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#169 - 15 Training Tips You Can Use Today For Better Workouts
1 Playsin 2 hours
If you’re showing up to the gym consistently, let’s make sure you’re getting the absolute most out of your workouts. This episode is full of quick tips you can apply in your next workout.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Lower body tips to feel exercises more and grow your quads, calves, and glutes better
- How to make upper body exercises feel better on your shoulders, back, and joints
- How machines, exercise selection, and rep ranges can be used to help you train harder and more effectively
- How to pick the right exercises to build the most muscle
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Transcript
Introduction to the Fit-ish Project
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host, Latham Bass, where we make business and health simple for regular people like you and I. It is that time again for our weekly episode. Before I get into that, just a quick reminder to continue leaving reviews, continue to share this with people you think can get some value out of this. just continue to help grow the show. i appreciate all your help in doing that as we just continue to help people look better, feel better, live longer lives, live happier lives. That is the whole goal of the show. And it only happens with the help of you guys. So I
Inspiration from Gym Coaching
00:00:34
Speaker
appreciate you. The topic for this week, I wanted to do a episode on training tips. So I got to thinking about this topic because I have been in gyms coaching people for about the last 11 years, since about the age of 22. I've been coaching in different forms or facets, whether it was Collegiate strength and conditioning internships, being a personal trainer, being a high school PE teacher and being a high school strength coach, football coach. So I've been in just a lot of different settings with helping people, training people, coaching people.
00:01:07
Speaker
And one of the things that I have noticed is that there are oftentimes just small little tweaks that can make a huge difference for people when it comes to getting better results. And I had this idea as well because I was in the gym the other day coaching a small group training class at the gym that I am currently working at. And I gave this woman a tip on her um RDLs.
00:01:29
Speaker
After giving her that tip, the comment she made is have never felt my muscles on this exercise. Like I've never felt it in my hamstrings and glutes. And that small little tip that you just gave me is the first time that I've ever felt it And this is somebody who has been working out for over six months now. And just this small little tweak on this particular exercise just changed everything and how she felt and obviously is going to help her get better results.
00:01:51
Speaker
And I think that happens all
Consistency and Correct Execution in Training
00:01:53
Speaker
the time. The biggest thing when it comes to training and getting results is to be consistent. But once you are consistent, you want to make sure that you are getting the most effective results from your consistency. And you only do that if you are executing movements the right way, if you are just taking advantage of these little tweaks and tips that you can apply to your training. And a lot of these are just very small little things that you can do, like maybe moving slightly different or trying something this way versus that way.
Episode Structure Overview
00:02:20
Speaker
finding little things that just make your training a little bit more effective can help in the long run and you do that over weeks over months and continue to be consistent and you just get better results over time you get stronger you build more muscle you feel better you look better all those different things and so i thought why not do a episode on just some quick tips that you can apply to your training pretty much right away Most of these tips are things that you can do on specific exercises, very common exercises that most people are using. And then some of these are just more broad, general things to think about when it comes to training, but can help you to just pick better exercises or just approach your training in a better way. And so I split this up into upper exercises.
00:02:59
Speaker
Lower and then just some general tips so upper body tips some lower body tips and then just some general tips and I came up with five for each of these sections and I think this will probably be something that I do every so often maybe every three months or six months or something like that just some tips that I can throw at you guys so that you can use them right away because as you know the whole goal of this show is just to give you practical information and insights that you can use right away to make this simpler. This is called the Fit-ish Project because you probably don't want to spend hours reading books or training people or listening to podcasts. I do. And so I try to get that information and make this more digestible, will make it more practical. And so that's exactly what we're going to do in this episode. Give you 15 tips that you can apply to your training pretty much right away. So let's get
Benefits of Using Wrist Straps
00:03:44
Speaker
right into it.
00:03:44
Speaker
Lower body exercises or movements. Number one that I have on this list, and I know this is something that I've mentioned in previous podcast episodes, is to use wrist straps for your leg training.
00:03:56
Speaker
At a certain point, once you've been training consistently, the amount of weight that you're able to hold in your hands will be surpassed by the strength of your leg muscles. So your leg muscles are huge, your glutes, your hamstrings, your quads. Those are all very big, strong muscles. And at a certain point, you're going to get to a place where you can no longer hold enough weight in your hands for a long enough period of time. to actually give your legs a really good stimulus. And so your grip becomes the limiter. It becomes the thing that's failing before your glutes or your hamstrings or your quads, which is no good.
Correct Execution of RDLs and Squats
00:04:30
Speaker
You want to make sure that when you're trying to build muscle, when you're trying to get stronger, that whatever muscle you're trying to target, that is the thing that is getting the most stimulus. And that is the thing that is failing, not your grip. and so when you try to get to dead lifting 400 500 pounds 300 pounds you get to doing rdls with 225 275 300 pounds or you're doing lunges with really heavy dumbbells things like that where you're holding a lot of weight in your hands and you find that your grip is giving out before your actual leg muscles are well you're not getting as much out of that training as you can so i highly highly highly recommend getting some wrist straps when it comes to leg training it makes a massive difference it's something that i've been doing for quite a while now i do it on really heavy leg exercises like bulgarian split squats if i'm using a trap bar or using very heavy dumbbells if i'm doing heavy rdls if i'm doing heavy deadlifts most times i will use wrist straps not every single set but a good majority of those sets especially if i'm doing more higher volume type of stuff where I'm having to do more sets or higher rep stuff. It just makes the exercise more effective. You're not thinking about your grip. You're thinking about the execution of those exercises and you're able to really push it to the max to get the most out of those exercises. So getting some wrist straps, they're super cheap. You can find them for like 15 bucks. And I've had the same pair for since I was in college, I think right after college. So I've had the same pair for
00:05:55
Speaker
over 10 years now, like they last a very long time, super cheap investment, but they make a big difference in your training. Tip number two for lower bodies, this is a tip on RDLs.
00:06:05
Speaker
Keep a slight bend in your knees, brace your core, and think about keeping your shoulders pulled back so your back is nice and flat. This was the exact tip that I gave to the lady that I was helping in the training session that made all the difference. So I looked over at her and I just noticed that her legs were too straight and she was also bending her back a little bit and thinking about getting that dumbbell down as far as she could to the ground versus actually keeping a nice flat back keeping a slight bend in the knee embracing the core because when you engage all those things the right way you're actually going to feel the muscles that you want to feel which in an rdl you want to feel it in your glutes your hamstrings maybe a little bit in your low back once you start getting a little bit heavier but if you're not executing the movement the correct way you're not really feeling it in the right places And so giving her those simple little cues, she did those and was able to feel it so much more. And RDLs is such a staple movement that I think should be in most people's programs most of the time. It's something that I keep my program pretty much all the time, either a heavy dumbbell RDL, heavy barbell RDL, trap bar RDL, maybe some single leg RDLs. It's just a really, really good movement for the glutes and hamstrings that you'll find tons of programs. And so knowing this tip and being able to actually use and execute this tip can make all the difference in actually feeling this exercise where you want to feel it. So Slight bend in the knees, bracing the core, which if you don't know what bracing the core means, just pretend like you're about to get punched in the stomach, flexing that core as hard as you can, like getting ready to brace for impact and thinking about expanding your rib cage out is how you brace your core. And then keeping that back nice and flat, which you can do by pulling your shoulders back. Three little simple cues to think about as you're doing your RDLs, but it can go a long way in actually feeling the exercise the way you want to feel it.
00:07:47
Speaker
Tip number three for lower body. This is goes for pretty much all squats, lunges or single leg squat type exercises. You can bias whether or not you are hitting more glutes or more quads when you're doing these sorts of exercises. And so what I mean by that is any kind of knee bending exercises, you're going to use both your glute muscles, your butt muscles and your quads.
00:08:11
Speaker
by how you set up and how you execute the movement you can bias which one you are hitting a little bit more of so four squats four lunges four single leg squats if you are wanting to hit more quads hit the front of those leg muscles get those big teardrops that everybody wants to have you can do things like letting that knee go over your toe so you get a little bit deeper knee bend which is going to put more straight stretch on your quads which is good for growing your quads And I know sometimes you hear knees over toes is a bad thing. You don't want to do that. That's false.
00:08:43
Speaker
Hopefully that myth is starting to die out. You can absolutely push your knee over your toe. It's not unhealthy. It's a good thing to be able to do that. It probably means that your knees are more healthy and more stable and able to tolerate a little bit more, which is a good thing. So when you're trying to hit more quads, having that knee actually pass over your toe is a good thing for that.
00:09:01
Speaker
Elevating your heels is a great way to do this. And you can do this by stepping on like a small weight plate, like a two and a half pound, five pound, even a 10 pound plate to elevate your heels a little bit will help you to get that knee over your toe, especially if you're limited in some mobility, like in your ankles or hips or low back or different things like that. This helps with that.
00:09:19
Speaker
There's wedges that you can use for this exact purpose or even something like having weightlifting shoes. Like I use weightlifting shoes when I lift legs. It's just a small elevation in your heels and just makes your squats and your lunges and things like that feel a little bit more smoother, stable. and helps with being able to get a little bit deeper in those things. And then the second thing is just to keep your chest upright a little bit more. So more knee bend in that knee and then keeping the chest upright. So when you think about doing a squat, you would want your chest up a little bit more and then allow your knees to pass over your toes. When you think about doing like a Bulgarian split squat or a lunge, same thing, keep your chest upright and then let that knee travel over the toe.
00:09:59
Speaker
When it comes to hitting more glutes, so this is just the opposite of that. So instead of letting that knee pass over the toe, now you wanna have a little bit more of a vertical shin. So think of from your ankle up to your knee, that portion of your leg, you want that to be more up and down, more vertical rather than letting that knee pass over that toe.
00:10:18
Speaker
And then the second thing, instead of keeping your chest upright, now you want a little bit more forward lean. And this is going to put a bigger stretch on those glutes, which is a good thing. Anytime you're trying to grow a certain muscle, getting a good stretch on that muscle is going to be a good thing. So it's just the opposite of the quads. If you want to hit more glutes, you're going to keep that leg more up and down and then you're going to let that chest lean forward a little bit more so when you think about doing a squat you would want that chest leaned over a little bit more and then keeping those shins more upright we're same thing with a lunge or a bulgarian split squat super simple thing that you can do to just hit whichever muscle group you're more focused on a lot of times for guys they're wanting to hit more quads A lot of times for ladies, they're focused more on growing their glutes. Use these little tips as you're doing your lunges, your squats, different things like that. And you can have a little bit more say in where you're actually putting that muscle stimulus that you're having in those
Training Calves and Single-leg Exercises
00:11:12
Speaker
exercises.
00:11:12
Speaker
Number four in this lower body section, train your calves heavy. This is something that I have changed and something that I also see other people doing wrong all the time. a lot of times people think of calves or calf training as sort of an afterthought, or most people just don't do it at all or do it very little or just only do it with body weight, which you're going to get a little bit of benefit out of that by doing that towards the beginning. But you'll quickly notice that your calves are a lot stronger. So doing a set of 25 or 50 or even 100 reps, which is body weight is only going to go so far. Eventually you're going to have to start loading up those calves and actually training them with heavier weights.
00:11:51
Speaker
Your calves are pretty strong and they will get stronger over time. So if you're only using body weight, only using light dumbbells, eventually you're going get to a point where that stimulus really isn't doing much, especially if you're trying to get stronger with your calves or even just grow those calf muscles. You want to load those up. My favorite way to do this is to either use a calf raise machine. So if you work out at a gym that has one of these, those are super nice and easy to use. Or if you have a gym that has a Smith machine, these two machines just make it easier to load it up heavy because they're more stable.
00:12:24
Speaker
You can also use like a barbell on your back. It's not quite as stable when doing calf raises as it would be like with a calf raise machine or like with a Smith machine. but it still gets the job done. Or if you want to do single leg calf raises, maybe grab onto something and then pick up a really heavy dumbbell. you Again, you can use straps for this and then you could just train one at a time and get a good stimulus that way. But I think a lot of people say they want to have bigger calves, myself included. That's been a goal of mine for a while. And when I finally they started training them heavier and more consistently and doing it in a way where I could really push it and load them up heavy, like with 10 reps, 15 reps, maybe 20 reps, we're really like pushing the weight on those and continually trying to progress. I've actually seen some good growth over time, which surprise, surprise, if you train hard, if you train heavy, your muscles will grow. But those are just a couple easy tips that you can apply if calf training is something that you care about.
00:13:18
Speaker
And then the last one for lower body is to rest between legs if you are doing single leg exercises. I'm a big fan of using single leg exercises for the fact that I don't really like doing tons of compound movements like super heavy deadlifts or super heavy squats anymore, or at least at this time, just because mixed with all the different things that I do like running, like playing basketball, Other things like that just doesn't fit within my plan that well because it beats me up a little too much and I just don't feel quite as good like I have more aches and pains and things like that. So I prefer to use more single leg training I don't have to use quite as much weight but I can still push it and grow muscle and feel good and run and play basketball and all those things. But when you're doing single leg training, you obviously still need to push the tempo a little bit. You need to lift heavy, all those good things.
00:14:05
Speaker
But when you're doing that and you have to hit your right leg and then hit your left leg, sometimes you can get a little fatigue by the time you get to that second leg. For example, if you're doing a heavy set of Bulgarian split squats, like if I have 225 pounds on there and I'm doing reps of eight on my left leg and then I switch right to my right leg.
00:14:25
Speaker
Sometimes I can be too much and by the time I'm getting in the end of that set with my second leg, my form's breaking down a little bit. Like I'm just not feeling as good. I'm breathing super heavy and I'm just not able to execute the movement quite as well or maybe push it quite as hard. So one thing that I'll do if I'm really like trying to lift heavy or push the effort a lot or push the intensity, I'll just rest in between legs. So I'll do my left leg. I'll rest for 90 seconds, a couple minutes, whatever. Then I'll hit the right leg. And then same thing, rest another two minutes, hit the left leg and just go that way versus doing both legs at the same time and then resting. Simple little thing, but again, can go a long way to just helping you be able to push the intensity a little bit more and maybe stay away from some crappy reps or maybe even some injury type of stuff. Just something to think about if you use a lot of single leg training within your program.
Improving Shoulder Press and Back Exercises
00:15:16
Speaker
five tips for upper body so that was lower body we got five for the upper body now this is a tip for seated shoulder press if you are doing like a dumbbell seated shoulder press or even a barbell press rather than having your bench like whatever you're leaning back on straight up and down straight vertical like a 90 degree angle just lower that a little bit to like 75 degrees I noticed when I did this, it made my shoulders feel so much better. This movement felt way more efficient and it just felt smoother on my joints. If I have that bench up and down, it does not feel real good on my shoulders. But if I lean it back just slightly and have a slight incline, it feels so much better. I'm able to use more weight. I feel more under control. And so if you're doing a lot of seated shoulder press, whether it be dumbbell or barbell, which you probably should have that on your program somewhere. if you're doing these seated then pushing that angle back on the bench can be something super simple that makes that movement feel a little bit better tip number two back to the straps use straps on your back training again when it comes to back training you're probably going to get to a point where it's hard to hold enough weight to get the stimulus that you want to get to so let's say you're doing some heavy barbell rows and you're using 185 or 200 pounds or you're doing really heavy dumbbell rows like
00:16:32
Speaker
Once you've been doing dumbbell rows for a while, you can work your way up to a really heavy weight. Like you can work your way up to 50 pounds, 75 pounds, 100 pound dumbbell rows. And if you're doing sets of 10, 12, 15 with that, that can be tough to hold on to if you're doing that for three sets in a workout. So using some straps for things like heavy rows, even heavy pull ups, like if you're getting to a place where you're doing weighted pull ups.
00:16:55
Speaker
If you're adding on 25 pounds and you're trying to do a set of eight with those, you'll notice that if you use straps versus don't use straps, the times where you use straps, the movement just feels more stable. It feels better. You can focus on some of those things like engaging your lats a little bit more, little certain cues. that you can focus on versus trying to just hold on for dear life and make sure that your grip doesn't give out so heavy rows heavy pull-ups heavy pulldowns so like lat pulldowns things like that again if your grip is giving out before your back is giving out that is not good so using some straps for back training can also be a good idea as well
00:17:32
Speaker
Tip number three, this is for lateral raises. Again, another very common movement that you see in a lot of programs. As you're doing this movement, think about pushing your knuckles away from your body and trying to swipe the wall. So rather than thinking about just getting from point A to point B where the weights are at your sides and then you're getting them up to parallel to the ground. Think about sweeping your hands out and pushing your knuckles out towards the wall the entire way. And by thinking about this little tip, you'll feel more engagement in your delts, in your shoulder muscles, in that medial deltoid that we want to be feeling with our lateral raises. Again, super small thing, but it makes a big difference. And obviously making sure that you control it on the way down. But thinking about just pushing those knuckles out away from the body and towards the wall will change how this feels as you do them.
00:18:21
Speaker
Try this one out because you'll you'll notice it right away if you've never done this before. Tip number four, this is just for some general back training, just to feel your lats a little bit more. One thing that I've heard quite a bit from people just training lots of people is that they struggle to feel their lats. They struggle to feel their back muscles as they're doing certain movements like pull downs or pull ups or heavy rows or things like that. so Two things that I always think about when I'm doing like a pull down or I'm doing a pull up or I'm doing like a row is that I always want to have long arms whenever I am letting that weight go down. So like on the portion of the lat pull down where the weight is going back up, I want my arms to be very, very long as long as possible to get a good stretch on that muscle or same thing with pull ups. When I get to the bottom of that rep, I want my long arms to be very long or same thing with like a dumbbell row. as that weight is going down i want to let my arm go all the way as far as it can go nice big long arm so you can feel a good stretch in your lats and then as i'm rowing or as i'm pulling down or doing my pull-up i think about pulling my elbow towards my hip pockets and by doing it i feel a good contraction i feel a good squeeze in my lats and then as i
00:19:31
Speaker
let those arms go long. I feel a good stretch. And I've noticed when I've slowed down my reps really focused on those two things, I've been able to hit my back and just grow my back a little bit better. So two simple things that you can add to your back training or just think about when it comes to growing your back and just feeling your lats a little bit more, long arms and then elbows to your hip pockets. Those two things can help you out quite a bit. And then the last one for upper body, do a back exercise before you do your pressing exercise. So if you're somebody who does like a complete upper body lift, or maybe you're a person who just does full body lifts, if you're doing like a body part split and you train like back on one day, chest on another day, then this doesn't really apply.
00:20:09
Speaker
But if you're doing like all upper body on one day where you're doing a full body workout and let's say you have bench press in there and you also have like some pull ups or pull downs. If you can do your pull ups or pull downs or whatever back exercise you have before your pressing exercise, you'll oftentimes notice that it feels better when you go and you do your bench or you do your shoulder press because your lats act as a stabilizer as you're doing some of these pressing movements. And so once those are engaged and they're also warmed up from that previous back exercise, you just notice that you feel more stable like in your bench press or in your shoulder press. You feel stronger when you get to that and it just feels a little bit smoother. Again, something that I didn't really ever do when I was younger, but as you get older, your joints maybe don't feel quite as good every time you go into the gym. And so adding in some little tricks like this can help to just keep you feeling good when you're training.
Choosing Stable Exercises for Muscle Building
00:20:59
Speaker
And then the last five that I have, so that was lower body, upper body. And then these are just five general tips for your training, something that you can think about just to help you with getting a little bit better results in the gym. Number one,
00:21:12
Speaker
When muscle building is the goal, make sure you pick the right exercises. So when you think about picking good exercises for building muscle, you wanna pick exercises that are stable. You wanna pick exercises that you can safely take close to failure or all the way to failure. And you wanna to pick exercises that are not super complex. So when you think about stable exercises, like,
00:21:32
Speaker
Think about something where you're seated versus standing. When you're seated, you're probably going to be a little bit more stable. And that's not to say that any standing exercise is bad. There's tons of really good exercise that you do while you're standing on two feet. But if you're really trying to push yourself, like the difference between doing a seated shoulder press versus like standing up and trying to press with dumbbells, you're a little bit more stable when you sit down.
00:21:51
Speaker
Or when you think about being able to take something to failure in a safe way, like a machine is really good for this. Like if I'm trying to do, let's say I'm trying to max out on a chest press rather than going and loading up a bench press on a barbell I could just hop in a machine and push that machine all the way to failure on my chest and not have to worry about dropping that barbell on my chest and not being able to get it up so machines make for a really good thing when it comes to being stable and when it comes to being able to take an exercise really close to failure and then not having something super complex so
00:22:26
Speaker
If the exercise is super complicated and takes a lot of thinking, that makes it harder to push it really intensely. So you want to pick your basic exercises. Again, this is just building muscle one-on-one. Like you want it to be safe. You want it to be stable. You don't want it to be too complex. Machines work really well for this. A lot of your good exercises with dumbbells, just picking the right exercises for building muscle.
00:22:48
Speaker
It should go without saying, but again, I see people doing exercises when I know their goals are to build muscle that don't really facilitate them being able to build muscle with the exercises that they're choosing. So pick the right exercises if you want to build the most muscle and picking something that's safe, something that's stable and something that's not super complex is a solid checklist to go through when trying to figure out what those exercises actually look
Enjoyable and Consistent Workouts
00:23:11
Speaker
like.
00:23:11
Speaker
number two pick exercises you like and that feel good on your body again this should probably go without saying but i've seen this after being in gyms for years people oftentimes try to fit themselves into certain exercises that don't really work for them and that's not to say that just because the first time you try and exercise like you should just throw it out if it doesn't feel great or if you don't love it there's plenty of exercises that i don't love but they work really well and they feel good on my body so i do them But for the most part, if you can pick more exercises that you actually enjoy doing, you're going to be able to push yourself a little bit more and you're going to execute them a little bit better cause you actually enjoy doing them.
00:23:47
Speaker
So more often than not, you want to pick exercises that you both like and that both feel good on your body. I mentioned earlier, I don't really like doing tons of back squats anymore, so I don't do that. I find other exercise alternatives. I enjoy doing a little bit more that feel a little bit better on my body that I actually look forward to so I can push myself because When you actually look forward to your exercises, when you look forward to your training program, when you look forward to going to the gym, it makes it so much easier to be consistent and to actually train hard and actually see the best
Training Abs with Heavy Weights
00:24:16
Speaker
results. So making sure that the program that you're following, the exercise that you're doing are things that you actually enjoy is an important part of training. Number three, train your abs heavy for better strength and for better muscle growth.
00:24:28
Speaker
Abs are oftentimes trained with tons and tons of reps. So people will pick lots of different variations and they'll just do dozens and dozens or hundreds of reps when it comes to abs. If you really want to get better strength and to actually grow your abs, like visibly put on some mass onto your abs, like if you maybe you're getting lean and you want your abs to pop a little bit more, or you just want to build up a stronger core, then training your abs the same way that you train other muscle groups which is heavy and with high intensity and not having to do a million reps is how you get better and stronger abs there's a place to go and just burn it out and just do those circuits and have fun with it and do different things like that for your core but if you're really trying to add some good solid strength or really trying to grow your abs like add muscle to your abs then you want to be training your abs heavy. So using things like a cable crunch or maybe a weighted sit-up or an incline sit-up with weight, GHD sit-ups, things where you can get a nice big stretch on your abs and use some weight and actually add weight over time is how you're gonna be able to focus on that progressive overload to actually build up your core.
00:25:34
Speaker
you're always just doing tons of different variations and not being able to actually load up those ab movements, then you never really know if you are getting stronger over time or really able to build up some good solid strength or mass within
Debunking Fixed Rep Range Myths
00:25:47
Speaker
your abs. So simple thing there, something that you can add into the rotation to help you get a little bit more out of your ab training.
00:25:55
Speaker
Number four, train in the rep range that you like. Most people's goal when it comes to hitting the weight room, like or at least part of the goal, I should say, is to build muscle. Like most people, part of the reason they're in the weight room is because they want to build muscle, whether that be to live better, whether that be to look better. whether that be to just function and be able to do all the activities that you want to do muscle plays a critical role in that and the cool thing about building muscle is it's relatively simple it's not easy because you have to put in the work and train pretty hard and pretty consistently to build muscle over time but the process of it is pretty simple and you can train in any rep range between about five reps all the way up to 30 reps as long as you are getting close to failure you're going to be growing some muscle And so it makes sense that you train in a rep range that you actually like. Like if you're a person who likes to do higher reps and you're able to push yourself really well and you enjoy doing that, then train a little bit higher reps. Maybe you like going sets of 15, maybe even a little bit more.
00:26:50
Speaker
Maybe you're the person who is the opposite of that and you like to train in lower rep ranges. So more like five reps, maybe eight reps at a time. anything higher than that you don't really enjoy so you should spend most of your time there i think there's a little value in mixing it up a little bit from time to time but again building muscle is pretty simple so if you have a certain rep range that you like then train more often in that rep range and this can change a little bit too based on a certain exercises so for example if i'm doing lateral raises i'm probably not going to do a set of five that's just not going to feel very good on my shoulders i'm not going enjoy that
00:27:23
Speaker
And I'll probably do something closer, like 12, 15, maybe even a little bit more reps versus like a barbell shoulder press. I'm not going to do a set of 20 on barbell shoulder press because that's going to be brutal. And I'm not going enjoy that. I might do just a set of five or a set of eight on that. So it can change a little bit from exercise to exercise. And you can even change it for the type of training that you're doing. Typically when I'm training lower body, I hate doing high rep stuff. I'll do it every once in a while, but it just sucks. Like doing a set of 15 on squats or anything above 10 is just brutal when it comes to leg training. I would much rather do lower reps and do more weight and still get that good muscle building stimulus from leg training. and So that's most times what I do. Like I go five to eight reps when I'm doing leg training for the most part. Sometimes I'll get up into 10 reps, 12 reps, but like
00:28:11
Speaker
Going really high reps with leg stuff. It just sucks. I don't enjoy it. But when I train upper body, like I don't mind it quite as much. Like I'll do sets of 10 sets of 12 sets of 15 on different upper body exercises. And so it can change a little bit based on your exercise. It can change a little bit based on what type of training you're doing.
00:28:28
Speaker
And another time that I'll use this as well is on Certain times I'll just come into the gym and I'm just really not feeling lifting heavy weights that day. Like for whatever reason, I'm feeling a little bit run down or I'm just not in the right mindset. And I just don't want to load up the bar and lift heavy sets of five on bench press or on whatever that movement is for that day. And so I'll just lower the weight a little bit and I'll do more reps. And as long as I'm getting closer to failure, I'm still getting a good muscle building stimulus. I'm still able to push myself and push the intensity, but it just doesn't feel as hard to do it that way. And so that's just a little tool that you can use in your tool belt. As long as you're getting close to muscular failure, whether that be five reps or 30 reps, you're still getting a good stimulus. You're still able to build muscle. And so use that to your advantage.
Training to Failure for Progress
00:29:14
Speaker
And then the last tip and that I would throw in here for this episode is just to take some sets all the way to failure. I think more often than not, people really underestimate how strong they are. And I see this all the time, like people lifting weights. And then I see them do a set and they put it down or like they quit doing the set.
00:29:33
Speaker
and they were like five maybe even 10 reps away from how many they could actually do or they're using way too light of a weight and they don't actually know their strength because they don't ever go to failure or push it that hard and if the goal is to get strong and especially if the goal is to build muscle you need to be getting close to that muscular failure like giving your body a reason to change giving a good stimulus But if you're constantly not getting anywhere close to that, you're stopping five, six, seven, eight reps shy of getting close to that muscular failure, you're not going to really see the progress of the results that you want to see. So it makes sense every once in a while to take some sensitive failure so you actually know. And then that gives you more of a baseline that you can go off of.
00:30:14
Speaker
And again, you want to make sure that you're doing this in a safe way. and just doing this with the right exercises and things like this like on smaller exercises you can take them to failure more often like isolation exercises bicep curls tricep stuff even like lateral raises things like that like you can push those all the way to failure pretty often and you're going to be able to recover well and be feeling all right but like with bigger exercises or bigger um bigger muscle groups like big compound movements you're probably not going to want to take those all the way to failure all the time it Might be a little tough to recover from those if you're doing that too frequently. But a couple times a month, like just really push it, like see where you're at with a certain exercise. gives you a good baseline about where you're at and if you're making progress or
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:30:56
Speaker
not. So every once in a while, just make sure you're taking some sets of failure.
00:30:59
Speaker
And with that being said, that is the 15 tips for this episode. Again, I was just hoping to give some practical things that you can start implementing to your training right away. Obviously, you don't need to try and implement all 15 of these things, but I think there's probably at least a couple in here that you aren't doing or maybe things that you hadn't thought about or things that you can apply to your training that's going to help you a little bit to get a little bit better results. So Take one or two or three of these things and start applying these to your workouts this week and see if you can get a little bit better progress, maybe feel muscle a little bit differently than you ever have with a certain exercise exercise.
00:31:34
Speaker
feel like your training is, like you're getting more out of your training. That's the whole goal here. So other things before we hop off here, if you can take a moment, again, share this with somebody, leave a review, continue to help grow the show. I appreciate that. The one-on-one coaching link is in the show notes for anybody looking for some online fitness training with your goals, training goals, weight loss goals, body composition goals, all those good things.
00:31:56
Speaker
Check out that link. Otherwise, as always, I appreciate you listening and we will see you next