Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1195: Three Steps to Sculpting the Ultimate Physique

Episode Date: December 30, 2019

In this episode, Sal, Adam and Justin outline the top three essential steps to sculpting your ultimate physique. The parallels between functionality and performance. (1:51) What is considered aesthet...ic? (4:19) The appealing nature of balance and symmetry. (5:45)  How fat with muscle looks better than just body fat. (8:40) You have control over how you want your body to look. (11:06) Three Steps to Sculpting the Ultimate Physique. #1 - Developing a better mind to muscle connection. (14:18) Focusing on adding isolation exercises to your programming. (19:03) Working on mobility to connect to target muscles. (23:45) The significance of slowing down your negative and getting a good pump. (25:27) #2 – Picking the RIGHT exercises. (30:48) What are the best exercises to build muscle? (32:16) Best isolation/compound exercises for the Chest. (33:26) Best isolation/compound exercises for the Back. (36:18) Best isolation/compound exercises for the Shoulders. (39:28) Best isolation/compound exercises for the Glutes. (44:07) Best isolation/compound exercises for the Hamstrings. (47:46) #3 – Prioritizing frequency over intensity in your programming. (50:22) The importance of exercise order. (53:24) The value in tracking volume. (56:11) People Mentioned IFBB PRO Johnny Sebastian (@johnnysebastian)  Instagram Omar Ventura (@omarv33)  Instagram Ben Pakulski (@bpakfitness)  Instagram Dr. Jordan Shallow D.C (@the_muscle_doc)  Instagram   Related Links/Products Mentioned December Promotion: MAPS Aesthetic ½ off! **Code “BLACK50” at checkout** Do the Low WHRs and BMIs Judged Most Attractive Indicate Higher Fertility? The Relationship Between Waist-Hip Ratio and Fertility Mind Pump 1190: 3 Ways to Transform a Skinny Fat Body Mind Pump TV - YouTube How To Actually Target Your Lats With The Lat Pulldown! - Mind Pump TV How To Do A PROPER Dumbbell Rear Delt Fly – Mind Pump TV 3 Best Secrets - How To Make Your Butt Grow (AVOID MISTAKES!) | MIND PUMP 5 Most Important Exercises for Muscle Growth in an Effective Routine – Mind Pump Blog How Many Times Per Week Should You Train Each Muscle Group? Mind Pump Free Resources

Transcript
Discussion (0)
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, with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this episode of MIND Pump, we talk all about the three most important steps you should take to sculpt the ultimate physique or to sculpt your ultimate body. So we started by talking about what that looks like. There are standards that are considered aesthetic, but of course it's different from individual to individual.
Starting point is 00:00:35 We talk about why it's so important to get connected to body parts that you wanna target and sculpt. We talk about how you can pick the right exercise. And then we go down and break down per major body part, what those exercises are, which ones you should do for each of those body parts. Then we also talk about how to program, how to write your workout around sculpting your body around body parts that you want to develop. So we talk about how to prioritize them, what kind of frequency that looks like, how often you work them out, exercise order, and we talk
Starting point is 00:01:04 about intensity, how hard you should work them out, exercise order, and we talk about intensity, how hard you should work them out. It's not just about harder, by the way, there's a smart way to apply intensity. Now, before the episode starts, you need to know this, this episode, as of the time it airs, you have 48 hours left. There's only two days left for the 50% off
Starting point is 00:01:20 maps aesthetic sale. Now, maps aesthetic is the program designed for people to help sculpt and shape their bodies. This is the only Maps program that's individualizable. So you go in there, you pick the body part that you find that you need to work on the most, plug it into the focus sessions, and that's part of your workout. So here's how you get the 50% off. Go to MapsBlack.com and use the code black50, B-L-A-C-K-5-0, no space for the discount. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:01:50 Hey, do we, do we even need Justin for this one? Of course. Oh, he's on this podcast. He's on this podcast. He's gonna be on this episode for sculpting the ultimate. Yeah, for sculpting the ultimate. I know things about this. Yeah, do I actually lie them? Maybe not all the time. No, for sculpting the ultimate. I know things about the giant. Do I actually lie them?
Starting point is 00:02:05 Maybe not all the time. No, actually, I think that there's all joking aside, the things that we're going to talk about in this episode about sculpting the ultimate physique, really, you can apply these principles to anything, because as an athlete, even Justin, don't you identify weak body parts and figure out ways to prioritize them to, or not body parts, but weak, movement and figure out ways to prioritize them to or not body parts, but weak
Starting point is 00:02:27 Patterns a week to prioritize them so you can be Always see parallels and similarities between functionality and performance and Yeah, it's a very similar mentality like if you see something that you want to that there's a deficiency there Like if I do see that there's a way that could build and develop a muscle Further then if that was my focus, I would totally want to know how well deficiency there. Like I do see that there's a way that could build and develop a muscle further. Then if that was my focus, I would totally want to know how. Well, there's a reason why when we use to do the assessments on new people to the gym, right? That one of the questions is like, you know, what body parts do you want to focus on?
Starting point is 00:02:57 Because almost everybody comes in and they have areas on their body that they want to change whether that be their stomach They want flatter or they want more definition in their arms or they want more round shoulders or they most commonly build their butt You know or their inner thighs like so Even though we have obviously debunked spot reduction The idea of well spot building is a real thing rightunked spot reduction, the idea of... Well, spot building is a real thing. Right. Yeah. Spot reduction is a myth.
Starting point is 00:03:29 Is a myth. Spot building, though, is true. 100% true. Spot reduction is the belief that you can burn body fat from target areas. You can't. Your body largely burns body fat from where you are genetically predetermined to burn body fat from. So, typically, here's a rule of thumb. The first place you put it on, when you gain weight,
Starting point is 00:03:50 is typically the last place that you'll lose it. But when it comes to building, you better believe you could target build. I could pick a part of my body and depending on how I train that part, if I do a good job, I can accelerate its development in comparison to the surrounding area of body parts of my body or to the rest of my body.
Starting point is 00:04:09 I can pick a body part and turn it from a weakness into a strength. Now, before we get into that, I think it's important to kind of identify what... When people talk about ultimate physique, when we talk about aesthetics, when we talk about what looks good, why do we even think things look good to begin with? Like, why is it that studies will show this, by the way, that there are general broad agreements across cultures in terms of what's considered aesthetic. For men, it's a hip, excuse me,
Starting point is 00:04:40 it's a waste to shoulder ratio. For men, a wide shoulder to small waste ratio is considered attractive in all cultures. In women, it's hip to waist ratio. In fact, in some parts of the world, ideal size for women when they pull people is could be much heavier than it is on the other side of the world.
Starting point is 00:05:01 I mean, they can differentiate by 30 to 40 pounds, but what they find that's consistent is to hip to waist ratio. And what scientists have done is tried to identify, like why do we find these things attractive? And really it all boils down to fertility. The ideal hip. Child bearing hips.
Starting point is 00:05:17 That's it. The ideal hip to waist ratio in women, when they've studied women who have this ratio, their odds of successful, healthy childbirth are much higher. And men, a nice shoulder to waist ratio means lower body fat, better mobility, better performance, higher testosterone levels, higher sperm counts. So, although obsessing about aesthetics, probably not a good thing,
Starting point is 00:05:40 there is some truth as to why we find things to look good or look bad, and why balance, this is the most important thing. Balance and symmetry is one of the most consistent things. Well, that's where I was going to go, because you always go the evolutionary way and talk about this. And, you know, I talk about one of the first times I remember watching, I think it was the documentary that I was watching when they did this. And it was, there's actually a mathematically equation for beauty. And really what it is is symmetry in the face. and they did this and it was, there's actually a mathematically equation for beauty.
Starting point is 00:06:05 And really what it is is symmetry in the face. And that's how they determine like, oh, this person on a scale of one to 10 is a 9.7 based off of this symmetry, the distance between their eyes, their nose, their lips, all those things. And I think that same rule applies for the body, from left to right and top to bottom,
Starting point is 00:06:23 that the more symmetrical you are, the more appealing it is to the beholder. And I know that a beauty is in the IB holder, but I also think that there is some truth to that it's appealing to the majority when you have symmetry. And balance is a little different than symmetry, right? Balance is referring to the, what would be considered the ideal proportions of the body.
Starting point is 00:06:45 So imagine somebody who only ever does curls and has really, really big biceps. Their arms probably won't look aesthetic because it won't be balanced out by their triceps. Imagine someone who only ever works out their chest but never trains their back. They would have a well-developed chest, but their balance wouldn't be very good, because instinctively, we know what a balanced body should look like. I remember when I was a trainer early on in my career, I had a lady that came, wanted a body fat test,
Starting point is 00:07:15 and I took her body fat measurements, and her bicep skin fold was higher than her triceps skin fold, which never happens. There's a natural balance to body fat stored in the arms, where the triceps stores a little bit more than the biceps. Just like a man will store more in their midsection. She had liposuction.
Starting point is 00:07:32 She had liposuction. And I remember asking her, this is strange. I said, have you ever had liposuction? She's like, how do you know? So well, your skin fold measurements are not in the normal natural proportion or balance. So balance is also very important,
Starting point is 00:07:45 not just being symmetrical and making sure that the right to left look good together, muscular-wise and up in the top to bottom, like you don't avoid leg workouts and just work out your upper body or vice versa. It's also about balance. It's muscles in proportion to each other. And that's really what the basis of bodybuilding
Starting point is 00:08:04 is supposed to be. Now, I know bodybuilding, modern bodybuilding is extreme and most people don't want to look anything like a pro bodybuilder, but its roots and its origins are based off of this ideal of proportion. That was identified among well-balanced athletes and especially by the Greek and Roman sculptors who would sculpt these beautiful sculptors of naked bodies. And when you look at them, they would try to figure out, why do we find this look to be so attractive? A lot of it had to do with balance.
Starting point is 00:08:36 Now, before we get into developing your body, here's a number one, regardless of how well developed your body is if there's a lot of body fat on your body, you're not gonna be able to see your aesthetics, you're not gonna be able to see your aesthetics, you're not gonna be able to see that ultimate physique. So that's number one, you wanna have a relatively lean body so you can kinda see what your work is for. Now to that point though, it's interesting you went
Starting point is 00:08:56 that direction because I actually was just messaging back and forth with an old client, friend of mine, and she's on her fitness kick right now. She's competed before and she's put on quite a bit of body fat in the last year, so just a new career moved, a lot of stuff going on with her fell off the wagon, like many people do. And she had put on quite a bit of body fat and she's been back at it again. And so she's sending me like her updates on her photos and what she looks like.
Starting point is 00:09:24 And one of the things that I complimented on her, of course, recognizing too what she's going through. I'm going to beat up on her. She already knows that she's carrying more body fat than where she's been before. But one of the things I noticed, and this is true with myself and with many clients that I've seen that have put a lot of good work on building an aesthetic physique and sculpting their body and lifting weights for a long period of time. Even when you end up putting some body fat on, it looks better.
Starting point is 00:09:51 It does. It's displaced nicer. It's totally true. You know, if you've done a good job of building your glutes up and your chest and your shoulders and your arms, even when you get a little softer and you carry that winter coat on, the way it's actually formed on your body,
Starting point is 00:10:06 it's crazy how much better it looks than like we talked about the other day, the skinny fat fat. Fat with muscle looks better than just body fat. It does and women, it looks like more like clothes. Yes, yes. And in men, you just look stronger. No, I'm glad you brought that up.
Starting point is 00:10:20 You know, focusing on how to build your body, I think is such an important thing to focus on in terms of aesthetics. Now, we've made the case on the podcast over and over and over again why building muscle is a strategy, should be a strategy among anybody, regardless of what your goals are, whether it's to the burn body fat or to gain weight
Starting point is 00:10:38 or to improve mobility, there should be one of the focuses because more muscle developed, the right way is just better for you overall. But from an aesthetics standpoint, hands down, that's it, right there. Hands down, there's nothing like sculpting your body with nice well placed muscle, functional muscle.
Starting point is 00:10:54 That will do more for your physical aesthetics than almost anything else you can do for your body and Adam, you brought up a good point. Even if you're overweight, having muscle underneath that makes you look a lot better. This also reminds me of another question that we got recently too about, how do you guys stay motivated in the gym when,
Starting point is 00:11:11 you've been lifting for several decades, and it's like you've probably done just about everything and workout routine, like does it get bored and old and how do you keep yourself enjoying the process? And body sculpting is one of my favorite ways to do that. Like to say like, hey, this quarter or and that's why I kind of fell in love with the chasing the bodybuilding thing was I didn't know how much I was going to like it, but I really enjoyed, hey, show after show, I would get critiqued and told this, you need to improve
Starting point is 00:11:44 this. You need to work on that. And then I would have to use my knowledge, use my experience and to go back to the drawing board and program, like, okay, what should my program look like in order to change the way my body looked? It was a lot of fun, it was fun to know that I had control to manipulate the way that my body was shaped and looked. That's why I like the term sculpt
Starting point is 00:12:08 because it's like a sculptor. It's not as easy as taking clay and packing it on over here and shaving off clay over there. It definitely takes hard work, but with resistance training done properly, and especially where we're gonna explain in this episode, you can shape and sculpt your body,
Starting point is 00:12:25 and of course there's limitations, but you have a lot of room to play with. What were some of the first body parts you had to work on? I know towards the end, when you and I, when we started Mind Pump, towards the end, you made like your back of focus and your calves of a,
Starting point is 00:12:38 was it like that from the beginning, like what did you start with? No, no, for me, the original was my chest, and then my shoulders, and then with? No, no, for me, the original was my chest and then my shoulders and with and then from my shoulders actually, then my rear delts, so got even more specific. And then it went back and then cows were a last one because in men's physique, it does, it matter somewhat, they see them. So you don't want to look like you don't train them at all. But I also knew that they didn't carry as much weight
Starting point is 00:13:07 as everything else. And I was training them enough to, you could tell I trained them. They just didn't look impressive. So that was the last piece probably that I started to put a lot of energy and focus on. And that a lot of that was from show feedback. Like I would do a show.
Starting point is 00:13:21 And before I got into competing, I went and I hung out with some of my buddies, Johnny Sebastian and Omar Venturo, I think Omar, especially on the posing side of men's physique and bodybuilding, I think he's one of the most talented in the industry. I mean, he's just him and Johnny, the routines, there's a lot of pros out there that their routines came from Omar and them. And one of that is he's just got a great eye for looking at your strengths and your weaknesses.
Starting point is 00:13:52 And so I would go over there house and practice some of my posing and they would break down, like, hey, you really need to work on this or develop more of that. Or, you know, and so then I would go back to the drawing board and start to develop it. Man, it's a really cool thing when you take the principles that we'll talk about today and you start to apply it into your routine and, and you get to see the
Starting point is 00:14:15 change. It feels empowering. Very. It really does. Well, the first thing that you'll notice, or that we notice, I should say, as trainers, um, that tends to be true with most people who have a week or lagging body part. And that's where we're gonna start because when you're trying to build and sculpt the ultimate physique, you're probably gonna be working with initially lagging body parts. Body parts that may not be developed
Starting point is 00:14:39 to your satisfaction and proportion to the rest of your body. Whether it be your quads or your glutes or your delts or your chest, it's probably a body part that you're like, gosh, this body part just doesn't match the rest of my body. And typically, one of the main reasons why that is is because you have a poor, and okay, I'm gonna use a term that we use in training
Starting point is 00:15:01 that really scientifically speaking may not have a backing, but from a training standpoint, it makes perfect sense. You're not well connected to your weak body parts. That'll mean your paralyzed from it. You don't have a neurological connection to it, but when it comes to utilizing that weak body part in effective exercises and feeling it really work and squeezing it and contracting it well, you're just not as connected to it as other areas of recruitment process to that.
Starting point is 00:15:31 And that's like a lot of bodybuilders call it the mind muscle connection. And, you know, like, there is a way to enhance that process. So if you don't feel a muscle getting involved in a lift to really put work in that direction and make sure your mechanics are right, make sure you're in good posture, make sure you have the right angles established, you're really emphasizing the squeeze or you're supposed to be squeezing. There's lots of technical ways to handle and address this, so then you could start to actually build and develop those muscles even further. Yeah, a lot of people sometimes too will think, well I'm connected because it gets sore.
Starting point is 00:16:10 So when I work out, let's say I have a, let's say my chest lags, you know, when I do bench press, my chest gets sore, I must be really connected. Not necessarily. That's getting sore. Soreness isn't necessarily a good indicator that you really have good control, good mind muscle connection to that muscle. If it's the fact that it's a lagging body part, that right there will tell you
Starting point is 00:16:32 that that's probably the case with you. So regardless of whether or not it gets sore or not, you're probably not able to really get that muscle to do what you want. And one of the best ways to do that is to use isolation type extra stuff. Well, I used to love to give the analogy or explain the clients to kind of get this message across that we actually all
Starting point is 00:16:50 have the capability to do this. There's people that have had to do this because they don't have hands and they don't have arms and they've learned to do everything with their feet. They can write with their feet, they can play the piano, you have the ability to connect to your feet and articulate your toes similar to what we could do with our hands and do some of the things that you can do with your hands with your feet. At least much more than we all have.
Starting point is 00:17:13 Exactly. In other words, we're all connected to our feet. Everybody right now, if I said wiggle your toes, it could come somewhat wiggle your toes, but the connection is really weak compared to what it could be. If you put a lot of energy and effort into getting better connected and training those muscles, that mind, muscle connection to be able to do that and what you could do, you'd be all your mind. That same principle applies to the person who comes to me and says, I want to develop a part
Starting point is 00:17:41 of my body. And right now you have an okay or a poor connection. And more often than not, the areas that are lagging and most, I've been, Pekolsky talks a lot about this because he's a big obviously bodybuilder sculptor guy. You know, always the muscle that is underdeveloped on you is also one that you are poorly connected in comparison to other muscles on your body. So that's normally one of the root causes.
Starting point is 00:18:09 You're just, you don't have a great strong signal there in comparison to other places. So that is the foundation. As we have to first get better connected to that, no better way than doing that to your point. Sal is these isometric or isolation type exercises for that area. It's the squeeze. The squeeze makes a big difference.
Starting point is 00:18:31 So, isolation exercises, if you compare them head to head to compound movement. So, isolation exercises typically use one joint. So, like a curl would be an isolation exercise. For my chest, a fly would be an isolation exercise. For my chest, a fly would be an isolation exercise. A compound exercise for my chest would be a bench press. Compound exercises head to head build more muscle. That's true. However, it's much harder to connect to a target muscle
Starting point is 00:18:58 with a compound exercise than it is with an isolation exercise. So here's what isolation exercises shine. If you're lacking a mind muscle a muscle connection to a muscle, if it's a lagging body part, isolation exercises can be a phenomenal way for you to feel and squeeze and isolate that muscle and focus on the squeeze more than anything. There's different, you know, different portions of a muscle contracting,
Starting point is 00:19:22 different ranges of contraction. There's the stretch, the mid-range, and the squeeze. The squeeze is where you're going to learn to connect, where you get it in its shortened position, and hold the squeeze. This is where isometrics really play a big role. This is so valuable. This is the reason why there's those exceptions to the rule out there that we actually do see some of these bodybuilders and physiques that are incredible and they don't do compound lifts. It's not that it's better to not do it or you don't build as much muscle by neglecting compound. It's that it is so important that you connect to specific muscles that you're trying
Starting point is 00:20:01 to develop in order to develop them and you can put that much energy and effort into these exercises and still build a pretty damn good physique. Now, why is this, why is this true? Well, when I'm doing a compound movement or a big gross motor movement, meaning I'm using a lot of muscles, there's a lot of different ways my body can avoid using my target muscle, which it's probably already developed a pattern of doing so. So if I'm doing a bench press, it's not just my chest that's pressing the bar off,
Starting point is 00:20:30 it's also my shoulders and my triceps. And if my chest is weak, if I'm not connected very well to my chest, the odds are I am using a lot of, or mostly shoulders and triceps. This is true for any exercise. And so isolating my chest, doing a fly would mean I kind of take the shoulders and triceps out of the movement. Now I'm forcing myself to use my
Starting point is 00:20:53 chest to its fullest capability and again focusing on the squeeze. Now once I get connected to it, doing an exercise like a bench press now becomes a completely different experience. So isolation exercises are exceptional for this. Do you guys think that this is part of what makes up the quote unquote genetic freaks? Is more so that they have this beautiful connection to all their muscles that is very balanced throughout their entire body that really causes
Starting point is 00:21:20 this symmetrical natural look before they even start to touch weights. And then when they do start to touch weights, their body just is like a symphony. Just like the person who the first time they play the piano, their fingers just move right, and then they just, they were made to do that. I think that's true for all athletes.
Starting point is 00:21:37 Right, like you think that like the bodies that we see that are just so impressive, part of that is the genetic gift that they have is the communication to all the muscles so well that the first time they got under a bar and performed a squat, their body like evenly distributed the weight it was supposed to and your body moved the way it was. Oh, I can definitely see that with a lot of athletes
Starting point is 00:22:01 to like our quarterback was like, you could literally teach him anything movement wise and he would pick it up instantaneously. He was like the best bowl or he was the best water skier. You know, like it didn't really matter. It was just like, you just so naturally inclined to kinesthetically learn something. And so it was like this, like you said,
Starting point is 00:22:20 that sort of communication throughout his body was just like on another level. Yeah, I think it's true for all athletes and I think high level body builders are in that same category. They're just, they're more connected to their body. And then there's a feedback, right? Here you are, naturally connected to your body a little bit better. Then the muscles start to get bigger and here's the wonderful thing about sculpting your body. As the muscle develops, you start to get more connected to it.
Starting point is 00:22:43 It's easier to connect to a big muscle than it is to connect to a small muscle. I'm not comparing different muscles. I mean, the same muscle. If I have a big chest versus a small chest, my ability to connect to it, it's easier. I remember when I first started working out, as I started to develop back muscles for the first time,
Starting point is 00:23:00 it made it much more easy for me to feel them when I was doing certain exercises. I want to be clear too, because I used to hate the word for the first time that made it much more easy for me to feel them when I was doing certain exercises. I want to be clear too, because I used to hate the word isolation exercise when I was a trainer. Exactly. I do want to make that clear as we're talking about this. It's impossible to isolate a muscle.
Starting point is 00:23:16 There's no such thing. It's definitely impossible to isolate a part of a muscle. So when we use the word isolation, I think it's it's it's it's easier way to explain things. And and that's what we really mean is you're putting the most emphasis. The most focus. Yeah, the most focus or emphasis that you can in a specific area or in a muscle, but the truth is the body works together and it's impossible to just take one muscle and not work a group of other. Now, here's where correctional exercise also shines. Sometimes your inability to really connect to a muscle isn't,
Starting point is 00:23:50 is partially because that muscle itself isn't firing well if poor recruitment patterns could also, it's also a mobility issue. And sometimes working on mobility and getting yourself to move through deeper ranges of motion with better connection overall helps you connect to those target muscles. This is where correctional exercises, this is where I've used correctional exercises for people. If you don't feel your glutes when you squat, sometimes getting yourself to be able to just squat better really is all you need to really start to feel the glutes. And that means you may do exercises that you may think are not just specific to
Starting point is 00:24:21 the glutes. Things like the 90, 90, or the combat stretch, which are neither one of those movements really is a glute targeting exercise. And you can make the argument that 90, 90 hits the glutes a little bit. But now that your mobility is better, now you get in the squat and the form is a little bit better and you can start to feel it more where you need to.
Starting point is 00:24:39 Yeah, you notice that when you go further in range of motion a lot of times, sometimes it's like, as miniscule is like the last inch. Like that's where you really, oh wow, then there's the sensation that you feel that your muscles hadn't felt before, and it's a lot of times unlocking that process requires that bit of attention and mobility in the joint.
Starting point is 00:24:58 Well, that's kind of the chicken or the egg argument, isn't it? Yeah. Like they're kind of one of themself. It's like which one came first? Did you have a poor connection, therefore, caused poor mobility, and then it just progressed and got worse, or the other way around. Like, I mean, they're one of themself.
Starting point is 00:25:14 If you have really good range of motion, really good mobility, the likelihood that you're gonna be better connected to the muscles that surround that joint, that support it and going through full range of motion, is probably much higher, right? Now here's the thing about getting connected to your muscles. The weight that you use is arbitrarine.
Starting point is 00:25:31 Who cares how much weight you use? All about feel, it's all about feel. So if you're going to the gym and you're doing exercises to connect to your weak body parts, forget about the weight. In fact, oftentimes heavy weight is harder, makes it harder for you to connect to those target muscles because those muscles are weaker
Starting point is 00:25:52 and your body will compensate. So sometimes going to the gym and saying, wow, okay, I'm gonna come and weight 50% all of a sudden, oh, now I can feel my mid back or my lats or my glutes or my quads. Slow down your negative. This is one of the best pieces of advice that I could give you and wherever you're currently at in your negatives, right, or on the eccentric portion of the exercise.
Starting point is 00:26:14 That's where you're lowering the weight. Right. The easiest part of the exercise, most people just drop it down or go relatively fast, two to three seconds tops, double, four to six seconds. So what a great way. First of all, when you're lowering the weight, the negative, the eccentric portion of an exercise, your body can handle about two to three times the load
Starting point is 00:26:35 that it can on the positive part of the exercise. So it's a lot easier for you. So what a great time for you to really slow down the process and try and feel it where you're supposed to. And I think this has missed a lot. And when I watch the way people train inside the gym, it's rare that I ever see somebody do a solid four second count on a negative.
Starting point is 00:26:56 And there's something that says you can't do or five or six second. Especially when you're trying to connect it. Exactly, especially when you're following the principles that you were just alluding to, Salis, which is weights arbitrary. So if weights arbitrary, it doesn't matter. Lighten it up big time.
Starting point is 00:27:09 Now, muscle your tempo. Yeah, and mess with the tempo and slow it way down and really resist the way down. And then when you come all the way to the top, squeeze at the top and hold that isolated contraction for two or three seconds, that's really gonna enhance that connection. It's all about the feel and I'm glad you brought up the negative because it's easier to connect to a
Starting point is 00:27:30 muscle on the positive than it is on the negative. So what I mean by that is let's say I have a poor, let's say I'm working on my lats, okay, let's say I'm working on the part of my back that's called my lats and they're just they're lagging and I want to develop them because I'm sculpting my body and I just don't feel them that much. I'll'm sculpting my body. And I just don't feel them that much. I'll do pull downs and pull ups, but I just don't feel them working that much. So then I go and I get in the lap pull down machine, I put real lightweight and I slow the hell down.
Starting point is 00:27:54 When I do the squeeze and I'm connecting to it, now when I'm raising the bar up and I'm doing the negative, when I'm letting the cable pull the bar up, if I can continue to stay connected to my lats on that negative, whoa, will, I'd develop a connection to that muscle because oftentimes the negative is where we it's like, oh, oh, I got the connection on the squeeze. Now let the weight go up. No, no, no, stay connected throughout the
Starting point is 00:28:16 entire range of motion, including and especially the negative. And what, remember, what you're doing with this is this, you are teaching your brain and your body to connect to that muscle. We're not necessarily hammering the muscle to make a build. We're just, we're paving the way, if you will. We're building the highway for what we're about to do with the next couple tips. But if you don't get connected, nothing else matters. If your glutes aren't firing well when you're doing squats, I don't care all the glute
Starting point is 00:28:43 exercises and great compound lifts and all that stuff that you do. So we very, very, what underpatterns you'll develop all the other muscles around it. If you have a poor chest connection and you don't connect to your chest and you do a bunch of presses, you'll get big shoulders and triceps. And I think we should explain that,
Starting point is 00:28:56 as people don't understand that, right? Well, I'm doing chest exercises like crazy. Why wouldn't it? Well, that's because your body always will take the easiest path. So it's gonna go the default pattern. So if you, when you push, if you primarily push, like a lot of people do,
Starting point is 00:29:11 unless you've trained your chest correctly for a long time, most people when they go to push anything, they push with their shoulders and their triceps. Even though the chest is a bigger, stronger muscle to help you push something, we naturally default to this kind of rolled forward position and the shoulders and the triceps, which are smaller muscles, take over the movement. So even if you do these chest exercises, you know, three, four, five times a week, if you're doing them incorrectly and you're not connected really well to it, then all those other
Starting point is 00:29:41 muscles that are used to taking over will take over and they'll just become really dominant and then it actually makes it worse Then it makes it even more challenging to try and develop that and this is common I get clients all the time that would be really frustrated at all the the chest exercises are all the glued exercises They were doing to develop that area But yet it just wouldn't grow and what it happening is they just get these overdeveloped quads You know if they were trying to build the bud and that's what they ended up overdeveloping it happening is they just get these overdeveloped quads, you know, if they were trying to build the butt, and that's why they end up overdeveloping the quads or they get these overdeveloped, you know, front delts
Starting point is 00:30:10 because they're trying to build the chest up. That's right. Now, once you're connected, once you can start to feel and squeeze and control and connect to that lagging body part, once you can get a really good pump in that body, that's another part, by the way, try to get a good pump in your lagging body part. I've noticed this time and time again with
Starting point is 00:30:28 clients. Once we get to the point where the client can get a good pump in the weak or lagging body part, then I know that they're connected. But once you can do all that, you got connected, you get the squeeze, you can do the negative portion of the rep and feel the muscle. You get a good pump, you're very connected to it. The next thing you do now is you go to pick the right exercises. You have to pick the right exercises because the isolation movements that we talked about, the correctional exercises that we talked about are great to connect, but when it comes to building the most amount of muscle, the compound lip, now this is where compound lifts are the best.
Starting point is 00:31:05 They shine. Once you're connected to your glutes, nothing's gonna build better glutes than a squat or a hip thrust or a deadlift. Once you've connected to the glutes with your, maybe one-legged, you know, leg bridges and your dog peas and your isolation type exercise where you can feel the glute connecting,
Starting point is 00:31:21 once that happens, now go to the compound lifts because those build the most muscle. And this is true for all the body parts. And there's two big reasons. And correct me if I'm wrong or there's more that I'm not thinking of, but it's load and CNS benefits. Right. It's like, you're more demand. Yeah. If you're trying to build your glutes, I don't care how good you get it at dog peas or kickbacks, you'll never be able to load it with 200 pounds and do it. Just never be able to do that. And the demand of putting that much load on the body,
Starting point is 00:31:54 the demand it puts on the muscle, the primary mover, the glutes in this case, and the CNS, the firing system that tells the body to move, the demand that it puts on those two things, you just can't get that in isolation exercises. And that's what makes it superior. But only if you've done your due diligence by getting really connected to them.
Starting point is 00:32:14 Right, so what are the best exercises? Well, they're typically compound lifts. You can do three weights, tends to be more, they tend to be superior. Generally speaking, this isn't always true, but they tend to be superior when it comes to building muscle. These are your deadlift and deadlift variations, your squat and squat variations.
Starting point is 00:32:33 These are your overhead press in their variations, your rows with your barbells and dumbbells, your bench presses, your split stance exercises like your lunges, your bulgurian split stance squats. Those exercises, as you mentioned right there, really encompass some of the most effective muscle building exercises that exist period. Well, what if we did this? I think this would be fun to have some dialogue around this right now.
Starting point is 00:32:58 And I'd like to hear what you guys think. Since we're talking about, we've talked about the first step and the importance was the isolation exercises and then we're the second biggest thing in key is to do the best compound exercises for these muscles. Let's go through each major muscle in the body, just the major ones, right? And let's talk about our favorite isolation exercise to help people get connected to the muscle. And then let's talk about what we think is one of the best bang for your bucks exercises
Starting point is 00:33:23 to go to the compound once you're good at connecting. Perfect. So chest, we'll start with chest first. I think a phenomenal isolation exercise to connect would be a cable fly or a dumbbell fly. Now, I like a cable fly a little bit better because the cable allows me to have more tension in that squeeze portion right? I don't agree with that.
Starting point is 00:33:41 Especially on the eccentric. So the part where you're bringing it back to, it helps emphasize the stretch, and then you're actually resisting that weight as you're coming back to the rest. So I'm gonna take that one to the next level. One of my favorite things to do with somebody who struggles to get connected with their chest and is a fly, is to lie them down on a foam roll
Starting point is 00:34:03 with the foam roll running down their spine. I'm going to have foam roll or even a foam roll. Yeah, full foam roll. So it's supporting your head so your head is on it and it runs all the way down to your hips and you and you wrote the foam rolls down your spine. And why I like this and then I grab a really light dumbbells again, weights arbitrary, we're just trying to get connected here, really light dumbbells and then they do flies there. Why I like this is because of what
Starting point is 00:34:26 Gravity does in my favor here most people that struggle getting connected to the chest one of the primary reasons why they struggle with that Is the rolling the shoulders forward and then the shoulders taking over the movement when you lie down on a foam roll like that where the foam Roll is down the spine it actually gravity Fold your your shoulders down and back naturally just laying there foam roll like that where the foam roll is down the spine, it actually gravity folds your shoulders down and back naturally, just laying there. And so it puts you in an optimal position to already be better connected to the chest. And then I do the movement you guys are both talking about, which is a fly, which is probably the best isolation movement for your chest. Totally. Now for a compound lift, the big muscle building exercise,
Starting point is 00:35:05 you can do for your chest once you're connected. Well, you can't beat the bench press or the incline press. I say both those, either with the barbell or dumbbell, the really is no better general exercise for building the chest muscle. And I think we all like the end, I think we've talked on the show a couple of times, and I think we've all agreed that we even like the incline better than flat. For aesthetics, I would say for aesthetics. I think it just puts you that we even like the incline better than flat. For aesthetics. I would say for aesthetics. I think it just puts you in a better position. Yeah, I would make the case for both.
Starting point is 00:35:30 I would make the shoulders. Yeah, I would make the case that Justin's alluding to right now, which is for, puts you in better position because the angle of the bench and then, again, gravity pushing the shoulders back and down. So I like to teach that exercise more. And then to your point Sal, I think that it's a game changer for the way it develops your upper chest. I mean, and that really brings someone who wants to build their physique up. Yeah, it looks more impressive. You have definitely the way and even if you think that the bottom of the chest, the hang is an
Starting point is 00:36:02 area that you want to focus on, I think you'd be surprised by how much that will be improved by actually building the upper part of the chest. Sure, sure, but both generally, right? Flat and inclined, they're gonna be the big muscle builders. All right, so let's go to the back then. So we're going the opposite side of the body. An isolation movement for the back,
Starting point is 00:36:23 I like to do a lat isolation exercise, either a straight arm pull down or a dumbbell pull over. Again, really focusing on the stretch and then the squeeze at the bottom of the movement to connect to the lat. That's one of my favorites. How about you guys? A lat pull down with the cue of the chest up to the bar to me was one of the best ways to get somebody connected
Starting point is 00:36:45 to their back. In fact, we just talked about that on a recent episode and I counted probably at least five or six DMs that I got today from that tip alone. And of course, I think we all agreed and we've all trained hundreds of people. That is one of the most common challenges with people that are doing the lap pull down or back exercises in general, just not being able to connect to it. And that single cue, I think, I know personally, I've helped hundreds of people.
Starting point is 00:37:14 So, and you guys, I'm sure the same thing. So, I love to teach the lap pull down, I pull that bar down to where it's still about six to eight inches away from the chest. I stop them there, and then I cue the client from there, lift the chest up to the bar. And that really teaches that importance of being able to retract that scapula, engage those lats. And once you really understand that, I feel like it carries over really well into the other
Starting point is 00:37:42 movements. Now, yeah, I mean, I like both of those two. And if I was to go more functional, I would say pull up, but like maybe assisted on a degree, so it's not so intense, you could focus a little bit more on the eccentric parts, so as I'm lowering it down, I could try and really connect to that process.
Starting point is 00:37:57 But I mean, like a lot pull down, you're gonna be a lot more isolated in that situation. Definitely. Now, as far as the compound muscle building exercise, pull-ups, Justin, you just mentioned those. I like that for that. I think a pull-up is one of the best, just back building exercises. And then a barbell row.
Starting point is 00:38:13 Barbell row two. Deadlift. Yeah. And I know. And I'm for sure biased a little bit in this because it, anytime I have a paradigm shattering moment in my, in my lifting career, personally, it always definitely makes me a little biased about it. Like, it just, I, I done everything under the sun for my back and I had a pretty decent back already. And to think that this late in my career that I could, I made the shift that I made as far
Starting point is 00:38:41 as the development of my back, nothing, nothing did. What like, even a great good ass, barbell row and great pull-ups and don't get me wrong. In phenomenal compound lifts and 100% could be argued, one, two, and three and you could flip flop, but fucking a, the dead, the getting good at, and again, I think that goes back to the original point that I made that it's the two biggest things are the sheer weight that you can do and then the demand on the CNS and nothing, no pull-up, no row is going to come close to the weight that you can load on a deadlift and then the demand on your CNS on the deadlift in comparison those two. So for me, that's the biggest bang for your body. Now Now shoulders, we'll talk about shoulders. I like for isolation. Any kind of a raise, whether it be a lateral raise or a front raise or a rear fly or a rear raise,
Starting point is 00:39:36 all of those are great isolation exercises for the shoulders. Now here's a deal. If the weight's weights too heavy very easily can turn into a back exercise So light go light slow down and feel the shoulder contract at the top my hands down favorite Connection exercise laterals to the sides those are my favorites You know the case this is a difficult one for me to answer because the the thing that I like to teach it's not an isolation exercise Because the thing that I like to teach, it's not an isolation exercise, but I feel like it helps people isolate their shoulders and not cheat on anything else. And that's the Z-Press. And I mean, go so light. And I know that's a compound, consider to compound lift because we've got multiple joints
Starting point is 00:40:20 involved, but do it like super, super light and bring it all the way down to your chest. And why it kind of feels like an isolation exercise for me is because you're completely eliminating the lower body. You can't arch the back and cheat. It's one of those exercises that the shoulders have got to do all of it. And then the holding at the top, which I could make a case now that I'm thinking about that. And I know Justin might go this direction is the overhead carry. It's a squeeze.
Starting point is 00:40:52 Yeah, and isolation exercise like that. And that's why I feel like you get a little bit of that with a Z press. I teach it with full range of motion, exaggerate the holding at the top and stabilizing at the top and coming all the way down. Personally, for me and clients that I've taught, nothing has helped them get better connected to their shoulders than that single move.
Starting point is 00:41:13 Yeah, I do like that. I also like it. Kettlebell presses that I incorporate rotation with mainly because you're getting all the extension of the elbow, you know, the wrist, like everything is involved in that spiral line. It's a very functional feeling exercise, but at the same time, it's really emphasizing the shoulder and its action. So I like it because it it evenly distributes that force better on the joints. I don't feel like a lot of times, if I'm doing too much overhead pressing, even with dumbbells and I'm in like that fixed position, I tend to get a lot of more stress
Starting point is 00:41:49 there in the shoulder. And so this is a way that can sort of distribute that more effectively and then also get the same benefits of an overhead shoulder press. Well, all overhead presses in the front. Put cells right. If I'm trying to isolate a part, I guess the shoulders, I guess the shoulders are a little more complicated and not as direct, straight forward as talking about the chest, or the arms or something like that, because of the, it's a multifacet joint, right?
Starting point is 00:42:14 So you can, it's gonna move in different planes. So if I was, I would have to break the shoulder up and say, what are we trying to focus on? And to your point, if it's like somebody who's, and especially, we're dealt. To me, I think very few people that are trying to focus on and to your point, if it's like somebody who's... Rear delt or...? Especially rear delt. To me, I think very few people that are trying to develop the shoulders are lacking a front delt. If you've been lifting, right?
Starting point is 00:42:33 If you've been lifting, most people have a decent front delt toy just because, again, if you pushed anything in your life at all, you are using your front delt a lot of time. Where most people I think are neglect or have underdeveloped is the rear delt. And so a really light rear delt fly, and we have a YouTube video that I did with Jordan Shallow where we break down the mechanics of that. I think that is one of the most underrated movements, one of the things that, even the people that do that movement, most people do it incorrectly, and they engage too much of their traps and their rhomboids involved in that movement. And so learning to do that properly, get very connected to the rear delt, and that I think
Starting point is 00:43:23 is, it will help most people try to develop the show. As far as building them overall, though all overhead presses are great. Barbell, dumbbell, kettlebell, all those versions, overhead presses, or standing, even seated, they're all phenomenal. But you know, you bring up a good point.
Starting point is 00:43:38 When it comes to picking the right compound lifts, when we're talking about certain body parts, certain body parts, most of the exercises are isolation to begin with, in particular the arms. Now, you can do compound exercises for biceps and triceps for sure, but the vast majority of exercises that exist for biceps are going to be isolation in which case, what we talked about earlier in this episode, really just apply that more than anything, slow the rep down, focus on the squeeze, and really, really, really connect. All right, next body part, I think was Shubba's glutes,
Starting point is 00:44:08 very popular body part to focus on these days. The funny thing about that is, I remember, I was, I've been training long enough to remember when women would come in to say, what makes my butt smaller, and then all of a sudden it turned into, what makes my butt bigger. Yeah, completely, yeah.
Starting point is 00:44:21 Yeah, funny thing is, I trained them the same either way. They want to make a bigger, smaller, I focused on sculpting it, shaping it, and then they were happy with the way they looked. Glute isolation exercises, I like single leg bridges. I like to be able to squeeze the glutes at the top. I like, this is where I'll do thing like a dog pee exercise on hands and knees, where I bring the leg out
Starting point is 00:44:44 to the side and squeeze. I also like the kickbacks I do with the leg. And then believe it or not, 90, 90, if done properly, is a really, really good way to isolate different parts of the glutes. Do you actually do those? Knee-banded floor bridges. So and it kind of kills two birds with one stone to South Point of doing the 90 90 and then the single leg bridges by throwing the
Starting point is 00:45:10 band around the knees and and fighting the band from closing the knees. So pushing the knees out while you're on the floor doing a floor bridge. It forces you to incorporate the entire glue because one of the common mistakes of just doing a floor bridge is the default of people's knees collapsing inward. And yes, the part of the glutes getting engaged, but you're missing out on that good old side butt that most people are looking for,
Starting point is 00:45:35 they give you the heart shape that a lot of people are looking for in their butt. So banded the knees banded, we'll help incorporate that while also isolating the rest of the glutes in the floor bridge. Now we did also did a great YouTube video on this. This is the one that I believe I did this one. And I think it's important how you do this.
Starting point is 00:45:59 So if you have lower cross syndrome, so you have this kind of anterior pelvic tilt and you have this excessive arch in your low back, which is very, very common, and you just go into a floor bridge, you will still default by arching the low back and your hip flexors taking over a lot of the movement. And so it's really important that before you go up in the floor bridge, that you actually flatten the back, push the back down and activate the core and the abs. So it's tighten your abs up after you pray in which you will feel,
Starting point is 00:46:33 because in order to push your back flat, your abs have to tighten up, and then you drive up through your heels. We did a great YouTube video around this on our channel. So, and that's something that's important on, we're highlighting it right now and talking about the glutes because I think it's the most common here.
Starting point is 00:46:49 That, this applies to all the exercises. Again, the weights are arbitrary. It's all about the connection, the squeeze, the isolation process. You're trying to feel it. So don't get cut up in the pumping reps and just going really fast through it. Slow down and really try and articulate the movement
Starting point is 00:47:04 and think about where you're trying to feel this at and understand that, when you're doing a movement where there could be a lot of posture issues or you're not connected very well, just going through these isolation exercises quickly doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get better connected and think about it. No, all the rules we talked about originally apply to this. As far as the compound movement for the glutes, hip thrust squats and deadlift and deadlift variations
Starting point is 00:47:29 in particular, Sumo, those are the best butt building exercises you could do, hands down. In fact, if you do good squats and good hip thrust, you're probably covered. As long as you're connected to your glutes, you're gonna get some good glute building effects from that. All right, moving down the body, hamstrings.
Starting point is 00:47:46 This is another popular one, by the way. I would get a lot of women who I would train who'd say that they want to develop their hamstrings. And most people only know one exercise for hamstrings. Leg curls. That's all I know. Now, leg curls are a great isolation movement, especially when you go light and you squeeze the hamstrings. And by the way, here's a little trick when you're doing hamstring curls where you lay down on a machine,
Starting point is 00:48:06 when you come up with the weight, try taking your legs off the bench as well. In other words, almost like you're kicking your legs back while you're squeezing your hamstrings and watch what happens, the squeeze you're gonna get is gonna be insane. Because our tendency when we do a hamstring curl on a machine is to try to bring our knees to the chest at the same time.
Starting point is 00:48:22 This way you'll see people's butts come up off the bench while they're doing hamstring curls. Instead, push your butt down, lift your legs off the bench and squeeze your hamstrings. And that will isolate your hamstrings better than anything in my opinion. Hamstring builder, good mornings or Romanian deadlifts. Yeah, definitely a deadlifts, I think.
Starting point is 00:48:41 I think of those for this for sure. Oh yeah, you can't beat those at all. Quads, how do you isolate the... Now this one's a rare one. I don't think I've ever really run into anybody who's like, I can't feel my quads when I do an exercise, but if that's you, leg extensions, I can't think of a better exercise
Starting point is 00:48:56 that'll isolate your quads. That's good for, in terms of connecting. And then of course squats, but I like front squats for quads. I like front squats better than back squats for squats. You just, you just feel, Sissy squats are great. The problem is if you're not connected, you do a Sissy squat.
Starting point is 00:49:10 You're probably bad idea if you're feeling flat. You can do it. You get a fall flat on your back. Well, this is also where, you know, again, it's a great point place to highlight things that people see on Instagram or see people doing and is that bad, is that good? When we're addressing something specific,
Starting point is 00:49:24 like, oh, I'm trying to develop my quads, here's where like elevating the heels makes sense. If so, if you're going to do a back squat, so I like a back squat with heels elevated, because I can load it much heavier, right? The front squat, I can only get up to maybe 275 or so. Maybe my best was like 315 that I can hold on there, but I could load my back a lot heavier than that, right?
Starting point is 00:49:44 So, but to put more emphasis on the quads, I could get one of those, you know, those, either those, the pads or, you know, squat shoes or. I like to use five pound plates. Yeah, five pound plates. And this is, this is what you're, if you see somebody doing that, if they're not doing it as a crutch, because some people might be doing it a crutch because they lack ankle mobility, but it's also a great way to change the recruitment pattern on a regular backsquad. Now we're going to become even more quad dominant than glute dominant in that movement. So that's I think a great way to develop the quads. Totally. Okay, so let's
Starting point is 00:50:22 get into now the third step. And this is really about programming. How do I, now I'm connected, I understand the best exercises, isolation, and both compound and isolation. How do I program this? Well, here's a deal. And this sounds like a no-brainer, but it always surprises me when people don't get this.
Starting point is 00:50:41 Prioritize that muscle. What does that mean? You're probably going to work it out more than the other body parts. And the reason why I think that that's, it sounds obvious, but it's funny because oftentimes people come to me and say, Hey, my glutes aren't responding or my shoulder never responding. I'll say, Okay, how often do you work them out? Once a week. How often do you work out your other body parts once a week? Okay, let's bump that up. Keep everything else the same for the rest of your body, but let's increase the frequency of training for your weak body part. And I want to highlight, prioritize frequency over intensity.
Starting point is 00:51:11 Yes. What I see more often than not is when people have a weak body part, they kill it in the gym. That's their way of, it's a weak body part. So I'm going to hammer the shit out of it. And they have a more volume potentially on it, but it's all in one workout. And then they're just like, they're so sore from it that it hinders their workout two or three days if they were even gonna hit it again, or they fall into the same trap that I did as a young kid,
Starting point is 00:51:34 which is, oh, it's still sore and recovering, so there's no reason for me to hit it again. I'll wait till it's not sore, and then I'll hammer it again, and then that's the way I would treat this weak body part. You're far better off scaling back a little bit, not going to failure on it, and then addressing that muscle group again, two more times, maybe even three more times in the week.
Starting point is 00:51:55 In fact, the way our maps aesthetic program is designed is we encourage people to pick one to two muscle groups that they wanna develop and they wanna work on. And we say, okay, we lay out the foundational workouts, We encourage people to pick one to two muscle groups that they want to develop and they want to work on. We say, okay, we lay out the foundational workouts, which are three days a week where you have the bulk of all your major movements and your core foundational exercises that everybody should be doing no matter what your goal is. Then we have what are called focus days.
Starting point is 00:52:20 On your focus days are where you are putting, you know, you're adding volume or you're adding more frequency to these areas that you want to work on. And these are the areas that we recommend the more isolation type exercises. So you're going to, if it's glutes and quads or let's say glutes and biceps are your two focus muscles, well then you're, you're still going to end up doing, you know, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you're hitting those big major exercises on those. So they're getting addressed then. And then you're also gonna have these focused days, two days a week where you're addressing
Starting point is 00:52:52 those muscles where you're, you're going easier on intensity, but we're just trying to pick up the frequent. Right. So just to simplify again, full body workout, three days a week. So you're hitting everything three days a week. Now you got two more days or three no more days where you can go into the gym and you can connect, you can do correctional exercise, you can squeeze and get the pump. This is where you can add that frequency to get that body part to respond.
Starting point is 00:53:15 And what we found through training clients, this is a very, very effective technique body builders have been doing this for a long time. Now exercise order makes a difference as well. So for those of you who do full body workouts, which I firmly believe, we firmly believe that full body workouts for most people are better than your traditional body parts blitz, although those have a place.
Starting point is 00:53:34 If you're doing a full body workout, there's nothing wrong with starting your full body workout with the weak body part. Absolutely. In fact, studies show that what you start your workout out with is where you get most of, I shouldn't say most, where you get more of your gains. So for most people, your workout should start out with the big movements and big body
Starting point is 00:53:54 parts. But let's say your weak body part is your shoulders. There's nothing wrong with hitting your shoulders first and then going to chest. Now for most people, I wouldn't recommend that. But for somebody whose shoulders are weakness, I think it's a great idea. Hey, no, a lot of my, I had a lot of female clients that had beautiful, great legs, incredible legs.
Starting point is 00:54:12 And but then they just really lacked in their upper body. We're not starting with squats. There's no need to. And it makes the most sense for the majority, but there's a lot of people too that have great lower bodies that are really developed and really lack in shoulder, arm, and all upper body development, we're gonna squat last.
Starting point is 00:54:32 Totally. Especially when we're trying to build an aesthetic physique and that's the main goal. It makes a lot of sense for the average person and the way our programs are organized is squats, squats, dead lifts, the big movements tend to be first, the biggest bang for your buck with most focus. But when we're starting to sculpt the body
Starting point is 00:54:49 and we're trying to address weak areas, well now those rules don't apply anymore, it's different. Now our approach and our programming is different and absolutely you should all, you should start your workout routine with the areas you're trying to develop. And remember to manipulate your intensity appropriately. So that means that you should probably have one to three hard workouts for that body part.
Starting point is 00:55:11 And then you should have one to three more easier workouts. And that can vary from individual, right? So if your body doesn't recover as fast or you're more of a beginner, you're probably only going to have one hard workout and two lighter workouts if you're more advanced, then those numbers will go up. But manipulated intensity, hitting the same body, hitting your body part, hard, all the time, every single time, we'll actually do the opposite,
Starting point is 00:55:36 we'll actually get your body to regress rather than progress, because your body doesn't have a capability to recover and adapt to that, just too much. So make sure, so when you hit a body part frequently, that's wonderful. Just make sure you manipulate the intensity of each workout so that it's appropriate.
Starting point is 00:55:51 So for me, if I'm working out a body part four times a week, it's probably looking like too hard and too easy workouts. Two workouts are heavy, compound movements. I'm really moving weight, two of them are isolation, focusing on the squeeze, the feel, and I'm further away from failure in my workouts on those ones that I am on my heavier workout.
Starting point is 00:56:10 And this goes back to an episode that we did recently where I was making the case for tracking volume. I see a lot of value when you are trying to bring up a lagging body part of really taking the time to track your volume. It's at least in that weak body part. If it're, and that's what I would do, I didn't track my volume on every single muscle group in my body because I wasn't really where it when I would go and train for shows like, okay, shoulders are what I'm trying to bring
Starting point is 00:56:37 up. So that's what I'm tracking. I'm breaking that down. I'm not worrying about all the other things that I'm doing that's not the main focus. So I'm trying to bring up a lagging body part. So because of that, I'm actually calculating my volume per workout and per week and trying to slowly overload that week over week to make sure that I'm getting progress in that area.
Starting point is 00:56:57 So a little bit, like more reps or a little bit more weight or, you know, a little bit more sets. You're progressing very, very slowly week over week to make sure that body part continues to improve. Well, there's a really easy way that I used to do it, and it's to the point that you made to counter my volume discussion, and that was, it's not all about volume, and you have to be able to understand
Starting point is 00:57:16 how to manipulate intensity, and you're very right. And so, I was always trying to add a little bit of weight to the bar, so I have my routine, I have my, you know, maps aesthetic program that we're following, and then I'm just gonna try and add weight to the bar. Now sometimes I either overeat, or I was fatigued, or I was tired, and I just, I definitely was not gonna be stronger
Starting point is 00:57:38 going into that workout. That was a signal to me. This is the day that I might add a set, I might add a few more reps to still increase the volume, but I knew I couldn't handle the intensity of more weight. And that's the part where obviously you want to try and get to that place where you know how to feel your body and go, okay, I shouldn't be an asshole and add weight knowing that I don't feel good and I'm not going to be able to get the bar off.
Starting point is 00:58:02 What are other ways that I can still increase the volume without doing too much damage and over, over reaching? Absolutely. And now look, with that, we have a program designed for people specifically who want to do what we're talking about, who want to sculpt their body, who have weak body parts, who want to bring them up, who want to shape their body, who are motivated by aesthetics. It's called Maps aesthetic. It's a full workout program, but it also is very unique from other maps programs
Starting point is 00:58:29 and that allows you to modify and adapt it based on your body. So let's say you're somebody who wants to develop their glutes and that's a weak body part. Well, then you make your focus sessions glutes. If you're somebody who wants to develop more chest, you make the chest your focus sessions. It's a very moldable program, but again, it's designed to sculpt and shape your body. All the exercise demos are in there. There's full blueprints all written out
Starting point is 00:58:53 for you. It's a three-faced program. You have 48 hours to get this program at 50% off. It's one of the biggest sales we do of the year, and this is the sale we're using to close out 2019. Again, it's one of our most popular programs. of the year. And this is the sale we're using to close out 2019. Again, it's one of our most popular programs. So here's how you get the 50% off. Go to mapsblack.com and use the code black50, B-L-A-C-K-5-0, no space for the discount. And don't forget, as of the time this episode airs,
Starting point is 00:59:20 you only have 48 hours before this promotion ends. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pump Media.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and a ballad, maps for performance and maps aesthetic,
Starting point is 00:59:43 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 in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainer, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing MindP Pump to your friends and family.
Starting point is 01:00:25 We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.