Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1100: The 7 Steps to Picking the Best Workout for You

Episode Date: August 19, 2019

In this episode, Sal, Adam and Justin go over seven steps that will help you pick the best workout based on your experience, goals and available equipment. What workout is best for me?? Mind Pump dir...ects the masses in the RIGHT direction with 7 steps to consider. (3:22) #1 - What is your CURRENT experience and what are you doing NOW? (4:55) #2 – Understanding your own SPECIFIC goals. (14:47) #3 – Being ‘mobility’ minded. (20:48) #4 – How many days a week you can REALISTICALLY commit to the gym FOREVER? (31:32) #5 – Does the workout make you feel beat up or motivated when you leave? (40:42) #6 - How much TIME can you dedicate to the workout? (42:21) #7 – What ACCESS to equipment do you have? (45:52) Constructive takeaways on what a routine should look like for you. (50:10) Related Links/Products Mentioned August Promotion: MAPS Prime & Prime Pro ½ off!! **Code “PRIME50” at checkout** Have more questions, we will get an answer for you! Programs@mindpumpmedia.com Stop Working Out And Start Practicing Is Mobility Important For Working Out? Are Group Fitness Classes Just A Trend? Visit PRx Performance for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code “mindpump” at checkout** The Best Form of Exercise Which Is Better: Low Reps Or High Reps? MAPS Programs Mind Pump Free Resources

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. So in this episode of Mind Pump, we really try to answer the question that people tend to ask us all the time, which is, what's the best workout program for me? Now, whenever somebody asks us that question, we can never answer that question right away because we need to know more.
Starting point is 00:00:32 We need to know things that will give us the right information to point these people in the right direction because the best workout for you may be a terrible workout for somebody else. The best workout for you is based off of the information that we like to collect from people. Now, here's a few things that we talk about in this episode. We talk about your level of experience and why that's a factor and what that'll direct you to. We talk about activity levels, your goals. We get real specific with goals. We
Starting point is 00:00:59 talk about your mobility and aches and pains. We talk about the amount of time you can dedicate to working out in terms of during the workout. We talk about the amount of time you can dedicate to working out in terms of during the workout. We talk about compliance, motivation levels, enjoyment. Do you enjoy what you're doing? And then we talk about equipment access, your access to equipment. And then we get into resistance training, full body routines versus split routines, rep ranges and exercises.
Starting point is 00:01:21 So if you listen to this program, this episode, you should have a good idea of what the best workout is going to look like for you. Now, if you're confused at the end of this or you're still not sure, and this is the first time we're doing this, we will answer those questions for you. We have an email that you can email, and you can ask these questions, and our people will get back to you and try and help you out. And This is programs at mindpumpmedia.com. So just go there if you have questions. But we think this episode answers most of those questions. Also this month, I do want to remind everybody, Maps Prime and Maps Prime Pro are 50% off.
Starting point is 00:02:00 This is the first time we've ever put those programs on sale this way. Now Maps Prime teaches you had to design your own individualized Warm up priming session before you work out and it makes a huge difference. The way you prime your body for your workout Makes all the difference in the world. It helps set up better recruitment patterns, activate the muscles you want to activate Helps you sculpt your body in more effective ways And it really doesn't matter what your workout is, if you prime better for whatever that workout is, that workout is more effective.
Starting point is 00:02:30 Now, Mass Prime Pro, that's our correctional exercise program, and it helps teach you correctional exercises for all the major joints of your body, so you can alleviate pain, avoid injury, get better mobility. Both of them are 50% off. Here's what you do to get the discount. Go to mapsfitinistproducts.com and use the code prime50,
Starting point is 00:02:49 PRIME50, no space for the discount. I've got one for you guys today. Oh, I see the reversal. I, yeah. I came up with this idea. I didn't realize, I didn't realize when I opened episodes I do that, because I'm just trying to start the episode.
Starting point is 00:03:08 The last episode you're like, nice idea. Oh yeah. I'm just gonna be normal now. We just do. Well that's yeah, that's where the running jokes is beginning. That's great. That's a good two-lay.
Starting point is 00:03:19 That's fuck. So what's your idea? So I actually want to go over, because this is something that that this will be a valuable episode. Hopefully this is something too on the back end that Anne can use on the customer service side too because this is probably one of the most common questions that she fields and is always reaching back out to us and then we have to write an email to explain this to people. And that is like how do you choose the best workout program for you or how do
Starting point is 00:03:44 you choose the best workout? What workout is best for do you choose the best workout? Like, what workout is best for you? And, you know, it's not a short generic answer. So I think we should get into how somebody goes about figuring that out for themselves. What's going to work for them? Right. And this is not, I don't think we should talk about how to design your workout for yourself because that's, that can be very, very complicated. I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of bad written programs out there.
Starting point is 00:04:08 There are some decent ones that are written well. And so what we're gonna try and do is kind of direct people in the right direction because it is kind of confusing. Like if you're just getting into fitness or you've been working out for a while, you wanna get your body to progress or to respond again, you're thinking, okay, what program,
Starting point is 00:04:23 what kind of plan should I follow? What's gonna work best for me? Cause here's the deal with workout programs. They can be extremely effective if they're applied to the right person. That same workout can be not effective at all to the wrong person or worse, create injury or cause them to actually
Starting point is 00:04:42 regress in their progress. They go backwards. So to that point, I want to go through like, when we get this question, there's like a series of things that I ask the person before I just tell them what they should be doing. Totally. The first thing that comes to mind that I always ask is, you know, what is your current experience and what are you doing now? Yeah, so I can get an idea if this is somebody who has been training for 10 years,
Starting point is 00:05:04 or I have somebody who has been training for 10 years, or I have somebody who's a complete beginner has never worked out before, or somebody maybe who's worked out and then fallen off for two or three months. And, you know, depending on your answer is I'm going to say something different back to you because it's really where you start is really important to how you see progression going forward. Completely. The, think of your, remember your workout, we've said this so many times on the show, I'll make this point again. Your workout is what sends the signal to your body to adapt and to change.
Starting point is 00:05:36 So that's the stimulus, okay? So think of that as your dose. The right dose is what you're looking for, because the wrong dose will get your body to progress slower, not progress at all, or potentially cause injury or cause you to regress. So, it's all about the right dose, and one of the biggest things you have to consider for yourself is your experience, current level of fitness. You have to consider that because-
Starting point is 00:06:02 You have to be super honest about this, And I think that this is one of those things that I don't think a lot of people realize that you have a sort of perception about yourself and what you've been doing that may not be as accurate and once you start really paying attention and riding it down and really assessing your current status, like how much activity are you really getting in every day?
Starting point is 00:06:23 Right. Experience and activity level go kind of hand in hand, right? Because I would consider myself high experience, but my activity level could be changing. And that where- Such a good point. And where I start would be different. So it's-
Starting point is 00:06:34 Because why? Because experience means you know exercises, you know how to do them right. You know- Right. You're educated. But you just don't have the current fitness level that you would, that somebody who's super, super active
Starting point is 00:06:44 right now would have. So just because I'm somebody who may think their experience or consider themselves as an advanced lifter because I've been doing it for a long time in an understanding exercise, doesn't mean that I necessarily go to an advanced program that I start with because if I've just come off a two or three-month stint where I've been, you know,
Starting point is 00:07:03 not training at all or like similar situation that I had been in in the last few months where I've been, you know, not training at all or like similar situation that I had been in the last few months before max came along. You know, I really was inconsistent with my lifting. I was training sporadically. I was doing more swimming than I was lifting weights. And so, you know, it would be a terrible idea for me to jump into a advanced routine, say, like maps, PED. I mean, the amount of volume that is in that and the amount of training that is, it just, can I do it? Of course, I could do it,
Starting point is 00:07:29 but it would be silly for me to do it. It would be way too much. Perfect. Perfect. So we could kind of break this down then into two general people on this particular topic. Lots of experience, but not good, current fitness level. So I haven't been working out for a while, but I know what I'm doing generally
Starting point is 00:07:48 because I've been, I worked out in the past. There's a long period there. Or neither. I don't have a lot of experience, and I haven't worked out, or I'm not working out, obviously. Or I have both. I'm very experienced, and I'm currently very active,
Starting point is 00:08:03 and very fit. So there's kind of three directions you can look at, because somebody who's coming into trying to figure out a work art for themselves who is both neither experience and low fitness level, there's going to be an element of teaching in there. Does it mean an element of learning movements and learning patterns and learning exercises? For someone who's experienced, even if they're at a shape at the moment, they don't necessarily have to go in and relearn the exercises the same way. Now, they will have to develop good recruitment patterns,
Starting point is 00:08:31 they will have to get their body to move well again, but because they remember what a good form is like, they remember what the exercise is supposed to feel like and what it looks like, is a much shorter learning curve. But that's got to be the biggest one, right? Because here's an analogy that I like to use. If we're thinking of adaptation, there's many different ways the body adapts to stress. One of them being, and this is a very easy one, is your skin's ability to tan when you're exposed to the sun.
Starting point is 00:08:58 This is something I've used many times as an analogy. If you're a pale because you haven't been out in the sun at all, recently, it doesn't take much sunlight to cause your skin to start to darken. And in fact, it doesn't take much sunlight at all to do too much to cause your skin to burn. And what happens when you get a sun burn is you actually lose your ability to adapt.
Starting point is 00:09:20 Your skin isn't able to tan effectively or quickly because you're just burning your skin. This is what can happen with the over application of intensity or too many exercises to which volume if you're a beginner or if your body is not fit. And here's, this is Adam's favorite line, is use the least amount of effort to give the maximum amount of effort to give the max amount of results. So if you're going into this as a total beginner, two days a week is a great place to start.
Starting point is 00:09:51 You could do a lot with two days a week if you're just getting started. In fact, this is when Doug came to me as a client, he had lots of experience. He did, he, at the moment when he hired me, he wasn't super active, but he had lots of exercise experience. I trained him two days a week,
Starting point is 00:10:06 and we stayed two days a week for a year, and then we moved up to three days a week after that, and his progress was phenomenal. I have pictures I could show you of his before and after. It's funny, this is an area that I think that people mess up all the time, because for some reason,
Starting point is 00:10:20 we equate the harder that we try, or the harder the effort, the more effort that we put into the workout, the more results that we're going to get. It's absolutely not true at all. In fitness, we have this motivation hype that we see everywhere, so it feeds into that. It's the reason why for so long on this podcast, I've talked a lot of shit about the motivational hype and the beast mode and calling it. So because I know that it promotes this culture, it promotes this, you know, oh, you've been
Starting point is 00:10:49 lazy sitting on the couch eating Doritos, you haven't been doing anything. It's time to change your life. Get in here. We're going to fire you up, crank the music up, pump you up and get after it, get a sweat, get a burn. It's like, wait a second, that person who hasn't been doing any of this absolutely does not need that whatsoever. Them coming to the gym is already good. You know what I'm saying?
Starting point is 00:11:09 Them getting the gym and starting to make moves is going to actually make their body change. It's amazing, it's a beautiful thing because just to your point, Sal, like it's just like never being in the sun that all of a sudden getting 10 minutes of exposure. 10 minutes of exposure will begin the process. That's perfect.
Starting point is 00:11:24 It will begin to start to make the body adapt and change. And that's what you want, is you want to do as little as possible to elicit the most amount of change. That should always be the goal. It should not be how hard, unless your goal is just to be good at working out, like, or if you're a sports performance person, like, then you want resiliency and you want to build your gas tank. But you still have to train appropriately.
Starting point is 00:11:45 Right. But that's the only time does that even come somewhat make sense to be applying intensity that way. Otherwise, the goal if it's for changing the physique, which most people listening here are trying to change their body, whether it be build muscle or lose body fat. That's what most people are looking to do. If that's the goal, then you actually want to be putting out just enough effort
Starting point is 00:12:06 to change the body. That way you can add a little bit more week over week. Otherwise, you throw all the, everything in the kitchen sink out of the beginning, and sure you see great results for a couple of weeks, but then the body plate toes hard, and then you have nowhere to go. So that way you start, and what program you choose,
Starting point is 00:12:22 or how much volume, or how many times you're training at the very beginning beginning is extremely important to your results. Well, hopefully this doesn't take us too far off course, but you mentioned starting. And so for me, I want to dive in a little bit more to see how serious this person is to want to learn. And like what kind of a student they are going into this because, and I make that point only because there's a very clear way to approach this, to have a more successful, a more smart, you know, like you could learn, you could go really far with this in terms of like setting your body up like the ultimate
Starting point is 00:12:58 way versus just going for that sort of surface goal where I do want just want to lose some weight. I just want to have like these certain goals, but I wanna set myself up so I never have to, well, I'll always have this wisdom to pull from going from here on out. And I think that comes from the experience you get through being consistent.
Starting point is 00:13:16 And here's an important point too you wanna make. The variables that you manipulate with your workouts start out very general if you're a relative beginner. Now, if you're experienced and advanced and you're very fit, now we're manipulating all kinds of different variables to get your body to respond and change. But if you're new, just going in and practicing your basic exercises and moving, you don't have to worry so much about rest periods, messing with rep tempos, messing with the strength curve,
Starting point is 00:13:47 you know, changing the variety of the exercises and the right bands, all the tools. None of that applies to you. All you're gonna do is go in and do some very basic movements to learn how to move better with your foundational kind of movements. You're squatting, you're pressing, you're rowing, you're overhead pressing, your body's ability to, your squatting, your pressing, your rowing,
Starting point is 00:14:05 your overhead pressing, your body's ability to twist your split stance type exercises like your lunges. You're just gonna go to the gym and you're gonna practice these things and do them well. So if you're a beginner, especially one without with little experience, in other words, your low experience and low activity level and you're moving in,
Starting point is 00:14:24 and you're looking at your routine It should not have 50 different exercises on it. It should not have crazy amounts of variables It should be very basic very clean very clear You go into the gym and you're doing anywhere between six to eight exercises at the most For your workout and they're very basic and things you can focus on practicing and perfecting. Something else that's really important and it's kind of moving in the direction of what Justin was alluding to that I think is really important
Starting point is 00:14:52 and I feel a lot of people miss the mark is really understanding their own goals. And that sounds kind of weird, right? Like, I know what my goal is, I wanna look this way or I wanna do this, but a lot of times clients would give me their goals, and they would give out a list of things that they wanna accomplish.
Starting point is 00:15:09 But what they don't understand is that some of the things that they're saying are kind of conflicting each other, meaning like, oh, I wanna be able to run a marathon, but I also wanna build 15 pounds of muscle with you. It's like, okay, well, we could do both of those, okay, it's not that we can't do that, but understanding programming in that if I design a program, design to build 15 pounds of muscle the fastest we can to get there, which because everybody wants that, right? Nobody wants to,
Starting point is 00:15:34 whatever goal they give you, they don't want to say, they want to, tomorrow. Yeah, they want to, they want to, they want to achieve the goal as fastest as possible, because that's the next leading up question that I get after we talk about goals is how long Adam, till you can get me to this point. So That's the next lead-up question that I get after we talk about goals is how long add until you can get me to this point. So if you're goal, if you have a goal, and you want to get there as quickly and efficiently as possible, and you give me multiple goals that are conflicting, there's got to be some sort of a give and understanding in how you create or what kind of program you follow. Like if your goal is to build, you know, your main goal is to build 15 pounds of muscle,
Starting point is 00:16:05 but you also like one day would like to run a triathlon or something, okay, well that's great. The triathlon thing's on the back burner, the main way we're going to train is to build muscle. That's the main focus, because if your main focus is a triathlon, then it's gonna be really tough for us to also build 15 pounds of muscle the same time, is that makes sense?
Starting point is 00:16:21 Right, right, the other thing too, and just take a step back, is oftentimes people are not specific with their goal. How often do you get the answer? You know, what are your fitness goals and the person says, I wanna get better shape. Okay, well, what does that mean? Now, why is it important? Why is it important for a person
Starting point is 00:16:37 to become specific with their goals? Well, you gotta paint the picture. You have to paint the picture and set your target. What do you wanna accomplish with your fitness? I want to lose 15 pounds. Okay, let's get more specific. What parts of your body do you want to shape and sculpt? How do you want to feel at this new body weight?
Starting point is 00:16:57 Do you want to be weaker with less energy? Do you want to be stronger? Do you want to have more energy? How do you want to eat when you're at the school? This is another important one to think about. Like if someone tells me they want to be stronger? Do you want to have more energy? How do you want to eat when you're at the school? This is another important one to think about. If someone tells me they want to lose 15 pounds and I'll say them, okay, would you want to be able, would you want to have to eat half as many calories
Starting point is 00:17:12 as you're eating now to maintain that? Or would you want to be able to eat more calories than you're eating now and be at that target? Now most people would say, I want to be able to eat more calories. I'll say, okay, well, a big focus of your training then is going to be on slowing things down and getting your metabolism to speed up a little bit. Now we might not be able to get you to eat more than you Okay, well, a big focus of your training then is going to be on slowing things down and getting your metabolism to speed up a little bit. Now, we might not be able to get you to eat more than you're eating now while losing 15
Starting point is 00:17:30 pounds, but I can definitely get you to eat more food than you would if we weren't making the metabolism boosting a goal. So you want to be very specific with your goal because that's also going to help you pick a program. Again, if your goal is build 15 pounds of muscle, you're not going to, you shouldn't be doing a program that's based on circuits and running. You know, that's more of an endurance type of a program. If your goal is to build 15 pounds of muscle, your routine should be more of a strength building type of routine. If your goal is to burn body fat, well, I'm going to tell you this
Starting point is 00:18:02 much when it comes to body fat loss, you can burn body fat on almost any program. A lot of that has to do with nutrition. So take that into account. Also, take this into account. How long term do you want your goals? Here's something to consider. If a program is promising you all your results in 30 days or 60 days, probably not a long-term approach. Most long-term approaches are slow and steady. They help you build behaviors that support your new physique, and they also build your body up rather than break it down consistently. Knowing your goals and being specific with your goals is extremely important. I teach this to trainers all the time. I tell trainers, look, when you're asking your client what their goals are, get specific because you have
Starting point is 00:18:44 to paint the picture. And it's more so they can paint it for themselves. And I always have to remind clients that when you give me a goal right now, it doesn't mean like we can't change this in two months. What it does is it just gives me the direction of how your program should look over the next two months. So it's not saying that, you know, I've had many clients who wanted to build 15 pounds of muscle.
Starting point is 00:19:03 They also wanted to burn 10 pounds of fat. They also wanted to burn 10 pounds of fat and they also wanted to be a triathlete. And then they also wanted to be a strong man. You could do all of those things, but this is what's wrong with programming, is nobody, nobody programs specifically for each one of those are a specific adaptation and each one of those goals should be addressed differently.
Starting point is 00:19:23 And so what we would want to do is say, okay, let's focus on one of those goals should be addressed differently. And so what we would wanna do is say, okay, let's focus on one of those adaptations, what's one of those goals, okay, what's focused on one of those goals at a time, work towards that, the program that we follow should be directed towards that. Then as you see the progress in that direction, say it was, oh, now we've put on like 12 pounds,
Starting point is 00:19:40 you're like, hey man, I don't know I'm feeling great, we're almost at that 15 pounds already. You know, let's start now addressing my endurance and I start moving that direction. So you want to be able to understand your goals, understand too that your goals should be specific just because you want to be going to the gym, targeting that main adaptation,
Starting point is 00:19:56 but that doesn't mean that that doesn't change. In fact, it should. It should. I think to kind of bring it back to the beginning of like gathering information. I think that, you know bring it back to the beginning of gathering information. I think that it is to your benefit to get more information in terms of your eating patterns, so tracking everything in terms of how much sleep you're getting, how much activity you're getting, the quality of your joints, go through an assessment.
Starting point is 00:20:23 I highly suggest, even if you just go into a gym and get a trainer to take you through an assessment, it's very valuable because you need somebody a lot of times to be able to see things you probably don't see in terms of your movement. And then this will also help you just be more effective and efficient in getting closer to your goal, even if it's just fat loss. because now you're building on a solid foundation to go. Well, this is why we developed Maps Prime. It's got a self-assessment tool in there that kind of gives you an idea of what exercises
Starting point is 00:20:55 and correctional movements you want to start with. This is important because, you know, here's another good analogy. You know, if I had two parallel lines, and they were perfectly parallel, they would be next to each other, whether it was one mile down the line or 15 miles down the line. But if I move one just a quarter of a degree to the left, the further down you move, the further apart those two lines become. And you go down a million miles and you see the nowhere near each other. Well, the way you start your routine is kind of like that.
Starting point is 00:21:22 If you start your program with bad movement patterns, you're not going to notice a whole lot initially in terms of lack of progress or maybe even pain. But as you continue down the line, the problems become bigger, bigger, bigger, and the hurdles between you and progressing become larger and larger and larger. And so it's critical when you first start out a routine that you actually placed an emphasis on mobility and on movement patterns. That's actually the best time to work on those things. It's harder to fix it later on in fact.
Starting point is 00:21:53 The reality of that is this is probably one of the areas that most of my clients didn't know how to ask for, but was something that you always integrated as a trainer and this is where you really blew their mind. It's like, okay, you can want to build 15 pounds of muscle, you can want to lose 10 pounds of fat, but along the way, I'm gonna get you moving better and feeling better and that's what always kept those people coming back.
Starting point is 00:22:15 It didn't matter, even if we didn't reach their goal, even if they signed up with the ambition of, you know, Adam, I wanna lose those 15 pounds, I hope we can do it in the course of the next two or three months. And along that way, we don't lose the 15 pounds, but I got them moving better and feeling better and like alleviating those aches and pains they had because we addressed the mobility issues or posture issues.
Starting point is 00:22:35 If this sounds complicated to you, you can get specific with mobility movements. And again, like we have a program, maps prime that will give you an assessment. But if you just wanna keep it general, okay? This means you have to be mobility-minded. Just doing that is like a big piece of the puzzle. Just doing that.
Starting point is 00:22:54 So what does that mean? Well, that means I'm starting out my workout. I'm going to the gym. Okay, today's my first leg workout. I'm gonna workout my legs. Do not go in with the mentality of, I'm gonna go in and beat my legs up and get sore and make them hurt.
Starting point is 00:23:09 Don't do that. And I know that sounds crazy because that's what everybody does, right? What do you mean? That's what I'm going to the gym for. I'm going to the gym to workout and get sore. No, no, no, no. Go in mobility-minded.
Starting point is 00:23:19 Go in to train your legs, but practice the movements that you're doing for your legs in ways that means that you're gonna get better at at them. So the difference between someone who's squatting, who just wants to beat their legs up between them and the person who goes into squat, who wants to improve their ability to squat is very different. Imagine that in your mind right now. What does that look like? The person who goes into squat just to beat up their legs, their form is secondary. It's really about how many reps they can do and how hard they can go. The person who goes in to focus on their movement,
Starting point is 00:23:48 it looks like they're practicing squatting. It looks like they're trying to perfect the movement. They're using weight that isn't too heavy because if it's too heavy, your form goes out the window and they're just getting better at squatting. They're getting better at the range of intentional. They're practicing. If you just do that, you don't even need an assessment tool. You don't need maps prime or anything like that. Now, of course,
Starting point is 00:24:07 those things help and they make things a lot better and easier, but you don't need them. If you go in with the mobility mentality of practicing the exercises, that right there makes all the difference in the world, especially if you have a current fitness level is low. And this is even for people who are experienced, especially people who are experienced. You may know how to squat, you may know how to row, go in the gym, and practice those lifts.
Starting point is 00:24:31 And what will end up happening through that process of being mobility-minded, is the level of intensity that you're using to practice a squat, that'll continue to maintain, but the weight will go up. So now, before I did 105 pounds, and I'm really practicing my form, and I'm kind of tight, so I'm going light, and I'm being tense, and getting really, really good technique and form.
Starting point is 00:24:53 And then next week, same intensity, but now I'm 10 pounds heavier on my weight, because I'm like, oh, I actually need a little bit more weight to maintain the same intensity I did last week. And you keep this up, and you know what that looks like? Amazing progress. It looks like amazing progress. You're getting better at the lift While simultaneously getting better movement mobility and you know what that translates into in terms of aesthetics in terms of the way you look a Balanced looking physique now all of us know what an unbalanced looking physique looks like
Starting point is 00:25:19 We've all seen the guy and the girl in the gym who are lean and muscular But they just don't seem to be moving well. Their shoulders are kind of rounded forward. They look like muscle bound, meet heads. We all know what that looks like. Okay, if you train with mobility in mind and movement, you'll still develop, in fact, you'll probably develop more muscularity
Starting point is 00:25:39 and get leaner faster because you're progressing more consistently. You bring this look better. You bring this point up, and I know we address this with squats and dead lifts and the big lifts all the time, but this is everything. Every lift.
Starting point is 00:25:51 I used to do this with my trainers, and I'd watched them on the floor, and most of my trainers were good with their clients, and when they were squatting, they knew it was a very technical movement, so they were moving around and addressing points a lot. But if they were doing a bicep curl or a tricep push down or something like that, they were just kind of like,
Starting point is 00:26:08 then they were working on their notes or just counting right. And I'm like, dude, you need to make every movement that this person do. I mean, I can take somebody in a bicep curl and especially if you're just an average jane. Which is a super basic. Yeah, super basic. But I would be walking around them.
Starting point is 00:26:22 I would speak to them to their stance, to their shoulders, to them tucking their chin back, to drawing their core in, and slowing down the negative. Like you can take a movement, even as simple as a bicep curl, and just try and perfect it. And this was the time to have it, that I would always try and still in my clients
Starting point is 00:26:40 when they were just getting started in their program, because you're gonna build on that, you're laying the foundation. Bro, this is like, martial arts is like this. Like, the best Jiu-Jitsu schools in the world, the ones that have some of the best competitors, drill the basics, and they drill them perfectly. I remember the first time I did, I took a Jiu-Jitsu class, and I was taught by someone who was a direct descendant of the Gracie family. And here we are. We're all relatively advanced. I was the lowest ranked person in the class.
Starting point is 00:27:11 I had a purple belt and a purple belt takes you a good five, six years to get. So I was relatively experienced. And they were teaching us a mounted front choke. Okay. So those of you in Jiu-Jitsu know that's one of the first submissions that you learn when you do Jiu-Jitsu. And so we're all doing it, but the guys walking around and he is picking a part, every little part of the technique. And it made all the difference in the world. And it's funny because Hicks and Gracie's son competed, like five years ago, and one of these huge tournaments.
Starting point is 00:27:40 And he, and this is, he's, we're talking high level. He's competing against some of the best guys in the world. He beat everybody with a mounted front choke. It's like the most basic, one of the most basic movements. Look at boxers. Boxers have four punches. They have four punches. Yet there's some of the most effective strikers
Starting point is 00:27:57 in the world because they practice those four punches so often that they're perfect at them. And so when it's up happening, when you train with mobility and technique in mind, sure you're not gonna lift as much weight or go as intense as your body who's going, you know, ham over there with the squat rack, but over time, you're gonna get better and better
Starting point is 00:28:14 and better, but your form is gonna be perfect. And your body will reflect it. Imagine if you brought that into just your average workout. Like you had that mindset going into each exercise. One thing that I try and focus on too is just If you want to keep it really simple and you're going through that exercise and you are intentional about You know your mechanics and the way that you're lifting The weight and what your body and keeping your body stabilized and in that position
Starting point is 00:28:41 Once that starts to degrade, just barely, just stop, stop. You know, just start, if you can start with that sort of intent where, you know, like I already can feel the fatigue setting I can already feel that my arm wants to go out or something is kind of taking me away from how I started. If you just stop and then just rest a bit and then pick it back up and go again, it makes a world of difference. That's going to carry so many better patterns going into the future. Right. So when you're picking a workout, knowing this when you're picking a workout,
Starting point is 00:29:16 know your current fitness level and your experience and make sure there's a mobility component in the routine and make sure it's not designed in a way that kind of throws that out. Like, if you see a routine and a lot of the workouts of these circuits and the circuits include extremely complex exercises. So a circuit is when you do exercise after exercise after exercise with no rest. You're just, and they're popular because they make people
Starting point is 00:29:40 sweat and they're hard and so people perceive them as being super effective. So you're looking at this routine, you're about to start your new workout and you're like, wow, okay, so I have to do jump squats, you know, jump lunges, pushups, and dumbbell cleans or cleans with the barbell in a circuit. And you know those exercises are technical and difficult.
Starting point is 00:30:00 Probably not a good workout for you. And to be quite honest with you, that workout isn't good for most people. So consider that when you're looking at picking the right routine, understand that important. Well, this is also why we always recommend two reps short of failure. It's not because there's not value
Starting point is 00:30:14 in taking the body to failure sometimes, is we just know that the average person listening that's going to exercise. The last two reps look like shit. Yes, we know that once the body starts to fail, the form starts to go, and so it's inevitable those last two reps, even if you can get them, are probably pretty shitty.
Starting point is 00:30:29 And we know that creates bad habits, bad patterns, and that you don't want to risk that at the reward of just lifting five more pounds or two more reps. I think of it like building a skyscraper, right? If there's two of us and we're racing to see who can build a tallest skyscraper, and there's one person who's spinning all this time laying this incredible foundation. He spends weeks on weeks and weeks on laying it. And the other guy is just ramping up.
Starting point is 00:30:51 And he's up, he's 40 feet in the air already. And the other guy's still laying the concrete down to make sure this foundation is really solid and perfect. And there's nothing wrong with it. But this guy that's ahead by, you know, 40 feet right now, what's gonna end up happening one year, two year down the road? Yeah, exactly. And your body is the same.
Starting point is 00:31:08 We need to know our reason. That's right. Your body is the same way. Sure, it might get you by right now. You may not notice the aches and pains. You may be seen somewhat of a result. So, oh, is it really that big of a deal? Like it is if you plan to do this long term.
Starting point is 00:31:22 If you plan to keep building this skyscraper and building this physique, the foundation that you lay right now will make a difference down the road. So don't just be chasing the calories reps and weight. Now here's another big one, and this one's huge. A lot of people don't realize just how big this one is. You have to have a very honest conversation with yourself in terms of how many days a week you can commit realistically
Starting point is 00:31:46 To working out this has to be a real honest Question and answer that you have with yourself because a lot of times we're motivated We're like yeah, you know what I'm really motivated. I think I want to start working out We give out crazy numbers. Let's like I would ask people like okay. How many of these a week you want to work out five Wait a minute you were just telling me you're not doing anything. And you want to go to five days a week. Is that realistic for you forever? That's what I want you to think about.
Starting point is 00:32:11 Think to yourself, what is realistic for me forever? Now here's why that's important, okay? This is how consistency is built and how confidence is built. It's built through challenging yourself with something that's challenging and realistic. It has to be realistic because you have to accomplish it. Once you accomplish it, then you build the confidence to potentially add more. This is how I've trained, this is how I trained clients
Starting point is 00:32:34 the back half of my career, because the first half of my career was, as many days you can come, let's do it. The second half of my career was, no, no, no, let's start realistically. And when it ended up happening, I got ahead far more success. People would get honest with me and they'd start out by say, oh, I want to work out four days a week.
Starting point is 00:32:50 And I'd be like, okay, is that realistic for you forever? Let's have a real conversation. And they'd look at me and be like, well, forever and I'd be like, that, that'd be okay. Uh, I think two days a week. I was like, okay, so two days a week, you know, for sure, you can commit to working out for the rest of your life consistently and they'll say, yes, no problem. Here's what ends up happening. They come do it two days a week.
Starting point is 00:33:13 It's challenging because they were honest with themselves. So what is challenging, but we make it. We make it more often than not. They make it to the gym two days a week. You know what ends up happening after a little while? They come three days a week. And then they do that consistently. And it's challenging. It's hard. I added an extra day a week, but I'm doing that consistently.
Starting point is 00:33:29 And then you know what happens after a while? They come four days a week. This is how I've gotten the buildoff of it. Always. And it's the, this is the road to success. So the first workout you pick, because you know, workouts are designed and they tell you how many days a week you're gonna be in the gym. Don't do this. Here's what a lot of people do. They think, I really wanna get in shape, really bad. I wanna get this results real quick. So then they look at the routine like, okay, this one's six days a week,
Starting point is 00:33:52 it's gonna be the best one. Six days a week for sure, as he can get me there faster. Wrong way to look at it. That's actually the opposite. Right, it's almost like, you know, if you find yourself having to go look for all these motivational quotes
Starting point is 00:34:06 and motivational people doing crazy shit just to get you to the gym, you should really assess whether or not that's the right plan for you. Because you have to ramp yourself up to that high of a level, you haven't really built yourself in that direction. Like, there's steps to this. I almost always subtracted a day out of whatever anyone said.
Starting point is 00:34:27 Yeah, so if you told me, how do I go seven days a week? I'm like, okay, well, we're definitely not starting anything beyond six, you know. I don't want to do four days a week, here are three days a week. I always would subtract one, say, listen, we can get to four, that'd be great. But let's prove to me that you can be consistent with this first because almost everybody,
Starting point is 00:34:42 when they go in the gym, they get their membership, they hire their trainer or whatever, or get started, is you're on your high. You just read your favorite influencers motivational quote, like Justin said, you're pumped up, she's changing her life. I'm going to change my life. You get down to the gym, you're pumped up. I'm going to do everything I can. And at that time, at that moment, you're thinking you're going to do everything you can, but in reality, with the sales point, the likelihood that you're going to keep up that consistency you can, but in reality, with the sales point, the likelihood that you're gonna keep out that consistency is low.
Starting point is 00:35:06 So start off with something that's obtainable then you can always build on it. That's a 100%, 100% path to failure. I'm gonna tell you this right now. I mean, there's two ways, there's two general ways that people make significant changes in their life. Now, one way, which is the more rare way of making changes is the epiphany.
Starting point is 00:35:28 It's that epiphany where you wake up one morning, something tragic happened or something impactful happened, and you're different forever. So it's like, it's like the alcoholic who just can't stop drinking alcohol and then gets into car accident, almost kills another driver. That may be enough to give him that epiphany to stop, but usually things don't happen that way.
Starting point is 00:35:46 The way that we make changes usually is one step at a time and then they become, the small steps become bigger steps. So when you're looking for the right program for you, don't say to yourself, what's the most I can do because I want to get this goal real bad? Say to yourself, what is a consistent amount of times I can dedicate to exercise forever starting right now? What is realistic that I can do forever?
Starting point is 00:36:11 And for most of you listening right now, especially if you're new to working out, you are looking at two to three days a week. That is generally what I see. Some of you may even be one day a week, but generally about two or three days a week. This also speaks to compliance and enjoyment. Totally. I mean, part of what will keep you consistent isn't just your motivation currently
Starting point is 00:36:31 that you're wanting to get to your goals, but also do you enjoy this workout? You know, and this is what we sometimes we talk about, you know, poor program design or, you know, exercise programs that we see out there. And it's like, even as shitty as some of them are out there, if it's something that you'll do consistently, it's better than something that you will do
Starting point is 00:36:49 inconsistently, a superior program. So if it's a program that you enjoy, you like doing it and you can be consistent with it, that is important. And it's important that you assess that before you just do it or commit to it. Because if you commit to something that someone sold you on, this is the best thing for you,
Starting point is 00:37:07 but you hate every minute of it. The likelihood of you continuing that, continuing that for a long term is very, very. Oh, so, so true. I used to make that point with clients because they would tell me, hey, I heard that running burns the most calories. Maybe I should just run.
Starting point is 00:37:23 And I'd say, well, do you like running? Like, no, I can't stand running. I'd say, well, do you like running? No, I can't stand running. I'd say, well, pick something you enjoy doing. Like, what do you like doing? Oh, I like to ballroom dance. Ballroom dancing classes are my favorite. OK, well, those burn 30% less calories. But you know what they burn more?
Starting point is 00:37:37 Calder is then the one you're not going to do. So you could sign up for running, and it turns into zero, because you end up not doing it. Or you could go do the thing you love, which turns into consistency. What's funny, it's funny when we used to get those you know, I used to use body bugs or these calorie counting devices that, and they're relatively accurate where you could put it on, it'll tell you how many calories you're burning throughout the day. And I'd have clients who would burn more calories on the weekends than they did during the week when they actually had their workouts.
Starting point is 00:38:05 Oh, that was so enlightening for my kids. Oh, totally. And you know, why? Why did, wow, you burned way more calories on Saturday than you do on Friday when you workout for an hour. What did you do Saturday? Oh, you know, I was at the mall with my friends and we did all this shopping and then after that I went to...
Starting point is 00:38:21 You know, I'm painting my house. Yeah, I went to the beach. You know, my God, we had so much fun and I'm like, do you see what's going on here? You enjoyed yourself and you burn way more calories than your structured workouts. So you got to enjoy what you're doing. Now, what makes something enjoyable? Well, partly it's the activity itself.
Starting point is 00:38:37 So you can enjoy something just for the sake of doing it. Like I love with lifting weights, even if I wasn't getting stronger. It's just a fun thing for me. The other thing is results in progress. Are you consistently progressing in some way? Like it doesn't have to be weight loss or muscle gain, but it could be just feeling better,
Starting point is 00:38:54 learning new things, just improving. That's a big one when it comes to the enjoyment of a routine. So consider that. Consider yourself. Look at the routine and say, okay, I know this one's more effective, but this one has me doing boot camp classes at 5 a.m. and I fucking, I hate waking up at 5 a.m. and I don't like
Starting point is 00:39:11 someone yelling at me, but it's way more effective than the, you know, Zumba class that do my girlfriends, that seems to be way more fun or whatever. Pick the one you know you're going to do. Start there. This is one of the knocks that I would have too on the group classes. And I know they do, the group classes do a really good job of building communities. That's their saving grace. Their saving grace is that there's this accountability, and CrossFit's notorious for this.
Starting point is 00:39:35 They're great at building community. You know, Susie takes the 5M CrossFit class every day and you're going to see her. If you're not there, she's going to text you so there's that extra motivation to get there so that helps But man that that type of training that high of level of intensity Every single workout all the time is really fucking tough for the average person to bring that day in day out It'll kill your compliance. It does most very few people have that level of what a great point of motivation to bring that every day day at what they do. And when I'm guarantee many people listening out
Starting point is 00:40:09 even those that probably love those group classes and crossfitting, she like that, is they go in waves. When they are highly motivated and they're consistent, they are for three months or six months at a time and then they fall off and then they are back on. And when they're on, they feel great because they're in good shape to them. But you would be way better off if you you did something that was way less intense
Starting point is 00:40:30 But did it more consistently and more frequently and you enjoyed it and you stayed and you created more of a behavior That's like it's not so daunting to go that yeah and to boil that down How does your workout make you feel afterwards? Do you feel beat up or do you feel energized? Because a workout that beats you up might be fun at first when you're highly motivated, especially if you're hating your body and you're like, I want to beat the crap out of myself. But after a while, being beat up after a workout will destroy your motivation.
Starting point is 00:41:01 Both physically, because you'll see the studies will show, beating the crap out of yourself, dopamine will start to drop, because your body's literally sending you signals that says, don't, please don't do this to me anymore. Like this is too much. So if you, after you work out, you're like, man, I gotta go home and sit on the couch for two hours.
Starting point is 00:41:16 Like, I am just taxed. I'm telling you right now that is not a long term in terms of compliance routine. But if you leave your routine, you're like, you know what, I do my workout and then I come home and I'm talkative with my family, I'm energetic, I feel really good. That is something that probably has some staying power.
Starting point is 00:41:35 That's something that's gonna help you maintain your consistency with your workouts and consistency with activity is one of the most important things. I think that's the biggest repulsion from people really even starting and getting into fitness. It's the biggest barriers that it just looks like work. And that's all that people, I've had the hardest time with getting certain family members
Starting point is 00:41:57 and certain friends and people to realize, you don't have to experience it like that. You can just, you can go with, and lead with something that you actually enjoy doing, but also then build upon that. And so this is, this is part of the process of gaining that motivation. You don't, even if you don't have the motivation now, you gotta find a way to actually start to spark it. Here's another one too.
Starting point is 00:42:21 The amount of time you can dedicate to working out. So, not just the days per week, but the time for the actual work at itself. Now, why is this important? Okay. Here's why I think this is real important. People tend to think that the less time that they have, the more intense and harder their workout needs to be. So people may come to the gym and be like, I got 45 minutes in the gym, so I want to make
Starting point is 00:42:44 it count. Therefore, I can't minutes in the gym, so I want to make it count. Therefore, I can't do anything that's slow or recuperative. I got to beat the crap out of myself. I only have 45 minutes. Now, part of the blame goes to the fitness industry. The fitness industry is trying to sell you short and short workouts that don't require much time. And then the way that they sell it to you is by saying,
Starting point is 00:43:03 30 minutes will kick your ass, trust me, it'll do everything you need, you won't need to do anything else. I was part of the problem as a trainer early on. I remember people telling me, I can't get a whole, you sure I can do a whole workout in 30 minutes. And then my goal was to show them they could,
Starting point is 00:43:16 they could have make it past 30 minutes. You know what I mean? I'd beat them up so bad that they'd leave. And then they'd come back like, you're right, 30 minutes is plenty of time. That's not what you need to look at. The time that you're gonna go to the gym or workout, that's just gonna help you know what to prioritize
Starting point is 00:43:30 in your workout. But in terms of intensity, the same thing that we said earlier in this episode about your experience of fitness level is just as true whether you have 30 minutes to workout or you have 90 minutes to workout. That's the intensity it needs to be appropriate. It needs to be appropriate to your fitness level
Starting point is 00:43:46 and your experience. It doesn't need to change just because you're working out less time. Don't go in there and beat the crap at yourself because you only have 30 minutes. It just means you need to prioritize a little bit differently. So if I'm going to the gym and I'm only spending 30 minutes,
Starting point is 00:44:00 I'm going to make sure I do my big gross motor movements that give me the best bang for my buck. For sure I'm going to go and do my squat. For sure I'm going to go I do my big gross motor movements that give me the best bang for my buck. For sure I'm gonna go and do my squat. For sure I'm gonna go and do my overhead press. For sure I'm gonna do some rows. I'm gonna do those first. I'm gonna leave all the small exercises for if I have time to squeeze out of this short period of time.
Starting point is 00:44:17 I wish that I would document one of these times where my training volume is really low and I'm getting back in the swing of things so people could see what we're talking about. It's just so goddamn boring. I would never waste paying one of our employees to follow me around because it really is this simple. It's like, you know, for the first couple of weeks of getting back in the swing of things, a workout may be 20, 30 minutes for me and it may literally be one exercise. I may squat for 20 minutes and that's a workout may be 20, 30 minutes for me, and it may literally be one exercise. I may squat for 20 minutes, and that's a workout. I'm good, you know why?
Starting point is 00:44:50 Cause I hadn't squatted in two months, anything like that. So me just going for 20 minutes and working on my squat, four sets of that, man, I'll probably be plenty sore, probably more than I even need, depending on how much weight I put on my back. So, you know, when you only have 20 minutes, especially when you're just getting started and that's your time frame,
Starting point is 00:45:10 the one of the biggest mistakes that someone can make is to your points, I was just throwing a whole circuit of exercises, like no, you could literally spend at the all 20 minutes, again, still to the point we made earlier, perfecting the movement on the squat, and the benefit that you'll get from that will weigh out weigh the 12 exercises that you did,
Starting point is 00:45:29 back to back to back to back to back in your circuit. So keep that in mind, and even somebody at an advanced level like I would consider myself, if I haven't been training that much, the workout would look like that. It would scale up to where I was adding things on top of the squat. So again, starting off with just the basics in building on look like that. It would scale up to where I was adding things on top of the squat. So, again, starting off with just the basics
Starting point is 00:45:48 and building on top of that. All right, so now let's talk about one final one. I think we covered most of them, but equipment. What access to equipment do you have? Obviously, if you love boxing and that's the way you want to work out, well, you better have gloves and a heavy bag and maybe someone will hold myths for you You know, do you have access to a gym a gym?
Starting point is 00:46:09 Obviously he's gonna provide you with a lot of variety of cardio equipment a variety of machines and free weights And there may even be some group exercise classes And this goes back to the whole realistic thing like okay, I can I can only dedicate You know three days a week in the gym realistically long term All right, let's look at your schedule Do you have time to go to a gym? Do you have time to get dressed go to a gym do your workout? And I'm talking realistically right now and a lot of people might say no like well actually no like I know my schedule Looks like and I know my motivation level. I think I'll start out working at home
Starting point is 00:46:42 That's perfectly fine. Then your routine needs to be designed around the access of equipment that you have and again make it realistic. A lot of people just starting out are probably better off starting out with a workout that doesn't require a lot of equipment. Unless you know you're going to go to the gym, it's convenient. For a lot of people just doing it at home, you'll get plenty of results to get started. And then again, of course, as your consistent and your motivation goes up and it becomes more of a long-term behavior, then you can add more and more variety.
Starting point is 00:47:11 But you could do a whole workout with no equipment, you could do a whole workout with suspension trainer, which is very inexpensive piece of equipment that you could attach to pretty much any overhang or whatever, you could have a pair of dumbbells and a fisioball, also very inexpensive. You could probably buy adjustable dumbbells on Amazon for under $70 that have a wide range of weights
Starting point is 00:47:33 that you can add to them and a fisioball's another what, 30 bucks. And now you have a home gym that you could do your workout. And then if you could take it another level, you could do a full home gym with a squat rack, like PRX makes phenomenal equipment. That would be something you could do. You, a full home gym with a squat rack, like PRX makes phenomenal equipment. That would be something you could do. You have a squat rack, a barbell dumbbells, my garage.
Starting point is 00:47:49 And I remember I've been working out for decades and I've been training people for decades and I'm always pretty consistent. I work out of my garage most of the time and I have a squat rack, barbell, dumbbells, adjustable bench. That's all I have on my garage and that's what I use till this day for all of my advance work. Sometimes that's a better use till this day for all of my advance work.
Starting point is 00:48:05 Sometimes that's a better route, especially for your beginner, because what happens sometimes with a big commercial gym and a newbie. Analysis by paralysis. Yes. Exactly. Is the paralysis by analysis? They're over here. They're staring at all the different equipment and they're like, fuck, where do I go?
Starting point is 00:48:23 Where I do? Or... I set it backwards. Or they're like, fuck, where do I go? Where do I go? Or, or they're like, Jim Quickeness. Yeah. I did. Whoa. Yeah. Mind blown. Or they get into this, they want to test drive everything.
Starting point is 00:48:36 You know, so you're workout. I mean, I, you guys, you ever get, I used to do this on a kid. I used to get clients like this. That would be like, I want to learn every machine in here. I want to learn every machine in there. So, you know, some people, to go on the day you're not working on it.
Starting point is 00:48:48 Right, right. People want to just know how to use everything in the gym. And I get that because if I was a member and I belong to a gym and I don't know how to use equipment, I had a trainer, I would probably use my personal trainer to at least learn all the equipment. But when it's up happening, as you end up, you go around to all these machines,
Starting point is 00:49:03 you find a few machines that you like or feel good or give you your pump in your arms the way you like and then all of a sudden you're doing that machine all the time. So be careful of that of all the cool toys inside of a gym because sometimes those exercises as cool as they may seem or how neat the machine is, you're missing out on some of the fundamental and the most important movements, which all that requires you have is a fucking barbell or a set of dumbbells. Yeah, I like that approach of starting at the home too, because there's that sort of insecurity
Starting point is 00:49:32 where if you're brand new and you're going into a gym like that, it can be very intimidating. And also feel like you sort of project this on everybody else, like people are like watching and judging you. And so whatever you're doing, you're very like self-conscious about. And to be able to really like practice and just hone in on it, like, a select few movements, you know, and the only comfort of your house, I think that that's, I mean, that's a great approach, especially if you're brand new.
Starting point is 00:49:59 That's my favorite thing, man. I love working at home. But all right, so I want to make sure that we, because we covered like seven steps that help you pick the best workout, but I want to give, I want to leave people with some constructive takeaways. So here's some takeaways for you. If you just listen to this part of the episode, you'll have kind of a good idea in terms of what a routine should look like for you. So step number one, the most important
Starting point is 00:50:25 and foundational form of exercise that everybody should include. So if you only could pick one form of exercise, make it this one, but it's not the only one I think you should pick. So I think everybody should incorporate a wide variety of modalities in the routine, but this should be the cornerstone
Starting point is 00:50:41 and that's resistance training. Now here's why. Resistance training builds strength, stability, mobility, it helps speed the metabolism up, and it's extremely versatile, and it benefits all other physical pursuits, whether it be functional flexibility or endurance or stability or fat loss or body sculpting. So at the very least, you want to at least dedicate one day a week of resistance training. So if you can only work out one day a week, make it resistance training.
Starting point is 00:51:08 Now if you can work out more than one day a week, I'd say up to three days a week, do at least a full body resistance training routine one to three of those days a week. If your goal is endurance and you love yoga classes or whatever, that's perfectly fine. The other one or two days a week can be dedicated to those form of exercises,
Starting point is 00:51:26 but make sure that one day a week it's lifting weights. Now, if your goal is to build muscle, sculpt the body, get lean, and you like lifting weights, every one of those days can be resistance training. And here's what I'll say to that. Train your whole body. If you can work out three days a week or less, each one of those workouts should be a full body routine.
Starting point is 00:51:44 And it should start like this. Work your legs first because that's the biggest body part. Then move to your back, then move to your chest, then move to your shoulders, your arms, then train your core, and then you can train things like your calves. Try to move in that order. Now, it doesn't need to be set in stone, but generally speaking, you want to do one, maybe two exercises per part, per body part. Now if you have short time,
Starting point is 00:52:07 then just do your legs, the back, chest, and shoulders. And you can stay away from the other ones because they get a lot of work from working those other body parts. And that'll cover some of the best exercises you could do. Now if you work out more than that, if you're like, hey, I know I can be consistent four or five days a week or you're advanced and you want to go a lot, then you can start splitting up
Starting point is 00:52:27 the body if you want to. You don't necessarily have to do that. I don't do that and I work out quite a bit, but that's when you can start splitting things up. So if you're going to the gym five or six days a week, maybe you do upper body on one day, lower body another day, one day is just mobility or just sprints or just yoga. Another day is an upper body day again,
Starting point is 00:52:45 but this time now you're doing different types of exercises. Here's where you can mix it up a little bit. Here's where you can mix up all the types of routines and exercises. Now as far as rep ranges are concerned, all rep ranges up to about 30 reps, how would say, generally speaking, have a lot of value. All rep ranges have a lot of value.
Starting point is 00:53:03 I recommend, we recommend that you stay in one rep range for at least three weeks or so. Anywhere between, I'd say two to four weeks. Staying that rep range, get good at that rep range after about two to four weeks, move out of it so that your body can continue to adapt and change. As far as exercises are concerned, you can change up exercises relatively frequently, only
Starting point is 00:53:26 if you've mastered them. So what does that mean? It means you're probably not going to stop doing barbell squats, dead lifts, and overhead presses for a long time. Or ever. Or maybe ever. Those exercises take a very, very long time to master. So they probably are going to be in your routine, in your rotation consistently for a very,
Starting point is 00:53:44 very long time. But like a dumbbell curl, okay, you get good at it. You could switch that out for a machine curl or a cable curl, not a big deal, okay? So look at those things in that way. Now in terms of goals, if your goal is endurance, then your routine should be centered around building endurance. If your goal is strength, it should be centered around strength.
Starting point is 00:54:02 If your goal is mixed, pick one and make that the center focus, but then add the, it's almost like majoring and minoring in college, right? You're going to major in strength, but you're going to minor in endurance. Fine, you're in the gym three days a week. If my major is strength and my minor is endurance, two days a week are dedicated to strength. One day a week will be dedicated to endurance. If it's the reverse, then you flip it around. Now, if you're still confused,
Starting point is 00:54:25 if this is still kind of like, wow, a great information, still not sure what this is going to look like for me, well, here's what buying a program can really come in handy, because it's all written out and planned out for you. Now, we have a lot of programs, so I don't want to necessarily go through every single one,
Starting point is 00:54:42 but I'll tell you this much. If you're a super beginner, no experience, low experience, super beginner, maps starter was designed specifically for beginners. It requires dumbbells and a physio ball, or maps anywhere, which is no equipment at all, and it's mainly body weight and resistance bands. If you've got some experience,
Starting point is 00:55:02 but you haven't been in the gym much, or you've got experience, you've only been working out for six months or so. Maps and a ballack, great program, but it is, sooms, you know, how to do a barbell squat, barbell bench press, barbell row, that kind of stuff. If you want to get more advanced, then you have things like maps aesthetic, maps split. For people who like the endurance, the stamina, the different kind of workouts, that would be more like maps performance, maybe even map strong.
Starting point is 00:55:24 And then we talked about correctional exercise mobility. Here's something you can do with any workout. You could do maps prime and that will teach you how to do correctional exercise and then you can add it to whatever you're doing. So if you're listening right now and you're like, you know what, they make good points. I love swimming. It's my favorite thing in the world to do. I really hate any other form of exercise. They told me to do what I love swimming. It's my favorite thing in the world to do. I really hate any other form of exercise.
Starting point is 00:55:45 They told me to do what I love. Well then Maps Prime will teach you how to do a 10 to 50 minute priming session before you swim so that you get good movement patterns and you have good mobility. So that kind of simplifies it for you, but I think we gave you enough information in this episode itself to kind of get started and make this happen. And also check out our free guides. We have free guides that kind of spell this out and put it out all in writing for you. You can find those at mindpumpfree.com. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy,
Starting point is 00:56:18 and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and a ballad, maps for performance and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having sour, animal, and Justin as your own personal trainer's, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money bag guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com.
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