QB

Question
My son is 15, going into his soph year.  We never really expected him to get a look from the varsity coaches. Last year's starter is now a senior and threw and ran for 1000 yards each. However, his eligibility is questionable.  Sonny boy, on the other hand is pretty much a straight A student, a very hardworker, tons of football knowledge, and extraordinarily dependable and coachable. Apparently, it hasn't gone unnoticed, the coaches pulled him out of the weight room to let him know they have been paying attention, and he has a shot at the job.  He throws as accurately as could be, but doesn't have as much strength and his arm tires out.  Any suggestions?  He lifts and throws religiously, but is still very thin.  People constantly make cracks about how thin he is, poor kid can't do much more.  What is he doing wrong?  More importantly, what can he do right?

Answer
Dear Megan,
I do not think your son is doing anything wrong he just needs time to grow. He is only 15-years old and his body is still developing. He needs to spend more time in the gym weight lifting to help it along. He also needs to stay away from weights that are too heavy for his body frame. Have him use weights that he can perform 100-repetitions in one set.

For example, if he usually lifts 100 pounds on the bench press, he would reduce the weights to 25-pounds or even 20-pounds so that he may lift it 100 times in one set. Do not worry about how much he is lifting just worry about how many times he can lift it. And if any of the guys in the gym start to make fun of him because he is lifting such a small amount of weight, he can tell them that some of the top bodybuilders in the country have used this system at one time or another.

Let me tell you what happen to me. One day at the gym I was curling a 20-pound dumbbell as part of my regular workout, when I saw these two guys standing in the corner of the gym. They were watching my every move while laughing, pointing, and having a good time at my expense. After a while they decide to kick it up a notch. They walked over to me and asked me if they could join me with my workout. I knew that what they really wanted to do was make fun of me from up close.

I decide I was going to teach them a lesson. And I said sure why not and handed one of them a dumbbell. He placed it on the floor and picked up a 50 pound barbell and began to curl it. His friend followed his lead, when he was done doing his set.  Now it was my turn. I wanted to toy with them a little so I just followed their lead and lifted the same amount of weight. After a couple of sets they added 10 pounds to the barbell making it a total of 60 pounds. Just around this time I had gotten tried of toying with them and decided to put an end to the whole charade.

I pick up a barbell and place 200 pounds on it and began to curling it. 200 pound was the maximum amount that I could curl for only a few repetitions. However, I was so tick off at these guys I had no trouble completing a set of 10 repetitions. The only thing more satisfying than curling 200 pounds 10 times was watching these two guys as their jaws drop to the floor when they saw me lifting all that weight. Shortly after that they picked up all their things and began to walk away.  However, I was not done toying with them yet. I kept asking them if they were sure they did not want to play any more. I made sure that I said it in a loud enough voice so that everybody in the gym could hear it. And nobody else would make the same mistake again.

The point I am trying to make is that some day it will be your son抯 turn to put someone in their place. He just needs to give it time. And another point that I am trying to make is that when this event happed I had 18-inch biceps. For the life of me I do not know how these guys did not see that however that is neither here or there. I just want to say that shortly after starting the 100 repetitions technique, I went from 18-inch arms to 21-inch arms. And believe me nobody had any trouble seeing that.

I have just started working out again after many years of lay off. Ten years ago I got married and had a kid I found out that there are not enough hours in the day to do what you want to do. I just started doing the 100 repetitions technique again and my arm size is all starting to come back to me. After all this time the 100 repetitions technique still works. Anyway good luck I hope I answered your question but if not be sure to let me know and I will do my best to help you out. Let me know how things turn out.

Your friend, Louis