TikTok is the social media that is growing the most among children and young people. Videos about exercise and diet are among the content that engages this age group. And several people ask questions directly to Norwegian muscle builders in the comments section. In the article “TikTok’s muscle power”, news revealed that thousands of comments have been left by Norwegian users who claim to be between 9 and 14 years old. Most of them are boys. The age limit on TikTok is 13 years. The comments from the children are often about how to get big muscles in a short time and which nutritional supplements they should take. We have selected the most common questions and asked two experts from the public information website Ung.no to answer them. This is how we found the comments from children news has analyzed 230,000 comments from the TikTok pages of 50 popular Norwegian muscle builders. Together, they have 888 million views on their videos. By filtering out all comments where users state their own age, we can document that 519 users write in Norwegian and state that they are between 9 and 14 years old. We have then compiled all the comments that these 519 users have left. There are a total of 4491 comments. Probably the numbers are much, much higher. Few people state their age when they comment. “Hey, I train a lot with weights, is it dangerous for me, I’m 12 years old” In the past, it was believed that training with weights was harmful before you were fully grown because it could stop growth, but research suggests that this is not true. Strength training, on the other hand, is very good for the body, and not harmful to development when you are young. You can perfectly train with weights. What is still important is that the training is done correctly, and that you do not train too hard or too much too quickly. This is to avoid injuries and to make good progress with the training. Feel free to seek advice from adults with knowledge of training who can help you with this. Good workout! Greetings Kaja Physiotherapist with a master’s in sports physiotherapy Kaja Børø is a physiotherapist with a master’s in sports science and regularly answers questions from children and young people at Ung.no. Photo: Private “What do you think of a 14-year-old weighing food and logging what he does at the gym?” We do not advise anyone to weigh their food. If you start with that, you can quickly become very attached to food and what you eat, and you lose the joy around food. Fortunately, our bodies are experts at regulating how much food we need, how much we burn and how hungry we are. This controls it based on how active we are and how much we eat. We don’t need to count calories to get the right amount of food. All we need to do is eat regular, normal portions and follow the body’s own feelings of hunger and satiety. When training, it is also important to eat a little extra in connection with the training session. Instead of spending energy on weighing food, I would rather advise you to listen to your body’s own signals about hunger and satiety, and focus on eating meals with healthy and nutritious food. Here are some tips for a healthy and balanced diet. Regards, Julie Clinical nutritionist Julie Sørbø Helliesen is a clinical nutritionist and regularly answers questions from children and young people at Ung.no. Photo: Rune Helliesen / Rune Helliesen “Should 13-year-olds build muscles?” As a 13-year-old, the body is still growing and developing, and then you will get a natural increase in muscle mass. At this age, the goal should not be to build muscles, but to focus on the correct technique during training and to train or engage in a physical activity that you enjoy. There is no conclusion on how much a 13-year-old should exercise, but in order to have good health it is recommended that young people are in motion for at least one hour every day, and that you should exercise in such a way that you become tired at least three times in the week. Train, have fun and find activities you enjoy! And I advise you not to focus so much on muscle growth and body shape. Greetings Kaja “What did you think of steroids and what are the good and bad sides of it ??” Anabolic steroids are artificially produced testosterone (the male sex hormone), and have effects that, among other things, give more muscle mass and reduce the amount of fat. The body can also withstand more training when using steroids. Steroids are very effective, but they can cause quite a few serious and nasty side effects. Among other things, this can lead to you becoming shorter in height than you should have been genetically. There is an increased risk of heart problems and tearing of tendons. Also, many people get pimples. Men often have a lighter voice, develop breasts and the testicles shrink. Steroid use can also lead to, among other things, depression, aggressiveness, lack of energy and anxiety. It is illegal to use steroids. In addition, it can therefore simply be dangerous to use, and it can have lasting consequences for life. Therefore, we do not recommend anyone to use this. Greetings Kaja “What do you think is good for a 13-year-old to lift in the bench press?” How much a 13-year-old lifts in the bench press varies greatly from person to person. There are no statistics on this, because then we would have to have tested everyone at regular intervals on that particular exercise. Therefore, there is no definitive answer to your question, but it is very different! A 13-year-old boy who has reached puberty, for example, is often stronger than one who has not yet reached puberty. How strong you are also depends on your genes, how much you exercise and what you eat. Remember that the wisest thing is to compare yourself with yourself and follow your own progress rather than comparing yourself to others. It is also not so important how much you lift in the bench press, but that you train variedly and the whole body. Greetings Kaja “Should I eat before or after I exercise to build muscle? And how much water should I drink during the day?” It depends somewhat on what you are going to train, how early you are going to train, how long you are going to train and what you yourself feel comfortable with. If you train later in the day, it is important that you have eaten a meal a few hours beforehand, so that you have energy to complete the session. After training, it is important to replenish with nutrition, regardless of what time of day you train. If it is a long time until the next meal, a snack such as fruit, yoghurt, muesli, energy bar etc. will be useful. It is recommended to drink around 1.5 liters of fluid every day, but the need varies a lot with age, temperature and how active you are. I would recommend that you primarily drink water when you are thirsty, but the recommendation also applies to other drinks, such as milk, juice, juice or smoothies. Greetings Julie “I was wondering if there is any point in starting with creatine and pwo when I am 13 years old?” In general, we would not recommend a 13-year-old to take supplements such as creatine and pre-workout (pwo). Remember that you are at an age where your body develops a lot and that you will naturally gain more muscle mass during puberty. Then artificial supplements such as creatine are not necessary. It is more important that you exercise regularly. If you do this in addition to eating enough, healthy and nutritious food, the use of supplements will be completely unnecessary and just an extra expense for your wallet. Creatine is found naturally in foods such as meat, eggs, fish and poultry. Some also experience side effects when using creatine supplements. As for pwo, this is a dietary supplement that mainly contains caffeine, something you should also be careful with. Greetings Julie “Can you take too much creatine?” You should never take more than what is stated as the recommended dosage on the package (or recommendation from a doctor) – regardless of which dietary supplement you use. If you take more than the recommended dose of creatine, the body will not be able to use the extra supplement either. Today’s research shows that approximately 30 percent of those who use creatine do not get any effect. In other words, it’s redundant and you’re wasting supplements for nothing. No side effects have been confirmed with creatine supplementation as long as you follow the user instructions in the package insert, but long-term effects/long-term side effects have not yet been researched enough to rule out possible harmful effects. There is no need to consider such products when you are young and training strength, since you still have a lot to go on when it comes to natural muscle growth during puberty, lifting and training techniques, variety in training programs and the natural diet. Regards, Julie “Can you take more days off from training in the summer holidays if you are 14 years old” Yes, during the summer holidays it is perfectly fine to have a little less training. How much you can take off training depends on several factors, such as your starting point and the goal of your training. But if you exercise often as usual, the holidays can be a great time to slow down a bit and give your body a break. Even if you exercise less, it’s a good idea to be a little active every day, it’s healthy for your mind and body. For example, you can go for walks, swim, play frisbee, do water sports, play volleyball or do other activities you like. Being active in other ways than normal is also exercise, and it will help to keep you in shape. The most important thing is that you have a nice summer where you enjoy yourself and do activities you have fun with. Then you may be even more motivated to the usual routines and training again after the holiday. Greetings Kaja “I am 14 years old. How can I gain weight/bulk in a healthy way and have a low body fat percentage?” In order to build muscle, it is important to eat enough food. The diet should be healthy and varied to get the building blocks needed. In addition to eating enough healthy food in general, it is important to get enough protein every day. You can find proteins in chicken, meat, fish, legumes (beans, peas, lentils), eggs and dairy products. It may be a good idea to include some of these foods in all the meals you eat and otherwise make sure that you eat both healthy and varied food. Completely normal food is more than good enough, and there is no need for protein powder. The principle for losing fat is that you must be in an energy deficit, i.e. eat less energy than you burn. At the same time, in order to build muscle, you must take in enough energy for the body to go into an energy surplus. These are two opposite processes. If you want to be able to achieve both at the same time, it is important that you are approximately in energy balance (i.e. consume at least the same amount of energy as you consume). By combining strength training and cardio training and at the same time taking care to eat enough healthy and varied food, you will be able to reach your goals. Having said that, you should not focus on building muscle when you are 14 years old. The body is developing and naturally gains more muscle during puberty. Greetings Julie Do you need someone to talk to about training and body pressure? You can then contact Antidoping Norway anonymously online or by phone with the call service.
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Norwegian children ask muscle influencers on TikTok for advice – news Oslo og Viken – Local news, TV and radio
