Building Muscle in Active Kids

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Building Muscle in Active Kids

For many young athletes, the quest for more muscle is what they think will lead to better performance. Building muscle in active kids depends on 3 things:

  • Hormones
  • Stimulus (exercise)
  • Nutrition

Hormonal Involvement in Muscle Building

Regardless of the weight lifted, many young boys are surprised that they do not see the results they want in the mirror. They are getting stronger, it’s just not how they expected. Many young boys think that bigger muscles = stronger bodies. For those who do not have booming amounts of testosterone, those big muscles will come later.

For boys who do not have the hormones needed to produce muscle hypertrophy, aka bigger muscles, there is strength gained from the neuromuscular system. This is also how young girls gain strength without having bigger muscles.

The neuromuscular system is simply how the nerves and the muscles work together to perform movement. The more the muscles and nerves train together, the body gets more efficient at performing a specific movement, and this can also translate into more powerful movements.

So, until puberty hits, those strength gains will not be seen in the mirror, but they will be seen in performance…with the right training.

Photo by Chris Benson on Unsplash

Strength Training is a Must for Building Muscle

Contrary to popular belief, you can’t just eat a lot of protein and build muscle, you must have a stimulus to start the process — and that stimulus is exercise, specifically strength training.

Once upon a time, experts thought that strength training for kids wasn’t helpful, even worse, that it was damaging to their bodies. Research has proven many times over that strength training is not only beneficial for young athletes, but it is necessary for injury prevention. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) supports strength training as beneficial to building strong bones, controlling weight, improving cardiovascular health, and improving mental health.

An active kid’s body will adapt first with neuromuscular adaptations and improved strength; the changes in the cross-sectional area of the muscle (size) comes later, and with continued strength training.

The AAP recommends two days per week for kids for strength training. Why is this frequency important? Because the body needs rest and recovery from this type of exercise for repair and to build the adaptations needed for strength. So, don’t forget to let kids rest, they need it too.

Protein to Build and Repair Muscle

Even though protein is not a magic food, there is something special about protein that helps build and repair muscle. As an adolescent grows into the teen years, protein becomes very important for building and repairing muscle. During strength training, the muscle gets damaged, and it needs to be repaired before those gains happen. That’s where protein comes in.

When you eat protein, it is broken down into individual amino acids. The body knows exactly where to send individuals amino acids to help with a particular need. For example, the amino acid leucine (a branched-chain amino acid) is necessary to help the process of building and repairing muscle. Leucine is an essential amino acid, which means that you have to get it from your diet – the body doesn’t make it on its own.

Another example is the amino acid proline, which is essential for making collagen. Collagen is used to make connective tissue and to help make it strong – ligaments, tendons, and skin all have collagen.

This is not to say that protein is king and other nutrients do not matter. Carbohydrates are necessary to fuel the body with energy. So, in the absence of carbohydrates, your body may break down protein for energy instead of using it for muscle building. That’s not what you want.

An active kid can get all the protein they need from a well-planned diet – from animal foods and plant foods.

Here are some examples of high quality protein foods:

  • Beef, chicken, lean pork
  • Fish
  • Soy foods – soy milk, edamame, tofu
  • Eggs
  • Dairy – milk, yogurt, cottage cheese

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