<p>Hi I have asian parents and they are obsessed with injuries. They think everything will cause an injury. I have been lifting weight for 8-9 months now and just now I’m starting lift heavy I’m benching 275, squatting 315, and deadlifting 405. In case you don’t believe me I’m 15 6’2", 248 lbs, 9% body fat. My dad think that its a big deal and I am going to injure myself. I already told him that lifting light reaps no benefits but he makes a scene on a daily basis that i’m going to break injure something. And I’m doing everything right I stretch, warm up for 10 minutes, lift with proper form, and do 30-45 minutes of cardio after. Please help my dad is driving me crazy</p>
<p>Wow dude that’s a really rough spot to be on. It is obvious you care about how you look but at the same time you can’t continue because of your parents. For me, exercise has always been a stress-reliever but fortunately I had parents who supported me and encouraged me to exercise so i was never in the spot you are currently in. Really the only action I would advise to you is to sit them down and explain what exercise does to you and why you want to do it. If you have done this and they haven’t backed off, you could just do it behind their back. When I was in High School, I would workout from 6-7 am at my school’s gym so you might wanna tell your parents you have to go for tutorials or something and work out. Sometimes you might wanna stay after school and say the same thing. </p>
<p>Good Luck buddy!</p>
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<p>Strength training is probably the best single thing anyone can do for their long-term fitness. Having said that, if the focus of your strength training remains on the “old-school” power lifting methods (bench, back squat, conventional deadlift) and you go heavier and heavier, then you probably will end up injuring yourself.</p>
<p>The top college and pro strength and conditioning coaches are moving away from the emphasis on those lifts and going in a direction that gets the same or better strength results will far less wear and tear on the back. Back squats and deadlifts are two lifts that put enormous load on the lower back. There are safer alternatives.</p>
<p>For example, Mike Boyle (strength coach for the BU men’s hockey team, US Women’s Olympic Hockey team, and the Boston Red Sox) doesn’t use the back squat at all any more. He does front squats and a major emphasis on single leg squats, especially Rear-foot elevated split squats.</p>
<p>Likewise, very little conventional deadlifting. More trap bar deadlifting and single leg deadlifting.</p>
<p>Here’s one of his US Women’s hockey team members doing split squats. 145 pounds with one leg doing ALL the work is awesome.</p>
<p>[RFESS</a> 145x5 - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep4yWLuitLo&feature=plcp]RFESS”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep4yWLuitLo&feature=plcp)</p>
<p>Here’s one of his trainers doing them with 305 pounds:</p>
<p>[Rear</a> Foot Elevated Split Squats 305x6 - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uRrXIhhUMo&feature=plcp]Rear”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uRrXIhhUMo&feature=plcp)</p>
<p>So definitely keep doing strength training, but learn about the modern approaches to it that allow you to train with a much lower risk of injury. Professional sports strength and condtioning has changed everything because, when you are paying a guy $10 million to be on the field, you are going to fire your strength coach if he gets injured in the weight room.</p>
<p>First, having Asian parents is not part of the issue. You’re huge for a 15 year old and they’re worried about you.</p>
<p>Second, lifting light has been shown absolutely to have the same effects if you lift to muscle fatigue, meaning more reps. The same muscle blood flow, the same micro-tears. You won’t get “stronger” in the sense of lifting heavier but you will develop more endurance. </p>
<p>Third, you can do more cross-training. I’m saying this because I know a bunch of lifters and they tend to get caught up in the cycle of lifting and lose sight of it being part of a general program to make themselves better overall. Heck, I work out with a guy who moves 10 plates, which is nearly a 500lb bench press, and another guy who can’t fit enough plates on the bar for his deadlifting. It’s very easy to get caught up in the lifting of heavy stuff and always pushing to get more, whether that’s more weight or just plain bigger. Gotta shift the focus for your own long-term good. A trainer I know is super buff but he does crazy-looking stuff like plyometric pulling a weight sled across turf so he develops explosiveness along with the rest. </p>
<p>Fourth, do you do a complete workout? Do you do pull-ups? You should, especially if you’re doing that much squatting. And how hard is that aerobic exercise? Are you doing the time or doing the work? There’s an entire universe of fitness. Don’t just be a power lifter. I say that because you’re 15 not 32. Unless you intend to enter power lifting competitions, you should expand your workout worldview.</p>
<p>BTW, do you realize that stretching decreases muscle strength? Read up on it. You want to warm up by mid-active exercise, not by stretching, especially if you’re doing strength work.</p>
<p>Even 70 year old great grandmothers can lift weights.
[Winifred</a> Pristell a 70 Year Old Powerlifting Great Grandmother — Strongest Man](<a href=“http://strongestman.org/?p=567]Winifred”>http://strongestman.org/?p=567)</p>
<p>Is this thread more about the technical aspects of weight training (what exercises to do, etc.), or the conflict between the OP and his parents about whether to do it at all?</p>
<p>At my gym, they say to lift every other day or one day do upper body and the next day do lower body. They suggest cardio every day.</p>
<p>I would take on pe personal training class with a really good trainer. That will letyou parents know you are making sure you are being safe.</p>
<p>If you control your attempts at PR’s (which is not easy to do–always easy when you fell pretty good to slap a couple extra plates on and go for it), and if you make sure that you increase your workout loads gradually, you’ll be fine. I’m assuming your numbers are the PRs, and not your normal workout loads. I’d make a point of not doing a lot of super heavy deadlifts…stay far under your max’s on that one. I’d keep the reps at a level where you can do at least 5-6. If you go so heavy that you can only do 3-5, I do think that’s too heavy for a regular workout.</p>
<p>Go heavy for strength. Go light and long (lots of reps) for stamina. You need both. If you go too heavy you will get injured and/or pull your muscles and therefore your bones and therefore your joints out of alignment. Low and slow is stam. Yeah. Stam. Good stuff.</p>
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<p>Uh – I’d say the latter, but everyone else is addressing the former.</p>