Training principles and how to get the most out of your routine

In this episode we talk about a wide range of topics that will help you make the most of your fitness plan.

2:00 What are training principles?
5:03 5 Training Principles
7:46 Preparation determines your success
9:02 Working out is not the same as training
17:15 Technique is always the priority
22:14 "I can do it better if I add weight"
24:19 What's a bulk vs. a cut?
29:55 How much muscle can you grow in a month?
35:22 382 days of fasting
40:15 Understanding your own bio-feedback
42:02 Do something consistently
46:13 When you should use a pre-workout
49:12 How do you know if you're lifting heavy enough
50:43 What is the difference between resting and active resting
53:42 What is Progressive Overload?
56:35 Understand the purpose of the exercise 

Transcript

Coach Nat: 0:14

Welcome to the Less Glove morphist Podcast.

Coach Bronson: 0:17

With me, Coach Bronson, and me, Coach Nat, where we peel back the curtains and reveal the truth behind Hot Topics in health and fitness.

Coach Nat: 0:24

This is Keto fit life unfiltered.

Coach Bronson: 0:30

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Less Glove morphist Podcast. This is Coach Bronson and Coach Nap, and today we are going to talk about training principles and the concepts and ideas behind how to get the most out of your fitness routine.

Coach Nat: 0:47

I love the way you summed that.

Coach Bronson: 0:48

I just came up with that.

Coach Nat: 0:49

Beautiful.

Coach Bronson: 0:50

This is popped in my head.

Coach Nat: 0:53

And once again, we have an IG audience with us today as we are streaming live to our Instagrams.

Coach Bronson: 1:01

Yes.

Coach Nat: 1:02

So there may be some interactive questions, and we will not only share what we normally do on this podcast, but answer some questions live.

Coach Bronson: 1:11

Yeah, absolutely. For sure. We already have one question that we'll be getting to at some point, so so, Natalie, you have to stay for the whole thing. So when we get to your question, you get your question answered. All right.

Coach Nat: 1:21

He was just talking to the natalie.

Coach Bronson: 1:23

Natalie that asked the question. This Natalie sitting next to me is going to be here the whole way, so hopefully she stays here the whole time and doesn't walk out of the room. All right, so training principles, you have some stuff that you've written down. You have a video out there. I've got some stuff that I've been actually working on because I'm in the process of taking my methodology and principles and kind of putting that into a different format for some other projects I'm working on. So this is kind of a timely thing, bringing this stuff together. Why did you come up with training principles? Why is it important to have these?

Coach Nat: 1:59

Okay, so for me in particular, at the time I was developing or I was delivering my six week Shred body transformation program to a live group, and I needed something to explain. Okay. As you get into your training plan, you don't just look at the page and do what it says on the page. There are some things you need to understand before you pick up the weight. And so that's really where it came from, was, I need to provide some foundational knowledge of how to lift weights. What do you do when you get a training program and how to approach it to get the best results?

Coach Bronson: 2:43

Okay, so you're talking about more like when you actually are in the gym. These are some of the things that should guide how you function in executing your workout.

Coach Nat: 2:52

Exactly. So if you go and you're like, I want to start working out, I'm going to go find a booty program from an Instagram model, and I'm going to start doing that program, and I'm going to get a bubble. But you may or may not grow a butt with that program and a lot of that depends on you. And also because there were a lot of things that I heard from people when I would give them a plan. Like, this doesn't feel like it's enough. What were some of the others? The things that came up, I realized, had nothing to do with the program that was written and had everything to do with the way they were executing the program or not doing it appropriately. So a lot of the time, you're looking for a magic bullet. You're looking for a fancy program to follow that's going to magically get you your results. But any program can either work for you or not work for you based on what you choose to do with it. Just like any diet can work for you or not work for you based on how you choose to do it.

Coach Bronson: 4:00

Yeah, any program is the same. This is a perfect example when we talk about it's, either the plan or it's you. The plan is either the wrong plan for you or you're not working the plan properly. And the idea of not working the plan properly, that's not a knock on you. There may just be things you don't know how to do. So this is one of those things. We can help you with executing the fitness piece so that you're getting the most out of whatever plan you're following.

Coach Nat: 4:25

That's really why exactly.

Coach Bronson: 4:27

All right, so what are coach Natalie's.

Coach Nat: 4:31

I think we should start with yours because I like that you have a preparation.

Coach Bronson: 4:34

You want to start with mine. So mine are much higher level. So the way that I'm looking at this is more like how do we approach fitness in general? Then it digs down into some.

Coach Nat: 4:43

So, yeah, I think we start there. We start high, and then we get into the weeds a little bit.

Coach Bronson: 4:48

So we'll start high level and then maybe dig down. Depends on how much time we have. You let us know when we're gone too long. Okay. All right. For me, so I have four, five things that I look at for my principles of training, and this is more things that need to be considered in areas or concepts. So we need to make sure we're preparing properly, and there's a lot of things that go into preparation. Okay. Do you have a plan? Do you have a goal? How do you evaluate progress, all those types of things. Then there is technique. We need to understand that technique always comes first before anything else. When you're actually in the gym doing the work, your technique. I don't care if you have to drop the weights, if you're used to doing it on your own, and you use £25 if you have to do it properly, and you can only do it properly with £5, you're getting more work done and you're doing things better for yourself at the £5 than the £25. Okay. Movement always wins. Consistency, consistency. Wins over time. You can have one great workout, but if you only have one great workout every three months, you're not going to see any progress. Right. Intensity is another piece. Understand now, intensity can get complex.

Coach Nat: 6:08

Intensity is one of mine as well. Yeah.

Coach Bronson: 6:10

Intensity is something that we could probably do a whole episode just on intensity because there's different types of intensity. There's different ways to gauge intensity and then understanding how to manage what intensity you're applying based on what your goals are. So that's a huge one to understand. And then recovery is the last thing we have to make sure that we are getting the recovery during the workouts. And I saw you have rest intervals during the workouts that you're doing as well as between the workouts that you're doing. Recovery is a huge piece. So there's a lot of different layers of these. But I think preparation, make sure you're prepared. Make sure you're executing as well as you possibly can in the technique. Be consistent, manage your intensity. Apply it when you need it. Don't apply it when you don't need it. There's a lot of people that are over applying intensity right now. Okay. And then make sure you're getting recovery. Those are the five basics for me.

Coach Nat: 7:06

Okay. Are we going to get into you.

Coach Bronson: 7:08

Want to get into each one?

Coach Nat: 7:09

Well, I mean, we've got, what, an hour?

Coach Bronson: 7:11

We got plenty of time, right? Okay, so let's talk about preparation. What do you have that you would classify in a preparation? Anything in yours?

Coach Nat: 7:20

Well, like we said, mine is dealing with once you have the plan. Okay.

Coach Bronson: 7:24

So here's a couple of things. Progressive, overload and tempo would go into preparation because that would go into the plan. So I'm looking at what is the program that you're doing. In the program that you're doing, you may have some tempo work, so understanding what that is and how to do that can be part of the plan.

Coach Nat: 7:42

Well, when you talked about preparation, what are you talking about? Let's start from there.

Coach Bronson: 7:46

Yeah, I'm talking about having an actual workout program that you're following. Don't make it up as you go. Okay. Don't be like Coach Bronson who does that? Often I go into the gym and I make it up as I go. No, I do that, but I also have twelve years of experience and I know what I'm doing. And right now, I am actually following the program because I'm testing out a program that I'm designing well.

Coach Nat: 8:11

And here's the thing is when you have a goal in mind that you want to get to, you need to have a plan to get to that goal. So if you're just doing anything, you're just going to be running in circles and not going anywhere.

Coach Bronson: 8:24

Wait a minute. You mean there's a difference between training and working out?

Coach Nat: 8:28

Okay, so that is a thing. And this is interesting. I should have watched my other video, which was the Getting Started video because I split it up. So for mine, I had a Getting Started video that was probably pretty aligned with your preparation stuff. And then the training principles is specifically talking about using the plan and then how to train with the plan. So exactly in there, that was a big one.

Coach Bronson: 8:54

What is the difference between training and working out?

Coach Nat: 8:57

One of the first things in my intro was there was a difference between exercise, a workout and training. And one of my mantras is having an athlete mentality. I talk about that in my program. Actually, I have a whole separate video about that, about what is the athlete mentality and how to cultivate the athlete mentality. The athlete mentality is not, I'm doing a workout, I'm going to go work out, I'm going to exercise, or I'm doing an exercise program. It is I am training. I have a training session. The language is different because the intent is different. The intent is not doing something just to do something. The intent is engaging in activity that will lead me toward my goal.

Coach Bronson: 9:50

Right?

Coach Nat: 9:50

So for athletes, when you think about it, they have a sport, they are training for their sport. A CrossFit athlete is not out there running long distance five days a week miles for marathon times. That's not their sport, right? A bodybuilder is not in the CrossFit gym. That's not their sport. So athletes train for their particular sport, for the skills, the abilities, for the performance, for the aesthetics that they need for their sport.

Coach Bronson: 10:26

And translate that into what you guys are doing for your assuming you're here listening as an everyday person who maybe isn't a professional athlete, because most of us aren't, that I knew it's not.

Coach Nat: 10:39

Going to be a sport. But what is your sport? What would your life be? But your sport is life, but what aspect of life are you trying to improve? So when you're wanting a workout program, this is part of your why is like, why am I trying to do this? What is the outcome that I'm seeking to attain from this? And then what do I need to do to get this outcome?

Coach Bronson: 11:05

Right? So what we're talking about is we're talking about your plan should have a target that matches the lifestyle you're trying to live. So if you are just trying to get in shape so that you can do activities throughout the day, not have pain, play with your kids, go in the backyard and garden, go on hikes, do whatever, you don't need to sign up for the most complicated high end strength training program you can find, right? You need to find something that's appropriate for what you're doing and where you're trying to go. So we can have a whole other discussion about how do we find programs, how do we find coaches that match our lifestyle and what we're trying to do with things like that.

Coach Nat: 11:44

And I think we talked about on another episode about the differences, or we talked a little bit about how to put together a program, didn't we?

Coach Bronson: 11:52

Talked a little bit, but we talked about the different types of fitness programs out there and things like that. But just remember that whatever you're looking for, make sure the plan fits the direction you're trying to go and that you have a plan. When you go to the gym, know what you're going to go. The difference between training and guys, you are training. You are training your body. You are trying to deliberately here's another way to rephrase it. Exercise is just doing something. Working out is doing something to say you did something. Training is working out to accomplish a goal for purpose. It's a purpose, it's intentional. So a lot of people work out. They go to the gym, they do some stuff for an hour, and then they say, all right, I worked out today, which is better than not doing anything at all, but it would be way more productive if they went in and said today, these are the five things that I'm doing. I'm willing to try to increase my reps on this one, increase my weight on this one, or I'm trying to, whatever that may be. I'm going to do an extra set on this. Today I'm going in with an intention to accomplish a specific thing. I know for me, every day I go to the gym in my app, I have what I did last week. And I look at what I did last week and I say, okay, today on this exercise, I'm going to do at least one more rep at the same weight in each of my sets than I did last week. Or I'm going to go up £5, or there's something specific that I want to show myself that I progressed from last week to this week.

Coach Nat: 13:27

And we're going to get into that in a bit. The progressive overload.

Coach Bronson: 13:31

So be intentional. That's the biggest part about that, having a plan.

Coach Nat: 13:33

And here's another thing about training. I'm big on our language and the way we speak and how it sets. The intention for how we will show up in the world. And calling it training is different because the intention behind it. You're not likely to skip a training session the way you would skip a workout. A workout or exercising is so broad, it's not tied to anything. It's, oh, I didn't get my workout today. Oh, I didn't exercise today. Training, you just take it more seriously when you apply that word, that this idea of training for something, having a purpose behind it, you're much less likely to skip that. It's going on the calendar, it's planned into your day, it's planned into your week X number of training sessions, and those sessions do not get missed. That's another difference between the way an athlete approaches things and the everyday person, but you don't have to approach things just like everybody else. You can approach things like an athlete, even if you're not an athlete.

Coach Bronson: 14:48

And remember, guys, it doesn't mean when we say training, that doesn't mean you're doing some crazy off the wall thing. Your training. You could say, Look, I'm going to do some training today. I'm going to walk up the stairs five times today. That's your training. That is what you are doing to improve what your body can do. So it doesn't have to be this idea of exercise and fitness being some crazy, I have to join a gym. I have to do this, I have to do that. I have a ton of different tools that you can get for body weight exercises. If you don't have a program, get with me. We'll get you a program that you can do if you don't have a gym membership, if you don't have equipment, there is body weight stuff that you can do where you can have a program where you were following, and then you have some specific goals and measures. That's the other part of preparation. How are you measuring your progress? How are you measuring your success if you're not tracking it? This is a part of preparation as well. If you're not tracking what you're doing, how do you know if you're getting better? I did this weight last time, so I'm doing it again this week, but I don't remember what I did last week, so I'll just do something that feels heavy. Maybe that feels heavy. Today was £5 and lighter than last time, and you didn't get any benefit from doing that work, right? So tracking things is a super important part of that preparation as well. All right, do you want to talk about because we talked a little bit about progressive overload. Do you want to talk about that? Where would that fall under? That would fall under intensity, wouldn't it?

Coach Nat: 16:16

No, I think these are all I have that separate from intensity. I mean, progressive overload tempo, rest time, intensity, rep ranges. All of that is programming.

Coach Bronson: 16:31

Programming focus. Let's talk about those. There's a couple of other aspects to preparation and having a plan. There are some things you want to make sure you include in the plan and as well as when you're actually executing on the floor, when you're in the gym, when you're at home, whenever you're doing whatever. And the first one is.

Coach Nat: 16:50

You don't want to talk about technique first.

Coach Bronson: 16:52

No, we'll do preparation, and we'll go to these, and we could talk about.

Coach Nat: 16:54

I wouldn't consider these preparation. These are execution.

Coach Bronson: 16:59

Execution. Oh, okay.

Coach Nat: 17:04

These are all about execution.

Coach Bronson: 17:05

We'll just figure out see, we plan ahead. Okay, so then we got preparation number one. Number two, we got technique. When we talk about technique, we're talking literally just about moving properly. Okay? When you're a beginner, start slow, start light. Watch every video you possibly can get a personal trainer.

Coach Nat: 17:26

I highly encourage anyone who's brand new to, at the very minimum, go to your local gym and ask for a fitness assessment from a personal trainer on the floor in person to assess your movement. I was having this conversation with a client the other day. Movement assessments. It's something that can point out any muscular imbalances that you have that are creating movement patterns that are not helpful for you. You cannot. But I highly suggest not moving forward and picking up weights, in particular, picking up weights, doing things under load, but starting a program and then just going without ever having an assessment of your movement patterns.

Coach Bronson: 18:17

What's up, Paul? Long time no see, man.

Coach Nat: 18:20

You can do a lot of harm if you continue down this path with poor movement patterns. And then six months, years down the line, you never fixed those things. And now they're causing injuries. They're causing major, major breaks in your training. You're going to have to stop. You're going to have to drop all the weight and kind of start over. So it's better to just do it. I know it can be very daunting and embarrassing that you feel you don't know what you're doing, but to find out, to get with a trainer in person at the very beginning is the best thing you can do for yourself.

Coach Bronson: 18:57

And if you're working a virtual program, I know a lot of people are doing things virtually these days. Okay? Ask your coach if they do movement reviews.

Coach Nat: 19:06

And if your coach is asking you to send them videos, send them videos. They want to help you. They want to make sure that you're doing things appropriately so you don't injure yourself.

Coach Bronson: 19:19

Absolutely. A couple of things about the technique these guys is understanding that your body is going to adapt to the things you tell it to do. So if you are continually and continually and consistently telling it to do things improperly, it will get really good doing things improperly, okay? That's where we get chronic aches and pains. That's where we get pinched, pinched nerves in our shoulder, rotator cuff fisheries, pinched nerves in our neck, low back pain, all that kind of stuff. Because we're moving improperly consistently, over and over and over again. All right? So that's something to keep in mind. The other things about technique, the more properly you execute movement, the more stimulus you get to the muscles and the movement that you're trying to improve, the.

Coach Nat: 20:17

More you can do with less.

Coach Bronson: 20:18

Exactly. The better you perform it technically, the better you execute the movement, the better you develop that movement in under stress. So when that movement is out in the world and encounters a level of stress, it can handle it properly and you move your body without you thinking, right? So develop those different movement patterns in the best way possible.

Coach Nat: 20:40

And along with that, I would say I would put a range of motion in with technical.

Coach Bronson: 20:44

Absolutely.

Coach Nat: 20:45

The other piece so it's form, doing it correctly with proper form, and then full range of motion through the movement. So you're not just slinging weights around, basically. You've all seen those people in the gym.

Coach Bronson: 21:01

Yes, but they're just dirty reps. A.

Coach Nat: 21:04

Lot of the gym bros, you see them just dirty reps throwing things around.

Coach Bronson: 21:08

What do they call those reps that are the extra ones they just throw in there for the heck of it to get the extra volume, extra intensity. Yeah. So range of motion is great. That's what we talk about when we talk about mobility. Mobility is the combination of range of motion and strength. So getting that arm out there all the way, but in front of her face, but being able to hold or resist weight while it's extended. Right. My shoulder is not just mobile. Not only can I get in all the ranges of motion, but while it's out in this extended range of motion, I can do things with it and not worry about injury.

Coach Nat: 21:42

I have a very good specific example for you all. If you cannot do a full squat, you do not need to be squatting with weight.

Coach Bronson: 21:52

Boom. That's a very common 100%.

Coach Nat: 21:56

I hear all the excuses about, oh, my Achilles or this or that or my ankle flexion. I just don't have it. Well, then you don't need to be picking up weight.

Coach Bronson: 22:04

Absolutely.

Coach Nat: 22:05

You need to continue to work on your range of motion, your mobility, so that you can improve and get to a full squat before you put any load on your back.

Coach Bronson: 22:14

And if you are one of those people that says, well, I just perform better if I have weight, I can get to the depth I need to if I have weight on my back. No, what you're doing now is now you are forcing a compensation. You are not fixing a problem.

Coach Nat: 22:34

I'm so glad you said that.

Coach Bronson: 22:36

Okay. If you have to force your body into position, then your body is not in a natural, proper position.

Coach Nat: 22:44

If you can't do it without the weight, you have no business.

Coach Bronson: 22:46

Absolutely. Losing the weight 110%.

Coach Nat: 22:48

And I know, oh, my gosh, so many people want to skip that step. They don't want to do the body weight stuff, and they think that, oh, body weight isn't going to get me there, or there's an ego thing with it. Drop the ego. If you are entering a program, whether it's something somebody wrote for you or something you found or purchased online, you're entering a program. Drop the ego at the door.

Coach Bronson: 23:13

Yes, absolutely.

Coach Nat: 23:14

Enter it as a white belt. White belt mentality.

Coach Bronson: 23:18

Beginner mentality.

Coach Nat: 23:20

We have a new question from my side of things.

Coach Bronson: 23:23

Christina, the nutritionist. How long do you bolt before you do a cut? You want to answer these two questions real quick first and just interrupt the form.

Coach Nat: 23:29

Sure. We can dive into that.

Coach Bronson: 23:30

Okay, so we have two questions for people so far, before we get too far into this, we'll answer the questions. The first one from Natalie meat Kaizen was, is it easier to build muscle in a surplus or maintenance versus a calorie deficit?

Coach Nat: 23:43

And isn't this interesting, both questions? Because the other question is how long do you bulk before you do a cut? Everybody's asking about bodyguard nutrition, right? Because the cut and the bulk and the surplus maintenance deficit all related to.

Coach Bronson: 23:59

We'Re talking fitness today, people. We're talking fitness that isn't that interesting.

Coach Nat: 24:03

It always goes back to nutrition.

Coach Bronson: 24:04

Everybody wants to do this. We'll answer these really quick. It's going to be super easy.

Coach Nat: 24:11

Okay, so they're essentially very similar.

Coach Bronson: 24:13

Very similar. One is a time frame thing, because.

Coach Nat: 24:15

When you're talking about first of all, let's talk about what a bulk and a cut is. When people say bulk and when people say cut, sure. They basically mean what Natalie is asking, right? Typically, bulk signifies you're eating in a caloric surplus. Typically cut signifies you're eating in a caloric deficit.

Coach Bronson: 24:33

But we don't do that.

Coach Nat: 24:34

Here we are less glove morphists, right?

Coach Bronson: 24:40

Calories are bullshit.

Coach Nat: 24:41

Out the box, we think. Out the box. Here's the thing. Yes, macros come with calories. So if you're managing your macros, there's calories associated with that. We don't focus anything we do on the calories. We focus it on the macros. But also we have an interesting take on the bulk and cut concept, the surplus and deficit concept.

Coach Bronson: 25:04

They don't have to be separate.

Coach Nat: 25:06

You can live your life, add maintenance always and build muscle and or lose body fat.

Coach Bronson: 25:17

Okay, so Christina, you asked this question. Natalie, this is basically the same thing, this similar question. Okay, what we're saying is there is no differentiation in the phases. There doesn't have to be a differentiation in the phases. Bulking and cutting, you can do them both at the same time. And it's just a matter of managing your fuel intake. So as an example, we went line diet. We're about two weeks into line diet. Okay? We're not eating less. I would say we're probably eating more. We are pounds plus of meat a day.

Coach Nat: 25:50

Right now I know for sure I'm eating more because I was tracking macros. I was already on a reverse diet. So I'm entering a building phase. And we've been increasing my calories, if you will. We've been increasing my fat macro. So my fat macro has increased. I have maintained in terms of my weight on the scale when people talk.

Coach Bronson: 26:12

About maintenance, yeah, we've maintained the weight you've actually dropped initially.

Coach Nat: 26:15

I've dropped yeah.

Coach Bronson: 26:16

You dropped overall weight. I've dropped overall weight. We both dropped water. We both dropped body fat. We look at each other now and.

Coach Nat: 26:23

We'Re like, holy, where did this where.

Coach Bronson: 26:25

Did this come from? And all we did was it's been two weeks on my own diet.

Coach Nat: 26:31

We haven't changed salt and water.

Coach Bronson: 26:33

Meat salt and water.

Coach Nat: 26:34

Okay, so we have another question to piggyback on those.

Coach Bronson: 26:37

Yeah, well, I just want to make sure we're good at it, right? So bulky and cutting you can do at the same time.

Coach Nat: 26:41

You can. However, here's the nuance. Why you always hear you need to be in a surplus to build muscle or you need to be in a deficit to lose body fat forever. And still in the fitness industry, you're going to hear you can't do both at the same time. You have to pick one. You have to prioritize. And yes, here's the thing. When they say it's not optimal, the fact is or what they're really talking about is what? Everybody wants fast results, right? You're not going to get there as fast.

Coach Bronson: 27:15

Right.

Coach Nat: 27:16

But playing devil's advocate and what I always explain to my clients is getting there slow means you're going to stay there much longer. How long do you want the results you're getting? Do you want them for a short period of time or do you want them for a long period?

Coach Bronson: 27:34

They're also going to be real results. So the other aspect of just doing it through caloric surplus is when you get those muscles bigger, it's not all actually muscle mass. There's fat in the muscle, there's water, there's water in the muscle. There's a bunch of other things that go into the side. So you may get bigger or muscles and looked really jacked, but it's not just lean mass that you've gained. There's a lot of other stuff that goes into that. Look, the minute you go into a cutting phase, you shrink like a **** because all that stuff goes and then.

Coach Nat: 28:08

You think, oh my God, I'm losing.

Coach Bronson: 28:09

And then you're like, oh my God, I'm losing all this stuff. Well, guess what? It wasn't real in the first place. It's like a fake way of we.

Coach Nat: 28:16

Both, according to in body, lost muscle mass in days by going lots.

Coach Bronson: 28:21

£9 of muscle in nine days.

Coach Nat: 28:23

Yeah, that's not accurate. Okay, this is kind of a part of the preparation piece, too, but this is not related to training. This is more related to the results you're looking for and realistic expectations, which.

Coach Bronson: 28:34

Are part of the part of which.

Coach Nat: 28:36

He did, evaluating progress and your goals and whatnot. But stop believing everything you see online about what people are posting about their results when they're showing, oh, I gained £8 of muscle in two months.

Coach Bronson: 28:52

Yeah, not a thing that didn't happen.

Coach Nat: 28:55

Muscle doesn't grow that fast. And that relates to Kristen's next question, which is she's new to training and she's working on adding muscle and she asks, how long does this take? Well, it's like asking how long is a piece of string? How much muscle do you want to gain? The good news for all the newbies out there is that gaining muscle when you're brand new to lifting it is going to. Happen at the fastest rate it will ever happen for the rest of your life. So get excited about your first year, consistent year of training. You will get more gains in your first year of training than you will ever get for the rest of your life as you remain consistent. Now. Oh, that's great. You pulled up the numbers. Beautiful.

Coach Bronson: 29:47

So what she's talking about? This? I have a chart that I've looked at. We've talked about this before, but just to give you guys an idea of what we're talking about as a beginner for men, we're looking at per month, right? Okay. Per month. Okay. Here's a couple of things. If you are doing everything you absolutely can to optimize muscle growth, you're lifting heavy as ****. You're getting good sleep. You're getting all the food that you need.

Coach Nat: 30:16

You're doing all of the things we're getting ready to talk about.

Coach Bronson: 30:20

You're applying the proper principles that Coach Nat's going to talk about when you're actually doing the work. You're getting good technique. You're doing all the things to activate all the muscle fibers. You're doing everything you possibly can to grow muscle men. A good rate of muscle growth would be £1.5 a month of muscle. That'd be a great 1.5 to 2.5. That's the range as a beginner I've never seen. But again, two and a half pounds consist maybe the first month of really working hard. But the thing, here's the thing. Most people this is the nuance of it. Most people who are beginners also aren't training their body hard enough to grow muscle. That's true because their brain is still catching up.

Coach Nat: 30:59

But they're talking about, too, this is within the first year of I believe it's the beginner, they specified it somewhere else. But I believe that's within the first year of training, that's how they're categorizing that for women, it is half a pound up to £1 max, if you're doing absolutely everything right. So I always like to say a rule of thumb for my ladies is a pound of muscle is going to take at least a month to gain, whereas losing a pound of body fat likely about a week. I always say about 1% of your body weight in fat loss per week is a good, healthy rate of loss. So when we're looking at how much body fat you can lose in a week, if you're, let's say,£150, we're talking a pound and a half a week versus putting on a pound to a pound and a half a month of muscle. So it's not a one to one exchange. And this is why people, when they talk about not being able to recomp your body, that it doesn't happen at the same time, it doesn't happen at the same rate. And that's accurate. You can maximize your muscle gain by being in a surplus, or at least at maintenance or a slight surplus, but it doesn't have to be the way they talk about these bulks and these cuts. Typically when they're talking about a bulk, you're going to put on a good amount of body fat along with that muscle because that surplus that they're telling you you need, you don't need that much of a surplus. And the deficits they talk about being, we always hear 500 calorie deficit. Like if you're doing deficits like that, it's too deep of a deficit, you'll lose the body fat quickly and then you'll gain it all right back and you'll be miserable in the process.

Coach Bronson: 32:57

The biggest change that you can take to take away from this conversation is let's stop thinking about it as a deficit or a surplus. It's if I want to grow a muscle, I need more protein so that I can grow more muscle. If I want to lose fat, I need less fat so I can lose fat.

Coach Nat: 33:13

That's a really simple way and it will put you into a bit of a surplus and a bit of a deficit. But you don't need to be going to extremes.

Coach Bronson: 33:22

Yeah.

Coach Nat: 33:23

And that gets back to the question about the bulk and cut. Like how long, I think was she.

Coach Bronson: 33:27

Asked, and how long should you bulk?

Coach Nat: 33:30

It's totally dependent on your goals.

Coach Bronson: 33:32

So if for the rest of your.

Coach Nat: 33:35

Life yeah, it's always going to be dependent on your goals. So a bulk and a cut is not going to be like, oh, everybody should do a twelve week and then a twelve week. It completely depends on you, where you're at, what you're willing to endure, what you can handle without losing steam and not being consistent any longer. So that's a very individual thing and it totally depends on where you're at now and what your body composition goals are. And that brings us back to Bronson's original point about the plan, about creating a plan and having your goals go back to those notes, plans and goals. Yeah, hold on other notes because when you're talking about we have to figure out what your goals, your specific goals are in terms of, okay, how much muscle do I want to gain? Because nobody can tell you how long it's going to take unless you know how much you want to gain. So you got to start putting some numbers to that. And I've had that question from clients about body fat. Well, what should be my body fat goal? Well, when do you want to get there? Because anything could be your body fat goal, but time is going to make it realistic or unrealistic.

Coach Bronson: 34:48

Yeah. Alice asked the question, if you are keto, don't you need a certain amount of fat for energy? Yes, you do.

Coach Nat: 34:56

And it doesn't matter if you're keto. All people need a certain amount of fat for energy.

Coach Bronson: 35:00

What she said yes. So if you're keto right, that doesn't mean you have to eat fat. Just because you need fat for energy doesn't mean you have to eat fat. There's a guy you guys should look him up in I want to say the what was the guy's name? He did a 382 day fast.

Coach Nat: 35:20

Interesting.

Coach Bronson: 35:21

He was £400 or something like that. Hold on, I'm looking at Angus Barbari, right? In 1960 519, 66.

Coach Nat: 35:32

His name was Angus.

Coach Bronson: 35:33

And he did and he did fast. Okay. 382 day fast. He lost £276. Okay. The only thing he ate was vitamins and some yeast to make sure he maintained his protein levels.

Coach Nat: 35:49

Okay. Now, we are not telling you that this is what you should do.

Coach Bronson: 35:52

No, but using this as an example that the intake of fat is less dependent your body is less dependent on the intake of fat than we think. If you have body fat on your body, then you don't have to stuff your face full of fat, especially if you're trying to butter, especially if you're trying to lose the fat that's on your body. Okay. So, yes, you need energy, but your body has a ton of it already stored. If you're over 25% body fat, then eating fat is less of a priority than eating protein and working your muscles.

Coach Nat: 36:30

Yeah. And unfortunately, in the keto space, fat gets worshipped as if you just need always be eating more fat. And I think we did this on a separate podcast episode, but yeah, it was our first one. We talked about extremes, not going to extremes.

Coach Bronson: 36:52

We have a podcast if you guys go to the podcast lessglovemorphist.com. Our first episode we did on comparing PSMF to 80 20 and then looking at some of the other ways that people are getting keto wrong by going too far to the extremes in any one direction.

Coach Nat: 37:08

And that's the same philosophy we take on this bulking and cutting. It doesn't have to be extreme in either direction.

Coach Bronson: 37:16

We got a question about macros.

Coach Nat: 37:18

Okay. Nutrition questions. So we can focus on the topic of the day, which is training principles.

Coach Bronson: 37:29

I'll just say this, if you have questions about nutrition, this episode, we want to talk about, specifically the fitness principles. We can talk about pre workout later. We'll do that at the end. But as far as macros go, if you have questions about macros, go to Keto DietGet. I want to make sure I got that right. Keto Dietgetstarted.com. If you go to Keto Dietget.com, there is a how to get started on keto. And there's a whole section on there on how to citro macros. So we don't need to get into that on here it is an excerpt from my book. It's one of the chapters in my book that's on the getting started. So it'll give you insight into what's in the book, too. Maybe you go by the book. Cool. All right.

Coach Nat: 38:27

Okay. We have another question for me on training. How many days per week do you lift when you are prepping for a competition? I can tell you for me specifically what I've been doing. But this is not like, across the board. Everybody needs to be doing this. Once again, everything is very individual and context dependent. And what I always tell people is whenever I share and Bronson does this a lot, he shares, like, optimal numbers for things, whether it's nutrition, fitness, body composition, whatever. Our optimal when we're sharing what is optimal, what is maximal, what is the best thing you can be doing? I always tell people, don't jump right there. Like, if you haven't been consuming any electrolytes, and I give you electrolyte numbers to follow, which I did on my last master class. I did like a 20 minutes disclaimer before I told the numbers. And it was, if you don't know what you're currently consuming, figure that out first and then slowly work your way toward these optimal numbers. So I will tell you this as well. Over the years, when I first started doing competitions, I started with three days a week of lifting. I went to four days a week. I went to five days a week. I went to six days a week the last two or three years of my training, for a couple of years there, I was doing six days a week. This year, I've primarily been in the five days a week range. So it has changed. And there is no like, this is the perfect number for each individual. You have to be able to assess your biofeedback, which I talk about all the time, and ties in also with Bronson's principle of training, which is recovery at different times in your own journey, you may need more recovery than other times. Currently, I'm taking every other day off of training, so I'm training every other day. And it's not always a how many days in a seven day week. I have a training program that's technically five days a week or six, because he has me do ABS and calves on a separate day. So let's say at six days a week. That doesn't mean it has to be six days in a row and then a rest day. I take a rest day when I need a rest day, whether that's the second day, the third day, the fourth day, or the fifth day after training, multiple days. So it certainly will change based on where you're at and if you work with a good trainer or somebody who knows how to program. Pointing at myself right now, you and him, he's really good at French, both of us, they will assess your situation in its entirety and look at it as a 360 degree. So what does your life look like? What are your stressors? What does your weekly schedule look like? How many hours a day are you working? Are you sleeping? All of these things to determine what's going to be best for their clients. And not just everybody should follow this many days a week, no matter what.

Coach Bronson: 41:40

Everybody's got seasons. Everybody's got things. Yeah. Like you said, Addy, consistency is key. So if you have to miss a day, you have to miss a day. Show up the next day. Do something. If you feel like ****, show up and stretch. Do something. The most important part about the consistency aspect of these principles of training is show up and do something. Okay. Even if you literally guys, I've had people who it's like, I don't know if I can do this. I'm not comfortable in the gym. I'm not comfortable working out in public. Whatever. Go sit in the freaking parking lot of the gym just to get used to taking that time and making the drive. Eventually you're going to get out and do something, but just build that habit, build the routine. That's going to help with the consistency. And you'll start doing more and more and more as long as you keep that up.

Coach Nat: 42:29

Absolutely. Yeah. And that plays in as well with no, that's the consistency. Consistency and recovery.

Coach Bronson: 42:37

The recovery piece is and you can talk with yours about in the workout. The recovery piece on mine goes into when you're applying the intensity, you're doing the work, making sure that you're not overdoing it. You should be able to. How would you describe feeling like you kicked your *** in the gym, but then also feeling freaking amazing? It's like, I just kicked my ***, but now I'm energized. So you feel like beat because you just worked really hard, but then within 1520 minutes, you get it in your car, you get home and you're like, whoa, I'm ready to go. So that's how it should kind of feel like you should feel when you're leaving the gym. You should feel like, man, I put it all out today. And if that's not how you feel, think about why you're at the gym. You're probably just working out and you're not training. Yeah, right.

Coach Nat: 43:29

At the same time. And this kind of goes into the intensity piece. If you are, don't chase soreness. Do not think, oh, now I can't walk for a week. That was a great workout. Yeah. Now you're not going to be able to work out for another week.

Coach Bronson: 43:46

Right.

Coach Nat: 43:46

So that is not what you want to chase.

Coach Bronson: 43:49

Absolutely.

Coach Nat: 43:49

You don't want to chase that feeling of soreness. And if you're pushing so hard in the gym that you're already sore by the time you're walking out of the gym, that might have been a little too much. Usually I get DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness. So it'll typically be the day after or two days after where I'm experiencing that.

Coach Bronson: 44:10

Yeah, it should take some time. Some soreness is okay. It shouldn't be trying to be sore. And then if you're sore, we're to the point where it's hard for you to work out the next time you go to the gym, then that's too sore. That's too much. Okay. That's what we call you've. Exceeded your maximum recovery volume. There's this concept called MRV Maximum Recovery Volume. How much work can you do in one session and recover from it in adequate time so that you can do that work or more in the next session?

Coach Nat: 44:42

The most insane bodybuilders of all time are where they are and have gotten to where they've gotten not because of the outputs in the gym, but their ability to recover from it and do it again.

Coach Bronson: 44:55

If you're curious about the whole reason PEDs exist, PEDs don't help you grow muscle.

Coach Nat: 45:03

Performance enhancing drugs.

Coach Bronson: 45:05

Performance enhancing drugs, steroids. They don't help you grow muscle. They help you recover from the work you did so that you can do more volume to grow more muscle.

Coach Nat: 45:13

Yeah. So those people that are on PEDs are able to do more output without it taking them down for the count for a week. They can go back in the very next day and push a lot of weight for more volume again and again and again. And that's why they're able to grow. So don't think that PEDs give you a pass or when you're looking I see this all the time. When you look at people's physiques like, yeah, of course. Because they're on steroids. No, they're putting in a lot more work than you are and they're just able to recover better.

Coach Bronson: 45:42

And that's the thing that people don't understand it's. It's kind of crazy to think about that way. People on PEDs are actually doing three times as much work exactly as you're doing because they have the PEDs. It's not take the PEDs and then do the same amount of work and you're going to blow up, right? No, it's take the PEDs so that you can triple the amount of work. They're in the gym seven days a week for two to 3 hours a day because their body can now handle it because of the substance.

Coach Nat: 46:09

There is a good segue into the pre workout question.

Coach Bronson: 46:13

Don't need it.

Coach Nat: 46:14

This is the concept of the pre workout or any kind of supplement you're looking at taking to help enhance your performance. It's the same concept of a performance enhancing drug. The only difference is that they're natural substances or they're not banned. They're legal.

Coach Bronson: 46:31

There are quotes.

Coach Nat: 46:32

That's the only difference. But essentially they're all the same thing. They're all performance enhancing either drugs or supplements, ergogenic supplements. And so it's the same concept of, oh, if I take this pre workout and then I feel like I can run through a wall, then I can do more. The only difference there is the pre workout is not helping you recover.

Coach Bronson: 46:52

Correct.

Coach Nat: 46:53

And you could suffer from it.

Coach Bronson: 46:55

Yeah. So getting that pre workout and thinking that okay, now I can go balls.

Coach Nat: 47:00

Out of the gym.

Coach Bronson: 47:03

And then they're like, oh ****, I can't move for five days because they did that. No, that's not what we're looking for. So that's one aspect of pre Workouts. Why I Try To Steer People Away From Pworkouts Same. Another Reason I Try To Steer people away from Pre workouts is because they.

Coach Nat: 47:18

Don'T work and they Become A Crutch.

Coach Bronson: 47:20

Okay? They don't work. There are many studies where people have been given placebo and pre workout, and the people that got placebo did the exact same level of performance as the people that got the pre workout because they thought they were getting a pre workout, not because they actually got a pre workout. It's all appearing ahead.

Coach Nat: 47:38

The pre workout thing is you're believing that you're taking something that's giving you an edge. Then you work harder. So if you can find something else to give you that edge for me, it's music. For him too. Yeah. You put on your music.

Coach Bronson: 47:52

I put on my music.

Coach Nat: 47:53

He's a different person. For us. We take element.

Coach Bronson: 47:59

Dr. Jekyll, mr. Hyde.

Coach Nat: 48:00

We'll take some element on the tongue.

Coach Bronson: 48:03

Hard it up the nose.

Coach Nat: 48:04

Electrolytes. And music is the perfect pre workout. If you put and this is I just watched an Alex Ramosy video on this the other day. So powerful it crutches in your life. You're giving the power to this other thing. You're saying if I have this other thing, then I can do this. You're taking the power away from yourself and you're putting it on something else. So now you start to believe that you cannot do that kind of work without a pre workout. And now you're addicted. And that's why they sell so many of them.

Coach Bronson: 48:33

I can't start my day without coffee.

Coach Nat: 48:35

There you go.

Coach Bronson: 48:36

But I know I can.

Coach Nat: 48:37

He's learning now that he can.

Coach Bronson: 48:39

I know I can. I just don't want to. Okay. Hope that answers everybody's questions.

Coach Nat: 48:47

We got a little side to. Don't have a lot of time left.

Coach Bronson: 48:51

So we talked about preparation. We talked about technique. We talked about a little bit about consistency in that conversation, a little bit about intensity, making sure that we're not going too hard. But we need to go hard enough to get a change, right? So things need to be challenging. We talked in maybe last episode, or we've talked recently about my recommendation. The way that I explain it to people is when you're lifting, when you're doing an exercise, you should have a little question in the back of your mind. Can I do this? If you know for a fact you can pick that up and rip it, then it's not heavy enough. There has to be a question of I have to do eight reps of this exercise. I can probably get six. I'm not sure I can get eight. Now, you know you're challenging yourself because you're going to get eight. But you don't know you're going to get eight. And that's how you know you're crossing over that comfort zone. You're crossing into that growth area. Okay.

Coach Nat: 49:45

I would like to say with intensity, particularly for weight training the last few reps of that exercise are difficult to complete. So it's not full technical failure, meaning you can't lift the weight one more time at all, but you're straining to get those last few out. You should be making an ugly face and probably getting an audible grunt.

Coach Bronson: 50:15

Ugly face lifting. There's a T shirt ugly Face Lifting. Oh, my God, I'm going to do that down.

Coach Nat: 50:22

If you didn't make this face, did.

Coach Bronson: 50:23

You even lift Bro ugly face lifting. I'm going to open up a gym, and I'm just going to call it the Ugly Face Gym. The Ugly Face gym. I love this ugly face with me.

Coach Nat: 50:35

That's awesome. And yeah, you should be making noises like, if it's not eliciting a grunt, it's probably not hard enough.

Coach Bronson: 50:41

Probably not hard enough. Cool. And then recovery is super important. We talked about recovery. Sleep is super important. Taking time off is super important. Moving your body under stress. One of the big questions we get a lot is what's the difference between resting and Active rest, right? Resting is doing nothing at all. Sit on the couch, watch Netflix, relax, chill, eat some bacon, whatever. Just chill the hell out. Okay? Active resting is doing something active. Here's the key, though. That doesn't generate a stimulus that makes an adaptation in your body and that doesn't require its own recovery. If you're doing something you have to recover from, that is not recovery. Resting, that is not a recovery activity. Okay? Recovery doesn't need its own recovery, so you're doing it wrong.

Coach Nat: 51:34

If that's the case, I like to consider it. It's the difference between a leisure activity versus something that is exercise that feels like exercise to your body. There's two things. There's nonexercise activity. Thermogenesis we talk about when we're talking about caloric deficits and whatnot, and we talk about exercise thermogenesis. So if your body perceives it, it's how your body perceives it, not how you perceive it. So you may say, oh, I've been swimming competitively my whole life, so I'm going to swim as my Active rest. Well, if you're doing it in a way that it's increasing your heart rate over a certain level and your body is perceiving this now as an exercise activity, then it is no longer active Rest or Active recovery.

Coach Bronson: 52:23

Right, cool. All right, so what do you have? So we're going to get more in the weeds, more street level?

Coach Nat: 52:30

Yeah. When you're actually training and most of the people I work with are looking to grow muscle. Right. That's the point of their training. For Bronson, it's a little different. A lot of your people are looking for muscle well, lifestyle improvements, muscle mobility, muscle. And you're the one that always tries to steer people away from focusing on that muscle.

Coach Bronson: 52:58

Muscle. Muscle fixes a lot of things. No, but from what you're saying, yes, it's quality of life. You focus on functional fitness, functionality, not just muscle mass.

Coach Nat: 53:08

But I focus on body building. You want to put muscle on your body, right? Okay, so the number one concept here is progressive overload. This is the process of gradually increasing the weight or the number of reps for each exercise that you're doing over time. It causes increased tension on your muscles. So you're asking your muscles to do more and now you're creating the stimulus for them to grow or for them to actually you're breaking them down. And then in recovery is where they grow, which is why recovery is so key. So every single time you step into the gym or your home gym, or wherever you're training and you go to do your training session, not your workout, your training session, always seek to do more than you did last time. Some weeks, some days, you're not going to be capable of that. Sometimes your energy is going to be too low, you didn't sleep the night before. There's all kinds of lifestyle things that can impact that. So you're not going to get there every single time. But your goal or your focus should always be to do a little bit more, one more rep, a little bit more weight. Something that even adding sets, adding volume over time, but improving, increasing.

Coach Bronson: 54:24

And there's a bunch of different ways you can do that. You can do it by the weight, you can do it by the speed with which you move.

Coach Nat: 54:29

You got the very next thing is tempo. This is a huge way that you can improve even if you're doing body weight exercises. And let's say you don't have any kind of resistance, right? Although you could grab soup cans, you could grab resistance bands if you have them. But let's say you're just using your body weight. The best way that you can increase the tension, increase the resistance without adding an external resistance is slowing down the tempo. I love slow tempo movements. Slow on the eccentric, slow on the concentric. So that's for bicep curl, curling up is the concentric, releasing is the eccentric. So on both sides of the movement, slowly controlling the weight the entire time. This is going to increase what we call time under tension, which is going to create more of a stimulus for your muscles.

Coach Bronson: 55:21

Basically, the longer you're holding the movement or the longer you're moving the weight or resisting the weight, resisting the movement, the more muscle fibers your muscles have to engage in order to make that thing that happen. So you get more activation.

Coach Nat: 55:34

So for my peeps at home training with Dumbbells, and you only have a set that goes up to a certain weight, and now it's too light for you and you're completing your reps too easily. And you've taken the other things we've said and you're like, well, okay, I can't lift any more weight, so now what do I do? Just slow it down. And those reps are going to become a lot more difficult, I promise. You. And then static holds. You can do static holds as well. Intensity, we talked a little bit about. I always like to focus the intensity on the mind muscle connection. I love to challenge people that I can get a better workout with you without any weight in my hand. So if you're telling me that your program is too easy, or the program that I wrote for you is too easy, I'm going to tell you you're not working with enough intensity because you don't need a lot and you don't need anything fancy in your program to get incredible intensity. You just have to focus on the muscle you're working. And actually, you just wrote a post about this the other day about you need to know what muscles you're working.

Coach Bronson: 56:36

In, the mood, and this goes into the preparation and the execution piece is understanding. Do a little research and ask the questions. Ask your coats, google it, whatever. What is this exercise supposed to be hitting? Where should I feel this? If you're doing a bicep curl and you Google what does a bicep curl work? And it says you're bicep muscle and you go, well, when I do it, I feel it in my shoulder. I don't feel it in my muscle. What am I doing wrong? Do you need to fix that before you go heavier? You need to fix that. You drop the weight and figure out how do I make this thing do the work? So that's part of that I like focus, intensity. And that perspective is all about focusing on what you're trying to do and making sure it's happening.

Coach Nat: 57:17

I love using the technique of visualizing that muscle working right. And then finally, while we talked about this more, when we discussed programming and how to set your programming but rep ranges, I typically will start especially new clients on a rep range of like eight to twelve or ten. To twelve, or I'll give them a range, and then as they get more advanced, I'll move them into what I love to do, which is pyramid training, where I'm specifically telling them how many reps I want them to do per set. But when I start out with a range, there's one thing that they need to understand. And most programs that you find out there are going to have rep ranges listed ten to twelve or eight to twelve or six to ten or six to eight. When you see things listed in ranges, this is how I want you to think about it. Always start with the low end of the range with as heavy weight as you possibly can lift. So if you're doing three sets of eight to twelve bicep curls, pick up the heaviest weight you can lift for eight reps. On the next workout, do.

Coach Bronson: 58:21

The whole workout at that, but on.

Coach Nat: 58:23

The next set, try to get out nine. If you can get out nine, then go for nine on. The next set. If you can go for ten, get to ten. Let's say you're doing four sets. By the fourth set, you got to twelve. Well, you really should have been lifting a heavier weight. If you look at the rep range and you immediately start doing the high end of the reps, you're not lifting enough weight. Lift the weight to start with the low end of the reps. Work your way up to the high end of the reps with that weight, and then once you can do the high end of those reps with that weight, it's time to go to a new weight.

Coach Bronson: 58:57

Yeah, and that's what I was going to say, is get to a point where you figure out what that heavy eight is, what that challenging eight is, where you can do the you can do all four, all four sets or however many sets at that weight. And then you're like, okay, now I can do all of this at eight. Let's go for all of this at nine. So maybe the next week you come in, you do the first set at nine. You try to do nine on the second set. You're like, no, I'm still at eight on the next one. Until you get all four sets at nine. Then you go to all four sets at ten. Then you go to all four, and then you can jump to when you get to the top. Now you can do them all at ten or twelve, whatever that top range is. Now you go to the next heavier weight and start the process over again.

Coach Nat: 59:35

Exactly.

Coach Bronson: 59:36

So that's working within the rep ranges, but applying the concept of progressive overload at the same time. Cool. Awesome. Guys, we've got a ton of stuff that we've gone over. We have been all over the place of this episode. Hopefully you guys were able to keep track. I'm not looking forward to trying to do the time stamps in the notes.

Coach Nat: 59:55

On this one, but thank God for timestamps because our audience will really appreciate it.

Coach Bronson: 1:00:00

Yes. So we appreciate you guys being gone. Thanks for coming on the lives for you guys on Instagram Live. And we will see you guys again the next time we decide to do an episode, which we have no idea when that is.

Coach Nat: 1:00:11

Next week. I'm calling it next week.

Coach Bronson: 1:00:13

All right, next week. Cool. All right, peace out, guys. Take it easy and don't forget to.

Coach Nat: 1:00:18

Eat, meet, lift, sleep, and repeat.

Coach Bronson: 1:00:21

See you guys later.