I tried searching but no help

So im temporarily helping out my schools jv football team in weight training.

A question im always being asked is , "how do I stop from getting stretch marks" my response is always " stop acting like a girl and keep working out".

I stopped telling them that though because in the long run they started taking it easy in their eating and weight lifting habits.

So any advice on what to tell my boys? I've heard that running before you lift weighTs can help ,but I doubt that works.

Most importantly, you have to stretch and warm up before each work out. And by that we don't mean swinging your arms for 20 seconds and jumping on one place. Most common place for having stretch marks from working out is where your shoulder meets chest (near armpits). So knowing that, try to stretch and warm up that part more.

You can also buy some kind of body lotion based on Vitamin E or containing it and massage it into your hands and chest and maybe muscles you target the most. Vitamin E softens your skin and makes it more flexible, so you have less chance of damaging it while lifting weights.

You might get one of the lotions they sell for pregnant women (Cocoa butter), that lotion prevents a woman from getting stretch marks on her stomach during pregnancy, since it softens the skin ( i know for some boys it may seem a bit girly but it does work). I am not sure if it has any Vitamin E in it, but chances are that it does have it there. Any way, it might help you to avoid stretch marks, even though warming up and stretching is still the best way to avoid stretch marks.