Boys Would Do Well to Follow Jake’s Advice

Attention fathers of teenage boys: If your son is moping around the house, watching too much “Jerry Springer,” eating too much junk food and complaining about Britney Spears not returning e-mails, here’s what you do:

Go to a book store, put down $12 and purchase “Get Strong” by Jake Steinfeld of Body by Jake fame. It’s coming out Jan. 8, and it should be a helpful guide for teenagers struggling through adolescence.

Using simple terminology, Steinfeld tells the story of how he transformed himself from an overweight, stuttering 14-year-old into a fitness motivator whose products and brands are recognized by millions.

“My best friend was pizza pie,” he said of his teenage years.

Then he discovered some old weights in his basement.

“I didn’t like who I was,” he said. “I couldn’t put three words together. I had a goofy-looking Afro. At the end of the day, when I started lifting those weights, it changed my life.”

Muscles gave him self-confidence.

“You will change your life,” he said. “When it’s you versus those weights, if you can beat the weights, you can beat anything.”

Steinfeld has backed up his fitness success by organizing a nonprofit foundation that creates fitness centers in middle schools and high schools across the nation.

More than 20 Don’t Quit Fitness Centers have opened, and the newest will be unveiled Wednesday during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Sun Valley Middle School in the San Fernando Valley.

The foundation seeks individual and corporate donors to sponsor the centers, which are equipped with state-of-the-art fitness gear.

Sun Valley Middle School, with a student body of 3,000, has seen its rarely used weight room with aging equipment turned into a modern fitness facility that students are eager to use. It’s stocked with new treadmills, free weights and weight machines.

“It’s generated quite a bit of excitement,” Principal Manuel Rangell said. “Our kids don’t have access to this kind of facility. Now it’s going to be used every day.”

In 1999, Maclay Middle School in Pacoima received one of the new centers and put together a mandatory six-week fitness program for all students that teaches them how to improve upper-and lower-body strength.

“We’re getting them ready to live a healthy life,” said Greg Willacker, chairman of Maclay’s physical education department.

Athletes know the importance of staying fit. It’s the rest of the population--even sportswriters--who could use a few more sit-ups and fewer doughnuts.

“It’s about feeling better about yourself and taking control of your life,” Steinfeld said.

Steinfeld puts his reputation and influence on the line with his disdain for anabolic steroids. It’s a positive, powerful message that teenage boys need to hear.

“In the mad search for more muscle and athletic power, many guys are guilty of using a lot more than good nutrition,” he writes. “Performance-enhancing drug abuse is widespread in bodybuilding and in many other sports.

“But it’s a very dangerous and destructive route, not only because it constitutes cheating and is banned by every major sport [except for bodybuilding], but also wrecks your goals and your body.”

It’s inexcusable for an adult with knowledge or suspicion of a teenage athlete using steroids to look the other way. Steroid use by even one player can expose an entire high school program to ridicule.

“Perhaps you envy the monsters in the muscle magazines,” Steinfeld writes, “but you should know that these guys have paid the ultimate price for their bloated physiques: They’ve compromised their health.”

Steinfeld makes it clear what the reward is for gaining strength and confidence the old-fashioned way.

“Once you’re able to bench press 235 pounds by yourself, think of all the other things you can accomplish--from pancaking a defender on the field to acing your Spanish test and getting into your dream college,” he said.

OK, so he’s not promising a date with Britney Spears if you follow his advice.

But he’s guaranteeing the next time you look in a mirror, you’ll feel good about yourself.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.