THE BASICS
When it comes to building muscle the most important thing is what you do in the gym. That's right, training is the key factor in sending the signal to your body to start building muscle.
Think about it like this: when you lift weights with enough intensity, you're actually putting stress on your body. This stress causes minor damage, but it's all part of the plan.
Your body responds by trying to adapt to this stress so that the same thing won't cause damage in the future. It's called an adaptation response, and it's the secret to building muscle. It's also the secret to why humans have survived for so long.
Of course, you can't just go crazy with your workouts and expect results. Your body has a limit to how much stress it can handle, so you need to send an appropriate signal. If the signal is too low, your body won't bother adapting. But if it's too high, you'll injure yourself.
The key is to find the right balance based on your current fitness level and lifestyle.
If you're already in great shape, you'll need longer (1h) and more intense workouts to continue making progress. But if you're just starting out, shorter (30m) and easier workouts will do the trick.
The aim is to build up to 1 hour workouts as you get stronger.
You also need to take your overall health into account. If you're dealing with a lot of stress, not getting enough sleep, or eating poorly, you need to be especially careful with your workouts.
These aren't the conditions to build an optimal physique. There're going to be a lot of other biology processes that will take priority over building muscle. You need to reduce all these other stressors your body has to deal with so that your body bumps muscle building up the queue.
The same way you wouldn't try and grow a garden on a landfill is same way you can't construct a healthy body on the foundations of garbage lifestyle habits.
This means: prioritise sleep, drink enough water, eat well, be healthy.
So remember, training is the key to building muscle, but you need to be smart about it and develop healthy lifestyle habits that will nurture muscle growth.
CARDIO FOR FAT LOSS
If you're trying to lose weight then a workout plan heavily weighted in cardio is probably the worst way to go about it.
Yes, cardio burns more calories per time spent than any other exercise out there. And sure, it might seem like the best way to burn fat. But here's the thing: it's also the problem.
While cardio can definitely help you burn fat in the short term, it can also sabotage your progress in the long run.
Let me explain.
As mentioned previously, when you exercise you're not just burning calories. You're sending a signal to your body to adapt.
It's like when you apply repeated friction on the skin playing a musical instrument or doing manual labor, it causes the skin to thicken and develop gross calluses to protect against further damage. Calluses are an adaptive response to the stress being applied.
Similarly, when you do cardio, you're stressing your body and telling it to adapt to that stress.
But here's the issue: cardio burns so many calories that it can actually send the wrong signal to your body.
Our primitive bodies evolved during times of food scarcity, so burning too many calories can trigger a starvation response. And what does your body do in response?
It slows down your metabolism, making itself more efficient with the calories you do have. When food was scarce this adaptation saved our lives, but now the opposite is true, we have an abundance of food and it's causing havoc with people's weight.
The body only cares about keeping you alive. It's hardwired to adapt to every stressor it's subjected to so that next time, it won't be as much of a shock to the system.
When it comes to cardio, the adaptation of increasing efficiency with calories means you burn fewer and fewer calories over time.
So you might start out burning a ton of calories during your cardio sessions, but eventually your body adapts and starts burning fewer and fewer calories by reducing muscle mass (which is why endurance athletes are so lean but don't have a lot of muscle), changing hormone profiles (which is why female endurance athletes can stop menstruating), and even changing your behaviour so that you move less when you're not exercising.
In other words, your body will be working against you, and it's going to be harder and harder to lose weight.
So, what's the solution?
It's simple - lift weights! And I don't mean doing high-rep circuits or cardio with weights. I mean real, proper weight lifting.
By lifting weights and building muscle, you're sending a signal to your body that says "strength and muscle are a priority". And because weight lifting doesn't burn as many calories during the actual workout, your body doesn't try to become as efficient with calories.
Instead, it focuses on building muscle and increasing your metabolism. And that is how you really ramp up your fat loss and start shedding pounds.
I know from experience that when I switched my workouts from circuits and high intensity interval training to focus on lifting weights my metabolism went into overdrive.
I went from eating 1800 calories a day to 3200 calories. I was also bulking but it took me 20 months to put on 14kg which is slow considering my calorie increase.
So while cardio might seem like the perfect way to shed those extra pounds, it could actually be sabotaging your progress by slowing down your metabolism.
This doesn't mean avoid cardio at all costs because it's still required for a healthy heart.
It also takes a long time for your body to adapt and start slowing down your metabolism.
But if you're only going to do one type of workout and fat loss is the priority, cardio is not the one.
STRENGTH VS HYPERTROPHY
Rep Ranges: If you want to look good you need to train for hypertrophy (8-15 rep range); forget about the strength programs that focus on heavy compound lifts.
Workout routines like 5x5 Stronglifts are fine in moderation, but these are not the workout routines that help you build an aesthetic physique. Yes, they make you stronger but unless you're planning on entering a strong-man competition, looking & feeling good about yourself is the goal with the workout routine we recommend.
Advanced: Your body is a super adapting machine.
It will adapt to your workout.
Once you hit a plateau or stop seeing progress it's time to change things up. This will be after months of training.
When you get to this point, then there're benefits to switching to a lower rep (3-5) range with heavier weights.
I'm years deep in my training and I've found cycling between lower and higher rep ranges prevents my body from adapting to the workout and maintains steady progress.
I'll do 1 month of training in the lower (3-5) rep range then the next month I will go back to training in the higher (8-15) muscle building rep range and repeat this cycle.
The other option to get out of a plateau is doing different exercises which I also do from time to time. You don't need a completely new workout plan, simply replace exercises you're bored of to freshen things up.
FULL BODY VS PUSH, PULL, LEG SPLIT
Honestly, it doesn't really matter.
What ever split you find most enjoyable is best.
I found full-body workouts which target your whole body at each workout gave me the best results. You provide the muscles with less stimulus/stress during each workout but more often over the course of a week. This allows you to perform the exercises with better form and more intensity and also supports a quicker recovery.
Doing 6 different leg exercises in one workout and leaving the gym in a wheelchair isn't ideal. If you only do 1 leg workout a week then you're going a week without giving the legs any stimulus.
You'll still see results this way but I found it was working hard but not working smart. I find it's better to do less more often with the proper and correct form.
You'll need to implement some trail and error to find out what works best for you by giving the different splits a go.
Physical fitness is an infinite game, you have to exercise for the rest of your life to be healthy so you'll have time.
RUNNING FOR YOUR LIFE
Now gentlemen, let me tell you about the ultimate secret to achieving peak physical fitness... sprinting!
I know I shit on cardio earlier, but this is a different animal. Sprinting is not just any ordinary exercise like running a 5k, it's one of the 10 Lawless Laws to being a anti-hero that every outlaw should swear by. I'm just playing, there're no laws for this movement, i'm not looking to start a cult. But if i was, then sprinting would definitely be 1 of the laws. Why?
Well i'm going to break it down because I don't think enough people know about this.
It's the ultimate anti-aging activity that can work wonders in reducing excess body fat, breaking through fitness plateaus, flooding your bloodstream with anti-aging hormones, and even boosting neuron function in your brain making you sharper and more focused.
From a physical perspective, it's one of the most powerful stressors you can give your body.
I always feel like a savage after a sprint workout, but I picture myself being chased by a tiger whilst i'm sprinting so that may have something to do with it.
It really doesn't take much to reap these rewards either. Even a quick sprint session can have a profound effect on your metabolic and hormonal function for hours and days afterward.
My sprint sessions last 25 minutes max, and thats on the long side. You can get major benefits from shorter sessions.
When we sprint we engage a stressor that evolved with humans during brief life-or-death threats calling for superhuman physical efforts. Our genes expect us to deliver occasional all-out physical efforts, just like our ancestors did in the wild.
It's in our DNA to face brief, life-or-death situations and when we sprint, we remind our bodies of that ancestral past. It signals that we are still capable of being youthful, powerful apex predators.
You're literally telling your body that you need to be capable of pushing to your limits, and your body will adapt accordingly.
But sadly, many people never take full advantage of sprinting. They struggle to make it part of their workout routine, or they're intimidated by it, thinking it's only for hard-core athletes.
When we avoid stressors like sprinting and indulge in endless comforts and conveniences, we become soft, weak and more vulnerable to all kinds of stress.
I'm here to tell you that sprinting is for everyone. It doesn't matter if you're a seasoned athlete or just starting out on your fitness journey.
All it takes is a willingness to push yourself, to go all-out for a short burst of time.
And afterwards - you'll feel stronger, more energised, and more resilient to life's challenges. So don't be afraid to incorporate sprinting into your routine. Your body and mind will thank you for it.
Key Takeaways:
- To build muscle you must get stronger at moving against resistance for 5-15 reps. Every decision you make about your training is purely to enable that statement to be true.
- When you lift weights you're telling your body "i demand more than you're currently capable of- your body responds by getting stronger.
- When you run long distance you're telling your body "I need to be in fight or flight mode for a long time"- your body responds by becoming more efficient with calories.
- The best split is the one you enjoy the most.
- Run for your life every now and then.
DOWNLOAD OUR WORKOUT PLAN FROM THE LINK BELOW RIGHT NOW
It's 3-day workout plan with the fundamentals of starting your fitness journey. We also include info on how to start your sprinting journey as well. Sprinting isn't for people who have been sitting on the couch for the past few years.
You need to earn the right to sprint because it will be like a shock to your system if you're the type of person who dodges stairs. I went 6 months without sprinting whilst I prioritised learning how to swim.
My first sprint session back, I did 5 sprints and was in agony all over my body for 4 days afterwards. I was aching in places I didn't know you could ache in. Anyway download link below.
Always remember, you were born to be the anti-hero of your story.
Free your outlaw.