Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1232: The 5 Most Important Resistance Training Principles
Episode Date: February 20, 2020In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin discuss the 5 most important principles of resistance training. Defining resistance training and how to properly apply it. (3:21) What qualifies as resistance train...ing? (7:12) The 5 Commandments of Resistance Training. #1 – Do the RIGHT exercises and practice them consistently. (8:16) #2 – Use the PROPER technique. (19:31) #3 – Get stronger! (28:02) #4 – Understand the appropriate dose of intensity and frequency. (34:12) #5 – Seek Novelty. (43:23) Seek a variety of exercises in your routine. (51:32) The importance of tempo and rest. (53:10) Related Links/Products Mentioned February Promotion: MAPS Split ½ off! **Code “SPLIT50” at checkout** Visit Legion Athletics for the exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Code “mindpump” at checkout** Stop Working Out And Start Practicing - Mind Pump Blog The Best Form of Exercise - Mind Pump Mind Pump TV - YouTube Chinese Olympic Weightlifting Training Compilation 2018 Olympic Weightlifting Workout Routine Muscle Adaptation vs. Muscle Recovery – Mind Pump Blog MAPS Fitness Products – Mind Pump 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, MIND, with your hosts.
Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews.
In this episode of Mind Pump, we cover the five most important resistance training principles.
You can even call these the five commandments of resistance training.
If you want to use resistance, whether it's weights, machines, or body weight, to shape
and sculpt your body, build muscle, burn body fat, you won't want to miss this episode.
We talk about the most important things you need to consider in order to get great results.
Now, this episode is brought to you by Legion.
Legion is one of our sponsors
and they produce incredible muscle building
and fat burning type supplements.
All of these products are scientifically backed
with scientifically backed ingredients and doses.
In other words, oftentimes you get a supplement
and it has lots of ingredients in there
that promise to do certain things.
Legion only includes ingredients
that actually have real clinical data supporting them.
And at the doses that were used in the study,
sometimes you'll buy a supplement
and because you read a study and didn't don't realize
that the supplement you're taking
is one tenth of the amount that was used in the study
that showed the effect, not with Legion.
Legion also has full transparency.
There's no proprietary blend.
So look at the back, it tells you exactly what's in the bottle.
Their products are also 100% naturally sweetened
and flavor.
There's no artificial sweeteners in them.
They use honest marketing.
This is why we like them.
We don't like most supplement companies
because they lie.
They tell people crazy things.
Legion doesn't do that.
They know that nothing will replace,
exercise and good nutrition.
But if you got good exercise, if you've got good nutrition, using the right supplements
can augment your progress.
And all of Legion's products come with a 100% money back guarantee.
Here's the best part because you're a mind-pump listener, you get a full 20% off your first order,
or you can get double rewards points if you're an existing customer of Legion. Here's how you get that.
Go to buy Legion, that's B-U-Y-L-E-G-I-O-N
dot com forward slash mine pump
and use the code mine pump for that 20% off discount
at checkout.
Also, this month, all month long,
Maps split is 50% off.
Now Maps split is our advanced resistance training program.
It's six days a week in the gym.
If you love working out, you want great results.
You want something that's a little advanced and hardcore.
MapSplit is an amazing program.
It's half off.
Here's how you get the discount.
Go to mapsplit.com.
That's M-A-P-S-S-P-L-I-T.com.
And use the code split50.
That's S-P-L-I-T50. No space for the discount. I want to talk about our favorite subject. and use the code split50, that's SPLIT50,
no space for the discount.
I wanna talk about our favorite subject ever.
What's that?
To talk about.
I wanna talk about resistance training.
No, not aliens.
Fine, that's next episode.
All right.
I wanna talk about the most important resistance training
principles, like the things that are the most important to consider
When you're following a resistance training routine like the 10 commandments something like that
But I think there's less than 10 all right. There's part of it five
Now I think it's important about the fluff. Yeah, I think it's important. We define resistance training a little bit because I
Although it used to blow me away, it definitely makes sense that people would come to me and I talk
about resistance training and they'd say, well, doesn't, you know, my uphill walking
count, doesn't my water aerobics count because I am using resistance.
It's my body weight.
And the answer is, no, that's not what we're talking about when we're talking about resistance
training.
Resistance training is using outside resistance, which can include your body weight with the desired
result of building muscle and doing so in a way that does build muscle.
Walking, yes, you are carrying your body weight, for example, that is some resistance,
but walking doesn't really build any muscle.
I mean, we're resisting gravity. your body weight, for example, that is some resistance, but walking doesn't really build any muscle.
I mean, we're resisting gravity.
Well, so it really is the five principles that constitute resistance training for building
muscle.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
That's really what we're talking about because you're right.
Technically, if you're waving your arms in a pool, there's resistance happening.
It's considered resistance training.
If you're walking up a hill, there is resistance of your body weight, weight, weight, weight, weight, weight,
but the form of, or modality in which you do it,
or the manner which you do it,
doesn't constitute it as a very successful way
to build muscle.
So what are the principles that of resistance training
to build muscle, to speed up your metabolism,
to burn body fat, focus on that muscle building.
And that's a very important component to consider because resistance training, if you consider
exercises like tools, and those tools being very, just like any other tool, they're good
for specific functions, and they can be used for other things, but they're really good
at one thing. For example, if I have a screwdriver,
a screwdriver does a very good job
at screwing screws into the wall.
Can I use a screwdriver to pry nails out of the wall
to, no, to, to, to, to, to,
to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to,
can I use it to hammer things into the wall?
I guess you could,
but it's not gonna be very good
at those things.
It's really good for what it was designed to be used
for which is purpose.
That's right.
Resistus training does one thing exceptionally well,
and it can be used for other things,
but it really does one thing better than anything else,
and this is the way it should be used,
and that is to build muscle.
Build muscle and get stronger. Now I would also add body fat on that but the way it burns
body fat is not direct as direct as like cardiovascular activity. It doesn't burn as many calories
as cardio but because you build muscle and speed up your metabolism you are now dealing
with a faster metabolism which makes fat
loss much easier. It's a very effective fat loss tool because of that. So resistance training,
it's excellent at building muscles. So that's the way it should primarily be used. So the
things that we're going to talk about that are important for resistance training are going
to be focused around that. But remember, getting stronger properly,
you're also gonna get great fat burning benefits,
lots of muscle preserving benefits,
especially if you're on a calorie deficit diet,
you're gonna get stronger, that's the side effect of it.
Mobility, you'll get great mobility
from resistance training if you do it right,
because strength is a very important component of mobility.
Lack of strength is one of the main reasons
why people lack mobility.
Like for example, if you have trouble squatting down
to the floor if it fall or your hips start to hurt
or you can't reach straight up above your head,
it's lack of mobility and oftentimes it's because you just
don't have the strength to stabilize in those ranges of motion.
Overdominant strength and underdeveloped strength creates imbalance which then creates another ranges of most. Over dominant strength and underdeveloped strength
creates imbalance, which then creates another type of problem.
So it's all about how you apply it properly.
Totally, totally.
Well, this topic is a bit nuanced.
And so I think it's important too to know that there's
many variables and there's things that we probably
won't address or touch on that are probably also important.
But we sat down and came together with a list of what we thought
were the five most important principles when actually working towards resistance training.
Right.
Now, the main ways you can do resistance training, so long as you have sufficient resistance,
there's a lot of different ways.
You can use body weight, you can use a variety of different weights, free weights, dumbbells, barbells,
kettlebells, you can use machines, cables, rubber bands, rubber bands, heavy resistance
bands, chains, anything that gives you a sufficient amount of resistance for the purpose of
building muscle will qualify for resistance training, although of course, we're pretty
partial to the free weights just because they have the most versatility.
Versatility, they're just overall more effective,
but that doesn't mean that you don't wanna do
the other stuff too, all of those things
are resistance training.
All right, so what do you guys think?
Number one, one of the most important principles
in my opinion would be to do the right exercises.
I think this is such a big one.
Not just do them, but also practice them consistently.
Yes, because right away what you're gonna get
is the portion of people that are like,
I can't squat, I have bad knees or it hurts,
or whatever limiting factor from doing a movement
that is so valuable like the squad of the deadlift.
And unfortunately, there's this movement right now
in the training space too to just tell people,
oh, it's okay, there's other great exercises.
And people that are telling you that the squad
is the king of exercises, that's the hack squad
can be just as good.
And they make cases for why those other movements are so valuable.
But my argument back to that is what my experience,
the percentage of people that couldn't squat or deadlift
wasn't necessarily because they couldn't squat or deadlift.
It was because they had issues they needed to address
and get to the bottom of what was limiting them
from being able to squat or deadlift.
And they just didn't have the form and technique down.
And it's a very difficult
exercise to get good at.
But that's also what makes it so extremely valuable.
That's what makes it the king of exercises because you can get in a hack squat and we can
compare studies of why a hack squat activates the quads and you can show bodybuilders that
will show, oh my god, I built just as much muscle.
Well that's great.
I'm also thinking about the average person.
I can just throw anybody in a hack squat,
throw some weight on it, get them up and down on the machine,
and get them to do it, and they get a great workout.
That's phenomenal.
But that same person, it may take me months,
maybe even years, to get that same client really good
at barbell squatting, and there's value to that.
So a huge value.
In fact, if you were to compare the results,
somebody got from an easy exercise like a leg press
to one that's more complex and difficult like a squat.
In the first four weeks, the beginner,
first to say four to 12 weeks, the beginner
might get more benefits and gains from the leg press.
But that's because of the learning curve
that you talked about.
Once they are able to do a proper squat,
the squat starts to blow away the leg press
in terms of results.
Well, I mean, resistance training is essential
because if you look at our lifestyle today,
we've already done a really good job
of making everything else really easy and accessible
and convenient.
And the reason why we're going back
to actually putting our body through this type of stress
and applying load to my bodies because our body needs this.
It needs this to thrive and to be strong.
To be able to, there's lots of exercises out there that could be easier, that could be
more convenient, that they've created machines that have sort of
Been able to to form into where I can lay down and I could sort of get through the reps
But you know, there's there's intention and there's there's there's reasons why we focus on certain exercises like the squat the deadlift
You know the bench press and yes, they're not the most comfortable and easily accessible. Like, there's a learning curve, there's things,
there's technique, there's things you need to learn
to apply properly, but that's what is important.
That's why you need to do it.
If we all agree that the general goal
of resistance training should be to build muscle and strength,
then that's what it's really good for.
And I say general because, of course,
you could go off and do correctional exercise
and mobility work and that kind of stuff.
But overall, generally speaking, resistance trainings goal is to build muscle.
I can now list and create a hierarchy of exercises of which ones build the most muscle and the
most strength.
One of the greatest worst myths in resistance training is that there isn't a hierarchy
of exercises that one exercise isn't better than the other.
All those both work your arms, they're both equivalent, they're just different, or they're both work your shoulders, they're both equivalent.
Not true at all. There is a clear hierarchy of exercises generally speaking, the most effective exercises in resistance training known to man from a muscle building, strength
building perspective.
Even if your goal isn't to build big muscles, even if you're a woman listening right now
and your goal is to get as lean as possible, you still want to use resistance training and
try and maximize the muscle building effect because it'll maximize the fat burning effect,
it'll minimize the muscle loss that happens from dieting.
And I have yet to ever meet anybody who does one workout,
wakes up the next day with too much muscle.
Just doesn't happen.
So in other words, what's gonna happen is you're gonna get
your goal faster.
At some point, if you ever get to this point where,
and again, I've never encountered anybody like this,
you get to the point where like, wow, that's enough muscle.
I don't want any more shapes, sculptor muscle.
Then you can start to move down the hierarchy
and do the less effective exercises. But to get your goal, you want to look at the hierarchy. What's at
the top of the hierarchy? We talked about the barbell squat, easily one of the
most effective lower body and total body exercises that exist. The deadlift is
also right up there, whether it's sumo or conventional, or even I would even
put trap bar, and let's controversial, but I would even put that there. The
deadlifts are phenomenal exercises.
Then you have your rows, your barbell rows,
your dumbbell rows, phenomenal exercises.
Then we have your presses.
You have your horizontal presses,
like your bench presses, and then you have your overhead presses.
And then you have your overhead presses.
Those are the most effective exercises.
I can keep going down the list.
Then you have your lunges and split stance exercises. And then we have more of most effective exercises. I can keep going down the list, then you have your lunges and split stance exercises,
and then we have more of your isolation exercises.
But honestly, those ones that just named right there
are the most effective ones.
Those ones you should practice.
That's your core.
Consistently, constantly, often, practice them.
And I wanna reiterate that part of the value
and what makes them better than this argument
of these other exercises that people say, you know, activate just as much muscle or could build
just as much muscle in this six week study.
Part of the greatest value of those movements that you just listed is the difficulty of
it and the percentage of people that can't do it very well right out the gates and it
bothers their back, it bothers their knees.
And instead of completely just avoiding the movement, I'm not saying to push through and ignore it, try and figure out why it is.
Address it. When you squat, my knees always bother me. Okay, it's not because squats are inherently
bad for your knees. That's not why it is. There's something going on with your body that is causing that,
that now you're squatting with a barbell on your back, it's exaggerating it and it's making it very obvious to you.
It's there.
It was there before you started squatting, address it, get to the bottom of it.
This was the motivation behind programs like Maps Prime and Maps Prime Pro was to help
people with this because we understand that the average person who squats and just feels
it in their knees or their back, they go, oh God, that hurts.
Squats are bad for me.
No, no, no, no, no, let's assess it and figure it out.
It's not, again, the barbell squads not in here, leave that.
Why is this fundamental movement and squadding is a fundamental human movement?
Why does this fundamental movement hurt me?
Just like if the walking hurt you or sitting hurt you.
Right, did you stop?
Do you stop walking just because walking else and starts bothering you?
You would ask the question, okay, why is it that this fundamental human movement hurts
me? Figure that out, fix it so that I can do this fundamental movement and utilize the power of some of the most effective again
exercises ever known to man. I used to love one of my favorite things about being a trainer
was when I was able to look at a client a potential client so a new client would come to me and
I used to like it when I would get an experienced
Potential client so somebody would come to me talked to me about wanting to hire me and I'd ask them always
Do you work out now what your routine look like?
What's your exercise sister? It's like oh, I've been working out four days a week for the last five years consistently
Then they would hand me their routine
I used to love this because I would look at their workout routine and I would see no deadlifts no squats
And I knew right away that I was gonna blow their mind.
I knew right away, like, oh, I don't have to change anything
except have you squat and dead lift.
And I've had this happen several times, right?
Have experienced clients come to me, show me the routine.
I don't see two or three of these fundamental movements.
I'll ask them, why aren't you dead lifting?
Oh my back, I'm worried or whatever.
No problem, we'll make sure you can do this properly.
Then I would train them and I would blow their minds.
I would blow their minds with the progress
from results that they would get.
Doug was a good example when Doug hired me years ago.
He definitely hugged you.
He gave me a hug too.
Doug is a big hugger.
Doug the hug.
When Doug hired me years ago,
one of the reasons why Doug hired me
besides the obvious, I know, I wanna build muscle
a lot of stuff, he had a bad back.
And guess what exercise we got really good at?
The deadlift.
We got good at the deadlift.
Well, it's like the brositis in my hips and my low back.
Nothing cured that more than getting good at squatting.
Oh, it was the same.
The work that I had to put into mobility
and mobilizing my hips and my ankle mobility
is what ended up alleviating all the pain I had in my low back in my hips.
And that's just, we're just an example.
I know that's my story.
Everybody has something similar.
And that is the real value.
And that's where these, the people, and we have friends.
We have very intelligent trainer friends and coaches of ours that kind of promote a different message
because they come from a purely muscle building perspective and they like to compare and share
the studies of, oh look, this person squat, this person did haxt squat, look at what all
the, okay, well that's what we're looking at too is behaviors.
I'm not just talking and speaking to the comparing to exercises, the amount of work and effort
it takes to get good at squatting, what you have to do, the prerequisites that you have
to do, there is tremendous value.
That's the learning process.
Well, and stable joints.
You know, like, what are we teaching your body?
Besides muscle building, which is definitely a vital component to that, but now how do we support that?
Can I function properly in everyday life?
Can I do things athletically? Can I move my body appropriately? And that all
you know definitely resides around how good my joints function and strength is a huge part of that.
Right, and now think of it this way, right? Think imagine if you had a task and the task was to dig,
you know, 10 underground pools.
So you had to go and dig lots and lots of dirt
for 10 underground pools.
And your two options of tools were a regular shovel,
so you have to do it by hand or a backhoe.
But you don't know how to do a backhoe.
You've never, you've never operated one before.
Would you take the time to learn to use that backhoe
so that you could dig the holes in a week instead of...
You certainly would, if you know the next 40 years
of your life, you'd be digging pools.
That's exactly correct.
So, so these exercises that I listed
are the right exercises.
Do them and if you can't, get yourself to be able to do them.
Of course, there's exceptions to the role. Some of you will never be able to do them, of course there's exceptions to the role.
Some of you will never be able to do some of these exercises.
But most of you are so small.
Very small.
Most of you listening will be able to do these exercises
if you practice them, do them right,
do the exercises that allow these particular movements
and practice them constantly.
These exercises should be in regular rotation
in your workout program, regardless
of what the program looks like and what the reps and all that of the stuff.
Now that takes us to the next thing, which is just as important, which is use proper technique.
An exercise with bad technique is not that exercise anymore.
Okay, so it changed it.
Yeah, if I'm telling you, barbell squats are phenomenal,
and you're doing terrible form,
you're not doing barbell squats,
you're doing something else,
and you're not reaping the benefits.
Not to mention the risk of injury.
Form is more important than anything else,
and it doesn't matter if your goal is to shape
and sculpt your body, build maximal strength.
Form is imperative because it does a couple
different things. One, it develops your body in a very, this is now, this is a very
cosmetic point here, but it does develop your body aesthetically. If I do lots of
exercises the wrong way, I'm more likely to develop a weird looking, not well put
together body. We've all seen these people in the gym
where they have some muscles underdeveloped,
others overdeveloped, they might have lots of muscle,
but they just don't look put together right.
Watch them do all their exercises,
and you'll notice that they move in a particular pattern
that's caused a lot of the way that they look.
So that's number one, number two reduces,
dramatically reduces your risk of injury.
When I, for a deadlift, for example, a deadlift done properly with good stability Number two reduces, dramatically reduces your risk of injury.
For a deadlift, for example, a deadlift done properly
with good stability and good control, very safe.
It's a very, very safe exercise.
If I deviate off of that just a little bit,
I went from safe to dangerous, really, really quick.
And I think it's important, this is why we started
with your six or five or six exercises
that are the most important ones to start with.
Those are your staple exercises that are pretty much
standardized in terms of mechanics.
And yes, there are limb lengths
and there are individual variances that apply
to these exercises, but the overall form of them
are very teachable.
And it's very important to learn that through this technique.
So that way you know you're deviating from that form.
And then you can understand, okay, this is why I tend to fuel tightness and pain certain places.
And then I can kind of refer back how to fix these things and then apply proper form,
which then I'm going to gain the intended results from those exercises.
You know, as we're going through these,
I can't help it, certain modalities pop up in my mind
that did a really good job of this.
Like, for example, the first one,
Sal mentioned all those exercises,
and I can't help but think about CrossFit.
You know, CrossFit did one of the things
that they did really well.
I know we hammered them a lot on the show,
and we pick on them,
but one of the things they did extremely well
was they brought these movements back into favor.
They picked most of the best exercise.
They did.
They did an incredible job of picking the best exercise.
And that, then they bastarded them.
And this is also, well, this is why it's number one
on our list and why it's so important is because
they could have shit programming and all the other stuff
and it's still changing so many people's lives
and so many people love it because it's giving so many people results, because the main factor is that it shows how effective they were.
Exactly, and so I think about that. And then we go to the second one and we're talking about proper technique.
I can't help but think and visualize Olympic lifters. And if you've ever seen Olympic lifter train,
one, I think it's important that anybody listening to this right now, at
least takes the time to YouTube this and watch a little bit of watching a Olympic Lifter.
Not they compete at the, you know, their highest level of expression and, you know, risking
possibly failing.
Look at the way they train.
And the load that they use, the amount of repetitions at the same movement, oh, patterns
over. the load that they use, the amount of repetitions at the same movement, old patterns over,
and they're so technical to how the wrist flips
and moves, the timing of the barbell with it,
the hips and sink with the arms,
like the attention to detail with technique,
and then you see some of the strongest human beings
are these people, they're 150 pounds.
And they're not the biggest, you know, people,
they're not the big monsters you see on Instagram.
They're the ones, I mean,
it's a great example of what the ultimate perfection
of technique looks like.
When it's all in sync and it's in harmony,
and you really refine that process to its fullest degree,
you can lift a lot of weight and you can do it like masterfully.
And that their effort or their emphasis on technique
is so high with that modality that you see the result of that.
You see the greatest expression of strength
that we see in human beings.
And that is the main core principle
of what makes them that way is the effort towards technique.
This is why this is the second of the five commandments.
Yes.
Because that's how powerful that is.
If you put that much energy and effort
into your technique and form,
you can look at that expression as we see this
in the Olympic Games.
Well, bad technique can make an exercise entirely
ineffective for the target goal.
Good technique is what makes it effective.
That's the absolute key.
I used to love as a trainer walking around the gym.
This is when I worked in big boxes.
And one of my favorite ways to talk to somebody,
a potential client, and blow their mind,
was to watch them do an exercise,
and go over and tweak their form just a little bit,
and blow their mind.
You know, they're doing lap pull downs,
and you know, shoulders are caving forward,
and they're doing the whole thing.
And I just, oh no, no, no, do this,
Mrs. Johnson, pull your chest up,
squeeze your shoulders back.
Let's do a couple reps like this,
then they should let's the bar up,
and they would look at me and go,
oh my gosh.
That, and you can feel good technique, by the way.
Good technique, you can feel,
just like you can feel bad technique,
but if you've never really had good technique,
you don't necessarily know the difference.
Your joints just kind of slide right
in perfect position in place
and it's definitely a feeling your body tells you,
gives you feedback.
In fact, this is one of the number one,
from a trainer's perspective, when you're training clients, this is one of the number one things from a trainer's perspective, when you're training clients,
this is one of the number one things
that you're responsible for, is to ensure
that your client uses proper technique.
In fact, it's such a basic component
of being a successful trainer.
Nobody even talks about it.
One of my greatest pet peeves,
as a manager, leading trainers, would be that,
would be seeing trainers that are like standing still
in one position, looking down at their clipboard
or whatever, and not constantly moving around,
touching your client, adjusting, speaking to the movement,
because of how important the formative,
and really that in my opinion is one of the most valuable things
as a trainer that you can give to a client,
is that you are supposed to be a movement specialist
at what level or degree that depends on your education and experience, that you are supposed to be a movement specialist at what level or degree that depends on your education and experience, but you are supposed
to be a movement specialist.
Most people hiring you are completely novice to that.
So you're spending and giving everything you got to the technique to teach that.
The value of that is incredible.
And I used to walk up and slap trainers.
So you can only see so much as a client. Like, you know, you could see your body do things
but you can't see your body from multiple angles.
You know, as much as like that's why
a mirrors are in the gyms,
that's why, you know, that there is emphasis on that
but, you know, to have a coach see lots of different things
that you may not have been aware of is extremely valuable.
So when you're working out, your focus,
a lot of your focus is on your technique.
Am I using the full range of motion?
Am I feeling it in the target areas?
Does it feel good and comfortable?
Do I feel solid and stable?
Your goal should not be just to get the reps out.
That's one of the biggest mistakes people make is that they go, they follow a program.
Oh, it says I need to do 10 reps of lunges.
It says I need to do 15 reps over ahead presses. And they're just counting the reps. One, oh, it says I need to do 10 reps of lunges, it says I need to do 15 reps overhead presses,
and they're just counting the reps, one, two, three.
They're not focusing on every single rep,
they're not focusing on the technique.
Huge mistake, and it's one of the biggest killers
of progress and results.
Well, if you literally go down the order
that we're listing these right now,
and just think, okay, we're only on number two right now, right?
We did the first one talking about the exercises.
Just somebody committing the rest of their life
to doing those movements alone, right?
The value that you're gonna get is tremendous
when it comes to building strength
and sculpting your physique just by itself.
Then the next layer to that is the attention to detail
on the proper technique of doing that.
And putting such an effort like an Olympic lifter
added that you care so much to just impact
and perfect the form, the form, the form, the form,
I better, I better, I better at the movement.
Just those two principles alone,
how much value the average person would get from that.
And then the third one, we move into get stronger.
Oh yeah.
Oh that's, I mean, that's, if there's ever was one singular goal of resistance
strain that will produce all the results you're looking for, it's just to get
stronger. Now, I know this one sounds silly because a lot of people listen to
go, well, duh, you know, that's why I'm lifting weights. It's not a duh. I can't tell
you how many times I worked with clients who use the same weight for years. Yeah.
The same exercises the same way.
And I know this because they come higher me and they'd say, oh, I'm following this routine.
I'd say, well, show me your routine.
I go over here.
I put it on 15 pounds.
I go over here.
I put it on 20 pounds.
What do you mean you put it on 15 pounds?
Oh, that's just the weight that I do.
I do 15 reps.
I've always done that.
How long do you do?
Oh, I grab the five pound dumbbells.
That's what I always use.
Your body will not progress unless you use progressive resistance. Your body has no reason to progress unless you use progressive
resistance. By the way, this principle was observed a very, very long time ago by, I believe it
was Milo, which was the bull, right? Yes, this is the famous, you know, story of the bull where the
boy carried the calf up the hill
every single day as the calf grew,
the boy became stronger.
And now it's not a true story,
but it illustrates, it's a good visual.
Yes, it illustrates how we understood
that you have to apply progressing levels of stress
and intensity on your body to continue progress
because if I lift 10 pounds today and it's hard, my body's gonna have a nice reason to progress.
If I lift it again tomorrow and it's easy,
I'm only ever gonna be as strong as I ever asked my body to be.
So it's never gonna progress unless I add more weight.
I do what's called progressive overload,
which is one of the core, obviously the core principles
of resistance strength.
So when you go to the gym, now, if you're super advanced,
you've been lifting weights for years and years and years,
this becomes much more difficult.
Obviously, you can't get stronger indefinitely, I wish.
I think by now, my deadlift would be over 7,000 pounds.
Doesn't work that way, of course, there's limitations,
but your goal should always be to see if you can,
and remember, follow the first two
principles, right exercise proper technique, the goal should be, can I get myself to use proper
technique and lift more weight and get stronger. Each time you get stronger, here's something to
consider. Even if you can't tell in the mirror, even if you don't look like you changed so much,
if you did two more reps or you added five pounds, you changed.
Yeah. Something about you in your body changed. You are not the same human on a fundamental
level. You have more muscle fibers, better use of your muscles, you're stronger, you're
different, you have improved. And I know you say this because you want to warm people on
how slow the process is towards this. The reality of all of them are, though, even.
Yes. I mean, talking about squatting and getting good
and deadlifting and getting good at the technique,
like, I'm 20 years into this game
and I still don't have a beautiful squat and deadlift.
You know what I'm saying?
It's pretty good.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, that's where it's at.
And that's years and years of dedication at working on it.
That's just part of the process.
It takes a long time.
And the same thing goes for me.
And you progress the whole time, by the way.
Right.
So don't get discouraged.
It's not like it takes 20 years and then you notice results.
No. The whole time. Yeah. And the whole time you do. And the whole time part of the whole time
when you say that though, it looks like this, you know, wow, three, four weeks in a row of just
great results. I'm seeing gains. Oh, wow. One week I went backwards for a little bit. Oh,
then I took, I took one step back after I took five four. I took one back. It's not, and then you take another two, three, four, it's just, that's the process.
It's not this like perfect linear growth of strength or better form.
It's a consistent focus and mindset that you apply every time you're going to the gym
and you're just checking back in with it all the time.
Am I, is my squat getting better than what it was six months ago?
Or is it about the same? Or is it getting worse? Am I getting a little bit stronger than what I was just
like six months, or am I staying the same? And if I'm not, there's an area that I need to
address in my resistance training. Now, a good tip with this particular
principle is to track the weight that you're using in with your exercises. Now, don't
get obsessed because if you get obsessed, you may push more weight than your technique will allow
and you can cause problems.
But track, and it's important because then you can see trends
and you can see, am I getting stronger,
look back about six weeks, like Adam says,
oh wow, I lifted 10 more pounds.
You know it's funny about this one.
People I think oftentimes think that getting stronger
is something that athletes and strength athletes
and bodybuilders will need to focus on.
The funny thing is when I would train
the hardcore athletes, yes, I was focused
on getting stronger, but I didn't make it a huge focus
because they knew to do that already.
The people I really focused on getting stronger
were my everyday average people.
People who came in and were like,
hey, I want to lose tons of weight.
No problem, we're gonna make you stronger.
You know, hey, I want to get my back pain to go away.
No problem, we're gonna get you stronger. Hey, I want to get my back pain to go away. No problem, we're gonna get you stronger.
And we would focus on it.
And all the results that they would see came from
the result of getting stronger.
It was like getting stronger is a prerequisite
to all those other results and goals that they had,
whether it was burning body fat, feeling better,
not having pain, better mobility.
It was about getting stronger.
And it's measurable.
And it doesn't always like to Adam's point of it,
not being linear. There's hacks that we found
in terms of like different focuses of where to get stronger,
where there's deficits in my body that needs attention
then to bring it up.
And you know, this isn't always front like movement
like in front of me and behind me.
This is also moving left to right.
This is also a rotational movement.
These are all things to consider
that you can actually add load to
and build and develop strength.
Yes, now with getting stronger,
here's this is something that's interesting about it.
And I can't really think of too many other things
that are in the same category.
Like gaining weight or losing weight
can be good or bad news, right?
You can gain body fat.
You can lose muscle.
Stronger is always good.
Always.
I don't care what your goal is.
I don't care if your goal is fat loss.
I don't care if your goal is mobility, just overall health and fitness.
I don't care if you're in a calorie deficit or in a calorie surplus.
When you're working out and you're stronger, good news, always, and it's always good for all the goals that you have,
it's one of the number one thing you should aim for
with resistance training.
Now, part of getting stronger too
and consistently seen strength gains,
one of the most important keys to that
is understanding the appropriate dose of intensity
and frequency.
Oh, I'm so glad you said appropriate.
So glad you said appropriate.
Because intensity is important because you have to train intense enough to give your
body a reason to build muscle to adapt.
You have to create the environment.
Has to, right?
So, remember, getting stronger, building muscle, getting your body change, it's an adaptation
process.
It's really no different than any other adaptation process in the body.
If you
write a lot, if you use your right hand to write a lot, you may notice that you have a
callus on one of your fingers where you always press with the pencil or the pen. Now that's
an adaptation by your body to allow you to continue to do what you do and to do it better.
Your body is trying to get better. The reason why I did that was because of the stress
of the pencil of the pen on your finger.
At some point the callus isn't gonna grow anymore
because it now has met the demands of the stress.
Okay, so when I'm trying to build muscle,
get stronger, burn body, get more fit.
I have to train intensely enough
to give my body a reason to adapt.
If I train too hard, just like if I apply too much pressure
on my finger, I'm gonna break down the callus and hurt myself and prevent myself from adapting.
If I apply too much intensity, I overcome and overwhelm my body's ability to adapt.
I don't build muscle.
My body's only worried about healing.
It's only worried about, oh, we got a heal from this intensity.
This is why intensity needs to be appropriate, because you can train with too little intensity, that's not gonna get your results.
You can train with too much intensity,
that's also not gonna get results.
It has to be appropriate.
So let's use an example.
If I have a beginner, couch potato, never works out,
doesn't take much intensity, does it?
I'm gonna do a few sets of squats,
and I don't need to get them to train to failure.
They don't need to feel this massive burn in their legs.
I don't need to make them throw train to failure. They don't need to feel this massive burn in their legs. I don't need to make them throw up.
It just needs to be more intensity than their bodies used to.
That's gonna be enough to get their body to change.
Now what if I take an advanced lifter?
Let's say I take somebody who works out
really, really hard and has been doing so for 10 years.
The level of intensity that I need to apply
on that individual to get their body to adapt further is far, far higher.
So that's why this is so important.
It has to be appropriate.
You also talked about frequency.
Frequency is how often you train.
This is the same thing.
The same rules apply here.
If I train too often with too much intensity, not a good thing.
Now, intensity and frequency, those are related, aren't they? Well, this is also in poor people that have listened to me
for this 1,000 plus episodes.
I've heard this at a nauseam that I constantly repeat it
because I think of this,
because this is definitely one of my opinion
for sure the top five commandments and strength training.
And I always say that you know,
you were always shooting to do as little as possible
to list at the most amount of change. Now sometimes people hear that and I think they interpret that as like,
oh, I don't push hard. You don't have to try that. I've been labeled as team no sweat or like,
I don't push myself like, no, absolutely, I understand the value of intensity and pushing
and stretching myself. We've addressed that already in these in these five commandments,
but I'll tell you right now that what I've seen in my experience, not only with myself,
but with the hundreds and by proxy thousands of clients, is the over application of that
message, is because intensity is what helps us progressively overload and adapt and grow
and keep changing, he will push all their eggs in that basket and when it ends up happening is you over do it.
And so if I want to see consistent, as linear progress as I can, even though it's impossible, but if I want to see his
consistent change in my physique or consistent growth or consistent strength building,
then my goal always is to do just enough, just enough intensity. Right, and that's why I love the old calf and bull analogy, because if he walked that
bull up the hill every single hill, that bull wasn't gaining a pound a day.
He was gaining like a half a pound a day.
That's it.
But he's progressively overloading.
He's overloading, increasing intensity, but just a little bit, just another rep, just
another pound, just a little bit each time. So it doesn't feel like he's killing himself every time,
but before you know it, he's carrying a bowl
that's 500 pounds heavier than what it was before,
the same mindset needs to come in when you're training.
No, 100%.
And using the least amount, doing the least amount of work
to a list of the most amount of change
gets you the fastest results.
You have to add that part, because again,
I think people think, okay, fine, there's the least amount of effort to produce the most amount of change gets you the fastest results. You have to add that part because, again, I think people think, okay, fine, there's the
least amount of effort to produce the most amount of results.
But if I add a little bit more effort, I'll get there faster.
You won't, actually.
What Adam's talking about is the perfect dose.
That's the perfect dose.
The perfect dose is the least amount to get the most changed.
That's another word for the right amount.
That's another word for perfect.
Here's another example of adaptation to get you to kind of to help you
wrap your mind around what this really means. I've used this analogy before. I like this analogy. I haven't used it a while.
If you look at how your skin adapts to sunlight, your skin gets darker and it tans. This is an adaptation process. The reason why your skin gets darker is so that your body can resist damage
from ultraviolet rays better.
So if you go outside in your pale
and you get a little bit of sun,
your skin gets darker.
Next time you go outside,
the same level of exposure will cause less damage.
Now, what if I'm pale and I go outside
and I just bake in the sun for three hours?
Yeah, you get lobster out with lopsided out with me.
Yeah.
Am I going to get there faster?
Am I going to get a better tan?
No.
I'm going to just burn myself.
I'm going to scab up, blister up, my skin will heal.
Guess what?
New skin is going to come out.
It's going to be the pale skin is going to come back.
It's not going to be tan skin because I over did it.
Resistance training is no different.
If you want to scab up your body, so to speak,
with too much intensity, what's gonna happen,
you're just gonna heal.
You're not gonna heal.
You're not gonna progress.
So you wanna apply the right amount of intensity
and the right amount of intensity
is a little bit more than you used to.
Okay, again, so if you're a hardcore trainer,
you're gonna have to use a lot of intensity.
If you're a beginner, it's not gonna take a lot of time.
This is not a common message out there either
because it's so much more
attractive to just do more, to work harder, harder, harder,
harder, and that's definitely like everywhere in the
marketing, everything you see on Instagram, everything you,
like you've been told, if you've played any sports or
anything else, it's always about working harder, but you know,
that there's a way to do it where you hit that perfect hum
where your body is in sync
and you're actually progressing forward
and you're not just beating yourself up to where
now the next day it is revolving around me
just healing in order to get my body to produce
that same type of result I put into the workout previously.
I wanna make it clear that this also applies though to the advanced person.
Yeah.
Because here's the thing.
Most people are not like Sal.
Sal falls in a 1% of the 1% of.
I started lifting at 15 years old and I've literally taken three days off my entire life.
Not only are you experiencing the train for you, right?
The amount of time away from the iron is so,
most people I would think are probably more,
I mean, I know Justin Doug, myself,
probably fall more in this category of like,
yeah, you know, there's times when we're on a nice
hot streak and I'm consistently hitting the gym
five to seven days a week.
And then there's other times in my life where it's sparse.
I might go a week, I didn't train.
I'm not only trained one day or two day.
And I treat myself like a fucking beginner
when I come back in the gym.
You see me doing body weight stuff.
You see me cutting it to only two sets.
Why?
Because my body is not adapted to that volume
that your training that Sal is training at right now
because he hasn't taken a break in forever.
So I know that even though I'm an advanced lifter,
I've been doing this for a very long time,
just the fact that my volume
or the last couple of weeks I've been inconsistent,
that is, it's amazing how fast you reset that.
So when I come back in the gym again,
I'm back to square one and a six.
And the body adapts both directions.
So if you stop training your body adapts downward
and then less intensity is required
to get it to move back up, which is exactly what you're talking about.
Here's a good rule of thumb, okay?
You should finish your workout with good energy.
What I mean by that is that the end of your workout,
you should feel energized, you should not feel like you beat
the crap out of yourself or you're crawling out of the gym.
That means you did too much.
You also should not have crippling soreness
after your workout.
A little bit of soreness is fine.
Ideally you'd have almost unnoticeable soreness,
so you're a little bit sore, but you almost don't notice it.
That's the right amount of soreness.
If you're super, super sore,
we're just touching the muscle hurts
or it's impeding your ability to walk.
You over did it.
You did too much and you're actually slowing down your progress.
All right, so the last one sounds like it counters the first one.
The first one was do the right exercises, do them consistently, do them constantly put
them in rotation.
Well, now what I'm about to say sounds like it counters it, which is throw the monkey wrench
in it. Seek novelty. Well, now what I'm about to say sounds like a countersit, which is throw the monkey wrench and seek novelty
novelty is
phenomenal for the body to get it to change now you can still do the same
Exercises or put the score, but there's a lot of other exercises you can throw in there and then there's a lot of factors
You can say there's a lot of things that we can manipulate to make something feel novel. I'll give example right now
I'm helping out like my brother-in-law, he is super strong,
he'd love, I mean, he thinks that five reps is high rep,
like he loves to lift heavy ass weight,
and I'm making him go through one of our programs right now,
and he is like eight reps to him is dying,
and I'm saying dude, this is gonna be awesome for you.
I'm feeling pain.
Because he hasn't lifted this way in years.
Now he's still doing deadlifts, I still get,
the program, he's following the power lifting program.
And now so he's mainly doing what he likes to do always.
But I know I've seen his training forever
and he literally has been lifting singles doubles
and triples and maybe the occasional five rep day
for like years and he's not trained out of that.
So I don't need to tell him stop dead lifting
squatting and change it to machine exercises or do these other things to make it novel. I
can make it novel simply by manipulating his sets and repetitions. That will be incredibly
novel for him enough to send a new stimulus and change and adapt.
It's amazing how much novelty has an effect on the body. Like what Adam's talking about, training in the same
rep range all the time, and then all of a sudden you train
trains, excuse me, the different rep range.
You'll notice right away your body starts to respond again.
It makes a huge difference.
In fact, if you look at, I don't know, how many maps
programs do we have?
How many workout programs do I have?
12, 13.
13.
So we have 13 fitness programs. all of them for different goals some of them for
Getting you to train like a strong man that kind of training others like to train for obstacle course racing
Traditional muscle building bodybuilding powerlifting huge variety of different programs
You want to know what all of them having common?
They all cycle you through a certain level of novelty.
Every single one changes reps, changes sets,
and also mixes in different exercises.
Now, why do we do that in every single program?
Why is that important whether or not you're training
for obstacle course racing,
or you want to train to be a power lifter,
or you want to train to be an athlete or a body builder?
Be canoes stimulus.
Because it gets your body to progress.
The one of the fastest, easiest ways,
I'll tell you something, here's a secret,
one of the easiest ways to get your body
to stop progressing, do the same thing all the time.
Don't change anything at all.
By the way, one of our earlier components here,
getting stronger, adding weight,
that's another way of adding novelty, isn't it?
That's another easy way to add novelty simply by going heavier, but there are many other
ways.
So here's the first one.
Repetition, we just touched on this.
Doing a different rep range.
So the low rep range, typically I'll count one to five reps.
I'll consider low, maybe six reps.
Then you have the moderate rep range, eight to twelve.
Then you can go higher, 15 to 20 or
25 reps, all of those rep ranges build muscle, all of those
rep ranges produce results, all of those rep ranges are the
most effective when they're new, they're and they're the
least effective when you've been doing them for maybe more
than five or six years.
And to that point, we have to address the studies that
confuse everybody because if you take a six week study
to show which rep rein builds the most muscle,
we know that it's eight to 12,
but that's only in the case where we're talking about
all the same people starting from the same point.
That's not our audience.
There's millions of people in all millions
of different places right now,
and the thing that's going to get your body
to build the most muscle is the one that's most novel.
So if you were the power lifter, and you wouldn't like my brother-in-law who never lives
more in three reps, guess what I knew?
Twelve to twenty reps was going to give him the greatest change.
And if you're the high repetition, pile metric, low-res periods, superset everything, fifteen,
twenty, thirty reps of all like a circuit type of training, guess what's going to build
the most muscle on you? One to five reps.
So the thing that is most novel to your body
is what's going to give you the greatest change.
Now, now keep in mind, this doesn't mean,
because I know people are listening to cool,
I'm going to change everything all the time.
No, no, no, there needs to be a level of structure.
You have to allow your body enough time to reap the benefits
of the new novel stimulus.
So what I mean by that is the very first time you go,
if you're a one to five lifter, the very first time you try 20 rep squats, you're not going to be
very good at them. And because you're not very good at them, you're not going to reap
all the benefits until you start to get good enough to really maximize them, which may
take you two to three weeks. So typically rep ranges, I like to encourage people to train
in an absolute minimum of two weeks, but generally around three to five weeks, about three to five weeks, training a range, then move out of it and you
get that knowledge.
That reminds me to another study that ends up confusing everyone because they did a study
where they compared somebody who did the same rep range for like six weeks, then another
group did, they changed the rep range every two to four weeks and then they did somebody who every workout, they changed the rep range every two to four weeks and then they did somebody
who every workout that changed the rep range.
And what they saw was a person that changed their rep range every single workout got about
the same or maybe even a little bit tighter than the person that is.
About equivalent.
Right.
The person that was rotating every two to four weeks like you're saying.
Now here's the difference that that steady does not take into account.
And that is the psychological piece.
One of the thing, and because I was notorious
for being the person who used to change up his exercises,
change up his sets reps all the time like that,
constantly giving muscle confusion.
I came from that place, right,
trying to, everything was novel.
Every time I worked out, that was the best thing for me.
Now, the problem with that is that there's such an individual
variance with all of us genetically
and how we respond to certain exercises,
rep ranges and weight, and we're all unique.
It's hard for you to measure what is really benefiting you.
And this is the moldability for you.
As you start to learn your body more and more,
you start to learn what things serve you more than others.
And that's where you customize it.
That even I can't give you that answer.
Only you can find that out for yourself.
That holy shit, every time I transition into high reps,
I pack on this of great amount of muscle.
Well, if that's the case,
you might be somebody who stretches it for an extra week
because of that, or you might cycle back to that more often.
Or maybe you're the person who's,
you know what, I rarely ever get any results
when I go that, it's very minimal.
But boy, when I go down to that one to five rep range,
holy shit, do I see major change?
You can't figure that out and measure it unless you're
consistent for a few weeks to see that.
Totally. That's the problem in the study.
The other thing too is the mental state of going into the workout.
It's a very different mental state when you're going to work out and you're
going to do sets of four reps versus when I'm going there to do sets of 20.
It's a different mental state, a different type of control,
different things to focus on,
and switching in and out of that mental state
throughout the whole week,
I can do it because I'm very experienced.
Average person doesn't do it very well.
I like to take clients,
have them train in a rep range, in a focus,
three weeks get good at it, then we change,
get them to practice that.
See, you know, measurably like, okay, I just added another five pounds to this lift.
Like that's something tangible that you can take with you going forward.
And then, yeah, you have enough time to assess all that going into a totally different concept,
totally different focus, but for that, you got to do the same thing.
You got to really like measure it out.
Right. Now, the other way you can change novelty is the amount of sets that you do.
Not just, now you can do total sets.
So today's chest day and normally I do three sets,
now I'm doing five sets,
or normally I do five, now I'm doing three,
that's one way to change novelty.
But the way I like to change novelty
is by changing the amount of sets per exercise
but keeping the total sets the same.
This is another great way to do it.
So I may go into a workout and know
that I'm gonna do
six sets for my chest.
I might go in there and do six sets of bench press,
just bench press, just get really, really good at the bench press.
Or I might do three different exercises, two sets each.
Same amount of sets, but now I've got way more exercises
and it's totally novel.
So sets is another way to manipulate the novelty of your workout.
One of the last way, of course,
is changing exercises.
This one is paramount.
Now, we did list some of the most important exercises
that you can do.
Those should probably always be in rotation,
but those shouldn't be the only exercises that you do.
There's lots of, I mean, we said barbell squats,
one of the best lower body exercises.
Should you only squat? No. There's, I, I mean, we said barbell squats, one of the best lower body exercises. Should you only squat?
No.
There's, I could list 50,
you can focus completely on unilateral training.
Well, not only that, but the amount of,
I think those core exercises should always be in your routine.
And by that, it doesn't mean exactly a back barbell squat.
It could be a front squat.
Oh, right, right.
So a variation of those, those are the core
and then all the variations of that
should never leave your workout.
No, like you should be overhead press
or dumbbell overhead press.
Right, exactly.
That should always be in there.
You should never eliminate the bench press.
It might not be a barbell bench press.
It might be an incline bench, barbell bench press.
It might be a dumbbell bench press.
Those are the same movement you're just changing the tool
that you're using, a barbell squat, a squat,
should be in there, whether it be a goblet,
whether it be a zircher, whether it be a front,
whether it be a back, whether it be a high bar,
whether it be a single leg squat,
whether it be a Bulgarian split squat.
I mean, there's, but heaven forbid, you go do a workout.
I mean, this is talk about a crappy workout
and go spin and you see this a lot.
Legate stanchions, leg press, and then some other,
leg curl.
Yeah, leg curl or hip-bat, doctor machine,
and then you leave and you do that type of exercise,
that terrible, like to miss out on the one of the best
movements and all the variations of it,
it would be just doing yourself such a disservice
of your training.
Yeah, there's actually two other acute variables
that we didn't discuss with this,
which actually like goes hand in hand
with the novelty side of things,
which are tempo and rest.
Oh yeah.
And really just reason why I bring that up
is because you can manipulate something as simple as
how slowly you go through the exercise itself The reason why I bring that up is because you can manipulate something as simple as how
slowly you go through the exercise itself or you break it down within each part of that
lift.
So if I'm pressing something off my chest and I'm doing that a little bit quicker, but
then I'm lowering the bar to my chest slower, that just created a different stimulus for
my body to react to.
Oh no, what a great point. Very, very good point.
It's actually, I love to do this.
It's such a great easy way to change.
Soil talks about, in which I also like to,
where you have six sets total,
set you're gonna do it,
and then you just play with what exercises that you do that with.
But I love what you're saying too, Justin.
It's something that I do all the time,
where my routine looks exactly the same,
but boy, can you make a routine way different by just,
and I love speaking to this because it's an area
that I never see people mess in my nakedness.
Nobody ever changes this.
Yeah, so it's a forgotten thing.
Yeah, if you watch somebody bench press
and you've seen that same person bench press
for three years, they bench press the same way for three years.
Like they literally are perfecting their technique
just so they can lift more weight,
but it's like, hey, sometimes go into the bench press
and fuck with your tempo.
So it weighed down,
go six seconds on the negative.
Really, really, really slow.
And boy, does that change that exercise?
Big time as far as making it novel for your body
to create a new stimulus to grow and change.
And you're not having to do anything crazy
and wild and different, just messing with the tempo.
Right, and then you mentioned rest periods.
This one's a big one. And I like this one
because the studies will tell you, if you go online right now, look up what's the best
rep, excuse me, what's the best rest period for building muscle and building strength?
And it's going to say over two minutes. It's going to say, study show, if you rest two
minutes in between sets, you build more muscle and more strength. Now this is true in a short period of time, but again, if you adapt to it, your body will
stop responding like it used to.
Take that same person, and I've done this with many, many powerlifting based clients where
they rest two or three minutes, and I cut the rest down to a minute or 45 seconds.
Sure they have to go much lighter.
All of a sudden they get get a crazy pump and their
body responds again. Bodybuilders are actually pretty good at this. Bodybuilders do mess with
tempos a little bit more than other strength athletes. And I think it's because they notice the
difference in muscle shape. No, you pump. No, definitely. I mean, I told you that when we came up with
these five principles, I literally can see a modality for each one of these categories. And I would
say number five, seeking novelty.
This is one of the things bodybuilders are probably
the best.
They're really heavy on that.
And we see the greatest expression of that.
Look how much they can morph and change their body.
Oh yeah.
Better than any sport we talked about,
but better than any crossfitter,
better than any strong man,
better than any Olympic lifter,
a bodybuilder can manipulate the way their body looks
aesthetically better than anybody else on the earth.
And part of the reason why, the main reason why that is, is this area right here.
They are extremely good at seeking novelty.
You'll see body, and that's where a lot of these crazy, weird side chest press exercise
came from.
They're a little too far.
Yeah, experiment.
Yeah, exactly too far.
That's an expression of them taking it too far, but as far as understanding the importance
of novelty and changing sets
and reps and exercises, bodybuilders, I would say are the best at this and we see the
greatest expression in their body.
Totally.
Now, for rest periods, you can rest too little and you can rest too long.
Typically you don't want to rest any less than 30 seconds in between your sets and you
typically don't want to go any longer than three or four minutes.
Now, I know there's some strength athletes that can go as long as six, seven, eight, nine,
ten minutes.
They're very advanced, they're living, they're lifting ridiculously insane amounts of weight.
But for most of you listening, use that as your range.
I gave you a range for reps.
This is your range for rest periods.
30 seconds, it would be the shortest, the longest about three minutes, play with that.
Literally go into the gym, do the same workout,
change your rest periods, and I know people listening
who are doing the longer rest periods,
they're gonna be like, oh, if I go short,
I'm really gonna feel it.
The reverse is also very, very true.
If you're one of those like pump, you know,
seekers who loves to go 30 seconds
and get the crazy pump, try resting two minutes.
Do the same exercises, Try resting two minutes.
Watch what happens to your body.
That change is a big enough novelty effect
that it can cause your body to start adapting and building.
Again, and with that, go to minepumpfree.com
and download all of our guides, resources, and books.
They're all totally free.
You can also find the three of us on Instagram.
You can find Justin at Mind Pump Justin.
You can find me at Mind Pump Salon Atom
at Mind Pump Atom.
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 andolic, Maps Performance, and Maps Esthetic.
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 Superbumble is like having
Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainer's butt 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 minepumpmedia.com.
If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five- rating and review on iTunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family.
We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mind Pump.