Hello people, this is Jan Barsigal. Many of you probably know me from YouTube shorts or TikTok or Instagram. But yeah, finally it's time to share some serious knowledge. And I actually just realized that this is my first video.
long-form video where I actually will share some proper secrets, like proper proper knowledge. And actually the main reason why I'm a bit late with these kind of videos is because I waited to be somebody in terms of results I've achieved before acting like I'm somebody. So what I try to say is I wanted to achieve good results before sharing something to people because I didn't want to just have some random gains and then speak as if I'm a master you know.
I wanted to make sure everything is serious and at the moment I can do weighted pull-ups with 70 kilograms for eight reps, weighted dips with 105 kilograms for eight reps and I can do muscle-ups, a lot of calisthenic skills and I'm mostly known. because of my height and weight because as many of you know that in calisthenics the taller you are the bigger you are in terms of body weight and the bigger your legs the harder everything is in calisthenics and yeah this is me i'm 95 kilograms now for the first time in my life i gained a good amount of mass and this video is about a very important subject and in my opinion if you watch this video like you'll understand how the system works fully it Because I'm not just an athlete who speaks from my personal training experience. No, no, no, no, no.
In my case, it's not like this. In my case, I've learned from the proper Soviet legends in calisthenics and in powerlifting. So I spoke to the best people of the best. I learned everything mostly in Russian because I'm from Moldova.
So I speak Romanian and Russian. So I gained the most real knowledge out there from the strongest people in the world. who achieved the highest results in the world and after practicing for a long time going through many things I gained the right amount of knowledge in order for me to now make videos and share the real knowledge. So the whole video is about how did I get more muscles, how did I gain muscles, I got bigger, I gained weight but I didn't get stronger.
First reason why did I not get stronger? Well I had a lower back injury. years.
It started at 16 years old and I'll even attach some videos where I do some good performance and by the way at 16 I think I've achieved... for me it's not 10 out of 10 because I was not going fully all the way down like in a way 90 degrees perfect and on this video on weighted dips you see that it's like 8, 9 out of 10. I could have gone lower on some reps but it's fine come on I was 16 I didn't know too much but that's after 16 that's when the knowledge started to be more serious started to take knowledge more seriously. So yeah the lower back pain. This. You know I actually even recently fought.
I didn't give up at all. This lower back pain has stopped me from training especially doing weighted pull-ups which is the exercise that caused me the most pain and which is the exercise that probably injured me. I had to stop training with pull-ups at least 70 times in my career and never I.
thought of giving up or maybe changing the exercise or maybe oh I don't want to do this sport anymore I'll do something else no no no no no I never even have this option I never had this option stop what why would I stop you know it makes no sense but yeah I went through so many massage sessions different specialists nothing helped and then I went to one guy who is a chiropractor but they practice a very crazy technique of chiropractors they basically look at your spine and they hit you in the back but of course they know what they're doing and this type of thing has a bad reputation on social media because it looks crazy and people scream from pain it's actually way more effective than you think and after thousands of pounds I spent so much money on massage trying to fix the injury nothing could fix it I went to this guy two minutes he fixed everything two minutes he fixed everything it's crazy so yeah The reason, the biggest reason why I gained weight and muscles even though I didn't get stronger and why this is so important is because even I preach. If you get stronger with the right principles of training, with the right workout methods, it's impossible not to grow muscles. This is what I preach and this is the truth.
It's a fact. It's not an opinion, guys. I don't share opinions on this channel. I share facts and I tell you the truth.
If some... coaches don't agree with me. If I go on a five-minute debate with them, they will ask for forgiveness and they will say sorry to me because I know what I'm doing and I know how the system works more than well enough.
So the biggest reason why I still gain something because I was doing sets until failure and yeah many coaches might have something against failure because if you go until failure in your sets without knowing how to properly structure your workouts how many sets you need to do do, how much rest between sets, how to progress the overload properly, what to do when you hit plateaus. Many principles that can get in your way, you need to know how to deal with them. If you don't know, failure becomes ineffective.
But if you do know how the system works, failure is very important. What I mean by failure is going maximum in your working sets. So yeah, this is what I did and the thing is, the reason why I didn't get stronger is because I train. Let's say I do a training of weighted pull-ups.
I do a training properly, boom, again lower back pain, very intense and I know I had to stop. So I stopped the training, I go home, I look for solution, I try to fix it, I try to do this, try to do that, I try to fix the injury and then okay, couple of days pass, the pain is a bit gone. After like a week from pain, I feel like okay, maybe it's fine, I will do a good warm-up, weighted pull-ups again, pain. So yeah, what I did in those workouts that was very useful is that I didn't do weighted pull-ups in that training because of the lower back pain but I still did sets even bodyweight or I took a gym machine and I did some good quality sets until failure okay and this is what gave me the muscles because when it comes to training until failure first of all you will get stronger pretty well so you'll gain good strength and is the best way in the world probably well if it's not the best one it's definitely top two best ways in the world to gain muscles okay And remember one thing, you guys are not bodybuilders. You don't need to train like bodybuilders.
It's different. The way they train is different. Bodybuilders are not human. They don't have as much testosterone as a normal human.
They have 10 to sometimes even 100 times more testosterone than a normal human. It's not normal. What they have going on is different.
That's why they chase the pump. They take light weights. They do many exercises. They just pump the blood a lot. They train very often.
hours every day you cannot do this you're a human okay you can't do this stuff so the ways of training are very different yeah so again i know let's say the top 10 or 15 most effective progressive overload methods or the best training out there for progressing and strengthening muscles i know them yeah so i'll tell you that for natural athletes doing very good quality sets with compound movements focusing on progressing the overload having very intense and again good quality sets with everything planned with very good diet everything in place is very important and again of course for bodybuilders it's also important they take diet very seriously but with training they just chase the pump do many exercises and that's it you know for natural athletes it's not as effective and the reason people think that the way bodybuilders train is the way you should train is because you probably heard the bodybuilders speak about the way they train but they don't tell you to train this way and if they tell you to train this way is because they don't know the system too well like they think if they train like this why should you train different you're also human but they keep forgetting that they are not human they're people on drugs okay who are not human and they have everything they're stronger more motivation everything is way higher than a normal human being so they probably forget this stuff so yeah that's why the system is different you don't need to train like bodybuilders unless you take something but we don't take something out here were people who don't take drugs okay so i don't suggest anybody to get on that stage of their life because it's not good i don't know this personally but i know it's not good because i spoke to even olympic bodybuilders and i know how the system works so yeah i was doing sets until failure and this is what helped me because the last few reps in the sets even if you don't progress in strength is the fact that you went very intense of your maximum muscle capability You did maximum of what your muscle was capable of in that training. And one very crazy, crazy thing that I will tell you which is the truth 100%. This is intensity in the sets. By intensity in the sets I mean how close to failure you go in that set.
This is intensity. This is volume. How many sets you are doing and exercises you are doing in a session. Let's use two compound movements as an example.
And the volume. This is volume, this is intensity. If the intensity goes up.
the volume naturally goes down. If the volume goes up, the intensity goes down. There is no such thing as both going up or both going down. There is no such thing. There is a specific ratio, and again, there is no, I can't tell you the ratio in numbers, as in like, math and math.
ratio but it's different depends on the problem that's what it is about if you go close to failure you shouldn't do more than two free sets in an exercise and you shouldn't do more than two exercises the reason why why that because look I will break everybody's opinion who knows watching this and says only two exercises what are you talking about wait a little bit let me tell you something so let's use a pool day as an example what's something they use in a pool day even if you try to train your back biceps one muscle so if you do after warm-up after you did everything good two very good quality sets Until failure, your biceps are already dead. By dead I mean they're very tired. Okay? That's it. It's done.
Your biceps are done. You can barely straighten your arms if you do the failure the right way. If you don't do it the right way, maybe you will not be so dead. But so the second exercise, you can progress the overload, like your biceps are tired and dead, but it's still not tired enough for you not to be able to do the second movement. Okay?
So, after the second movement there's no chance for you to do the third exercise. Look everybody can do three or four exercises per session even if you go until failure. But what's the key thing to why it makes no sense and it's stupid to do more than two exercises? The main reason why you cannot do more than two compound movements per session is because you cannot progress the overload in the first exercise.
So you just do it for no reason. That's the biggest point and reason why it makes no sense to do more than two exercises. The second main reason why it's not possible or it makes no sense to do more than two compound movements is because the movement is the same. For your pull day, if you do weighted pull ups, you're pulling from up, down.
Second movement, it's a rowing exercise. You're pulling from the front to the back. What else can your back do?
There's no more natural movements for your back that you didn't do. do. So with two combo movements you target all the muscles that exist in your back.
Okay maybe you miss out on 2% but it's not that important. So you hit all the muscles anyway. The exercise is called differently but you're pulling in almost the same way.
This is the crazy thing that people go do a different exercise. For example look at my reaction I'm impressed people don't think sometimes you do weighted pull-ups. Some people after doing pull ups they go to do a lat pull down.
You're doing the same movement. It's the same as doing instead of after pull ups doing more sets of pull ups. Same thing. You're doing the same movement but the exercise is called differently.
It's for me because I know how the system works. This is impressive. Makes no sense.
Why are you doing this? Why you do more than two exercises if you do the same movement? You're pulling something like the angle is a bit like five ten degrees different. That's it. It changes nothing and and your biceps It's a one small muscle you cannot train your back without your biceps and this is dead after two compound movements it's dead why are you over training it for no reason it makes no sense if you cannot progress the overload in an exercise it makes no sense to do it you understand and that's even if you rest like five to ten minutes between sets or between exercises this is dead okay so again if you think you can do more than two compound movements try to progress the overload in all three of them no chance chance and that's somebody like me who has been practicing this for years and I know these methods for years because I've been doing them and I can't progress the overload in three compound movements in a back day for example in two you're capable of doing that and one major thing if you go until failure rest minimum five minutes and maximum 10 minutes you need to rest a lot because if you don't rest enough all you're gonna do is ruin your next set by doing less reps than you could have if you would recover more and by recover more I mean just do more minutes between sets so yeah going until failure is a crazy thing and this is what still made me gain good muscles and again one thing I've said and I preach about I didn't say in this video yet if your strength is going up your muscles will go in your muscles will grow as well and some people like to say oh bro I know I know some strong people, they have very good strength, they are very strong, but look, they look skinny, they look like they've never trained.
But, I look at those same people when they were weak, they were even worse, they looked even worse. If they look skinny now, being strong, they look skinny. They look even skinnier when they were weak.
So even the people who look But they are strong they look even worse when they were weaker. So again, it's same for everybody It's just some people have this genetics or some people don't look like they train because they have a bit of high body fat and those people usually they get lean they will see and have some nice body but not everybody has a fast metabolism to stay lean most of the time like me for example i've never in my life had more body fat percentage than now and i'm 95 kilograms so i always usually main gain so i'm in a little surplus but for me a little surplus is like three to four thousand calories okay so that's a lot for me um so that i always maiming because for calisthenics having too much body fat makes no sense because fat extra fat it's like it's just you know you don't need it so yeah guys this is the main reason why i've been having this stuff and i will tell you one thing i made a guide recently it's for free and i shared some very good quality knowledge in there so if you want to take this to the next level and actually just take this more seriously because i know mostly it's young people on social media man if not now when are you gonna start training if not now is the best time out there there's no better time than this and you see i'm 21 years old and people think oh you need to work hard for so many years to achieve good level in sport yes is it supposed to take less time like why are you stating the obvious and second of all after these years are past they're in the past that's it these years have been going you feel like everything went so quick like now i've been taking sport very serious for the last six years and you don't even feel it i'm like oh i'm 21 and i've achieved very good results you know that's how i feel no it doesn't feel like a long time guys believe me there's no better thing out there than being in your 20s in your peak looking good being strong too many benefits there's some benefits i will tell you but i don't like to share this on social media but all the things life in all the ways possible, everything is getting better if you achieve good results. And I really want there to be at least some people who watch this video and just trust me. And imagine in couple of years they just suddenly remembered about this moment where I told them this stuff and they just come, man, Jan, Jan was actually right. I want this to happen so bad because I know this is true.
Why would I lie now? It's my first time making videos where I share knowledge. Why would I lie? No reason to lie. I'm telling you this.
the truth so you guys um i plan to stay more active from now on on youtube i will see how things go but yeah if everything goes well i'll post more youtube videos but yeah now i'm young i need to chase goals and if i get stronger i need to get better at everything i have big goals to chase so i can't get distracted with different youtube ideas and all this stuff right now i'm working properly on getting better and better by the way i'm very impressed that i forgot to mention this basically I only didn't progress in my weighted pull-ups or in my pulling strength. That's the only thing that I didn't progress in for about three years, three years and a half. My pushing strength got stronger.
I went from, again, like I told you, from like 75 kilos for nine reps to, let's say, 100 for eight or 95 for eight, but like 20. But still, I was not very strict or as strict as I would be usually. By usually, I mean I was not... so consistent because the lower back pain was not affecting me on weighted dips so if the chain or the belt was pulling me down the weight was pulling me down i felt crazy pain on weighted pull-ups but zero pain on weighted dips but anyway i was not so consistent because of lower back pain because of massages because of many things leg day i couldn't do it properly because when i squat lower back hurt so in legs no progress in strength but they got bigger as well in pushing i only had a progress so and i also trained skills so i could train skills at the time so what i did the solution i had in those moments was for me to do the things that i'm capable of doing for pushing and pulling but not the things that cause me pain you understand so like i was training my front liver i was training muscle ups i was training constant push-ups i was training plunge i was training skills but not weighted pull-ups because they caused me a lot of pain so i was still training i was still finding some things to do actually one cheat code that I found out too late and I'm very disappointed in myself that I found out so late instead of weighted pull-ups I could have done a lot pull down at the gym and progress the overload and get stronger in that and by the way for the people who don't know what's a progress overload what that means is a strategy on how to get stronger for example how many sets you do how many reps how you plan to add more weight how you plan to do more reps it's a strategy on how to get stronger this is what the progressive overload method is so yeah basically i could have done a lot pull down and it would cause me zero pain but i found out too late After like two years and a half, I decided to do Lach Pulldown. Don't ask me why. I'm even confused myself why I didn't think of this.
But yeah, if you go on lower back pain, fix it first of all. Go to a good chiropractor. Go to somebody who will fix it.
and then do your training and strengthen it guys and I'm also sad that I forgot to mention this he is the injury and strengthen it by strengthening I mean make it stronger no lower back is like It's still, it's solid, it's I think 10 times stronger than it was when I had it injured. I made it very strong. Now I feel like there's no chance for me to injure it. Of course there is a chance but I feel like there's no chance because I made it very strong.
So fix the injury and then start training properly. Cool. Everybody take care. Boom.