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#136 - Tips For A Muscular Back, Fast Food Options For Fat Loss & More
27 Plays15 days ago
Q&A episode diving into the common questions around diet, exercise, and anything health-related. In this episode, you'll learn
- How to get rid of excessive late-night snacking
- Best tips for building a strong and muscular back
- Fat loss fast food options when you're on the go
- 3 options when you hit a weight loss plateau
- Best ways to prevent muscle loss when mixing cardio and strength training
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Transcript
Introduction & Listener Engagement
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. We have the weekly episode coming at you. It is time for another Q&A episode. So questions that I get from you guys, questions that I get on social media, questions that I get from clients that I think would be helpful to dive into a little bit deeper. And so we have six questions on the list today. Before I get into these questions, as always, if you can leave a review.
00:00:32
Speaker
continue to get this out to people who need this information. I greatly appreciate that.
Protein Intake Essentials
00:00:36
Speaker
But the topics that I'm going to cover today, we got a question about protein and the importance of breaking up your protein into smaller windows.
00:00:47
Speaker
We have a question about how to mix in cardio without losing a bunch of muscle. We have a question about what to do when the scale has been stuck for multiple weeks and how to get through those plateaus.
00:01:00
Speaker
a question about how to curb that late night binge eating, and ah couple other questions that we will also get into. So diving right into this, question number one, I know protein is important, but how important is it to split it up across meals?
00:01:16
Speaker
And is there a limit to how much protein your body can handle at one time? This is a great question. So the basic answer to this is Total protein, so the amount of protein that you are eating in a single day is by far the most important thing. So whether or not you get that from a couple meals or whether or not you split that into a bunch of little tiny meals spread across the day, total protein is going to be the most important thing by far. So if you are getting the amount of protein that you need within your day, that is the biggest box that you want to be checking. And you are going to get most of the benefits of eating a high protein diet from doing that one simple thing.
00:01:57
Speaker
It does give you some slight benefits by breaking it into smaller meals throughout the day. And I'll get into some practical reasons as to why that is. But for the most part, if you are hitting that total number, you are in good shape. And it's honestly something that I don't even really think about too much. I don't really care about spreading my protein out evenly throughout the day, although that ends up being what I do because from a practical sense, it's just the easiest way to do it.
00:02:21
Speaker
But I don't stress it if for whatever reason I have to miss a meal and I end up doubling protein at another meal, it's not that big of a deal to me. And so when it comes to total protein, you want to be getting at least 0.7 grams per pound of body weight to get most of those benefits that you get from eating a high protein diet. So if you weigh 200 pounds, 0.7 grams per pound of body weight comes out to about 140 grams of protein.
00:02:48
Speaker
You'll hear one gram per pound of body weight thrown around a lot, which is also fine. But a lot of the research says that if you are just hitting that 0.7, that you are getting a very large amount of the benefit. And it's honestly something that I've started to shift on a little bit. I've always been around that one gram per pound of body weight number.
00:03:07
Speaker
But I've started eating a little bit less closer to that 0.7. And that's just been because I've been eating more carbs in my diet. And to eat that much protein and get all the carbs to support all the activity that I've been doing more recently is more difficult. It's just a lot of food. And so I'm striving to hit that 0.7 grams per day. As long as you're hitting that 0.7 grams per day, you are getting a ton of those benefits. If you're a little bit below that, you're still getting some benefits.
00:03:31
Speaker
But if you really want to maximize those benefits, try to aim for at least that 0.7 grams. So now that you know hitting that total number, if you're hitting that, you're in good shape. Breaking it down a little bit further, if you do split it into several meals throughout the day a little bit more evenly, you are going to get a slight benefit.
00:03:50
Speaker
But as I said, unless you're a bodybuilder or like you're really just trying to milk every little ounce of muscle building benefit from eating a high protein diet, then it's not something that I worry about too much.
00:04:04
Speaker
From a practical sense, though, it does make sense to break down your protein into smaller meals. Because if you're trying to get 150 grams of protein from two different meals, 75 grams of protein at a meal is a lot of protein depending on that protein source. So like if you're eating an animal protein, so you're eating like eggs or eating beef or you're eating chicken,
00:04:26
Speaker
75 grams can be quite a bit for a lot of people to eat in one sitting. And so spreading that out so those portions are smaller is easier because lots of protein is more difficult to eat, which is another reason why you hear so many people talking about high protein diets, because when you're eating lots of protein, it's just hard to overeat protein. And it's a lot, it's a lot of food and you're not going to be as full when you're eating that much protein. and And From a practical sense, especially if you're somebody who just doesn't eat a ton and you're really struggling to hit that number by breaking that down, breaking your protein down into at least three meals, maybe four meals per day or maybe three meals and a couple of snacks, it's going to be easier to actually hit that protein number.
00:05:09
Speaker
When I think about being able to hit that number and just breaking down the protein, I just think about if I'm eating three meals per day and I need to get, let's say, 120 grams of protein, I'm just going to take those three meals, divide 120 by that, and that gives you 40 grams of protein that I need to be shooting for at each meal. It's just a really simple way to break it down.
00:05:28
Speaker
And so that you know, breakfast, lunch, dinner, I'm striving to hit at least 40 grams of protein within that meal. And I know that if I do that, then I'm going to be in good shape. You can also start to incorporate snacks into that as well. So if you eat, let's say three meals, but you also have a snack throughout the day that's high protein, well now you can take that 120 grams and divide that by four.
00:05:50
Speaker
So now you're at 30 grams of protein per meal or per snack. And so that makes a little bit easier to get that protein in as well. For most people, just a general rule is to be aiming for at least 30 grams at a meal. But if you're a bigger person or if you have higher protein needs, you might be closer to that 40 or 50 grams per meal. So Somewhere in that 30 to 50 grams per meal, if you're hitting that at each meal that you're having throughout the day, you're going to be in good shape.
00:06:18
Speaker
The second part of this question, is there a limit to how much your body can handle? So this is another really good question because for a really long time, it was said that your body could only handle and process around 30 to 35, 40 grams of protein and the rest was just a waste.
00:06:35
Speaker
We know now through a lot of science that that is not true. Your body does not just waste that protein. All the protein that you eat is getting used by your body. But what does happen is what's called muscle protein synthesis, which is a vital part of actually building muscle.
00:06:50
Speaker
it tops out after a certain number. So somewhere around like 30-ish to 40-ish grams of high quality protein, this muscle protein synthesis will top out. And so if you're having 50, 60, 70 more grams of protein, you're not getting an extra benefit from that. So just because you eat twice as much protein in one sitting,
00:07:09
Speaker
it's not like you're boosting up your muscle protein synthesis way higher and so that's why people thought that it was a waste but it's not if you're hitting that total number if you're eating more protein than that 30 to 40 grams in one sitting you're still getting benefits from that you're just not getting a bunch of extra benefit from that that is why people will tend to split their protein meals up throughout the day because Your protein, your muscle protein synthesis will go up and down, up and down. So as you have more feedings throughout the day, you're helping to keep that muscle protein synthesis boosted more often throughout the day to help you build a little bit more muscle. But again, it's so minuscule that unless you are ah bodybuilder or you're just really obsessed with just getting
00:07:56
Speaker
the maximum amount of muscle out of your training and out of eating a high protein diet. It's not something that I freak out over or really stress over too much. Just try to get protein at every single meal.
00:08:08
Speaker
And as long as you're doing that and hitting your total protein targets, you're going to be in good shape.
Incorporating Cardio without Muscle Loss
00:08:13
Speaker
Question number two, I want to start adding in more cardio, but I don't want to lose any muscle I've worked so hard to build.
00:08:19
Speaker
Any tips about this? This is another really good question because for a really long time, it was thought that cardio kills gains. And I was one of those people who also thought that like cardio kills gains because when you look at people who are into cardio heavy things like long endurance type things you often see a certain type of build and so like if you look at like marathon runners or people who do really long endurance type of events these aren't people who have tons of muscle mass they're oftentimes typically pretty lean but they don't have lots of muscle mass and so people associate doing lots and lots of cardio with having less muscle and it's true that in those instances
00:08:57
Speaker
where you're doing a ton of cardio, like those, like marathoners are running sometimes 60, 70, 80, 100 plus miles in a week, it's very hard to put on tons of muscle. And it's also not conducive to their sport to have tons of extra muscle mass on their frame.
00:09:12
Speaker
And so they don't have a lot of muscle. But what you have to understand that for the average person who's maybe doing cardio like two, three times a week, maybe 20, 30 minutes at a time, you are not doing nearly enough cardio to hurt your gains in that type of way.
00:09:27
Speaker
And so for the average person, like if you're getting a little bit of cardio in, you're biking, you're running, you're swimming, you're rowing, you're doing some of this stuff, you're not going to have to worry about losing a bunch of muscle mass, especially if you do some certain things, if you make sure that you cover your bases just as far as things that are going to help to prevent muscle loss. So the first and most important thing that you need to do is just continue to strength train.
00:09:50
Speaker
if you're already strength training and you built a lot of muscle then you just need to continue to do that and you want to make sure that you are training hard and intensely because you want to give your body a reason to hold on to that muscle especially as you start to introduce more cardio your body wants to get a little bit lighter and make you better at that cardio which as i said having tons of muscle isn't super helpful for that but for the average person who's not like super built and crazy muscular and like bodybuilder big It's not like you're going to be just be dropping pounds of muscle off because you probably don't have crazy amounts of muscle to begin with. So as long as you're strength training and just continuing to train hard, that is going to be the most important thing.
00:10:31
Speaker
Along with that, as we know, with strength training, we want to make sure that we're eating enough protein so that we are holding on to as much muscle as possible. Another thing is just making sure that you are balancing recovery and focusing on sleep, making sure that you recover so your body isn't breaking itself down. If you're adding in more activity, you're adding in more cardio.
00:10:50
Speaker
That's just another stressor on your body. It's a good stressor, but if you're not recovering, if you're not sleeping, then it can have breakdown effects on your body, which can lead to you losing some muscle mass. So just making sure that you are recovering properly and just prioritizing sleep.
00:11:06
Speaker
When it comes to the practical side of actually starting to mix cardio with strength training, there's some things that you can do to help yourself out because there is a lot of studies around concurrent training, which is basically just doing two different types of training at the same time. So focusing on like strength and hypertrophy or building muscle and doing cardio, there's lots of studies on that doing those things at the same time.
00:11:29
Speaker
And there is a little bit of an effect with those two things. But if you do those things that I just said, along with having a good plan about how to balance those two things, you don't really have to worry about it to the extent where you're like, you're losing a bunch of muscle where you're not able to get the results that you want to get. And so when it comes to mixing those two things with strength and cardio.
00:11:49
Speaker
The simplest thing that you can do is just do them on alternate days. So maybe you lift on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then you do cardio on Tuesday and Thursday. If you're not going to be doing them on separate days and maybe that doesn't work out for your schedule or maybe you just want to do them in the same day, then you could do them at separate times if that works out for your schedule. So maybe you do cardio in the morning and then you lift in the afternoon.
00:12:13
Speaker
Again, I understand that this is not practical for everybody's schedule. Not everybody is going to be able to have chances to get two exercise sessions in a day. So if you do have to do them together, then do your strength stuff first and then do your cardio after.
00:12:28
Speaker
It's not going to be the end of the world if you do it the other way around. But if you really want to maximize your muscle mass, then make sure that you are doing your strength stuff first. If cardio was your prime thing that you were focused on, like that was your main focus, then maybe it would make more sense to do your cardio first and put more effort and focus into that.
00:12:48
Speaker
Before a majority of people who are just trying to add a little bit of cardio and get some of those benefits and just see a little bit better results from a longevity standpoint, you're going to benefit from doing your strength training stuff first and then following that up with cardio stuff after that.
00:13:04
Speaker
when it comes to your types of cardio running is probably going to be the harshest on the body it's just more demanding it's more taxing it's just takes more out of you than some other types of cardio so things like biking rowing swimming elliptical things that are just less impact on your body are not going to have the same type of effect as something like running but again that doesn't mean that running is bad for you or you're going to lose a bunch of muscle mass or anything like that so the big takeaway is that like for the average person you don't have to worry about losing a bunch of muscle as long as you are using some of those tips with recovering well sleeping well eating enough protein prioritizing strength training if you're doing those things you're not going to be losing a bunch of muscle so to give you a better example of this too i've currently been running 30 to 35 miles a week which is roughly five hours of running i'm still lifting hard but i'm having to prioritize recovery a little bit more having to eat carbs a little bit more and so
00:14:00
Speaker
By focusing on those things, I'm not really worried about losing a bunch of muscle because I know that as long as I'm keeping those things up, I'm not going to be losing a bunch of noticeable muscle. If you're doing that much cardio, you may have to be a little bit more cognizant of adding in more fuel, more carbs, sleeping a little bit more, things like that. But I know for the average person, like just for the person who's trying to get in a little bit more cardio, five hours is probably a lot more than what that person is going to be doing. So if you're just getting in an hour, maybe two hours, maybe three hours of cardio in the entire week, and you're prioritizing some of those tips, you're going to be just fine.
Overcoming Weight Loss Plateaus
00:14:37
Speaker
Question number three, I'm trying to lose weight and the scale has been stuck for three weeks with no change. I feel like I've been pretty consistent, so it's frustrating and I'm wondering what I should do next.
00:14:48
Speaker
Very, very common situation. i think most people, especially who are trying to lose weight and who have a decent amount of weight to lose, will hit a plateau at some time or another. It's just natural. It's what happens.
00:15:00
Speaker
Your body starts to adapt. Things start to slow down a little bit. You hit plateaus. It's part of the gig. So not something to get too frustrated about because it is normal. It is expected. The first thing that I would say is understanding that Feeling like you're doing well and knowing that you are actually hitting your targets and hitting your numbers are two different things.
00:15:20
Speaker
And the reason that I say this is because a lot of people feel like they are doing the things that they need to do to lose weight. But unless you have the numbers to back that up, you're essentially just playing a guessing game.
00:15:31
Speaker
You don't know how many calories you're taking in. You don't know how many steps you're getting in. If you don't know how many hours you're working out per week, it's hard to actually make decisions. tangible, practical solutions for these things because you don't really have numbers to go off of.
00:15:45
Speaker
It's like if you were trying to fix your budget or maybe save some money or pay off some debts or things like that, but you don't really know the numbers. You don't know how much you need to be saving. You don't know how much you are paying off or need to pay off for your debt. You don't know how much money you're actually bringing in.
00:16:01
Speaker
It's very hard to make a plan for that if you don't have the numbers. And so the first thing I would say is make sure that you're tracking and so that you can look at the numbers. And then once you have the numbers, then you can make the proper adjustments that you need to make. because More often than not, when people say they feel like they're doing all the right things, but they're not actually seeing the progress they want to see, they're eating too much, they're taking in too many calories, and you can still take in too many calories, even if you're making really healthy choices most of the time.
00:16:29
Speaker
Even if you feel like you're not overeating, you can easily still be taking in too many calories. I've seen it dozens and dozens of times. I've talked about it many of times that we are very bad at estimating how much food and how many calories we are taking in.
00:16:43
Speaker
And if you are trying to lose weight and you're struggling and you're hitting plateaus, it's a smart move to track those things so that you can actually make the adjustments needed. So let's say, though, that you are tracking, and you have the numbers and you have actually hit a plateau. What do you do next?
00:16:58
Speaker
So there's a couple ways that you can go with this. The first thing that you could do is add a little bit of activity so that you can burn some excess calories and hopefully see that scale drop and break through that plateau. So you could do this by adding more steps in your day.
00:17:12
Speaker
Maybe right now you're averaging around 8,000 steps and you want boost that up to 10,000 or 12,000 per day so that you are burning some extra calories. you could also add in some extra exercise so people will oftentimes add in some cardio sessions so maybe that's like 30 minutes on the bike 30 minutes of incline walking 30 minutes of rowing something like that you could add that in couple times a week the other thing that you can do is obviously look at the other side of the equation so the food side of the equation you could reduce your calories if you are already
00:17:44
Speaker
eating low calories or you're already doing a lot of exercise and you're still not seeing things budge, this might be a time where it is time to take a diet break. So if those two things aren't going to help you and they're only going to hurt you, like you're already struggling to stick to your calories or you feel like you've maxed out at exercise and activity and things like that and you're still at a plateau and it just doesn't feel sustainable, this is going to be a good time where you want to take a diet break.
00:18:12
Speaker
and just reassess see where you're at give yourself a mental break a physical break and then you can come back and hit it hard and see if it's something that you still want to try to continue because as you get closer to your goal one thing that you have to realize is that it is going to get tougher to drop weight because now your margin of error is slimmer than when you started as you start to cut fat as you start to become smaller as you start to get to that goal your body is slowly adapting but you also just don't require as many calories And if you've been dieting for a long time, your body starts to get pretty good at conserving energy and reducing your need. So you're not burning as many calories. You become better at exercise and more efficient at exercise. so You're not burning as many calories doing the things that you used to do.
00:18:55
Speaker
And all that just culminates into this perfect storm of where you're doing a lot of good things. but you're still hitting a plateau and that can be very frustrating. And so taking a step back, giving yourself a little bit of a break to just reassess and see where you're at and then come back and attack those goals.
Curbing Late-Night Binge Eating
00:19:13
Speaker
If that's something that you want to continue to do,
00:19:15
Speaker
Is a smart move and it's something that I think a lot of people overlook and don't utilize enough is just taking a smart diet break and just give yourself a chance to relax for a little bit.
00:19:27
Speaker
Question number, I think this is four. i do pretty well throughout the day with my eating habits, but I get really hungry and go overboard later at night. Any advice to help me in this pattern?
00:19:38
Speaker
This is something that a lot of people fall into is getting into eating patterns like this that aren't very helpful towards their goals. And eating late at night is a very common one. It's something that a lot of people struggle with.
00:19:50
Speaker
I just have a list of things that I would go through if I was talking to you. I would ask you, number one, what does the rest of your day look like? So are you eating breakfast or are you eating lunch? Like, are you eating on a normal schedule?
00:20:02
Speaker
And then with that, like, what are you actually having for breakfast and lunch if you are eating during those times, because a lot of people will skip breakfast or skip lunch, they'll skip meals, and they're not eating very much throughout the day. And then they get to the evening, or they get to dinnertime, and they're just ravenous, like they just want to eat everything. And they feel like they can't actually satisfy that hunger that they have, because they're not eating anything throughout the day. And there's Other studies that I've come across that say people who eat breakfast tend to eat a more balanced diet and eat less later in the day.
00:20:36
Speaker
And this isn't like a one size fits all because there's plenty of people who only eat lunch and dinner and they do perfectly fine. but i think just the idea of just knowing what you're doing in the rest of the day and how that affects you in other parts of the day is an important thing to realize because for some people that it could be as simple as that you don't eat breakfast now and then you switch and you add in a high protein breakfast to start your day and now later at night you're not super hungry it could just be something super simple like that what does breakfast and lunch look like are you actually eating enough food and calories throughout the day
00:21:09
Speaker
The next thing I would ask is, are you eating enough protein and fiber? like Those are two things that a lot of people are lacking. So most people know that they should be eating a higher protein diet, and that's going to help them with reducing hunger.
00:21:20
Speaker
Not everybody still hits that target, but one that a ton of people come up very short in is fiber. It's something, I forget the exact statistic, but it's something like only 5% to 10% of people get the amount of fiber that they need within their day. And for the average person that's around 30 to 40 grams of fiber. And so if only one out of 10 or one out of 20 people are getting enough fiber, fiber is something that helps a ton with reducing hunger and just feeling full and satiated. So something as simple as adding in more fruits and vegetables, adding in some whole grains into your diet throughout the day can help with keeping you more full and satiated so that you don't have that extreme hunger when you get later into the day.
00:22:01
Speaker
And then the other thing that I would ask is, is this actually hunger or is this cravings? Because a lot of times at night, people aren't necessarily hungry. They just start to have some of these cravings. And this could be a lot of things. This could be because you're bored. This could be because maybe you're stressed out during the day and then you get to the evening and you just want to eat something sweet or salty.
00:22:22
Speaker
Maybe you are doing something at night where you feel like you want to eat. So like you sit down and watch Netflix and whenever you sit down and watch Netflix, you always want to eat snacks. And so it could be something that's just like ah behavior. It could be something that has to do with your cravings.
00:22:37
Speaker
And so figure out what the root of this problem is and then just start to address it. And some of those things that I listed there are really good places to start, which is figuring out what does the rest of your day look like? Are you eating the right type of things, getting enough protein, getting enough fiber, getting enough whole foods?
00:22:52
Speaker
Are you eating on a normal routine schedule? And then is this actually hunger or is this cravings?
Eating Healthy on the Go
00:22:57
Speaker
If it's cravings, then there's some other things that you can start to do with just making sure that you're sleeping enough, making sure that you're managing stress, making sure that you're not just using food as something to do and as a distraction versus actually being hungry and using food, what it's meant to be used for.
00:23:14
Speaker
Question number five, i think we've got two questions left. I'm on the road a lot for work and I find it hard to make good choices. Any recommendations on good places to eat and good meals to order?
00:23:26
Speaker
Some really easy places that you can find pretty much anywhere that you're traveling. My go-to is that you're going to be able to just find a lot of high quality type of foods that are going to be more macro friendly.
00:23:37
Speaker
Chick-fil-A is a really good one just because obviously they have tons of different chicken meals and that's typically going to be something that's lowering calorie, higher and protein, things like that. Chipotle is another good one. And then Subway also has some good options as well.
00:23:50
Speaker
Anytime that I am eating out, I try to stick to high protein and high veggies. So I don't want to get something that's going to have a ton of carbs or just a ton of extra calories, a ton of extra sauce and things like that. So I just try to stick with protein and veggies because that's what's going to fill you up. You can still get some good tasting quality items from these places that include those things.
00:24:14
Speaker
And then the other thing that I make sure that I do is that I'm not drinking excess calories. And so sticking to either water or diet, soda, things like that, things that don't have a bunch of calories in them, because it's very easy when you go to fast food places to start taking in a bunch of excess calories that you don't even realize and cutting out liquid calories and then cutting out just other things that come with meals, maybe like sides and things like that, that aren't necessarily going to do a whole lot for your hunger, but are just going to add a bunch of calories. Those are things that I typically try to skip on. And
00:24:46
Speaker
The other thing that I would say is you can always check out the menu ahead of time and just have a couple like go-to orders. So like if you do travel a lot, have a couple go-to places, like maybe it is Subway or Chick-fil-A or Chipotle, and then have one or two orders that you know are going to help you hit the goals that you have, like high protein, lower calorie.
00:25:06
Speaker
Have a couple of orders that you know Immediately when you go into that place or go through that drive through or whatever like this is what I get here i already know the macros I already know this is gonna keep me on track for my goals and that can just be something really easy to do or just check out the menus ahead of time if you're going to a new place and just see what you can get that's going to help keep you in a line with your goals I personally don't eat out a ton. Like I don't eat fast food or things like that a ton. But when I do, I just always stick with something that's like grilled chicken or veggies is going to typically be my go-to just because I know that it's going to be lower calories.
00:25:39
Speaker
It's going to fill me up. going to like it. It's like good tasting stuff. And so having some sort of go-to like that is really helpful. Last question.
Building Back Muscles
00:25:48
Speaker
I'm wanting to build more muscle in my back.
00:25:51
Speaker
Any tips on specific exercise you recommend for this? Anytime that you are trying to bring up a muscle group, something that you want to focus on and really put more emphasis on to bring up, maybe it's a lagging muscle. So maybe you have certain muscles that just aren't as big as other muscles or they just don't grow as well as other muscles and we all have them.
00:26:12
Speaker
Unfortunately, like some people find it really hard to grow their calves. Some people find it really hard to grow their legs. Some people find it really hard to grow their chest or grow their back and so we all have these lagging muscles and so there's some basic tips whenever you have a lagging muscle that you're trying to bring up or really trying to emphasis first thing i would say is to switch from training that only once per week to two or maybe even three times per week if you're only training it once per week you can get some good results from that but if it's a lagging muscle group you're going to want to hit it more than once per week
00:26:45
Speaker
As long as you are spacing that out and so that you have some time to recover in between those days, you can still push it really hard and get a little bit more bang for your buck that way. Because if you're only training once per week, let's say that you're doing 10 sets for one single muscle group in one session, one time per week.
00:27:03
Speaker
By the time you get to like set six, seven, eight, nine, 10, like you're kind of gassed and those muscles are a little bit more fatigued and you're just not getting quite the same stimulus and quite the same intensity in those sets as you did on sets one, two, three, four, five, because you're just tired.
00:27:19
Speaker
You start to get more tired, the muscles get worn down. And so You're not able to push it quite as hard, but now let's say you're doing 10 sets for your back and you do five on Monday and then you do five on Thursday. Well, now you're able to hit all of those sets with a little bit higher level of intensity and really push it towards muscular failure so that you can see a little bit better results. So switching from one time per week to two or sometimes even three times per week, depending on your schedule and the muscle group and all that different stuff.
00:27:50
Speaker
can be a little bit more beneficial. Second tip for bringing up a lagging muscle group is to put these things first in your training session. So if you're training like whole body, or if you're doing like multiple muscle groups in one workout, put the muscle group exercises that you want to hit and that you're more focused on earlier in the workout so that you're freshest and so that you can push it.
00:28:10
Speaker
Because if you say you want to bring up your calves, if you only do calves at the end of every leg day, you're probably not going to hit them with the same intensity as if you put them first in your workout. Or if you really want to hit your shoulders, but the only time that you ever hit shoulders is after you do all your other upper body exercises, like with your chest and stuff like that. And it's just at the end of your workout, you're just not going to get as good of intensity in those sets. And you're not going to be able to push it as hard and make as good a progress. So put those exercises earlier in your workout so that you can get more out of those.
00:28:43
Speaker
the third thing i would say is to make sure that you're not overdoing it so i said with the first tip you want to increase that frequencies to two or three times per week and so sometimes people will be like well if two times is good then five times would be better right and for most muscle groups this is not going to be the answer because if you're not recovering in between those sessions and you're really sore and the muscle is always tired and fatigued and you're not able to push it, again, you're just not going to be getting as good of results there.
00:29:10
Speaker
For some of the smaller muscle groups, for example, like calves, you can train those all the time, like four times, five times a week. And like, you don't actually feel that sore or feel that fatigued or anything like that.
00:29:21
Speaker
Those are special circumstances where like you can do those sorts of things. But like, if you're trying to hit your back or you're trying to hit legs or like big muscle groups, and you're trying to do that like five times a week, you're going to end up getting worse results because you can't push it hard enough to actually see really good progress. And you have to remember too that when you're trying to make progress, you're actually getting and building all that muscle when you're outside of the gym. So in between workouts, when you're resting, that's when you're actually getting the gains. But if you're always hitting those muscles and you're never really giving yourself a chance to recover, you're actually just wearing yourself down and you're not allowing yourself to make the proper amount of gains because you're not really recovering in the right way. Plus your body's just going to be all tired all the time. Your joints might start to feel like crap and it's just not a good thing. So you want to make sure that you're balancing it and not overdoing it while still increasing that frequency and putting a little bit more time and effort into certain muscle groups.
00:30:14
Speaker
When it comes to your back specifically, my favorite exercises. So there's three different groups here. You're going to want to do some type of vertical pull. So basically just think of your arms above your head.
00:30:25
Speaker
So like pull-ups or lat pull-downs is what I would tell you to do here. focusing on control, getting a good stretch in your back. And if you can build up to doing a good set of like 10 pull-ups and then even maybe get to some weighted pull-ups, you're going to have a strong back and you're going to really start to develop some good back muscles. Pull-ups were my least favorite exercise when I started because I just couldn't do them when I was really heavy.
00:30:49
Speaker
Couldn't do pull-ups at all. Now they're one of my favorite exercises and they're something that is always in my program. It's one of my favorite things because Again, if you can do a lot of pull-ups or if you can do heavy weighted pull-ups, you're going to have a pretty strong back. You're going have some good muscle definition with that.
00:31:03
Speaker
I like lat pull-downs as well with this because a lot of people can't do really good pull-ups when they start. So this can be a really good thing to start with is lat pull-downs. Plus, if you're trying to hit like some higher rep stuff, lat pull-downs and really focusing on controlling and really getting like a good squeeze and all that stuff can be really beneficial for that.
00:31:22
Speaker
So first would be vertical pull. So pick like pull-ups or some sort of lat pull down and you can mix up the different grips and things like that to hit the back in slightly different ways. But just finding something that feels good on your muscles and on your joints. And if you feel a good squeeze in your back, then that's probably a good sign that you picked a good exercise.
00:31:40
Speaker
The second thing is picking some type of row. So think of horizontal rowing. So like a dumbbell row, cable row, a machine row. This would be where like your arms are out in front of you and you're pulling in towards your body.
00:31:52
Speaker
So my favorites with these are like cable rows or machine rows, but you could also do dumbbell rows. You could do barbell rows. You could do chest supported rows. Any of that stuff is going to be good. And again, just making sure that you're getting good stretch on the muscle and really controlling that weight so that you are getting a solid stimulus.
00:32:08
Speaker
And then the third thing is to pick some sort of hinge, and this is to hit your lower back. So you have what's called spinal erectors in your lower back. And not so much from an aesthetic perspective, because unless you're super lean, you're probably not really going to see this, but more so from like a functional standpoint, just having a overall strong back, you want to make sure that your lower back is strong too. So stuff like deadlifts, RDLs are going to hit your lower back.
00:32:33
Speaker
Back extensions are ones that I've thrown in my routine more recently and really trying to bulletproof that lower back just from reducing pain and just having an overall strong back. But as if you're hitting those three bases, like if you're getting Pull up or lat pull down, you're getting some sort of row in there and then you're having some sort of hinge and then you're doing that at least two times per week, maybe three times if your body can handle it and you feel good.
00:32:55
Speaker
you're going to be able to build a really strong back. And that is all of the questions for this week.
Engagement & Coaching Options
00:33:02
Speaker
As always, if you want a question answered, you can always shoot me a question or message on social media, Bass Built Fitness at Instagram, on TikTok, on Facebook.
00:33:13
Speaker
You can shoot me a message and let me know your question. And I love to dive a little bit deeper on these questions on the podcast. The one-on-one coaching link is in the show notes if you want some more personal questions hands-on help, some accountability, some guidance, all that good stuff with your goals. You can check that link out.
00:33:31
Speaker
But with that being said, i appreciate you listening and we will see you next