CategoriesExercise Technique Program Design Strength Training

Are Compound Movements Actually Making You Stronger?

NOTE FROM TG: I’ll be traveling in Europe for the next ten days and figured this would be a nice opportunity to repurpose some old content that may have been missed the first time around.

1) If you didn’t read this the first time I posted it all I have to say is “pfffffft, whatever.”

2) If you did, you’re cool. And, share it……;o)

Photo Credit: Elitefts

Understandably, the title of this post suggests some nefarious agenda where my goal is to spend the next few minutes explaining why we’ve had it all wrong the entire time.

“You mean to tell us, Tony, there’s a chance compound movements don’t make people stronger?”

“What’s next: telling us water isn’t wet, the Earth isn’t round, the zombie apocalypse won’t happen?”

Relax. Deep breaths.

Just so people don’t think I’ve lost my marbles or are already tapping away on their keyboard drafting their hate mail before actually reading what I have to say below….the short answer to the title of this post is:

“Yes, I do feel compound (multi-joint) movements – think: deadlift, squat, bench press, rows, overhead midget pressing – make people into beasts, and should lay the foundation for any well-rounded strength training program.”

However, I fear many trainees (and coaches) often fall into the same trap where we’re programmed into thinking compound movements, and only compound movements, should be utilized 100% of the time…no exceptions.

A thousand years of no gainz and incessant internet trolling to the person caught using the leg curl machine or, the horror, performs a few sets of tricep kickbacks.

Shut Up

No, really…shut up.

Of COURSE compound movements make you strong(er). If you want to get strong, it only makes sense to perform those movements which will allow you to use the most weight and force the body into a state of adaptation to get strong.

Granted a lot of other things need to fall into place in order for “strong” to happen. Just because you place a barbell on your back and meander up and down doesn’t mean you’re the second coming of Ed Coan.

Technique, frequency of training, addressing weaknesses, technique, and technique consistent progressive overload all need to be taken into consideration.

What’s more, if strength is the goal – particularly with the big 3 – compound/multi-joint movements performed in low(er) rep ranges (1-5) is kind of important.

Why?

Cliff Notes Version:  Lifting maximal weight has a number of effects:

1. Maximal number of motor units are recruited.

2. Fastest MU’s are activated (high-threshold motor units).

3. The discharge frequency (rate coding) is increased.

4. Activity is synchronous – both inter and intra-muscularly.

5. Potential for future hypertrophy gains (especially when you revert back to a “hypertrophy” specific training phase).

6.  While some argue whether or not the research is efficacious – it goes both ways – lifting heavy things helps to increase serum Testosterone levels.

7.  Girls will want to hang out with you (<=== it’s science).

But It’s Not All PRs and Butterfly Kisses

While all the above is true, focusing solely on compound movements (and lifting maximal weight all the time) does have its pitfalls.

1). There’s an inherent likelihood of increased wear and tear on the joints over time (Yes, even with “good” technique).

2). Compound movements = produce/accumulate more fatigue (particularly neural fatigue). And if it’s not managed appropriately, one may see a decrease in strength/performance over time.

And finally, something not many people consider:

3). We’re Really Good at Compensating.

You may have noticed that I drilled the idea of “technique” earlier. It’s that important.

As a coach I find many people are unable to express their true fitness/strength level due to faulty joint positions (misalignment, such as excessive lumbar extension/APT), and, honestly, not “earning the right” to increase load.

I.e., they haven’t performed enough reps at “x” weight in order to go up.

To that end, drilling technique – and respecting each individual’s anthropometry – is always going to be of paramount importance.

 

Due to our ability to compensate well, the likelihood you’re leaving poundages in the tank are very high.

As well, when we start talking accessory movements, I’m always in the camp which takes the approach they should generally be used to address some form of technique flaw or weakness with the main lift in question.

For Example

If someone is struggling with their deadlifts off the floor – meaning, they’re super slow – some viable accessory movements to address this would be:

1). Limiting tap-n-go reps (bouncing off the floor).

2). Deficit pulls (2-3″ elevated) to generate more quadricep recruitment.

3). More squat variations such as Safety Squat Bar squats and front squats (again, to generate more quadricep recruitment).

4). Anderson Squat – performed from a deadstart, emulating one’s deadlift stance.

 

Note: Notice my hip placement above. When I was pulling conventional style (the video is four years old) this variation of Anderson squat very much mirrored my deadlift stance, which carried over well.

Back To My Point

Oh yeah, my point.

Listen, it’s okay to perform isolation work or more bodybuilding-specific exercises. A more “hybrid” approach – strength and hypertrophy – is going to bode well for most people anyways.

Case in point: my bench press sucks. There are days where I’d rather wash my face with broken glass than bench press.

One of the things my coach – Greg Robins – has been implementing into my programs of late is more isolation work to address muscular issues.

Think about it: expressing strength is (mostly) about generating force. Hoisting big weights helps in this regard. However, a bigger muscle – almost always – is going to produce more force than a smaller one.

Indeed, I’ve been hammering away at my bench press technique – even implementing accessory movements like paused bench presses and Spoto Presses to address my weaknesses.

 

But guess what? Lately – for the past two blocks of training – I’ve been performing a TON of dumbbell chest flyes. You know, those “wimpy” things guys use to train their chest cleavage.

I feel so dirty admitting it.[footnote] But no lie: my pecs can cut diamonds.[/footnote]

Funnily enough my bench press has seen it’s best jump in a while since incorporating more isolation type work for the pecs and triceps.

Too, my DL has gone up since tossing in some leg extensions; and I have to assume the chest flyes play a role too…;o)

Read: It’s not only about compound movements. Don’t be so dogmatic.

True, they serve as the staple for any strength-based program…but try not to neglect the importance of choosing the correct accessory work – even if it’s isolation exercises – to compliment your goals.

The internet will forgive you.

CategoriesFemale Training muscle growth

Women and Hypertrophy: Why Should Jill Get Jacked?

I train a lot of women.

In fact, if I broke down my client roster I’d say it’s about a 50/49/1% split (women/men/Centaur[footnote]It’s name is Alex.[/footnote]). I live in a little strength & conditioning bubble where the bulk of women I work with don’t blink an eye at the idea of adding muscle to their frame.

In fact, most want that to happen.

Today’s guest post by my boy, Dean Somerset, explains why most women can (and should) want the same thing.

NOTE: Dean and Dr. Mike Israetel released an amazing resource this week, The L2 Fitness Summit Vol 1, which delves deep into assessment and how to get your clients results (specifically, how to get them diesel).

It’s really, really good (and it’s on sale for this week only)

Copyright: annotee / 123RF Stock Photo

Women and Hypertrophy: Why Should Jill Get Jacked?

The vast majority of my clients are female, somewhere around 70% at any given time. The reason these women are training with me varies a lot, either they’re working against some medical disorder, an injury, or other significant problem, or they’re training for some performance goal like running a faster marathon or deadlifting twice their bodyweight.

In most of their goals, the thought of getting bigger muscles often ranks somewhere between stubbing their toe and waxing their eye lashes off.

In some instances it’s a pragmatic element.

If a client has invested a significant amount of money into their wardrobe and suddenly their lats are just too gunny, they’re going to have to spend a lot of money on alterations or worse, go shopping for new clothes.

 

It might come down to spousal support too.

It’s all too common for a female client to say their husband told them they don’t want them to turn into a man, a statement so ridiculous to hear that it’s hard to bite my tongue.

Guys, 3 lbs of muscle on a female will not make them manlier than you. Maybe you should put on a couple pounds of muscle and not worry so much about your girlfriend or wife out lifting you.

In any case, training to gain some muscle (read, some. It’s very hard for anyone to gain a lot, male or female) is very much a good thing for most if not all goals you could have in the gym.

  • Muscle looks better at almost any body fat percentage than not having it.
  • Muscle helps performance goals, like doing a chin up or deadlifting a dump truck
  • Muscle improves cardio performance, making you a faster runner, cyclist, or whatever the rage is these days
  • Muscle demands calories, which means you can justify eating a little more without affecting your body composition
  • Muscle can improve bone density, hormonal function, and sleep quality.
  • Muscle helps yoga pants or your favorite pair of “butt jeans” fit better.
  • Science.

Now, will training for hypertrophy make you bulkier?

Possibly, but there’s a lot of factors that have to go into that.

First, it’s a long process to see notable increases in muscle, and for the purpose of this article we’ll assume a 5% increase in body mass as notable.

So for someone who weighs around 130 lbs, a 5% increase would be around 6.5 lbs.

Male or female, an individual would look notably different with an extra 6.5 lbs of muscle on their build.

If you talk to most competitive physique or figure competitors, a 6.5 lbs gain of muscle can take a very long time of very dedicated workouts, nutrition, and frequency. What would be reasonable would be to see about 3 lbs a year of actual muscle gain in a caloric surplus, so if you’re looking to gain, you’ll likely be dedicated to 4-6 hypertrophy-focused workouts a week for a full 12 month phase while eating enough to support that development.

This isn’t to say it’s impossible to gain more than this in shorter time frames, but just what seems reasonable for a lot of female lifters.

Here’s an example of this process in action with a friend of mine, Kait Cavers. She looks to compete in figure competitions and dedicates a large portion of her training calendar to gaining muscle.

She recently posted a before and after pic of her at the same weight, and you should see how awesome a comparison it is:

To be clear, as she stated in her post, it’s not about one being better than another, or which one would be preferred, but just showing that you can look vastly different at the same body weight with differences in muscle and body fat.

She’s considerably more muscular in the right pic, but her waist and hips are miniscule compared to the left.

Now if you didn’t want to dedicate to this kind of work load, the gains of muscle will be much less, and if you wanted to phase in hypertrophy training for a few months out of the year versus make it your whole focus all the time, you could do different things without worry about packing on some lat muscle or thicker delts.

That’s the great thing about training: you don’t have to do the same thing all the time and can cycle your training calendar throughout the year to focus on different stuff as you see fit. Hypertrophy can fit into the flow, be the entire goal, or just have a sprinkling for flavor on other stuff as you go.

This is a concept used by another friend, Ben Bruno, when he trains a lot of Victoria Secret supermodels. None of them would be judged to be too bulky, but most of their training uses heavier resistance training, hypertrophy protocols, and intense conditioning elements.

Example #1

Big congrats to @barbarafialho1 for crushing it at the Victoria’s Secret fashion show. Hard work pays off! A lot of women who want to have a body like Barbara steer clear of weights out of fear of bulking up, but I want you to know that 70% of Barbara’s routine is comprised on heavy strength-based circuits consisting of deadlift variations, hip thrusts, sleds, chin-up variations, and core work. The other 30% is a mix of high-intensity interval cardio on the ski erg, endless rope, and Airdyne bike mixed in with some lower-intensity cardio in the form of hiking outside in the sunshine. The analogy I like to use is to think of strength training as the entree and cardio as the side dish. If you’re a woman who is hesitant to strength train, or if you’re a trainer who works with women, I hope Barbara can serve as inspiration to get out there and get STRONG!

A post shared by Ben Bruno (@benbrunotraining) on

Example #2

Example #3

Example #4

Facebook reminded me that it’s been five years since my friend and former client @megangrahamfitness earned third place in the Miss Bikini Universe contest. This was so exciting. We trained very hard for 12 weeks with a program centered around getting STRONG on RDLs, hip thrusts, reverse lunges, inverted rows, sleds, etc. She was also very disciplined with her eating (but didn’t starve herself) and cut way back on drinking alcohol. She completely transformed her body, yet we never once stepped on the scale for the whole 12 weeks, and interestingly, she didn’t lose any weight (may have even gained a few pounds, actually) even though she looked MUCH more slim and toned. And as you can see, she clearly didn’t “bulk up”. After the contest, I wrote a blog post titled “Look Like Barbie, Lift Like Ken” where we showed videos of her crushing 225×10 on hip thrusts, 12 feet elevated inverted rows, and several other impressive feats of strength, and the blog ended up going viral because tons of women shared it amongst themselves, which I think is so cool because it’s such a great message.

A post shared by Ben Bruno (@benbrunotraining) on

Aside from gaining muscle, what other good could training for hypertrophy offer?

If you’re training for a specific goal, such as powerlifting, running, or even weight loss, shifting gears for a phase or two can offer a type of cross training that can help refresh your mind about training, and give your body a break from the stuff you were doing consistently.

An example of this is my own wife. 10 months of the year she puts in a lot of miles on her bike as a competitive road and track cyclist. During the bulk of her in-season, she’s on the bike upwards of 15-20 hours a week with a mix of long duration low intensity rides and max effort sprints.

During the offseason, she wants to jump into some heavier weights, which definitely have their place in her program, but going straight from cycling and minimal weight training into maximal resistance training isn’t that great of an idea, so we involve a phase of 6-8 weeks of hypertrophy training due to the lower relative loads, and easier recovery compared to max lifting.

This helps to prepare her for the heavier stuff, give her body a break from the bike, and still look to gain a small amount of muscle after a hard in-season, which will help her performance on the bike next year, but also prepare her for the heavier weights of the off season.

Another example was a recreational skier who tore her ACL and needed surgery to fix the injury. During the pre-op phase, we involved work to keep some muscle mass through the quad with lighter loading and moderate volume, and following the surgery her workouts progressed from next to no loading, through to loading to technique failure, and then on to muscular failure through drop sets or extended set options.

A major goal of ACL rehab is to regain quad volume, so we went after it, using the progressive range of motion her knee was re-establishing, and as her strength development allowed.

She’s back on the ski hill now and having a great time 6 months after her surgery.

Gaining muscle can be a very challenging goal, especially if someone is already somewhat well established in their training and have been at it for a while. Because of the requirements to see notable increases in muscle, women shouldn’t fear training for hypertrophy, but should involve it in their programming on a regular or even occasional basis to help augment their goals, what ever those may be.

Having some extra muscle is often a major benefit under any goal set, including fetching water from up the hill.

Maybe if Jill lifted a bit more, she wouldn’t have come tumbling down after Jack, but would have farmer carried that shit all the way back home with Jack on her shoulders, straight up Medal of Honour style, so he could get some medical attention to fix that broken crown.

She could use that water to make some tea to sip while thinking if only Jack had trained he wouldn’t have fallen from such a simple task, but that’s none of Jill’s business.

Special Limited Time Offer

Dean Somerset and Dr. Mike Israetel filmed 11 hours of amazing content at the recent L2 Fitness Summit and it’s nuts.

Half of it is Dean breaking down assessments and the other half is Dr. Mike talking about getting people jacked and swole.

 

It’s on sale THIS WEEK ONLY (12/5-12/10) at a heavily discounted price of $50 off the regular price. As if the content and quality of presenters isn’t enough to entice you: If you’re still seeking CEUs to finish off your certification requirements this bad-boy offers 1.2 CEUs via the NSCA.

Holla.

—> Get Jacked and Swole and Stuff <—

CategoriesFemale Training

Why Women Should Embrace the Bigness

Or, to make things a bit more click baity maybe an alternative title of this post should be: “Why Women Should Train for Gainz.”

Copyright: restyler / 123RF Stock Photo

 

I mean, why do words such as “mass, size, gain, muscular, bulk, and bigness” need only apply to men?

While the tides have changed in recent years – in no small part to places like Cressey Sports Performance, MBSC, I-FAST, AMP Fitness, Tuff Girl Fitness, War Horse Barbell Club, SVPT Fitness, Mark Fisher Fitness, Legacy Strength, and Beyond Strength Performance, to name a few, not to mention the popularity of CrossFit[footnote]I also can’t deny the immense help it’s been to have coaches like Ben Bruno showcasing videos of famous female clients lifting heavy shit on his Instagram account. When I can revert to videos of Kate Upton, Chelsea Handler, and various Victoria Secret models performing deadlifts, squats, and 500+ lb sled pushes to hesitant female clients it’s priceless. Also, kudos to Bret Contreras for making the world gaga over glute training. Oh, and Girls Gone Strong for being a beacon of encouragement and empowerment for women to embrace the iron. Shit, also Artemis Scantalides for all her work; especially her I Am Not Afraid to Lift workshops (which I have attended, as a dude) Honestly, I could go on forever about a ton of people. My bad for not including everyone I know. I love you.[/footnote] – it’s still readily apparent walking past any magazine rack or watching any infomercial, the overall message directed towards women with regards to fitness is still one rife with less than stellar connotations.

“Tiny”

“Tone”

“Tight”

“Drop”

“Small”

“Smaller”

Women tend to be inundated with these sort of words all….the….time. Actually, more like punched in the mouth 24/7, seven days a week.

Being smaller, or less of what they currently are is the reverberating theme. And I don’t like it. I don’t like it one iota.

NOTE: Please don’t interpret this as me saying any one woman has to look or strive to look any one way. It’s your prerogative to look how you want to look – small, big, twight (<– said with Goldfinger’s accent from Austin Powers), rotund, I don’t care. Be you. However, I think it’s a fair assessment that the majority of the mainstream media nudges women into thinking that adding, or being more, is less than desirable.

And with that, here are some reasons why women getting their diesel on is a GOOD thing.

1. Purpose

This bodes well for anything – whether it’s to add size, lose fat, train for a competition, or squat King Kong. Having a goal in mind, any goal, gives your training a little oomph, or purpose.

It’s amazing what happens to one’s mindset and approach in heading to the gym when there’s a plan in place. Rather than haphazardly “showing up” and doing a little of this and little of that, training under the guise of adding muscle provides a kick in the pants like nothing other.

To steal some insight from Julie Read:

“You see, a hypertrophy program helps you build the size of your muscles, the cross-sectional size…the girth. I really like how Nick Tumminello puts it “unlike strength training, the goal of training for size is more physiological than it is neurological. It’s about upgrading your body’s hardware, like bones, connective tissues, and muscles. You literally build your body, forcing the tissues to develop and grow stronger.”

And, while it leaves me feeling fatigued, it does so at the muscular level versus in the Central Nervous System (CNS).”

Which is a nice segue to…

2. It’s a Nice Break

I like getting people strong. That’s what I do best. Many of the women who train with me operate underneath the same umbrella. It’s like they’re my own personal army of deadlifting fembots.

Ohhhhh, snap. Austin Powers reference #2!

I can’t deny, though, that training for strength – at least long-term – can be a bit of a drain. Both physically and mentally. Taking a bit of a break and dedicating a macrocycle (or two[footnote]Or 14[/footnote]) towards aesthetics (namely, muscle growth), and using sub-maximal weight, is a fantastic way to approach things when you’re feeling drained and need an opportunity to reenergize.

Speaking of aesthetics…

3. Aesthetics

Far be it from me to attempt to explain or pontificate on what looks good and what doesn’t. I’m not here to sway anyone’s beliefs or preferences on the topic.

That said, I’d be remiss not to mention the aesthetic benefits of adding muscle to one’s frame. Muscle is what adds shape and contour to the body. What’s more, assuming one’s diet is in check, and there’s less fat covering the muscle, the more those shapes and contours can be shown off or accentuated.

You can’t do this trudging away on the elliptical machine for hours on end and performing endless repetitions of whateverthefuck with pink dumbbells.

Copyright: ammentorp / 123RF Stock Photo

There’s a saying out there a lot of misinformed people like to spout out in defiance of women strength training and training for size.

“Muscle weighs more than fat.”

This is often used as a scare-tactic – mostly by people trying to sell their shady products – to deter women from lifting (appreciable) weights.

Um, no. 1 lb of muscle is the same as 1 lb of fat. A pound is a pound.

You see, muscle actually takes up less space than fat. Which is why, often, when many women begin to lift weights they may only set a net difference of a few lbs. of total bodyweight lost, however look as if they lost much more.

Obligatory “lifting weights won’t make you big-n-bulky” diatribe.

“It’s hard to put on muscle. Real effing hard. 100% of guys wish they could add muscle as fast as many women “think” is possible.”

You won’t turn into He-Man in a week. Or a month, or a year for that matter.

This is still my favorite video ever on the topic:

 

4. Confidence

I think this one is self-explanatory. I LOVE when I witness the switch flip with many of the women I train, from delicate flower to Xena beast mode deadlift warrior.

The key to programs like The Bigness Project is to always, at all times, demonstrate success. The idea should be to showcase to women that they can do stuff, and not revert to lame semantics where the message is “oh, you’re a girl, you should do this instead.”

The easiest examples would be the idea behind “girl push-ups” and/or the idea that women can’t perform pull-ups/chin-ups.

 

Good programs, programs that work, are ones that build people up and help to make their participants autonomous.

And they also, not coincidentally enough, make people work.

Both hard and intelligently. And that begets confidence. And that’s priceless.

5. Because, Why the Heck Not?

*Also, because my wife is obsessed with Jen Sinkler.[footnote]In a good way. Not in some creepy, internet stalker way.[/footnote]

In my wife’s eyes Jen can do no wrong. Everything from her funny daily anecdotes to her choice of eye liner, my wife is on board with. And when Jen made her big reveal the other week after completing The Bigness Project….

…….all I heard over my shoulder was “daaaaaaaaaaaaayum.”

I think she was referring to both the biceps and leg warmers.

Suffice it to say, Lisa was impressed and is already chomping at the bit to give this program a go once she has the “all clear” from her doctor. She’s 40 weeks pregnant (our little guy is due any minute now), and she’s amped to get started. How cool is that?

I mean, it’s no secret many women struggle with feeling “too big” during and post-pregnancy. The fact my wife is salivating over a program squarely focused on “Bigness” is very cool and a radical notion.

The Bigness Project

Is on sale NOW. However TODAY will be your last chance to get in on the action before it’s taken away.

That’s right, if someone wants to get a copy of The Bigness Project they’ll need to do it between now and end of day today (1/27), or wait until the project is offered again at a future date to get in. If you’re interested, even remotely, THIS is your last chance to get in.

Do it. DO IT.

CategoriesFemale Training mindset muscle growth Program Design Strength Training

Maybe Less Isn’t More

Peruse pretty much any fitness magazine targeted to women and you’ll inevitably see words like, “lose, fat-loss, tight, drop a size, tiny, hot, and lean” plastered all over its pages. This is unfortunate.

Women are programmed, often at an early age, to be less, that in order to be attractive and have self-worth, the smaller you are the better.

I say: Bull to the shit.

It’s no secret I’m a firm advocate for women to strength train. Time and time and time again I witness women transform their bodies (and mindsets) when they choose to nix the endless elliptical sessions in lieu of picking up some barbells.[footnote]This isn’t to say I feel the elliptical machines, or treadmills, or yoga, or group exercise classes should be avoided. Far be it from me to tell someone to not do something she enjoys. They all have their time and place. However, almost always, the key to most women’s target body-type is PURPOSEFUL strength training. Strength training is the appetizer, 1st & 2nd course, and dessert. That’s what should be prioritized. The rest of the stuff is the mint you snake from the host’s podium on your way out the door to your car.[/footnote]

There is nothing wrong with choosing to be more.

I am pumped to help promote The Bigness Project from Kourtney Thomas and Jen Sinkler. It’s everything I’m a fan of when it comes to directing women to the right kind of information.

Please enjoy the guest post Kourtney was kind enough to write below.

Maybe Less Isn’t More

I used to be one of those women who made a point to talk about how little space I took up. I’d brag about taking the first middle seat I came to on a Southwest flight because, “I’m just a little girl!” On top of that, I made a point of keeping everything about my already small body as tiny as possible. Because, after all, being less is more when it comes to women’s bodies, right?

More like “Yeah right!”

Over the years, I eventually began to see that there was another way to go. And while, yes, I do walk around in a petite frame, I’ve come to see that what I do with it and how I carry myself can convey a whole different message.

When I first got into fitness, though, it was pretty much cardio only for me. I loved group cycling and endurance running. I enjoyed sweating all over the floor teaching a high-energy cycling class, and I loved running out to the middle of nowhere and melting into nature and myself.

At the time, I didn’t yet grasp that my participation in each of these sports tended to reinforce that same, constant message for me: that less is more. Endurance runners have to be rail-thin so they can be fast. Group cycling classes will claim to burn a gazillion or so calories. The rest, if not explicitly stated, is often implied in skewed marketing messages: stay little.

In time, I experimented and found my way to some weight training. But I started with methods I thought wouldn’t make me too big or bulky. And obviously, to burn more calories, because I still believed that less was more. Along the way, I began to see glimpses of a different way though. Who is this Jen Sinkler person, and what is this Lift Weights Faster stuff I see? Oh my goodness, Girls Gone Strong?

Strong? What a novel concept!

And women were using…what was that called again? A barbell? I was clueless and petrified to touch the thing for the first time, but I eventually gave myself a dose of my own tough love, sucked it up, and walked into the weight room one day. As it turned out, it wasn’t so bad, and I felt capable of being there! (I also realized not everyone knew what they were doing in there.)

And, so, I started with strong, and I believe in that wholeheartedly. I completely agree with Tony when he says that training for performance in lifting is a great place to start. I not only saw my strength come up substantially, but as Tony has also mentioned many times before, I began to see significant physical changes in my body shape and composition.

I was getting bigger. Bigger! Everywhere. And I liked it.

I liked it so much, in fact, that it became my primary goal. I’ll never forget writing my initial email to my first coach and my No. 1 goal as “Gain some size. As much hypertrophy as possible.” Oh, how different that was from the last 30 or so years of my life — that a woman should actively say to herself, I don’t want to shrink. I want to grow! I don’t want to lose weight. I want to gain! And then deliberately work toward getting bigger?

It took a little time to get behind fully, I’ll admit. Just like so many other women, I’ve been conditioned by the mainstream messaging to know nothing other than slender, slim, and thin-is-in. Not to mention, quiet, polite, and ladylike. Flipping the script on all of that doesn’t happen overnight. But changing my training focus to hypertrophy not only helped me to discover the most fun kind of training ever (seriously!), but it helped me to embrace my own body, more than I ever thought possible.

I used to hate my “linebacker shoulders” and big arms. Now? Are you kidding me? Let’s beef ’em up so I can bust out of my sleeves! I used to cringe at my outer thighs and cover them up with my hands so they’d look like the ones I saw in the magazines. Now? I cannot stop leg pressing because I want to see my muscles through my pants.

Letting go of less is more was freeing. It was empowering. It was a gift, an open door to start exploring what other mainstream misconceptions might be out there. I’ve always been one to go a bit against the grain and question the norm, and while it took me a little while longer to do it when it came to what I wanted for my body, when I got there? Everything changed.

Loving my big arms (and doing 10,000 biceps curls) enriched my life exponentially and boosted my confidence about everything through the stratosphere. Who would have thought that working deliberately to bulk up would have that effect? Oh, and it also happened to have the effect of creating a physique that I, personally, consider totally rockin’.

More muscles has meant more everything for me. More quality relationships, more fun, more business, more love. All of it — seriously — because I made a choice to defy that less is more rhetoric and train specifically to be bigger.

Because, sometimes? More is more.

Are You Ready for the Bigtime?

The Bigness Project is a brand-new hypertrophy-training program built to get you built. Written by Kourtney Thomas, a strength and conditioning coach who has spent the last few years focused on the small details that will get you big, this program—or “brogram,” as she refers to it in the most gender-neutral of ways—delivers on the promise of bigger arms and a bigger life.

Consisting of tried-and-true muscle-building techniques, The Bigness Project will guide you through 14 weeks of training that will support your overall strength, develop a stronger mind-muscle connection, and give you a look that leaves no doubt that you lift weights.

Designed for lifters of any experience level, The Bigness Project includes:

  •       A comprehensive User Manual that explains the philosophy behind the program and walks you step-by-step through every aspect of Bigness training and lifestyle.
  •       14-week hypertrophy training program.
  •       A complete exercise glossary including 95 written and photo demonstrations of every movement in the program.
  •       A video library containing 20 in-depth explanations of the most detailed movements and components of the program.

Now available—all aboard the gainz train! To celebrate the kickoff of the Bigness Project, the program is on sale now. Get your copy HERE and join us in the gym this week!

About Kourtney Thomas

Kourtney Thomas is a personal trainer and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with a passion for empowerment and hypertrophy training for women, which she coaches virtually with Kourtney Thomas Fitness. When she’s not at the gym doing some variation of biceps curls, Kourtney loves to ride her Harley-Davidson Softail Deluxe anytime the weather is above 50 degrees, travel to national parks, stay up too late reading copious amounts of science fiction and fantasy, and bake elaborate cakes and cookies—because something has to fuel those gains. Drawing on the above, her personal motto is “Big Arms, Big Life,” and she lives by that daily.

Categoriesmuscle growth

A Quick and Dirty Way To Add Muscle

I’ve spent the first part of this week writing about action heroes and poking a little fun at CrossFit, so I felt it was only fair to write something actually useful to those of you heading to the gym today.

Most everyone reading this blog is interested in getting stronger and/or adding muscle (usually both). Well there’s also my uncanny wittiness, good looks, and pop cultural references. But mostly it’s the getting strong and muscles part.

Both endeavors are relatively simple to do (but not easy to accomplish).

Getting stronger entails picking (heavy) things up and putting them down…repeatedly. Progressive overload is the term most commonly used. Do a little more work today than you did the last time out, stay consistent, and good things will happen.

There’s more “stuff” that comes into the conversation of course – maximal effort, dynamic effort, repeated effort, speed strength, strength speed, absolute strength, rate coding, intra/intermuscular coordination, Batman – but I don’t want to deal with all the mental and intellectual gymnastics involved.

To keep things simple: do more work today than you did last.

Muscle building very much mirrors everything above. Progressive overload is kind of a big deal, in addition to all those fancy terms from above. I mean come on: someone with a 500 lb deadlift is usually not a small human being.

Then again there’s this video which has been making its rounds on social media the past few days of a 16 year-old girl deadlifting 418 lbs (at a bodyweight of just under 150 lbs):

 

Training for strength doesn’t always equate to big muscles – especially when someone competes in a sport where weight class comes into play and relative strength (strength as it relates to their bodyweight) is more of the goal.

That said, getting bigger almost always comes down to total volume. Most people who’s goal it is to add muscle don’t do enough of it.

They perform their 3 sets of 10 for a particular muscle group and move on. Unless it’s biceps than it’s more like 17 sets of 10.

And while counting total sets/reps (and hence total tonnage) is a fool proof way to attack things, we also can’t neglect the innumerable ways to illicit mechanical stress and muscle damage (all of which break down muscle and stimulate it to grow.[footnote]Of note, nothing is going to grow if you’re not eating enough calories. Eat. EAT I SAY![/footnote]

To quote the great Zatsiorsky:

“A muscle fiber that is recruited but not fatigued is not trained.”

Constant Tension Sets

A key component to muscle growth is time under tension, and one “trick” I’ve been using lately in my training (thanks to Greg Robins) is the notion of constant tension sets.

As an example lets take your standard flat bench DB press.

You’d set up like you normally would, but the idea is to maintain constant tension on the pecs by not locking out your elbows.

You’d lower the weights to get a nice stretch in the pecs, and then press making sure to stop just short of locking out. Moreover, instead of focusing on a specific number of repetitions you’d shoot for a time.

It may look something like this:

Week 1: 3 sets of 40s
Week 2: 3 sets of 45s
Week 3: 3 sets of 50s
Week 4: 3 sets of 60s

It can be brutal. 40s never felt so long.

These have been a great addition to my upper body days as an accessory movement after I perform a (heavy) bench press variation.

And you don’t have to limit yourself to DB presses, either. You can be inventive. I’ve used the same method with Goblet squats, front squats, RDLs, shoulder presses, and you can bet your ass I’ve used it as a killer finisher for bi’s and tri’s. Yeah buddy!

It’s nothing fancy, but the method is effective.

Hopefully it’s something you can implement and try for yourself soon. If so, let me know what you think.