My opinion on this has changed over time. I used to think less of people that didn’t train their legs as hard as I was training them. “They don’t know what they are missing out on”. But I know a ton of guys that have way less stressful lower days, are in perfectly decent shape, look forward to the gym and live happily balanced lives. Not everyones trying to get on stage, dominate a meet, or impress people in the gym.
When caught up in internet forums and reading different programs it’s easy to get sucked into things that people with much more serious goals than you are doing, or learning about why this is better than that. Yeah if you want to be extraordinary you’ve got to push the envelope but if you want to be fit, healthy, have half decent shape and enjoy your life? So what if doing another top set of deadlifts leaving your back slightly off tomorrow, or psyching yourself up for the second back-off set of squats with 315lb on the bar on your 6th week of reverse pyramid training trying to beat the 10-12 reps you got last week just doesn’t do it for you?
Hit some bench, hit some shoulder press, maybe come back in a few days and hit some rows and some leg press and other machine work. Maybe go for a jog in a few days. Are you enjoying that bit of escapsim? Good on ya. Just because something is your goal doesn’t mean it should be everyone elses. Comparing ourselves to other people can come from a place of superiority as well as envy.
Yeah I’ve heard of a lot of people having good success with Sheiko methods so I can’t dismiss it. It’s probably worth trying for everyone assuming they have the time (the workouts were 3 days a week but each one took forever lol) and are able to recover from all the volume.
I think it’d be rude of me to mention again how many kids I see doing several different lat raise variations but never push anything overhead. But there, I did it. “I got my shrugs in today but I was in a rush so my rows were half-assed”
When I observe the guys in the gym I respect or look up to in anyway, it still bewilders me at how “little” they seem to be doing. In that “little” amount they are doing though, they are BIG movements and they are pushing them HARD. We hear it all the time that beginners are doing too much but I believe it stretches further than that. Intermediates that identify as bodybuilders and so make sure to hit every angle and every muscle group whenever they can. That goes for too much assistance work and too many isolations. A ton of the programs you find will re-enforce that but i’d argue that most people are overestimating what level they are at. Truly advanced trainess are few and far between. Some people may never actually reach it but continue to train in a way that identifies them as such. “I need to hit this exercise for this to grow”. No, you probably don’t and maybe never will need to. Focusing on getting everything bigger takes you pretty damn far but guys will talk about weakpoints when they are still lifting poverty weights in relation to who the program they are following is for.
Maybe I’m talking from a biased place, maybe I’m just lazy because I’m doing less these days. My results are just as good though and I’m having more training money free to spend on cardio and mobility.
After going from being a skinny and weak but half decent footballer (soccer) when I was younger… to putting on a whole bunch of weight and muscle neglecting a bunch of stuff. As soon as I tried to do it again I felt like I was in somebody elses body. Having the time to work on the things I used to hate has made me feel better day to day so I’m happy to sacrifice that extra 5% of muscle growth for a whole bunch of agility and heart health.
For the majority of people interested in general fitness, lifting for more than 45 minutes/day, 3-4 days per week is counterproductive.
I agree with the above that too much focus is on isolation movements because they supposedly make the social media muscles grow the best. Those folks would be better served focusing on overall size gains.
My favorite fitness myth …I can swear there was an article but can’t find it now…
Anyway since the testes are located outside of the body this keeps the temperature lower. This article went on to recommend cold showers or, for the more intrepid lifter, applying ice directly to the testicles as a way to increase testosterone production
As “evidence” the article pointed out the number of strongman/weightlifting champions from Colder regions like Siberia or Iceland
Naturally I tried this but didn’t notice a difference in lifts…
I’m going to go out on a limb (pun intended) and argue that most people should be incorporating more direct calf and forearm work. I mean these look weird.
I think contrast showers are great for recovery. James Bond did them in the books. And that whole scandinavian go into a sauna, jump through a hole in the ice, and beat the shit out of yourself with pine branches is pretty great. Shoot, even when I lived in Florida we were in an apartment complex and I’d be jumping from the community hot tub to the pool and back at 5 am before I’d even heard of the previous examples - it just seemed to work. If you define bro-science as intuitive biofeedback, maybe there’s a case there.
Also sleeping cold for health/fat loss is something I buy into. My wife has pajamas, a sheet, a duvet, a weighted blanket, a shoulder travel blanket, and I’m just there in my underwear without any covers.
For sure. I have been lucky enough to have big calves, but a lot of folks are starting look like Tour de France cyclists by focusing on thighs - huge thighs, anorexic looking everything else.
I agree with this completely - I hate sleeping hot. We used to have a “cold air” bunk room in my fraternity house (in Iowa). No heat and drafty as it was a 100 year old building. My favorite days were the ones where it was below freezing outside. Nice and cool. Had a heated blanket only to make sure I didn’t die of hypothermia.
Nothing fills my heart with more joy than watching a beginner teenage kid who cant fill out a small tee shirt lift. Especially when they are living on a diet of flyes ,lateral raises , tricep kickbacks and concentration curls along with a grocery list of movements trying to build a foundation.
I see this a lot, and I believe it coincides with this idea that the way to grow is to train “to failure”.
I’ll see some beginner that tells me they aren’t growing, and they assure me they’re doing “everything right”, and that includes training “everything to failure”.
I balk at that and go “lemme get this straight: if you’re doing 3 sets of squats, you load up the bar, rep it out, let the weight crash onto the pins, unload all the weight, re-rack the bar, reload it, and then do 2 more sets? That must be exhausting, and the gym staff must hate you”
“Oh, I don’t do squats”.
…oh. What about deadlifts? Nope. Bench? Nope. Why? Because training those to failure for multiple sets if exhausting and logistically difficult, but you can fail the hell out of some raises and kickbacks!
So these dudes are picking movements to suit the method, rather than picking movements AND methods to suit the goal.
