Train. Eat. Think. Episode 6 - "Best" Exercises. What are they? Part 1

This episode hear Francis and Ben offer their insights into the "best" exercises and exercise placement to build your lower body.

With extensive backgrounds in powerlifting and bodybuilding we discuss exercise selection, the importance of enjoyment, and how to optimize training with different variety of equipment and skillsets - new to gym, returning, home gym etc 

We emphasize the value of foundational movements, avoiding dogma, and tailoring workouts to individual needs in line with our mantra to always meet you where you are. 

Don't forget to subscribe and please leave us a 5* rating if you could. 

We appreciate the support and join us next week for Part 2 were we discuss upper body building exercises. 

For online 121 coaching enquiries/information

Please contact Francis on X/Instagram @coachfhm or email fmeliacoaching@gmail.com 

Contact Ben on X/Instagram @benjaminyeezus or email benyeezus@gmail.com  

Thanks for listening. See you next week :D 

Transcript

The Evolution of Exercise Selection

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Train, eat, think.

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Episode six. What are the best exercises? What are the best exercises? What's what's optimal? Barbells versus machines. Apparently, barbells are gonna they're gonna go extinct. They're not gonna be in gyms over the next the next 20 years. And machines are then the the the next best thing since uh sliced bread. So yeah, we're gonna break it all down for everyone today. Well, what's what are we looking for when it's uh it comes to picking exercises and things that you need to consider? Well, it's gonna be a good one, this.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

I'm really excited to get into this one. There's a lot of uh records to be set straight, a lot of beef other than the fun, a lot of beef around you know what's the best. And you know, as we've said on on the the set of um podcasts that we've already recorded in this space, you know, we're gonna present good factual information. We're not gonna go too much to one side or to the other. We're gonna present uh what we've got, which is great experience. Francis and I have spoken at length on spaces which we had on Twitter before we started recording the podcasts. And the great thing is that Francis comes from a powerlifting background, so he's got the big three, he's transitioned across to to doing bodybuilding. I've come from the space where a lot of the work I've done has been on machines, so we've got that right good balance, and really, really excited again to get in and chat about this, Francis.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Yeah, and I I think as you say there, mate, having the having that background and powerlifting myself, and obviously now, you know, in competitive bodybuilding and with yourself with the the experience of bodybuilding that you've had over the last 10 plus years. And we're not coming at it from a uh a place of dogma or you know, we're not we're not trying to feed people bullshit. I think there's a there is there is a case or a time and a place for a lot of exercises that is no absolute one size fits all. And I blame TikTok and Instagram for a lot of this shite. I think it's uh you know one of the reasons why we want to do a podcast is is more long form content, delving into the weeds because the the problem now with uh social media, TikTok, Instagram, it's a it's a 10-second reel showing you some bullshit exercise which is going to explode your lats to new levels. The best exercise for lats, and they show you some key and flaps where someone he's attached to a cable system just doing some shite and it grabs the attention, it grabs you in, it hooks the new generation. So we've got a we've got a younger generation of lifters. You know, they're not doing pull-ups and barbell rows anymore or deadlifts the the sat on keying and flaps and doing single-arm pull dance. Now, not that that's just single arm pull downs are a bad exercise, it's just we're going too in that direction of the search of optimal, and then we're forgetting about some you know bread and butter fundamentals stuff that does work when it's implemented correctly. So, yeah, I go off on a tangible to some of the bollocks on TikTok.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

You make a great point there, bread and butter. One of the things I like to talk about is meat and veg. What we talk about are meat, veg and potatoes, and we can relate that as well to exercises. And there are absolutely meat and veg exercises, they're out there, we all know them. They've been um carried out

The Debate: Barbells vs. Machines

SPEAKER_00 3:06

for time immemorial. You know, there's guys that we can still learn from that lifted in the 70s and the 80s. Has it got a little bit better? Well, of course it has. There are more, for example, machines, but there's still a lot of place for using different um modalities, and depending where your skill set may be, depending on what you may even have access to, not everybody is going to be blessed that maybe they stay in a large city that has maybe 30, 40 gyms in in a in a like a block. You might be a little bit more rural, you could be working offshore, having your own home gym that you've got enough to get by, and and there's been a lot of good physiques built in spaces. And I think that's one of the things I'd really like everyone to take from what we're going to get deep into on this podcast, Francis, which is you can be a good workman, and a bad workman blames the tools. But if you can learn to be a good workman, you can make the tools that you've got at your um disposal work for you and build a physique. It doesn't matter what that is, you know, whether it's exercise X or Y. I'm I'm not gonna get into the specifics now, we we will get into it, but you can make things, even if you don't have a lot of weight, a lot of plates, there's things that we can we can do that helps increase the intensity a little bit. So, what it is is it's becoming skilled and understanding what works for you, but also becoming skilled in the terms of being able to use something if that's all you've got access to.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

I think if we look at some of the best physiques that have been built over the last 50 to 100 years, even some of the old school, like strong men, you know, like Eugene Sandau and all this, like when they in some of their physiques, like you know, obviously that they're not to the caliber of you know some of the athletes today, but you can see that they built a good standard of muscle tissue for like basic equipment. And then you go through the golden age, the silver era of bodybuilding, the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, you know, come on, look at some of those physiques, like all built off bread and butter movements, and you know, even going through the 90s, you know, when when Dorian was out and we, you know, we had uh uh flex wheeler, all the nineties crew some some great physiques. A lot of it was all built, bread and butter, no nonsense stuff. Now that's not to say, you know, the the the new school of bodybuilders today of you know the machines are useless, of course not. It's just to say that when people are saying that barbells and free weights sort of like they're just the what's the what's the word they use? Vaulted. That's the one, that's the classic one. TikTok, vaulted, barbells and dumbbells are vaulted, you know. It's it's like, come on, like we've we've been doing this built for a long time. They do work, they do have their place. And again, I just want to sort of uh avoid that sort of dogma with things, and you know that there is there is some real benefits of that, the old school free weight stuff, and there's there's there's lots of benefits of machine-based stuff, and uh we're gonna dive in now onto some of the the nuances between both barbells, free weights, cables, your machines, and and where they have their place because it isn't

The Importance of Fundamentals

SPEAKER_01 6:04

black or white, there is a lot of sort of grey matter and middle ground with this. I know you share the same sentiment with it as well.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

I mean, absolutely. Using my myself as as an example, I I used to squat and barbell squat a lot. I really enjoy a barbell squat. It's hard. One of the things we're going to talk about as part of today's content, Francis, is enjoyment. And there's some sort of maybe sadistic enjoyment, you know, about being under three, four, five plates aside when you're squatting. Safely, I might add, you know, you've got the pins there. I have failed with three plates on my back, four plates on my back. And these are the things that there used to be a saying that puts hairs on your chest. But you you learn to dig deep because you know that you're in a spot where you need to work really hard. Now, sadly, my SI joint doesn't allow me to do barbell squats anymore. So that's where I've pivoted across to things like again that we'll get into today pendulum, hack squat, good old-fashioned leg press. But again, what just what I'm trying to sort of show there is there's many ways and many different tools and approaches, many ways to skin a cat, basically.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

Yeah, and I built the lion's share of my muscle tissue off using free weights. I I started off in a uh a spitting sawdust style gym in the middle of uh the middle of Liverpool. I was in there for five years. It was it was a gym the size of two living rooms put together. It's stunk of blood, BO, shite, coffee. You can picture the smell. Just a proper old school gym, right? And it had dumbbells up to like 200 pounds, barbells, rusty plates. It had a hack squat and a leg press and a leg extension and a sort of cable system. It had nothing else, nothing, nothing fancy at all, mate. I was in there for five years and I built a tremendous base in there and before moving to another gym. I've still done a lot of the basic movements when I did move gyms, but I built a good amount of muscle tissue just doing the basics, your bench presses, your squats, pull-ups, deadlifts, barbell rows, shoulder presses with dumbbells, one-arm rows. I still do a lot of that stuff today. I've got to sprinkle in some machines because I, you know, I I've obviously upped my train and scale and my acquisition of things and understand where it's got its place, but don't ever, ever sniff your nose up at some of the basics because they work tremendously well.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

And then that's the thing, you know, you just never know what gym that you could potentially land in. And if you're up skilling, it means that it doesn't matter where you go or where you train. What you understand is the mechanics of how to lift, of how to hit the the target muscle that you you want to train. You know, you've said there are, for example, a shoulder press, you know, we know we can do that with um a machine, we can do it with um dumbbells, we can do it with a Smith um machine as well. So there's so many different ways that you can hit the target muscle. And what to remember is as well, your muscles don't know what you've used, your muscles know tension and how close you're pushing in terms of your proximity to failure and what you're lifting. And again, you know, if if you've you're in a facility that's maybe not your own and you're having to lift a little bit lighter because there's not as many plates or as many options, again, another

Skill Development in Lifting

SPEAKER_00 9:06

skill to have is well, how do I make that lift replicate and feel harder than when I would be in my my own gym, so to speak. So I think as what as we mentioned, it's just about how you skill yourself so that you know you can make your way around. And as you you know develop in your lifting journey, you'll find things that you sort of naturally gravitate towards. If you can stay away from injuries, you'll be like, Yeah, that works for me. I found it works for me. Again, I enjoy it. Not that you should enjoy absolutely everything, there's going to be things that you you don't enjoy training over time, and that might be you know might start with like I don't like training arms. I think that's something I've seen quite a lot online. People kind of get bored on unarmed training, which is fair, you know, at the end of the day. Um, but it's just about finding and honing in then and things that maybe are become your strong points, um, and if you've got weaker points, then it's just about trying to find out how you address them.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Yeah, 100%. I I agree what you're saying about building your skill set with movements, like maybe some of these free weights that they don't offer the stability that you know some of the machines do. So if you build your sort of base with movements that don't have a lot of stability, when you are in a different gym, or you know, you're in a hotel gym with maybe limited equipment, and again, I see this happen all the time with clients. When you've got a base and a good skill set and you've got more tools in the toolbox, you don't get into these gyms and you don't throw your dummies out the pram and you think, Oh, I need this perfect single-arm pull down, or I need this pendulum squat to get a good quad warehouse in. If you've built a good base and a skill set with quite unstable movements as it is, you can do anything. So I think that is an important point, and that sets you up massively if you spend the time you know getting stronger and building that skill set with some free weights because it will transfer over into the machines and a more stable environment very well. So I think that is definitely, definitely uh an underrated point. But when we talk about the benefits of free weights, there, you know, we know how they can be beneficial. What are some what's what's the case for the machines? Like what are some good benefits of machines that you've seen used for some people and obviously yourself?

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Yeah, I mean I think the the benefit of machines is it's a it's a low, a low entry and barrier. You know, it takes away a lot of the skill acquisition that we're kind of mentioning there. There's a for me, there's a two-way street, and and some people will argue one side of the street, other people argue the other. Should you do machines first, staying safe, all that good stuff, building up your um the analogy I like to use is almost like a like a toddler, learning to sort of crawl, then learning to walk, and then obviously toddlers love to run as soon as they can they can walk, kind of thing. And and for me, there's there's no there's no difference there. Um it's a very real and applicable analogy. Getting on the free machines, uh, sorry, the the the machines and

Understanding Exercise Benefits

SPEAKER_00 11:52

working on the stability that you've got there, the safety that it offers you, and then as well sprinkling in some of the um free weights so that you're not lost and also able to better connect or find out if it's an exercise that you do connect better with or again maybe you feel better. I'm I'm a big fan of something feeling good. I know it's not the main driver of creating muscle, but I think you should always feel good in a machine. You'll get on some um items and be like, nah, that just doesn't fit me, or it doesn't suit me, or I can't get the bench to the angle, or whatever it may be. So I think for me, for for machines, it's use them to sort of build your platform, you know, learn to sort of crawl and walk on them. But again, as as we said, it's not black and white. Don't wait too long to introduce yourself to some free weights and have a little bit of a play as well. Don't be scared to venture into the the dark parts of the gym.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

The the part that smells the shite, be careful of that. But I think I agree with what you're saying there about with machines, they can be um can be an entry barrier for some people because they are a little bit stable. And we've mentioned in the past of meeting a client where they're at. Um we've spoken before about the psychology of a client or the psychology of an individual. You know, some 45-year-old fella who's never been in the gym, you know, he might be a little bit scared of the gym. He might be a little bit more intimidated of those sort of the barbells and the free weights. It happens, you know, you do get people like that. I'm not gonna tell him to go in and put a barbell on his back if he's not comfortable. You know, he might he he might benefit from going in. Look, let's let's take yourself over to the leg press and the leg extension, let's get some work in there a little bit more stable, um so you can focus on just you know the target muscle that we're after, not a lot of stability and coordination demands, and then you can bridge the gap, maybe if you want if you want to branch out into some free weights after that. But I think you do have to meet the uh the client where they're at and the psychology of a person, and vice versa. That there might be a 21-year-old kid. He's full of uh full of energy, full of confidence, just doesn't care. He just wants to get in and get stuck in and rip some deadlifts off the floor. Great, I've had it. You know, we'll get him in there, we'll get him in there with safe technique, and we'll get him uh we'll get him doing some deadlifts. So again, there's just a great example of like it's not black or white, it's what's the individual life in front of you and what's the the specific scenario that you've got on your hands.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Yeah, I mean you you make you make some great points there, Francis, and I've actually got some sort of real life experience there. Um one of my clients had a seven-year competitive athlete, um, had about a seven-year hiatus from the gym. Life takes over, all these things sort of happen. And so they contacted me about some coaching and stuff, and I hadn't programmed deadlifts for them, but they decided that they were really good at them back in the day. But seven years out of the gym decided to go and stick what they remembered their PB was from back in the day. I'm just gonna sort of try and warm up with my PB from back in the day because that's what I used to lift and back errored out, didn't like it, you know. So it's not to scaremonger against deadlifts, you know. It's obviously a fantastic exercise. My take is if you're good at them, have at them and do them. Personally, I don't deadlift, and

The Psychology of Exercise Selection

SPEAKER_00 15:03

that always sends the shockwaves. I don't like them. I've never felt comfortable doing them. And one of the things for me is when you're getting to the point now in terms of um where I am and experience-wise, getting to four or five plates on a on a deadlift, the time that takes to warm up and do that probably lets me sink about 40 minutes. I almost want to be you know most of the way through a training session in 40 minutes. So for me, the risk to reward just isn't there. I wasn't great at them, and I think it's just something to be you know sort of wary of. But again, if you feel good doing them and you've got good open hips, you've got that that stability and and mobility, again, absolutely have at them. But like we're saying probably through the entirety of this podcast, there are no essential you must do for for for as I say, for deadlifts, I could probably do two or three exercises in that time. Now it's not gonna give me let's say full body workout because it's not gonna work from you know from my calves all the way right up the the posterior chain. You're gonna need some tweaks there, so you're gonna need like a like a hit pinch, for example, if you're not gonna deadlift, but just to give a sort of flavour and experience that there is no one you must do this, and if you don't, you're a failure.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

That's the beauty of this, mate, isn't it? Right into a sort of hot topic, like because the flip side of that, I love deadlifts. I'm deadlift's biggest fan. I will never take them out of my programme because they're my favourite exercise in the gym. And as me and you here on different size of the fence on an exercise, they don't work for you, but I love them. I I don't care if it takes me however long to go in, I'll warm up 30, 40 minutes. I just love pulling my fire plates, whatever, off the floor. I absolutely love it. It's it gets me out of bed, and I never had any injuries with them. Touch wood, been doing it for 15, 16 years, spent the time to perfect the technique from the the days in powerlifting. When I first come into the gym, I was just I was attracted to them. I just loved it. I just love getting better at them. And you know, for me, they serve a good purpose to my physique. I'd say my posterior is a strong point, and I and I put that down to just mastering deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, and just just being obsessed with getting better at them, they've worked for me. Now, is that for everybody? No, absolutely not. There's some people who, for whatever reason, every time they try deadlifts, they just get hurt. Now, if if technique is fine and load management and programming and all that stuff is taken care of, and they still continue to keep getting hurt, keep getting hurt, at some point those people they are better fine than different exercises. If they've if they've tried to check all the boxes first and don't just blame the exercise, if it's genuinely not for you, by all means, you go and do a different exercise because staying pain-free and staying in the game is uh is is huge with exercise selection. But I just I just think that's good, mate, isn't it? It's good to show an example there of both me and you, like completely different personal takes and uses for deadlifts.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

I'm just um I'm just blocking Francis here on Twitter. I don't believe it.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Yeah,

Personal Preferences in Training

SPEAKER_01 18:02

I'm blocking you because you don't deadlift. Can't have that.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

This is a great thing. I mean, you your your wordage there is perfect and an example of a fantastic use case. I like them, I'm good at them, I'm strong at them, they make me feel good, they give me a purpose, they give me reason. All good reasons why you should deadlift. And and and absolutely they they should be in there. But as you've said, you know, if if people are consistently getting injured, it doesn't necessarily be there's no fault or no blame, it just might be that you're not you're not built for them. You you just need to choose something else. And that's the great thing about us, Francis. We we can have adult conversations and we know that there's nothing black or white here. You know, there's many different ways to to skin a cat, as as I've already mentioned, and that's probably the best fodder for it. You know, you can build a back. Arguably, my for me, my strongest body part is my back. It's one of the things that's really grown from when I've started in my journey. For me, that's grown from just bog standard plate-loaded machine rolls, is one of the things I've always done. I'm not gonna say that I invented seal rows or dumbbell chest supported rolls, but I actually did invent seal rows and I've been doing them for many, many years. And that just came from actually injuring my back. And it was just before the explosion of videos on on social media. Um, I am kind of joking that I invented them, but I don't remember seeing them somewhere. It's just something I come up with in the gym one day, and I was thinking, why not get a bench and and sit on it? You know, you've got chest supported. We we didn't have a T-bar row at that point in time, a chest supported one, unfortunately. It was the sort of you know, the ones where you you would load it and you would sort of load, but there was no chest support element. So it's just things like that, you know, where you're sort of trying to find your way and see what body parts are growing, but there's no there's no real you must do this. So when I say there's no real right or wrong, what we're talking about there is works absolutely perfectly for Francis, something he enjoys. Me personally, I'd rather go up the road than deadlift.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Let's call that exercise you to the row there, Jesus Rose or Jesus Flaps. That'll be the one. Well, yeah, I think when when we're picking exercises, I think there's there's a couple of like bullet points that I'd be looking at. I think we go through a couple of them now. I think it'll help people sort of distinguish like, well, what are you looking for? What are some of the big talking points for an exercise? And I think number one is enjoyment, as you just said there. If you don't enjoy what you're doing, you know, you we're thinking about it's not what are you gonna get out of a training cycle for the next three, four weeks. What are we gonna get out of the next three, four years? Uh are you gonna be still excited five, ten years down the line? We want to do exercises that we genuinely do love to do. Same with me there with deadlifts. I've been obsessed with them since the start. I'm still 15, 16 years in, I still get excited and get nervous on deadlift. I I love that feeling, and I want exercises that give me that feeling that keeps me coming back for more. So you have to have exercises and you have to sprinkle things in that you enjoy to

Finding the Right Exercises

SPEAKER_01 20:58

do.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

I mean, you you've made a fantastic point there. You know, we we we need to be looking at the years down the road and and and what we can do and getting excited and about our training. There are some things that we're gonna do, you know, there are some exercises out there where you'll be like, don't really feel that. But the importance is to try and find those that do work, and there'll be some stumbling blocks there. I think if we bring some sort of reality to that and say, you know, not everything that we're gonna do is gonna absolutely light us up and be like, take us back and do that. But some of the things we're gonna do are gonna be for the greater good. But obviously, if we can chat try and enjoy as much as we can and making sure that we're getting the development through things like stability, being able to push something safely in terms of proximity to failure, so that you're failing and it's the muscle that's failing before you start bringing in sort of other body parts and uh jerking violently, kind of thing. So I think it's it's really important to find that balance that, yep, absolutely, you should enjoy it. What you do, and so that it it's it's not it doesn't feel like a chore having to go to the gym. One of the things, again, Francis, that we've spoken about is that that mindset and and how we feel about things. We we get to go to the gym, you know. That we live in a privileged world, you know, a first world privilege that we can go to the gym, and it's some of the one of the things that we want to add to that is to get some element of enjoyment and progression from it.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Absolutely. The gym should be one of the highlights of your day. Again, enjoying going in there and getting stuck in with your program that you're running, your exercises that you're doing. Um and we're not soft, we're not saying that you're not gonna walk in the gym every single session and it's gonna be oh, we can't wait to train. Like, there's gonna be there's it's gonna happen. Like, we're all you know, 15 years in the game, we've been there. But for the most part, you should be you know excited to get in there and sort of blow off some steam and and get stuck in. And I think that's where a lot of the optimal crowd falls down, is that like they just they make training a headache. It's more like it's more like a science experiment and more of a headache, and you put more barriers for people instead of just letting people fucking enjoy the gym and enjoy the training because that's what it's that's what it is there for. We want if we can enjoy it and get the results out of it, you marry them two together, great. Not just coming in with some spreadsheet with optimal key and flaps into this movement, it's just shite, you know. It's got no time for that.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

So if we if we jump into then, you know, what we'd sort of start looking at for let's say we were we were putting together a list of exercises, even if we we we pick one each and say this is this is what we go for. I think I think we'd we've done this in the space before. You know, let's cover off things like um stability, how we can push push the failure safely. If we've got a training partner, you know, somebody that can help us, all the better. Um just don't touch

Enjoyment in Training

SPEAKER_00 23:49

the bar. Um but yeah, just things like that.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Yeah, I I think the after enjoyment, I think one of the big things you just touched on there would be when you pick an exercise, uh, if we can get a good movement that allows the target muscle to be the limiting factor, and you can push the to s uh to failure or close to failure very safely in a decently stable environment, and it's gonna be the target muscle that's gonna be nailed. That sicks the box for a very, very good exercise in my eyes. So, you know, if you just take something like a hack squat or a pendulum squat or a leg press versus a barbell squat, this is the classic example, you know, with a barbell squat, the barbell squats are not bad. We're not saying that at all. They're a great exercise. But what can be a limitation for some people with that is it's not the quads failing first, it's the lower back, the core, or the hips. That's failing first, then that they're failing first, and the quads still might have two or three reps left in the tank. They've they've got more juice to squeeze out, more tension that could be had. Whereas if you're on a pendulum or a hat or a leg press and you want the biggest quads possible, and we want the most tension to the quads, again, pushing your quads to all out failure and in absence of the hips or the lower back getting involved, it just allows us to tick that box for max squad stimulus without again being limited by your lower back and hips. So that's just an example of what we're looking for. But you you know, picking an exercise which allows the the target muscle to actually be the limitation, that's uh that's a big one.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Just um I'm just starting the petition here to rename the pendulum to be called the the humbler.

SPEAKER_01 25:13

The humbler. It's I think it's the hardest one out of the three. Like if you've got a a pendulum, a hack squat and leg press, that pendulum, it's brutal. The humbler for good reason.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Just no hiding place, you know, and and that's one of the good things where you'll see examples out there of guys that are doing four or five or six plates on a squat, barbell squat, for example, moving across to the pendulum, it's maybe two plates, three plates maximum, and that's no disrespect at all. But what we're doing there is paying respect to how difficult the pendulum is. I had a a target myself, and it took me nearly three years to do four plates on the pendulum that that we had in my gym that that's recently been changed. So when that got changed, can I have to not start again? But you're finding new groove with a with a different machine. But definitely one of the best for me exercises doesn't give any pain into my lower back when when you're doing it right, you can get basically claps, you know, you can get full um full um fully down into the bottom, you know, you're you're closing the angle, getting your glutes almost to touch your calves, and there's not a lot of examples or machines out there that could actually do that. Even people that may struggle, doing that on a barbell squat, you know, you've got the old Ast to graphs that it doesn't count. We could go into you know how that's partly mobility, you know, like dorsiflexion of the ankle, things like that. But what happens when you go on the pendulum is a lot of that does get relieved for you, and you can really get down into the depths of where you need to be, you know, as I say, closing the angle, getting plenty of power, and and pushing out with the quads, a little bit of the glutes as well, and you know, starting to build that up. But for me, pendulum's right up there.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Pendulum also sixty bucks for another good exercise for anthropometry

Maximizing Muscle Engagement

SPEAKER_01 26:59

wise. It's that that's what you're looking for when you're picking another exercise. Is does does this exercise fit your structure, your biomechanics, your anthropometry? And I've never really met anyone who can't get in a pendulum and get decent knee flexion and nail the quads because of the way that the machine is designed, you've got that full back support, which on most pendulums it goes from all the way to the top of your neck, all the way to the base of your spine. You have that full back support, and the way the pendulum it it arcs in, if pendulums in, you can get really, very good knee flexion. Anthropometry-wise, like there's no limitations with uh for most people with ankle mobility and hip mobility with the pendulum, with that you might have with a barbell back squat. Even some hack squats for some people, depending on the foot placement of the pads, they can be pretty, pretty nasty for people to get depth on because of the the the foot position, it's a little bit too little bit too high, a little bit too uh too aggressive for people. But with a pendulum, especially if you can change the foot pad as well, if you see those pendulums where you can change those, they're absolute money. Then you can slide it forward, you can slide it back. Pendulum, it fits a lot of people's anthropometry, so it ticks the box. You can nail the quads in absence of other muscles, getting involved. Anthropometry-wise, it's great, safe. So, yeah, the pendulum squad, although it's a humbler, it's it's definitely one of the best. I'd probably put it as the the number one quad exercise with you. That's what I pick.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Yeah, I mean, I I totally agree for for for that particular you know element of um hitting the quads. You know, we we we'll touch on leg extension at one point later um when we're talking about you know um fully extending the quads out. But I think everybody who doesn't have a pendulum either at home or in the in the gym is probably shouting at us saying they're gonna shut up and move on to the next exercise.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

That's the thing with pendulums that they are quite rare, but more gyms are getting them. I will say, over the last couple of years, I've had more clients who've had access to a pendulum. I remember the first couple of years of coaching, nobody had one. It was like a unicorn, you couldn't find them, and now more gyms are starting to get them. So that that is that is a plus, that is a positive.

SPEAKER_00 29:00

So we've got hack squats in there as well. So, you know, obviously a fantastic um machine plate loaded again, allows you to get great stability. You could do safe, you can do it safely because a lot of them have got you you can sort of throw the bars out when you're finished, the safety bars, and they're gonna catch you. So, where where would you where would you see that fitting in um in terms of programming, Francis?

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Yeah, I love both pendulums and both hack squats. Another good thing with those movements, you know, another what we're looking for with exercises, you've got a long, a long runway to progress them. You're not gonna run out of plates for the pendulum, no chance. And you know, for even for most hack squats, you know, it's it's the loadability of it over time to allow overload to take place, it ticks the boxes. So for me, yeah, I I just think it's a flip of a coin, really, whether you prefer hack squats or pendulum squats, I just think that they're just both fantastic exercises, and then that takes us into like the leg press as well. Like leg press, like you've got a 45-degree leg press, the pivot leg press, you can do leg press single leg, which I know you're a big massive fan of. I think leg press is absolutely fantastic for quads. It is it gets looked down on and people turn their nose up at it so much. I think it's because people do it wrong, and

The Pendulum Squat: A Game Changer

SPEAKER_01 30:14

it's an exercise that you see everybody in the gym, they're loading up eight, nine, ten plates aside, they're moving it down about two or three inches. It gets a lot of hate because it's the the way most people do it is wrong. But if you do it correctly, you check your ego at the door, you use a load that you can go through as much knee flexion as you can, pain-free, and you're really trying to nail the quads. You know, that leg press that you've had eight to nine plates aside, that soon comes down to three, four maximum, and you're like, Whew, what's going on here? But your quads are blown up, you're not having to load as many plates. But the leg fists, fantastic, top draw quad movements, and I I know you're a big fan.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

Definitely a big fan, you know, kind of forced into leg press, you know. As I mentioned, I had to take personally um barbell squats out. So things like pendulum, hack squat, leg press, absolute staples for me. One thing worth mentioning, you know, you probably want to split like your pendulum and your hack squat out into different rotations of your workout. You know, you're probably going to tax the same muscles and doing your hack squat as you would your pendulum. So maybe if you've got a rotation A, maybe that's got pendulum. Depending on your approach, which is something probably we'll get into on another podcast. You know, we we've spoken about in our earlier inversions or voices. We we like to warm up the hamstrings and the quads, a little bit of leg extension, a little bit of seated ham curls or whatever, and then we move on to pendulum, or you would move on to hack squat. So just worth mentioning there. You probably want to separate them into different workouts. But back to the leg press, yeah. I'm a huge fan. Things like as well. Very lucky in where I train, we've got uh a hip press, um, just recently had the the Jimlico one added. Um again, a humbler, the old press that we had, you know, you could really load it. This one, two plates aside, actually, just recently worked up to two and a half plates per side, and you know you're in a set, the quads are absolutely burning. What I really like is the the level of control that you've got when you're bringing that um back towards yourself, you know, and into full flexion. Um even just sitting there for a wee a wee tiny second so you've got that control, you know, you're controlling um the descent, and then you're exploding out again, not nuclear force, but some good force out, bringing that back in all the way to failure, again, failing safely, because if you overcook it and you come down and you don't have anything left to get out of the hole, you just drop the machine and it's already got the bars there. Yeah, a huge fan of single leg press. I I sort of stumbled across that because of my injury, um, and I've managed to work that up, you know. From I've got I've actually actually posted a video of that recently um from three plates per side. The last rotation I did with my training partner, we were at 215 kilos a side, so we managed to get up quite decent, and that's you know, coming all the way down, good control. The old CFRT is as I like it, Francis, but a fantastic movement. And and one to be honest, my legs absolutely

Leg Press and Hack Squats: Essential Tools

SPEAKER_00 33:08

exploded because you've got, as we've mentioned, control on the target muscle, you're not getting the joints involved, you're controlling it and you're exploding, and it's nothing but target tissue until you hit failure or close to failure.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Yeah, it's I think the quads respond very, very well to that style of training. I mean, the continuous repetitions, you know, moderate loads, moderate reps, not trying to just heave whole weight. I think the quads really respond well to that. Again, mine have come on tremendously over the last sort of 18 months with that approach as well. And getting more out of less weight, again, I think I'll always take that on a leg press. I don't want to be loading eight and arm plates aside. If I can get the most out of four or five aside, if I can if I can nail my quads with that, I'm gonna do that. I don't want to be revacking nine arm plates aside at the end of a leg press. So if I can get more out of less, I'll definitely do that. So I think we've we've toasted quads, mate. So if you wanted to let's go to the post area, talk glutes and hams, what would you be looking at? What are what are what are some of your favourite exercises there with uh with with uh with hams? I know we share the same sentiment on hams, but I'll let you go.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Yeah, I I I think I'm coming I'm coming straight out the gate with um CT hamstrings. I I don't think there's anything over and above probab where you'd want to start. You know, we we'll we'll talk about hinges when when we're going RDL and stiff leg, but I'd certainly come out the gate. Again, what we've mentioned on the leg press for for hamstring, you know, you can you can get that control, you're safe, you can be in full control as well of of where you're pushing your your failure limit to, um, and probably even get a couple of reps more than you would maybe on a machine because you you sorry, like a for example a leg press machine, because you've got that element of safety built in, nothing's going to go wrong, it's literally just you and how deep you can dig, how much you can push through the burn and and get you know good quality, controlled reps to failure at your your target um target writ range.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Yeah, uh uh seated hamstring curl, absolutely goted in terms of uh hamstrings, but I know you you love the single leg version as well. I'm

Leg Press Techniques and Preferences

SPEAKER_01 35:12

a big fan of that, doing it one leg at a time. I f I I prefer that than than dual leg. I think single leg, you can really get into that stretch and just position your hips just to be pinpoints. And the the the best thing for me about the seated ham is that because your hamstrings respond very well to being overloads in that stretch position, you can really stretch out the hamstring while being nice and stable, and you just again you go to town on the hamstring. And that's not to say the lion hamstring curl is bad because it's not the lion hamstring curl. I'm a I'm still a big fan of that. You can do that single leg as well, it's just the lion hamstring curl, gives you a little bit more tension towards the top position, so like when the muscle is fully peak contracted or short. So that's why I do like the seated hamstring curl over the lion hamstring curl, but they're both great. And again, rotation, you can have an A, B, C rotation, you can include seated hamstring curl on two of your rotations, it could be dual leg, single leg, and then lion hamstring curl. There's three rotations of ham curls using everything.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

Perfect. I think you've been reading my programmes, Francis. Sneaking through the window. You make fantastic points, you know. What we're showing people here is you know, you've got your pendulum, your hack, and you've got your leg press, you've got your leg extension, seated ham and line ham, and then you've got your variations within in terms of, for example, you could have uh leg extensions as as a dual, and then on the next rotation have them as the single, and then rotation C maybe go back to dual again so that you're hitting them. Um but it really shows you how you can bring together, you know, some really good exercises and place them so that you're getting the maximum sort of stimulus per session, and also in your rotation, so that again there's no there's nothing that's uh really inherently wrong, but you you're just bringing different ways to fatigue. And again, this is this is what we're saying muscle knows tension, muscle knows you're pushing to fatigue, and what it does is obviously it says, I didn't really like what you did to me there, so I'm gonna get stronger, which means grow for the next time that I attempt a single um leg extension or you know, single hamstring curl. And I think as well, it's really good for those types of exercises because you can address imbalances. There'll always be, I think, in a lot of lifters, you'll be stronger, right side dominant or left side dominant, and when you're doing the single leg work, it's it gives you an opportunity as well, even if it's minute, you know, you could do an extra rep or start with your weaker side, and and that determines the reps, and then you maybe add a couple on at the end that's going to help readdress that imbalance.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Yeah, it's just they're all tools in the toolbox, isn't it? We're not stuck or we have to use one exercise forever. You can use whatever you want, different days. You know, it's that's that's the beauty of uh the beauty of your programming, mate, isn't it? So I think we've we've done we've we've touched on hams, and that that that ties right into glutes. So, in terms of glutes, you know, I think the gluten heights ham, uh the gluten high ham tying has got to have some sort of hinge. So, whether that be as we spoke about a deadlift from the floor, a Romanian deadlift, 45 degree back extension, these um booty builder machines, these glute builder machines, these are all the wave right now. So, yeah, what what would you go with in terms of like your favourite hinge?

SPEAKER_00 38:22

I think for me, favourite hinge,

Hamstring Training Essentials

SPEAKER_00 38:24

if I've had to pick one is actually the the dumbbell, dumbbell RDL or SLDL, stiff leg deadlift again on different rotations on different leg days. Personally, I train legs twice a week, so I'm I'm I'm really a big fan of getting into the rotations, but you know, it's learning the different skills, you know, with um stiff leg dead, exactly as it says, you know, your legs are a bit straighter, slight bend, but it's a slightly different technique from the RDL, which has got a little bit more um bend in the leg, you know, SLDL, you're sort of I like to one the other day where you're sort of pushing your pushing your bum back, you know, making sure that your back's iron and board straight type of thing. And I mean, I'm I'm sitting here and um I'm imagining doing the lift and my hamstrings are absolutely lighting up, you know. There's for me, there's absolutely no greater exercise, I don't think, for than the than the RDL. That's that's the one I would say I enjoy the most.

SPEAKER_01 39:15

Yeah, I think for me it would be as much as I love deadlifts from the floor. If I was looking for pure gluten ham stimulus, I'm going for a barber Romanian deadlift for me. Like I just think it's it's absolutely top tier, even with a pause in the bottom. Just really control the sensor. The cue for me is it's chest up, and imagine I'm trying to push my ass towards the wall behind. I even I seen another great cue on Twitter this week. I was laughing when I seen it. Some fella said, Imagine that you're trying to shine a torch out your asshole. And I thought it was great because uh I was like, that's that's a good one now. I can see. Yeah, uh take that for you. Go uh barber Romanian deadlift meat 100%. That's what I pick. I think you poke the area just yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

For for glutes for me, I I do like the Smith machine. Um I like a hip thrust. I know that there's uh some sort of stem um or what's that word, you know, stigma attached to should you hip thrust in the gym? I'll throw that out the window. We're all there to train, you know, just just do it instead of getting worried about getting labelled something or other.

SPEAKER_01 40:19

No one no one no one gives a shit whether you're doing a hip thrust or not. Do you know what I mean? I I've I've I've had you see on the timeline people are saying that you're a man doing a hip thrust. The fact that you're even worried that you know that someone's looking at you doing a hip thrust, that's your insecurity. I want a big ass, mate, so I'm gonna I'm gonna do my hip thrust. Don't you worry.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

Exactly, exactly. You know, and obviously a little bit of um the abductors and the adductors come in for that a bit of um tickling as well, you know, the stigma perhaps and yeah, the that's known as the sus machine on TikTok, mate.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

The sus machine.

SPEAKER_00 40:53

Okay, right, right.

SPEAKER_01 40:56

That's what they call it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:00

One of my clients used to call it the yes and the no machine.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

Yeah, yeah, that's another one, yeah. Or the the good girl, bad girl machine, that's another one as well. Again, the the the great machines, the the very, very useful. I I use the adductor today. Great machines.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

I mean, if you want to, especially you know, when we're talking about competitive element to it, doesn't need to have the competitive element. If you want to build a good set of legs, you need to work on what you would call the 3D of your of your of your legs or the 360-degree view. And if you're doing your abductors and adductors on top of your squats and and leg press, if it's hack squat, whatever, you know, you're targeting the inside leg and the outside leg, which is important because it's not just as we're talking here, quad, hamstring, and glute. We we are talking about those little add-ons, if you want to call it that, because it just makes your leg look a little bit thicker. And as we were saying, you know, Francis is going to go to stage. If he's standing on stage with somebody that maybe hasn't been as focused on doing abductors or adductors, Francis's legs are gonna look that little bit bigger, and and that's what it's all about. You know, it's about trying to create the the biggest legs that you can, get banged for your buck. At the end of the day, we're all spending a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of effort. Why not get rewarded?

SPEAKER_01 42:16

Yeah, 100%, mate. Totally agree. Um

Glute Activation and Hinge Movements

SPEAKER_01 42:20

we're not gonna talk about calves. We don't train calves. Only joking, you should be training your calves. But uh yeah, for me, I think it's it's probably the most um probably the most boring muscle to train. I hate it, I've got to be honest, but they get done. I do a machine toe press uh nice and stable, you know. I get I get the the amount of calf stimulus that I need as well. And what I also will say would I get a good amount of calf stimulus from some of my leg presses because my leg press stance is quite low. I get a lot of calf stimulus in that bottom of a leg press. Um, so you know, your stance on your leg presses and some of your quad compounds can work your calves as well. If I was gonna pick an isolated calf movement, it would be it would be like a machine toe press or one of those sort of the machine leg press tiles. You'll you'll know what I mean. That's what I pick.

SPEAKER_00 43:07

So just um relating that to you know, we've we've dropped in a little bit of like placement and stuff. So for toe press, it's probably one of those things you want to do after your leg press. For the reason being, you don't want to unload your plates from the leg press. So you can basically say do your leg press, maybe take your rest period or start your filler sets for when you're doing toe press, for example, and then you can start loading from there. Um, it's it's probably a good idea to run them there. See if you're taking all the plates off, maybe having to wait around if if you're in a busy gym. So if you're in a home gym, you don't really need to worry about you know, sort of waiting for something.

SPEAKER_01 43:42

But you can do them on the on that sort of leg press, like where you put the plates out aside, but there's another leg press and you'll know what I mean. What you you sort of sit on it and you put the pin in the side, you know those types with the big platform, they're easy, just they're plug and play to do calves on. So I tend to do calves on them, but you can do them on obviously a leg uh. regular um leg press.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

And the good thing is as well, they're very safe because you don't even need to pop safety bars off. The one I'm thinking in our gym is actually the one that you can split into a single leg. You can pop your your feet in and do it from there. You don't even need to take it off of the off of the rack. We've got a a machine in our gym where it allows us to do calves standing. And I know they get a lot of hate but I don't mind a seated calf as well. One of the things I've found to help my own calves grow is to work on that being in the bottom and having a little bit of stretch and taking the unfortunately a lot of people when they do calves it's just that sort of bounce reflex and I don't know why calves over any other muscle get that treatment. If you can get down into the stretch take the the stretch out as when I say stretch but take the tension out of your Achilles and then you know come back up.

SPEAKER_01 44:49

You don't need to go all the way back up onto your toes right up to the tippy toes but you can move in that sort of that sort of range and I found them again they get a lot of heat a lot of hate they don't they don't grow you grow up that that's that that that's what they say nowadays mate I think what the argument is if I'm correct with this one I think they say is that the seated it just it works the the sole layers you've got the sole layers and the gastrochnemus now the gastro it's a bi-articulate muscle that means it crosses two joints so that will be the ankle and the uh the knee whereas the sole layers just crosses the uh the ankle so to work the gastrock fully it needs to be a straight leg position I think I think that's what they they try and say but you know again if it if a seating car phrase again if it if it's work for you and you get results from it have are it I mean it one of the things is when you're lean which obviously I've been focusing on recently when you get videos taken you literally see the muscle move.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

Now obviously I can't say that it's definitely 100% fully engaging my gas drop from from bottom to top but I can see the muscle moving and obviously over time I'm getting stronger and getting bigger. Again it's not the only one that's in the arsenal we we're talking here about the rotations so we're going around different rotations and we're using different elements to get different progressions all in the name of how do we grow progressively overload getting the the tissue um under the the mechanical tension that we talk about and and that's what it's all about again mentioned earlier the body knows tension the body knows tension and that that's what you're aiming for. It might not be every exercise might not be 100% this because showed up this on an EMG or whatever those aren't the gold standard either truth be told EMGs do show muscle activation. Yes they absolutely do there's no denying that but because they're showing muscle activation that doesn't necessarily correlate to hypertrophy and gains.

SPEAKER_01 46:47

Yeah I think that's an important point to me to that training is not done in the lab. That's that's that's very very important and people do miss the ball with that one. We are all not um you know have they got studies on someone who's trained for 10 plus years who's monitored diet train and recovery everything for 10 years straight can train to absolute failure with good technique. You know all these studies that are going on inside of these labs what what is failure to them? Do they know how to train do they know how to train the muscle accurately to failure and then the pulling off this data of EMG studies and for people who've lived for three months and telling you this is gospel you've got to train like this that is the big flaw of of some of the science and the TikTok bros and the science based bros

Calf Training Insights

SPEAKER_01 47:31

is that they they miss a big fundamental piece of what what actually works in practice. What what is working in the trenches what has worked for years what continues to work.

SPEAKER_00 47:40

Don't miss that that is that is some of the best evidence that you can get and we don't need a science lab further I I think it's missed more than it's ever been you know sometimes you're making posts online and it's like some people can't wait for the aha the gotcha moment that there was this study. You know obviously like we're we're both certified we we understand things we know that there are some things that can be gained we know as well that there's a lot of things that the bros discovered 1984 that are now just being proven hello creatine you know creatine's been out for so long but it's now just getting put into things like catch-up and you know it's becoming proper mainstream now. And I know that that's not an exercise but what I'm saying is there's things out there that has been known in the space for a long time and when there's guys like you say in the trenches there's guys out there like us working with people to develop their physiques we know what's working why? Because we've walked that walk we've talked that talk and we've helped multiple hundreds maybe even thousands of people get to where they want to be which is to grow more muscle and lose some body fat you know so it's in our best interests to know what helps and what is the best for for people.

SPEAKER_01 48:53

Yeah that that's a great point there like it's 100% in our interest to know what works because this this is our career this this is this is what we do for a living so to speak it's what's our credibility and our name is is to help people build muscle lose body fat get in better shape improve their life if someone comes to me and I'm giving them a load of bullshit and it's hocus poker shit which is not working. What's the point you're coming to me and I'm going to give you some science based keying and flaps but nothing happens. You know at the end of the day you know we're in a results based business if someone comes to you and they actually actually implement the plan as you as you as as you want them to we're after results here. We're after results and we know what works we've seen what works we continue to keep an open mind of course but we won't be distracted by bullshit nonsense which is then going to downplay some of the fundamentals that we know about good exercise selection. So that's that's the point we're getting at but yeah uh we've got all the upper body to go to mate I think we bet we're probably better saving that for a part two I think we uh we probably want to do that and then we we close off just a couple of points about you know some of the good points that we'd be looking for with when it comes to exercise selection what's some of the big fundamentals like needs versus wants analysis that we'll be going through you know let's say someone's got a weak muscle group so are you up for that should we save upper body muscles for part two probably makes sense doesn't it yeah so I I absolutely agree but yeah we could we could we we know we stop close to an hour we could probably do two three hours on some topic but yeah that that makes absolutely perfect sense probably actually better. Yeah makes sense so needs versus once analysis like we spoke off uh before about this one so you know we we know when we're picking exercises we know that we want to enjoy what we're doing we want the target muscle to be the limiting factor we want it to fit our structure but there is going to come a time in a lifter's career it happens to everybody you know where you know you you're gonna develop certain strengths and certain weaknesses things that you've liked you like to do there might have been some things that you've neglected I'm talking to you calves but there will be there will be muscle groups that might be lagging behind. So then if you want to fix that you have to go there's a needs versus wants analysis here as an example let's say you've got weak hamstrings right someone's got weak hamstrings quads are quite overpowered very very strong or hams are weak

The Science of Muscle Activation

SPEAKER_01 51:18

okay so you're gonna have to look at your exercise selection on your leg day there needs to be a little bit more forefront for hamstring curls as we mentioned there maybe you've never done hip hinges because they don't feel right or you're a little bit scared you've always just put them on the back burner you've always just done your quad work first and you've always just done some half-hearted lying hamstring curl three sets at the end of a leg day half hearted and that it and that's why your hamstrings are lagging. So this is a great example of look we need to be coming in let's maybe let's start fresh with hamstring curls right into a hinge and you've got to be looking at your exercise selection there going through a needs versus wants analysis and it's not something that you might like to do again if you've got competitive aspirations or if you want to round out your physique this is something you're gonna have to do.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

Yeah absolutely mate it always almost ucks me how aligned we are I was going to say balance you know it's so important to have balance in your physique we spoke about abductors and adductors earlier on adding that you know that 3D pop or 360 view there's no point and you stand in from the front and I don't just mean on on a bodybuilding stage but you stand from the front and it's like that guy's got fantastic quads and he turns to the side and there's just no hamstring no glute to to to sort of back it up so one of the things maybe worth mentioning is not only maybe increasing the frequency in terms of you know you said three sets of line hams isn't going to be enough we know that that's not going to be enough to stimulate muscle um hypertrophy over over a period of time. So you're going to want a little bit more frequency and maybe that could come in on for example your back day if you set it apart far enough from from legs so you're given enough time to recover. Again it's about finding the frequency and the volume that your muscle will be ready to go again maybe within 48 to 72 hours and you could maybe stick it in for example some hamstring exercises start off on your push session or pull session or however you do it but it's just adding a bit more um frequency in to do the hamstrings when they're fresh ideally if you've come off from a rest day because the body's the time to recover you're going to be super strong right out the bat on that first exercise and I think as well it's just important to slide in here and I know that we're getting to the end of time but it's really important to slide in we want to grow everything we don't want any weak body parts you want to be we want to be big we want big biceps we want big triceps but one of the things we need to accept is there's a a realism that we can only we can only you know push forward one thing at a time we we we just can't grow everything at the same rate and that's why when we're saying here needs and wants it might be that you need to bring your hamstrings up as we're saying in this um example and to do that they're gonna need a bit of focus. It doesn't mean that you're not giving any focus to the rest of your body but I think it's worth mentioning as much as we want to improve every single thing we need to give something that's going to take I I don't really know the term to be honest but you know take take the leader flag and be like I'm going to run with this.

SPEAKER_01 54:19

Yeah. Nail it mate and that that's the thing if if you've got a set of legs and your quads are very overpowering if you can't grow your quads now at the same rate as your hams but your hams are a weak point well that's not necessarily a bad thing to to bring out that balance of your physique. So if you put your quads on the back burner and you might even drop a little bit of volume on your quad work just enough to keep them taking over as you mentioned there a great point about you get your frequency and volume on points or if someone's training legs twice a week let's say you've got a nice push up phase now you've got 10-12 months and your hamstrings a week okay well every leg day we're starting with a hamstring curl you're coming in fresh we're getting two to three sets of ham curls done first when you're fresh twice a week and then onto a hinge so your quad work it's always at the back burner of of legs for the next year but that's what you need your quads are strong your hams need to come up so you run that for a year focusing on hams up front up front when you're fresh good exercise selection for what you need again taking all the boxes that we just went through there target muscle being nailed stability can load over time versus versus once analysis for your physics old good to go we've done we've done it again mate again we could we could probably keep going but you know we've sort of agreed that we'll we'll stop around the the hour marks i as always you know we we do encode in the footer um if you want to get in contact with Francis or myself and we've got those contact details we are on um instagram as well as twitter francis's handle is at coachfhm mine is uh Benjamin Yeezus we also as well want to say a big thanks for all of the support all of the messages you know I'm getting screenshots and and Francis is too we're actually sharing them between each other truth be told we we're just getting a fantastic outpouring we love doing this we're going to keep doing this and we're gonna keep coming with subjects and it's just to say thank you for the continued support and and anyone that's tuning in we we really do honestly appreciate it. Yeah and I I hold that massively thanks for all the support all the five star ratings we've been getting on Apple and Spotify all the uh I think people have got automatic downloads on and we we just we appreciate it massively I've even had so you know some of the current clients they're sharing it with like people who are new to the gym

Needs vs. Wants in Exercise Selection

SPEAKER_01 56:28

and saying look listen to this and I just puts a big smile on my face the fact that we're we're getting out there you know helping as many people as we can avoid uh all the bollocks mate isn't it so absolutely mate no no bollocks at all we're right down the middle none of this black or white and and that's going to continue as Francis and I have said we're we're gonna be in this for a good couple of years minimum. Absolutely right so again appreciate all the support everyone keep an eye out part two of the of the exercise uh selection conversation will be coming next week for upper body so keep an eye out right appreciate all the support we'll speak to you next week I'm already buzzing for next week thanks everyone chat to you soon