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Optimizing Muscle Growth for Teenage Athletes

Updated: Dec 1


Welcome to Dawn Weatherwax's Sports Nutrition Academy!


If you're a young athlete striving to optimize your muscle growth or a parent of one, this blog is for you. Many young athletes put in a lot of effort, but a few know how to do it effectively. Training hard does not always equal maximum outcomes. Eating more and working out harder is not enough to reach adolescent potential. To achieve a competitive advantage, it's vital to know how much, what, and when to eat and drink.


Achieving Optimal Results

It's important to understand that just eating will waste time. For instance, an athlete started ideal nutrition as a freshman and gained over 55lb of lean weight! So, what is the average amount of lean weight a teenage athlete can gain per week? For females, it's approximately



1/4-1/2 lb of lean weight per week, for males, it's approximately 1/2-1 lb. This highlights the importance of muscle in all sports, regardless of gender.




Muscle Gain Takes Time and Effort

Gaining muscle takes hard work and time, while just gaining weight does not. Note that

optimal nutrition, training, and sleep must be maintained simultaneously to achieve these gains. It's important to understand that lost time cannot be made up. Once a day, month, or year is gone, so is the opportunity to gain lean weight. However, with proper nutrition and training, significant gains can be made. For


example, a freshman athlete gained 20lb of lean weight each year. He went from 150lb to 205lb, and became leaner and faster along the way. Now, he's playing in college. Each year builds onto another, and your dreams can come true!





Tracking Progress and Making Adjustments

Tracking body composition every 4-8 weeks is crucial to monitor progress and make necessary adjustments to nutrition and training based on outcomes. If your school, team, or organization is part of Dawn Weatherwax's Sports Nutrition Academy, you have access to the Gain Weight Get Leaner program to assist in optimal lean weight gain.



Cryo Therapy on Muscle Building
Good or bad

Cryotherapy, often referred to as "cryo," involves exposing the body to extremely cold temperatures for a short period. It's popular for its potential benefits, such as reducing inflammation, alleviating muscle soreness, and speeding up recovery after exercise. However, it's not recommended for muscle building. In fact it slows down muscle synthesis. Please refer to research article for more information: Fuchs CJ, Kouw IWK, Churchward-Venne TA, Smeets JSJ, Senden JM, Lichtenbelt WDVM, Verdijk LB, van Loon LJC. Postexercise cooling impairs muscle protein synthesis rates in recreational athletes. J Physiol. 2020 Feb;598(4):755-772.


Part of the Academy

Some of the teams, clubs and organizations that are part of the Academy include Beechwood Middleschool XC and Track, Bradshaw Mountain High School Athletics, Cincinnati Country Day School, Dayton Classics Baseball Club, Elder High School Athletics, and many more.



Protein Intake and Muscle Growth

Protein is an essential macronutrient that our body needs to build and repair tissues. Leucine, an important amino acid, plays a significant role in muscle protein synthesis. Foods high in protein and leucine include chicken breast, tuna, Greek yogurt, lentils, and eggs.




Nutritional Supplements

As a responsible parent, securing your child's nutritional needs is a top priority. If you're considering incorporating supplements to aid your young athlete in building muscle and attaining a leaner physique, it's vital to have accurate and comprehensive information. This includes information about protein powders, creatine, caffeine & pre-workout, and mixed macro-nutrients & post recovery.


Muscle Building Course

In the Gain Weight, Get Leaner course, parents and athletes will be able to know how much, what & when to eat, to gain the right weight, take out the guess work, save precious time, maximize every training, optimize growth, stay healthy, build healthy habits, avoid plateaus, and maximize recruiting opportunities at every level.


Thank you for reading and remember, now is the time to optimize growth, academics, and gaining lean weight. Don't let the clock run out on this opportunity! Visit



Introducing Dawn Weatherwax's Sports Nutrition Academy

Achieving Optimal Results

Muscle Gain Takes Time and Effort

Tracking Progress and Making Adjustments
Part of the Academy





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