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#139 - 17 Underrated Training Tips For More Muscle & Strength
29 Plays13 days ago
If you are going to spend time working out then you might as well get the absolute most out of it.
In this episode I share what I have learned from over 15 years of training myself and years of coaching others.
• How you can use cardio and performance goals to see better results over time
• How to get more out of the workouts you already do using simple progressions and back off sets so you can keep adding strength without adding a ton of extra time
• Small upgrades like straps, finishers, smart rest times, and filming your form so you build muscle faster without living in the gym
• Controlling the big levers outside the gym like sleep, and food to speed up your results
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Transcript
Introduction to the Fit-ish Project
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome back to the Fit-ish Project with your host Lathan Bass where we make fitness and health simple for regular people like you and I. We have the weekly episode for you this week and I'm going to talk about training this week and specifically I want to get into underrated tips that I have learned over the years when it comes to building muscle, losing fat,
00:00:27
Speaker
and just getting more fit
Underrated Fitness Tips
00:00:29
Speaker
in general. I did one of these episodes on underrated fat loss tips a while back, and it got some good feedback, and so I thought that I would do one specifically on training, because a big part of achieving those goals, which for a lot of us, those goals are based around looking better, feeling better, and living a longer life, training is a pretty big part of that.
00:00:51
Speaker
And so there's a lot of things that I have learned over the years through my own personal experience and just the experience of working with others.
Lathan's Weightlifting Journey
00:00:58
Speaker
Because as I was thinking about putting this episode together, I started thinking about when I first got into training in general. And I lifted weights for the first time when I was in seventh or eighth grade. I'm not exactly sure which one it was, but it was around that time in middle school. One of my friends' dads took us to a gym. and showed us around and showed us how to do some of the basic lifts. So I remember doing things like bench press, squats, rows, those sorts of things. And that was my first real taste of the weight room.
00:01:28
Speaker
And then after that, I was kind of on and off with it. I played a lot of sports. And so I wasn't really like seriously into weightlifting until I got into like my junior and senior year of high school. And when I really wanted to start to just build muscle, build strength and get better at sports, I got more serious about the weight room. And so I was probably around 16, 17 when I really started to get into lifting consistently. And now I am 32. And so I have been lifting weights or been in the gym pretty consistently for half my life, which is 16 years, which is kind of wild to even think about. And throughout that time, I've done a lot of different programs. I've tried a lot of different things. I've done some things that were not very smart, made a lot of mistakes. but I've also figured out a lot of things that work really well and been able to simplify a lot of the concepts around just training in general and learning a lot through my own personal trial and error process, but then also just working with so many different types of people with fitness. so As a personal trainer, as a high school strength coach and working with different colleges and doing internships and working with middle school kids all the way up to senior citizens, you're able to try and see a lot of different things and see what works well for the masses.
00:02:42
Speaker
And so I wanted to talk about some of those things that I have learned over these years and share those things with you. Because if you're going to be in the gym, if you're going to put in the work and put in the effort, You want to get the most out of those things. And I think a lot of people sometimes get lost in the little minute details and they don't really see the big picture and they end up wasting a lot of time because they're not getting the progress or seeing the progress that they really want to see.
00:03:06
Speaker
Anytime that you spend in the weight room or you spend exercising and moving your body, in my opinion, is good and likely is going to be beneficial as long as you're not hurting yourself or doing anything that's super stupid. But again, if you're spending that time Especially for a lot of us who maybe don't have tons of time or maybe you are busier and you don't have tons of hours to put into the gym or put into exercise. you want to make sure that you are getting the biggest bang for your buck with the time that you are putting into the gym. and
Optimal Muscle Growth Techniques
00:03:34
Speaker
so I have 17 underrated fitness tips that I'm going to get into in this episode. So let's get right into it.
00:03:41
Speaker
Number one, if you don't take anything else from this podcast, this would probably be the most beneficial thing that you can use and implement right away to see the best progress in your fitness goals.
00:03:54
Speaker
And that is taking most of your sets very close to failure. And when I say very close to failure, what I mean is taking Almost every single set that you do in the gym, if your goal is to build maximum muscle and see those changes in your physique, taking most of those sets within one, maybe two reps shy of muscular failure. And so you get to the point where you can no longer lift that weight up.
00:04:18
Speaker
There is some caveats when it comes to this because safety is obviously something that we want to think about and some exercises are safer to take to failure than others. And so when you're using things like machines, they're typically pretty safe because they have built in safety mechanisms in those things. When you're doing bodyweight exercises, those are also typically very safe taking all the way to failure.
00:04:40
Speaker
Even using things like dumbbells are typically a little bit more safe because you can drop those fairly easily without dropping them on your face or your body or your feet or anything like that. You can be pretty safe with most dumbbell exercises. But when you start to use barbells and maybe doing things like bench press or squats or things like that, becomes a little bit more dangerous, especially if you don't have a spotter. And so being smart about the exercises that you do want to take to complete failure.
00:05:04
Speaker
But with that being said, you don't necessarily have to take all your exercises to that complete failure, which is why I like the general rule of taking them within one to two reps shy of failure, because then you're not worried so much about that safety aspect.
00:05:18
Speaker
When it comes to things like the exercises and actually taking those to complete failure versus not taking them to complete failure. On certain exercises, especially things that are maybe smaller, it's a lot easier to take those things to failure and you're not going to be worried so much about the safety aspect and you're not to be worried about hurting yourself.
00:05:37
Speaker
On those smaller exercises or maybe exercise you're doing with dumbbells or machines, feel free to take those to failure a good amount of the time if you want to do that. And then when you're doing those bigger exercises, maybe those barbell lifts, then keeping that one to two reps shy a muscular failure is going to be a pretty good place to be. And if you can do that,
00:05:56
Speaker
With the majority of your training, you are going to see really good results. and Because what you have to understand is that if you don't give your body a reason to change, it's not going to change. And so in order to build muscle, in order to get stronger, you have to provide a stimulus to elicit that change. And if you're going into the gym and you're lifting the same weights for the same reps every single time you're in the gym, then you're not going to see much change because your body can just coast.
00:06:21
Speaker
And so in order to see that change, you have to really push yourself. You have to really up the intensity. And this is a skill that you will gain the more time that you spend in the gym. This is one of the things that I see a lot of people get wrong is they just don't take their workouts or their exercises with enough intensity.
00:06:39
Speaker
First of all, you need to be consistent. But once you're consistently in the gym, you're showing up. If you're not really seeing the results, if you're not really seeing your body change, if you're not really getting stronger, if you're not really building muscle, you're not really getting more fit, this is likely your problem. Your intensity level is not at a high enough level. And as I said, this is a skill because training hard, it's difficult. Like it's hard to go into the gym and put yourself in uncomfortable positions and really push yourself and really try to maximize your potential in the gym. So a lot of people tend to shy away from this and don't put in the type of effort that you really want to put in if you do want to see the maximum amount of results.
00:07:16
Speaker
So that is tip number one. Number two and three are two styles of lifting that I really like to
Double Progression Model Explained
00:07:23
Speaker
use. And so this first one is called the double progression model. And I like this model because it's very easy to understand and it's very easy to implement. And so when it comes to different reps and sets and different schemes and things like that. There's dozens of ways that you can set those up in order to see results. But this one I really like because it's simple and it's easy to implement in the gym. And so the way that this works, let's say that we take the exercise of a dumbbell shoulder press.
00:07:50
Speaker
We give you a rep range of six to 10 reps. And so let's say on week one, you come in and you grab the fifty s Let's say on set one, you can do those for eight reps. On set two, you get eight reps again. And then on set three, you get six reps.
00:08:05
Speaker
You are going to stay at that weight. You're going to use those 50 pound dumbbells until you get to the top end of that rep range. So until you get three good sets of 10 reps with each weight, you are going to stay at that weight. Once you hit three sets of 10, you're at the upper end of that six to 10 rep range. Now you can up the weight. So next time you come in the gym, let's say maybe that's week four or week five of doing that dumbbell shoulder press. Now you can up that weight and use the fifty five s next time around. And since you're using a heavier weight, you're not going to be able to get those 10 reps for three sets. And so maybe when you're using the fifty five s now you're at seven reps, seven reps, and six reps. And so you're, again, going to use that same weight until you work up to 10 With those three sets, once you hit that again, now you can up the weight. And this is a super simple way to make sure that you are using that progressive overload over time and making sure that you are getting stronger, building muscle, doing all those good things that we want to do in order to see those results.
00:09:05
Speaker
And you can use this same progression model with any of your lifts. The third tip is to use back offsets. And so I like this and I use this one a little bit more by feel. And this is something that I have found more useful as I've gotten stronger in the gym because that first, that double progression model that I just explained is really good. But as you start to get heavier, sometimes doing three sets of something that's like eight to 10 reps can be pretty tough. And so one of the things that I like to do is to use what's called a back offset. And so let's say, let's use that shoulder press again for the same example. Let's say for two sets, I hit 10 reps and I'm using really heavy weights, but on those last couple of reps, my form started to break down a little bit. It wasn't as clean as I wanted it to be. And so rather than trying to really push the weight on that third set and use the exact same weight and maybe get really sloppy with form and technique and only be able to get maybe five reps, one thing I like to do is what's called a back offset and take about 10 to 20% of the weight off.
00:10:07
Speaker
So it's a little bit lighter. So I know that I'm going to be able to get more reps. I'll slow down the temp a little bit, focus on really good form and really focus in on a good mind muscle connection so that I'm able to get some good quality reps in that way. And again, this is something that I kind of do a little bit more by feel. So if I come in on a day, maybe I'm not feeling it quite as much. I'm not feeling quite as strong.
00:10:27
Speaker
My form's maybe a little off. I'll just back off the weight. And this is something that you can keep in your back pocket for those days that you're not really feeling the best, or you just want to get a really good pump in on some certain exercise.
00:10:41
Speaker
Tip number four, track your numbers.
The Importance of Tracking Workouts
00:10:44
Speaker
This is important because you need to see the numbers going up in order to know that you are building strength and building muscle. If you want to build muscle and really change your physique, you need to get strong. and the only way to know if you're getting strong is to track those numbers.
00:10:58
Speaker
So by having those numbers and seeing those numbers go up over time, it's a good sign that you are doing a lot of the right things. If you start to see those things plateau or maybe even go backwards, then you know that you probably need to switch some things up or make some changes.
00:11:12
Speaker
The second reason that I really like tracking your numbers is because it provides that extra motivation that a lot of us are looking for. it Seeing progress is one of the most motivating things that you can do.
00:11:23
Speaker
When you first get into the gym, it's really motivating because you see a lot of changes quickly. You get strong pretty quickly and seeing those changes gets you excited about getting in the gym and getting stronger and seeing more changes. And so when you can actually see those numbers go up over time, if you get a few more reps on your chin-ups or your push-ups, or you start to see your numbers go up on your bench, or your squat,
00:11:45
Speaker
That is motivating for you to get back into the gym and to continue to progress and continue to get better. And this also helps with just knowing when you're hitting new PRs and when you're getting stronger and all those good things. And so it's super simple. Just track your numbers. And there's lots of apps out there you can use. You can use the old fashioned way of just writing them down in a notebook, which is what I did for years when I first got into fitness. And so it doesn't really matter how you do it. Just make sure that you're tracking over time to see if you are progressing.
00:12:14
Speaker
Number five, use exercises that you like in your program. I know this seems probably pretty obvious, but the more that you actually enjoy the program that you are doing, the more likely you are going to push that intensity that i talked about in tip number one the better progress that you are going to see you could have the absolute best program in the world but if you don't do it with intensity if you don't do it with intentionality if you don't do it consistently you're going to have results that are just not very good but on the flip end let's say you do a workout that's maybe not the best but you train really hard you're still going to see really good results and so Making sure that you use exercises that you like for some of your training is a really simple thing to do. it seems very obvious, but it can make a pretty big difference in how you look forward to training and just how you train in general. And so when I think about picking exercise that you like, I think about a couple of things. Obviously, you enjoy doing them is one, but you also want to make sure that they feel good on your body because if they don't feel good on your body or they just beat you up a ton or you just feel super achy after you do these things, you're probably not going to like them. And the other part of that is exercises that get you really good results because you want to pick exercises where you're going to actually see progress. And so thinking about those things is how I identify good exercises.
00:13:37
Speaker
And so, for example, there's some exercises that I don't necessarily love, but I know they get me really, really good results. And so I tend to pick those exercises because I like what they do for me. Like Bulgarian split squats is a really good example of this.
00:13:50
Speaker
I don't really like doing them because they're really, really hard, but I love what they do for me from a fitness aspect, from making me a better runner, for helping me grow my quads and my glutes and things like that. And so I keep them in my program and they've been a staple in my program for a really long time because they work so well.
00:14:08
Speaker
On the opposite end, there are certain exercises where they feel really good on my body. They give me good results and I just like doing them. So something like a dumbbell shoulder press is something that I've had in my rotation for years and I continue to do them because I know that when I see that on my program, I enjoy doing them.
00:14:24
Speaker
I get really good results from doing them and they feel good and they don't beat me up. And so pick exercises that you actually like and that actually gets you good results. If you have a bunch of exercise in your program that just don't feel good in your body, they beat you up too much, you don't enjoy doing them.
00:14:39
Speaker
There's no reason to keep them in your program because there's hundreds of exercises out there and you don't have to necessarily just boil it down to doing a certain exercise just because the program says it. There's tons of ways to get the same results or get the same stimulus by using a different exercise that you like more.
Consistency in Workout Planning
00:14:56
Speaker
Next on the list is to reverse engineer your weekly workouts. What I mean by this is sometimes people will look for the perfect plan without actually thinking about all the things that go into being able to execute the plan. And so the first thing you should think about when you're trying to pick a good workout plan is first, how much time and how many days can you actually devote to this training program? Because if you have a six day a week plan, but you're only getting in the gym three or four times per week, it makes zero sense to use that plan, even if that plan is
00:15:29
Speaker
on paper a really good plan start with the end in mind think about what you can actually do consistently because a plan that you do consistently and train hard with is going to be much better than the perfect plan on paper and so think about what you can do consistently and always aim to start lower and then you can build on it later because i see people make this mistake quite often as well is they'll think I'm getting into fitness. I have these big goals. I'm going to work out five or six days per week. Going from zero times per week or maybe once or twice per week or working out inconsistently to five or six days per week doesn't work for the majority of people. And so start off lower, start with that two, three, four days per week. And then later on, let's say you do that for
00:16:14
Speaker
couple of months and that's going well and you want to add an extra day then by all means go ahead and add that extra day but a lot of people do the reverse and then when they can't stick to that five or six days per week they feel discouraged and they feel like they're not doing enough in reality if you just started with that three or four days per week and you do that consistently you're going to see great results you don't have to work up to five or six days per week if you don't want to and so start on the conservative end and then build on it later Next on the list is a super simple one. And I know I've mentioned this on podcast before, but use lifting straps when it comes to your back training. And when it comes to your leg training,
00:16:50
Speaker
Grip is going to be a limiting factor for a very large majority of people, especially as you start to get really strong. And so if you're trying to hold heavy weights in your hand for, let's say, lunges or Bulgarian split squats or deadlifts or RDLs and your grip is giving out before your legs are, which is quite often going to be the case because there's a lot bigger muscles being put to use in your legs and things like that than your grip.
00:17:17
Speaker
If that is giving out before your legs are, then you're not able to get that stimulus. You're not able to push towards that muscular failure and get the best results. And so getting lifting straps is an easy way to get rid of that issue. And same thing for back training. Like if you're having trouble holding on to the lat pull down. because your grip is starting to give out or you are getting really strong with your rows and now you can't hold onto that bar any longer and your grip is giving out before your back is giving out, you're leaving some gains on the table. So get some lifting straps. It's going to help you train harder and be able to do more with those exercises when it comes to leg training and back training. And lifting straps, you can find them pretty cheap. They're like 10, 15 bucks. Just get a pair of those, keep them in your gym bag, and you're going to end up getting better results overall, the more that you can implement those things.
00:18:06
Speaker
Next on the list is to use finishers. Finishers are not something that I use a ton of, but I like to use them, for example, like if I'm really just trying to get a nice pump, I'll put these at the end of a program for clients because they really like them. They like to feel like they're doing a lot of work. They like to feel that pump in their muscles. They like to push the intensity. And so finishers are a good thing that you could put towards the end of a workout.
00:18:29
Speaker
Let's say at the end of an arm day, you want to get a crazy pump in your bicep and tricep. So you could do something like do 100 reps without putting the barbell down. So you grab an empty barbell, you do 100 reps without putting the barbell down, that would be some sort of finisher. Or maybe you do like a three exercise circuit where you do like some hammer curls, you do some overhead tricep extensions, and you do some shoulder raises and you take every single one of those exercises, do max reps, do those all without resting and then repeat that after 90 seconds. Or it could be something where you set a timer and you set ah that timer for let's say two or three minutes and you get as many pushups as you can.
00:19:10
Speaker
max out the reps. It's something where you're just pushing yourself really hard and really just getting a lot of reps in, in order to finish off that muscle. And I like these just because they are fun. It's a nice change up from your typical training or your typical style of just like eight to 10 reps or 12 reps or whatever. You really just get to max it out and see what you can do. And it's just kind of fun and it keeps you engaged with the workouts. And so adding some finishers in just from that aspect can be helpful.
00:19:35
Speaker
Next on the list is to rest more. And when I say rest more, I mean rest more in between your sets. In order to actually be able to push yourself to that muscular failure and actually really be able to like train very intensely, you need to be using the rest times in between your sets. I know this isn't always ideal, especially if you only have so much time in the gym. And so there is a time and a place where maybe you do want to use some shorter rest times and just get in and just hit the weights and really get a lot of volume in but for the most part especially as you start to get stronger you're going to need some extra rest time in between your sets in order to be able to push that intensity so if you're only resting 30 seconds 60 seconds and then you're hopping back into your set you're probably leaving some gains on the table because you're not going to be able to have as strong of output in those sets because your muscles need time to recuperate
00:20:27
Speaker
Take that rest time. Two minutes is a good rule of thumb, at least at the very least 90 seconds. There will be a lot of times where like if I'm really, really lifting heavy, let's say like a heavy bench press or I'm doing like heavy leg exercise, there's times where I'll rest three minutes, sometimes even a little bit longer before I do my next set.
00:20:44
Speaker
Again, I know this is time dependent. So if you're trying to get in and get out, then maybe you aren't able to rest as long, but do your best to try to give yourself ample amount of time to really rest and recover so you can push yourself that much more for each and every set and get the most out of each rep.
00:21:02
Speaker
Next on the list is to have a performance goal. As I mentioned earlier, getting strong is one of the best goals that you can have if you want to change your physique in the way that you look. Because if you look at people who look like they're a strong, like if you look at somebody and you see they have a lot of muscle,
00:21:21
Speaker
They are strong. Like you don't just build a lot of muscle without being strong. Getting strong is a good goal to have. And for a lot of people, they have aesthetic goals, which there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But the problem with aesthetic goals is they're hard to measure because the changes are very slow and they're very objective. But when it comes to something like a performance goal, let's say,
00:21:41
Speaker
getting your first pull up or being able to bench 300 pounds or getting 15 solid pushups or some sort of mile time or running a half marathon or whatever the case may be. It doesn't really matter. Just having some sorts of goal with your fitness and in the gym.
00:21:57
Speaker
can be something that you can visibly and measurably see if you are closing in on that goal. Because if you can do a set of solid pushups, if you can do a set of solid pullups, if you can bench your body weight for reps or squat your body weight for reps, there's a good chance that you are going to look like somebody who works out. You're going to have muscle. You're going to be a little bit more lean. You're going to be a little bit more toned as people say. Obviously diet plays a role in these things, but if you get strong,
00:22:27
Speaker
there's a good chance that you are going to be closer to those aesthetic goals that you have. Have some sort of performance goal. These are nice to set and just to keep you engaged and keep you motivated with getting in the gym and find something that's meaningful to you. I know for a lot of people like getting their first pull up, that's a really good one.
00:22:45
Speaker
Benching your body weight is another good one. Being able to squat or deadlift a certain amount of weight is another really popular one that people have. So find something that just gets you excited about getting in the gym and then set that as your performance goal and chase that goal to help you not only get more fit, but also to get closer to those aesthetic goals that you have as well.
00:23:06
Speaker
The next tip on the list is to train together. I personally like to train alone a lot of the time. Like I like to run by myself most of the time. I like to lift by myself most of the time. But I also come from a sports background where playing on team sports is something that I really enjoy doing.
00:23:22
Speaker
And one of the reasons that I've always enjoyed that is the competitive nature of it. And you just get better and you usually train more intensely. You try harder when there are other people around you pushing you, doing the same thing as you. And so if you're a person, especially if you lack that motivation or you struggle with consistency or you just struggle to push yourself in the gym, train with a training partner, Train with a friend, train with a group, get a coach, get a trainer, get other people around you to help you be more consistent and to train harder because you will see better progress if you do those things. Like there's a reason why the best athletes in the world have coaches and have trainers and work out with other people because they get better by doing those things. And you can use that same exact thing for yourself.
00:24:06
Speaker
Use a little bit of that positive peer pressure to really push yourself and see the results that you want to see. Next on
Role of Sleep in Fitness Success
00:24:13
Speaker
the list, sleep. You can't overtrain. You can only under recover. That's a quote that I heard somebody say, and it's always stuck with me. And I really like it because tons of people don't have an issue with getting in the gym and like really pushing themselves hard.
00:24:29
Speaker
But a lot of people struggle with the things outside of the gym when it comes to like recovery, when it comes to sleeping, when it comes to prioritizing like a good diet and those sorts of things. And the thing that you have to remember is that you provide that stimulus when you're working out, when you're in the gym, when you're lifting the weights, when you're running, all those things. But you only get those results if you are able to recover to a point that allows your body to build itself back up. So if you're training and beating yourself down the gym, but you're never sleeping and you're not doing the things outside of the gym.
00:24:58
Speaker
you're leaving a lot of gains on the table. You're not actually going to see the results that you wanna see because when you're in the gym, you're breaking yourself down, you're doing all those things and you kinda take a dip.
00:25:09
Speaker
And if you don't allow yourself to recover, you stay in that dip. And if you continue to do that, you just dig yourself in a hole and you're not actually seeing the results you wanna see. And this is something that, again, I used to take this for granted, especially when I was younger, like because you can just get away with it when you're younger. ah You can get get away with sleeping for four hours, five hours a night, hit the weights, do all this activity, eat like crap and still see really good results. But the older that you get, the more important that this becomes.
00:25:36
Speaker
And I read a book by Matthew Walker called Why We Sleep, and it changed the way that I think about sleep forever. And if you're ever wanting to be motivated to really dial in your sleep and learn more about sleep, I would suggest looking up any podcast or reading his book, anything by Matthew Walker, and you will think about sleep differently. It's wild how important it is, and it's quite literally the best supplement that we have out there just as far as like building more muscle and being able to lose more fat and being more fit, having better performance, feeling better, better energy, better mental health. Like it's one of the best things that you can do. And it's still something that a lot of people overlook. And if you really want to maximize results, there's just no way around it. You need to be prioritizing sleep at least seven to eight hours a night.
00:26:21
Speaker
Next on the list, right along with that and doing things outside of the gym is to fuel properly. You can be doing all the right things in the gym, but if you are missing this piece outside of the gym, your results aren't going to be what they could be. and First on the list when it comes to fueling properly is just making sure that you're eating enough calories.
00:26:38
Speaker
Even if fat loss is the goal, you still need to make sure that you are eating enough calories. If you're doing things like crash dieting or not eating enough, like you're not getting the right nutrients, you're not getting enough energy in your body, your workouts are going to start to tank and you're going to start to fall off and just not be able to see good results because you can't train hard, you can't recover, you sleep like crap, you feel like crap, energy is low. And so you need to make sure that you're eating enough calories, whether your goal is fat loss, whether it's just to maintain, whether it's to build muscle, make sure that you're eating the right amount of calories. Next on the list, Won't talk about this one too much, but it's just protein. We all know that we need to eat protein, especially if you have goals around building strength, building muscle, getting more fit, like protein is essential. So eating protein at every single meal, a couple extra protein snacks throughout the day, that's something that we want to make sure that we are doing. And then the next thing is carbs. So if your workouts are feeling flat, or maybe you're just feeling like you're not able to push yourself as much as you would like, carbs are something that a lot of people skip out on. because they've been vilified or people say that they're bad or they make you fat. But carbs are our best source of energy when it comes to the human body. We like carbs for that good energy.
00:27:50
Speaker
And so if your workouts suck, there's probably a good chance that you're not eating enough carbs or you're just not eating enough calories. If you're eating enough calories, your workouts still don't feel great, then try upping your carbs. This is something that I've had to realize as I've started to ramp up my running more recently.
00:28:05
Speaker
I typically eat a little bit lower carb style diet. But since I've added in running and basically doubled my mileage over the last couple of months, I'm now doing about five hours of cardio. I was wondering like why I was just like not feeling that great and why like some of my runs just felt like trash and even some of my lifts weren't feeling that good. But since upping my carbs and just paying more attention and starting to track those things and really emphasizing getting more carbs in my diet with fruit, and rice and potatoes and oats and things like that, my workouts and my runs and just my energy in general has started to feel better. So Don't skip out on the fueling properly and the nutrition because that's also a big part of this whole process of just getting more fit, looking better, feeling better.
00:28:45
Speaker
This next one is another very simple thing that you can do, but reorder your exercises. So if you have a certain body part or maybe like a certain lift that you are really trying to get stronger in,
00:28:56
Speaker
put that towards the front of your workout when you're a little bit more fresh. So it makes perfect logical sense, but you want to emphasize the things that you are trying to really work on. So if you are trying to grow bigger quads, or if you are trying to grow bigger shoulder muscles, then it makes sense to put those exercises that are going to target those things towards the beginning of your workout when you're more fresh, when you have more energy and when you're able to really push it.
00:29:21
Speaker
Even if you set up your training really well and you're following get a ah good program, As you go through that workout, you are going to get more tired. You're going to lose a little bit more focus. You're not going to be able to push quite as hard and quite as intensely. So if you're leaving those things that you want to improve on for the end of your workout, you're just not going to attack those with the same intensity versus if you put those towards the beginning of your workout. It's a very simple thing to do, but if you have certain exercises or certain body parts that you want to really focus on and build up, put those things towards the beginning of your workout.
00:29:52
Speaker
Next on the list, right along with that, another very simple thing to do is instead of training a muscle once per week, hit it twice per week. Again, for the very same reason, if you are doing all of your volume or all your sets for a certain muscle group, let's say for example, you really want to build up your chest.
00:30:11
Speaker
You could 10 sets on Monday for your chest and then not train your chest until that following Monday, and that would be fine. But what would be better is if you could split those sets up and maybe you do five sets on Monday and then you do another five sets on Thursday you're going to get more out of those sets because as you work through each set, let's say you do all 10 on Monday, as you get to that six set, seven set, eight set, nine set, 10 set, those again, aren't just going to be attacked with the same intensity. You start to get more fatigued, your muscle starts to get more tired and you're just not able to get the same output. But let's say you split those up, you do five on Monday and then you do another five on Thursday.
00:30:52
Speaker
Those five sets that you're doing on Thursday are now going to be a lot better than they would have been if you would have done those five sets on Monday. So like if you were doing those 10 sets as you get to that second set of five sets, those just aren't going to be quite as good versus if you have a couple days of rest in between and then you're able to just attack it. a little bit more intensely and with a little bit better effort again very simple thing to do but if you're able to split up your volume a little bit and really just make sure that you're able to train intensely with each set you're going to see better gains over time next on the list we got two more add in some cardio for better gains you don't need to do tons of cardio but
00:31:33
Speaker
Being able to recover in between sets and being able to have enough energy and effort throughout a workout and being able to even just recover in between days is something that will improve as your cardio improves because if you go into the gym, let's say,
00:31:48
Speaker
you're just wanting to get bigger, you're wanting to build muscle, you're just wanting to get a little bit stronger, but your cardio is not good at all, you're going to struggle to recover in between sets. But if you have a good level of just cardiovascular fitness, like you're in pretty decent shape, you're going to recover a quicker in between sets, and then also in between each workout as well. And so having some baseline foundational level of cardio, again, this doesn't mean that you need to be marathon runner or that you need to be breaking any records of on cycling or anything like that or spend tons of hours doing cardio, but adding in some decent cardio one, two, three times per week can help with making those gains because you're able to train harder for longer. And if you're able to train harder for longer over time, that's going to make a big difference. and so Having some cardio in there, I know there there used to be the myth that cardio kills gains, but when you look at the biggest people in the world, like the most muscular people, I should say, not necessarily the biggest people, but the most muscular people and the people with the best physiques, bodybuilders, they do regular cardio. And part of the reason for that is not only just burning calories, but it also helps them with their training and being able to train hard and recover and all those different things.
Improving Form Through Recording
00:33:00
Speaker
And my last tip on this list is to video some of your sets. The reason why i like this is because this is a really easy way to correct your form. And so if you're using bad form with certain exercise, like you're not actually targeting the muscle that you want to hit, or maybe your form is just sloppy, you're increasing the risk of injury, but also you're just not getting the stimulus where you want to be getting the stimulus. And so if your form is crap, the easiest way to start to fix that is just to look at your form, videoing yourself every once in a while, just on a squat or a bench or pull up or whatever is a good way to just check your form and just make sure that things are looking good because the simple rule of thumb that i always tell people when it comes to building strength and building muscle is you want to increase your weight for more reps with better technique over time. If you're increasing your reps and you're increasing your weight, but your form is terrible and that's not getting better over time, probably not a good thing. Eventually you're probably going to lead down to some sort of injury and you're not just going to be getting as good of results as you want to get. so Having good technique in good form is a good part of progressive overload. And so really easy thing that you can do every once a while is just to video yourself and make sure that you're on track with that. And with that being said, I think that was all 17 of them. So putting this all together and really just summing this up, most people aren't as consistent as they would like to be, or they don't train hard enough, or they don't actually follow a program or track their progress.
00:34:27
Speaker
And so if you want to have better results than most people, just do the opposite of those people. Three main things you need to do. You need to train consistently. So getting in the gym at least twice per week, three or four times would be even better.
00:34:40
Speaker
Train with some sort of intensity, which just means taking most of your sets close to failure, one to two reps shy, or even some of those sets taking to complete failure so that you see those changes.
00:34:51
Speaker
And then three, As I just mentioned a second ago, lift more weight, go more reps with better technique over time. If you are doing those three things and you're doing those things consistently, you are going to see very good results. You're going to build muscle. You're going to see your body change over time. You're going to get more fit. You're going to have all those benefits and see all that progress that you really want to see. It's just that simple. And so the whole idea of this podcast wasn't to have you implement all 17 of these things, but hopefully you heard one or two things in there that you can start to focus on. because As you start to implement some of these things, you'll notice that when you get the big rocks right, you're going to see that good progress. But if you can start to add some of these things and just think about some of these things maybe a little bit differently or implement some of these things within your workouts, you start to see some of those extra benefits, which is nice over time. And those things start to add up the more consistent that you are. And so hopefully this was helpful. You were able to gather a nugget or two that you can start putting into practice right away within your training.
00:35:50
Speaker
As always, the one-on-one coaching link is in the show notes if you want some specific help with this type of stuff. And that is all I have for this week. I appreciate you listening and we will see you next time.