Q&A for: 6-Feb-06
1306. Q:
reply to 1303, im 6'3 right now.. but the thing is i kind of want to keep getting taller. The rest of my body is pretty good looking, and thin. its jut my nipples that are puffy. i want to keep gaining muscle, but to me.. the whole reason i started working out in the first place was cuz of my manboobs. so if i cant see a difference with the nipples, then im not happy. I could possibly have gyno, i want to know, but ill get very embarassed calling the doctor office, and telling them that i have manboob problems.
A:
There's definitely absolutely no embrassment in talking to a doctor about a possible gynecomastia problem -- that's what the doctor is there for! But more likely than not, since as you say the rest of your body is in good shape, you're simply going through the period when your hormones are causing this slight problem. It is quiet common for teenage guys and if you are not overweight, there's an excellent chance it'll go away on its own in a year or two or three. I know that's not what you want to hear, but that's the most likely scenario. You can, of course, still consult a doctor -- like I said there's absolutely no embarassment there. But from what I described, it's probably a natural stage of your body's maturation. If I were you, I'd just keep on doing what you've been doing with building muscle and let the 'man boobs' take care of themselves with time. If that's not enough, then you should talk to a doctor.
1307. Q:
hi mike im the guy from 1304 im trying to get into this soccer club but my speed is a problem so thats my goal to run fast in a soccer game
A:
Soccer requires both endurance and sprint speed. You can train endurance the way I described in Q&A #1279 and in Q&A #1304, but it sounds like more concerned with improving soccer sprinting speed. Soccer sprints are usually very short, 10-40 yards and require maximum power output, therefore the training will be geared towards that. Optimal sport-specific speed training for an athelete is quite complex, requires hands-on training, and changes continually througout the year -- I'll give you a condensed version which you should be able to do on your own and which should still give good results...
Split your sprint training into three stages. If, say, you want to try out for the team in half a year then you can allow 2 months for each stage. In stage 1 you will build lower body strength in the gym (if you don't have access to the gym, you can skip this stage and move directly to stage 2). In stage 2 you will develop lower body power through plyometric exercises. In stage 3 you will be practicing actual sprints.
Stage 1: Strength. While you can do a lot of different exercises here, the single best one for your purposes is the barbell squat (found here). For first half of this stage I want you to do the following:
1. Find the squat weight you can do about 15 times in a row when fresh.
2 Do squats with that weight 3 times per week doing 5 sets of 5 reps each time. and take 3 minutes to recover in between sets.
This means that each set will feel relatively easy since it'll only consist of 5 reps when your max for that weight is 15 reps. Don't worry about that and just do your 5 sets of 5 reps three times per week. You might get quite sore in the beginning. Don't work out while sore -- so the first week you might only have one or two sessions instead of three.
For the second half of the first stage, I want you to spend 2 out of 3 weekly sessions doing 3 sets 3 reps with that same weight. For the third session you will do 2 sets of 2-3 reps with your 'usual' weight plus 10%, 20%, 30%, and finally 40% (increase each week).
Stage 2: Power. Because you don't have a hands-on trainer I would recommend skipping power weightlifting exercises such as the clean. What you can do on your own are lower intensity plyometric exercises (again, I would recommend skipping the higher intensity ones). You will spend 3 days per week doing these. Pick from: jumping bodyweight squats (squat down and then explode into a jump), one-legged hops, long jumps, bounds (running in long exaggerated jumps/steps), double-footed jumps over very low (less than 10 inches) hurdle or up the steps. In each exercise you should try to jump as high or as far as possible. Each of three days do 8 sets of 10 reps of some combinations of those exercises, taking 3 minutes to rest between sets. You should notice that you are able to jump higher and longer at the end of this stage. Same rules as before about not training while sore apply here.
Stage 3: Sprinting. You can sprint on flat surface, VERY very slight downhill, or uphill. All three will benefit you slightly differently and can all be incorporated, though most of the time you should run on flat surface. You will run 4 times per week. 2 of the 4 weekly sessions you will do 5 sets of 20-yard sprint and 5 sets of 40-yard sprint, taking 3 minutes to recover in between each sprint. The other 2 weekly sessions you will be improving your post-sprint recuperation ability by doing this for 6 minutes: sprint 30 seconds all out, walk 30 seconds, sprint 30 seconds, walk 30 seconds, and so on for 6 minutes.
The above is a pretty good sprint-specific training program that you can do on your own. If in addition to that program you are also playing soccer or weightlifting, you might have to cut down the number of sessions to 2 per week (any less would not give much results). And once again, never train while still sore from the previous workout.
Besides training, the other thing you can do to help your speed is lose weight, but you should only do so if you are overweight and even then, lose weight very gradually and not a lot. Hope this helped, good luck!
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