The Gen Pop Podcast
Personal Trainer , Coach and people helper Larry Doyle , joined by colleague Daniel Daly sit down with you each week, sharing tips, insights and real world coaching to help simplify your health & fitness journey.We cut through the nonsense, fillers and BS to give you simple real life tips.
The Gen Pop Podcast
#59 The One About Building Muscle...
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Want to build a juicy booty or bulletproof your pecs ?
This is the episode for you... where we dive into building muscle and all you need to know.
Remain proactive in your approach and stay ahead of the game.
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Got questions? simply email or dm us with those questions
Larry IG https://www.instagram.com/larry_doyle_coaching
Daniel IG https://www.instagram.com/danieldalycoaching
Website https://www.larrydoylecoaching.ie
Coaching with us https://www.larrydoylecoaching.ie/1-1-premium/
Email : info@larrydoylecoaching.ie
Episode Introduction
Speaker 1Hey guys, you're listening to the Gen Pop Podcast with me, your host, larry Doyle. Each week, I'm going to bring in friends, guests and experts to help enhance your health, fitness and wellness journeys. Sit back, relax and enjoy the conversations. You are welcome back to another episode of the Gen Pop podcast where this week, myself and co-host Daniel we're going to get jacked and huge and we're going to talk about building obscene amounts of muscle tissue. Daniel, let's get huge.
Speaker 2I wish I actually knew the secret myself, because I don't think, I don't think, I don't think you can ever be big enough. Um, but all jokes aside, yeah, I think building muscle is going to be applicable to both male and females. Like we'll probably have a lot of female listeners at this stage, they might start tuning out, but realistically, you are actually looking for a bit more muscle as well, because every female is going to come to us saying do you want to be a bit toned? But why is toned? Toned is when you reduce your body fat and you actually reveal a bit of muscle beneath. If you don't have any real foundation that you reveal, you're not going to have that quote-unquote toned. Look, you know the, the rounded shoulders and, uh, the bigger glutes. You're not going to have anything to show. So it's still going to be applicable to you.
Speaker 1So definitely don't you know yeah, whether it's a bigger ass or a bigger chest, I mean it's the same principles as well too. Right, in the grand scheme of things, when we're looking at actually building some muscle tissue you may not necessarily want to like, it's like the opposites now to a degree. Lads don't really want to work on their legs, they want to work on the upper body, and girls want to work on their legs, don't really want to work on the upper body. But again, we won't categorize too much. But at the same point, it's the same principles across the board in terms of how we can build some muscle tissue. We're going to look at that and we're going to make it as easy to digest and as easy to grow as possible.
Speaker 1And I guess the big thing is like okay, if you are looking at growing some muscle tissue, and even those who are enhanced, you're not going to be able to grow that much muscle tissue as well, because there is only a certain rate rate of gain that we can actually have. And as someone who competed in bodybuilding for years, I've been quite large, but that all didn't happen overnight and I didn't just get like massive all of a sudden and put on a million kilos straight away. It is a long-term process that you're really looking at committing to when it comes to building muscle, much slower than losing body fat. And I think this is where people struggle to build muscle, because they maybe do an 8 to 10 or 12 week diet and they see great results, but then they start to go into a gaining phase or kind of maintenance plus whatever we want to call it, and they kind of look the same after eight weeks. Nothing has really changed too much.
Speaker 2They might look a bit bigger, weight might have gone up a couple of kilos, but not really that different right yeah, and I think that's where people kind of tend to shit the bed, that like they see the scales going up but like visually you're not really going to see muscle just piling itself on, so you're going to start worrying. Then it's like, oh shit, do I need to diet back down again? Because it just looks like I'm gaining body fat. That there has to be a trade-off. Obviously we're not looking to gain unnecessary amounts of body fat, but there is going to be an element of body fat that's going to come on board. That's a given.
Speaker 2But everything should be kind of done within a controlled manner and like it is about just doing things gradually over a long period of time. And now you will see some people saying that like once you come out of a diet you have to do like this reverse diet and like you have to slowly trickle your calories and like you should only aim for x amount per week and like it'll be just in the grams, but like nobody's going to be able to stick to that. So realistically, in my opinion, I think you're looking at maybe nine months minimum for most people, eight and nine months spent in the gaining phase before even thinking about dieting. Potentially you might have periods of time in there where you might put in just like a very sharp mini cut just to kind of regain a bit of hunger, to kind of maybe it might be just absolutely you know give a lot of so much food as well too, right yeah?
Speaker 2you're just getting tired of eating, um, because it can be, it can be stressful at times. You know it's like, oh shit, I fucking eat again. I don't feel like you feel like eating and you have to like force feed yourself, um. But that's why you want to kind of give yourself enough time that you can have these periods of time where maybe you spend a couple of weeks in like a mini diet where you can actually just regain that sensitivity again, so you can prolong the gaining phase instead of cutting it prematurely and the big thing like the main benefit there outside of.
Speaker 1You know the muscle building and the time away from dieting and getting to eat more food and being more, you know socially inclusive with food and entertaining and stuff like that as well too. But like spending a long time in maintenance or above maintenance or gain tenence or surplus, whatever you want to call it. It's like it will make your next diet significantly easier. And if you're like one of those who, like, finds dieting really hard that you're not getting as much from it each time, it's like go spend more time in a gaining phase and you're going to find that you'll get significant results as well too. Plus, you'll have something to show for it when you actually diet down as well too. Right, so there's kind of there's a couple of camps of people and maybe those of you who are listening will fall into those camps and I think one it's kind of I guess I don't know, it probably sounds sexist, but it is a lot from what we see.
Building Muscle: Male vs Female Perspective
Speaker 1Lads are completely oblivious and naive when they're going to gain some muscle. They just end up getting fat. And then girls are a little bit more concerned about gaining more body fat and they end up just with no extra muscle. They just kind of end up just barely at maintenance if they are, and ultimately both camps are going to see very limited return and you know they're going to end up just not, they're going to get fucked off because they're not getting any results ultimately with it all. So what is an appropriate rate of gain that we really should see? That one is going to minimize fat gain but maximize muscle gain?
Speaker 2um, in terms of an overall percentage of body weight, we should see on a week or month to month basis with it all yeah, I like to kind of look at things more like on a month to month basis when it comes to like gaining rather than like a week to week, because I think you can kind of work off of averages week to week when it comes to like a dieting phase, but when it comes to like gaining muscle it's going to be that bit slower usually.
Speaker 2I kind of like I think for most a kilo per month tends to kind of fall around where I kind of like to see things. Obviously there's going to be certain situations where if you're coming off the back of a diet you might see faster rates of growth. Towards the end of like a gaining phase it might be slower. But I kind of like to have a couple of different metrics to kind of gauge if they're making progress. Like if I can visually see changes but the scales is going up, you know, by two kilos a month, but like visually I don't see any real huge gains in body fat, like everything is in a really good position. Then I'm not going to freak out and say, right, we need to pull calories back down because we're gaining too fast. It's like everything if it's in line kind of, in my opinion, is kind of uh looking after itself yeah, um, you're kind of looking at again, it depends on the kilo.
Speaker 1So if someone's 50 kilos, if someone's 100 kilos, that kilo is going to be different. So you're really looking at kind of one to two percent of your overall body weight is how I kind of like to look at it. But again, once we have other metrics, like anything, you know, the scales down in a dieting phase isn't necessarily just a good thing. If it's a little bit too fast, right, we might be, you know, sacrificing some muscle tissue that's been really hard to earn as well. And if we're just seeing only scales up, that's not always just a good thing. You know, we might see often the case if we have people just in the right side of a surplus, that they're going to be recomping that little bit more as well too. If they're kind of a little bit closer to maintenance, their body weight might be holding, but their visuals are significantly changing.
Speaker 1Um, other metrics I like to look at again. It's like, okay, how's your training actually gaining some strength here as well? Because you're, you're training training quality, because, like, ultimately, that's going to be the driver of hypertrophy there as well too, yes, alongside your calories. But if we're not giving it the stimulus, like if you're just sitting on your ass and eating extra food, nothing's going to happen. So it's like we're going to gain body fat. But let's make sure that we actually have an appropriate stimulus there. Are you getting enough training volume in over the week, enough training frequency, and are you progressing in your lifts, in your movements? So again, what? What are we expecting to see in terms of a rate of progression with their lifts? Because it's not going to be every week. You're going to put like an extra 10 kilos on your lifts right, it's going to be slower, but what should we be seeing there as a metric?
Speaker 2Yeah, I think that's a very important thing to touch on. It is probably the most important variable. I mean you can like talk about like the nuanced details and like get into the nitty-gritty. You talk about like mechanical tension, metabolic stress and all this kind of stuff, but like, at the end of the day, progressive overload is what's going to build the muscle. And like I would kind of see a lot of people as well that they kind of especially in the last couple of years and it's not a right or a wrong thing that they get so hyper focused on form and technique that like everything needs to be like immaculate.
Speaker 2But like I always kind of like to look at like form on like like a scale. If you were to rate your form an 8 out of 10, to me that's more than sufficient. You don't need to look at trying to get that from an 8 to 9 or 9 to 10. So if you went into the gym your form was like an 8 out of 10 and you were to hit 8 reps with 50 kilos and whatever exercise it is. But you went in the next week and you tried to get your form to an 8.1 but still kept at that same number of reps and weight. If you kept doing that week and week trying to improve your form, you're not really going to make much progress, whereas if you maintain that eight out of ten form went in, done one extra rep next week, done two and a half extra kilos, but maintain the form, that's what's going to build the muscle. So I would just be kind of mindful of like overthinking form. Then.
Speaker 2When it comes to like rates of progression, when it comes to the gym, I always kind of think of it like same as with dieting and anything else is like.
Speaker 2Think of it like a lazy approach.
Speaker 2It's like what's the least amount I can do to still make progress and for some people, and for most it actually, is a lot less than you think.
Speaker 2So like if you can put on like micro plates, if you can add like a kilo or two kilos per week over the course of a year, if you're adding like a kilo, you're talking like 50 extra kilos on whatever exercise it is. So think about how many people spin their wheels when it comes to like certain exercises, like I know every guy wants to get to like 100 kilo bench press, but once they hit 100 kilos they never go beyond that point because they're trying to go 100 to 105 or trying to go 100 to 110, whereas if you went from 100 to 101, that's going to be far more realistic to go in terms of progression. And again, it's simply a case of building it up then over the course of the weeks and the months, either increasing reps and or weight where possible, and it's just about making those marginal improvements rather than, like say yourself, unrealistic goals you see this all the time.
Speaker 1It's like the guy gets to like two plates on the bar and it's like, yeah, I've done 100 kilos and all the comments like, yeah, 140. Next it's like, nope, you're just gonna get like. You know, you struggled for years to bench 100 kilos and now you're just gonna get like 40 stronger overnight and like again, like that sounds, you know, mad. Like to even think of like someone going to bench you know 100 kilos and then just all of a sudden putting on 125. But let's peel it back to like going from a 10 kilo to a 12 and a half kilo dumbbell. It's literally the same increase and overall percentage of the loading. And this is where we see like a lot of people getting stuck. That one, the jump might just be too big to actually go up. You know, someone going from a 50 to a 55 kilo dumbbell it's much easier than someone going from a 10 to a 12 and a half kilo dumbbell. This is where we see a lot of ladies getting stuck on chest press and stuff like that always. So this might be that micro loading where maybe we get the little strap trick that I like to to uh to do if you're not sure about that. Drop me a dm, I'll send you a video for it.
Speaker 1Um, but micro loading with smaller plates, that could be adding a rep. I've done it before where I've added an extra clip to the bar and yes, that might be getting a little bit hyper anal, but like it's still progressing, it's still allowing us to move forward, as opposed to jumping up and adding, like if we're looking at the total weight lifted and we try to add an extra too big a jump. Now, all of a sudden, my total poundage for the whole session is dramatically reduced because I've lost. You know, I've tried to go to 110 kilos and now I've dropped three reps and that's 330 kilos. That's been dropped in the total poundage. That could have been lifted right again. So we're losing on a massive rate of progression across the board here. Um, talking about training, should our training actually change when we're going from a fat loss to a gaining phase?
Speaker 2no, for the most part. Well, obviously it depends on, like, how long you've been doing that training plan. But, like there's nothing different differentiating between like a fat loss appropriate training plan or a muscle gain appropriate training plan, you should still be going in with the same intention of progressing every lift. Obviously, the rate that you progress might be different during during a dieting phase compared to like a gaining phase, but you should still be looking to make progress where possible. Um, obviously there might be certain times when you might have to adjust things. Like, if you've been dieting for however long, you might have to adjust some exercises because you know you might not be as stable in that exercise that you might have to swap from doing things on like a bench to like a machine because you just might not have the same amount of stability. But nothing essentially really changes in terms of, like, how you actually perform your sessions. You're still going in looking to make this make as much progress as possible so we keep the lifts the same, we keep the rep ranges very similar.
Speaker 1Uh, your rest times are going to be very similar. Like you know, people come into a dieting phase and like, well, am I now going to lift lighter weights and, and you know, do more reps because I can tone, or should I go like super heavy now because I can, because I've got more calories? And like, the big thing is that it should stay very similar pretty much across the board for the most part. Um, yes, you can do like some conditioning work and yes, you probably should do some higher rep work if you're on like lower body at times and even higher rep work on upper body, but within reason and it's not a case of just doing three sets of eight to ten all the time. But it should remain very similar in the approach you take when you're dieting versus the approach you take when you're gaining, because, again, like, what built the muscle is what's going to retain the muscle. So it should be very, very similar across the board. Um, what rep ranges, what volume have you found to be most productive both for yourself and clients over years?
Speaker 2it's kind of like changed in my own like personal opinion because like I've gone through different types of different styles of training and so forth, I've kind of like slowly increased the volume like week to week to find like the point where I can't progress any longer and then strip it back again and stuff like that. Um, but I think it's always about like the most you can do and still recover from, and like that's going to be very individual for most people and like I like to kind of spread it across the week because you could look at things as saying, like I'm doing, you know whatever 12 sets for chest, but like there's a difference between doing 12 sets for chest in one session as opposed to doing 12 sets for chest across the week. So like the likelihood is if you were to do 12 sets purely for your chest training close to failure, you're not going to probably like after the first six sets you're probably going to like see diminishing returns after that. So you actually will be better off, kind of like spreading it across the week. So for me, when it comes to like number of sets, I think it is however many you can do to recover from. But also it's going to be like, um, you know it has to be like a minimum or kind of a maximum amount that you have to kind of follow within and in terms of reps, you can still kind of gain muscle anywhere from like five reps up to like 25 reps.
Rate of Gain and Progress Metrics
Speaker 2It doesn't necessarily matter, you could gain muscle on like two reps, like it is all about like the overall training plan, as opposed to just worrying about like the reps and one individual exercise, because like you could have somebody that's like a powerlifter that they train exclusively like within like one to three reps, like they're still going to have huge chests. You you can't be, you know, like ridiculously strong and not be big at the same time. So I think that's one of the areas that kind of people like overthink an awful lot as well that they think that like they need to like change the rep schemes when they're in a dieting phase or when they're in a gaining phase. That you know you need to do high reps, low weight, when you're dieting and you need to do lower reps, heavy weight, when you're gaining. So everything builds muscle.
Speaker 2And I think if you look at the bodybuilders back in the 70s, if you look at the likes of Arnold, their training approaches compared to the likes of Dorian Yates in the 90s completely different training approaches, but you can't say that they both didn't grow muscle. Sure, you could say that like right. Obviously Dorian yates was huge and he was like a genetic freak, but like who's to say that? Like he mightn't have gained more muscle if he followed the same approach to arnold, or vice versa, if arnold done the same approach to dorian, maybe he might have gained less. So it is going to be very individual really. There is no real right or wrong. It is kind of down to what you can sustain over a long period of time.
Speaker 1Yeah, like the, the whole thing on volume and the amount of sets you should do per body part per week. It's like it's very broad. I think a lot of the literature is going to say 10 to 20 sets. I was like that's a hundred percent different. You know it's not like slight.
Speaker 1It's not like between 12 and 13. That's a bit a bit more of a narrow range. But ultimately you want to find what is the maximum you can get from the minimum. And then, okay, you have a preference for getting a bit more of an arm pump, cool, add more sets for arms. But it shouldn't be a case of you start straight away with the maximum threshold and go straight to 20, because that's going to maximize your gains. Try and play with the least possible that you can get away with and can recover from, because you know okay, know okay.
Speaker 1While some people like to slog it out for sessions, a lot of people just don't have the time to be in the gym, like Arnold and the lads, for like three to five hours a day, and it's like that's not overly enjoyable and chances are your quality is going to go to shit and your lifestyle is not set up like that as well, too, to be able to manage that. So, for the most part, if you need to increase the volume there, if you need to increase the workload, if you need to increase the density of the sessions, whatever it might be, it's like now, okay, we have that ace to flip, because if you start at the higher end, well, you've kind of got nowhere to go. It's like starting with the lower end of calories with dieting, you have nowhere to go other than to hell, really, with it all, because now it's not enjoyable and it's not very repeatable and it's going to create impact and conflict there as well too. So for me I'm always looking at okay, what is the maximum? Okay, there's wants and needs. That individual might want 15 sets, I might want them on you know 10, let's go to 12 to 13, and we're kind of finding that middle ground in terms of what people like. Because again, the biggest determinant factor is do you actually like it? Can you repeat it and is it enjoyable? If it's not enjoyable and people aren't competing because, like, okay, like bodybuilders love to bring misery into it, they're not maybe going to enjoy doing the 20 sets for legs all the time.
Speaker 1But for most people that are going to be listening to this, you want to make it enjoyable so you can make it repeatable, so you can actually stay in it for long enough. Like we mentioned, nine to 12 months of doing this thing where you can actually see significant return and get, you know, marginal gains across the board with it all as well too, and this is like really really key. So start with the lower end of volume if we can, and that's going to be again, gives you a lot of wiggle room to go. Something you touched on earlier, and just to kind of come back to it again, is like the the whole progressive overload thing. Something you'll see is people sandbagging it all a little bit as well too, and I think this is like really key.
Speaker 1Where well, I'm going to get progressive overload if I I know I can go up by five kilos, but I'm only going to go up by one kilo, because now I'll be able to progress a kilo every week for the next five weeks. It's like no, no, just go straight up the five, get on with it, and that's going to be like again, really good, because you don't want to beat it by the smallest amount every time. If we can get that gain and we can sustain that rate of progression with it, get the maximum there as much as you can. If it's there, take it. It's kind of one of those old rules with it all.
Speaker 1Um, what else are we looking for in terms of assessing progression, like what?
Speaker 1What are things we should look out for that's going to be a derailer to progress, I guess, when it comes to gaining, because there is certain things that we may look at that are outside of the box that bit more, whether it's looking at digestion, whether it's looking at, you know, the absorption, assimilation of food, because we don't just put food in and magic happens and we go to the gym and we get massive Like, because we don't just put food in and magic happens and we go to the gym and we get massive like.
Speaker 1That's not the case as well, too. If you've someone who's very active, they're going to need a lot of food and chances are, if we really start to ramp up their food too soon, too quick, they're going to get compromised digestion as well too, because I know from back in the day when I was competing, I was eating close to seven and a half, eight000 calories a day because I was doing so many steps on the floor in the gym and then I was like just wolfing in food all the time and my digestion wasn't really great, as you can imagine right. So again, it's like I had to eat even more food to try and gain because, one, my output activity was too high, but two.
Speaker 2I was starting to rush in food, probably not digestion absorbing and assim yeah, I guess it's that, like you actually are digesting the food, that you are like two to three hours later that you feel ready to eat again, like again, there's no real magic set number of meals need to have for, like to kind of keep muscle building, um, going like it is like from the latest research that's come out, like it it is still down to like the total protein throughout the day, no matter how many feedings you kind of split it up into. And again, it is going to be down to your own individual circumstances and what kind of works for you. But like the things we don't want to see is it like you're constantly bloated, you've got excess amounts of gas, that, um, that you're having any kind of like negative responses from it, like any crazy like drops in blood sugar and things like that. So we want to kind of make sure that you're having any kind of like negative responses from it, like any crazy like drops in blood sugar and things like that. So we want to kind of make sure that you're kind of setting up your diet that you can actually digest the food, because, like again, like, as you said, like total calories is only one part of the equation. That, like how you're actually like digesting and assimilating the food is going to be like a huge component as well and, like a lot of people again will kind of like worry about like how much carbs should I have, like before my workout, after my workout, like, is intra-workout nutrition an important thing?
Speaker 2But again, if you're not, if you're not ticking all those boxes in terms of just like across the course of the day, hitting your total calories, your protein stuff, like these little things matter very little, and meal timings for me, matter more when it comes to digestion rather than it does for, like, overall muscle building or anything like that.
Speaker 2So that is why you could say that, like you know, eating every three to four hours is important is so that you are actually staying on top of a digestion, that you're not looking to force feed yourself like one massive meal in the morning and then not be able to eat again for another nine hours, that, like you are kind of spreading it out somewhat evenly throughout the day I think that's key because I think you mentioned it earlier on it's like having frequent feedings is really key, because if you go all of a sudden it's like should have missed a meal, or I've missed two meals now, and it's like, oh, I have like 1500 calories to get in and right, everyone who's listening to this you're not going to be on like 5,000 calories a day.
Training Volume and Programming Structure
Speaker 1Right, we have very few clients that kind of get up to that point as well too, but bigger people are going to need bigger food. That's cool. But, like you know, you might be at the point of like having 3,000, 3,000 plus calories a day. For some people who are listening to this, if you're in a gaining phase, maybe three and a half or weekly averages. We don't want to be going too low on a day-to-day basis, but if you miss a meal, I wouldn't necessarily be really force feeding that later on, because, right, you might need to get in a little bit more food, but don't get to the point of being over full or eating too close to bed. If you had to push a lot of calories back now, everything else is a bit fucked and it bleeds into the next day as well too. Now you need more pre-workout. Now you're eating more caffeine, blah, blah, blah and it's like again just a bad circle to be in with it all. So I guess I think more of a diligent approach looking at your day it's making sure that you've got space within um, I think another big thing is like people try to go. There's two camps. People go really clean with their food. People go really clean with their food. People go really dirty with their food. You know there is a time and a place where we need to be a little bit more economical and efficient with our food With, you know, those coming from a low calorie, high volume approach, when they're dieting to kind of switch gears into you know, they've got a couple of thousand calories extra. Now, all of a sudden, you know they need to change that approach. Maybe they need to be a bit more flexible, a bit more processed, even though we'll suggest to people eat less processed food, you know, for overall health and digestion and absorption and all this crack. But having that bowl of cereal is probably going to aid digestion as opposed to having, you know, a paddy field full of rice to try and get in the amount of carbohydrates you might need or to be able to have you know a bit of whey mixed over that with the cereal to get again more food that's easier to digest as opposed to trying to have you know a flank steak and you know several hundred grams of potatoes. So again, it's been flexible with the approach that we can actually improve digestion.
Speaker 1I know certainly I used to leverage off of quite a bit where I would have more shakes throughout the day because now it's so easy to consume, as opposed to try to chew and to masticate the food and to try to break it down. Other simple things I would have looked at would be having more minced meats. If I'm having more solid foods as opposed to more, you know, even like a whole chicken fillet or a whole steak, whatever it might be, because it means I have to, I can't just swallow it, but it's more pre-digested to a degree. There's less mastication to break it, it down. It's easier for me to be able to churn it up and actually make use of some of those calories that are gone into my gut as well, um, by the time it gets to that point as well, right?
Speaker 1So again it's looking at simple things, uh, that we can use and be more efficient with the food. Um, when it comes to training days, uh, moving on from that kind of back to the training side of things, how many days a week do you find is kind of best for people? Do you need to go to the gym five, six days a week, now, all of a sudden, that we're eating all these calories, or what's the crack there?
Speaker 2I still think it's kind of remains relatively unchanged, like the dieting phase. Again, it is going to be very individual, uh, depending on, like, how many days you can actually train. But I think you can still make huge amount of gains three, four times, train three or four times per week. And again, a lot of people will assume that they'll think more equals better. If I train more, that means more muscle growth.
Progressive Overload and Training Approach
Speaker 2But a lot of people don't realize it's like the time away from the gym. That's when you're actually making the improvements, that's when you're actually gaining the muscle tissue. You know the the training stimulus is just a stimulus to actually gain the muscle. But, like, if you're not sleeping enough, if you're not recovering enough, you're not going to be gaining as much muscle as you think. So that's why, like, when it comes to your training, same as I said before, it's like you should always be trying to get the most from the least. So if you can get into the gym three days, three days per week, and apply all the same principles of progressive overload, like, and then spend as much time and effort recovering as hard as you can as you do training, you're going to get massive returns from that yeah, and I think people are compromising their potential return massively by going to the gym like that five, six days a week when they really only need three to four.
Speaker 1And that's even those looking to recruit the most amount of muscle building possible with it all. Because, again, if you're spreading it out and you're doing like you know, a hamstring and calf session, and you're doing like a quad and abs the following day, it's like the quality of your quad movements, even though it's like not the same muscle group, is still going to be diminished in terms of what you can really do with the quality of the work that you're going to get across the board with it. So it's again look at what's the maximum quality work I can get across the week, as opposed to just getting to the gym more often. Um, so that may actually mean condensing more body parts into the split. It may mean, um, maybe it's a little bit of a longer session in that one day, but I actually get to get off and go recover, then more the following day, and I think that's going to be like really, really, really key for people when you're looking at building more muscle tissue.
Food Quality and Digestion Importance
Speaker 1Um, what would you do with? I guess this is another question that's going to come up, but I'm just thinking about it now on the fly. It's like lagging body parts, right. What should we do there as kind of a tick box exercise to make sure that we're bringing up those body parts for people?
Speaker 2I think the first thing to do before you look at saying I need to do more for this is to have a look at what you're doing already and see, like are you doing? You know what is the quality of the work you're doing? Like, because it could simply be a case that, like the, your exercise selection just doesn't suit you. And again, the exercises like, a lot of people look at exercise saying this is the best exercise for chest growth or this is the best exercise for quad growth, but again, it's still very individual. Because you can look at these studies saying like oh, emg data show that this is the best one to recruit muscle fibers for your quads. But like, if you've got one person who's like six foot ten and then you've got another person who's like five foot four and you put them both under a bar for a squat, it's going to look vastly different. And like the barbells back squat is not going to suit both of them to the same degree. So you really need to have a look at like is the exercise selection suited to you? Is, are you actually getting good quality reps from the exercises you have chosen? So, instead of looking at what other people say are the best exercises. Look at yourself as an individual and say are the exercises I'm doing the best? Am I actually feeling my muscle while I'm doing it? I'm actually performing it through its full range? Am I overloading enough?
Speaker 2As um, like as you touched on everyday, maybe, like you're sandbagging it to a degree where, like, you're just not pushing yourself that bit harder? Are you giving up closer or further away from failure than what you should be? Because a lot of people will see is like they're just giving up. Like eight reps in the tank. It's like, are you getting? You know those once you get closer to failure, like within maybe five reps? That's when you can see they're like the effective reps. Like we're not saying that you need to be taking every single thing to absolute failure, which most people aren't doing anyway, but like if you're staying, you know, two to three reps away from failure on every exercise, you're going to be in a good position. But I think, above all else, the quality of the movements that you're doing I think is one of the most important and overlooked aspects, rather than, uh the um, the number of sets you're doing for that body part yeah, because more volume.
Speaker 1If it's shit, it's just more shit basically when it comes to it. So it's like it's not going to give you. Like, most likely those body parts that are lagging or struggling to grow for people is one, they don't have appropriate exercise selection, but two, they're not actually getting stronger in those movements as well. And I'm not saying it needs to break down and go to shit for that exercise technique and form, but have you actually trained it hard enough to see return? Have you uh picked exercise that suit you and your own mechanics well? And but have you actually trained it hard enough to see return? Have you uh picked exercise that suit you and your own mechanics well? And then have you been able to stick to them for long enough to see progression there? And again, it's most people aren't ticking those boxes or they're like thinking, okay, I like put hamstrings at the end of legs because it's an afterthought and I have to hit quads and glutes first, and that's why you've got shit hamstrings, because you're prioritizing them way further down the line. So a big thing for me is like, if you want to prioritize a muscle group and make that better, train it first. You know, don't keep putting arms after chest and back, or like push and pull. If you want to get bigger biceps, give them attention. They need to get better and hit them when they're fresh.
Speaker 1You know, obviously, with good form, good technique, progressive overload, all that crack too, but like put them at the start of your workout. It's not illegal. You know, ronnie Coleman won't come down and kick you in the ass if you train biceps first, before back. It's all right, you know, to do these things and to break the rules. The really cool thing about hypertrophy and building muscle is that, outside of ensuring you're eating sufficient calories and giving it sufficient volume, there isn't really any many rules. You know, like make sure, okay, we're progressing those movements and lifts, but like there is no rule to say that you can put a bicep curl last or first. It's like put it where it needs to be for what you need to get back in terms of the results you're looking for. And like give it appropriate time and give it enough volume and enough exposure as well to actually see that improvement. Cool Loads here in terms of getting jacked uh, I think people are definitely going to see more improvements on a lot of this.
Speaker 2Any other key points you think we should touch on here before getting into the wrap-up I think one thing we actually didn't touch on as well that I think a lot of people kind of mistake is like a lot of people mistake the pump you get in the gym as well, for like that is what you need to feel to be gaining muscle, that like everyone's going to be going to the gym chasing a pump.
Speaker 2Like lads are going to want the pump in their chest or their, their biceps, like females going to be like probably in their glutes they're going to want to feel it. Like if they don't feel something after they've trained or the day after they're trained, they're going to feel like they didn't train hard enough. And that's when, again, you're going to have people adding in extra sets or adding in like different intensifiers or finishers that are going to be doing like drop sets and they're going to be doing like um, myo reps and all these kind of things. But at the end of the day, everything is going to work but it is going to come down to the quality you're putting in and like the pump isn't the main driver. It does, it does add effective volume, but it's not going to be like the main driver for hypertrophy. It is an element of it, but it's not something that you should be chasing.
Speaker 1For every single exercise, every single day, you go into the gym it's going to be a byproduct of doing the things like putting in some mechanical tension, having enough time and attention, putting in enough progressive overload. Yes, chances are you're going to get more blood volumization to that muscle cell. But at the same point, don't make that the be all and end all. If you're there staying till you get a pump, but it means that you've done like 25 reps and you're lifting fuck all weight to get there, it's like you know we need to look at increasing the actual loading and actually get some proper mechanical tension put down there as well too. So massive one with that. Uh, the last point muscular soreness. How sore should we be all the time if we're, if we're hobbling and limping for days after a session, does that mean it's good or bad?
Lagging Body Parts and Final Tips
Speaker 2It's probably more normal to see that at the very start of a training block because you've got the novel stimulus. But you should see that kind of dissipate after the first week, potentially two weeks, but you shouldn't be sore to that degree. You might be sore like to the touch, like if you were just to touch your chest the day after. It might feel a small bit tender, but it shouldn't prevent you from doing a day-to-day task. You shouldn't be like falling trying to get up off the toilet seat or you shouldn't struggle up down the stairs. Um. If you are in that position, you're either not recovering enough or your volume is just way too high, um, and you need to adjust something there. But that's definitely not something.
Speaker 1That is again a sign that your um training is effective so it's like that meme out of wolf of wall street where he's, after taking the quaaludes, he's fallen out of the lamborghini and can't literally walk. It shouldn't be like that 24 7. That is not a sign of effective workouts. That is absolutely going to hamper your ability to progress. If you're hobbling into the gym and you're going to go train legs, you should probably think about that session that you're going to do and you should probably go hit upper body instead. And even at that, are you able to stabilize now by being able to produce more legs if they're like really highly fatigued? There's going to be something up with your recovery or your nutritional strategy or your hydration or something to that extent. If you are seeing yourself continually been sore extent. If you are seeing yourself continually been sore, something else you're going to see that you've been continually sore from is if your program hopping all the time, if you're doing that novel stimulus every single week, if you're doing some random bullshit you pulled off Instagram or the internet. Listen, I'm all for getting creative and enjoying your sessions and doing random things at times, but if we're looking at having a strategy in place and there's going to be a plan and a structure laid out to it. We need to follow that plan and structure to know we're actually progressing. If you're going in and you're doing random wads, if you're doing random lifts, if you're doing random sessions cool. If you're catching up with your buddies and you're just jumping in on one of their arm sessions, that's cool, that's fine. But, like for the most part, there needs to be consistency there with your actual program and that will allow you to see progressive overload and to be able to get those stimulus as well too to actually drive hypertrophy. And doing random shit all the time is going to see very random outcomes that are mostly going to be negative as well too in terms of actual progressive overload.
Speaker 1Um, those who see the best outcomes will be able to stick to programs a little bit longer. I'm not saying go till you're bored to tears with it, but if you're just program hopping every week or think you need a program changed every two weeks, chances are you need a little bit more entertainment in your life and you're not going to be able to get it just from the gym and not going to see some results as well, too, with it all. Um, I think there's been a lot here in terms of hypertrophy, I think people are going to be getting a little bit more jacked. Obviously it's going to take a little bit more time. Drop us a message in nine months let us know how it's after going for you. Don't drop us a message next week and say, hey, I haven't got jacked yet.
Speaker 1It is going to take time. It is going to take a little bit of patience. It is going to take frequent exposure to eating a little bit more food and training a little bit more regularly and consistent, with more diligence around your progressive overload, but at the same point, it isn't a very tricky task. Yes, if you've been doing it for longer, you might see smaller, more diminished returns. There is a cap to a degree in terms of how much muscle we can build, but chances are you haven't been taking enough of the boxes that we've been speaking about here and there is a lot of wiggle room for you to be able to continue to get some progression across the board with it all.
Speaker 2Um, any last sign off notes, daniel, before we wrap it up yeah, I think building muscle is probably one of the things that most people probably could do with spending a lot more time doing, because we're going to see time and time again, the people are going to want to keep losing body fat and keep losing body fat and they're just cold chopping every single year for the same reasons that they want to just drop body fat, but ultimately they're never going to be happy with what they're seeing because they're just looking at a smaller version of their starting point.
Speaker 2So if you haven't spent sufficient time building muscle in the first place, you're probably not going to look anywhere near where you actually want to be. So I think you're actually better off prioritizing muscle building, especially when you're starting off in the gym. Obviously, if you're somebody who's morbidly obese or has a lot of excess body fat, that's something that needs to be prioritized first. But I think most people, when they're starting off, should spend a sufficient amount of time looking to prioritize building muscle and progressing in the gym as much as possible before thinking about dieting down and again it leads into the dieting phase.
Speaker 1You're going to be stronger, you're going to be carrying more muscle tissue. Everything is going to be easier to that degree and you're probably going to want to diet as well too, if you're ever spending enough time in a gaining phase to give that appetite a little bit of a break. Loads to go off. Here you're going to be building loads of muscle along the line. Uh, I know, personally it's something I really enjoy when I'm in that phase of seeing some progression. I think it is more challenging than a dieting phase, to be honest, because you need to be super consistent with it. You can kind of miss a meal or two and it's fine if you're in a dieting phase not the biggest deal or the end of the world, because it's putting you into a bigger deficit, but it is hard for a lot of people to gain a lot of muscle tissue and again, it takes that diligent approach but absolutely can be done. Um, tons of value.
Speaker 1We always want to hear back from you guys. If you want to hear different aspects, different topics you want to cover in this, make sure you drop us a dm questions you want to know more about or if you need a little bit more help. 100. We're here to help you guys. Reach out. Touch base you'll get a boss on. You'll get us both on instagram anytime. Drop a dm until the next one. You.