Pressure for perfection: Are teenage boys risking their health when building muscle?

Influenced by social media and sports stars, teen boys are loading up on protein and piling on the weights. Are they in danger of putting their health at risk?

Are teenage boys and young men exercising too much in the sheer amount of training and gym work they do, sometimes just to look good?

Colin Lane saw a range of injuries in his 18 years as a physio for the Cork senior footballers. But, recently, there was “an outlier”: A client in his mid-20s going for hip-replacement surgery due to wear and tear.

That injury says something about the physical pressure that some young athletes place on themselves. He has another example: The strenuous bodybuilding that some teenage boys take on.