I'm 15, girl, should I do body weight exercises?

Yeah, a 15 year old girl can absolutely start lifting real weights. I'd recommend starting with bodyweight and working up to legit weights before too long.

Yes the benefits are great for starting early with body weight exercises. I think the question is if you have a supervisor/trainer or somebody else who is knowledgeable?

NOW is the time to push calcium into your bones. Get plenty of exercise and eat a LOT of vitamin K2, D and other supporting nutrients. I didn't start until 25, and I do wish I'd had that extra decade to build by body right.

You should totally start body weight and lifting weights in your teens! It will strengthen your bones, improve your posture, make you more confident in your appearance and by having long term good quality muscles from your teens, through your 20s and beyond make you look better even if you do put on a few extra kilos at times. I've found as I've gotten older even if I have had periods of not training I maintain a toned looking physique.

You don't need to be a body builder and look like a bloke to have sleek, toned and strong feminine muscles from body weight training and weights.

have you started menstruating? If so, I hate to break it to you, but you're probably done (or an inch or two away from done) growing taller.

I lifted weights and did body-weight exercises throughout high school (so... 13-17, I have a late birthday), and did gymnastics from age 14-20, including coaching lots of kids (which always included body-weight conditioning as well as apparatus activities)... anything where you lift, push, pull your own weight should be fine as long as you're not maniacal about it (google "exercise bulimia"), weights you need to be a little more careful about, but at 15, you should be fine with those too.

[QUOTE=PrimalMama;1016373]have you started menstruating? If so, I hate to break it to you, but you're probably done (or an inch or two away from done) growing taller.

I lifted weights and did body-weight exercises throughout high school (so... 13-17, I have a late birthday), and did gymnastics from age 14-20, including coaching lots of kids (which always included body-weight conditioning as well as apparatus activities)... anything where you lift, push, pull your own weight should be fine as long as you're not maniacal about it (google "exercise bulimia"), weights you need to be a little more careful about, but at 15, you should be fine with those too.[/QUOTE]

Not always. I grew six inches between 15 and 18, after starting menstruation at 14. Most girls slow down after, but some of us still grow quite a bit into our later teens. I'd resigned myself to being short and was quite astonished to grow more.

The most recent research I've read shows that resistance training (including lifting weights) does not generally impact growth and can have multiple benefits for teens, so I would not be concerned about that particularly past the early stages of puberty. A couple of review articles:

[url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17119361]Weight training in youth-growth, maturation... [Clin J Sport Med. 2006] - PubMed - NCBI[/url]
[url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19620931]Youth resistance training: updated posit... [J Strength Cond Res. 2009] - PubMed - NCBI[/url]
[url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19945973]Resistance training among young athletes: sa... [Br J Sports Med. 2010] - PubMed - NCBI[/url]

[QUOTE=Owly;1016390]Not always. I grew six inches between 15 and 18, after starting menstruation at 14. Most girls slow down after, but some of us still grow quite a bit into our later teens. I'd resigned myself to being short and was quite astonished to grow more.[/QUOTE]
dang you outliers! (I was done growing upwards at age 11) :-D

[QUOTE=Goosejuggler;1015962]And what is wrong with being short, huh?[/QUOTE]

It majorly sucks :D. (Sorry couldn't resist... I'm super short so yeah...)

Anyhoo... As far as I'm aware bodyweight exercises are excellent, no matter how tall or short you are! However, I have heard that lifting heavy weights can cause growth stunting in teens and therefore should be avoided (not sure how heavy we are talking though...). It's been awhile since I heard about it, but I've always been aware of it (being a shorty and all) and I certainly would discourage my short teenage son from lifting heavy as a result ;). BUT at the same time I think doing plenty of bodyweight exercises is not a problem AT ALL!!

[QUOTE=Iron Fireling;1016531]It majorly sucks :D. (Sorry couldn't resist... I'm super short so yeah...)

Anyhoo... As far as I'm aware bodyweight exercises are excellent, no matter how tall or short you are! However, I have heard that lifting heavy weights can cause growth stunting in teens and therefore should be avoided (not sure how heavy we are talking though...). It's been awhile since I heard about it, but I've always been aware of it (being a shorty and all) and I certainly would discourage my short teenage son from lifting heavy as a result ;). BUT at the same time I think doing plenty of bodyweight exercises is not a problem AT ALL!![/QUOTE]

Lifting doesn't stunt growth, especially in a 15 year old girl. If she wants to get strong, especially for sports, she should lift weights or do intense bodyweight exercises.

[QUOTE=Iron Fireling;1016531]It majorly sucks :D. (Sorry couldn't resist... I'm super short so yeah...)

Anyhoo... As far as I'm aware bodyweight exercises are excellent, no matter how tall or short you are! However, I have heard that lifting heavy weights can cause growth stunting in teens and therefore should be avoided (not sure how heavy we are talking though...). It's been awhile since I heard about it, but I've always been aware of it (being a shorty and all) and I certainly would discourage my short teenage son from lifting heavy as a result ;). BUT at the same time I think doing plenty of bodyweight exercises is not a problem AT ALL!![/QUOTE]

Please have a look at the articles I linked above. The idea that lifting weights stunts growth is really a myth.