My son is 15½ years old and started to do an awful lot of calisthenics training for a year+ now. He is extremely dedicated to the exercises, extremely stubborn, and is looking at studying sports (this is in France).
During this summer he is training about 5-6 hours a day, doing something like 500 push-ups, 500 pull-ups, and many hundred other things with 30 kg of weight (worn through some jackets that look like protections against bullets). he also:
- uses a bar to do the exercises and does not go to a gym - when at home he goes to an outdoor kind of mini-gym with bars.
- runs quite a bit too (about 10 km every few days).
- eats some wheat and besides this eats a lot of proper food.
- keeps a rhythm of 2 days of training, and 1 day of rest.
His physique is impressive (he weights 80kg without any visible trace of fat anywhere) and it came to a point where I have to help him to make sure he does not impact his health long term.
The major problem is that he does not want to listen - he is more into following several youtube trainers and this is the place he learns about how to do things "properly". Not really the kind of source I would trust most.
My initial plan was to get him a coach (even for a few hours) so that they check if he is doing fine, but that is very difficult because, well, he is a teenager and the words of wisdom from his failed father do not reach him (I am slightly joking here to reassure myself).
I have three main questions:
A) from the description above, how would you rate the risk he is taking (on a scale from 1 to 6). The kind of advice I am looking for here is from grown-up people who exercise in a rational way and have some experience. This is to initially rate the urgency of taking this under control (or not). This is really a rough estimation - for someone who has done sports but never with this intensity
B) should I seek advice from a doctor, and if so, what are the questions I should ask?
C) should I seek advice from a coach, and if so what could be some arguments (specific to sport) I can use that could get into a head of a 15½ yo.
Some context: we have a "tense" relationship - but only in the context of a rather rebellious teenager and his parents who are not up to the game. From past experience, I hope this will pass in a few years when he matures (which, slightly, is happening). He tells me a lot about his exercises, sends me videos, etc. Also, all other father-son topics are liberal. This is to say that as of now, I need to have good arguments, not necessarily the kind of rational ones bit rather ones strictly oriented towards sport (this is also the reason I posted my question here and not on SE Parenting)
