Tristyn and Mani have been training with me for about 2 months now and have been making some good progress. For 13 year old kids their commitment has been really good. In the gym their technique is getting a lot better and they have gained plenty of strength. It is exciting to see. Being so young they could reach very high levels as long as they stay focused and keep working hard.
They have been following their nutrition pretty well. I have to give a special mention to Mani here because he is very into and told me this morning that he likes to eat healthy because it is making him feel so much better. Not just at training but throughout the day. Like myself and many of our clients Mani is experiencing much better energy levels and can focus for longer periods. This is very pleasing for me to hear. Creating good habits at such a young age will really set him up for a healthy life for years to come. I am jealous that I didn't start eating and training correctly at these boys age.
Jack Simpson is another young rugby league player who comes to see me to look after his nutrition. Jack doesn't train in the gym with me because of a busy schedule and a bit of distance to travel so we catch up and I update his plans every fortnight or so. He gets weekly tips as well to implement and has been doing a good job with it. During our most recent meeting Jack told me his energy levels struggled a bit the previous week so I asked why as I always won't to make sure people are feeling keen to train and not depleted in anyway. He said he had gone off plan for a couple of days and really noticed the difference in his energy with the foods he started eating. This was good news to me as it really demonstrates how bad he used to feel before changing his diet. He got back on plan and said his energy is now back and he has been sleeping really well again. It is really good for a young athlete to be able to identify these changes as it will help him make better choices.
Mani's progress:
Body weight - 63kg now 56kg
Lean body mass - 48.1kg now 47.8kg
Body fat - 23.6% now 14.6%
Mani has lost 7kg of body weight on the scale but the important thing is that he has only lost 300g of lean body mass. Dropping 9% body fat and maintaining lean mass has been the goal. His scale weight will shoot back up over coming weeks. I am happy he has stuck to the plan and not freaked out when he saw the scale weight dropping. Many young athletes get really worried about this and would start to pig out on junk.
Tristyn's progress:
Body weight - 80.6kg now 80kg
Lean body mass - 64.4kg now 67kg
Body fat - 20.2% now 16.2%
With Tristyn you see that body weight has remained relatively stable whilst the lean mass has increased 2.6kg and body fat has decreased 4%. This is a good result especially when you consider compliance to the plan has not been 100%. Just making some small changes can go a long way. As Trist improves more and more habits the results will continue.
Jack's progress:
Body weight - 78kg now 77.7kg
Lean body mass - 55.7kg now 59.6kg
Body fat - 28.5% now 23.3%
Jack is very similar to Trist. He has pretty much maintained his scale weight but he has increased lean muscle mass by 3.9kg and decreased his body fat by 5.2%. This is a very good result in just 7 weeks or so.
The important part for these boys is to keep enjoying their training and sticking to their nutrition. We can still improve in so many areas but we will do this gradually over time. I find many trainers get carried away with results and try to push kids too hard too early. We aren't doing anything crazy. We are aiming for long term progress. They understand it is a process of many years of consistent hard work to achieve the goals they are after.