his growth?
what other exercises could he use?
is this a good workout for football?
all he has is a pair of 15 pound dumbbells.
Answer There is no direction with this program: how long it needs to last, how much weight in terms of intensity of training, what the workout's purpose is, nothing of note speaks out here. Not sure where you pulled this program from, but it is not meant for a 14 year old by any means. Would he even know how to do the exercises listed is the next question. This is why you can't just pull a program from anywhere and expect it to work.
Ideally, a total body workout that is balanced between actions of squatting, lunging, pushing, pulling, bending, & twisting is ideal. I have created a basic program for athletes that is meant to increase strength & build some endurance, because it measures total reps over time, and has a built-in goal mechanism within the program's structure. Plus, all the basic body movements are focused on, instead of just muscle groups individually. The program is for free at http://asapworkouts.com and is called the ASAP Way. I created this plan out of the needs for athletes & parents to get some sound advice and not get caught up in the 'must gain weight first' mentality that often comes with strength training for athletes. Weight gain, in my training experience, can be an over-rated and over-exagerrated thing to worry about when it comes to sports. I feel a lot of unneccessary weight is put on many athletes and it can do them more harm than good, even in sports that proclaim that a weight gain increase is essential for performance improvement. I don't think that's the case.
I'm usually in the minority of thought when it comes to the issue of weight gain, as most trainers will tell you its needed as only as a means to sell you something on that supposed need for weight gain.
I feel it is best to allow the athlete to strength train, condition their body for their specific sports needs, and eat well, thus allowing each athlete to attain the right weight that's desired for sports improvement. If you put on 20 pounds and it slows you down, what good is that 20 pounds then? If you put on between 5-10 and can maintain or increase your performance levels, that's a much safer gain.
