Muscle building and fat loss goals?.....Here is the truth!
Muscle building and fat loss goals?
Sick of the conflicting information on social media?
You need to watch this video!
Three mechanisms of hypertrophy
Three mechanisms of hypertrophy
Mechanical tension, metabolic stress and muscle damage.
1️⃣Mechanical tension - You want to generate the largest muscle force possible through a full range of motion.
2️⃣Metabolic stress ("the pump") - To optimise metabolic stress you need to maintain constant tension on the muscles. Focus on the pain building up in that muscle, stay with it and embrace it. This way, as blood gets pumped into the muscles by the arteries, the steady muscular contractions will prevent the veins from letting blood escape, resulting in high levels of metabolic stress and cell swelling.
3️⃣Muscle damage - This is focusing on the negatives. It happens with slow negatives, extended range of motion and high tension in the stretched position of the muscle. Doing a random exercise that you haven't done in a while also does the job.
The best lifts are those that can be manipulated to target each of the three mechanisms. The basic big lifts do the trick - squat, deadlift, hip thrust, bench press, military press, pull-up/pull-down and row. These exercises should feature highly in anyone's programming and tweaked accordingly to hit the three mechanisms.
In summary, you can use these three mechanisms in a single disgusting workout, or cycle through them over the course of a week
Superman
Superman
If you are anything like me then you might have grown up watching all the superheroes on TV kick some serious ass….
Now there is no superhero more super than Superman.
We all wanted to grow up to be strong and to look like a superhero, well I know I did. Maybe I just wanted to run around with my pants on the outside of my trousers……I was a confused child, but I defiantly wanted to be strong that’s for sure.
The problem is for us mere mortals we are not simply born with our strength, we need to work on it, consistently work on it. Day in and day out we need to work on it!!!!
Like Superman we all have our kryptonite…. unlike superman our kryptonite is not a mineral property from the planet Krypton, it’s actually the fact that we are lazy by nature. Most of us want to avoid pain, avoid pressure and stay in our comfort zone.
However, if you want to look like Superman or Superwomen then you’ll need to get outside your comfort zone!
Whether you want to build strength, build muscle or simple shred fat, this takes hard work, discipline, motivation and passion, all attributes Superman does have.
Your journey to have a superhero physique and reach your genetic potential starts with your mindset.
Think about what you want and why you want it, then get yourself in a motivated state and push yourself to reach heights you never thought possible.
Leg workout #1 (Video)
LEG WORKOUT
Try out this leg workout and embrace the DOMS.
Lets sculpt some legs!
✅Front Squat - 8 reps, 4 sets, 60 seconds rest.
✅RDL - 10 reps, 4 sets, 45 seconds rest.
✅Walking Lunges - 12 reps (out & back), 3 sets, 40 seconds rest.
✅Lying Leg Curls - 12, 9, 7 reps (20 seconds rest between each), 2 sets, 40 seconds rest.
✅Leg Extensions - 15 reps, 3 sets, 30 seconds rest.
✅Glute Bridge - 15 reps (each side), 3 sets, 30 seconds rest.
Gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?
Gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?
For those of you who don’t know, every Tuesday me and my colleagues do body fat testing in total fitness Chester, and 9 times out of 10 when I ask a guy “what is your goal?” the response is “I want to build muscle and lose fat!”.
Now don’t get me wrong, this is a great goal and is definitely possible. However it’s not that effective long term to try and do both at the same time.
While it is possible for a short period of time to gain muscle and lose fat especially if you are brand new to the gym (we call this newbie gains) or for someone holding a large amount of body fat, but over the long run its not efficient and you’ll need to pick one or the other.
Your body needs a calorie surplus to build muscle and a calorie deficit in order to shed fat, it’s that simple!
I’m not saying you need to go on an insane bulk as this can be difficult to drop your body fat back down, what I’m saying is you need to be eating more than you're burning. Your body needs to justify gaining muscle as it will inevitably need more calories to fuel this new founded muscle mass, you body will not simple gain loads of muscle and put itself in a calorie deficit.
This is what I suggest, bulk up until you have reached your desired muscle mass, then shed down until you have reached your goal body fat %, generally for guys 10% or below should be enough to see a 6 pack. Obviously if you’re 18% plus then you would likely shed body fat first.