Gym Training – knowing What To Do, Why And Then Doing It

Whilst training a client today in a relatively quiet period, there were two guys training together one of whom I know and both of whom I had observed on several other occasions. What was noteworthy was that unlike the vast majority of people in the gym, these guys actually knew what they were doing and were putting in a real honest effort. They had a plan and were working together to hammer the best out of each other. They knew what it takes to get the job done and were working hard and methodically but most of all, with understanding and purpose.

Their target muscle was biceps. They knew this and understood the muscle function and reinforced the importance of keeping the upper arms still and isolating the biceps muscle before each exercise to each other. They knew what exercises they were going to do and why plus the finer technical points of each exercise. They focused and went about their sets with concentration and intensity, pushing past pain and discomfort, keeping good form to hit the muscle with good overload to stimulate the adaptive response. They kept their talk to the workout and observed and fed back to each other information to help improve their execution – they paid attention. They used a small selection of exercises each with a specific purpose knowing that the biceps is only a small muscle and doesn’t need much when you do things properly with good intensity.

Then they will rest and come back and do it all again according to their schedule – because they know how important it is to be consistent.

This is what productive training really is, the above is what it looks like. The problem is that the reason I found all of the above noteworthy is because in my long days spent at the gym week in week out, year after year, it’s actually pretty rare to see truly productive training in full flight.

Sure you will see people heaving and grunting away but do they understand what they are doing and why? How about the biological mechanisms for muscle growth? Do they understand muscle function and actions? Do they actually understand proper technique and how to execute, correct and improve it? Do they mentally focus? Do they work with true intensity to stimulate an adaptive response? Are they consistent and have a steady plan that will allow them to progress and achieve the body they want? This is before we even get into the nutrition and lifestyle aspects of the puzzle.

Getting the body you want doesn’t come from just training.

It comes from first understanding your body and then by extension the various facets of productive training. Only then will you be able to make specific training decisions that are each backed with a specific purpose in mind – there will be a scientific physiological reason for every exercise choice, rep range and style of execution. Once have this solid, considered plan in place, all that remains is to execute it and reap the results.

It’s very simple really. If you cannot explain exactly what you are doing in your training and the specific reasons why, you will never reach your ultimate potential. When you don’t know much you can’t go far.

The Best Whey Protein Isolate (WPI) For Muscle Building On The Market?

If you are a newsletter subscriber you will know how highly I regard Protein Factory for being a true innovator in cutting-edge no bs result producing supplementation.

Well it seems they have done it again by releasing a whole new whey protein isolate that from the looks of it seems to be of the highest quality ever.

Their new Bio-Fresh WPI makes it from the cow to the bag in less than 48 hours! The nutritional profile of this protein is also fantastic as you would expect.

You can read all about it here.

Having said that, Protein Factory also carries some serious muscle building powders beyond even the top quality whey that they feature. Check out their Hydrolysed Caesin and Super Bovine Plasma as well. I have used both of these and rate them highly. A supplement industry insider I know believes that Hydrolysed Caesin will be the foundation of the next generation of supplementation as whey is today. Be warned these two proteins are serious stuff and don’t taste the best but they are at the absolute cutting edge without a doubt. Nothing tastes better than results though does it?

How Hard Is It To Lose Body Fat And Build Muscle?

“Isn’t that hard?” is a question that I get almost every day when I tell someone about an aspect of my lifestyle and my answer is always the same – “No it really isn’t hard.”

When I show someone my food for the day or explain to them the truth of what it takes to get results, most people invariably think that it is tough, challenging, hard and takes discipline, willpower and fanaticism to do what I do. How our society get so brainwashed into thinking this way about preparing and eating a few simple meals of brown rice vegetables and meat is beyond words.

Yes there are hard things in life. I would consider something like climbing Everest as hard or living in Darfur as terribly hard but being lucky enough to buy some and cook clean food and shock horror eat the same thing 4 times in a day somehow makes me some sort of heroic freak to the masses who have been lied to and can’t get the body they want.

The reality is that people have been lied to with regard to how hard getting a lean muscular body for life is and it becomes a self fulfiling prophecy. The companies then can sell you an ‘easy way’ out of the ‘hard’ situation facing you.

Look at it objectively. Is learning how your body works then eating clean and training smart so hard? How tough are people doing it around the world in warzones and dozens of other countries where life is an ordeal?

The fact of the matter is that losing fat and gaining muscle is not hard. They require knowledge and willingess to take action but nothing more. Once you make the choice to transform your body, all you need to do is learn how to create the changes you want and then just do it. There is no inherent difficulty just a simple series of cause and effect processes that you undertake to get what you want.

You either create the body you want or you don’t. Not because it is too hard but because deep down, despite what you may think, you don’t want to change enough to make the choice of a lean muscular body for life.

Losing fat and gaining muscle is not hard. Never was and never will be.

A Better Technique Unlocks Your Full Muscle Growth Potential

It never ceases to amaze me the technique or rather lack of that can be seen in any gym. A small minority will never change because they are fixed in their ways but the vast majority of people who spend time in the gym to create a lean and muscular physique seem to have no idea of what it really takes to get them there and thus perform exercises in a way that makes no sense.

Remember muscle growth and fat loss is simple – stimulus and adaptation. That’s it. When you are doing an exercise, the only objective is the correct stimulus of the target muscle – not how many reps or the weight. Remember, there is no seated row or heaving DB curl world championship with vast sums of prize money at stake. Yet go into any gym and it seems like that someone forgot to tell a lot of the guys in there who seem to be honing their skills for such an event.

In order for the target muscle to grow it must be correctly stimulated. Lifting a weight gives some stimulus but over time if technique is poor and the muscles are not stimulated correctly, all that happens is that you will adapt to “get better” at performing that exercise poorly. Your strength curve and motor patterns – how your muscles fire and move will be imprinted with the pattern of how to do a really bad lat pull down really well. You will get strong biceps, traps and whatever you use but this will further impede your ability to hit the target muscle (lats) as everything else is stronger. It becomes the weakest link and your body likes to do things the easy way. From there it’s a hard job to play catch-up.

This doesn’t mean that you must or should always use textbook picture perfect form and pink vinyl dbs. (Although I was recently shown a set of rotator cuff exercises using 2kg dbs that was enough to destroy a 100kg+ ex-special forces soldier – this goes to show that anything done properly with intensity will work the body hard) It’s also not an argument about loose vs. strict form. The key is knowing what you are doing, why and how to execute your plan.

If you are going for maximal overload then be specific – it’s not about heaving up a bunch of weight to look tough. You are specifically trying to bullseye the target muscle with a heavier weight than would otherwise be possible with strict form. Controlled momentum and/or using other muscles to get past the sticking points of the movement whilst hitting the target muscle is the name of the game. A slow eccentric phase or lowering under control is a must to get the most out of a heavier weight – you are stronger in this phase so keep it tight.

If your goal is maximal occlusion, make sure you pick a weight that you don’t have to heave – you know what you are doing and why so don’t worry what the weight ‘looks like’. Keep the tension on, feel every inch and fibre scream and forget about the reps – have a target range and get there at all costs and then some if you have anything left.

Technique is a non-negotiable and it’s not about going light. If you don’t have rock solid form you are never going to squat double body weight or dead lift serious weight. Yes power lifters are strong use suits and have different goals but they know that in order to get what they want technique matters.

Squats: The Ultimate Leg And All Body Exercise

Like the deadlift, the squat is a hard and heavy simple movement yet has many subtle nuances that you will discover as you progress in your training journey.

As with any progressive overload, over time you will come against sticking points or even from the start you may find that you may not be able to hit proper depth with any appreciable amount of weight. The most common technique flaw is not going to at least parallel. Even if you are never going to enter a powerlifting competition, going to parallel is so crucial for long term squatting power, effective leg training and balanced development of the quads, glutes and hamstrings that you always have to be fastidious about your depth.

Whenever you increase the weights, make sure that you still keep your depth. If you lose some depth, get it back before you increase the weight again. Simple. On the subject of proper squat depth as well, once you get beyond the basics, it should be a never ending constant refinement to improve your feel or awareness of where your proper depth is so you can work on hitting it precisely EVERY time and not spend any more time ‘in the hole’ than necessary before powering the weight back up. There is a saying that I think relates beautifully to the squat: “amateurs practice until they get it right, professionals practice until they never get it wrong.”