[ashleymoran]

Originally Posted by Lou Schuler

Ashley, thanks for the suggestion. The conventional wisdom in publishing is that it's very difficult to sell books to teenagers.

Aside from the issue of finances (when kids have a credit card that's not maxed out, are they going to use it to buy a book?), there's also the problem of perception: Is this a top-down thing, some middle-aged adult you've never heard of telling you to do exercises you've never tried?

Hi Lou,

Good points - I see the economic problems (well kinda, I'm not in publishing). As for whether kids are prepared to spend money on books, I don't know the answer. I've always been under the impression that teenagers (especially males) are more likely to buy magazines than books, so maybe a series in a bodybuilding magazine to promote the book would be a good back-door. As for whether the programmes would look like some mysterious guy telling you to do strange exercises, well I think that is a problem with NROL anyway! It hasn't stopped it being successful though. Am I right thinking the only curls in there are semi-pronated towel curls? (So they are not even targetting the biceps to the maximum amount.) Heresy!!!

My impression of young guys, especially teenagers, (although not the ones here - the fact you are on a forum means you must be trying to do it right), is that they don't give a damn about natural compound movements, exercise form, muscular balance, incremental progress, or periodization, and they definitely don't give a damn about working their legs until their heart feels like its going to explode and their muscles feel like they've been run through a meat grinder. (Alwyn must be sent to hell for combining Bulgarians and step ups!!!) In short none of the things that make NROL great.

What they care about is being as big/hard/strong as their favourite bodybuilder/martial artist/powerlifter. I bet if one of the Gracie brothers did NROL you'd have NO trouble selling the programme to teenagers. (Having said that I really hate celebrity endorsements.) I'm 99% sure that most teenagers you got on NROL would be so amazed by the results they'd suddenly take an interest in all the exercise geek stuff (such as why compound movements are better).

The young guys I see at the gyms I go (and I mean, pretty much every single one I can think of) fall roughly into one of these groups:

• Late teens - late 20s. Training since school. Often go alone. Pretty big and strong, but often with poor form on squats and DLs, and always do isolated exercises or machines instead of unilateral compound moves for support. Often at a plateau and not really focused on improving. Would benefit from the big lifts in the Strength programmes to give them a new goal, but seem pretty settled in their routine.
  
• Late teens - mid 20s. Often go with a training partner or two. Generally slim-athletic build build but not as strong as should be. Tend to hang around the benches together and do a lot of dumbell work (flies and raises especially). Their friends are always too eager to help them on dumbell bench presses (let go of his elbows!!!). Never do squats or DLs, and wouldn't be seen dead doing a step-up. They are dying for the Hypertrophy programmes but would probably be terrified of missing any of the 49 different shoulder exercises that are bulking them up (apparently).
  
• Mid teens - early/mid 20s. Usually go alone. Generally slim and never very strong. Generally use machines, and don't even push themselves on those. Never pick up free weights except for tricep extensions or curls. Could not identify an unlabelled squat rack. Always look a bit intimidated by the older/bigger lads. They would benefit the most from NROL, but would probably be terrified of stepping on the free weight mat in case they got hit by a flying dumbell. I feel sorry for them because they are pretty committed but have no direction and make no progress.

That's my observation anyway. It may just be peculiar to the gyms round here, and not much use in general.

Oh, and FWIW, the only guy that's asked about NROL exercises is in his 40s, and wants to join in with some deadlifts and squats. Plenty of others have commented how much stronger I'm getting, but they are all twice the size of me anyway (see group 1 above...). Still the encouragement is nice. I have this strange feeling though that the more I get out of NROL, the less likely the others are to ask about it.

Originally Posted by Lou Schuler

As OG mentioned, I'm working on a book with Nate Green that will probably be published this December.

This should be great. Scratch what I said about the Gracies I will buy a copy. I'll need some new workout ideas by then.

Originally Posted by Lou Schuler

The one caution I would throw out to teenage lifters is that it's not a good idea to push yourself into serious powerlifting training until your body is fully mature. I assume powerlifters would disagree with me on that, but I've met and heard from a lot of guys who seriously messed up their shoulders and knees by pushing themselves too far, too fast, at too young an age.

Your body is going to get stronger anyway if you do the core exercises as part of your regular training. I just wouldn't get too carried away with 1RM lifts in your first few years of training. Give your bones a chance to finish growing, give your connective tissues a chance to catch up, and then start pushing your limits in your late teens and early 20s.

This is all stuff that will help get people off to a good start. There's just nothing safe, effective and accessible available to young lifters, except for ones adventurous enough to try NROL.