fitness and diet for a 12 year old

hi im 12 years old and will be 13 in january i have a new girl friend and shes really awsome and we were doing something and she was stronger than me and im like omg so can someone plz help me on getting a bit stronger and i also am trying out for tennis and other fall sports and ideas for work out or eating diets? regimens i know nothing about reps or what ever even the litllest bit of advice would be help full thx thomas

[AnnieBrooke]

It's a good idea to challenge yourself a little bit more every day, when working out.  In other words, whatever you do (and there are a lot of things that can be workouts), try to do one more or five more the next time.  For example, say you were climbing steps.  (Sometimes they do this in a boot-camp type gym -- they'll run the group out to the parking garage and have them run up all the flights of stairs.)  Anyway, say you can do one flight of stairs in a certain amount of time.  The next time, you challenge yourself to do either more steps or faster times.  Both kinds of workout (distance and speed) are important.  Some long-distance runners will do long, slow distance in one workout, and speed work in the next, and trade them off like that.

If there is a coach at your school, you can probably get some basic exercises from him or her.  I'd just drop by after school if the coach has a minute, and ask for, say, ten exercises.  Tell him or her you're working on strength and endurance.  

I'm sure there are good books written on the subject for your age group -- don't go crazy and hurt yourself, but do press yourself.  There is bound to be some good stuff online, too.

As far as diet is concerned, you can also find a lot of good material out there.  The basic healthy diet is one that doesn't have a lot of fats, salt and sugar, or many refined carbohydrates.  This means a meal of fish or chicken with rice on the side and a couple of veggies and some fruit would be great, while a meal of something heavily fried with potatoes on the side and not much attention paid to veggies or fresh fruit would be a problem.  The amount of sugar in one can (non-diet) soda pop can be equivalent to as many as 12 tablespoons.  Sugars and refined carbs (think doughnut, cookie, maple bar, white bread, potatoes, pretty much all candy) are pretty useless for muscle-building, as well as leading to intense sugar cravings.  Junk food is also good at building up fat in your body and clogging your arteries, too.  All that is bad for your skin, as well.

A lot of exercises, you can do in the privacy of your room, or in a cool place like a garage if you get too warm doing them.  My husband used to do push-ups every night, and clap his hands between each one (in other words, as he pushed up).  That tones the upper body fast!  And as you can imagine from what I said above, you can do them slowly one night and try for high numbers, followed by faster in two more nights, trying for a certain number in a short time.  Then try to beat your speed or your overall number.

Most people who work out a lot take one day's rest between workouts.  This is the way really serious distance runners do it, and it's smart, because you don't want to overdo and cause tiny tears in the muscles.

Good luck!

[thomas15]

thx this helped alot i mean thx a bunch ur so awsome lol

[AnnieBrooke]

No problem at all.  Though strength is your goal, endurance is really as good a goal, because it builds your entire body's strength indirectly and helps your posture, bones, heart, and everything.  

Also, if you do get to the position of having a  lot of sugar and carb cravings, try taking a probiotic pill or eating live-culture yogurt.  I have found it worked like a charm to break me of the cravings when I had them.  If you're hooked on sweetened drinks and juices (an easy habit to fall into) try cutting them in half with sparkling water.  Over ice, this tastes just as good, and cuts the sugar load way down.