Transcript for:
How Much Should I Work Out?

have you ever seen someone working out for 3 hours and then you leave the gym in 45 minutes and think is he working out too much or am I not working out enough what's interesting is that people usually ask this question to see if they're working out enough perhaps they're not hardcore enough well what if we told you that there's a better chance you're working out too much what if we told you that this entire question isn't even what you should be asking let's cut through the research and see how much time you need to spend working out to actually get the results you want right now we'll just tell you that you shouldn't copy either of those two the time one spends working out is often based on fomo fear of missing out we live in a society these days that seems to always be promoting more is better this causes people to always assume that whoever leaves the gym first is weak on the flip side we live in a world where some people are looking for the bare minimum to a fault we do understand that different people have lives with different circumstances that can dictate how much they can work out we applaud everyone who chooses to hit the gym rather than the couch in fact we even have a minimalist video to make the most of your time however some people are only concerned with the minimum regardless of how much free time they have both of these situations can cause issues in your life and training Journey living in the gym will void any other social life not to mention setting you up for fatigue and overuse injuries getting out of the gym ASAP when you don't need to is only going to prevent you from reaching your full potential so if there's a maximum time and minimum time you should spend in the gym so what's the ideal time let's look at research we're going to start this journey simple let's talk about the numbers given by Official Guidelines on the minimum amount of physical activity everyone should get the recommended amount of physical activity is set by the US Department of Health and is the number used by health organizations such as the CDC and wh according to these Health institutions to promote a healthy lifestyle adults should be engaged in at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity every week along with two days per week of muscle strengthening exercise moderate activity is defined as a brisk walk and vigorous activity can mean going for a jog or run depending on your Fitness level for muscle strengthening workouts they don't give a ton of advice apart from training all major muscle groups 2 days per week they give no further guidance on what these muscle strengthening workouts should look like nor how much time should be spent doing them they also say more is better in other words this is the bare minimum that every person on Earth should be getting but again and they're very vague about it this is a very basic prescription that leaves a lot of room for interpretation also this is going to give you minimum benefits it could be a lot better in fact we now know just how much is better in 2018 two large cohorts consisting of 11 16,22 people were followed up for 30 years to track their health and physical activity levels what they found concerning the duration of physical activity and health will surprise you all we know is that someone needs to give the health Department to call and tell them that an update to their suggestions is desperately needed we're going to get into what this study found later in the video but for now let's get back to the question at large how much time should I spend working out after seeing this number prescribed by the health department we realize that the question how much time should I spend working out can mean different things to different people we're going to tell you about the time needed for General benefits later in this video so right now we're going to answer this from the perspective of optimizing your time in a gym when following a typical resistance training program to give an accurate answer we need to frame the question a little differently time doesn't really mean anything without more information for example is this a traditional session with rests in between sets or is it a 30- minute nonstop circuit when someone asks how much time should I spend working out they're actually asking how much work should I do so that's what we'll do right now and if you want to live longer be sure you stick around and we'll lay that out for you as well let's get into it let's first ask the question why does it matter how long we work out well there's a few good reasons the first is so you know if you're working out enough of course any amount of training is a good thing and is exponentially better than nothing however there is a minimum amount that you should train to get optimal results since you've already made the decision to train we think you should train enough to get maximal results or you should at least know how much you should train so you can make an informed decision now the other reason and perhaps the most most problematic is so you don't train too much we live in a society that loves to go extreme maybe it's the glamorization of being hardcore on social media but people tend to want to work out excessively you know the whole what's a rest day Trope and all people tend to think I train 7 days a week sounds cooler than I train 4 days a week while not working out enough basically means you won't see as much progress as you could working out too much can have more serious repercussions the buildup of fatigue is a major issue that will affect you if you train too much notice how we said will it will happen not only can this cause a detriment to your training it can actually cause injury neither option is ideal and it doesn't need to happen good thing is it's an easy fix so how much time should you work out let's first estimate how much work you should be doing and how much time that should take there are a ton of variables that dictate how much work you should do as such there is a large Spectrum which will result in a wide range of appropriate times for example let's look at a study which looked at the minimum amount of time you should work out it's not much at all when your only goal is to Simply maintain strength and muscle mass you just need to train each muscle group once a week with one set at proper intensity that's it when we look at the way the Body Works you could hit every muscle group with about six exercises assuming you're only using compound exercises as they hit more muscle groups with one movement think bench press deadlift and squats this means you only need to train six exercises with one set which you equals just six working sets total every week being conservative let's say that each exercise requires 5 to 6 minutes of warm-up sets to reach your working set this means your total training time for the week will only take 30 to 40 minutes and that's for the week so there's your minimum amount of time it's like watching a couple of episodes of friends but let's be serious you want more from your workouts than just maintenance as you could guess this is going to require more time there is a clear dose response between the number of sets you perform and the amount of muscle growth you see the more sets you perform the more muscle growth you'll see this begs the question so how many sets should you be doing as you could guess it's more than one unfortunately there's no hard set number that can be prescribed for everyone however thanks to hard work from Sports researchers we have a pretty good idea to see the optimal amount of growth the latest research suggests that you should perform a minimum of 10 working sets per muscle group per week this volume can then increase up to a maximum of 20 sets per muscle group week on this spectrum beginners should be closer to 10 weekly sets while more advanced athletes should be closer to 20 weekly sets let's assume that people asking this are in the beginning stages of their training Journey therefore we're going to stick to the lower part of this range this means each muscle group should be trained with 10 to 14 working sets during the week let's find out how long that would take you our main muscle groups are chest back shoulders glutes hamstrings and quadriceps in addition there are smaller muscle groups including the calves forearms biceps and tricep BPS however you don't need to do 10 sets per muscle group as there will be quite a bit of crossover when using appropriate exercises for example the bench press will train the chest shoulders and triceps all that to say when everything is said and done this usually equals doing six to seven exercises a session for example here's what a typical pull day may look like trap bar deadlift three sets of five reps tar Row three sets of five reps stiff leg deadlift three sets of eight reps wide grip needed Row three sets of eight reps leg curls three sets of 12 reps hammer curls three sets of 12 reps okay so we now know how many sets we should do however unless you're planning on performing one massive circuit training you won't work through this straight through rather you rest in fact when lifting weights the majority of your time is resting when looking at how long people are resting in between sets the answer can vary widely this is due to different rest periods being more appropriate for different goals the most basic explanation is is that longer rest periods are used for strength training this extra time allows the body's physiological systems to return to normal and allows the body to restore depleted levels of ATP doing so allows more weight to be lifted with greater intensity this can range anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes of rest between each set compared to strength training shorter rest periods are generally used when muscle growth is the main goal rest periods used to be no longer than 1.5 minutes however things have changed with this understanding we now know that long longer rest periods are ideal as they allow more volume in fact some studies even suggest using 3 minutes with all that said the average rest period for hypertrophy is still around 1.5 to 2 minutes still sometimes rest periods of 1 minute will be used sparingly for smaller exercises and circuits after your main lifts with that said we believe that the best program is going to train on the whole Spectrum rather than only trained for muscle growth or only trained for strength so with all that said a basic push day may look something like this squat three sets of five reps with 3 minute rest bench press three sets of five reps with 3 minute rest split squat three sets of eight reps with two-minute rest seated dumbbell press three sets of eight reps with two-minute rest calf raises three sets of 12 reps with 1.5 minute rest triceps push down three sets of 12 reps with 1.5 minute rest let's assume that each set takes around 30 to 45 seconds to complete which is conservative this is how long each exercise will take to complete squat 9 minutes and bench 9 minutes walking lunges 7 Minutes seated dumbbell press 7 Minutes calf raises 6 minutes triceps push down 6 minutes that means these exercises alone take about 44 minutes now considering you need to use some warm-up sets for your first couple exercises and you're looking at about 60 Minutes assuming you're not chatting away at the water fountain so how does this number add up against studies well a large review looked at the effect that different variables had on muscle development including training duration in total 21 studies were reviewed and compared after full analysis the researchers determined that training sessions less than 60 Minutes had the greatest effect on improving muscular power with that said the participants of this study were all children and youth ages 5 to 18 therefore while this number is interesting it's difficult to draw a strong assessment as there's a massive difference in the physiological system of prepubescent children adolescents and adults another large review from t21 looking at the same variables came up with a similar number they found that 45 to 60 Minutes was the ideal time this study used participants who were 18 years old of age with intellectual disabilities we also want to mention that they too suggested a program which used six to seven exercises per day just like what we suggested earlier as the average going through a plethora of other studies this number keeps popping up 60 minutes so taking everything into consideration it seems like 60 Minutes is a good time frame to use however there's one more interesting study we should look at that pretty much turns this whole question upside down it's going to make us re-evaluate everything famed Sports researcher Brad Shon fled wanted to see what would happen if a lifter using a powerlifting type program and a lifter using a bodybuilding type program followed the same program with the same volume as well therefore two groups of men followed two similar training programs concerning the exercises both groups used the exact same ones and trained three times a week using three exercises per training session however things were different when it came to what load reps sets and restoration the group followed a bodybuilding type program and trained each exercise with three sets of 10 repetitions and 90c rest intervals now when looking at a rep scheme using more weight will result in a significant decrease in the amount of Reps for example someone may be able to lift 75 lb 8 times while only being able to lift 90 lb 2 or three times therefore in order to lift the same amount of volume the heavier load will need significantly more sets and this is what happened the powerlifting group actually did use a heavy load that they could only perform three repetitions with this means they had to perform seven sets per exercise instead of three in addition they had to use 3 minute rest periods this resulted in the bodybuilding group finishing their single session in just 17 minutes whereas the powerlifting group took more than an hour this means the powerlifting group trained more than three times longer however since the volume was the same they both saw the same amount of muscle growth at the same time the powerlifting group saw significantly more strength gains due to their sole use of heavier loads therefore if you are only interested in muscle growth working out for 17 minutes would be appropriate however if you wanted to get stronger the hourlong session would be more suitable now in real life this would never play out a powerlifter lifting the same volume as a bodybuilder however it shows that how much time you should work out can depend heavily on what your goals are let's continue this scenario with a little thought experiment assume the bodybuilding group asked this question how much time should I work out for and used time as their indicator for when they should leave the gym they were going to leave the gym after 17 minutes but they saw the powerlifting Group Training for 1 hour and 10 minutes similar to the intro of this video since they assumed they should train just as long they too decide to train for an hour and 10 minutes maintaining their intensity and volume what this means is they did four times as much volume this equals 12 exercises using a rep scheme of three sets of 10 reps that's 36 total sets in one session you may be able to get away with this type of volume once in a while but if you're training this way consistently four to five times a week you're going to have some issues with overtraining as well as a major drop in performance we can see this play out with CrossFit CrossFit consists of a wide variety of resistance training methods but is best known for its very high intensity training this study found that just two consecutive days of Crossfit workouts resulted in a significant decrease in anti-inflammatory cyto coses which could potentially suppress the immune system just 2 days and this got us thinking while some studies report how long training sessions are time spent is never the experimental variable in other words no study really examines how staying in the gym for longer or shorter periods of time affects the workout it's simply the result of doing more or less volume with more or less intensity in addition many studies don't even report the duration of a training session why because it's not a variable that has any bearing on the results rest period duration and the number of sets you perform du however staying longer in the gym with no other context doesn't help anyone this is because the duration doesn't even really matter rather the intensity and volume of a workout will dictate how long you train for and it's these two variables that you should be concerned with so in reality we already went through this in the beginning of the video you should keep the total sets you trained for each muscle group between 10 and 20 at the same time you should only train each muscle for 10 sets per session this means you can train a muscle twice a week with 10 sets per session or you could train a muscle three times a week and use six to seven sets per session if you follow these two basic guidelines you can be confident that not only are you spending enough time in the gym you're also not spending too much from there it's really up to you to choose what your goals are which can affect your total recovery time you could use things such as super sets to decrease the time in the gym but again your total volume is what matters with that said the average gym session following these rules could be anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes if you're training for strength with longer rest intervals you'll be training on the longer side on the flip side if you're training more for hypertrophy you should be towards the shorter time frame now some people following a minimalist program could get in and out before this time which is great however unless you're a professional or serious athlete there's really no reason to stay any longer but wait let's look at that living longer number while time may not be the primary factor of the amount of work you do with resistance training things are different when we start looking at aerobic activity as time has a direct effect on work and this brings us to perhaps the most important effect which the duration of a workout has how much time you should spend working out to live longer and healthier mentioned in the beginning of this video a large study of two cohorts followed 6,221 participants for 30 years during this time their health and physical activity levels were tracked to determine the duration which an individual should exercise to decrease mortality the number they came up with is significantly longer than that which is proposed by the health department to refresh your memory this number is 150 to 300 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous exercise per week this study published in circulation Journal did find that these numbers were effective at having a beneficial effect on decreasing mortality which equaled a 19 to 25% lower risk of all cause cardiovascular disease and non-cardiovascular disease mortality however this is towards the minimum amount of benefit it can be better they found that there was a trend towards lower mortality that continued after 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity and 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity in other words more activity saw a greater reduction in mortality this trend in longer duration continued all the way upwards to 300 to 600 minutes of moderate activity and and 150 to 300 minutes of vigorous activity this is where participants saw the maximum amount of benefits 2 to four times as much as what the US Department of Health recommends we're going to tell you a little secret lifting weights can be boring sometimes not to mention it can be timec consuming sure there's those lifters that love the sweat and grind of the gym but a large percentage of gym goers simply want to get their workout in and go home to their family or hang out with friends both approaches are entirely valid unfortunately the minimalist approach seems to be ignored it may seem like going to the gym isn't even worth it unless you have at least an hour well we're here to tell you it definitely is better yet the required time is much shorter than you think this video will break down exactly what you need to do and lay out a sample workout about 7 years ago the late Infamous bodybuilder Rich Pana released his 8-hour workout yes that is correct he had a single workout where you would hit your arms for 8 hours in a single session not only is that crazy there's plenty of people who are crazy enough to actually try it now you don't need to be an expert to question the validity of this even rich and his followers knew it was extreme so don't worry we are not going to suggest this is what you need to do however it still made people question the right amount of time obviously 8 hours is too much but how much is not enough where does that threshold lay while there is a wide range your average habitual gym goer generally spends 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours at the gym 3 to 5 times a week with most towards the longer time frame this may work for some people others not so much if it doesn't work for you then what are other options there doesn't seem to be many causing many people to skip the gym altogether in fact experts believe that lack of time is the most common reason for not going to the gym the truth is it doesn't need to be like this in reality you can get an amazing workout in just half the time of a traditional workout and that's not an exaggeration in fact you'll be able to get the majority of your gains during this time that is if you do what we tell you to do listen closely as we're going to lay out exactly what you need to do but first before we look at your minimal training program let's first look at what's needed to Simply maintain your gains what you'll learn is that while building muscle is Pretty Tough keeping it is relatively easy the minimum effective dose to maintain strength and muscle mass is surprisingly low research has shown that in order to maintain strength and muscle mass a young person only needs to hit the muscle once a week using one exercise to perform one one set the only caveat is this one set must be performed with high intensity and you need to bring your set to failure however if you do this will maintain your strength and muscle mass for 32 weeks and to be clear this is to Simply maintain muscle you won't be seeing any improvements here but it may be enough for some people if this is you then your task is easy go to the gym once or twice a week hit all of your muscle groups with high intensity and you'll be good to go unfortunately this is not enough to see progress if you want to actually see more growth you're going to have to do more how much more before we get to that let's talk about one of the reasons that actually inspired us to make this video recently there has been a Resurgence of interest in the training of one of those most successful minimalist trainees ever we'll get to him later but this type of training is supposed to be able to give you amazing results with just 30 to 50% of work that your average program has how is this even possible or is it let's look at science to see if these claims are legitimate doing so we'll also find out what the minimum doses for gains now different people have different reasons for training for example maybe you're training for strength or maybe muscle growth or maybe you just want to improve your health these three goals work on different physiological processes meaning they have different needs let's start with strength why because strength is actually the easiest to improve well not easy but it requires the least amount of stimulation you see increasing strength comes down to exposing the muscle to a heavier weight while more times would be better exposing it just a few times s can be enough to stimulate adaptations a meta analysis from 2017 proved this for us the study wanted to look at the effect that different volume amounts had on strength gain in this study volume refers to the total number of working sets a muscle performs they divided training volumes into low volume which included less than five weekly sets medium volume which included 5 to n weekly sets and high volume which included 10 or greater weekly sets they then compared the differences made in strength right off the bat will tell you that the medium and high volume group both made greater improvements in strength compared to the low volume group however these improvements did not occur in a dose response or a linear manner in fact the largest jumping gains happened in the low group compared to the High group those who used just one to four working sets per week to train a muscle saw improvements of about 81% this means 80% of their possible improvements were done within the first four sets another study backs this low volume strategy up they had two groups training for 12 weeks performing the same exercise however one group used just three working sets per week while another trained nine working set the primary exercises measured were bench press and leg press the increase in bench press was 20% versus 33% while leg press was 26% vers 56% so while the nine sets did result in Greater strength gains the three working set still saw significant increases as well one very important variable to this study was that the participants had at least 2 years training experience this means the gains seen with just three working sets were not newbie gains a word used to describe how people gain strength very easily when they first start training these were lifters who had to work hard for every Improvement and three sets was enough this shows that when looking to optimize your time with strength gains you can make great progress with just a few sets regardless of your training status now when it comes to increasing muscle growth things are a bit different you see while strength just requires exposure to heavy loads muscle growth requires an increase in volume in fact the relationship between volume and muscle hypertrophy is one of the most studied and documented phenomena that exists in the world of exercise science simply put increasing volume increases muscle growth this means we know that more volume will result in more growth however it will also mean more time is needed while more is definitely better how much growth does less get us interestingly enough yet another metaanalysis was done in 2017 basically did the same thing as the strength study we just spoke about but with muscle growth this study also used the same groups one to four sets 59 and 10 plus as expected the 10 plus set had the greatest increase while the 5 to9 set group had less than the 10 plus set group but more than the low group yet again the biggest jump and gains was seen in those first four sets while not as large as the strength gains this lower volume still saw an increase equal to 61% of the 10 plus group this means that just a couple sets of a week will be enough to not only maintain gains but to possibly even see gains one critical variable we want to look at is your health While most people don't think about health gains it's an extremely important variable to train for in fact this may be the most important variable there is this is especially true for those looking for a minimalist approach there's a good chance that this group is more interested in just staying healthy compared to those training 10 plus sets for maximum results if this is you you're in luck as it's less than need for strength research has found that just 30 to 60 Minutes of strengthening exercise per week is enough to achieve maximum risk reduction in all cause mortality cardiovascular disease total cancer and diabetes that's right you get maximum protection from all cause mortality for just 1 hour a week that's a pretty good return with minimal training so we now know that methods that claim they can provide similar improvements with 30 to 50% of work is possible however something has to be different between the way minimalists train and tradition ist's train right you'd be right let's now look at some of the variables an effective minimalist needs to have to not only decrease the time spent in the gym but to be effective as well let's first examine frequency frequency refers to the number of times you train a muscle during the week let's say you perform a total of three sets a week per muscle should you perform all three sets in one day across two days or should you perform one set three times a week we know that many of the studies using low volume utilize three sets across 3 days one set every day however under normal conditions say following a traditional workout program researchers believe that spreading your total workout sets across two training sessions is ideal unfortunately we can't say for sure but we can make an estimated guess that training a muscle two or three times per week would be ideal this allows you to spread your sets out so that you can train them with higher intensity for example if you train all three sets the same day your first set will be great but it will cause fatigue for your second set your second set would result in even more fatigue and hinder your third set however if you instead train just one on three different days each set is going to be done with maximal intensity and result in maximal Effectiveness next what exercises should we even be doing this is essential as some exercises are definitely more suited for an effective minimalist training program we'll tell you for sure that it is not isolation exercises they only train one muscle at a time meaning you need more exercises to hit all your muscles therefore without a doubt you should be doing your found ational compound exercises these movements use multiple joints meaning you will hit multiple muscle groups at the same time they also allow heavier weight leading to better strength gains now there are a lot of compound movements so we need to narrow down what ones to do to do this we just need to look at our biomechanics by examining the way we move we find there are seven primary movement patterns they are vertical pressing vertical pulling horizontal pressing horizontal pulling squats hip hinge and lunge now if you just use one exercise for each of these movements you will hit every muscle in your body perfect for a minimalist now you do have the option of adding in some smaller accessory work or isolations if you want however these don't need to be done and are purely optional we're going to show you the best compound exercises to use for each movement pattern we'll also show you how to deal with isolations for those that want but before we go any further with your program we need to talk about a game Cher time wasting even if you have a great great program and great exercises a minimalist can't waste time the first thing you need to do is stop spending so much time talking to people and playing on your phone when you go to the gym you must walk in with intent this doesn't mean you can't say hi and chat a little however don't get into actual conversations we've all been there before we stop for a chat and then suddenly 5 minutes has passed which turns into 10 it's been 20 minutes and your minimalist training hasn't even started yet therefore stay focused at the gym you have a job to do so get it done another time waster happens before you even start your session your warm-up to be clear warm-ups are an integral part of your training session and can greatly improve your workout however they do take time unfortunately people usually do an excessive amount that's not even needed or helpful while you should definitely still warm up you can shave some time off by being specific first use a machine that uses both upper and lower body for example an assault bike or rower these tend to get your heart rate up faster yet at a lower intensity likely due to them using more muscle mass as they involve the lower body and upper body this also leads to a quicker rise in Core Body temp do this with intent for 3 to 5 minutes after use a resistance band to perform some activation exercises specific to the muscles you're training that day you can get this done in a minute using a circuit there you go you just shaved off 5 10 minutes and you haven't even started yet so now you're ready to start your program you finish your first set and then rest for 2 minutes before doing another set you then rest again doing nothing that's 4 minutes of doing nothing under normal conditions this recovery isn't actually a Time waster as it's a vital part of your training to optimize the total amount of work you put in the problem is the average rest time between sets is 130 230 minutes and it adds up quickly one exercise will take at least 5 minutes and up to 15 minutes in fact if you follow a typical training program it's safe to say that 2/3 of your time will be spent recovering between sets 2/3 this is not minimalist friendly so we must optimize it therefore let's use this rest time to exercise more this method of training is called a super set and is done by training two different exercises that hit different muscle groups back to back you basically use some of your rest period to train a different muscle for example you can train bench press and bent over rows pull-ups and dips or bicep curls and triceps push down you could also pair a lower body exercise with an upper body exercise your primary goal with these is to minimize the time spent in the gym while choosing exercises that won't interfere with each other usually people do the exercises back to back right after one another we think there's a better way take many breaks between each exercise for example let's say your rest period is usually 2 minutes to do a super set you will first perform exercise 1 once finished you rest 45 to 60 seconds and then perform exercise 2 rest 45 to 60 seconds then perform exercise one continue this until finished right away you get twice as much work in the same amount of time now this is minimalist training but that's not the only method that can optimize your minimalist training the rest paw method is another and it's very effective this is performed by first performing reps until failure you then rest 20 seconds and perform another few reps you then rest another 20 seconds and continue until you either hit complete failure or your desired total Reps for example a traditional set may have you perform three sets of 10 reps which equals 30 total reps you would then use the rest pause method until you hit 30 reps research has shown that this style of training could actually result in Greater gains in both strength and muscle growth as well more importantly performing rest pause instead of traditional training takes less time to perform another win for minimalists one method you can also use are drop sets drop sets are similar to rest pause sets as you'll first perform a set until failure from here instead of resting and using the same weight you will drop the weight by 20 to 25% and then immediately perform more reps until failure repeat this for two to three times this is a classic method amongst bodybuilders to pack in as much volume as they can it also works great for minimalists to shave time off their training we now have most of the pieces to the puzzle so we can almost assemble them to make an actual plan but first we need one more we need the actual exercises earlier we told you about the movement pattern so we'll now give you some great options for vertical pressing good exercises are the military press and seated dumbbell press for for horizontal pressing use the bench press push-ups and dumbbell press for vertical pulling your primary options are chinups pull-ups but also the lat pull down for horizontal pulling we love the bent over row tar row and dumbbell rows for the hip hinge use deadlift variations such as the Romanian deadlift trap bar deadlift or conventional deadlift you could also use a barbell hip thrust for squats use the barbell back squat front squat safety bar squat or even leg press and the lunge this includes walking lunges reverse lunges and split squats we now have all the pieces for your minimalist training let's put them together in a program the first option would be to perform one set for each exercise using a rest pause method or drop set remember that even though you're only performing one set it's equivalent to at least two maybe three when you do this utilize two three added sets after the working set an example full body program would look like this one horizontal pressing barbell bench press two squat barbell back squat three horizontal row t- bar row four vertical pressing military press five hip hinge deadlift six vertical pull chinups seven lunge walking lunges use one to two minutes of rest between the exercises so you can bring each to maximum intensity however even if you use 2 minutes this will take less than 20 minutes when you add some warmup and time for frivolous activity you'll walk out of the gym 25 minutes after you walk in now if you want to do some isolation exercise do it in a circuit after your main lifts it will look like this biceps curl followed by triceps extension then leg extension followed by leg curl do these back to back with minimal rest super set minimalist now another option you can use is a suet model this could look like this super set one barbell bench press plus tar row X2 sets super set 2 barbell back squat plus chinups X2 sets super set 3 deadlift plus military press X2 sets use 40 5 to 60c rest in the super sets between the different super sets still use 1 to 2 minutes rest this will still result in walking out the door in less than 30 minutes if you have time perform this circuit after walking lunges followed by biceps curl then triceps extension followed by leg extension and finally leg curl now there's one more key element to remember as you follow these plans in the beginning of the video we talked about a Resurgence in minimalist training practiced by a certain person this person was 1976 Mr America and 1976 Mr Olympia in the heavyweight division Mike Miner yes a Mr Olympia who practiced minimalist training in a similar manner to what you see in this video now Mike obviously knows the secret to minimalist training and you do too when you follow your minimalist program you must train with intensity intensity intensity squeeze out every rep and make them all count use the methods you learned in this video and follow your template one to three times a week as needed summer is coming and you need to get jacked fast or maybe you got a wedding coming up or a vacation whatever it is it's a story as all this time maybe you haven't been working out or maybe you have but just slacking but all of a sudden you get a fire lit under your butt and decide you need to put on some muscle so what are you going to do work out every day for hours and hours well that isn't going to work so in this video we're going to show you what does work and go over a list of tips tricks and hacks to optimize your training and ensure as much muscle growth as possible muscle growth or muscle hypertrophy is one of the primary goals a person will have when going to the gym alongside losing weight and gaining strength as such building muscle faster is on everyone's mind when they first head to the gym but trainees will soon discover An Inconvenient Truth building muscle is a pretty slow process at least much slower than many expect unfortunately our bodies have decided that gaining fat should be really easy while building muscle needs a good amount of time and effort and there's an evolutionary reason for that basically fat acts as energy storage something you always need muscle on the other hand is actually more metabolically demanding meaning your body only wants more muscle if it's absolutely necessary we know understanding why doesn't make this fact any more convenient but it is what it is with that said your muscle growth can be affected by a range of variables for example your training age intensity genetics and nutrition all factor in with that in mind the average rate of muscle growth can still vary greatly for example in 2005 585 men were put on a 12we progressive resistance training plan when they measured the biceps the change in size varied from a who in 55% to a decrease in muscle size of - 5% that is a huge range and you could fall anywhere on it now within the ton of variables that can affect your muscle growth there is only one that you have no control over your genetics this is good news cuz it means you have a ton of areas that you can optimize to maximize your muscle growth if you're not you're more than likely slowing down your maximum growth and it's these areas that we're going to discuss in this video there's no singular action that you can perform to magically double the size of your guns however there are plenty of variables that you can control that will each offer an advantage and compound on one another what this ultimately means is to quote double your growth you're going to need to optimize and that includes your training your recovery nutrition and supplementation so it's up to you you you can either sabotage yourself by not optimizing or you can maximize your growth first up is nutrition nutrition is going to play a huge role in your muscle growth as it's literally feeding the muscle growth and let's get some Basics out of the way in order to grow you're going to need calories but not too many as you'll gain a lot of fat as well for this reason the general guideline for muscle growth is to get in a 3 to 500 calorie Surplus this is enough to fuel muscle growth while mitigating much fat gain for example a study put two groups together to test if you can force feed muscle in other words can you eat a ton of food to force muscle growth the big bulk group ate 600 more calories than the normal bulk group yet they barely gained any more muscle what they did gain was a whole lot more fat so we know simply eating a ton isn't going to help with muscle gain as you're in a caloric Surplus you have a bit more wiggle room with your macronutrient breakdown as far as calories go your macronutrients also termed macros are where you get your calories from and they come in three forms of nutrients which your body requires large portions of they are protein fat and carbs when deciding what your food should consist of in terms of these macros follow these rules for protein aim to eat 1.6 to 2 G per kilogram of body weight your fat should make up 30% of your calorie intake and you fill all the rest of your calories with carbs simple now assuming you got that covered let's look at a couple of details to maximize growth with just your protein intake you want to spread your protein out evenly amongst four to five meals making sure each meal has a minimum of 20 G this will ensure that you have a steady release of amino acids throughout the day which could result in more muscle mass this was demonstrated in a study where total protein intake was spread out across the day in three meals one group had an even protein distribution while the other got most of their protein in one meal and the lopsided distribution actually ate more protein too after 12 weeks of resistance training the evenly distributed group gained 2 and 1/2 kg of muscle mass while the lopsided group gained only 1.8 kg that might not look like a ton but it'll add up as we go next up is sleep if you're getting proper sleep you're letting your body go roughly 8 to 12 hours without giving your muscles any fuel here's the thing your muscles don't sleep this period of time LED researchers to ask what would happen if you ate a large amount of protein right before going to sleep as it turns out you grow muscle a meta analysis from 2021 concluded that consuming 20 to 40 g of casine protein 30 minutes before sleep elevates muscle protein synthesis overnight this resulted in improving recovery and potentially greater muscle size another study from 2017 used a pre-sleep shake of 27 and A2 g of protein and 15 G of carbohydrate they then took part in an 8-week resistance training program along with a group who took no pre-sleep protein drink the quads of the pre-sleep protein group grew 8.4 cm while the placebo group grew 2.4 cm in addition the type two fibers also known as fast twitch muscle fibers of the pre-sleep group grew basically twice as much as the placebo group this is really good news for lifters you see your body has differen Siz muscle fibers that are distinguished by their role type two muscle fibers are able to support high amounts of force for quick powerful movements things like sprinting and lifting weights then there's creatine if you're not taking creatine you're doing it wrong creatine is by far far the most potent compound that has a positive effect on muscle growth and it's actually the only compound which can literally double your muscle size twice as fast take this study from 2017 in it two groups used an 8we training period each variable was the same except that one group consumed creatine their dosing consisted of a 7-Day loading with four doses of 0.3 G per kilogram a day this was Then followed by a 7we maintenance phase of a single dose of 0.03 G per kilogram per day three areas of the body were measured upper limbs lower Limbs and the trunk here's a comparison of the increased growth in these parts upper body 7.1% versus 1.6% that's 4.4 times as much lower body 3.2% versus 0.7% that's 4.5 times as much trunk 2.1% versus 0.7% that's three times as much so yeah if you want muscle twice as fast start taking creatine but now that your belly is full let's look at how you can tweak your training inside the gym to maximize your growth let's start by addressing the question we asked in the intro is working out for hours and hours the best way to get big fast as it turns out spending 3 hours in the gym destroying your muscles may not be the best way to go about building muscle more is better only to an extent however you'll cross a threshold where you're not going to see any more results and in fact you can actually be doing too much damage to recover from how much should you do do well with all the research we have it seems as though muscles are optimized with just 10 to 20 sets per week therefore no need to perform 20 types of curls on the same day so then how should we train bro splits or training a single body part in a single session once a week tend to be the go-to training split for those looking to get pumped up while they obviously work research actually shows there may be a better option studies show that training a muscle two times a week is superior to just one there may even be benefits to hitting a muscle three times a week however this likely only pertains to smaller muscles as they need less recovery time so why is more than once a week better well there are a couple theories the first is that it allows you to train a muscle with more volume at a higher frequency when you train a single muscle One Day by the end you're fatigued and just not training as hard another reason might have to do with a threshold existing with volume once you train a muscle so much in a day doing more has little or no benefit whatever the reason it seems training once is cutting you short therefore cut the number of exercises in half and train them on two different days to stay fresh and maximize adaptations the next tip is pretty cool and relatively new you've probably noticed that some exercises are harder at different locations some in the long position where the muscle stretched out while others in the short position when they're almost flexed what this new Theory says is that using exercises that challenge the muscle in the long position can produce more muscle growth grow this will make more sense if we visualize it so let's compare the overhead triceps extension to the triceps push down in the overhead position the triceps are stretched farther meaning in theory these should produce more growth and that's exactly what a study in 2023 found out there the overhead extension produced 1 and 1 half times more muscle another study from 2022 found that preacher curls also produced 1 and 1 half times more growth than incline curls next why is is it that eccentric muscle contraction never gets any love it seems everyone only cares about the concentric and what are we even talking about well your body has three different types of contractions concentric Ecentric and isometric your concentric contraction is when the muscle is pulling and getting shorter think about the up phase of a biceps curl an isometric contraction occurs when the muscle fibers don't move holding a limb in place like a wall Squat and finally the Ecentric the Ecentric is the muscle lengthens or the going down phase if you're somebody who just lets the weight drop during the Ecentric contraction you're performing it a disservice you see Studies have found that the Ecentric muscle contraction is able to produce greater force than the concentric as well as more muscle damage for example a metaanalysis from 2017 examined the use of concentric only and Ecentric only muscle action They concluded that the Ecentric contraction was responsible for a greater increase in muscle growth at 10% versus 6.8% in fact it's believed that difference in time spent on the Ecentric could partially explain differences in muscle growth when the same number of reps are performed now this of course doesn't mean you should only do the Ecentric contraction but what it does mean is to slow down on the Ecentric and lower the weight in a slow and controlled manner Take 2 to 3 seconds and while you might just be starting out if you've been to the gym for any length of time you have likely heard some Bro Science that says to use different EX izes to hit the muscles from different angles well it turns out your gym bu is right on this one and you really should and it's backed by science we have one study that actually comes from back in 2000 in it the researchers discovered that a muscle would develop in a regional specific manner dependent on the exercise and where it exerts stress on the muscle in other words you can see different amounts of growth on the same muscle from a single exercise only hit a muscle one way and it'll be lopsided the author clearly states that no single exercise can maximize the hypertrophic response of all regions of a particular muscle for maximal hypertrophy of an entire muscle athletes particularly bodybuilders are justified in incorporating various exercises that purportedly stimulate growth in a regional specific manner therefore be sure to use various exercises to hit a muscle if all you're doing is bench press for the chest you're going to miss out on muscle growth in addition don't use two exercises with similar biomechanics for example if you're training chest with three exercises it wouldn't make sense to train bench press push-ups and flat bench dumbbell press as they all have similar motions instead your training should look like bench press incline dumbbell press and decline chest fly this is one reason why we all love the crossover cable so much no other piece of equipment will allow you to hit a muscle at so many different angles another piece of Bro Science that's 100% legit is to get your pump on but what the heck does that even mean well if you were to ask a bodybuilder it would be to perform an exercise with a very light weight with High Reps until the muscle is engorged with blood this Blood would then cause the muscle to swell up and look bigger in the past though we didn't fully understand what was going on now we do the pump has even been granted a more scientific term cell swelling doesn't have quite the same ring to it as the pump but we'll explain what's happening when we train a muscle the veins of the muscle will close off while the arteries keep flowing this ignites a series of events that basically leaves the muscle becoming engorged with blood at the same time it results in the accumulation of various metabolites originally we simply thought this was a transient experience with short-term benefits however research has shown this to have long lasting chronic benefits basically this state of engorged muscle creates a highly anabolic environment as a result several hypertrophic reactions are believed to be ignited such as an increase in Satellite cell activity and the favoring net protein balance there are many ways to achieve a pump but Dr Brad shenfield provides three in what's probably the first study to look at the pump through a scientific lens one use two to three sets of High Reps for example 20 or so with 60 seconds rest two use 5 to 10 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions with 30 seconds rest and three use a drop set that is perform an exercise until a few reps before failure decrease the load 25 to 50% and perform another set now your not doing this for every exercise in fact most of your work should be done using a medium rep range of around 6 to 12 Dr Brad shonfeld sums this up by saying therefore individuals seeking maximal hypertrophy should consider dedicating a component of their training sessions toward pump training ideally after heavier strength work we want to emphasize the component part of that quote don't make this your whole routine perform just one or two pump exercises at the end of every session hitting two different muscles now let's all be honest for a second and have a hard talk ask yourself do you really leave it all on the gym floor every session chances are probably not and that's not a dig as it's simply human nature we're all guilty of not giving it our all every single time which is where a gym buddy can become a huge help and studies clearly show that unsupervised training leads to lower intensity lower reps and lower load selection in fact a meta showed that on average unsupervised trainees will generally pick a load equal to 50 53% of their one rep max and stop as much as 10 reps before failure your one rep max is the maximum amount of weight you can lift in one time it's as strong as you get therefore Let's Pretend your one rep max is 100 lb 53% is 53 lb you might think sure but not me as I've been in the gym long enough well while your ability to push yourself does increase as you train more it happens to trained individuals as well a study from 2023 put 36 young resistance trained men and women on an 8-week training program half of them supervised and half not the supervised group improved significantly more in just about every variable tested including greater muscle growth of the triceps and quads as well as greater increase in strength while this doesn't necessarily mean you need a coach training with a partner could be exactly what you need for more muscle growth faster and finally sleep you probably hear this a lot but it is true and it's probably the single most influen Behavior you can change for instant results and that's not hyperbole just one night of sleep deprivation can break down protein and increase fat storage this is thought to be due to a list of factors but the leading cause is hormone disregulation for example just one week of sleep deprivation decrease the testosterone levels of healthy young men by 10 to 15% so if you're lacking on sleep you're automatically blunting your body's ability to put on more muscle mass so now we've shown you a bunch of areas where you could improve your training and tips you can start implementing right now while we can't promise you'll always build muscle twice as fast you should see some big differences fairly soon so to summarize for your training one use a split that allows you to hit a muscle twice a week you could even experiment hitting smaller muscles triceps and biceps three times a week two use at least one exercise that trains the muscle in a long state three use exercises that hit the muscle from different areas at the same time stay away from exercise is that train the muscle with the same biomechanics in the same session four slow down your eccentric contraction to 2 to 3 seconds in a controlled manner five use pump work for one to two exercises at the end of your program hitting different muscles this should be done with smaller isolation exercises aiming to hit every muscle group once each week and six be sure to train with intensity each set should come within a few reps of failure if you need help start training with a friend to push you for your nutrition one get in a caloric surplus of 300 to 500 calories two eat 1.6 to 2 g of protein per kilogram of body weight have 30% of your total calories from fat then fill the rest in with carbs three spread your protein out throughout the day with the minimum feeding being 20 G four consider a pre-sleep protein shake of 20 to 40 G of casine 30 minutes before sleep and five supplement with creatine using a loading phase of 20 to 25 G for around 5 days followed by a single dose of 3 to 5 G and last just sleep more you literally don't have to do anything 7 to 9 hours should be enough for most now don't expect to see results right after your first workout the reality is you will still need time to see some noticeable results at that same time the only way to build muscle twice as fast is to get your training honed in from the start remember one late night could throw you off therefore be consistent with these habits weight loss suits fasting and pills oh my losing weight might just be the most convoluted Topic in the world of Fitness there are so many myths misunderstandings and downright lies that plague people's understanding of weight loss to the point many have no understanding at all this video is going to make some sense of it all these are the 50 biggest weight loss myths we're going to start this video with a big one the first myth on this list is a calorie is a calorie this phrase leads people to think that it doesn't matter where a calorie comes from as all calories are equal this is a very very simplified explanation it fails to acknowledge the other nutrients that come along with the calorie is a calorie from beer the same as a calorie from salmon does it provide vitamins and minerals or just a crazy insulin Spike will it keep you full or will you be hungry again minutes after you eat where you get your calories matters so pay attention for example you can get calories from protein myth number two is more like part two to number one but it's going to talk about something really cool that happens with protein when we eat food our body uses energy to digest it absorb it transport its nutrients and dispose of it this is known as the thermal effect of food or TEF out of protein fat and carbs protein has the highest TEF of 20 to 30% that means if you ate 100 calories you'd use just 20 to 30 processing it so yes not all calories are equal speaking of protein here's another myth myth number three you can't get fat from protein we're not even sure where this idea came from but it's more common than you might think the idea that protein can't be stored as fat well it's true that protein itself can't be stored as fat your body is incredibly efficient any excess protein consumed will first be converted into fat and then stored for myth number four let's talk about the marketing industry have you heard the 10,000 steps rule well that's just a marketing Ploy if you ever wondered where this number came from here it is in 1965 a Japanese company produced a step counter and named it Mano Kai which translates to 10,000 steps meter that's it it's a marketing Ploy in reality this definitely isn't bad advice as your daily activity to lose weight is a powerful tool and everyone should pay attention however the good news is the gold number is likely lower anywhere from 4,400 to 7500 steps at that same time more is definitely better so while 10,000 steps is simply a marketing tool it's actually a benefit to you this is the only good myth on the list another marketing tool that's going to take your money is supplements the number five myth is any anything that promotes a pill as a secret to weight loss your quote secret to weight loss is not in a pill while there may be some out there that slightly increase metabolism or promote fat burn in the grand scheme of things this will make a small dent in your overall weight loss Journey we're not saying to not utilize these But be sure to keep them in their proper role speaking of burning fat the number six weight loss fact is that burning fat equals losing fat this confusion also has sometimes been used in marketing for example they might say a supplement increases your fat burn suggesting this means you're going to lose fat however while caffeine is burning fat it also leaves more carbs to burn later your body is always burning fat for energy along with using carbs however even when it's burning fat you might still be gaining weight losing fat occurs when you burn fat but also get into a caloric deficit so that it's not refilled for number seven we'll address a longstanding tip this one has been around forever and is still shared regularly we talking about don't eat food after 6:00 p.m. this tip tries to suggest that eating Foods late at night results in Greater fat gain usually explained by your metabolism being slower in reality the timing of your eating doesn't really matter so much assuming your calories are the same in other words eating 3,000 calories in the morning will have the same effect as eating 3,000 calories in the evening however there is some Nuance to this for number eight it's also a myth to say it doesn't matter when you eat hardly anything in the world of fitness and Nutri nutrition occurs in absolutes we just win over your total calories is what matters in terms of gaining weight however this doesn't always mean timing doesn't make a difference in reality don't eat after 6 has been a useful tool for some people in losing weight however it's not because of your metabolism so it still comes down to total calories however the worst of our diets occur in the late hours Pizza shakes Etc no one raids the kitchen at 10: p.m. for grilled salmon therefore stopping at 600 p.m. does eliminate a lot of the excess calories next let's knock out some more bad advice myth number nine usually sounds like hit is better than steady state for losing fat or something of that nature to clarify hit refers to high-intensity interval training which includes performing intervals of maximal intensity interspersed with intervals of recovery steady state refers to performing cardio at a consistent moderate speed for a prolonged period of time basically a treadmill workout hit came onto the scene a few years ago and was hailed as being so much better for fat loss in reality both steady state and hit are good tools to use for weight loss and they work equally as well with time efficiency being the only real variable favoring hit we're now in the double digits so we'll give you another big one the number 10 myth is that walking is the best way to lose weight to be clear we think cardio is great and everyone should include it in their training we just went over the 10,000 step belief however if you can only pick one of the methods of training we believe that lifting weights is a better tool lifting weights is still going to burn calories but it'll also help maintain muscle and strength during your fat loss Journey if all you do is walk or some other form of cardio you don't get this benefit now obviously the best option is to do walking with your weight training for that reason we want to talk about myth 11 which is more of a misunderstanding and that's people severely underestimate the impact of walking many people falsely believe that your training must be intense to be effective for weight loss and that's a problem going on a daily 30 to 60 Minute walk can make a huge impact on your overall weight loss Journey the important takeaway is not to underestimate the impact that simply moving will play in your weight loss Journey now let's talk about another misunderstanding number 12 is another myth plain and simple it states that your metabolism drops after the age of 30 well that claim has some truth to it but it is terribly misleading this claim is usually made with the implication that it's simply biological and there's nothing we can do about it in reality while a person's metabolism does tend to drop after 30 it's not biology rather it's caused by our Behavior after 30 we tend to stop being as active as our younger years in our diet usually declines this combination of poor food choices and living a sedentary lifestyle is what leads to the drop if people stay active and eat healthy their whole life our metabolism is steady until about the age of 60 therefore don't accept this fate staying active is the best thing you can do for your longevity and increasing the quality of your life going back to another straightup lie myth 13 are body type fat loss programs technically known as somat types body type fat loss programs claim to be the ideal program for your body type ectomorphs who are tall and slim mesomorphs who are athletic and endomorphs who are shorter and fatter interestingly these body types were created to identify the possibility of physical characteristics being linked to personality traits for example endomorphs are supposed to be friendly and outgoing so none of this is true and none of it has any link to weight loss as we're talking about practices with little connection to science let's talk about your BMI for number 14 now BMI isn't as outlandish as seatat types as there is some legitimate use to it just not how it's used today you see BMI was created in the 1830s by Adolf quet a Belgian mathematician and sociologist it was created as a quick assessment tool to track Trends in populations not individuals the Dolph needed an easy way to assess the fitness level of an entire Town's population however he even specifically stated it was not a good assessment to make a definitive decision on the health of an individual person this is because there are a ton of variables that aren't accounted for such as water weight percentage of muscle or fat bone size and others again it was a tool to measure people in an entire town yet another common teaching that can lead people astray is number 15 we're talking about the idea that nutrition is 80% while your training is 20 while we understand the general idea of the saying it's not really true this is trying to emphasize the importance of nutrition for your health which is definitely not a bad thing however it pits nutrition and training against each other when in reality they complement each other and work best when they're both optimized both your nutrition and training should be 100% if either of them are off your results will suffer for number 16 let's talk about muscle for a little bit specifically how many or how few calories a pound of muscle Burns you've probably heard of the importance of building muscle while you lose weight as muscle will burn more calories while there are a lot of awesome reasons you should lift weights while losing fat burning calories isn't one it is true that muscle will burn more calories however it's not a ton as this claim seems to imply one pound of muscle Burns an extra 5 to six calories per day if you figure you might put on 20 to 25 lbs in your first year you can expect to burn an extra 100 calories after 365 days of training of course 100 calories is 100 calories however you have plenty of other stuff to get excited about with lifting speaking of exaggerations number 17 is going to give the real deal with Epoch Epoch is one of the latest buzzwords that stands for excess post exercise oxygen consumption this refers to the amount of work done by your body once you stop exercising to bring your body system back to homeostasis once you stop exercising the body continues to require oxygen at an elevated rate to repair tissue replenish energy sources and and remove metabolic byproducts generated during the exercise such as lactic acid so Epoch is real but it's been marketed as if it's the most important part of the workout it's not studies show that the total calories you burn with Epoch is equal to about 6 to 15% of the total calories burned during exercise so yes it does exist but still to a very small effect making it hardly worth it to choose workout solely upon it another exaggeration number 18 deals with fast weight loss really anything with fast weight loss seems as though every ad for weight loss has to do with instant weight loss 30 lbs in 30 days we can't comment on all of these but the results are far from normal assuming they're even true however if they are real they're still occurring way too fast if you were to go to any traditional nutritionist they'd recommend you get an extra 300 to 500 caloric deficit daily however one pound of fat requires approximately 3500 calories to burn this means that it would take you a minimum of one week to burn one pound of fat or 4 lb a month even this number might be too high in the long term meaning that losing fat even slower might be ideal this slow rate of fat loss will help mitigate the possibility of muscle loss as the body will not be in such of a need for energy for the next myth we want to tackle another misconception the number 19 myth is the relationship between sweating and fat loss these two are often attached to each other as if there's a direct relationship that means that people believe that sweating a lot means they're burning calor that isn't necessarily the case sweating occurs as a mechanism to help keep you cool when your core temperature rises on the other hand calories burned relates to the amount of work one does while more work can increase your body's temperature that's just one mechanism that controls temperature and does not control your sweat for example a person can lose more calories running a marathon during the winter in Canada yet sweat more walking around Miami Beach in the summer further people have different sweat rates and thresholds meaning two people will have very different amounts of sweat in the same scenario this simply means stop assessing how good a session was based on how much you sweat we made it to number 20 so we're going to address another big false belief working out while fasted is better for fat loss this is connected to number six burning fat is not the same as losing fat when you train fasted you'll break down more fat during that session for fuel however you will only lose fat if you stay in a caloric deficit let's say you burn 300 calories while fasting and it all came from fat that's great but once you eat your next meal you're going to have an extra 300 calories that won't be burned as your exercise is already done so if you eat 300 calories before training you'll burn those calories if you train first you'll burn 300 calories from fat but then you'll hold on to 300 calories the next time you eat again it all evens out in the long run calorie control is always and will always be the primary mechanism of weight loss another important lesson you need to know is that weight loss is not constant number 21 is the myth that losing fat is linear too many people believe that once they start dieting and training their weight loss is going to be a linear process in other words they believe their weight loss will be a constant process with no bumps in reality weight loss will look like the stock market you'll have times of weight loss times of Extreme Weight Loss plateaus and even gains what's important is the total sum in the long term as long as the trend is a drop in fat you are succeeding this is important to know so that you don't get disappointed yet another misconception that can be demotivating is the weight scale number 22 is more of a statement and says to stop weighing yourself every day as weight loss isn't consistent weighing yourself every day can be discouraging if you're on a gain there are so many factors to weight loss that your weight will fluctuate daily you will gain weight and lose weight even if you do everything correctly in addition there are other things to judge other than your weight to see progress besides we promise it doesn't matter how often you look at the scale it will not help you lose weight faster in fact number 23 will deal with another issue with scales stop using the scale as your only variable for measurement the only thing the weight scale tells you is how much you weigh at that exact moment this includes fat muscle and bone it also measures Things That Vary all the time such as the amount of food in your stomach water urine and a whole host of other variables women deal with bloating every month so while the scale is useful you should judge your fat loss Journey with your scale scale number compared against other variables we actually have four how you look in the mirror how your clothes are fitting how your performance is and your general state of energy for example if the scale is up but your clothes are loose you like what you see in the mirror your training is improving and you feel great then don't change anything when you use all those variables you'll get a much better idea of your fat loss and your health however in order to see these improvements in the mirror you need to follow a diet yeah what one myth 24 is that there's a best diet out there every diet or hack tends to claim to be the best way to lose weight to back these claims up they have amazing feedback from actual followers here's the thing the feedback might be true all of it in other words every diet has people that have done amazing on it you see every diet will work for some people however there's no perfect diet what these diet advertisements don't tell you about is all the people who have failed that's because not everyone does well on every diet so there's no perfect diet but there might be a perfect diet for you in fact maybe you don't even need a diet maybe you just need to cut out certain foods you see there's two things that dictate a diet success the first is that it puts you in a caloric deficit for myth 25 we're going to tell you the second one the most important variable of a diet that will dictate your success isn't what foods it cuts out or what time frame you eat but adherence every diet claims to use different mechanisms to promote fat loss perhaps it's increasing fat metabolism for fuel maybe it gives you flexibility in what food foods you can eat so you don't lose interest in reality any of these could work for you it's your job to find out what makes the most sense to you what type of diet or style of eating fits your needs and lifestyle you'll know if it works if you're able to adhere for a long period ideally you'll find a way of eating that doesn't feel like a diet this is what will cause meaningful weight loss long-term adherence speaking of diets there is one tactic that we have a problem with myth 26 is the use of cheat days using cheat days is a sure way to sabotage your progress and might even completely derail your diet remember you should only be in a 500 calorie deficit daily meaning in 6 days you'll have a total of a 3,000 calorie deficit if you give yourself the freedom to eat what you want for an entire day you can easily get rid of your entire deficit for example people are often seen eating an entire Domino's Pizza which could have 1,800 to 2500 calories at the very least it'll slow down your weight loss significantly still we believe that style of eating makes you associate your normal diet foods as being boring imagine believing you're being punished all week and your only bit of happiness comes from looking forward to the weekend so you can eat the greasiest bacon cheeseburger and pizza instead you should have put more effort into finding healthy recipes for delicious foods so you don't feel like you need to have a cheat day up until now we've been dealing a lot with myths that have a bit of nuance in them for myth 27 let's get back to a myth that's just 100% wrong training by body types we're not sure when the body type training started or why but it needs to go body types is simply referring to what are known as somat types somat types were identified in the 1940s by a sociologist named William H Sheldon what does a sociologist have to do with weight loss well nothing he was originally testing a theory that said physical characteristics were attached to personality for example he theorized that endomorphs short and heavier weight tend it to be more jovial and sweet on the other hand ectomorphs tall and skinny individuals are intell ENT shy and creative while mesomorphs individuals with athletic builds are confident and aggressive and if you're thinking that has nothing to do with weight loss you are correct everyone loses the same and everyone gains weight the same don't fall for these special programs the only thing special about them is their high price myth 28 is another downright lie carbs make you fat while we're at it let's include myth 29 fat will make you fat if you're old enough to remember growing up in the ' 80s and early '90s you were remember that fat was demonized and was the sole reason for weight gain in the USA however a shift started around the 2000s and was in full swing by 2010 now carbs were the enemy doesn't take a genius to realize these both can't be right so which one is right neither both are wrong no single nutrient is the sole reason you're gaining weight you gain weight due to eating excessive calories in reality this is due to the sheer amount of added sugar in our diet and processed foods these foods are simply extra high in calories and palatability yet have low or no nutritional value unhealthy food is what makes us fat this is why you should focus on whole foods that are full of quality carbs and fat and you're good to go we've made it to number 30 diet soda is good for you again this belief comes from people judging food solely based on the amount of calories in it as diet soda has no calories it must be good right nope soda has artificial sweeteners that can cause similar responses in insulin and still associated with metabolic syndrome and obesity how does it increase obesity apart from confusing your insulin release studies show it can trigger dopamine and actually increase appetite to be fair there are also studies that show it might help with weight loss however this is hardly true for 100% of people so it's not a Magic Bullet besides there are far too many other issues to make it your primary source of hydration if you're losing weight just stick to water but that's not the only diet food to be aware of myth 31 is that reduced calorie food foods are good for you in reality almost any fat-free or reduced fat food has issues again these claims are feeding off fear of fat as we mentioned in myth 29 some fats are actually good for you unfortunately these good natural fats are what's usually taken out of food at that same time these fats are usually just replaced with carbs generally simple sugars as a means to add taste they're just swapping around calories again stick to Whole Foods and this won't be an issue speaking of Whole Foods your diet shouldn't restrict any of them myth 32 is that keto carnivore or any other restrictive diet is good for weight loss there's a ton of nuance in this one but the main issue is demonizing an entire food group as a whole again in modern times it's generally carves however even veganism which marks off all animal products is not going to be your key to weight loss well it might be if it fits your lifestyle but it's not a miracle diet for every person if it works for you then great but if you can't adhere to it it's worthless so again this doesn't mean these can't work we're just saying there's nothing inherently magical about them speaking of veganism myth 33 is a trick they use when comparing a traditional diet against veganism when a vegan diet is promoted they often compare it to a traditional diet to prove its superiority when the traditional diet is shown it's usually a mixture of soda Pizza hamburgers and of course veganism is better than that however a nutritionist writing a meal plan for an omnivore isn't going to use those Foods because no one thinks they're healthy a healthy omnivore diet would be full of fish lean meats complex carbs nuts legumes fruit vegetables Etc plus a whole lot of what's on pizza and burgers are vegan anyway this one just rubs us the wrong way as it's dishonest if you want to try a vegan diet then that's great just don't fall for misleading comparisons another common belief scene in the world of weight loss is that you can Target your weight loss in a specific area myth 34 is that you can perform spot reduction now this one does have a bit of nuance recently some Studies have shown this might actually be possible through both medical interventions and your training however research is far from conclusive and there are too many unknowns to allow someone to prescribe a solid training program further the entire idea is to set someone up for failure what if they try and they don't lose weight in that spot that's desired they'll probably get discouraged any excess fat will hurts your physique and your health so just concentrate on the total body fat or else you might get involved with subop imal training let's address another myth with training myth 35 is that you can train away a bad diet now of course training is going to help you burn calories however this means nothing if you don't have your diet under control think about this who has ever gained weight because they didn't train enough no one everyone throughout history has always gained weight because they ate too much sure being involved in regular training will increase the amount of calories you eat however you can definitely eat more if your diet is left unchecked stop putting so much emphasis on your fat burning workouts and pay more attention to your daily nutrition then you'll start seeing Real Results let's tackle another myth that deals with high expectations myth 36 is that weight loss happens immediately of course sometimes it does but other times it doesn't some people may not have measurable results for 2 weeks this can be due to a plethora of reasons perhaps you're not fit enough and your training isn't as intense as it could be maybe you're eating hidden calories somewhere and underestimating the amount you're consuming it could be anything the point is don't expect to see significant results right away give yourself at least a month before reaching any assessments and that's the bare minimum myth 37 is a good one as we're actually busting a busted myth that is that you can lose weight while drinking alcohol generally the claim is as long as you watch your calories having a spirit or a lowc calorie beer is okay while this may technically be right it's not reality by reality we mean that people can easily get carried away when drinking in fact that's the joke a crazy night always starts with I'll just have a couple at the same time alcohol actually triggers your agrp neurons which are your starvation neurons in other words they trigger stronger hunger this is why you might get Cravings even having just a couple of drinks even if you just ate it's not good when you're trying to lose weight also we do know for sure it's definitely not going to help you lose weight that means the best option is to stay away plus alcohol is going to waste money and since eating healthy is so expensive you need to save your money or is it myth 38 is that eating healthy is expensive maybe this was true a couple decades ago but not anymore perhaps you won't be able to eat sirloin and salmon every meal but lean beef chicken and pork can be bought for less than $6 a pound apples are about two bucks a pound while bananas are just 75 cents a pound figure that one Snickers is $139 and a meal deal at McDonald's can easily cost six bucks now of course we understand there are some instances where buying the healthier version of a product may be more expensive such as no no added sugar varieties but this definitely isn't true across the board and yes organic will be more expensive than non-organic but non-organic beef is better than McDonald's and one of our favorite snacks is banana or apple and peanut butter there's actually a website that details cheap recipes therefore don't buy into this pun intended and throw away your entire diet the good thing is at least you're eating myth 39 is that fasting is an effective way to lose weight again this one is full of nuance fasting can Be an Effective method for some people to lose weight however the primary working mechanism comes down to you not eating as many calories in other words there's nothing about fasting that speeds up fat loss or makes you lose more fat assuming you're eating the same amount of calories in terms of weight loss it helps some people control their total caloric intake at the same time some people will wait until they eat and then Chow Down on thousands of calories thinking it's okay they fasted for fasting to work you still must fix your diet for the big 40 we're going to fix a huge fault now this isn't a myth per se rather it's a damaging behavior that many Exhibit while losing weight we're talking about the need to obsess over every little detail of your workout and nutrition of course it's great to be aware in fact you need to be aware however many people new to their weight loss Journey can begin to obsess and overanalyze everything they do for example worrying what exercise burns more calories or trying to hit their calories perfectly oh no yesterday I burned 400 calories in class but today I only only burned 370 these 30 calories are all that's required to get some people discouraged remember that weight loss is the sum total of months and months of work stressing over every detail every day is a Surefire way to fail be aware throughout the day but understand your journey will not be perfect like we said earlier in the video it's not linear and obsessing over everything won't make it so one of the things people obsess about is definitely going to be food therefore they will often choose nutrition bars or granola bars for a healthy alternative to other snacks myth 41 is believing a food is healthy just because the package says so while some nutrition bars are actually nutritious most of your mainstream bars have similar ingredients and nutritional value to typical candy bars the thing is as long as we can convince ourselves something is healthy it's good to go in our mind for example we sometimes will jokingly eat a Snickers and say it's a healthier choice because it has peanuts the point is there are a ton of examples of a food that's marketed as healthy but after you take a closer look you'll see it's not so to determine if a food is healthy you must check the actual ingredient list as well as the nutritional values speaking of checking the nutritional value instead of listening to packaging myth 42 will deal with one of the most common lies high protein food how is that a myth well Foods advertised as high protein are rarely actually high protein the term high protein is thrown around everywhere we've even seen peanut butter claimed to be high protein now we love peanut butter however unless it's a special brand that that adds protein it is not high protein unfortunately there's no clear definition for what a high protein food is or what percent of calorie should come from protein however a good guess would be a minimum of 20 g of protein for every 200 calories or at least every serving has 20 G that puts it at 40% protein which is still relatively low compared to chicken breast which is 80% protein 40% Foods include such things as salmon or sirloin steak to be clear food doesn't have to be high protein to be healthy and its protein content doesn't Define its value they're just labeling high protein as a sales tactic speaking of quote high protein foods that aren't necessarily high protein yet you should still be eating eggs myth number 43 is people telling you to stay away from eggs where this myth stems from is specifically the Yol of the egg as it's full of cholesterol there's been a long-standing myth that cholesterol is bad for you and you should limit it as much as possible this is a heavily nuanced subject but it's basically summed up as some cholesterol is actually really good for you regardless we now know the myth of eating a few eggs a week is way exaggerated in fact we already talked about how adding eggs to your breakfast can improve weight loss in addition opting out of eating yolk for only the whites can actually cause a decrease in your testosterone levels why because testosterone is cholesterol based now let's hit another exercise related myth myth 44 is that you should be exhausted after every workout thanks to the whole no no pain no gain mindset we've all been led to believe that every workout needs to be brutal and you should be rolling around in a puddle of sweat every time you train while this is fine once in a while it doesn't need to be done every time in fact you shouldn't train this way every time your body is not equipped for such high intensity all the time if you do it could lead to either fatigue or injury caloric Wise It's also not needed for one if you're overweight you likely don't have the stamina to maintain high intensity for too long so while you might get tired and be sweating profus the total amount of work is going to be pretty low however if you take the intensity down you can train significantly longer which will lead to a greater caloric burn in fact one of the best things you can do is put a treadmill on an incline and walk briskly for an hour another thing you don't need to burn fat myth 45 is that any crazy Contraption will help you lose weight after being on Earth for a few decades we've seen a lot of products sold to melt fat fat belts fat massagers and heating creams just to name a few none of these work to any meaningful degree there are a few products out there that may have some science to back them up but they are few and far between again these are designed to pre on people's desire of having an easy fix to weight loss don't buy into them literally our next myth is also similar to myth 45 myth 46 is the use of sweat suits for fat loss we already talked about how sweating doesn't equate to fat loss but we want to double down on sweatsuits mainly because they're dangerous sweatsuits are clothing that are specifically made to induce sweating a free version is simply using trash bags now these do hold a purpose which is beyond the scope of this video however it is not to lose meaningful weight if you use one you'll likely lose a significant amount of weight in a short amount of time however this is merely water weight as you literally sweated it all out as we talked before sweating has very little to do with caloric burn you will gain all this weight back the instant you finish and hydrate so how do we lose weight myth 47 would say you need to go on a diet you don't we need to clarify what we mean when we say go on a diet we're talking about Atkins or keto or paleo something of that nature in reality you just need to clean up what you're eating the majority of people can simply follow two rules and see awesome results cut out foods with added sugar and limit processed foods that's it those two rules are sufficient for the majority of people this basically means you need to concentrate on eating Whole Foods and these are foods that should remain similar to how they're found in the wild often people are so used to eating processed foods that are very high in calories compared to Whole Foods once they start eating Whole Foods they can find they eat a much larger quantity and fill up fast which ultimately results in weight loss myth 48 is that if it runs in the family there's nothing you can do about it while genetics can play a role in determining someone's predisposition to certain body types and metabolic rates it's crucial to recognize that lifestyle factors including diet and exercise significantly impact weight the next one is a big one and it's more of a lie we tell ourselves myth 49 is that that you're only eating 1,200 calories but still gaining weight this is probably the most common claim that trainers hear from a client whose weight loss isn't going as planned the client keeps gaining weight even though they're only eating 12200 calories a trainer wants to listen and seem like they understand in reality they want to tell you stop lying it's harsh but it's true there are a few instances where someone's body won't respond to basic physiology but again these are the very small exceptions to the rule however people may not know they're lying which we get doesn't actually make it a lie but you get the point rather they severely underestimate how much they eat emphasis on severely a study from back in 1992 found that obese patients on average under report calories by 47% and overestimate activity by 51% what this means is that if you think you're eating 1,200 calories you're probably eating around 1,800 if you think you're burning 500 calories you're probably only burning around 330 further many reported that they think they had medical issues such as thyroid ISS isues and even some took medication other Studies have been done as well with similar results we're not saying this to be harsh rather we want you to succeed the first part of being successful is being totally honest with where you stand if you think you're eating 1,200 calories but are really eating 2,000 you need to know and learn how to calculate myth number 50 weight loss is hard you're probably thinking of course it's hard how do you explain everyone trying understood but losing weight really isn't hard we should expl exp laain the mechanics of dieting are actually very simple you need to start eating healthier and start moving more yes there's some Nuance in there but for the majority of people that's what needs to happen what's hard is falling to Temptation not sticking to your plan and Breaking Bad Habits did you know that humans are the most efficient endurance animal on the planet neither did Dan and Alex but they're about to find out Dan and Alex had been workout buddies for at least a few months now they knew each other's strengths and weaknesses and have even broken veral personal bests with one another during their sessions they'd have their usual banter and on one particular day Dan said something that would put them on an adventure Dan began to tell Alex a story he had heard the night before on a sports documentary about this man named Gary mcke now Gary was a long-distance Runner and liked to run he really really liked to run he liked running so much that one year Gary decided to run a marathon every single day to be clear Gary ran 26.2 Mi every single day for 3 65 days in a row at first Alex had the same initial reaction as Dan did there's no way that could happen how can someone do that much training for that long with no recovery however the story was true and it happened in 2022 this got their brains turning do you really need to recover are rest days actually necessary are they wasting their time when they could be making gains there was only one way to find out Alex made the proposal maybe not 365 days but I bet I could train every day for 90 days that's only 25% of what Gary did so he thought it would be easy peasy but Dan wasn't so sure he already trained hard and didn't think his body could handle it however if he altered his training he felt confident that he could train 90 days in a row as well what would happen to Alex and Dan if they work out every day for 90 days will they make legendary gains will they crash and burn will they wish they never started could Alex and Dan even die more importantly what can we learn from this type of training they'll find out soon enough enough and you'll want to hear it and trust us it's not going to be what you're thinking to understand why training 90 days straight is a bit extreme we should first see why rest days are important why do we even need days off the easy answer is because we're not machines no matter how much your motivational poster likes to say you are you're made up of bones that can break muscles that tear joints that get achy and brains that shut down training can place a significantly larger amount of stress on the body did you know that just running can put up to four stimes your body weight of force on your joints weightlifting can put tremendous stress on your joints it can also cause micro damage to your bones and strain your muscles and tendons and both tax your neurological system which can cause your fatigue to build up under normal circumstances our bodies are equipped to deal with this damage and can fix it that's literally what it's built to do in fact stressing your body and recovering from it is how training works for a person to progress with their training they must place a greater stimulus on their body than it's used to when they go home and let their body recover it will Super compensate which means it will repair the body and adapt so that it's a little bit stronger to deal with the greater stimuli in the future the problem comes when instead of letting your body rest you work out again how is your body supposed to rest when does it recover and this is where we are with training for 90 days what would happen let's see what happens with Alex Alex started on his 90-day Journey doing pretty well he was hitting the gym every day using a body part split he would train one muscle group every day this seemed to be working for quite some time without any issues until it did about a month in things would start to change for Alex something would begin happening that would make him rethink if he really wanted to train for 90 days that something was he started to develop symptoms of overtraining overtraining is when you train too much and you bring your body to a spot where it is unable to recover successfully therefore rather than improve your state worsens and you eventually begin to see issues with your physical health performance and even mental health the severity of overtraining lies on a spectrum and includes other conditions such as functional and non-functional overreaching all of these produced the same symptoms with the major difference being the magnitude and severity of the issues and the amount of time needed to fully recover regardless of where Alex was on the spectrum of overtraining at the time it wasn't good even if he was at the earliest stage once you notice you are suffering from overtraining it's already too late since Alex was already experiencing these issues the only way it would improve would be if he stopped training and rested and it would have to be for more than just a day as Alex was set on training every day for 90 days his condition would not get any better during that time rather it would get worse as he continued his training he first began to notice that his progress started to slow down for the first few weeks Alex was hitting all of his weights and Reps just as planned however this stopped happening at first he thought maybe this was just a fluke you can't always progress while he told himself that that he still felt something was off not only does he feel he should have successfully made all of his lifts completing the entire program felt more challenging but he continued thinking maybe he'd snap out of it and sure enough well he didn't all his trips to the gym resulted in him missing the planned weights every day if anything Alex was not easily defeated and still continued all this did was result in a bigger drop in performance until he needed to actually start taking weight off the barbell he had to be honest with himself he could keep going but his goal would change rather than come out stronger he now just wanted to finish this might be a shock as initially people may think that 90 days training will cause some massive gains nope it will likely cause a loss of strength and power especially when you train every single day by not allowing his body to recover after training Alex was perpetually putting his body in a state of stress instead of recovering he was putting his body deeper and deeper into a hole of fatigue so maybe he wouldn't set any more personal best for these 90 days Alex just changed his perspective and wanted to finish well he wanted to finish but he started waking up sore more so than usual after training it's normal to experience DS delayed onset muscle soreness however this usually goes away after a couple of days but not for Alex since he was not allowing his body to fully recover he was constantly sore his soreness even began to affect his training as it hindered him from performing movements properly combined with his fatigue his form suffered and put him at an increased risk of injy Alex should have thrown in the towel then yet he still continued if anything he sure is stubborn even without his pain his training began to feel harder everything felt more difficult Alex began to experience a higher rpe in his training RP stands for rate of perceived exertion and is a subjective scale used to describe how difficult an exercise feels due to his buildup of fatigue it was becoming harder for him to do the same amount of work think about training while fully fueled and hydrated or in the sun while training dehydrated and not having eaten for 24 hours training in your starved State out in the sun is going to feel harder even if you do the same exact work speaking of working in a starved State what happened next may seem counterintuitive Alex actually started to lose his appetite and eat less he found that he just wasn't as hungry anymore this is something that researchers have found to occur with athletes who experience overtraining syndrome this is a major issue as working out for 90 days straight requires you to eat more and eating more is exactly what Alex wasn't doing in fact he even seemed to drink less leaving him constantly dehydrated there's nothing good that happens from training in a dehydrated State and just a 2% drop in body weight from water loss can cause a significant decrease in performance this was yet another compounding factor that affected his performance and health but Alex thought that he could push through it and continued however he started noticing changes in places he wasn't expecting with his mental health during his usual training he felt felt that the gym was a place that relieved his stress and left him feeling confident and overall just happy and he was right regular exercise will flood the body with endorphins dopamine and a host of other feel-good hormones it literally gives you a natural high this is why some are said to actually be addicted to training unfortunately like other addictions this doesn't turn out good if left unchecked training too much releases an unhealthy amount of cortisol and epinephrine cortisol is known as your stress hormone and epinephrine is simply a in under normal conditions epinephrine speeds up your heart rate which in turn pumps more blood to your muscles cortisol increases the ability to break down tissue for fuel such as fat and can contribute directly to increased energy and lower fatigue however when combined in elevated levels these powerful compounds leave you in a permanent fight ORF flight status this results in consistent feelings of Stress and Anxiety they can also shut down the release of the feel-good hormones which leads to mood swings and irritability and boy was Alex getting moody little things started to set him off not knowing where his keys were traffic his pre-workout spilling on the floor everything seemed to annoy him Alex then started to lose his motivation to train altogether research has shown a link between overtraining and lack of motivation due to a decrease of your mental state coupled with a drop in performance let's be honest training loses all its fun if you just keep getting worse what's interesting is this doesn't just happen to normal guys like Alex but to professional athletes as well you can even lose motivation when you're being offered huge amounts of money well Alex wasn't getting any money but he also didn't want to quit so he found a way to continue he figured he'd try to maximize his sleep and so tried to get to bed early limit screen time basically do all the things you're supposed to do to improve sleep unfortunately none of it helped and even his Sleep Quality dropped researchers aren't positive as to why but an increase in training load can lead to a decrease in the quality and quantity of sleep this is likely due to the disre regulation in hormones for example researchers have discovered that when athletes increase their training by 30% their Sleep Quality drops in addition overtraining can cause more sleep disturbances such as heavy legs and increased movement while sleeping so now Alex is overtrained and requires more rest but sleeps less which results in Greater fatigue and so on but Alex kept telling himself it would be worth it if he kept going he would eventually benefit from all of the training or so he thought however this isn't happening in fact in fact when Alex looked at himself in the mirror he swore his muscles looked less defined and smaller poor sleep by itself will create an environment that promotes the breakdown of muscle while holding on to Fat rather than improve his body composition training every day started to do the opposite what's the point he thought as if that wasn't bad enough Alex started to get sick more often he used to Pride himself as never getting sick now it happens often working out too much causes unchecked oxidative stress which leads to inflammation and his increased sickness in fact it's so common for marathon runners to get sick after races there's a name for it Runners flew the outcome for Alex was looking very poor it seems that his plan for going hard every day for 90 days that was affecting just about every part of his life but there were more areas yet to be affected he began to feel as if his brain was always operating in a cloud of fog he wasn't the smartest guy but he was usually pretty sharp but now his brain just feels slow understanding instructions took a tad longer and his memory recall definitely dro dropped was he becoming dumb no no overtraining doesn't make a person dumb however it can cause a drop in cognition overtraining in athletes has been shown to cause slower reaction times loss of memory and increased time to perform simple tasks in fact coaches even use cognitive tests to determine if their athletes are suffering from overtraining and this is what was happening to Alex just like all of his other issues the only way for his cognition to start improving was if he stopped training and eventually Alex would be forced fored to stop all of the fatigue and stress and damage built up and Alex began to experience pain in both his knees and shoulders he tried to push through his training but once you have an overuse injury rest is one of the best ways to fix it this is the most likely outcome for athletes who try to train too hard and too often under normal conditions working out has a very low risk for chance of injury that's if you follow a professional program if you're like Alex your risk of injury can increase dramatically as your frequency and intensity increase the good thing is is that Alex will be able to reverse all of these ill effects but it's going to take longer than just a weekend of binge watching TV his recovery time is going to depend on the extent of his damage but he can expect to take at least one full week off to recover there are some cases where trainees have had to take months off what a shame it would be if you trained and pushed through 90 days of hard training only to finish beaten up broken down depressed and in a worse physical condition than when you started at the beginning of the video we told you that you would learn two lessons the first is what not to do and the second is perhaps the most important lesson you need to learn to maintain a healthy lifestyle now Alex obviously showed us what not to do if you train for 90 days with no plan you will experience negative consequences in just about every aspect of your life and likely get injured but we now have Dan's Journey he's going to teach you that important lesson but he won't realize it until 90 days have passed let's now see what happens when Dan trains for 90 days unlike Alex Dan was not going to to hit the gym hard for 90 days as he was in fact not Superman he was just a mere mortal Who Loved Fitness instead of going to the gym every day he was going to use a style of training known as cross trining what is cross trining cross trainining refers to the practice of engaging in different modes of sport or training simultaneously primary training was still going to be weightlifting however he would use three other styles of exercise running swimming and cycling he felt that this would be the key to his success one issue Dan had with how Alex trained was he felt going to the gym every day for 90 days may become stale Dan loves lifting weights however he felt by using cross training every day would be a fresh and a new challenge this would make his whole 90 days much easier to do so Dan followed his program and like Alex his first few weeks were relatively easy he expected this and knew it would take a few days to see how his body was responding but as weeks went by Dan found he wasn't really experiencing the excessive amounts of soreness achiness or even fatigue of course it was challenging but his cross training allowed him to apply stimuli to different parts of his body this mitigated the buildup of stress and fatigue in the long term this would greatly reduce the risk of overuse injuries so he doesn't wind up like Alex using cross training Dan was able to spread the soreness around or should we say spread the love around of course there were days where he had higher levels but nothing that he would describe as out of the ordinary now Alex thought he would be able to do this by training different muscle groups on different days however even when training different muscle groups it still puts a load on the same joints for example the elbows get hit on back day chest day shoulder day arms heck even back squats put stress on the elbows on the contrary Dan was able to plan his schedule so that he used different sports on different days to train different muscles and movement patterns running would be hard on Dan's knees so the next day he could do an upper body session in the gym the next day he could cycle and then swim Dan also used these different sport Sports to train with different intensity when you only go to the gym to lift weights there's rarely such a thing as low intensity however he is able to do this with the endurance type sports for example one day he had a really tough leg day he was supposed to run uphill Sprints the next day but that sounded brutal therefore he altered his plan and performed a 1 and 1/ half hour bike ride at a low intensity this allowed him to still train but in a manner that was easier on his body after that long ride he noticed something very important he was hungry one thing that made it hard was needing to miss out on some events to train perhaps he'd need to go home early because he needed to get up early or maybe missing out on a trip to the beach of course he could have gone but that would have been cheating he just chocked it up to being another part of the challenge he just needed to complete these 90 days and he continued on since Dan was keeping his training in check he didn't notice the same lack of appetite that Alex did this made it easy to stay on top of his nutrition and mitigate any possible issues that may arise with a full belly Dan continued on with his Challenge and began to function like clockwork he was even getting full nights of sleep as he made it a priority this was the only time his body could recover so he wanted to make the most of it Dan continued his routine never doing more than his plan had planned one thing he noticed about working out 90 days is that time goes by fast soon enough his 90 days were up and he had successfully trained every single day when he was done he looked great Dan wasn't trying to lose weight and was making a point to eat enough however his body composition had still improved it's hard not to improve when you're training every day further his work capacity had significantly improved training 90 days increased the amount of work that he could handle increased work volume equals increased gains however Dan's greatest benefit wasn't necessarily his physical adaptations or improvements in performance rather he had built a resilient body and a resilient mind during his 90 days he learned a very important lesson the difference between motivation and dedication while his routine may have seemed easier than Alex's it was still tough some days he simply wanted to take the day off not because of soreness or any fatigue but he just didn't want to remember earlier in the video when we spoke about even professional athletes losing motivation a little caveat we left out is they still trained as planned often times this is the key difference between being successful or not this was one variable neither of them had even thought about they were so caught up in the challenge they didn't even consider having the motivation to train for 90 days of course Alex had issues with fatigue and soreness but they both had to deal with training when they didn't want to sometimes you're not going to be motivated to train but you still must get out and do it and this was the main lesson Dan learned during his 90 days of training the difference between motivation and dedication everyone usually talks about being motivated but the truth is you won't always be motivated to train actually training is easy when you're motivated what's hard is maintaining consistency when you're not motivated this is dedication and dedication is the only way you will be successful have you ever been chugging down a protein shake before an intense workout session and wondered does this thing actually help or am I just guzzling down money that I could be spending on protein Rich meals instead then worry no more because we've got the answers they just may not be what you think oh and be sure to stick around for the end we'll walk you through exactly how much and when to consume your protein for optimal results whether it works or not protein supplements are big business the sports supplement industry rakes in over $27 billion every year and Rising Well we'd love to say the supplement industry only cares about your health and puts your health over profit we can't at the end of the day the supplement industry is like any other industry whose primary job is to make money so we just can't take those companies at their word on the effectiveness of their products while some health and workout supplements Veer on the side of snake oil it's not quite the same with protein powder why because at its Core protein powder is just processed food so why take it other than real food when you're looking to build mass fast during the refining process that turns raw food into protein powder protein is extracted from real food sources and is then broken down further into a fine powder what this does is it breaks down the protein or predigest it if you will meaning you're able to absorb and utilize the amino acids it contains much faster now under normal circumstances you don't really need a fast supply of amino acids just eat some steak and the amino acids will gradually be released using protein powder during your daily routine offers no real benefits other than being cheap and convenient which is still a plus however there is one period in the day of particular interest that's right it's the post-workout whether you're playing sports hitting the weights or just working on your cardio anything that causes minor muscle damage typically tied to healthy exercise after these moments your body is thrown into a highly anabolic state by a dramatic rise in muscle protein synthesis this is the process that repairs muscle in this state your body craves more amino acids to rebuild it's like a bunch of construction workers all hyped up on Red Bull and ready to work the only thing they need is bricks to build and those bricks are amino acids now you don't have to eat protein powder as your body will have pools of amino acids it can pull from these are the leftovers from previous meals that are just waiting to be used in addition you could even just eat Whole Foods to provide prot protein however as mentioned this must be digested before the muscles can access the amino acids and it's here we find why we specifically take protein powder after training taking a protein powder that is already processed and broken down floods your bloodstream with amino acids at the same time it also causes an increase in muscle protein synthesis it's a cheap and convenient method that makes it incredibly easy to create an Optimum environment for building muscle so how does this work well that's what we want to find out one of the main reasons lifters take protein powder is for muscle growth so does protein powder actually drive more gains spoiler alert yes it does a metaanalysis from 2012 examined studies with over 600 participants to determine if protein supplementation increased muscle mass to be clear this study specifically looked at the intake of protein powder post-workout in addition it only examined studies that were at least 6 weeks long as it's believed protein supplementation benefits come from long-term use you can't just chug protein shakes once and be summer body ready after a full analysis they made a pretty big find when compared to Placebo protein supplementation resulted in a 38% greater increase in fat-free Mass so if you gained 10 lbs of muscle without protein supplementation you could have gained an extra 3.6 lb with it right here it's important to note that as you can see you can still increase muscle mass without protein supplementation however it will just capitalize on the hard work you put in in the gym so why settle for 10 lbs when you could have 13.8 just by drinking a tasty cheap Shake sounds like a no-brainer to us a more recent meta analysis was then performed in 2017 which examined a total of 1863 participants this makes it one of the largest meta analyses to date almost as large as you'll be if you keep chasing those Gams again when comparing protein supplementation with resistance training alone the supplementation produced better results this included a 27% increase in fat-free mass as well as a 14% increase in muscle fiber cross-section area when compared to the placebo one interesting note made in this meta analysis was that protein supplementation was more effective for resistance trained individuals why could this be the case we suspect it's because it's easier for non-trained individuals to build muscle when an untrained person starts training gaining muscle is relatively easy there's a lot more wiggle room with diet and training to see positive results in muscle growth however as you become more advanced putting on muscle becomes increasingly difficult we want to note this doesn't mean that untrained individuals did not see increases in muscle mass they do what that means is they saw similar results whether they consumed a protein supplement or not now that's two huge metaanalyses that both confirm that protein powder supplementation results in an increase in muscle mass this is the general consensus since studies began on protein supplementation for example this study way back from 2005 in it 22 young healthy men partook in resistance training methods for 14 weeks when examining all the variables everything was similar one real difference was their post-workout meal the control group simply ate a serving of carbohydrates while the experimental group consumed a supplement containing 25 g of protein 16.6 Gams from whey and the remaining from other sources after 14 weeks the protein group did see a small advantage in strength with the squat jump in the squat jump an athlete descends into a semi squat position and holds the position for approximately 3 seconds before takeoff here the protein group saw a 9% Improvement in height whereas the carb group saw none however in the counter movement vertical jump there was no difference as both groups saw an increase of 10% the counter movement vertical jump is performed when the athlete starts from a standing position and initiates a downward movement which is immediately followed by an upward movement leading to takeoff now in terms of muscle hypertrophy the protein group really outshined the carbohydrate group and saw significantly greater growth specifically the protein group saw an 18% greater increase in type 1 fibers these are smaller fibers that have less Force capability yet possess awesome endurance capability in addition they saw a 26% increase in the cross-section area of the muscle 26% the growth in the carb group was just negligible now let's go back to the increase in squat jumps what's going on here why would the protein supplementation group see a larger squat jump than the placebo well one of the reasons for the increase in the squat jump was thought to have occurred due to the increase in type 2 muscle fibers remember these are the fibers that are responsible for creating a high amount of force to look at the association between strength gains and muscle gains more let's revisit the 2012 meta analysis from earlier in the video remember it reviewed 22 trials with proteins effect on muscle Mass however it also examined gains in strength and concluded that the protein supplementation does in fact contribute to gains in strength specifically one rep max strength or the maximum amount of weight you can lift at one time now let's dig into the muscle hypertrophy results a little deeper the results specifically showed a 45% larger increase in type 1 muscle fibers and a 55% larger increase in type 2 fibers this increase was then related to the increase in strength where it was found that a greater incre inre in muscle fiber CSA was accompanied by a 20% greater increase in one rep max leg press strength basically the muscles with a larger increase in type 2 muscle fibers saw greater improvements in strength to briefly explain this an increase in muscle size and muscle strength are related but can occur from completely different mechanisms strength occurs through the Improvement of the neuromuscular system while the increased muscle mass occurs through the addition of contractile units of the muscle this means that strength can increase independently from muscle growth the existing muscle learns to produce more Force at the same time when a muscle grows it adds contractile units which means the potential for strength goes up as well so strength can go up through improvements in the neuromuscular system as well as the addition of contractile units therefore strength and size will grow together but it's not always a one toone increase however the muscle growth that occurred from the protein supplementation in the study also enabled the muscle to create more strength than if no muscle growth had occurred lucky for us we can also turn to the other more recent meta analysis for more evidence of the effect of protein supplementation on strength the studies in this metaanalysis utilized a variety of one rep max testings such as bench press arm curl Squat and laat pull down together participants saw an average of a 9% increase in one rep max strength however as noted in the study a 9% increase is pretty cool but it's not a bullet your programming and exercise selection will likely have a much greater effect on strength gains at that same time we'll take the 9% increase if all we need to do is drink a thick delicious ice cream cake batter protein shake but perhaps the clearest illustration of protein supplementation benefiting an athlete is with pre-sleep protein pre-sleep protein is a relatively new area of study that examines the usefulness of drinking a protein supplement 30 minutes before sleep usually this is done with casine protein a slow digesting protein unlike whey which floods the bloodstream with amino acids quickly casine releases a slower steadier stream of amino acids as a result when taken before sleep it increases the amount of amino acids in the bloodstream all night as you sleep as well as muscle protein synthesis this is effective at increasing muscle growth while there's still a lot to learn about nighttime protein the studies we have as of now are very promising a meta analysis from 2020 looked at all the studies today date and analyze the results that a pre-sleep protein supplement had on muscle protein synthesis and other outcomes it found that a 20 to 40 G serving of casine protein increases muscle protein synthesis overnight with that said the general recommendation is on the larger end of that Spectrum 30 to 40 G that's great but does this transfer to actual muscle growth well pre-sleep protein was found to have positive benefits on one rep max strength muscle size and an increase in the cross-sectional area of muscle fibers what makes this benefit specific to protein powder is that protein powder allows you to eat a large amount of protein quickly and with low calories to reach that same amount of protein and calories with Whole Food you need to eat two whole skinless chicken breasts with no seasoning or sauce yummy give me the cookies and cream protein shake please to our knowledge there's been no study that's looked at Whole Food pre-s sleeped but we imagine it's just not practical to do it on a consistent basis and this is really the main benefit of protein powder at certain times having a quick convenient protein source that actually tastes good is a very nice tool to have in fact this was the consensus of one of if not the only study we know of that looked at using strictly Whole Foods for protein intake including post exercise yes you can definitely only eat Whole Foods however it is difficult the research concluded however obtaining dietary protein exclusively from Whole Foods may not always be convenient or feasible due to a variety of reasons including cost palatability competitive or training schedule and volume of whole food that needs to be consumed to meet protein requirement protein supplements remain a convenient complimentary nutritional strategy for physically active adults to meet protein recommendations at select meals throughout the day and that should be your main takeaway protein powder is a cheap convenient protein source that can be strategically used to optimize training outcomes and muscle growth taking at any other time of day protein powder is really just another food source that makes reaching protein intake easy so yes protein powder works because it is just that protein so we've clearly shown that protein powder offers benefits but what does that mean for you well for one it's important to point out that the metaanalyses specifically mentioned prolong use while there are some measurable outcomes that can occur overnight meaningful adaptations take a long period of consistent use Therefore your nutrition strategy for protein should become a constant in addition consider your daily protein intake rather than just a single serving the daily protein intake for athletes and lifters is much more than the general population's recommended daily intake due to the increased stress and damage placed on the muscle therefore the general recommendation by Leading Sports researchers such as the issn is anywhere from 1.6 to 2 G per kilog of body weight if you're in a caloric Surplus you can get away with the lower end if you're losing weight with a caloric deficit stick to the higher end not that you would but you can probably guess this shouldn't all be eaten in one sitting Studies have shown that spreading your protein throughout the day can optimize protein's role in the support and maintenance of your muscle mass this is likely due to the spreading out of the spike in muscle protein synthesis from a single meal that lasts anywhere from 3 to 5 hours therefore spread your total protein intake across four to six servings throughout the day every 3 to 4 hours the only thing to keep in mind here is that each serving should contain a minimum of 20 to 25 g of protein this tends to be the threshold for maximum spikes and MPS what that means is that you can definitely consume more than this and will probably have to to eat your total daily intake however that spike in muscle protein synthesis will not be as dramatic as it is up to the 25 G when it starts to level off other than that there are two occasions which Merit special attention first is your post-workout feeding it used to be taught that you had 60 Minutes post-workout to consume a meal this was to capitalize on the spike of muscle protein synthesis from working out we now know it isn't exactly true as mentioned the spike in MPS lasts much longer than 60 Minutes however it does start to slowly decline as long as you eat every 3 to 4 hours you don't need to worry about it however we still advise to eat protein sooner rather than later just like in the studies at the same time you might want to eat a larger amount of protein at this time time before we said that each serving should be at least 20 G as this is the threshold for maximal increases in MPS however after training studies show that 40 G can still cause a greater increase than 20 G either way it's a good strategy to make your post-workout meal your largest meal of the day the second time is pre-sleep which we just talked about 30 to 40 g of casine protein 30 minutes before you go to sleep and you'll be good now when it comes to protein powder you can technically eat it from any of your protein feedings heck you could eat it for all of your protein intake but we wouldn't recommend that you still want to get most of your protein from real food sources this is to ensure the intake of other nutrients such as vitamins and minerals as well as other compounds such as creatine which comes from the meat don't fall into the Trap of thinking the protein in powder is in any way Superior to that in Whole Foods it's literally the same thing again we recommend post-workout and pre-sleep perhaps as a snack or part of a breakfast smoothie and you're good to go and most importantly of all remember that protein powder is a supplement just like all other supplements it should supplement your diet it shouldn't be 80% of your focus rather the majority of your focus should be on eating Whole Foods and hitting your calories and macros if you do that 95% of the work is done then your focus on supplements such as how to use protein powder could give you the little bump in your performance you're looking for have you ever heard how celery is a miracle food that it'll actually make you burn more calories than it provides simply by digesting it basically this implies that you will burn calories every time you eat celery if you have well we wanted to tell you absolutely none of that is true however people want to believe it is because everyone's looking for that superfood to help them burn their fat while we don't have any foods that'll melt fat off your bones on their own there are some that can definitely help your journey backed by science this video will go over the foods you definitely need to have in your diet in order to lose weight you basically need to burn more calories than you eat we know it's a bit more complicated than that but that is the gist of it this means that we gain weight from eating so how could eating help us lose weight that's because not all foods are created equal if you've ever heard the saying a calorie is a calorie or any other suggestion that all calories are equal know that it is not true we live in a time where everything about food has been broken down to a single variable how many calories does it have of course calories are extremely important when you're trying to burn fat however food is just more than calories as you'll see different foods pack drastically different nutrients vitamins minerals fiber and other compounds which can have a significant effect on your body so while the actual calories of a food are technically the same the rest of the food can be drastically different which can have an effect on weight loss and with that in mind we're going to start with an extremely important compound that is often looked over well not technically food this list would not be complete without mentioning water so we're going to start with some good old H2 W sure it might be a boring food but water can definitely help you lose weight in fact it can help you lose weight independent of diet and exercise in other words simply drinking more will help you shed the pounds a study followed 173 premenopause women who were trying to lose weight for over a year during this time the women tracked their diet water intake fluid intake and any exercise they performed all of the data was then analyzed so the researchers were able to specify the exact role that water played in any weight loss the results showed that women who increased their water intake to just over 1 liter of water Saw 2 kg of fat loss as a result so to be clear this 2 kilos of weight loss came solely from drinking water and was in addition to any weight loss from diet or other exercise what's even more amazing is that similar results occurred in other studies as well it's thought to be due to water requiring an increase in thermogenesis it's estimated that every half liter drink will burn 23 calories over the course of a year this could add up considerably especially when you consider all you need to do is drink water however there's more than one mechanism in drinking water that's believed to Aid in fat loss that is largely the satiety effect of water that means that drinking water will help keep you feeling full in fight off Cravings helping you fight off cravings and limiting your calorie intake is likely an even greater effect than the rise of metabolism at least if you drink it at the right time when is the right time let's look at what science says a study followed a group of overweight participants who were trying to lose weight two groups were created during the study with the only difference being that one group drank a glass of water before each meal other than that everything else was equivalent what kind of difference could a glass of water before your meal make pretty massive as they lost a staggering 44% more weight than those who didn't this might just be the easiest food on this list to incorporate into your daily diet so now that you got your hydration down let's get to your first food well at least a group of food for the next Foods we have one that's a little spicy we're talking about cayenne peppers well we're actually talking about capsacin which is the active ingredient in Peppers that makes your mouth burn however capsacin supplements are usually made from cayenne peppers which is why there's a close Association so as we were saying if you've ever wondered why capsacin Burns it's because it's actually a chemical irritant and a neurotoxin for humans to consume that makes sense now if you've ever stopped eating food because it was too spicy well the Cap's job was a success but how does an irritant help lose fat anywhere way it's probably in a similar manner as you're thinking when you consume caps it triggers your trpv1 receptor which then releases heat into your body this then leads to a higher caloric burn approximately 50 calories a day well there aren't a ton of studies on caps effects on weight loss there are enough for there to be a meta analysis published in 2023 this meta analysis Compares all of the studies on capsacin fat burning effects in total 15 studies met the requirements put forth by the researchers and were included in the study after full analysis they discovered that capsacin may have rather modest effects in reducing BMI BW and wc for overweight or obese individuals at the same time there's evidence that caps can actually curb your appetite we know that when we eat spicy food our urge to eat is shrunk because it hurts if you're sensitive to caps it'll likely reduce your appetite as well and if it does this can result in a significant account for an Untold amount of calories so how much should you eat well we can't say for sure however we do know of one fat loss study which had participants eat 6 milligrams a day for 12 weeks this dose led to significant amounts of fat loss so that seems like a good spot to start so now let's rewind to the beginning of the video where we opened the video with the story of celery we also said none of it was true in reality there is some truth in the gist of the explanation and it all has to do with something that's called the thermal effect of food or TEF for short to understand TEF we we have to realize our bodies use energy to fuel every single process that occurs this includes things such as respiration and our brain processing information it also includes digestion like in the celery story TEF is the amount of calories that's required to digest food transport nutrients and excreted so again there are three macronutrients in our diets and all three have different levels of TEF one of them is significantly higher than the other two the macro with the lowest TEF is going to be fat fat is a highly concentrated form of energy already broken down to its simplest components therefore when you eat foods high in fat it's very easy for your body to break it down ultimately this means you aren't going to use a lot of energy to process it therefore it has a TEF of 0 to 1% that means if you ate 100 calories of fat you only burn 1% of it to process it the middle macro is carbohydrates we can think of some carbohydrates such as fruit rice and oatmeal they're a bit more solid and will require a bit more energy to break down therefore car car hydrates have a TEF of around 10% again eating 100 calories of carbohydrates would require 10 calories to process it and then we have protein steak chicken pork and other animal products these foods are a bit tougher so they require significantly more energy to break down therefore protein has a TEF of 20 to 30% plant-based protein sources like legumes nuts seeds and whole grains also contribute to the thermic effect of food or TEF but their TEF is generally lower than for animal-based protein proteins ranging from 10 to 20% Dr Jose Antonio performed a famous study to examine the effects of an ultra high protein diet he found that even though the high protein group ate 800 calories more they didn't gain any fat while we're on protein we need to discuss another benefit we just talked about how protein is going to take the longer to digest well this also means that it'll keep you feeling full for longer in this manner it can help curve appetites naturally for these reasons high protein diets have been consistently found to be effective in weight loss studies so what type of protein should you eat in reality any high protein food will have this effect however eggs seem to pop up a lot in research eggs are consistently used in studies to show the weight loss benefits of high protein diets for example a study from 2020 showed that simply adding eggs to breakfast resulted in an overall decrease of total calories which ultimately meant more weight loss yogurt is another protein Source that's actually been used in studies to promote weight loss however as we mentioned any high- protein food would presumably work for example a study pitted lean beef against chicken as the main source of protein in the two groups of participants losing weight after 12 weeks both groups lost a significant amount of fat however there was no difference between the groups in other words they both lost similar amounts of weight next on the list are diets high in fiber particularly soluble fiber fiber is the type of carbohydrate that your body cannot fully digest in fact there are two types of fiber insoluble and soluble ins soluble fiber does not break down in water and is responsible for adding bulk to your stool this helps digestive health and can keep you regular on the other hand soluble fiber does dissolve in water this creates a gel-like substance which can sit and fill up your stomach making you feel full in addition to filling you up researchers have found that high-fiber diets may also help decrease weight through another mechanism improving your gut Flora for example different individuals will start with a different situation going on in their guts some more ideal than others researchers have found that a high-fiber diet results in a greater overall Improvement in those with a less than ideal gut as a result they tend to lose more weight so what are some great high-fiber foods well oats are a standout Studies have constantly been found to have a positive effect on your weight either to lose weight or with weight management oats is a type of soluble fiber meaning it helps fill up your stomach however oats also have other weight loss benefits one major benefit is the Improvement of appetite hormones left in and gin oats can raise leptin which encourages you to stop eating while decreasing gin which usually increases appetite better yet combine a high fiber diet with a high protein diet both of these increase satiety and fullness so it can act as a double-edged sword in your fight against fat what's interesting is that these two tactics can work so well that often followers of the diet don't even need to count calories for example a 2018 study had 34 participants follow a 12we diet in which the only variable was to increase fiber intake and increase lean protein specifically fiber was increased to more than 35 G per day while protein was increased to over 0.8 G per kilogram of body weight again even though there was no controlling of calories participants still ate 265 calories less per day on average we should note that 0.8 G per kilogram is actually still a low amount of protein this simply means that their protein levels were very low before the diet regardless both of these diets independent ly and combined have seen consistent success in helping drop weight another group of foods that's shown to Aid fat loss is a form of carbohydrate known as resistant starch starch is a complex carbohydrate called a polysaccharide which is composed of a long chain of glucose molecules it's commonly found in many vegetables and is especially connected to potatoes and rice now resistant starch is a unique type of starch which similar to fiber passes through the small intestine undigested and reaches the colon intact once in the colon It's fermented and feeds your gut Flora again this is similar to fiber which can increase fat loss specifically because it improves your gut at the same time resistant starch has fewer calories than normal starch and other carbohydrates 2 calories per gram versus four this allows you to eat more yet fewer calories which decreases total caloric intake while increasing satiety there are several common foods which contain resistant starch such as cashews raw oats and green bananas one of the more common sources is a bit of a hack you can cook potatoes and let them cool before you eat this heating and cooling process causes an alteration which produces resistant starch for the next food we're going to give you another liquid to drink to wash down all that protein and resistant starch green tea green tea is an immensely popular beverage in the East and is slowly gaining Traction in the west not only to drinkers enjoy the taste there's one very special ingredient that can make it a great tool to fight excess weight gain caffeine CA caffeine is the world's most popular stimulant and has proven to be a powerful tool for fat burning due to its stimulating effects it's been suggested that caffeine can increase our metabolism again our metabolism refers to a group of systems that dictate how many calories we burn on a daily basis when consumed on a daily basis it's estimated that green tea can burn up to an extra 100 calories per day that's a lot for simply changing your hydration Source in addition to burning calories several other health benefits have been attached to green tea perhaps the most significant is that green tea is full of kakin kakin are a group of flavonoids which hold High antioxidant properties in fact kakin are believed to be such powerful antioxidants that they're said to be effective in actually preventing various cancers such as lung cancer breast cancer esophageal cancer stomach cancer liver cancer and prostate cancer the rate of suggested consumption needs considerable research but 3 to five cups per day is a common suggestion in addition to foods that you should eat to lose fat we wanted to also give you a few bonuses some foods you shouldn't eat the first group of foods is going to be high caloric liquids as mentioned above one of the variables that affects a food's ability to lose weight is its satiety rate how full it makes you unfortunately liquid is minimal relative to its total calories this is one of the reasons it's advised not to drink fruit juice when you do you consume all the sugar and calories but don't get any of the nutrients from the meat of the fruit nor the satiety effects Studies have actually shown that when caloric yielding liquids are consumed with meals instead of water it greatly increases the risk of eating in a surplus so you now know what food should be seen in your diet here are some tips to integrate it into your diet as we mentioned in the middle of the video perhaps the most influential change to your diet should be to increase your protein when losing weight you should eat at least 2 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight a couple of Studies have shown that eating even a higher amount could result in more weight loss if you're not used to eating higher amounts of protein you likely be surprised at how much just 2 G per kilogram is and you'll likely find you become very full very fast however as you continue you can adjust as necessary terms of fiber men should try to eat at least 35 G per day while women should aim to eat at least 25 Gams per day also be sure to include some resistant starch in your diet raw oats green bananas cashews or cooled potatoes work great you can find some recipes for these foods to put into your daily food and with all that food don't forget to hide hydrate throughout the day as well remember how big of an impact drinking plenty of water daily can have on your body composition in order to drink the correct amount we're also going to suggest drinking green tea further we'll include the tip on what not to eat or more specifically what not to drink basically any fluid with calories so daily you should drink at least 64 fluid ounces of liquid your other fluid will come through the food you eat however everyone is different and requires a different amount so start with that number and you can make Al ation as necessary earlier we said that to get the most out of your green tea you could try drinking 3 to 5 cups per day which equals 24 to 40 oz that takes up a large chunk of your daily hydration which should then be filled up with water another 24 to 40 oz however keep in mind that number is used for all individuals therefore if you exercise this will likely be much more if that's you keep your green tea consumption the same and increase your total hydration with water other than water or green tea milk would be another acceptable liquid even though it is liquid it is a thicker consistency and it packs a ton of nutrition further an extra bonus milk has been shown to be an awesome hydrator perhaps better than water or even a sports drink at the same time be sure to drink a cup of water before every meal remember this can make a huge dent in your total calories consumed and if you're trying to add some flavor to your foods be sure to use capsacin in your recipes again 6 Mig a day is a good number to start with and go from there so we went over the foods to include in your diet to help you lose weight however while some of them can be highly effective none of them come close to the magical celery that's talked about so much in other words none of these Foods or food tips will completely mitigate the need to watch your caloric intake your fat loss will still come from getting into a caloric deficit and upping your activity level these Foods may just make that that much easier to do world famous bodybuilder Rick James once said cocaine is a hell of a drug well maybe he's not a bodybuilder but Rick James did say that which is perhaps the most famous quote ever attributed to cocaine and he's not lying cocaine is thought to be the third most common elicit substance behind Weed and Alcohol cocaine is a step above wheed in its hardc coreness and can produce some very strong highs being that it's a powerful stimulant it only makes sense that some bodybuilder at some point figured that it could be a beneficial supplement to help power through some massive weights in the gym in theory yes that makes sense more energy equals more work however in practice well we're going to have to find out could cocaine be the Pre-Workout you've been looking for and trust us you'll want to stick around as there is a relationship you will not see coming but let's hold off on that because it will throw this whole video upside down so let's dig into what cocaine is and what effects it has on the body cocaine is derived from the leaves of the cocoa plant and no this is not the same as the cacao plant where chocolate is derived from its beans this has nothing to do with this topic but we figured we'd address it as we're here back to cocaine the Coca plant is largely found in South America where it is grown as a cash crop for its leaves its properties are so potent that researchers believe that it played a large role in the large expansion of Incan Empire laborers and soldiers were said to work longer and harder due to their practice of chewing its leaves that's a hell of a drug nowadays in the Western World the chewing of leaves is rare as another preferred method of administration is used well after the harvesting of its leaves the cocoa leaves go under a series of processes that deliver the the white powder that we know today as cocaine this powder is then divided out into thin lines where a person will utilize something called insufflation the technical term for snorting up the nose and this is when you get to its effects but seriously if it's actually believed to have helped workers move massive Stones all day what the heck does it do to your body the term cocaine that is used to describe the white powder is actually the name for the primary psychoactive alkaloid found in coca plants cocaine acts on the central nervous system and brings about increased sensations of alertness well-being Euphoria increased energy and motor activity and sometimes increased sexuality compared to other drugs the effects are relatively short which is why a user will take numerous lines throughout an extended period of time upon inhalation a person will generally start to see effects in 5 to 10 minutes and Peak effects around 15 minutes this high will then persist for another 15 to 45 minutes on average and that pretty much sums up the extent of cocaine use or at least builds a foundation to understand the drug at its core it's a stimulant that gives you more energy increases your happiness desire to socialize and you talk a lot depending on who you ask you will get different answers depending on the experience Some Like It some hate it so now let's think about what it could do for your muscle building Endeavor as we just told you that those in the past built the Incan Empire with Coke a pretty obvious assumption you may make is that it's going to help you with your Squat and deadlifts first off it should come as no surprise that there aren't a ton of studies on the use of cocaine and sport this is largely due to ethical concerns as cocaine is illegal making it very difficult to study on people that is as you'll see there are a few relevant studies that have been performed on rodents which can give us an idea of how it might affect humans however there is also some other research that has been done on the physiological effects of cocaine which can also give us a hint on what it would do in the gym as pre-workout has become so popular in the fitness Community it should come as no surprise that lifters may be drawn to the increased arousal after doing some cocaine this arousal also includes constricted blood vessels dilated pupils and increased body temperature heart rate and blood pressure so let's first look at how traditional prep workouts function and if they're even beneficial pre-workouts are a family of supplements that are meant to be taken just before training to provide an increase in energy and mitigate fatigue they're basically supposed to allow you to train harder and longer resulting in a greater overall workload there are numerous compounds that are often found in pre-workouts how however the most common and effective compound by far is caffeine while on the milder side caffeine is similar to cocaine in that it too is a stimulant that acts on the central nervous system its stimulating effects act to enhance performance by increasing time to exhaustion preserving muscle glycogen content delaying perceptions of fatigue and decreasing perceptions of pain and effort in the past it was believed that caffeine benefits were primarily isolated to endurance related performance in other worlds maybe a person would have more energy lifting weights it didn't necessarily result in strength or power gains well that's what was believed newer research has shown that this initial belief is probably wrong as research has now shown that supplementation with caffeine can also result in Greater muscular strength and power further as it increases time to fatigue a trainee would theoretically be able to lift more weight for longer resulting in Greater overall workload this would theoretically lead to gains in muscle mass and strength so drink your coffee concerning the other compounds in pre-workout the research shows their effectiveness are iffy at best with some compounds showing more promise with others but none of this matters right now as caffeine is not only the most effective ingredient it's also the most similar to cocaine so while caffeine is a mild stimulant it would make sense to conclude that a stronger stimulant would mean new PRS weakly however making the conclusion that cocaine is just strong caffeine is terribly misleading for example while it would seem as though this stimulation from cocaine would would be good in the gym it could actually lead to premature fatigue rodent Studies have found that after using cocaine it causes an increased acceleration in the degradation of glycogen in higher dose rodents as well as increased accumulation of lactate in moderate to high dose rodents both of these result in premature fatigue of rodents in studies in fact there have been quite a few similar studies which have come to the same conclusion we should say that this does appear to happen at higher doses of 12 to 20 Mig per kilogram of body weight at least in rodents it's difficult to say how this would be extrapolated to human consumption still this a larger concern for more endurance related events compared to short-term bursts of high intensity such as in weightlifting one human study found that cocaine use can increase an individuals reaction time from a visual stimulus participants were administered cocaine which resulted in significantly better reaction time over the course of 4 hours interestingly it seemed as though their performance continually improved during this period this Improvement was accompanied by a feeling of less fatigue as well however this Improvement in reaction was accompanied with a decrease in attention look a squirrel type Behavior this could possibly cause a detriment to your time in the gym as a proper training program requires a certain level of attention especially during a set if you're doing chest flies but things keep distracting you you're not going to give 100% effort and it could also mess up your mind muscle connection or even lead to injury every exercise you do even isolations are going to activate other muscles this can make feeling the intended muscle difficult if activation in the other muscle takes over to combat this a longtime hack used by bodybuilders is to Simply concentrate on the muscle you want this will help to further isolate it as well as get more muscle activation this phenomena has been labeled mind muscle connection and has shown to be a viable method for Real Results the bottom line is that optimal training requires optimal attention doing cocaine is probably not going to do this for you and in fact will likely be a detriment use of cocaine can easily cause a user to become highly anxious and jittery if they use too much in our opinion this would make it very difficult to stay focused in the gym and we can't imagine working out in that state would be ideal another study that appears to prove an increase in performance comes from mice in 2013 the goal of the test was to see if cocaine use would improve motor skills after Administration two groups of mice were made to perform on a rotor rock this is basically a dowel that rotates on which a mouse must walk on until they fall off in the first phase half were given cocaine and the other half were given saline for 6 days in the second phase half of the mice from each group switched Seline to cocaine or cocaine to saline researchers found that performance increased with the use of cocaine but these improvements disappeared when cocaine was not administered this led them to believe that there were performance improvements that were due to the psychomotor stimulation of cocaine and not the result of enhanced motor learning but it's this Rush that athletes are generally looking for there is some evidence that shows it may provide some acute ergogenic benefit from its stimulation properties in fact other stimulants such as amphetamine have also shown to provide acute benefits so this is not really too much of a surprise we should also keep in mind that cocaine is classified as a S6 stimulant by wada the world anti-doping agency along with being illegal this is because W deems that cocaine has the potential to enhance or enhance performance so in addition to its effects or no effects on performance there are also other harmful side effects of cocaine use one minor yet a downside all the same is that cocaine can cause breathing issues in the nose as you are inhaling an abrasive substance it can cause either a runny nose or even pain either of these aren't going to be beneficial in the weight room and could possibly even decrease the amount of work you can do but what about the inkin workers well it's important to remember that they were chewing the leaves so they did not experience these problems and no we are not suggesting you chew on leaves instead other side effects that occur usually after extended use are loss of concentration irritability loss of memory paranoia loss of energy anxiety and a loss of interest in sex still there are other real dangerous physiological effects when a person takes cocaine like rabdom myolysis this is the same rabdom myolysis that is often associated with Crossfit rabdom myolysis is a condition when a muscle experiences heavy damage and begins to break down this causes the muscle cells to burst which releases myoglobin into the bloodstream excessive myoglobin can overwhelm the kidneys resulting in buildup of waste products it's a very serious condition that can be life-threatening or result in limb amputation while relatively uncommon one cause is extensive and high-intensity exercise it also happens to be the most common form of kidney failure associated with cocaine use now it seems this is the result of long-term or heavy use rather than acute but we wouldn't want to test it there obviously aren't any studies that look to see if heavy training with cocaine would have a compounded effect on the development of rabdomiolisis however it seems to make sense that there would be and it shouldn't need to be said but having your muscle disintegrate is not good for muscle growth not good at all another serious issue that can occur with long-term use is heart issues numerous Studies have concluded that the abuse of cocaine can lead to numerous heart issues such as blockade of sodium and potassium channels oxidative stress and mitochondrial damage and disruption of cardiac exitation contraction coupling while you may not completely understand what this is just understand that collectively this leads to an increase in blood oxygen demand while decreasing heart oxygen supply but that's not all it's known that cocaine use is also responsible for the acceleration of apoptosis which is the natural death of cells in the heart muscles of users over time this leads to numerous heart conditions including heart failure and ischemic myocardial infarction again not good for muscle growth unfortunately there have also been recorded deaths occurring after a user takes cocaine and then partakes in intense exercise other unwanted effects mentioned by athletes after use are perceptual misjudgments time disorientation and general ability to think quickly and make judgments as you can see the effects of cocaine are all over the place just like your mind after snorting a line the most basic summary seems to be that taking a little May provide some benefit due to the rush and excited stimulation however more use begins to cause a detriment to Performance and mental state there's also one other Factor we need to consider if we were to seriously consider using cocaine as a preworkout there's a reason that cocaine is known as a rich man's drug unless you're making a ton of money cocaine is going to make you broke in a few months pricing can obviously vary but a gram of cocaine will probably cost around $50 unless you're able to control your use you're going to use the entire gram when you work out this means you could easily spend $500 to $1,000 a month just on your pre-workout however that prices if you are magically able to only use cocaine for your workout out this likely won't happen cocaine is the second most used illegal drug in the world and cocaine addiction is a major problem what this means is that if you are using cocaine on a regular basis you are going to use more than just for working out in addition to more negative side effects which we will discuss below it's that much more money you're not going to be able to afford your membership anymore or supplements that are awesome like creatine in the beginning of the video we told you that there's a very important relationship between cocaine and bodybuilding and there is however it has nothing to do with building bigger muscles in fact it's not even about the effect that cocaine has on bodybuilding rather it's about the effect that bodybuilding or any type of exercise has on cocaine use if you start on a resistance training program there's a good chance that you will start using less cocaine that's right resistance training may be a powerful tool to actually decrease use of cocaine a study in 2017 showed this using Rats the study design was quite simple there were two groups of rats a sedentary group and a resistance training group both groups were hooked up to machines that allowed the self-administration of cocaine the researchers then sat back and watched they found that the resistance training group used cocaine significantly less times and with lower doses now of course this is in rats and not humans but resistance training has actually played a large part in some substance abuse and recovery programs for some time it's believed that the large dopamine release from resistance training plays a big role in this at the same time exercise can also activate your endocannabinoid system this is the same system activated by smoking weed have you ever been on a run or an intense training session and hit a point where you start to feel good you get more motivation a little euphoria more energy that's likely your endoc canabo system being activated the main point being is that regular exercise can actually give you pleasure in the same way cocaine does plus it's free well maybe you need to pay a gym membership but that's nothing especially compared to the price of cocaine so the main question is Coke a good workout after looking at the evidence we would say no it's definitely not now maybe if you used a small amount you could get a somewhat beneficial high but that's purely hypothetical and you can get the same Effects by taking a single caffeine pill that costs pennies using caffeine would also completely get rid of any chance of getting any type of addiction in other words there is absolutely no reason you should be trying cocaine to help fuel your workout session not only are there other options that can provide similar benefits you're not going to get the slew of side effects anxiety lack of attention running nose rabdom myolysis heart disease death you know side effects just stick to our favorite a cup or two of coffee what happens to your body when you exercise for many exercise is a part of life as kids and adolescents we often participated in organized Sports as part of our social activities gym class was used to teach us the importance of physical fitness social engagement and discipline this is clearly why our parents made us do it even when we wanted to quit as the years pass few continue others fall into the sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy habits for some exercise is nothing more than a sport While others view it as a way of life the Jane Fonda fueled exercise boom in the 70s sure brought big muscles cardiovascular fitness and spandex into the spotlight becoming a multi-billion dollar industry targeting faster muscle growth improved cardiovascular fitness anti-aging and improved mental health in an evidence-based and not so evidence-based way but you're probably wondering how exactly does it do this to our body could all these benefits promising improved Health and Longevity be true well get ready because these answers will blow you away let's get into it so first let's address the obvious let's talk about appearance if you ask just about anyone who begins their fitness journey they'll likely tell you it's to look good and feel good as sure as the sky is blue millions of people across the world will harmoniously declare their New Year's resolution to lose weight and look better with intox icated conviction whether we succeed is neither here nor there but the fact remains that deep down we all know exercise has the power to change our appearance and our overall health so what sets the alarm Bells off we've all been there waking up strolling into the bathroom only to be greeted by a confronting reflection of extra body fat that we've amassed around our belly or the abrupt constriction of our chest when the elevator stops working and we struggle to Traverse just a couple flights of stairs like a slap in the face those changes to our appearance become more than just our reflection they become our limitations and we both know what happens next we exercise well most of the time but does it work you bet it does so since we're talking about appearance let's start with the skin strange place to begin but what better way to hook an audience than talking about more youthful looking skin exercise is obviously more than skin deep but why Overlook the benefits of appearance to the largest organ on our body it's no secret our skin deteriorates as we age skin elasticity and upper dermal structures decrease as a result of extracellular Matrix degradation this combined with hormonal changes from our neuroendocrine system and increased level of inflammatory cyto kindes combined with extrinsic factors such as sun exposure air pollution our chances of looking 25 forever are all but out the door now we know not all of you will care but for those looking for the best Anti-aging products on the market you may well just be missing out on one that's right under your nose we know how exercise has has many restorative effects on the body and the skin is no different exercise also altered the circulating level of cyto kindes and hormones which may be involved in the anti-aging effects of exercise our skeletal muscles produce and release them into circulation aerobic exercise in particular is known to regulate skin aging through the release of interlukin 15 or il15 A protein that enhances skin growth to discuss the benefits let's take a look at a recent study conducted in 2023 they took 56 middle-aged Japanese women to determine the effect of aerobic training and resistance training under the supervision of certified trainers over a 16-week period before training they measured skin properties body composition physical capacity and took blood samples they conducted two experiments the first was to determine the effects of aerobic training and resistance training and the second was to take plasma before and after the 16we period to examine the change in the amount of circulating extracellular Gene Matrix the results of the test indicated your standard improvements including the decreasing body weight body mass index and Improvement of V2 Peak but where things get promising are the effects it had on skin skin elasticity and upper dermal structures improved significantly for both groups while dermal thickness increased for the resistance trrain group now let's look below the surface and talk about weight loss and body composition body composition and appearance are likely the biggest factors of whether we head out for an exercise session it's undeniable we see negative changes alarm Bells signal that it's time to make a change whether this is a built-in physiological warning system or just the Rumblings of booming health and wellness campaigns reverberating through our mind this might just be the signal of potential loss of muscle mass and the increased risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease hypertension diabetes and cancer so how does exercise melt away the fat from your frame you ask to illustrate the effect we have a study from 2010 that details how when our fat intake is lower than fat oxidation to achieve a negative fat balance but with a solution so simple why do so many of us struggle with burning fat well when we carry excess fat we have a decreased capacity to oxidize the process in which our body breaks down fats to free fatty acids for energy what makes things more difficult is that breakdown of fatty acids is lower in obese individuals with less lean muscle mass but not all hope is lost as our body can take great strides with each session you see exercise acutely increases fat oxidation and endurance training can increase our capacity to oxidize fat our skeletal muscle is our biggest metabolic tissue and with that comes a host of serious improvements when we exercise when we exercise our muscles use their own fuel source in the form of stored glucose and circulating plasma glucose when we exercise these muscles dispose of both oxidative and nonoxidative glucose optimizing insulin action glucose oxidation and storage our skeletal muscles themselves are also the site of lipids in the form of low density lipoprotein triglycerides intramuscular triglycerides and longchain fatty acids when we exhaust our muscle glycogen storage the body begins to oxidize these different sources of fat predominantly in the form of longchain fatty acids during endurance training our muscles see a boost in fatty acid oxidation while improving our body's capacity to transport fatty acid what this results in is a boost in efficiency as our body's ability to turn over intramuscular Trias glycerol while reducing lipid content this oxidation of body fat increases with exercise intensity 55 to 65% of V2 Max however it decreases at higher intensity the rates of which vary depending on training status sex and type of exercise one interesting fact is that women experience higher rates of fat oxidation with speculation that this might be due to Greater levels of circulating hormones and camines a more oxidative muscle fiber type distribution and an increased sensitivity to catacol amine stimulated lipolysis now in terms terms of the level of intensity endurance training has been documented to increase fat oxidation during submaximal exercise with walking and running yielding higher fat oxidation than exercise such as cycling specifically in the range of 60 to 75% of V2 Max in exercise programs lasting 6 to 12 weeks interestingly though additional studies showed the benefits of bumping up intensity to a moderate Level Training 2 hours per day increased fat oxidation within 7 to 10 days but it doesn't stop evidence also points to Sprint interval training to increase oxidative capacity this form of high-intensity exercise with very high power outputs of 150 to 300% produces similar increases in oxidative capacity as both moderate intensity and longer duration training these formats all sound so effective so which is it from what we can see all of these options really based on the evidence fat oxidation can happen in a variety of different states as the body metabolizes fat stores in both submaximal and high-intensity situations so in a nutshell our body turns into a furnace when we exercise and utilizes a variety of different energy sources to get the job done and what is more impressive is that the more we engage with this fat burning and cardiovascular capability yeah you guessed it the stronger and more efficient it becomes with the evidence of the positive superficial aspects covered now let's take a look deeper and examine how exercise improves our cardiovascular health to do this let's look at a study from 28 18 which details the effects and benefits the evidence here is extremely promising displaying the profound effects it has on our body decreasing cardiovascular mortality lowering blood pressure elevating insulin sensitivity and a more favorable plasma lipoprotein profile but first let's start with some stats cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide with it claiming 600,000 deaths annually in the US accounting for 25% of total deaths exercise is the magic bull that can slay this casualty causing giant sadly as you probably guessed these numbers are on the rise as many of us succumb to our sedentary lifestyle coupled with decreasing levels of physical activity forming a combination that's proving deadly so how exactly does this work let's explain one of the ways exercise is said to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease is to affect the levels of circulating lipoprotein during endurance training there's an increase in high density lipoproteins HDL a form of good colle cholesterol that absorbs cholesterol in the blood and transports it to the liver where it's then flushed out of the body sounds amazing right this powerful mechanism combined with a potential reduction in triglyceride levels can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease the ifs and ores and butts regarding the effects of exercise on the plasma proteins come from the variables such as type intensity diet and duration however while the evidence is promising many earlier studies don't account for these variables and the dose dependence of exercise but this wasn't long as naturally curiosity got the better of researchers and they decided to take a closer look to do this they took 111 sedentary overweight men and women with mild to moderate dyslipidemia an imbalance of lipid such as cholesterol lowdensity lipoproteins triglycerides and highdensity lipoproteins which can come from poor diet tobacco exposure genetics and cardiovascular disease of the 111 subjects 84 stuck to the guidelines and they were randomly divided into four groups a control group which was for a six-month period or one of three exercise groups for 8 months which included a high amount of exercise group one performing high intensity 20 m per week 65 to 80% Peak oxygen consumption with 23 kilo calories per kilogram per week jogging group two low amount of exercise with high intensity 12 m per week 65 to 80% Peak oxygen consumption or 14 kilo calories per kilogram per week jogging group three low amount of exercise with moderate intensity 12 m per week 40 to 55% Peak oxygen consumption 14 Kil calories per kilogram per week walking the results a clear relationship between a high amount or high-intensity exercises and improvements in health markers these higher amounts of intense exercise showed greater improvements than the lower amounts and both higher and lower amount exercise groups had yielded a better result than the control group what's also interesting is the effects of how EX exercise might directly impact the homeostasis of the arterial wall and combat arthrosclerosis a condition where plaque builds up in the arteries which as you might have guessed reduces the risk of coronary artery disease while improving V2 Max and even regressing arthrosclerotic lesions but the benefits to our cardiovascular system doesn't stop there exercise is shown to improve insulin sensitivity and glycemic control for those who suffer from both insulin dependent and non-insulin dependent diabetes Mel with just a single low intensity exercise session of 50% V2 Max showing positive benefits but what actually happens to the heart being an absolute Powerhouse for providing oxygen to our working muscles and removing carbon dioxide and waste products it undergoes hemodynamic stresses of pressure overload and volume overload to meet the demands of exercise and we all know what that feels like gasping for air heart beating out of our chest our lungs burning like they're filled with battery acid a challenging experience but our body doesn't waste this as it takes note and undergos morphological adaptations increasing heart mass and ventricle chamber wall thickness preserving and enhancing contractile function to meet the needs of our next vout to give us a better idea of how this works we found further research on the topic in a paper from 2013 which speaks about how having a greater cardiopulmonary capacity reduces the risk of cardiovascular and all cause mortality what they found was that those with cardiovascular ular Fitness greater or equal to 10 metabolic equivalent hours per week were three times less likely to experience cardiovascular or all cause mortality than men with just four metabolic equivalent hours these patterns were also observed in women in addition it's shown that improving cardiovascular fitness Alters the mortality rate even for individuals 70 years and older one study took 9,777 men aged between 20 to 82 years old the participants were to perform two cardiopulmonary exercise tests with the mean interval of 5 years what they found was very interesting those who had higher cardiorespiratory Fitness in both tests had much lower risk of mortality compared to those with low cardiorespiratory Fitness in both tests however those who transitioned from high levels of Fitness to low and from low to high had formed an intermediate relative risk of mortality lower risk of mortality which brings up the next load of benefits which is how X exercise lowers the risk of mortality a cohort study from back in 2016 was conducted to determine the dose response relationship of Leisure Time physical activity and mortality you see physical activity guidelines for America have widely been recommending a minimum of 75 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise or 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week or 7 and 1 12 metabolic equivalent hours per week or met of aerobic activity for sustainable health benefits what the researchers wanted to determine though was if increasing these numbers or doubling time would provide additional benefits we know 7 and half hours per week is a lot for many but what about those doing more is this beneficial it works for other physiological systems of the body so why not others sounds reasonable right well in this study they took six cohorts that had previously participated in the National Cancer Institute cohort Consortium analyses of body mass index or physical activity and mortality they pull a huge data set including 661 137 participants 291,413 69,6 52 women with a median age at the beginning of the study of 62 years with a median physical activity level as eight met with a median followup of 14.2 years of a total of 0 to 15.2 years observing 11 16,680 deaths of the participants the ones who performed the most exercise Leisure Time physical activity were younger never smoked had lower BMI were married and had fewer comorbidities Additionally the results were very promising listen to this they found that any level of activity was associated with a significantly lower risk of mortality compared to no Baseline Leisure Time physical activity so if you were to perform some form of Leisure Time exercise you likely going to reduce the risk of illness for those performing less than the recommended 7 and2 met hours per week they still observed a 20% lower risk of mortality and for those participants that performed between 1 to two times the recommended amount of Leisure Time physical activity further decreased by 11% this was also associated with a total 31% of lower cancer mortality risk and if you look closer at the graph you'll see this pattern continues as participants performed more than the recommended amount from 2 to three times decreasing a further 7% and another 2% while performing 3 to five times the recommended amount what's interesting here is that anything above the 40 to 75 Med hours a week or 5 to 10 times there would be a steady decline this is likely due to the increased stress on the body this level of course being for athletes and those training for endurance events what that data shows is that The Sweet Spot is around 3 to five times the recommended Leisure Time physical activity at 22 1/2 to 40 Med hours a week signaling a threshold to get the benefits the evidence from these studies is astonishing essentially showing how powerful even just a little exercise can turn our health around regardless of age so that's some of the look but what about the feel-good changes that happen in our body when we exercise well we all know that after a good workout we often feel great we've likely all been there stressed tired in a bad mood reluctant to get to the gym or train only to get in get it done and leave feeling great but why is that to understand this let's take a close look at a study that was conducted in 14 the researchers wanted to determine the effects of regular exercise and its association with emotional resilience to acute stress in healthy adults they examined 111 students aged 18 to 32 with a body mass index of 19 to 29 kg per M squared they determined how much they exercise splitting them into both sedentary and regular exercise and excluded students with abnormal electrocardiograms psychiatric disorders use of prescription medication working night shifts or those who smoked more than five cigarettes a week to eliminate any major variables to examine the effects of stress and mood students had to complete two sessions 48 hours apart one session was focused on a stressful task known as the trior social stress test which consists of a 10-minute anticipation period followed by a 10-minute period where the participant must perform mental arithmetic in front of an audience stressful right so stressful in fact that many Studies have found it to be successful at increasing heart rate and cortisol the other test alternatively was a non-stressful task to determine the effects saliva samples were taken 30 minutes prior to the tasks as well as 10 20 and 60 minutes after while heart rate was measured throughout the examination the results well there were a few things that were immediately noticed by the researchers they found those with the lower beginning Baseline heart rate were the individuals who exercised regularly compared to the sedentary participants interestingly measurements of heart rate blood pressure and cortisol reactivity did not differ between each group following the stress procedure however those who did not exercise exhibited significantly greater decrease in positive effect after stress while the exercisers felt more friendly after both tasks therefore this signals the potential of how exercise can while not making us impervious to stress tend to make us more resistant to stressful situations and even help us bounce back to acute stress but of course the perks continue beyond that point we stated some of the obvious benefits let's take a closer look the evidence we've presented so far shows how recurrent exercise can have a compounding effect on our cardiovascular health and fat burning potential but does this transfer to other physiological systems of the body well by now you should be able to see the pattern of our body's ability to adapt it has incredible ability to rise to the challenge when put under stress or stimulus from what we've already seen it has a profound impact on both our body composition skin and cardiovascular system but you didn't think that that was the limit of your body's ability to improve due to exercise did you wait did you well it's not exercise has this incredible capacity to challenge and improve our immune system and not in the way you might think you may have heard Whispers in the gym and from health professionals of boosted immune function when we work out but how much of this is fact and what is fiction well it's a little bit of BU let us explain we did some digging and of course sourced some literature from 2015 about the exercise and regulation of immune function and what comes next is something you might expect detailed is the effects of single bounce of prolonged exercise between 30 minutes to 3 hours and how it in fact blunts antigens our immune response potentially impairing your army of te- cell or natural killer cells and neutr fills your third line of defense while altering type 1 and type 2 cyto balance now we know what you're thinking that's not the news we're looking for but hold on there's more heavier balance of exercise takes this to another level with it Elite athletes often experience upper respiratory tract infections during their rigorous training blocks altering mucosal immunity and reducing secretory immunoglobin a which is responsible for neutralizing pathogens so does it have an opposite effect of what everyone is talking about well yes but it turns out that moderate intensity exercises are immunoenhancing you see exercise has this incredible effect on our lucaites those are the white blood cells that circulate in the blood and are tasked with handling inflammatory and cellular response to her injuries and harmful pathogens what's been shown here is that even with just a brief amount of dynamic exercise the total number spikes by a huge two to three times these spikes are transient and only persist for a brief amount of time but there is potential for them to improve immunological adaptations with ongoing training creating this nearly seemingly perfect window for those of us who like to train at a moderate intensity what happens to the body when you exercise is nothing short of remarkable the effects of exercise on the body body are so numerous that we actually struggle to fit everything into this video while it's obvious just how good improvements to the cardiovascular system skeletal muscle and changes to body composition are the impact of our overall health goes so much deeper from boosted immune function age reversing capabilities to reduce stress not to mention its ability to lower the risk of all cause mortality make it seem too good to be true seriously though if you saw this list on a bottle with the evidence to back it up you'd be demanding the manufacturer take your money there's one thing that has come in loud and clear ever since the dawn of the exercise boom and that is that exercise is great for improving cardiovascular health and losing weight with the latter boasting a mammoth market value of 224.210 5.4 billion by 2030 while many of those diet pills don't work producing questionable products exercise in the form of walking running lifting weights Sports and recreational activity provide an undeniable benefit to our cardiovascular system and body composition which we might add is backed by Decades of peer-reviewed scientific evidence going to the gym can be the healthiest habit you ever pick up as long as you do it right carelessness and fatigue are just two factors that can cause injury when you're working out and if you're not careful you might never work out again this video is going to share with you the most common dangers in the gym and more importantly how to avoid them you're going to learned the most effective way to reduce your injury rate by 10% before the making of this video in late 2023 there was a horrific weightlifting accident caught on tape that became viral a 33-year-old bodybuilder from Bali by the name of Justin Vicki was performing heavy back squats he was attempting a 210 kg squat about 462 lb when tragedy struck with a single spotter behind him Justin began The Descent of the squat everything was going fine until he hit the bottom of the lift and attempted to come back up that load proved too heavy pinning his body in a deep squat position he then fell back to a sitting position with his head tucked into his chest from here the barbell rolled across his shoulders neck and head which powerfully thrust his neck forward this resulted in his neck snapping while the nerves to his heart and respiratory systems were compressed unfortunately Justin shortly succumbed to his injuries what made this even more tragic is that Justin was an experienced lifter who was said to be careful in the gym and preached against ego lifting what this proves is that anything can happen in the gym to anyone in fact it's often experienced lifters that become complacent with safety in general weightlifting is a relatively safe sport when compared to other sporting activities overall weightlifting has an injury rate of 1 to 2 injuries per athlete per year or two to four injuries per 1,000 hours of training exposure compare this to male soccer players experience at a rate of 8.1 every 1,000 hours when looking at the numbers in more detail we're able to find different variables that seem to increase the chance of injury for example different styles of weightlifting tend to be more susceptible to certain injuries strongman competitors tend to be at a significantly greater risk of bicep injuries while Olympic weightlifters tend to have a higher propensity for knee injuries at the same time men are seven times more likely to experience an injury as well as those older than 28 years old and those who spend more than 3 hours in the gym a week while interesting we can't do a lot about our sex age the amount we train or the sport we train we can only keep these in the back of our minds to be more aware the good thing is there are plenty of variables we do have control over this video will go over those these are the top factors that increase the chances of injuries including habits in the gym habits outside the gym and general safety protocols paying attention to what we cover will greatly increase your chance of injury-free training this year where do injuries occur one of the biggest ways to stop injuries is to know which areas are more prone a review view on injuries and weightlifting concludes anatomical locations of injury for the weight training Sports suggests that differences in exercise event load selection and the actual technique and body positioning in a particular exercise or event can alter the mechanical stress placed on specific anatomical locations and therefore the subsequent injury risk as most of the general population performs more bodybuilding type styles of training we can tell you the most common injury sites are the shoulder the knee and the lower back back knowing this allows you to concentrate on specifically strengthening those areas at the same time you can also give them extra attention when training learn correct technique and use proper progression to prevent these injuries from occurring the first thing you need to do is to take time to learn the New Movement when you start a new exercise use lighter weights as you learn the correct movement patterns once you've mastered these patterns you can then begin to add heavier loads starting off with heavy weight makes using good form significantly harder and increases the chance of injury when done consistently it simultaneously teaches your neuromuscular system the incorrect movement when you're ready to add weight you do so slowly to allow both your muscles and Joints to adapt a general rule is an increase of 5 to 10 lbs for upper body movements and 10 to 20 lbs for lower body movements listen to your body and adjust accordingly leaning toward the conservative side learn the common mistakes of a movement along with correct form as you learn the correct form of a movement you also learn the most most common mistakes knowing what not to do is just as important as knowing what to do for example during the dumbbell shoulder press many people bring their arms out to the side of their body abducted and externally rotated this causes excessive stress to build in your shoulder joint which leads to overuse over time this can be fixed by simply bringing your elbows in slightly other common issues are knees caving in during the squat or elbows flaring out during the bench press every exercise will have its own specific key points and it's imper inative you learn them use a proper warm-up now let's address one of the more obvious injury prevention measures warm-ups a warm- Up's primary job is to increase muscle and tendon suppleness to stimulate blood flow to the periphery to increase body temperature and to enhance free coordinated movement they can also increase synovial fluids in the joints a type of natural lubricant now a proper warm-up includes separate parts the first is 5 minutes of General warm-up this is any type of cardio to get your blood pumping and increase your heart rate such as a treadmill or cycling if you're training your upper body you can also think about using an assault bike or an elliptical trainer as they work your upper body as well next you want to use what's known as Dynamic stretching Dynamic stretching involves bringing a joint through a full range of motion with slight activation of the muscles for example butt kicks warm up the knee joint while activating the hamstrings this will warm up the joint and the muscle in an effective manner after your Dynamic warm-up you want to move on to your warm-up sets warmup sets too often we see guys too anxious to get into their lifts and start with maximal working loads for their session don't do this even after a sufficient warm-up you're not ready to immediately start using heavy loads this is why you need to use warm-up sets warm-up sets are really just a continuation of your warm-up up to your first working set in contrast to working sets which are the sets you're performing with your prescribed load warm-up sets are lighter sets that you use to build up to your working weight for example if you're doing three sets of six reps at 250 lb on bench press you may perform three warm-up sets one set of 15 reps with just the bar one set of six reps with 155 lb and one set of six reps with 205 lb this can vary depending on the person the lift and the amount of weight being used while there haven't been studies that specifically look at the effect of warm-up sets on injuries we do know they can improve performance such as producing significantly more force on the bench press and back squats correct musle MUSC imbalances one of the most common causes of injuries in the gym is due to muscle imbalances when a muscle imbalance occurs it can throw off proper mechanics and cause the other muscles to overcompensate this can happen anywhere but one area of particular concern is the trapezius muscles or the traps the traps are the body's primary stabilizers of the scapula they're in charge of creating a strong base for the shoulder and the arm to function when these muscles are weak they create a weak base which results in overuse and pain in either the shoulder or the elbow as they become overactive to correct the imbalance for example case Studies have shown how simply strengthening the Trap muscle of patients with prolonged elbow pain has been successful at eradicating the pain their pain went from a score of 41 to zero another common fix is grip strength many people ignore their grip as it's not necessarily the most glamorous muscle however weak extensors or flexors are a common cause of elbow pain as it forces you to overcompensate realize the body operates as one long chain ignoring a muscle at any part of the chain will force the other locations to compensate which will eventually lead to injury everyone will have their own personalized needs however the easiest way to solve this problem is to follow a structured program that gives equal work to all muscle groups and all major movement patterns add Mobility training Mobility is another term that tends to be thrown into the mix with flexibility yet is distinctly different the best way to think of Mobility is flexibility with function for example being able to touch your toes requires flexibility while holding a loaded barbell overhead and doing squats requires mobility in the shoulders and the thoracic spine studies show a clear relationship between adding Mobility training to one's training and a reduction in injury by maintaining high levels of mobility in all your joints you ensure a solid base where no joint will be placed in a compromising position get plenty of sleep lifters need to sleep putting injuries aside for a moment sleep is the most powerful recovery method we have during this time your body releases hormones and puts you in a state for optimal recovery missing out on sleep has been shown to increase fat storage decrease muscle gain and cause a deficit in performance however we now know that lack of sleep decreases cognitive function including executive function attention learning mental performance and mental health all of these can lead to injury so how much sleep is enough more more than you might think studies show that less than 7 hours of sleep on a consistent basis increases the chance of injury in athletes by 1.7 times this risk can dramatically increase with a greater reduction in sleep for example multiple nights of insomnia puts athletes at a 14.6 times greater risk of concussion these injuries can be due to decreased strength slower Reaction Time poor coordination or general clumsiness further lack of sleep generally decreases mood and increases anx xiety which can lead to poor decision making now the numbers we just spoke about were specifically speaking for athletes which isn't exactly the same as lifting weights in the gym however things can still happen quickly where you need full levels of cognition in one survey of weightlifters who were injured a whopping 60% suggested tiredness or fatigue to be the primary cause being tired in the gym can easily lead to one forgetting about setting a latch or putting on a lopsided weight these are all things most lifters have done at least once and it's simply due to not being in the right head space at the same time being overly tired leads to poor coordination which spells trouble for some exercises specifically the freee movements nutritional concerns eating a balanced meal with proper calories is another effective way to mitigate injuries proper nutrition provides the body with nutrients it needs to support a strong body while giving it energy for Optimal Performance one of the first Common practices is staying in a lowc caloric state for a prolonged period of time doing so causes dramatic changes in strength cognitive function and fatigue similar to a lack of sleep remember we just told you how tiredness and fatigue are the presumed cause of 60% of gym injuries being in a starved state only increases fatigue at the same time a lack of certain nutrients also increases the body's chance of experiencing an injury for example women are prone to eating low calories due to heightened issues with body image they also run a higher risk of developing osteoporosis or the weakening of bone Studies have shown these two factors combine in the weight room placing women at an increased risk of bone stress injuries a quick summary of other common nutrients to be mindful of are protein intake vitamin C D copper omega-3 fatty acids or calcium for the prevention of injury to Bone muscle tendon and ligament Health this is a significantly more complex issue to thoroughly explore in this video but be sure to concentrate on eating Whole Foods these are simply real foods such as chicken beef eggs fruits vegetables Etc further be sure to consume an adequate intake of protein of a minimum of 1.4 G per kilog of body weight however aim to hit 1.6 to 2 G per kilg for optimal recovery use D loads appropriately While most lifters have heard of D loads a surprising amount rarely if ever practice them for those who aren't aware a D Lo is a period of time where you decrease the work put on the muscle most scheduled D loads are for 5 to 7 days and occur every 4 to 6 weeks one of the excuses many guys use to not deload is a loss of gains as if their body will deteriorate or shrivel away if they don't hit the gym for a week while it's a funny thought we understand the mentality the good thing is that while building muscle is hard maintaining it is pretty easy a study found performing just one set to failure per muscle group per week is enough to maintain muscle mass for 32 weeks you're not losing gains taking a week off and will likely come back stronger while being injury and pain-free therefore if you hit the gym consistently for 6 weeks you should seriously consider taking a week off this allows the body time to fully recover and alleviate any buildup of fatigue one method is to use the same program but cut the weight by 50% you can also spend the time concentrating on Mobility or other low intensity work use proper spotting when a spotter is needed many guys will call a random person in the gym or a friend while this is convenient it doesn't take long on YouTube to find plenty of spotter fail videos that's because spotting is actually a skill that requires constant attention for example with a back squat the spotter will not be able to control the weight with their hands on the bar therefore the spotter should come behind the lifter and place their arms under the armpits of the lifter if a lifter begins to fall the spotter hoists the lifter pulls the chest back to prevent the lifter from falling forward and helps the lifter stand on bench press the spotter requires experience so they can read things such as bar speed and effort to know if a lifter is going to need help with ultra heavy weights it might be even appropriate to have three spotters one in the middle and two on either side of the barbell this will allow all three to catch and lift the load in a balanced fashion the point is that spotting is a skill and it needs practice for this reason another perhaps better option is to use safety bars instead these are bars that you can place at various Heights in a rack that'll catch the bar if needed for example if doing squats measure how far the bar goes at depth then place the safety bars just below that if you do miss a lift you can simply lower the bar until the safety bars catch the barbell this would have prevented Justin's tragedy consider lifting gear one option for weightlifters is to use weightlifting gear this can include a weightlifting belt knee sleeves elbow sleeves and wrist wraps all of these have the potential to reduce injury by different mechanisms for example weight belts allow a lifter to increase intraabdominal pressure which reduce is spinal loading during lifting wrist wraps act as a sort of brace to maintain a solid wrist joint and sleeves help keep a joint warm while offering some assistance however for those to work properly they must be used correctly as many General lifters are unaware of their proper use wrist wraps go around the wrist to minimize wrist movement many lifters will actually wear them below the wrist which offers no support sleeves go over the joint where the main concern is a snug Fit weight belts should be worn around your belly button and tightened as you breathe in this allows you to press against the belt to create a greater intraabdominal pressure with what's known as the valsava maneuver this provides greater core strength and helps protect the spine a few tips there are a plethora of reasons why your body might hurt during exercise however here are three tips for some of the more commonly reported aches and pains if your shoulder is prone to pain switch to dumbbells as they allow more mobility in the shoulder compared to a barbell bring your elbows inward slightly during your overhead pressing to relieve pressure in your joint during horizontal pressing keep your elbows tucked also a landmine press works great if you're prone to elbow pain try using a neutral grip this takes the pressure off your extensors and extenders which in turn relieves pressure from your elbow if your knee already hurt stay away from exercises that bring your knee forward to be clear these exercises aren't bad for your knees however if you do have knee pain it can cause the pain to flare up for example many lifters report pain subsid sides by performing reverse lunges rather than lunges you can also concentrate on concentric movements only such as deadlifts continue training in this manner until your joint heals and gradually increase the range of motion and load as always if something hurts stop and never work through pain application the very first thing you want to do is follow a properly structured program if you have the resources seriously consider buying one from a qualified coach before you start using heavier loads for the exercises be sure you spend the time needed to familiarize yourself with them pay attention to using proper form as well further be sure to include Mobility work in your program as you work through your program use appropriate progression to increase the intensity keeping your own personal needs in mind A good rule is to increase the load no more than 5 to 10 lbs every week for upper body exercises and no more than 10 to 20 lbs for lower body exercises go even slower if you can at home remember to eat a diet that consists of primarily Whole Foods and don't go on any extreme diets with crazy calorie deficits if you must for whatever reason become accustomed to it before exerting high amounts of energy in the gym at night aim to get at least 7 hours of quality sleep this could have the largest influence on enturies as it keeps your mind sharp while allowing muscles to recover better always be mindful of how you feel if you're feeling especially fatigued one day consider taking the day off in fact you may even need a full D Lo monitor your recovery and performance levels and when they feel off have a rest when doing heavy lifts have either a spotter or safety bar set up if you're using a spotter speak to them before the lift if using safety bars be sure they're set up appropriately if you decide to use gear take the time to learn how to wear it properly a little time spent on proper usage can save you from injury later and always simply be mindful about what's going on around you anything can happen and often you'll only have a fraction of a second to respond it was a Saturday night and Alex had some of his friends and co-workers at his place for a little shindig nothing crazy just some friends getting together over the weekend to let some steam off he and his colleagues work at an accounting firm so it's not the most exciting job there is but it pays the bills while you may assume his job is relatively safe you may be surprised by how much he and his friends complain about their achy backs and necks in fact most of them take some sort of pain reliever to help deal with the discomfort and no they're not old they're all in their 20s and 30s and are relatively healthy so what's the problem sitting as accountants they are sitting all day long sure it's nice to think they sit up nice and Tall but let's be real they may be able to do that for the first 10 minutes and then it's back to Lazy posture slumped over with their head hanging down the party was a great time and eventually wound down later that evening after they all went home everyone posted picture into their group chat to share memories of the awesome night and that's when reality hit Alex hard have you ever seen a picture of yourself and thought wow do I really look like that well that's what Alex thought even though he's relatively tall at 6 ft tall his shoulders were hunched over with his head hanging low making him look a couple of inches shorter he's not an expert but you didn't need to be to see that his posture was bad real bad unfortunately he didn't live in a city that had gyms on every corner the closest gym was about 45 minutes away and there's absolutely no way he could make that work with how busy his schedule is is he doomed to have poor posture forever will he he ever look like he's actually 6 ft tall in his pictures luckily he had a computer and Wi-Fi so he had access to all the information in the world after a couple of hours of research he was able to find a plethora of awesome exercises that he could perform at home the only piece of equipment he would need are resistance bands for some of the exercises as those are easy to get he thought no problem even better as he saw a plethora of studies that specifically used resistance band exercises to improve postural issues so he knew that was enough he also came across some amazing benefits he would get if he could improve his posture however he'll need to actually do the exercises before he can experience these benefits so they will be saved for later in the video if he does the proper training Alex saw that poor posture as a result of your spine holding your back shoulders and neck in an unnatural position out of alignment the human body is highly adaptable and will form to its environment this can be a good thing so long as you are training it correctly however when you place your body in an unnatural position your body will eventually adapt to that this can result in your spine being out of alignment due to tight muscles muscle weakness and asymmetries all of which can cause discomfort and pain now what makes matters so Discerning is that poor posture is generally the result of Lifestyle behaviors things like sitting down all day and staring down at a computer screen eventually your body will adapt to these positions as it did with Alex so what's considered bad posture in the first place there are several unnatural postural positions that can contribute to poor posture but but Alex noticed three major issues you may have one or all of these the first is termed forward head posture with good posture a person's spine will align vertically with their spine now when the head protrudes forward out of alignment the individual is said to have a forward head posture this condition can be so severe in some individuals that in order to look forward they will actually need to tilt their heads up to see thankfully alexes isn't this bad the most common cause is from a person who sits with their head constantly tilted forward such as when looking at their phone at the same time weak upper back muscles are another common cause this will be important when Alex gets to the exercises a person who has a forward head posture can place a greater amount of pressure on the spine due to the load of the head pulling down the most common effect of forward head posture is stiffness and pain in the neck however because the head is tilted forward there are also reports of it causing balance issues and even respiratory problems it's also one of the reasons that causes this next postural issue forward shoulder position when a person's shoulders roll forward it's said that they have a forward shoulder position the problem is just about everybody rolls their shoulders when not thinking about it one reason is we're always holding something in front of us usually your phone another major cause is just being lazy to relax we sit slouched and our shoulders roll forward this movement often becomes a habit and is repeated over and over ending with tight chest and shoulders muscles and strained back muscles a person who suffers from forward shoulder position can experience back pain P neck pain and even poor blood circulation this posture is usually a result of constantly being slumped over with rounded shoulders when done chronically the back and shoulders will adapt to this position the third postural problem that Alex knew he should deal with is the anterior pelvic tilt anterior pelvic tilt occurs when the upper portion of the pelvis leans forward causing the butt to stick out a major cause of this happens to be sitting sitting for excessive amounts of time can weaken the glute muscles which may even lead to atrophy or muscle wasting being in this weakened State the glutes can't hold the pelvis in an aligned position allowing them to be pulled forward it was time that Alex fixed these issues he did the research and it's time to get to the exercises to start Alex wanted to use some stretching exercises to start loosening up all of his tight muscles he wanted something that he could use daily and perhaps even nightly to start to fix the issues and always be on top of it he first did a move called band shoulder dislocates standing straight up he held the resistance band in both arms keeping the band tight and hanging freely next he raised his arms out in front of his body and continued until the band was going over his head he continued until the band was now across his glutes the most important part of this movement is for Alex to keep his arms extended as well as keeping his back nice and tall he immediately felt these loosening up his chest muscles and shoulder joints at the same time they were training his upper back next Alex knew he needed to stretch out his back so he laid on the ground and performed the Cobra pose he had read this is one of the best exercises he could do to stretch and loosen the entire back keeping his lower body flat on the ground he put his hands below his chest and pushed his upper body up from the ground his entire back down to his waist was arched up holding this position it gave his entire back an awesome stretch one more for good luck Alex thought he wanted to perform what are called thoracic rotations he got down on all fours and sat back on his heels keeping one hand on the ground he placed the other behind his head starting with his elbow down then he rotated his elbow up towards the sky rot ating his back he held in this top position and then came back down to repeat so now that Alex was feeling more loose he thought it was time to get to the exercises Alex had learned about a movement known as wall slides which looked like a good place to start to perform them he leaned up against a wall with his entire back flush on the wall next he brought his arms to his side with his elbows at a 90° angle as if he was making a field goal hand signal keeping his back on the wall he lifted his arms up above his head he noticed that the middle of his back got real really tight and the higher his arms went up the first time that Alex attempted this exercise he was only able to get about halfway up before his arms or back would begin to come off the wall this indicated that Alex had tightness in his shoulders and upper back from his years of sitting slouched over he would just need to follow this training regime consistently over time to loosen up these muscles as he had been practicing poor posture for years he knew he couldn't expect to fix it overnight after his shoulders were feeling loosened up he wanted to start to strengthen his dysfunctional muscles to fix his his posture weak back muscles in general are a major contributor to poor posture so Alex decided to start with some basic rows if he has a sturdy object Alex would have attached the resistance band to that but he did not no problem he will just use his legs he sat down on the ground with his legs fully extended he then wrapped the resistance band around his feet and then held the two ends ready to go Alex remembered to keep his chest out and shoulder blades pulled back as he pulled his elbows back pretending as if he was trying to touch the wall behind him with his elbows Alex remembered going through the causes of poor posture and one of The Usual Suspects was the upper back muscles basically Alex would need to train and strengthen these muscles to pull his shoulders back where they're supposed to be he had consistently seen one that seemed to be a favorite the resistance band pull apart the band pull apart is a classic in the world of strength and conditioning and is often used in warm-ups and Mobility sessions the popularity of the band came from its Simplicity which Alex would learn to love standing up straight he held a band in both his hands keeping all the slack out next he raised his hands to shoulder level and then pulled his arms out to his side it was as if he was performing a reverse hug ooh Alex immediately felt these in the middle of his back rear delts and his shoulder blades at least he knows he's doing them right the band pull apart is ideal to improve shoulder Mobility increase the strength of the upper back and shoulders and increase the stability of the scapula more commonly known as the shoulder blades another popular one he had seen is is the face pull like the band pull apart the face pull is very popular and you can often see it performed in the gym however you'll likely see it done wrong the only thing that Rivals the effectiveness of the face pull is the extent to how often it's performed incorrectly as it's called a face pull this is what people do they pull it towards their face this makes sense and it's how Alex probably would have performed if he had not done his research instead he pulled the band towards his face until about halfway he then externally rotated his shoulder so that he finished with his arms pulled all the way back with his arms looking similar to a field goal he made sure to pull back as far as he could with a full range of motion okay so that's the upper body taken care of but as Alex read on he learned that the cause of bad posture isn't isolated to one area the body is a machine with working parts that are all interconnected therefore a weak muscle anywhere in the chain can have an effect on another part this led him to learn he'd need to strengthen his core if he wanted to maintain that 6-t frame you see Alex's core is responsible for providing his spine rigidity and plays a large part in giving him his shape if his core is weak it will not be able to support his spine especially for longer periods of time now when Alex hears the term core he likely has the same idea of many recreational lifters the core is just another term for abs not quite the core includes all of the muscles responsible for supporting the spine which includes the ABS so in addition to his abs another important muscle group he will need to strengthen is the lower back specifically the erector spine a the erector spine a starts at the pelvis and then runs up the back branching out into three muscle columns on each side of the spine these muscle columns run along the back and Branch out towards the side to support the Torso from the posterior side one of the best ways he could train the core at home is with the plank to perform the plank he got on the floor resting on his forearms and his feet he made sure that his body was fully extended and his core tight as possible it's important he didn't let his hips sag nor keep them too high this was relatively easy for him so he used a narrower stance with his feet putting his feet together created a narrower base resulting in more instability once these became easy he performed a single leg plank which is performed with one of his legs lifted into the air he could also use a variation known as a unilateral plank these are planks performed on one arm supporting his body weight on one arm will cause his body to want to Sag down to one side to prevent this from occurring he must tighten his entire core to prevent it from rotating these are tough but will build a powerful core with the plank done he then flipped on his back for an awesome postural core exercise the hollow hold initially seeing these Alex thought these were easy but after reading a bit he learned that's not so true to perform it he laid down with his arm stretched out above his head here he extended his legs and arms as much as possible from here he then lifted his arms and legs so that his body made a very wide u-shape however he knew the most important part was that his back stayed flush on the ground therefore concentrated on pushing his belly button down towards the ground to keep his entire back especially his lower back on the ground and woo he really felt that he tried to hold as long as he could to give himself a baseline his first time he only reached 15 seconds but knew 60 seconds was going to be his goal another area that could be causing his back pain and poor posture are his glutes Alex knew that he sat a lot making this a prime suspect there are some great exercises that anyone can use right now the first one Alex wanted to try were from some video he found online that were called a glute Bridge or a single leg glute Bridge concerning the technique he thought these look pretty simple to perform however looking at the faces of the people performing them in the video they looked pretty tough he thought he might as well give them a shot so he jumped on the floor and got to it laying over on his back he laid flat on the floor and pulled his legs up towards his body so his knees bent until his shins were vertical just like the video said he drove his heels into the ground and thrust his hips up towards the sky until the hips were fully extended in this position he then performed isometric leg curls isometric meaning the muscle doesn't actually move the body to do this he pretended as if he was trying to drag his body along the floor while still pushing his hips up woo he really felt these he then tried to do a single leg glute bridge this is basically the same exercise but you support your body with just one leg other than that everything is the same Alex attempted to do one but they were really difficult to do no worries those can just be a goal to train for so he'd try again when he was Stronger next he wanted to try a staggered stance Romanian deadlift these are Romanian deadlifts performed by placing One Foot In Front of the other not only will this shift a higher percentage of his body weight to the forward foot it also creates a tighter stretch in the hamstrings and glutes since Alex doesn't have access to weights this version will be great standing with one foot flat on the ground Alex then took his other foot and placed the toe just behind the heel of the forward foot next he pushed the hips back slightly and lowered his torso it's it's important that Alex keeps his shoulder blades pulled back as he goes down he saw this point made several times the main objective is not to get your hands as low as possible you want tension to build up in your hamstrings and glutes therefore he knew not to bend his knees more just to get lower he lowered his body down until his hands were about Midway down his shins this is where his form started to break as he came back up he concentrated on flexing his glutes and driving his hips forward wow he just did three postural stretches and eight strengthening exercises he can't say he was perfectly fixed but he sure felt good and a bit looser at least for the moment Alex began his posture training religiously during this time he started seeing amazing results first off his posture began to improve and Alex still saw benefits aside from improving his posture he noticed that his achy back began to feel much better until eventually there was no discomfort at all he would normally need to turn to over-the-counter pain relievers when he was having bad days but he had always known those simply mask the problem rather rather than fix it he just wasn't sure what else to do until now well Studies have found that performing strengthening exercises for postural correction can have a better effect at improving pain and Alex was proof he no longer needed to go to the pharmacy anymore he just needed to follow his program at the same time something unexpected began to happen he gradually found himself to just be happier he never really thought of himself as being negative but as his posture improved he definitely began to notice that he was building confidence and seemed to be more positive he then remembered the studies he saw when he first began research has found that improving one's posture can have a profound effect on one's self-esteem and general mood at the same time it has been found to improve General fatigue brought about by depression in fact you can try these right now stand up tall with Alex's chin up and shoulders pulled back doesn't that feel great now imagine feeling like that all the time every day sounds good then be sure to follow these posture Improvement workouts oh one more thing first check out this new pick of Alex Standing Tall at 6 ft posture stretches band shoulder dislocates 10 to 15 reps Cobra pose 5 to 10 reps with 3 to 5c pause at top thoracic rotation 10 to 15 reps per side with 2 to 3 second pause at top posture strengthening workout wall slides 10 to 15 reps seated rows 10 to 15 reps band pull aparts 10 to 15 reps face pulls 10 to 15 reps planks 30 seconds hollow hold 10 seconds glute Bridge 10 to 15 reps staggered Romanian deadlift 10 to 15 reps per side repeat for two to four sets each body weight or barbells which one should you choose to get your body in shape this might not be the most important decision of your life but it's still something you should consider if you're thinking of training or even if you currently are both of these Training Systems have their pros and cons that you could benefit from as well as some negatives the truth is that an awesome program will contain elements of both but what about if we separate them what stands out as the ideal choice this video is going to dissect the variables that set them apart so that you can decide what is best for you and be sure to stick around and we will tell you which we think is the best don't worry we're not going to cop out and say they're both the best we'll give you an answer let's get this showdown started we're lucky enough to live in a world where we have the opportunity to prioritize our physical activity and we have multiple ways to do it two very popular styles are calisthenics versus weight lifting and the fact we can choose between them is a blessing in itself you can't lose now these two training methods are about as opposite as you can get one favors athleticism and is known for acrobatic like Maneuvers while the other favors mass and strength and is known for huge deadlifts and bicep curls interestingly though even with their differences calisthenics and weightlifting mesh together like peanut butter and jelly this is why the majority of effective training programs will have elements of both however for this video we're going to put this obvious compromise on the sidelines and have them go head-to-head before we get to the rest of the video we need to First give a clear definition for these two training methods we can't make a comparison if we don't know what we're talking about with that said what is weightlifting weightlifting is the most popular type of training and is what you think of when you think about going to the gym it's a form of resistance training that involves using external loads either free weights or machines to place a stimulus on the muscles popular exercises include the bench press barbell back squat and deadlift so what is calisthenics the easiest definition for calisthenics is its body weight movements instead of using external loads calisthenics is a method of training that only uses the body as a loading mechanism this is done by progressing through more challenging movements with the highest level containing various types of acrobatics lately calisthenics has gained a ton of popularity thanks to the rise of interest in prison style workouts as well as Street workouts still it has been looked at as a lone wolf in the fitness industry some considered it the purest form of strength training even if you've never done calisthenics you've almost certainly done some calisthenic exercises in fact many of the best exercises we do on a regular basis are actually calisthenics we're talking about push-ups dips lunges and chinups heck even exercises such as box jumps are calisthenic exercises therefore for the remainder of this video then when we refer to calisthenics we are referring to the entire system not specific exercises picked out in isolation therefore for calisthenics means you're only doing calisthenics let's remember the goal of this video before we go further this video is going to give you the information you need to decide what's best for you not necessarily what is the best nevertheless we will tell you our opinion on what tends to be most effective for the majority of people we think the best way to compare these styles of training is to place different variables head-to-head so that you can compare and contrast Point by point we will provide you with all the information you need to make an informed decision let's get into it with a big factor the cost as calisthenics involves using your body as a load for your exercises it's the cheapest option you have for training free well kind of when people first start it can be very useful to have access to a pair of resistance bands to help assist with some exercises such as pull-ups at the same time some people will use an external load to help make a movement harder this might look like holding a kettle bell with your feet while doing chinups there are also certain pieces of equipment you can buy such as TRX or parallettes however this isn't necessary at first and could be bought later on when you first start the only thing you should have access to is a park that has a set of pull-up bars so unless you will start by setting up TRX in your yard you basically just need gas money or better yet a bicycle in comparison weightlifting is going to cost you some money your first option is going to be buying your own equipment but this is going to cost a nice little chunk of money up front expect to drop at least $1,500 for a decent home gym that will allow you to train your main lifts now over the long run this could be worth it but you don't need to be a mathematician to know $1,500 is much more expensive than free your other option is going to cost less upfront but can add up over time we're talking about a gym membership still even though it's not as big of a commitment financially the unfortunate truth is that gym memberships aren't getting any cheaper these days the average gym membership could set you back anywhere from $10 to $100 a month but the average is around the $40 to $50 range as we look at the gym as being an investment into one's Health we definitely think it's still worth it however it is another expense and in these times with everything getting so expensive we understand it can be a big ask for some people now the good news is you can find some decent gems that are less than $20 a month but still even $20 is more than free $20 more to be exact therefore when we look at pricing training calisthenics will be the better option for those looking to save money now let's look into ease of Entry let's take an average person who is looking to start training would it be easier to start weightlifting or calisthenics our answer might surprise you due to a false perception of body weight exercises when we talk about calisthenics many people automatically think that it's an easier form of training and is easier to do for example you may hear a trainer say to just do body weight exercises for a recovery workout it's often implied that body weight exercises are less stressful on the body or that you should have beginners do body weight exercises as they're safer we mean you're not lifting up barbells and heavy weights you just need to lift your body right we're not sure where this idea came from but it couldn't be farther from the truth now for experienced lifters and athletes it may be true to say that body weight movements make a great recovery workout however right now we're talking about ease of Entry we're talking about a beginner who wants to start training for this population calisthenics is extremely difficult to do even your basic exercises our team has members who have been trainers for decades and we know firsthand that the average person new to training cannot perform a single proper chin up in fact it's not uncommon for a person to not be able to perform a single push-up with good form and these are your Basics your bread and butter this is why there are programs that are specifically designed to get your first pull-up and these can take months to complete the reason being is you only have one choice for a load your body weight compare that to a lat pull down the weightlifting equivalent to a pullup which allows you to pull just a few pounds at a time if you want sure you can modify some calisthenic exercises to make a movement easier but it can still be very difficult let's compare that to weightlifting you will have access to an array of weights and machines that allows you to choose from dozens of exercises all of which can be loaded with as little weight as you want when it comes to bench press we tend to always think of big guys benching three plates therefore this may seem funny but in reality the bench press is easier for an elderly trainee when compared to a push-up you can go very very light with the bench press if needed you can use specialty training bars at only 5 or 10 lb compare that to the push-up which requires pushing all of your weight at the same time you have significantly more options to train a certain muscle group with weightlifting imagine you start calisthenics and you can only do a chin up and maybe an inverted row if you have access to a low bar you will likely have to train for months which will consist solely of working on your pull-up with the inverted row as your only alternative exercise this can be a bit of a downer for some people however in the gym you can set up a lat pull down with basically any weight you want you can then train other types of rows and slowly progress seated row dumbbell row High row landmine row and so on this approach tends to be much more encouraging for beginner weightlifters therefore weightlifting is usually the easier method for a traines to begin their strength Journey now let's move to a very specific issue which is more appropriate for someone wanting to lose weight it's no secret that one of the most common reasons people want to start training is to lose weight this implies that the person is overweight and is looking for the most effective approach this is simple if you are overweight calisthenics will be next to impossible to start with as there is no other choice to lift other than your body it's not uncommon to suggest to an overweight person that they focus on losing weight before they even try calisthenics if you don't an overweight trainee will be asked to start lifting a lot of weight on their first day of calisthenics therefore if you are overweight calisthenics can be discouraging stick with the gym and focus on weight loss as you strengthen your muscles you can then go back to calisthenics at a different point now after you get started which method is best for a longtime use both methods have paths that can be followed long term however they will look very different let's consider the fact that calisthenics is actually composed of a very small group of exercises in fact if we were to list every exercise you can do you'd see that many of them are simply variations and progressions to just a few primary exercises now mastering the most advanced exercises can take years and years of practice we're talking about knocking out a human flag plaun or a front lever training for these exercises can be very effective at increasing strength however people can simply get bored of this working on these exercises takes years and it can seem more like skill development than exercise on the other hand some people love calisthenics because of this they love the challenge that calisthenics provides them making small improvements so small that other people won't even be able to notice is enough to motivate them and keep them going however this is the minority from our experience compare this to weightlifting which has a plethora of exercises and pieces of equipment you can always add some spice to your training you want a deadlift you can do conventional deadlift Sumo deadlift trap bar deadlift axle bar deadlift Romanian deadlift snatch grip deadlift landmine deadlift it's like a buffet of choices so much to choose from further improving upon these is qualitative and easy to measure week one you Ben benched 170 lb and week four you benched 175 lb no question about it you got stronger being able to measure these improvements tend to be more motivational for average lifters one more thing to consider as long as you can put weight on the bar there's always room to improve with weightlifting at the same time you also have the choice to add as little as you want this is very important when looking at long-term progress progressing can become significantly more difficult the longer you train for being able to always add small amounts of weight is the key to long-term success on the contrary progressing through calisthenics means to alter your body's positioning and movement to make an exercise harder this is far less exact while you can definitely still do it it's simply not as easy therefore when it comes to long-term use our pick goes to weightlifting now the past few variables have primarily been looking at these two methods of training from a physical Viewpoint now let's look at the mental aspect of training which is more enjoyable now the term enjoyable is obviously subjective however we think we can answer this for the vast amount of people let's go on a mental Journey picture this you're by yourself in a park you may or may not have music and no one else is around it's a bit hot but you can't turn down the AC because there is no AC there's not even a fan as there's no one around there's no one to talk to or get advice from but there's also no one to push you no one will know if you did your whole workout or if you even worked out at all now picture another scenario you're in a climate controlled gym warming up on a piece of cardio with a built-in fan there's no bugs and the sun isn't beating down on you as you train there's a slew of other guys and girls training hard that acts as motivation in itself there's also some veterans around that you can get some quick advice from oh yeah there's also a sauna and shower in the bathroom now this is a bit exaggerated but it's to make a point in these scenarios it takes a specific person to thrive in the first scenario and it tends to be the minority we want to make a side note here we realize that you could do calisthenics inside a gym how however if you were inside a gym this shouldn't even be a decision as you've already paid for a gym membership and you should just use both okay let's keep moving now being outside in nature does have some benefits assuming it's a nice day research has shown that training Outdoors can result in a marked improvement in mental health by reducing stress improving mood and improving self-esteem however the same can be said for working out in general further most people are motivated when training in the presence of other people regardless of talking or not we do know that on average people will train harder and perform more work under supervision this has been shown in studies at the same time we have a ton of anecdotal reports from regular trainees who report lifting harder while around other lifters particularly of the opposite sex now you can find a calisthenics training partner but it is significantly less common so finding one will be harder then consider there's always someone at the gym therefore for the vast majority of people weightlifting will generally be a more enjoyable experience as well as being more motivating before we get to the most important question there is let's find out which one is harder or should we say more rewarding when it comes to weightlifting it's as hard as you want to make it as you use an external loading mechanism a lifter can adjust the weight so it suits their strength level feeling a little tired take off some weight did you get the best night of sleep ever try a few more pounds however when it comes to calisthenics you don't have a ton of options one of the most popular ways to increase the load is to use progressions in a movement for example working from a push-up to a single arm push-up or you can work from an assisted pull-up to a pullup to an Archer pull-up one of the Holy Grails of calisthenics is a muscle up however progressing to the advanced variations of exercises takes a lot of time you can spend months just to get one step higher in a progression plan now when you do it feels amazing this is why doing muscle ups will generally get more attention than a five plate deadlift these can take a similar amount of time to achieve but the muscle tends to be more exciting so in this context it's safe to say that calisthenics is more challenging than weightlifting now let's look at the big one which is more effective calisthenics or weightlifting as you can imagine there's a lot of nuance to dig through to fully answer this we first want to say that both of these methods are very effective at improving Fitness building strength and increasing muscle mass somewhere along the line a rumor started that said calisthenics isn't good at building muscle let's nip this in the bud right now yes it can and lifting and pushing your body weight provides the exact same stimulus to your body as lifting and pushing weights it's not as if your muscles are communicating that you're only doing push-ups so they don't need to grow bigger and stronger a stimulus is a stimulus in fact Studies have measured the muscle activation of push-ups and bench press at comparable loads push-ups using a resistance band to load the movement researchers found that not only do they result in similar levels of muscle activation they result in similar increases in strength and muscle gains so yes they're both effective however they are not equal we want to draw your attention to the fact that doing push-ups in the study required the use of a thick resistance band to produce enough Force this means that an additional external force was required let's assume that we're not purists and this still counts as calisthenics the fact is that not every movement pattern can be manipulated so easily and while you could use harder progressions like working to a one-arm push-up you're still limited to your body weight in these scenarios and these aggression are not incrementally equal in other words you can't continuously add 2 and 1/2 lb to the movement like you can with weightlifting another issue is that there simply aren't as many exercises to do not to mention it's near impossible to do isolations with weightlifting you can literally have dozens of exercises for each movement pattern however for calisthenics you can't even perform some movement patterns perhaps the biggest drawback that calisthenics has regarding its overall effectiveness is building muscle as in the lower body body there's a pretty common stereotype in the Fitness World against people who do calisthenics that says they all have skinny legs this isn't entirely untrue at least when compared to those who train legs at the gym what gives this some legitimacy is that there is only so much you can do to load your legs with calisthenics think about this if you go to the gym are you going to do bench press with the same weight you do leg press of course not your legs are significantly stronger than your upper body and need a heavier load to provide a sufficient stimulus the problem is you only have your body as a load meaning you're training both your upper body and lower body with the same weight now you can do variations of squats to place a heavier load on your legs such as single leg squats however these are actually attainable relatively easy and are nowhere near the same as doing heavy squats dead lifts and leg press in addition while you can do squats doing any sort of hip hinge with a meaningful load is basically impossible so while you can definitely build a solid pair of legs with althetic weightlifting is definitely more effective so due to this along with the large variety of exercises and ability to load we think that when taken in isolation and having to choose weightlifting is overall more effective we've now gone through just about all of the important variables that separate these two awesome forms of training so by now you should have a pretty good idea of what's best for you so what's our opinion well the obvious answer is to use both just about all of the programs we suggest include a mixture and and some of our favorite exercises are calisthenics such as the dip or pullup however we told you we had a favorite and we do we think that for the majority of people looking to start training weightlifting is the more appropriate Choice due to all the reasons we spoke about but primarily due to the variety of exercises and ease of progression is that what you thought