‘My young athlete is just too little. How do I make him bigger?’

DISCLAIMER: Yep…we did say ‘him’. This is a question that, for the majority of the time, is about the male adolescent athletes we see. For the purposes of this post we are going to refer to ‘him/he’. Sorry in advance if this offends. It’s just reality for us!

Yep, we get it! This is one of the questions we are often asked about our junior male athletes, and generally speaking it’s usually at the start of pre-season training programs amongst team sport athletes. 

First note: Size does not always translate into better athletic performance

Here are a few of our considerations for young athlete’s wanting to put on size:

• Adolescents grow at different times during puberty. Females tend to have their major growth spurt between 10-13 years of age, while their male counterparts between 12-15 years of age.  
• Growth tends to be skeletal growth (growing bones). Laying down lean muscle mass comes later.
• Remember a young athlete needs energy for normal daily living, sports training (and often more than one sport!), school activities including PE, and general hanging out with mates, as well as enough energy for growing a skeleton and the many new cells the body needs that are important to help transition them to adulthood. Energy requirements during this life stage are huge, let alone factoring in the extra demand of ‘getting bigger’.
• ‘Cliché’ (we know) but try hard to be patient. The biggest gains in lean muscle mass occur after their skeleton has stopped growing. Young athletes get their greatest lean muscle mass gains between 19-23 years of age.
• We know this next piece of information is never very exciting to hear...but we are all different. Our genetics plays a huge role in when we will grow and what size we will get to. Often the family gene pool is a good determiner of how the plan will go (Oh, and good nutrition to support all this amazing growth).

Second Note: Be smart. With such a huge energy demand during adolescence, smart nutrition is going to be your best friend

Nutrition is key!

• Eat more food. Most of the time we get parents and carers telling us about how much food their young athlete eats but they aren’t getting bigger. Yay for the great appetite but there are more questions to ask. Do they eat a big breakfast? (we mean really big!). Do they take to school a lunchbox that provides enough foods for a lunch meal and snacks? (see our downloadable Snacks e-book).  Do they take a second lunchbox? Do they have good combinations of foods throughout the day with plenty of protein, carbohydrate and fruit and/or veggies?  Do they eat within 30mins of finishing training? Do they eat before bed?
• Eat more quality food. Ditch the packets of crackers, biscuits and chips (poor nutrients) and replace with grains, dairy, and fruits and veggies (great nutrients). Quality is key!
• Eat frequently. Eat at least 6 times a day (plan 3 meals and 3 snacks as a minimum)
• What does the science say? By simply adding in 300-400 calories (1250-1700kJ) every day, on top of what they are doing already (providing they are meeting thier current energy requirements), they start laying down better foundations to grow when the time is right. You don’t need to count the calories (that’s our job) but it could simply be a glass of milk, a handful of nuts, and a banana either as an extra snack or as a few extras added in throughout the day
• NO supplements. Just NO. Period. And in case there was any confusion NO supplements. Don’t fall into the trap that your young athlete needs to head off to the supplement store to get BIG. Research tells us that over 80% of supplements sold in our stores contain ingredients that aren’t even listed on the container. The reason they are not listed? These ingredients are bad. Rotten. Oh, and there is nothing a supplement can give you that food won’t. Honestly, real, great-tasting food has a far bigger impact.
  

THIRD NOTE: LET US HELP YOU OUT.

If your young athlete needs nutrition support to ensure they are on the right path to bigness then get in touch. We'd love to work with you to nail the nutrition plan for maximum results, share our top tips for getting bigger (oh, we have plenty), and help you bundle it all into a plan that fits around your crazy schedule.