Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1195: Three Steps to Sculpting the Ultimate Physique
Episode Date: December 30, 2019In 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)
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.
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
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
maps aesthetic sale.
Now, maps aesthetic is the program designed for people to help sculpt
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plug it into the focus sessions, and that's part of your workout. So here's how you get
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Yeah.
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?
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
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?
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.
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,
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.
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,
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.
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.
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,
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.
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,
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.
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,
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.
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,
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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,
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.
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
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.
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,
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
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
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,
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,
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
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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,
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
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,
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
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
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.
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
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,
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.
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,
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.
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,
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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,
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,
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
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
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
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.
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,
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,
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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,
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.
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
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,
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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,
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
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.
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.
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
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?
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?
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
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.
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,
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.
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
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
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,
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.
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,
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.
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
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
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.
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,
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.
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.
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
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.
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,
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?
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
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.
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.
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,
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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,
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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.
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
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
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,
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,
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
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