Train. Eat. Think. Episode 9 - Rest Time Between sets and are 1RM's a Waste of Time?

This episode offers insights on rest times between sets, why 1 rep maxes should be avioded - even for Powerlifters! 

We cover hypertrophy based training, rest times, injury prevention, and mental resilience in bodybuilding. 

Francis and Ben also discuss the practicality, personal/coaching experiences and strategies to optimize muscle growth and stay on course for your goals all while staying safe in the gym.

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

Introduction to Training Topics

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Traineating, episode nine. We're on episode nine already. It's mad how fast it's gone. But uh yeah, we've got a good one today. Got a couple of topics that we're gonna touch on. We're gonna touch on uh rest time between sets, how much do we need to grow uh uh as best as we can, which then branches off into you know one red maxes, do we need them, should we be doing them? And then we've got a nice little uh final point that we're gonna touch on is that uh there's a there's a good old Inkling circle in the uh the internet at the moment, mate, that bodybuilding isn't that hard and it's easy, and I'm sure we'll uh we'll chomp into that one. But uh looking forward to it as always.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Well, if if the the little chat we've just had offline is uh anything to go by, I think there's gonna be sparks and fireworks. Fireworks. So, you know, most people are either they're resting too long, wasting time, because they're not focused. We've spoken about intensity, we'll probably cover a good fair bit of that uh in this um podcast as well. And the most important thing to probably announce is you know, people are leaving gains on the table, and with those gains as well, you know, people are putting themselves at risk by testing one rep maxis like it's 2012. You know, I spoke to my lifting um partner tonight, and I was like, the only real reason you need to do a one R 1RM is if you're you're taking part place or taking part, sorry, in a in a power lifting um competition. You know, everything we want to do, especially when we're talking about hobby and bodybuilding, we want sustainable progress. What's the point in being injured? What's the point in ego lifting? So are we gonna put some good boundaries around all of that tonight?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

And the beauty of it as well, I mean, is because I've I've been a power lifter myself and now obviously in contest prep for the bodybuilding season coming up. I've been on both sides of the fence, so you know I can I can definitely sort of touch on personal experience with it and you know just bring some of the information in there to help people out as we much as we possibly can, which is which is always the goal. But I think we uh we kick things off with the rest time in between sets debate.

Rest Time Between Sets

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Uh it's it's it's it's a hot topic. It's something that you'd always see discussed. Um, you you don't need to rest three minutes too long. You're you're gonna be you're gonna be in the gym all day. That's that's that's a classic um uh argument against it that you get. But as we know, mate, a lot of it will all come down from uh from actual training intensity and the accuracy of these sets because that will dictate truly uh how much rest you're gonna need in between a set. You know, as you know, if you you take a you take a pendulum squad, it's a complete failure. I don't know anybody who's gonna be able to go right back in again after 60 second rest. Yeah, I think we we just kick it off with uh you know rest time in between sets. What's your general recommendations? How do you go about it? Um what do you recommend mainly for the majority of the people that you work with?

SPEAKER_00 3:11

It's funny because what I was gonna say is it would be really handy if we had an ex power lifter in the house to talk us through easier, easier. So I mean this is this is the great thing about it. We we we can cover as many bases as as we can. I think what's important to really start with when when we when we speak to to our clients, you know, we we're looking and and what we deal with, I believe, mostly is is people that are looking for hypertrophy. So they're looking for muscle gain and and fat loss along with that. We'll include that in our talks here about hypertrophy because it's a a very common game, uh common goal, sorry. Um it's important to say, you know, rest isn't a one-size fits-all. We've got strength, hypertrophy, and endurance. We're in the middle of the road here. We can always talk, Francis, about strength from your from your power lifting days. Endurance, you know, we can have a chat around at some point. But if we're going for strength and power, you're gonna need three to five plus minutes for that full recovery, and especially when you're doing heavier loads. I would add as well that caveat if you're deep in a diet, or you are dieting in general, the deeper you go in, the more rest you're probably gonna need between sets. One of the most important things in terms of hypertrophy is how intense you can be in your sets and in your reps. Now, whether you're in a caloric surplus or a caloric deficit, what you want is reward from the training that you're doing. One of the things that I've really recently turned to is every rep counts. You know, research out there has shown that two to three minutes is beaten the total volume. Whereas, again, as you said, let's say you're working up and you're you're lucky enough to do three plates on a pendulum, a fantastic exercise, the humbler. You're not going to be able to get back on that in 60 seconds and do the same intensity, quality of reps that are going to lead to the important hypertrophy part, which we know is the stimulating reps. If you jump on and set one, let's say you do 10 reps as a as a as a chat as a talking point, you rest for 60 seconds, there's no way you're repeating anywhere close to that. You'll probably get like four and you've left a lot on the table. So I think it's important as well to say we're talking about you know people saying that I don't want to spend all day in the gym. That's where you maybe want to have a listen to train, eat, think podcasts where we speak about how you look at um volume and frequency and bring that in. We won't go too deep in there tonight, but these are the things that you need to look at. No point swimming in volume. 12, 14 working sets in the workout, three minutes rest would be 42 minutes of working out. If you need a couple of sets at five minutes, you've increased that you know, probably closer to an hour. But very decent workout, very decent reps. And I don't know how you feel about that, Francis.

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Yeah, it's uh again, I I echo everything that you're saying here, mate, about like the the the importance of making sure that you're ready for the next set. I think that that if if I could give a big statement for rest times in between sets, especially when we're focused on hypertrophy, where we're trying to get as much mechanical tension to the muscle tissue as possible, and we want the muscle tissue to be the limiting factor. Go when you're ready. And uh, it's so simple. It's like that meme of the caveman either side that you've got the go when you're ready, broke, and then you've got someone trying to complicate it in the middle, and then you know, highly intelligent people who's been doing it for a long time, just go when you're ready. It's that it is it is very, very simple because when you're ready to put maximum effort into a set, we're trying to get those those effective reps towards the end of a set, they're the money reps, that's what we're after, right? Those last two, three grinders which are really coming in towards the end of a set, they're the reps that give you the most mechanical tension. Now we all know now that mechanical tension that is the biggest driver of hypertrophy. So getting those last couple of reps in and not being limited by you know your central nervous system output, cardiovascular system, uh again being uh limited by your ability to brace or secondary or tertiary muscles, that that only takes away from the stimulus that you can provide on the target muscle. So resting as long as you need to then make sure the set that you go into is as effective as you can get it. I would much rather you take 10 minutes to do two legitimately good sets than do four or five sets of shite in 10 minutes. So where people say about oh, if I rest five minutes in between sets, I'm gonna be in the gym all day. Not necessarily. You that's where you you got your whole thinking wrong because what will happen because the quality of your sets go up and they're gonna be that intense, your volume numbers have to come down, you're not going to need as many sets as you were saying there. You know, someone could do 10 to 12 sets and get that done in an hour. So it all comes down to a high degree of set quality accuracy and going into your sets uh when you're ready.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

I mean, that that's where I've spent most of my sort of lifting time. Uh I'll be honest, when I very first started out, I remember there's a lot of things that I felt, which was like I wasn't really sore leaving that workout, or you know, I didn't have DOMS for days after a certain time, or you know, if I hadn't taken like a week off, for example. But you've got to have faith and trust in that and know that when people who have been around the space and know what helps you to build muscle, to to build the tissue that you want, this is where it comes from. It comes from accuracy in the reps, being a slave to your logbook. But while saying that, as we always say about the logbook, it's not just a case of getting the numbers so that you go, Oh, I went up. You know, those reps need to be of of great quality, they need to be marked. That if it was a if it was a 0.75 rep, take it as 0.75, and next week potentially you get the full rep. That's still progress. And I think as well, there's gonna be a lot of people out there screaming at the the their devices, talking about, for example, heart rate going up and down, or you know, the heart rate drops. One of the things I think it's important to say is that's not what's gonna generate uh you creating muscle tissue. You know, you you're not in the gym for hypertrophy and your and you're training like that to get fitter, so to speak. You're in there to try and take your sets to the wall. Your other activities like your cardio that you do and your output will help and should help keep you fit. You know, we have mentioned that in the past that you want to be in a good space, even if you're in a surplus, you don't want to be blown in order that you know, let's say you've got a 10 or a 12 rep set or even a 15 rep set on a on a hack squat. If you're blown after rep three and it's your your cardio system because you're carrying too much timber, then that's something that needs to be looked at. But that comes outside of you know what we're talking about tonight.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yeah, I d I think it just makes sense to if you want cardiovascular adaptations. Well, you do cardio on the side, as we as we say, you know, we know how important it's getting your steps in and your expenditure and doing your cardio. We know how important that is. Keep your lifting for your your hypertrophy adaptations. I want every my my mindset when I'm going in the gym, and I want every set to count. I don't want to waste a set. I know you mentioned there about not wasting a rep. I don't want to waste a set. I I don't I I never ever come off a set and go, that was a shit set, that I've wasted that. I I can't remember the last time I've done that because I make sure everything is ready and fully rested, the mind is right, and we're ready to attack every single set. Because again, I the way I look at it, every set is an opportunity to get progress, and that's the key. So instead of rushing around the gym like a blue ass fly, you know, every two or three minutes trying to jump in as fast as possible. I think my time, like you know, even on some leg movements, and I've spoken to our good mate Dean about this on the timeline the other day. On some of my hack swats, pendulums, uh, leg presses, big hip hinge sets, I'll take up to 10 minute rest. Now, someone might be looking at that and going, 10 minute rest. Fucking hell, I haven't got that time. But again, when I'm when I'm pushing like a deadlift, I've got two sets of RDL, if I've taken that set all the way there, I'm taking five minutes in between just to sit down and get my senses back before I even start to think about going into that a second set again. It genuinely is anywhere between eight to ten minutes on some of these big, big leg compounds. Obviously, that's I'm not gonna sit there for ten minutes for on every single movement, but some of these big leg movements, the big compounds, you're gonna need it. You will need it when when you when you're handling certain loads and you're pushing your intensity that much, you know, you will need your rest. And on the flip side of that, like you're not gonna you're not gonna treat uh a pendulum squat the same as a bicep curl. No one needs 10 minutes resting between a bicep curl. You know, you you're probably gonna see most of your isolated stuff, like your tricep work, your bicep work, your medial delt stuff, you will be fine in two to three minutes, you'll be good to go because there just isn't there isn't as much of a central nervous system demand on these isolated stuff as these big compounds. Even things like presses, you'll get away three, five minutes, you'll be good to go. You're not blowing after a set of presses, even things like rows and pull-ups, you're good to go. That three, four minutes on on average, but legs, legs is a different beast. Those big leg compounds, I take as much time as I need, and I've got no problem taking up to up to ten minutes on the big leg compounds, leg ISO is probably like three minutes again. But yeah, I'm sure you'd agree with that after those big uh big leg presses and pendulums where you need your time after those.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

I mean, when your whole life sort of flashes before you on that sort of last rep where you're just like trying to live past that very moment and you get off and or you try to get off and crawl into a heap somewhere to get the energy to stand back up. Yeah, it's it's very, very familiar. What do you say to people though that are saying, Yeah, but Francis, I get bored, you know, three minutes or for for isolation, five minutes for can I not just chuck in you know a super set where I maybe do a leg press and then go and do some leg extensions in between?

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Well, I think if you if you're doing a set of pendulums what and you're getting bored after it, you mustn't be throwing hard enough because you you're only getting your senses back. It's taking you a couple of minutes after you get you crawl out of the pendulum, you're sitting down, you're getting your breath back, you're getting your heart rate back, you're getting your senses back, and then you're thinking about the next set. You're not bored. You're in survival more, getting yourself ready and getting your mind right for the next set. That's the comes. If you're thinking after a pendulum squat, oh yeah, I'm a little bit bored here. I'm gonna go and get some steps in, or go and do some hamstring kills, or you know, respond to some emails, you you're training intensity or whatever, it's just not there, and your whole mindset and focus around what you're doing and what you're in the gym for is just completely off, and that's the harsh reality of it.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

It's another reason why I love the logbook. I think, and and I've had a lot of conversations actually with a lot of people because I've tweeted this a couple of times, you know, keep your phone out of the gym, yeah. But my phone is there and it's got strong app, whatever it is. Yeah, but I bet 90% of people will I just check Facebook or I just looked at Twitter or or whatever, and again, these are the things that are taking you away. You're only in the gym for let's say 60 minutes. You can do without your phone. Understand some people are going to caveat that maybe they care for somebody, maybe there's somebody in a spot, they're in an emergency situation. That's absolutely fine. But what we're talking about here is in general, you know, leave your phone in the locker room or in the car or whatever, and bring that mindset into the gym where you're regulating and saying, you know, I know what my task is here for the next 60 minutes. It's getting that plus one rep, but it's getting another kilogram or a couple of pounds on the bar. You know, don't let that phone scrolling destroy the density of your workout, ruin your um your concentration. Really funny, I stuttered there on concentration. Um, don't let it ruin your concentration because as I say, that that's 60 minutes. What one of the great things for me about training, it's that time for you, it's that time to focus, and what you really want to do is be really internalized. You know, I mentioned one of my very first people that kind of took me under their wing. No speaking on the gym floor. You're in there, and you're literally counting reps, counting plates, and then saying that was a hard set, how can I make the next set harder?

SPEAKER_01 16:32

It all comes down to me to one of my favourite sayings, it's staying present. It's staying present with the task at hand and it's taking everything set by set. And that's what I love about like I I find uh training very uh it's like it's like a meditative state. It's it's my time. I come in the gym and I've got you know two hours in there or whatever. That's my time. I take my my I have my gym, uh I have my phone with me, but it's on a tripod for to record all my videos. I never enter WhatsApp, I never enter Instagram, Twitter, never. I respond to nothing. Notifications are off. I just I literally I bring my phone in and I whack it down on the tripod to record all my form clips. I have my uh physical logbook and I'm just writing everything down. Don't go into the phone for anything else apart from you know, we've got your music there and recording videos, and it's just staying present with the session, taking everything. It's like a I've mentioned it before, it's like a uh, you know, it's like an orchestra, the big crescendo up to the top movements, and you're building yourself up. That's you know, like come in, you do your ISOs first, and you're getting into your leg press. It's your your ultimate set of hack squats, it's like a big crescendo, and it's like you're uh you're the orchestra of your own session. I just like to stay present and think of it like that. It's all building up to that you know the big compound of the day. And it's just a it's just a nice way to look at it, staying present with each moment, taking everything set by set, and that's where it comes into the the rest time is making sure that we're driving the best quality out of every set that we do. That's that's what it's all about. So when it comes to rest arms, it's stop rushing around the gym, take your time and get the the maximum quality and stimulus that you can get from every set.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Exactly that. Don't don't miss it. It's funny, you know, we do have in in some areas we do have some really similar approaches, especially you know, getting blood in the hamstrings and getting blood in the quads before we go on to uh the the compound lifts, and there's probably no better feeling in the world when you're going for the last set of heavy compounds and you know that you've got some isolation work to come a bit of calves, and you're like, I'm I'm over the hill, like you said, Dela Coscendo, I'm I'm getting over the real hard work here. You've still got the focus for the rest of the session, but you know that you've basically you know got nice and warm and emptied everything you can for that development, whether that's your kind of the the way I'm doing at the moment is uh is a quad focused leg day, and one of them is a leg day with a little bit more of a hamstring type focus, so um you know definitely getting towards the the the the sort of middle to the end of those is um a really good feeling.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

100% mate. Just while we're talking about that now, it could be it could be a good idea to maybe touch on very quickly about supersets. Where do you stand on supersets? Because that that that always comes up on this topic about rest time in between sets, and people say, Oh, I like to superset things and uh you know uh antagonistic supersets like chest and back, um quads, hamstring supersets, where do you stand on that?

SPEAKER_00 19:52

But for me, I'm I'm a bigger fan of just straight sets. Um I think the more advanced, so if you're sort of like towards the end of intermediate, getting into advanced, that's the real time then to start looking at you know things like that, intensity amplifiles, including you know potentially supersets, those being, as you say, mate, antagonistic, so the the the chest back, biceps, triceps rather than agonistic, you know, bicep and then another bicep one. I do I I always struggle with I saw something in the gym, but at the end of the day, sometimes you're in the gym, you see things, and that you lack the intensity. If you're just done a bicep exercise, you're gonna lack the intensity to do another bicep exercise on the back of that. Earlier in this podcast and in some of our other ones, we're talking about stimulating reps. Now, not a lot of people push for the pump and how good the pump feels. The pump feels amazing, you know. But again, when what we what we're talking about is hypertrophy, is growing muscle. So do you want to grow muscle or do you want to look good and swollen in the gym for 10 minutes? You know, that's not to say, you know, we always we all know there's myofabular hypertrophy, there's sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, you know, uh we could go in and and we could discuss that for days. But if you are in your beginning phase and and heading, as I say, towards intermediate, the best thing probably for you to do is to stay in the straight sets and just work because every time that you go in and train and you're logging your lifts and you're doing everything that we're speaking about here, lifting with intensity, lifting with focus, you should be able to get stronger. For me, when you start too early bringing in uh intensity amplifiers and including supersets as well, you're starting to dig uh a hole for yourself in terms of fatigue and what you need to match. Again, what we need to we we need to stop doing is looking at the workout as one workout, and you need to start looking at that as a a a block, a year of workouts, and this is before we even Start about whether you're in a caloric deficit or in a surplus. Okay, you might notice it a little less than a surplus, but what are those sets bringing to the table? Um, and if you're in deficit, obviously you've only got like like the fuel in your fuel tank for your car, you've only got so much fuel that you can draw down, and once the fuel's empty, you've got to refuel it. But if you're in a deficit, you're not filling your tank up every week.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Yeah, I think with with supersets as well, mate. I I think it I think one does at a certain point take away from the other one. Like if you're doing a you know, let's say you're doing incline Smith and you're pushing that set all out, you're gonna jump off that and go right in and do a weighted pull-up. That weighted pull-up is gonna suffer. It's not that supersets are bad, I just don't think you're gonna be able to drive the best stimulus that we can. And that's what we're looking at here. What's gonna drive the best, what's gonna maximise our progress? Now, does that mean that supersets cannot be useful? No, that you know, you meet some clients where they're at. There might be someone who only has 45 minutes to train and he's got to try and get an upper body session in, so you might say, look, well, we're gonna pair, we are gonna pair a press and a pull. Is it optimal? No, but is it gonna be better than nothing and get you a decent amount of stimulus? Yeah, so that's where you've got to look at supersets can be useful, but I think it I think the more advanced you get and the more muscle tissue that you're building, the stronger that you're getting, and the more sort of stimulus that you're gonna need and focus on your sessions, supersets uh uh they're not gonna be the play for you.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

Absolutely, and and you know, you set that expectation. One of the things we're very keen on, we always ask the questions of clients that are coming on board and and understand what sort of training environment they have. So if someone is training from home, you understand that that they're not gonna make the same, let's be honest, progress that if they had a gym that had every single machine that was available to them, and that's fine, you know. We just understand that you need to make do. It doesn't mean that they're not going to grow at all, but again, you you're using the equipment that you've got, and if it's not a lot, then we we chuck in the intensity amplifiers. You know, I I've got clients, and home gyms are so popular, and you create that plan for people that maybe has a little bit more intensity, a little bit more isolation work because they don't have access, for example, don't have a leg press. Some people may have a Smith, they do, and others don't. So it really does come down to like the individual needs of a client.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Yeah, that's it. We're very big on that. You're you always have to you have to meet a client where they're at an individual. So, you know, as I say, with a home gym setup, some supersets can uh they can make sense, but as long as they don't do uh we don't have our clients doing one rep max benches every week, we're uh we're gonna be good to go.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

Oh I've I've read it wrong. I thought we were talking about doing one rep maxes every single week, in fact, every single session.

The Case Against One Rep Maxes

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Yeah, that's what uh that's what I used to do, mate, when I was powerlifting. Uh we used to one rep max every week. No, we didn't. But yeah, this is a uh a nice segue into one rep maxes, and I think you know, uh with the background and powerlifting, you know, I I competed four times, I've done four competitions, and I went through the whole sort of hypertrophy block, strength block, peak and block. I I'd done it for years, and I'll ask you the question, mate, how many times do you think that I done a one rep max attempt in the gym in four years?

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Four.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Not once. Not once did I ever max out in the gym. Not once, saved everything for the platform because that's where it that's where it matters. I'd done submaximal singles, but they were never ever a max attempt. Okay, we'll we'll we'll we're gonna see what we're on for today. Never ever done that, and any any top power lifter, anyone who knows what they're doing, they they will give you the same answer. Nobody is maxing out in the gym because it makes no sense. You save everything for the platform. So that's that's what top powerlifters will do. So never mind if we if we if we've got we've got lifters here who listen to the podcast who uh hyper to be oriented and we're trying to get jacked. One rep maxes anyway, just in general, if you're a powerlifter trying to that that's your sport, that's that's that that's your skill. You don't you don't do one rep maxes in the gym. So what is a what is a bodybuilding enthusiast, someone trying to got get jacked? What business have you got doing one rep maxes out of nowhere just to see where I'm at? It makes no sense.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

I mean when you look at the the pros and cons of them, you know, the pros the pros aren't many. The pros are you get to say to your bros well I did this for one rep, and the chances are, Francis, if we're just being brutally honest, it was a move the weight rep. It wasn't a uh let's use a chest pest example, it wasn't you dropped the bar on, got full stretch, let it sit, and then boomed it up. But it was probably probably a bounce up off the chest or whatever, just to say, oh I I did X amount of plates, you know. Then you start bringing in injury risk, you've already mentioned uh the fatigue element of it. It's just not it's not even it's not it's not that it's not optimal, it's just useless. Let's let's not beat around the bush. Absolutely useless for building muscle and long-term strength and bodybuilders, you know, you know, we are here to put a muscle, uh target muscle under tension until that muscle gives out. Somewhere in the six to thirty rep realm, my own sort of preference is somewhere in the 8 to 15, mostly 8 to 12 reps, is is where I think the sweet spot is. On my own personal experience journey now, I never lift under six. I I I just don't do it. You know, that there's better tools out there than sticking a ton of weight on the bar, and if you're trying to do like a max deadlift, your wrist is going to give out or your forearm will give out before your back will. So what I just say, what's the point? And the reason I say that is if you're injured, you've got months sitting in the house on the couch, heaven forbid, you need to go for surgery. You potentially lose time at your work, you maybe don't get paid on those. I'm sorry to sort of take it to that spot, but that's where I think in my own brain that one of the worst things you can ever do is be injured because then you can't walk, you can't be outside, you can't go to the gym. All of these things play a big part, and for me, the psychological part would probably be more than the injury itself.

SPEAKER_01 29:05

And the reality is, mate, and we say this to this is not to put anyone down, we we do this to keep people safe. We want you to we want to string productive training blocks together, productive training weeks because, as we know, the the momentum and the consistency that you build over time is what builds the physique, and you'll never see anybody who knows what they're doing coming in doing random one red max because it is it's stupid and it's just ego, and that's the reality of it. Again, when it comes to the powerlifting approach to peak for competition, you would spend months going through hypertrophy blocks with the movements that you know you might use some variations, but you're always going to have your standard competition lifts in that you're practicing with them. Then you might go through through some sort of strength blocks where they you'd be doing lots of sets of maybe four to six. So we're getting up there now and we're heavier loads, but you're letting your nervous system handle that that skill, that specific pattern. You rinse it and repeat week after week, your squat bent deadlift, you you're sharpening your skill set, and then you have a peaking block, which is right before competition, which can last anywhere from you know four to six weeks. This is where you will handle your heaviest loads ready for the competition. You'll be coming into them sets of one to three. Now, these are not max effort sets like all out a ball buster triple. You might leave a rep or two in the tank, but you're you're sharpening your skill efficiency, the neurological efficiency, and you're letting your body, your joints, your connective tissues get used to the heavier load exposure. And then before the competition, they call it tapering, where you drop down some of your volume and your intensity, but your nervous system and your body, it's peaked, it's ready to perform. You've been handling these heavier loads for weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks, you've been sharpening your skill efficiency. So when you step on the platform, you're ready. Your performance and readiness is all the way up here. You've dropped all your fatigue down, that's what you've been focused on for months and months and months. So you're ready for a one-net max attempt. Your body is ready, you have trained for that, you're ready for it. You're not going to get injured, you know, very unlikely. But you're good to go, you're setting yourself up for a one-net max attempt, and that's your sport. Versus the random the gym bro bodybuilder who hasn't done a he hasn't done a warm net max in a year. He comes in, all of us, all of his mates are all in the gym, and they'll loading up the bench press and seeing what's where the warm net max is at. Number one, you're not ready for it, you're not peaked. So you what whatever your one rep max you get on that day, it's not going to be as good as it could do. So it's just pointless. Two, your injury risk is through the roof, especially on a bench press. Again, because if you haven't been used to handling one rep max loads and you've been doing sets of six to eight for the last three, four months, you are not ready for one rep max loads. And then just to touch the fair one, touching on your point there. Again, you get injured doing a random one rep max because all your boys are doing bench press. How annoying will that be? You tear a pech, you're out the game for six months, your pech will never be the same again. All for what? Or because you're just doing something which was just completely idiotic and not going towards the goal. And that it needs to be put across like that as peak stupidity because that's what it is. And we're only trying to tell people by saying that.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

I mean, uh absolutely keeping people safe is you know the top of the tree, and that especially goes out to you know gents that I'm working with that are extending into their 50s, even into their 60s and beyond. And that's one of the things I'll be honest, I've always thought about in my own lifting journey. And if that's maybe cost me a couple of kilos or whatever on some of the lifts that I've done, so I can actually lift a bit more, I'd rather have the protection on things like my shoulders. You make a great point on chest, you tell your peck, there's a very good chance that you're then disfigured. One of the reasons for me, and I'll I'll honestly admit it, I lift mostly for aesthetics in terms of I'm I'm trying to produce a look. I'm obviously trying to build my body, but I want it to have like a certain look around it. That look doesn't look good when you've only got one part of your chest because you know you you took it right off the bone, and I think that's one of the real important things that especially as well as you're kind of getting a bit older, it it doesn't really matter what age you are, but you should be really watching going on and doing these things and kind of getting caught in the moment. Because again, for me, uh a 1RM just brings nothing to the table. It might just be that I there's no power lifter in me. Do I like being strong? Absolutely, you know. I I've built up a lot of my lifts over the years. Everybody that steps into the gym will get stronger over time, but you won't get stronger and you won't look any better if you ping something off the bone and you've got to go and get surgery, and that's you then for life. There's no they can reattach it, but it doesn't it doesn't look the same, it doesn't perform the same either. And that means that you're working, you know. If it was, heaven forbid, you your chest, you're only working kind of one side because it'll never it'll never be symmetrical again in in most cases if you've torn it.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

Absolutely, mate. And I I think it that it just goes to show why it's it genuinely worth the risk. And people say, I just wanna I want to see where I'm at. Like surely you need to know where your one rep max is to then base your percentages off that and see what you should be lifting. Well, my argument to that and my counter-argument is always well, we're not interested in what your one rep max is. What's what's your six to eight rep max on a lift? What's your 10 to 12 rep max? What's your 12 to 15 rep max as an example? That's gonna

Building Muscle Safely

SPEAKER_01 34:45

be more useful data for you. And and and again, if your six to eight rep max, let's say on a on a bench press or a dumbbell press, whatever it is, your six to eight rep max, if that goes up over time, ding ding ding, you're building muscle tissue, simple as that, and we're not having to load up all the plates for one rep max attempts, which is just gonna put your uh your injury risk through the roof. So, again, working the the the so-called uh the bodybuilding rep ranges, as we like to say, you know, six to eight, eight to ten, twelve to fifteen, you know, even if you want a couple of 15 to 20 repers in there, as long as you take the set all the way to failure, you you're good to go. And that's just a safer bet when we're trying to get as uh as jacked as possible and build as much muscle tissue as possible, which is again most people listen to this podcast, that's your goal.

SPEAKER_00 35:32

So, yeah, I mean it's one of the hardest things to do is to leave the ego at the door. You know, it needs to be done though, because you need to protect yourself from yourself. We bring in things. One of the things I always kind of get back when when I first started working with someone, and I normally get them to extend the tempo of the lift that they're doing so that there's good control around it in terms of the the uh the the eccentric and the concentric parts of the lift so that there's control on both parts, and what people report is well, I've had to take my weight down, but I'm getting more control, and ironically, I'm getting more pump from controlling what I do. So again, as as as we're sort of saying, it's coming, you're then forcing people into quality reps inside quality sets with the right amount of volume and then pitching in the frequency as well. So you've got all of those things combining, and they aren't just even things in isolation, they are things that are all piece of a of a greater puzzle that leads you to get to the ultimate goal, which is grow muscle tissue, which we want to do. So we're staying away from injury, we're staying away from there's not zero risk, but we're staying away from a lot of you know relative risk, and what we're doing is we're putting good numbers on the board because we're coming back and training if we're doing it in whatever eight to twelve, eight to fifteen rep ranges and in particular sets, you're doing twelve reps, there's a really good chance if you're doing a good form. Injuries do happen, of course, you know, uh under many different circumstances. But if you're doing something right, when we talk about doing things, repeating them for a long time, you're getting into the groove, you're priming your body, all the muscles that need to work to help you control the lift, you're putting all that together, and and you can't not grow, but you're staying away from spots that just aren't worth your time, it's just a waste of time, in all honesty.

SPEAKER_01 37:40

You make a great point there, mate, about like making some of your lifts a little bit harder, you know, with the control elements. And and you know, the I I have a lot of clients who listen to the podcast and they're always messaging me after we've had these conversations and going, Yeah, what you were saying there, that that reminds me of what you said to me. And you know, it's it's it's a great point here that I've had this with many clients where we've we've actually I like to call it resetting a lift where you take off a little bit of load, but you control the change of direction, there's better eccentrics, you might even add a pause in the stretch. There's just more control. More control leads to better stimulus, but the weight might actually be less. Whereas with a power lift and focus, it's it's a numbers game. You're all focusing on what's your total, what's your one net max like you want the biggest numbers and total possible. So people get into that realm of let's move weight from A to B in any way, shape, or form. We want to put ourselves in an advantageous position to move the weight. Bodybuilding training meetings is about putting yourself in a disadvantageous position and making the lifts as hard as possible. And when that clicks and when you'd understand that, like your games just take off, you joints stay healthier, you're not as banged up coming out of your training sessions because you're not completely obliterated from trying to move away from A to B with shit technique. So it's just a win-win, but again, it's it's the ego stops people from doing that because they're so so wrapped up in numbers. But then when you detach from that and you find your groove with this a new style of technique and your stimulus goes up, you recover better in between sessions. It's like a penny drop moment. And when I've had that with loads of clients of late, and when the when it's like, aha, I see what you're getting at, they never look back, and it's just it it it's it it makes me smile every time I see it.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

I mean it sounds very basic and simple when we say it, but we're there to train a muscle. You're there to put a muscle under constant tension until it gives out. So exactly what you're alluding to there, Francis, you're getting the focus on the muscle, you're protecting the joints and the tendons, which are important in every session. Yeah, because if you want to be in the training game for a decade or decades, you're gonna need those joints and those tendons, and it's less about just chucking weight about and more about controlling the weight that you lift, and that's obviously gives you the byproduct that you're gonna create um muscle because you've got muscular tension to failure, you're recovering with your foot and etc. and then time away, so that when you come back in. But I'm a big fan of continuous reps. You you know my sort of um my my my sort of hook line, if you want, of of CFRT, so continuous fluid resistance training, where you're just doing continuous reps, you're locking the blood and the metabolites in, you know, when it really starts to burn and you want to get to the top of your lift if you're doing a hack squat and stand up tall for a couple of minutes. None of that. There's no rest, no lockout at the top, just keeping ever so slightly like a bend, um, and

The Importance of Control in Lifting

SPEAKER_00 40:52

and you're you're back into those reps and you're pushing them to failure. But again, joints and tendons are protected, and what you're doing is you're just forcing the muscle. Um, I personally don't take reps I know that I can't I can't finish. You know, those are the fatiguing ones, those are the ones that don't really bring you anything apart from just digging a bit more hole for you to recover from. But I think it's very interesting, especially at first, when you put that to people and they go, I'm lifting less, and you say, Yep, but you're lifting it more effectively, and you're getting the ultimate, which is you're gonna grow muscle from that, you're gonna get stronger over time, and you're gonna be focused on the thing that you want to do, and that's training the target muscle to make it force it to adapt. It's not gonna adapt because you go, Oh, that was uh pretty good today. We we done a V V pump session, that was really good. You know, you need to be in there, like we spoke about focus, intensity these are all the things that that come in. Building muscle might be simple, but when you put it all down on paper, doesn't mean it's easy.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

It's funny, me, because what you're saying there about the the quad movements, the constant tension, and I I I've I've gone through uh the developments over the last couple of years of again coming more from the powerlifting background to more hyper-focused training. And when I first started doing hack spots a couple of years ago, I cringe looking back at some of the videos, mate, because I was uh I had had I had SBD knee sleeves on, which are the big powerlifting knee sleeves. I had them on, I was die bombing into the bottom, wasn't uh just no control. I was resting at the top, you know, a couple of seconds in between each rep. You know, with the classic power lifted approach to training, I was just I was just trying to move weight, and over the years, you know, and even more so now, mate. Like I do I've done half squats today, and it's I don't wear knee sleeves anymore on any any of my quad compounds because uh I I don't need to. I don't want to rely on them. I want to make sure I'm not controlled and I'm not pinpoint accurate in the bottom position, and I don't want to be relying on knee sleeves, and I'm just looking at my sets from today, mate, and everything is controlled, pause in the bottom, just no rest at the top, right back in. But my quads have grown the most that they have in years over the last sort of like 12 to 18 months. They've they've I've put on a lot a lot of tissue down there in the quads, and that's come from actually taking off some weight, taking off the knee sleeves, and focused on putting the tension where it needs to go. So I everything we're saying here, I I've been through it, I've I've I've I've seen it, I've got the t-shirt for it, and it's just when when you see it happen, it's uh it it it it's it's a great feeling to see you rewarded for your efforts and just dropping the ego.

SPEAKER_00 43:48

I mean it's a it's a great uh a great point, Francis, because you you're learning how your body responds and actually you're pushing against Potentially what your instinct has been for a long time, which is in in the power lifting space, it's one of the hardest things to do to get away from how much weight can I lift to how much how can I contract against this weight ignoring how much is on the plate or sorry on on the bar, how many plates are on the bar. That that comes in time. And it's actually it's one of the things to get across that it's not as important as you think it is. What's most important is you do that lift for your given rep range with good form, good control. Then you add a pound or a kilo to each side and and you go again. And it really is honestly that basic and simple. It's something in my own sort of lifting journey that I I've had to do. You know, I'm I'm 13 and a bit years in now, um and I've had to start from the very beginning. One thing I would say just to mirror exactly what you're saying, Francis, my own chest and shoulders were very, very stubborn body parts. And what I found is if I don't let them I don't lose the tension on them for even a split second, that's what makes them grow. I arguably lift less on chest and shoulders than I do or I've ever done. But what I do is lift and make sure that that quality and focus is there. And like that, the development of them in the last you know two or three years, they've really come up to be now like a body part I can almost be almost be proud of. Almost still a lot of work to be done, you know. As I say, I'm I'm I'm never uh one that says I'm I'm perfect in any shape or form. I I want to be the best that I can be, and I know that I've got a lot of holes in my own physique, but it's about you know putting putting the bricks in the wall, as we say, you know. We build we build on foundations, and that's that's what it comes down to at the bottom line. We stick another brick in on a good workout, like we've mentioned with the the control and the eccentric and the concentric, and you keep building literally every workout, and then can you repeat that

Finding the Right Weight for Growth

SPEAKER_00 46:18

for decades?

SPEAKER_01 46:20

And what you're saying there, mate, again, great point being able to repeat it. Sometimes taking off a little bit of load from some of your lifts. You know, might you know it's it's a plate out of the side, just as an example. You're going from doing hack squats for five plates aside and it comes down to four. But if you're getting more stimulus out of that, that's less overall loading, that's less stress on the nervous system, a little bit less stress on the connective tissues, the joints, the tendons, all that stuff which gets aggravated and pisses a lot of people off. That's the bottleneck for a lot of people. So we can get more stimulus with a little bit less weight. You know, we're not again, we we know when we're never ever telling anyone to train like an absolute fart here. We we never do that. Never. But if you if you take off a little bit of weight, it improves your execution, you then recover even better in between the sessions because you're not smashing yourself into the ground, you're not smashing your knees every leg session, you're not obliterating your knees with a leg press and the hack squat that's just too heavy, that you're not controlling it. It's a lot of connective tissue stress, you're you're not you're not nailing the quads in the way that you can. So then, after like a two, three, four week little push-up and a block, you're having to pull off your leg press and hack squats because your knees are battered, because your control and your execution is it's just shit. That's the reality of it. So if if you clean up your execution, okay, now we start stringing 10, 11, 12, 13 weeks of consistent training weeks. Just again keep adding that brick as we as we're saying, you're going through your bouts, your stimulus, your recovery, adaptation. But we're getting on a good run of momentum now. And if you're in a push-up phase or a building phase, and you've got 14, 15, 16 weeks of consistent training, don't need a D-Lo because your joints are fresher than ever. You're recovering in between your sessions, you're still coming in and your lifts are moving forward slowly. Fantastic. That that's bodybuilding in a nutshell. Bodybuilding is not coming in, getting smashed after two weeks and having to D-Lo because your joints are fucked. That's not bodybuilding.

SPEAKER_00 48:20

I mean, the the the the markers for that as well should include your logbook, as as as we mentioned. Your logbook isn't just uh like a tally or yeah, I got nine reps. You know, there can be a little narrative in there. You should know as well when you're on and and doing a set, especially if it's a hard set, not to rush the last reps. You're gonna want to, because you're gonna want to be out there. The metabolites are building up, you know, you you're pushing let's say max weight for the set. Again, let's say it's an 8 to 12 set and you're you're at the 11 rep mark, or that this week you have to get 12 reps. Rushing those last reps or even speeding up through the set, this is the thing that takes a little bit of the shine off of your own target muscle. You're starting to bring in a little bit of the joints and the tendons and the momentum and a couple of different muscles because this is what the body does, you know. As much as the mind says, No, this is what I want you to do, the body's like, well, if I can do that a bit more efficiently, in terms of, you know, I can get the a little bit of um movement into to help with this, to help get this the last few reps or to get to the end of the set. These are the things that you really need to be aware of. You need to be brutally honest and blatantly honest with yourself in terms of your lifts. If you come off and you go, I rushed the last couple of reps here because I just wanted to get off because I was absolutely burning. Well, that's fine. As we've said, it's a skill set and you're learning. We do it, probably still do it to this day, where you're like I'm only going to take four reps there, or I'm only going to take that as a five reps set or whatever, because you know it was a little bit um the reps weren't great, or you mark it down, it was six, but two of them weren't great. And your your progress then is coming in next time, making sure that you don't rush those last reps, making sure you've got the control that that you would expect of the concentric and the eccentric, whether you've got those, you know, rest and the stretch, a slight pause at the bottom, all of those things, but you're making sure that you're again getting the accuracy and the consistency, and just bullseye everything you want to do, you want to be bullseye in terms of your um execution, the rep target. And there's nothing wrong with saying, Yeah, those last two were kind of cheat reps, but that's fine. Mark them down as a couple of cheat reps, and next week when you come in, that's your target for getting better.

SPEAKER_01 50:57

My favourite word for this one, mate, it's composure. Composure towards the end of a set. That's that's what we're looking for. You know, it's it's very easy to uh people think it's it's hard training by rushing through and just just pushing as hard as you possibly can and and being a maniac towards the last couple. That that I I find that can be easy. What's hard is is the composure on you know, you you do a set of 15 on leg press and you get into rep 11, rep 12, your quads are on fire, but just there's three more reps to there's three more reps that if you compose yourself and you push through, same as centric, same pause, sustain control. They're the reps that count. That's what you're there for. You know, those whole 11 reps prior to those last couple, they're just the they're just the warmth to get you to this point now. So that's what I'm always thinking. Again, it comes back to what we were saying at the start. Don't waste the set. You've got to hold your nerve, you you keep that composure as you get towards the end because that's what you're there for. You know, we don't want to again waste away the set because you're having had the uh the nerve or that composure towards the the end of the set. And I like to call it the uh entering the pain cave. I've mentioned it to a couple of clients. It's a uh it's a classic from Tom Platt's. It's uh there's like an audio of him like welcome to the pain cave, it's where we live. It's just uh it's brilliant. But that's that that's what it is. It's those last couple where most would put it down, most would rack it. If you can train yourself to voluntarily push through that, again, it's like mastery over yourself, isn't it? Mastery in those last couple of deps. You train yourself to push through that with composure and accuracy. That is where that is the skill set where you unlock the next level of uh of gains right there, and that can take time to get to. You're not gonna be like that within your first couple of years of training. That will take time, but if you can get all of your lifts to like that, that's that's like the holy grail of bodybuilding. So if you get there, you you're in a good spot.

Mastering the Pain Cave

SPEAKER_00 52:59

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a mindset thing that you you your your body wants to give up, and your mind will go and your body will follow. So it's just about can you get your mind to that spot when it is really burning, when all the um the metabolites in the blood are absolutely causing tremendous amounts of when I say pain, I mean that in the best possible sense. I'm not talking about you know your your tendons just sprung off and then flying about the gym somewhere. You know, these are the things that you really need to dig deep on, and it's why as well, it's so important. I know that not everybody will be able to do what I'm what I'm just about to say because sometimes you go to the gym and it's busy, but it's the the reason why it's so important when you've got your exercises in the order that you've got them, uh, and your workouts in the way that you've got them, the way that you can repeat with the most amount of consistency means you can get right into that groove, fall into exactly what Francis is saying there. Let's say skip skip to the good pit and doing quotes for anybody who's not watching on that. Skip to the good pit, yeah. Yeah, I I can't remember who said it, Francis, but like when this when it starts to burn, that's the set starting. And exactly as we're saying, this is when the stimulating reps come because where your tolerance is, and I absolutely loved about what you said, you know, composure, getting the pain and getting the burn, and then going fast and like just trying to get as many as you can. Yeah, okay. Yeah, you might get a little bit from that. But if you can stay in that moment with the the tempo and and the lift at the way you've got, and it starts to grind even a little, you know, slowing down a little bit, that's absolutely fine because then you know you can't go down another once. This is what when I mentioned earlier about I don't take reps that I know I can't complete. If I know I'm one more time I'm gonna go down into the hole, for example, on a pendulum, I'm not coming back out of there. I've gone past what I would call muscular failure. I I'm I'm done, my set's done. Because the only way now I'm gonna progress is I'm gonna be either quicker, I'm not gonna get the depth, I'm gonna need somebody to help pull me up. Maybe my training partner there, your training partner is gonna need to help pull you out of the hole, or you fail safely, you know, you dive bomb, sit the pendulum down, and and you you crawl out um and and look shameful because you failed. I'm just joking when I say that. You know, there's there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. You know, I've I've done that plenty of times under um different loads, but it's just something to be aware of. Just because it's getting sore doesn't mean you need to make it easier. You need to sit in there and you know, as Francis says, in the in the cave of pain, you need to pain. Yeah, you need to embrace it a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 55:52

Bodybuilding side of me, it's easy, isn't it? It's not that hard. You know, it's uh anyone can do it, you know. It's it's and and having this conversation now. This this is where I lead to right off the bat with with that comment when people say, you know, bodybuilding's easy, it's not that hard. You know, that everyone's got their own opinion, but that tells me right away that you you do not understand what we're talking about here in terms of these real, real hard training. Because what we're talking about here, it all ties in with the start of the podcast of making sure you've got enough rest in between sets and you're staying present in between your sets and the session itself, you're not being distracted by your front your phone and scrolling and all this shit. Because you need your you need your headspace and your your body needs to be ready to attack these sets because to get to those last two, three reps on a leg press, a hack swat, a pendulum, a leg extension, that's an absolute bastard of a movement. That leg extension. Like getting these last couple of reps, it requires so much of you and your ability to push and drive. If you can do that after one, two minutes rest and scroll in your phone, that's easy. If you think that's bodybuilding training, you're massively mistaken. Bodybuilding training, proper training will push you to your absolute limits, to your absolute max when you're doing it in the in the fashion that we're talking about here. So these people who say bodybuilding is easy or it's not that hard, you're telling on yourself for just piss-poor training intensity, and that's the reality of it, mate, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 57:29

And it should push you to your limits and beyond because you should find new limits. Because when you're coming in, and if you're starting at the at the beginning of your journey, and you've only got five kilos of side on the pendulum squat, eventually, after a period of time, that lift's gonna be easy for you. You're gonna be ready to go to the next step up, which is 10 kilos per side, for example, and that's gonna be hard. And then once you've mastered that, you're gonna need 15 kilos yadda yadda yadda. But you get the point, it's always about trying to find ways to make that difficult, and as your skill set improves, there's never an easy workout, there's never taking it easy because if you've got that drive and that desire in you, you know, when when we speak to clients that want to set goals, when we're setting goals for ourselves and we're gonna do the session, you yourself at the moment, Francis, deep in a cut, deep enough. I've just come out of a cut that I went pretty deep, probably close to six-seven percent body fat. We've got to dig at that point just to even stay afloat, to keep ourselves on an even keel. So there's a lot of different variables that come in at different times that just to go in and even do your bodybuilding training is is the hard thing, you know. It's it's simple, it's very simple, it's repetitive, but it's definitely not easy. And I'm I'm to be honest, I'm so glad that I did find it.

SPEAKER_01 59:09

I just think that the there is a there is a mental component and a resilience that you build from doing this for a long time. And I I know you've done multiple preps with yourself, and I I'm in the midst of mine now. And I it's like I'm on a journey. I I am getting tested, you know, week to week. It's like the the levels of the uh the intensity of stuff, it goes up in terms of how hard me my body is pushing back against me, and I'm having to find an extra an extra gear up here when I'm going into some of these sessions. Like, you know, I've got my deadlifts coming up, I've got five plates loaded up, and I've got to come in and I've I've maintained eight reps all the way throughout prep so far. That is becoming mentally more tougher to do and physically more tougher to do. Like, that is not easy, that's just one example. It all starts up here before they even walk into the gym. So you're going on this, it's like this this journey of you're just getting tested and you're having to respond every session,

The Mental Component of Bodybuilding

SPEAKER_01 1:00:07

and before you know it, you get a week done. Okay, you you get a little bit of a rest at the end of the weekend because we touched on the high days, the little repees that come in, and then you're back in again, you're getting tested, you're getting questions, you've got to get out and get your steps in. You got you know, there've been multiple times I've had six thousand steps left today, and I I I'm on my ass. Like I've I'm knackered, I've got no energy, I've got six thousand steps to go and get. It's like someone who's like pulling your hoodie back when you're trying to walk, but you just go, you just get it done. There is resilience, there's grit, and I know there's much more to come with it. Again, I'm you know 17, 18 weeks out, but it's for anyone just to sit there on the sidelines and go, oh, that's easy, it's it's far from it. It's it's one of the most, I would say, uh, I'd say mentally tougher sports that you can do because it's just you. There's nobody else. It's just you. You you have to be, and I know you can work with coaches, of course, and you have the support there, but you they don't do the work for you. You have to get up, you have to get all your steps in, prep all your food, you have to put yourself through these grueling leg sessions, sessions that you've got to do. Nobody else is doing that for you. You've got to want it, and you there has to be that internal drive. And uh again, if you think that's easy, you you just haven't done it, you just don't get it.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:27

Yeah, I mean it's all it's all so familiar having having done a few of them, but the bleed over into life in general and and the things that it gives you because uh it's like you say, this is this is a 24-7 pursuit. There's no off button. Okay, you could say I'm not gonna compete anymore, but you know, do you really ideally you don't want to do that? You've started something, you've you've got an endeavour, and I think that's one of the great things about it. When you've got that hard date that you need to meet, and you and you've got everything building around it, all the work just sort of piles in and you become so laser focused, and there would be nothing pretty much in in the grand scheme of things, Francis, that will stop you doing those 6,000 steps tonight, even so far out. I say so far, it's just moderately far, but that's just going to continue, and you find it from somewhere, even like you say, you're getting to the end of the week, you're tired and whatever. There's nothing better than being like, Yep, I've got all my boxes checked for the week, and what you do is again you find a new level because the food's not getting replenished every single week, being in a deficit, coming down to low levels of body fat. So, yeah, it's uh it's definitely a challenge and it and it's a a very good one and a worthwhile one.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:50

It's a 24-7 endeavor. That's that's what people don't get. It's it's not just you go to the gym and come home, it's 24-7. That's what I love about it. I I I I love, as you say there, the checking the boxes, going to bed each night, all and that, yeah. I've nailed I've nailed my training. I again didn't miss a set. Every set was spot on, didn't miss my steps, nailed my macros, calories to a T. Digestion on point, everything just on point. That's hard. That is hard to do that. Anyone can do that for a week or two. Try doing that for a decade plus, going through a full prep doing that. You know, that's that's that that's what it's all about, mate. And you know, you we've we've worked with many people in the past, and this is not to throw shade at people, but you know, the curve balls come up, and all of a sudden they're like a deer in the headlights. It's oh I'll be back, I'll see you, and once things settle down, mate. Uh once uh once my dog has fixed up from its toothache that it's got, I'll be back. Yeah, you know, it's just all all that sort of shit. Any sort of excuse that will stop you from doing what needs to be done with tracking of your food, your your your consistent training, your recovery. If it was easy, then then everybody would do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:06

I I I like the saying, how much do you want it? Rather than how bad do you want it, how much do you want it? You need to be committed beyond the wee giddy bit at the front where you're like, yeah, I want to have whatever the goal is. Okay, that's fine, but can you anchor to that six months, to eighteen months, twenty-four months down the line? One of the things I can say, having walked the walk and talk the talk, it's absolutely worth it. You learn things about yourself, you find new depths that you can plumb, and I mean that in a positive sense. You mentioned that the hoodie one, that's a it's a fantastic uh analogy. You know, you're you're imagine you're trying to walk somewhere and somebody's literally pulling you back with a hoodie. That's what it feels when you get to that level, and you've got to push through, you've got to find a way, because there's there's no alternative. The alternative is give up, you know, and even when things aren't going right, maybe you're working, you've had to pull on a few extra hours at work, you've had to do something for the family, you've got certain responsibilities. I've heard stories, in all honesty, about guys that were painters doing 12-14 hour days, Francis, doing the same thing, going to stage, getting all their meals and doing like an hour and 90 minutes cardio on top of that, and still going to work the next day. So, you know, I say that as a desk jockey, but I still put in the the the shift and and the work in terms of that as it just to bring it back, it's like when you set a goal stick to it, yes, there's gonna be bumps, it's never a linear. Path. There's never anything linear in life. We we know that. But what you can't be is derailed and just chuck it when yeah, your your dog's nail

Choosing Your Response to Challenges

SPEAKER_00 1:06:11

fell off.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:12

Yeah. One of my favourites meet one of my favourite sayings is that we we can never control the situation, but you always choose your response. You always choose how you respond to any sorts of care balls, anything that happens that you know you didn't expect, you know, something's gone wrong, or you know, something unfavourable has happened in life, and this can be in the gym, personal, whatever it is, shit happens, that's it's life. And again, if you if you if you think that yours is gonna sit in your bubble and eat chicken and rice and train and recover for the rest of your life, especially you know, we're we're we're both we we've both got families, we've got kids, we've got responsibilities. Shit happens, but you're not gonna sit there and oh dear in the headlights, I can't do it because this has happened. You always choose your response, and you've you again nobody else can tell you how to think. You can either respond like a victim negatively, the world's against me, glass half empty, or flip side, you can go right. This is what the situation we've got in front of us. I'm gonna fight this as best as I can. What can I do to still move forward? What's the positive outlook on this? How can I keep putting one foot in front of the other? Even if it's only small, I'm still not gonna be fucking beat by it. That's the difference, and again, I think uh a lot of people need that rocker up their ass. You control your response, nobody else tells you how to think.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:38

I I've had that, and one of the things I wanted to mention was one of my clients is to go in for an operation that's it's on his wrist, and he sent me a message just telling me all the things, it's it's a little bit more than that. It's an operation that's this and that, it's all around the wrist though. And he's like, What can we do to keep moving forward? So I think that's a fantastic example that he's maybe not going to be able to do some push or pull workouts for maybe somewhere in the vicinity of three to nine weeks, it depends on how the recovery goes. But already thinking about what can I do, how can I continue the journey? You know, my my nutrition can be nailed. We we use it as an accelerated fat loss phase, and we slowly taper in the training again when when the doctors give the all-clear that say, you know, you can go and train. But I think that's a fantastic way because we we talk a lot about all the successes, and I think that's one of the great challenges we've got where someone's gonna be down and and injured and out for a few weeks, but already thinking, what can I do here? I think what's becoming clear as well, we need to do an episode on prep.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:46

We will do, definitely, mate. 100%. But I think that that to round off the podcast, we talk about train, eat, think. It's it's it's very, very important. That's why we name the podcast Trainee Think, because your mind is is the governing hub for all of this stuff. The conversation and the inner dialogue that you have, that that that affects how you train, how you eat, how you organise and structure everything. So it's it's just it's so important and it all encompasses in together. I think that's a that's a great way, mate, to uh to cut this one off, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:26

Uh we've done close to an hour and ten, mate, and all it does is leave me buzzing, honestly, for the next one. There's so much to go through, and thanks again for tonight. And again, just to say thanks to everyone for all the support and and the messages that we continue to receive. You know, people going on flights and sending screenshots that they're they're tuning into the podcast on the flight. So thank you very much for the support, everyone.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:48

Yeah, and again, I hold that, like really appreciate the support. We're closing in on a thousand downloads on um Spotify and Apple, uh, nearly over two thousand views on YouTube. As you say, we're we're uh we're we're we're gonna keep them coming. So if anybody is interested in online coaching, um working with uh either of us one to one, message at Benjamin Yeezus on X or Twitter, and uh I'm uh coach FHM. Again, we don't bite as we always say, but uh again, appreciate the support, everyone. And uh we will we'll speak to you in the next one.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:27

Have a good one. Thanks, everyone.