Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1347: How to Modify Your Gym Workout for Home

Episode Date: July 30, 2020

In this episode, Sal, Adam & Justin discuss how to modify your gym workout so it can be performed at home. Why the at-home option is here to stay. (3:35) How Mind Pump got started working out, their experiences in the gym setting & MORE. (6:50) A lot of equipment does not equal great results. (14:55) Mind Pump Realizations: Proper programming is more important than the equipment itself. (20:58) The biggest challenge for the average gym-goer. (23:25) How to replace cable machine exercises at-home with bands. (24:49) How to replace barbell exercises at-home with dumbbells. (35:47) How to transfer barbell squats to dumbbells. (39:57) How to transfer barbell deadlifts to dumbbells. (41:51) How to progressively overload while working out from home. (43:05) Reframe the situation you are in. (47:33) MAPS AT-HOME MODS. (48:48) Related Links/Products Mentioned July Promotion: MAPS Strong ½ off!! **Promo code “STRONG50” at checkout** Visit Felix Gray for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! FLASH SALE (ends Friday, July 31st, 2020): All MAPS Programs ½ off!! **Promo code “ATHOME50” at checkout** Two Chinese boys reportedly die within week of each other while wearing face masks in gym class How to Stay Fit When Gyms are Closed Due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Mind Pump Blog How To Do A Pull Up | Banded Pull Up Regression (TRY THIS) - Mind Pump TV Mind Pump TV - YouTube Mind Pump 1282: The #1 Key To Consistently Building Muscle & Strength (Avoid Plateaus!) Mind Pump Podcast - YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Mike Boyle (@bodybyboyle)  Instagram

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, MIND, with your hosts. Salta Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. In this episode of Mind Pump, we are the world's top fitness health and entertainment podcast. We blend those all together for a beautiful mix. This episode, we talk about how you can modify your gym workout for your home. Gems have been closed for a long time in some places

due to the current pandemic. And other people are just not wanting to go back to the gym. They're still a little weary of being around that many people. And we totally get it, but fitness is important. Exercise is important. It's important for your physical and mental well-being. And so what we wanna do is really talk about how you can do your workouts at home, how you can replace popular equipment

that you find at the gym at home, all your cable exercises, and even those of you that have just dumbbells, we're gonna talk about how to replace barbell exercises with dumbbells, we're going to talk about how to replace barbell exercises with dumbbells and the more difficult ones too, like deadlifts and barbell squats, what you can do with dumbbells that'll get you similar results.

Now, before the episode gets going, this episode is brought to you by our sponsor, one of our favorite sponsors, Felix Gray. Now Felix Gray makes stylish blue light blocking glasses. Now these glasses don't change the color of the room and they do look good, you don't look like a weirdo, but they do block the blue light that can negatively affect your eyesight and your sleep.

Now these days, people are on screens much more than they ever have been. Being on screen a lot has been shown to potentially be damaging to your eyes, cause headaches, neck tension, to cause issues with focus. Blocking some of that excitable blue light that comes off your screen has been shown to help with that. And you can just wear blue light blocking glasses to do that. Again, Felix Gray makes the best.

That's one of the best ones we've ever found. And we have a hookup for you. Go to FelixGreatGlasses.com. That's F-E-L-I-X-G-R-A-Y glasses.com forward slash mind pump. You'll get free shipping and free returns. Also one last thing, because we're talking about at-home workouts, what we've done with our most popular maps workout programs, which include maps in a ball, map performance, maps aesthetic, maps split, and maps hit, is we've added an at-home workout mod. That means every single exercise that's

in those programs that is a barbell exercise or a machine exercise, we've added a replacement with just dumbbells. So now you can follow all the maps programs if all you have are a pair of dumbbells. And to celebrate the launch of this mod, we've put all those programs on 50% off sale. So half off all of those, this is a flash sale that ends Friday.

It's about 48 hours long after that, the sale will be over. Here's how you get that 50% off any of those programs. Just go to mapsfitinistproducts.com, that's MAPS, fitnessproducts.com, use the code at home50, that's ATHOME50, no space for the discount. By the way, there's no limit to how many of those programs

you can use this code with. So if you get one with the code, it's still valid with the other programs. So if you want, you can get all of them with the same code. You guys still get a lot of DMs from people asking about how to modify their workout programs or even just, you know, our programs for home gyms. Oh yeah, that's a common theme. And I think that, you know, our programs for home gyms. Oh yeah, that's a common theme.

And I think that, you know, based off of like whatever state you're living in or, you know, wherever you're at, like it kind of goes back and forth with whether or not your gyms open or not. Well, we thought we had, they did an article, right? I think we read it on the podcast that, and they surveyed a bunch of people that were avid gym goers.

They went to the gym too or more times per week consistently and they surveyed to see how many people would return to the gym if things go back to normal, how many people will stay, and surprisingly, even when things get back to normal, that 25% of people are gonna remain working at home. Yeah, so there's definitely this% of people are gonna remain working at home. Yeah, so there's definitely this surge of people

that you know, you have a large portion are doing it out of necessity, but then there's a large portion of people that are figuring things out and are enjoying working out at home, and then they're just trying to figure out, okay, I've gone through your maps anywhere program, what do I do next?

You know, how do I make this a lifestyle for me? And so I get a lot of DMs regarding this. So I think this is a really good topic to discuss. Yeah, I would say at any, more than any moment in, at least in the time that I've been working in the fitness space, this has gotta be the biggest moment

where people really are working at home. Jim's clothes down, I know in some places they're remaining closed. Here in California, they've been closed for a while now. And then like you said, Adam, even when they do open, either because the regulations require people to have to wear masks and do all stuff. And I don't know, have you guys tried working out in a mask? It's very difficult.

No. Yeah, it's a hard thing. Or if she's a dude. It's a hard thing to do because you're already breathing hard and then you tend to breathe in your own carbon monoxide or it just feels constricting or whatever. Well, I told you guys that I saw an article just a few days ago, two kids, and I believe it was China that were wearing a mask that died in their PE class.

Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, they were running, were running, you know, you know, you get kids do their, they're like a mile runs or what do I thought? And they were wearing mask and they actually collapsed and died because of that. Oh, wow. Yeah, you're certain to hear weird stuff.

Yeah, I don't know how common that is around, you know, I think that's probably pretty wearable. Nonetheless, it's uncomfortable for a lot of people to work out that way. And so there's that, and then of course, of course, the fear people are like, you know, I'd rather out that way. And so there's that, and then of course, the fear, people are like, you know, I'd rather stay out of an area where there's gonna be lots of people.

And so people are figuring out, okay, I need to work out at home. So every single day I get messages. How do I do this exercise without equipment or without barbells or what can I do? This was how I worked out before. I'm not going back to a gym any time soon. I need to take care of myself.

I think a lot of people are realizing the importance of activity, not just for their physical bodies, but for their mental states as well. People are starting to see, I need to move. Yeah, I think in terms of the mental state thing, that's why I do think that at home, an option really makes a lot of sense. It's more controllable your environment there.

And so, to be able to organize it in a way where it's gonna be effective is really something we need to kind of help people with. Well, how did you guys all start? I started in a garage. Oh yeah. I did. So mine.

I know you have the backyard story, right? Yeah, my dad owned, he bought a, like an Olympic barbell set, but back then that consisted of a bench that was adjustable and it had a rack on it for bench press. It wasn't a squat rack, it was like a bench press rack. And he had a pair of adjustable dumbbells and an easy curl bar, which is, I mean, actually quite a bit of equipment,

especially back in the early 90s or whatever. So that's the equipment that I was exposed to, and right around the age of 14, after begging or whatever, I finally, my equipment that I was exposed to, and right around the age of 14, you know, through after begging or whatever, I finally, my dad's in parents are like fine, you have access to it, go ahead and work out. And that's where I started. And I worked out entirely in my backyard

with that equipment probably for about two years until about 16, and then that's when I got my first gym membership, which was a YMCA. And the YCA went to wasn't like it was a full-on gym, but it was way more equipped than the now You couldn't even get a gym membership under 16 back in the days unless you had a parenting, right? That's right. That's right. And you started wearing a garage. Yeah, I started your garage No, no, no my friend my friend and it's we were you know, we were in high school We were junior junior song or I believe is is when we first really started to get serious about what, I shouldn't even say serious, because it was still an afterthought for us.

We were still heavily focused on playing sports and video games first, as number one priority. Number two came like, let's go hit the gym gym because we all wanted arms, fill out our sleeves, that type of deal. And we all were smaller skinny guys. And one of my good friends, his dad had like a little universal machine inside his garage, and we would get in there and primarily do arms and benching. That was like what we did for I think a good year.

And I'd probably like you a good year to two years. I didn't get my first real gym membership till I was 18 and going to junior college. That's when I got a membership and started working out. And that's probably when I would say, I was most serious. I think, you know, at that time I was, I was paying for it myself. And I had another friend who was really serious

about lifting and him and I were pretty consistent with going to gym. So from that point on, I lifted in a gym very regularly. It was rare if I ever worked out at a home ever after that until really meeting you guys. Both of you were bigger advocates of training from home and like a private type of setup or like what we have here. And now that that's happened, I've obviously had gym, I still have three gym memberships, I still pay for all of them.

But I tend to do more at home working out today than I ever have in my life. And I go back and forth on what I like, right? I love the gym atmosphere. I like the feeling of other people training really hard around me at the same time. It's motivating for me. I find if I drive to a facility and I go workout, I am more accountable to finishing my workout

and pushing all the way through because I drove all the way there. That's what you're there for. Right, I'm more likely if I'm at home training to put it off or say, oh, I'll wait later. But then I've now found that the simplicity of how I train today in comparison to before, you know, I was one of those kids who, you know who we wanted to try every machine in the gym. Reminds me when we travel in the way sal trains, right? When we go to gyms, when we travel, salves like Mr. try every piece of machinery that's inside

the gym. I was like that my whole lifting career. And now since hanging out with you guys, my programming has changed a lot. And I stick to a lot of the basic movements and incorporate a lot of mobility. And most of that can all be done at home. Totally. Justin, did you start in a home gym

or were you, is it sports? Yes, well, yeah, sports. I didn't even really like lift weights until probably I was like a freshman. And then I found my way into the gym that they had, there was real ding dingy and small and everybody used it. That was an athlete at the same time. And so you're like fighting for equipment.

And I did get a lot of education from the older guys that were in there that kind of helped kind of show you the technique of a squat and a bench press and a power clean. And so I was intimidated for sure. And so during the summer, we didn't have access to that. So that's where I started to really work with my friends set who he had those old sand-filled weights.

And he had that kind of bench set up. And so we tried to do everything possible. We could with this one shitty Barbell that had these sand weights But it was like it worked, you know, it did the job It wasn't like super convenient and we had to get a little bit creative with the way that we kind of lived it Do you remember those with the like the plastic sleeve of the barbell? Yeah, and the weights were great. Yeah exactly. They were great And there's like a little cap that if you pulled it off the sand would come out.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so yeah, again, and so I had some nostalgia with that, but I fully went into gym mode. I much preferred to work out in the gym after that. And it wasn't till college where it came back where I was just broke and didn't have, I didn't wanna justify spending money for gym membership. So me and my friends that I was living with at the time, we all

went in on a set together. And so we had plates and a couple dumbbells. That was it. And we worked out the entire summer. And so I was able to keep it going and still make like substantial progress when I came back to then, you know, for football and for camp. Now were you doing like some of the good fundamental lifts back then, or were you still, were you training like a bro, like what were you training like? It was kind of both. Yeah, I definitely broed out quite a bit with the bench and I did a lot of my curls back

then. I just kind of eliminated that along, you know, my career. But yeah, we did a lot of the main staple lifts, benching and squatting. We just didn't deadlift as much, which I kind of brought up. We did do lighter power cleans, and then once I got better and more proficient

in power cleans, I started adding substantial amount of weight. So I think I got up to like 350 or so, like close to 400 that I could you know, kind of squat clean and catch it real low. So I mean, that was, it wasn't until way later that I started to kind of work on deadlifts. I'm kind of behind with that. Well, that's a pretty good advantage though, because you trained for sports. So you right out the gates, you know, you guys did exercises that were,

that would provide performance results. Right. Like when I went to the gym for the first time, so I'm 16, I, this is before I owned a car. Actually, I must have been before I turned 16. I think I did start right before I turned 16, so I didn't have a driver's license. I would ride my bike to the YMCA, and I remember the first day I went in there to work out.

I looked at the equipment and I thought, oh, this is it, like now I'm gonna build all the strength and all this muscle. Now I have access to machines. Everything's here. Yeah, I didn't have access before. All I had was barbells and dumbbells. This is the key.

And I went in there and that was the focus of my whole routine. And I would use cables and not all this equipment and peck deck and machine presses and machine rows and all these different machines and it wasn't until a group of power lifters who were impressed with my intensity. They were what I could tell they were watching me and impressed with how hard I was doing my leg extensions and leg curls and and hack squats and they came over to me and they said hey you know you're doing a great job but if you really want to get strong and get great results, you should just focus on squatting. And I'm like, squatting.

I'm like, but look at all these machines. And they taught me, they taught me the value of some of these basic exercises. And that was the first time I started to kind of really understand that a lot of equipment doesn't equal great results. In fact, that's a lesson I learned over and over again. Every time I would go to a new gym, because then after that I got a gym at 24th Fitness,

which was way more equipped than the YMCA. Again, I fell into that old pattern of using all the machines. Oh, look, there's Hammer Strength. This is when Hammer Strength equipment wasn't super popular. I love Hammer Strength. And they were just starting to introduce it, Doreen Yates, who was Mr mr Olympia at the time, you know They chose pictures of them using hammer strength. So it's like oh hammer strength. That's the key

That's it And I would just did all this this machine type work and it never came close to producing the same results that the traditional you know basic Home gym exercises would produce in me. And I just over and over again, I continue to learn that lesson. I learned that with my clients over and over again, where my very first client says a trainer, I did do a lot of machines. I did do a lot of stuff that seems safer and easier to use.

And when I would have them do the barbell and dumbbell stuff or body weight stuff, I would just see them the barbell and dumbbell stuff or body weight stuff. I would just see them progress so much faster. And it was just, it kept, it was like a lesson. You know, you have to learn a lesson sometimes, like 10 times in a row. It has to be so obvious that you finally just say, okay, this is it.

That's what happened to me when it came to lots of equipment was all this equipment, really the reason why these gyms have all this equipment is to attract new members It's novelty and it is it's fun like it's fun to explore all these other ways to lift weights And I think that people are drawn to new experiences and and unfortunately the fitness industry kind of turned into providing more things for the experience of it versus like, like, strain away from the real foundational lifts

that are we're producing, you know, the best results. And it's just how it goes. Like, people wanted new stimulus, they wanted new things to attract, you know, new customers in, but at the same time, we forgot like what got us. Well, here, I'll give you a great example. The first gyms that I worked and worked out You know new customers in but at the same time we forgot like what got us well here I'll give you a great example the the first gems that I worked and worked out and had

Separate this was a popular thing in the late 80s early 90s They would have a women's only area in a gym. This is back when you know women were really intimidated by going to a Weight area resistance training here, but I remember when they would, you know, this is 24-feet and so back, it was open 24 hours except for on the weekend when they would actually close at midnight or 10 p.m. And I was there all the time. I loved the gym, so I would work as a trainer

and I would just there and I'd love closing the gym. I thought it was awesome to walk around an empty gym and I remember walking into the women's only area and kind of chuckling, not because I thought the woman's area was silly, but because it was the same equipment that was out in the regular just painted purple. Paint or purple, a pulse frame.

It was the same machine, except the waitstack maybe didn't go as much and a pulse frame was in. I had even a little smaller, but yeah. It wasn't even that. I remember thinking that to myself. I look at it and go, this is exactly the same thing. It was the same. And I started to realize, oh, they're just,

one of the arguments I get to for lots of equipment is, well, you know, variety is important. You need lots of variety to change the stimulus, to get the body to respond to consider the truth. Well, the variety part is true, but they're doing it wrong. They're saying that you need different machines. Here's the truth.

There isn't a single machine in the world. Actually, there isn't five machines in the world that doesn't have as much variety as a pair of dumbbells. I could do more exercises with a pair of dumbbells than any five machines, any singular use five machines that you can put together. That's true. I could name 100 exercises off the top of my head just with a pair of two dumbbells. I can even name probably 101 dumbbell. So the

variety argument is actually false. The reason why all this equipment exists is because it attracts customers because it's just simplicity. The ability for you to walk over, look on the side of the machine, it's colored in red, what muscle you're working, and then you just do it. The ability for you to walk over, look on the side of the machine, it's colored in red, what muscle you're working, and then you just do it. You're all a thought process. You're moving it right through this track,

so you don't have to like really stabilize everything all at once, you can just kind of comfortably sit there and press things and it feels good, you know, you get a good pump. I have to be honest, I really, it wasn't until I was 30, and really when Sal and I first started talking, did I ever follow a program that was so basic and stick to it when he

first said that this was before maps was even really public to anybody else. And I love because at that time, it was in my late 20s coming into my 30s when this was all kind of coming full circle for me and realizing that, you know, the part that was missing in my training regimen was, was these great compound lifts, and it was beginning to start to introduce them more. And I never had I followed, I still was, you know, still doing a majority of machines with intermittently putting these lifts in that I'm realizing it's this late in my career or such game changers and never had had I actually put together a solid program that looked like anabolic and that was a game changer for me and even today like because of those principles I find myself doing less in the gym and

maintaining more results than I ever did in the previous 15 years in my lifting. And it really doesn't take that much equipment. And it's not sexy. And I think that's what it is. It's not, you know, if you're people are drawn to novelty, people are drawn to new stuff that you've never seen before. And it's easy and hard to market it. It is. It really it really is. What do you rather have sexy equipment or a sexy body? Right. You know, that's the truth. Like all this sexy equipment in the world isn't going to produce a sexy body like less

equipment, but better programming. Do you guys remember when you really put together that programming was more important than the equipment itself, that how you put exercises together. How you did the rest of the stuff. So you talk about this a lot and so true. We were always better trainers than we were at training ourselves. So I train my clients with the principles in anabolic

for a long time. That's what's funny. Like they all, their programs looked similar. I started to piece together, probably midway through my career, you know, these core movements, these compound foundational type of lifts that I built everything on full body type of routines. But yet, I was still falling in the trap of wanting to try all the toys in the gym and lifting like that all the time.

So it's really ironic that it took me later in my career to take a dose of my own medicine and it wasn't until my late 20s or early 30s that I really start to program myself in my own workouts that way. You know, and it's one of those shitty moments, right? Shitty and good at the same time, right? Good because I pieced it together, but looking back, I go like, God, I, you know.

I put it. It's frustrating to think back like, because this is the same. I would press my body to the limits. I always considered like, God, I, you know, it's frustrating to think back like this is the same. Like I would press my body to the limits. I always considered like, yes, this is from my clients because they're probably not on, you know, the same level. But I'm, but I'm going to go all in. You know, I'm going to go for it.

And like, you know, I would just, I just punished myself and just would stall and not get any more results. And didn't even put that together till a way later, and then started to actually listen to all the advice I was already dishing out. And I think that's just a common problem within trainers. No, I mean, here's the good news for people listening

right now that are not working out in gyms, they don't have access to a gym, now they go work out at home. You're programming, or how you organize the exercises that you have access to, how you organize the exercises that you have access to, how you organize your workout, how you put everything together, the reps, the sets, the tempo, all that stuff, how you phase it, more important than the fact that you,

the lack of equipment that you have or the equipment that you do or don't have, okay? The programming is more important. You could have the best equipment in the world, have terrible programming, get no you could have the best equipment the world have terrible programming Get no results you could have no equipment have great programming and get phenomenal results So the good news for people listening right now who don't have access to Jim or don't have access to a lot of equipment The programming is the most important thing the access to equipment is not nearly as important and here's one of the big Challenges one of the big challenges.

One of the big challenges is we're probably dealing with a lot of people that never really learned how to work out without a lot of equipment. Okay. A lot of most people's first real routines were in gyms. Now when you're talking about like heart, like people who are like obsessed about lifting weights, like I was as a kid or you know or I started at the age of 14.

Sure, that's different. I didn't have access to gym. I figured it out at home first. Most people don't start consistent resistance training of the age of 14. Most people start some time in their 20s or 30s and they do it in a gym. And so then when you take that away, they're like, what do I do? What do I, I don't have all this equipment that I used to use. What kind of a routine do I follow?

How do I get good results? Now I do wanna be fair. There is one category of equipment that I would say is valuable. In fact, when I own my personal training studio, which I own and operated for almost 14 years and I train lots and lots of clients out of there.

The only piece of equipment that I had in there that was not a free weight equipment. I had barbells, dumbbells, squat rack, was cable machine. Cable machines have some value because cables are more like free weights than they are machines. They're very versatile. They're very versatile. They're free. I can take the cable and move it all kinds of different directions.

So the place that want to start with is how, if you're at home, how do you replace cable exercises? Forget all the other machines, forget the plate loaded stuff and the selectorized equipment because those really aren't super valuable when you compare them to barbells and dumbbells. But cables, how do we replace cables when you're working at home? Man, I remember, do you guys remember?

I remember when the first, you know, universal cable machine came into our gym. That was, as a trainer, like the most amazing tool because I could give an entire workout, which the universal cable machineers are the ones with the arms that, you know, they pivot. Free motion, yeah, they pivot all the way to the bottom, all these different anchor points,

from all the way to the bottom, all the way top and everything in between, which allowed me to basically create a, a can tire full body workout in one little station, which was phenomenal. Not to mention the benefits of cables because of the strength curve, right? You, it's different than free weights with free weights, like you, when you're at the top of cables because of the strength curve, right? It's different than free weights with free weights like you when you're at the top of

an exercise, the resistance is much lower there where when you're doing cables, it's consistent through the entire movement, which is a great stimulus. But that being said, there's a way to emulate the benefits that you get from cables without cables. Well, the main benefit, I would say, of cables, the number like by far, right? By far, the number one reason why cables are valuable is because you can create resistance and you don't need gravity.

So what I mean by that, I mean, you are using gravity with the weight stack, but what I mean is I can do a tricep, here's a good example, a tricep press down. I can stand straight up push arms down in those resistance. You can't do that with a free weight because gravity's pushing the weight down. The resistance would make you curl the weight up, but not push it down. That's just one example, right? Or I could do a standing fly where I'm standing upright and I'm bringing cables across my chest. The only way to do that with dumbbells and barbells would be to lay on my back, for example.

So it's the fact that I can create resistance, independent of how gravity would normally work. Now the way you replace that is with resistance bands. Now, here's the thing about resistance bands. I remember, for most of the time I worked in the fitness industry, either most or at least half the time, nobody took bands seriously. Bands were silly, like, oh, that's for people who don't really serious. Really serious.

Jazz or size. Yeah, that's not really serious working out, or that's what you do with physical therapy, or, yeah, those workout videos, you know, that you buy, that you do, you know, your VCR, you put them in your VCRs back before DVD. Oh, yeah, that's, you do that, but it doesn't really give you results because, you know, your VCR, you put them in your VCRs back before DVD. Oh yeah, that's, you do that, but it doesn't really give you results because, who cares? And I know, I remember when that all changed,

it all changed when the powerlifting community and the West Side Barbell. They started using bands and their lifts, and they learned these techniques from the former Soviet Union, you know, Eastern block countries that were so successful at weightlifting. When the Iron Curtain came up, when the Soviet Union collapsed,

all this information from the scientists came over across the ocean, and we started to learn some of the techniques and the methods that they used, and one thing that they did is they used bands quite a bit, and all of a sudden bands went from, that's what people who aren't serious do, to the strongest people in the world use them. Let's all start to pay attention. And then bands made their ways into gyms.

And I remember when that really started happening and the results clients got from using bands. Because of the versatility. And then of course, something that bands provide, which is very interesting, Adam talked about the strength curve, bands provide more resistance to further you stretch them out,

which makes them unique tools. Yeah. And before that, the options were pretty limited in terms of the actual strength of the resistance. Like, you would get bands, but they'd be very thin, and you wouldn't really get a whole lot of,

you know, weighted resistance that you were fighting. It was pretty weak. And now they've improved upon them so much to where they have these really thick bands that, you know, like 400 pound guys could, you know, make a really challenging lift out of it. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, my first experience using a lot of bands

in training people was years ago when I went to Grand Open a 24-footness location. This was the club on Santa Teresa. Went through a couple grand openings. They'd like a soft grand opening or whatever in the official one. And the soft one was all we had, that was actually open was the pool,

the basketball court and the freeway area, but the machine and cardio area, or actually the machine area wasn't even open yet. So you had like some free weights, some cardio, and that was the equipment that you had access to. So a lot of my trainers were like, hey, you know, what are we gonna do? I like doing cable stuff with my clients. So we said, let's just use a lot of bands. Let's see

what happened. And bands are great because they're versatile as hell. And they don't take up a lot of space. You can anchor them. If you have a doorway, you essentially have an limit, limitless amount of anchor points for different exercise, especially if you move your body around those anchor points. And so my trainer started training clients with just bands. And I thought what we would encounter was having to explain to clients over and over again. Don't worry, the gym's gonna open. I know we're just using bands.

The reality is the comments we're getting were, I actually like doing this more than the machines. Oh, I live and died by bands. Mainly once I started to be more mobile in my business, in terms of like servicing clients at their house. And one of the most challenging muscle groups to address is the back, and especially the lats. And so if you don't have bands, it's pretty, pretty difficult to accomplish that.

Obviously, if you have some kind of a setup where you could do pull-ups and, you know, because it's pretty, pretty difficult to accomplish that. Obviously, if you have some kind of a setup where you could do pull-ups and that's great, but to be able to, you can usually find something around the house or outside that you could anchor a band to from the top and you could be in a position where you see it on the ground, kneeling on the ground, even standing if it's high enough to where we could actually then get some stimulus from the lats by doing these types of lap pull downs or things that you would normally do with cables or such.

One of my favorite ways to use bands is to use them as assistance for difficult bodyweight exercises. Right now, I'm training my son and my daughter everyone so I will jump in. My son just turned 15, my daughter's 10 years old. Pull ups and dips are too hard for my daughter. And my son can't do a lot of them, or at least not enough of them to where I can do sets of them over and over again. So this is a great thing you could do with bands

as phenomenal is you can use them to assist you on pull ups. You literally hang them over the bar and then step into them or put your knee into them. So now that's helping to lift you. And now you essentially have, you can pick the resistance you want to do a pull-up with. Do I want to pull up a lot of my body weight or a little bit of my body weight. So now I've got my 10-year-old and I have a strong band around there. She steps into it and she could do, you know, 10 pull-ups and really focus on the form. Same thing with dips.

She can do dips now and focus on her form, whereas before the resistance was too heavy and it was an exercise that just wasn't, you know, possible for her. Well, that's an example of how you can use bands to assist people, but you can also use bands to make an exercise way more difficult. Like, you guys ever used a band for pushups to make the pushups more challenging. So you could do things like that. You could do things with squats

where if you are, you're limited with how much weights you have to make a squat more challenging, you can use bands to do that. So that's what's really, that's what makes bands so versatile is that you can use them to assist lifts that are challenging like body weight ones, like you're saying right now

with the dips and the pullups. Add intensity. Or add intensity to exercises that maybe you don't have enough load for, that you can make a lot more challenging without a bunch of extra dumbbells or barbells. I love that. In bands, don't take up a lot of space at all. I've traveled with bands many times.

I remember going to Europe once for almost a month. And I almost entirely my entire workout was consistent of body weight and bands and I was surprised that I didn't lose strength and muscle when I came back like Adam talked about the push up. Easy. You know, hold the band, put the band around your upper back, put your hands inside of as an anchor. Now you've got extra resistance with your push up. Here's another way you can use bands. You can use bands to change an exercise to emphasize certain body parts.

So I'll give you, here's a great example, right? So a squat, let's say you do a body weight squat, but you're finding it difficult to activate your glutes. Of course, you can prime properly, you can do a lot of things to help, but here's something you can do. You can attach the band around your waist and put it in an anchor point behind your body.

Now when you squat down, it's not making the squat harder or easier. It's just pulling you back a little bit. So what does that do? When you stand up, you gotta squeeze your glutes to push your hips forward. All of a sudden, you've got a little bit of resistance at the squeeze part of a squat,

which normally you wouldn't have at the glutes. This is how I used to teach deadlifting. So if I had a client that had a tendency to deadlift, you see, when you teach a deadlift, the brain tends to like operate and get the weight up off the floor and the average person looks thinks of a deadlift as it's just like lifting the bar up off the ground versus hinging from the hips. And one of the best ways to teach someone how to activate the posterior chain, the glutes and the hamstrings to do the primary movement in the lift of the deadlift is to attach around

the waist, anchor it behind them. And then to your point of squatting, this works really well for coaches on how to teach somebody to deadlift and to really feel it in their butt and their hamstrings when they go to the lockout, the deadlift, they're squeezing their glutes through. I love that. And bands can replace any cable exercise. So any cable exercise that you can do with cables

at the gym, you can do with bands. Now bands, they increase the resistance as you stretch them out. So one thing that I really like with bands is it helps me focus on the squeeze. Like you talk about, I'll give you a good example. Like you talk about a cable crossover, right? And people always talk about how much they love

the squeeze of a cable crossover. Try that with two heavy bands. The squeeze is the hardest part of the lift. It's the hardest part of that whole movement because you've stretched the bands out even more. And you get an intense connection to the exercise. I love doing that. And that even holding that position and really getting maximizing that squeeze with an

isometric, you know, a couple of seconds there to really emphasize. Totally. And anchor points again, bands nowadays, they can't come with little attachments. You put them in doorways. You could put them around, you know, parts of your house that are stable. And you're going to be pretty much set. The next thing that this is the one where I get the most questions, I think, because you know, if you have a barbell,

you know, and dumbbell and squat rack set, you're thinking yourself I'm fine, I have everything I need. Pretty much everything. But what if you don't have a barbell? Like what if all you have are dumbbells, and you don't even have a squat rack? You just gotta pair of dumbbells and bands. This can be more challenging for people. So let's talk about how to replace barbell exercises with dumbbells.

Yeah, this is very common because think about everybody that lives in an apartment or is in the city or somewhere they don't have a lot of access to space in general. You know, you really have to limit your options and that's where really dumbbells make a lot more sense for a lot of these exercises. There are certain ways to get around the fact that you don't have a dumbbell but we can load the body still with dumbbells and perform these types of movement and get the same types of benefits on them.

Well, the example that I just gave with a deadlift, we don't have it's tough, to deadlift like good weight if you don't have good weight or you only have dumbbells. Yeah. But if you take that and like you guys mentioned before, it's so great how many levels of bands there are, you, to take a very strong band, you wrap around your waist and you do a deadlift holding on to some dumbbells, you could be holding on to some 30, 40 pound dumbbells, but then the band is a 50 pound and resistant band. And so that now becomes a really challenging deadlift. Same thing goes for the squat. You don't have a barbell to load and do a really heavy squat, but then you've got a pair

of 30 pound dumbbells. You can also do bands wrapped around either your shoulders or wrapped around holding in your hands with the dumbbells and then do a squat that way. Now you've loaded that squat a lot more. For most of the barbell exercises, just doing them with dumbbells, it's an easy transition, for most of them. That all of them will get to the difficult ones, but most of them it's easier. So, okay, bench press with the barbell. Almost identical in terms of the form and technique, you know, with dumbbells. Now, it's a different feel, but equally as effective, and some people would even argue,

more effective, believe it or not, with dumbbells. What about rows, right? Barbell rows. Dumbbell rows. Almost the same kind of movement. There's not much you need to change to do that. Overhead press with the barbell. Overhead press with dumbbells.

Curls, you do curls with dumbbells. It's very, very straightforward to transfer barbell exercises to dumbbell for the most part. Well, I'm just reminded of like, when we go back and forth with other different modalities and different strength coaches out there that prefer different types of programming. They both have legitimate benefits and they're focusing on things that are truly

valuable. Like a Michael Boyle, for instance, where loading, really going into more of unilateral type of a mode is very beneficial for athletes, but also everybody in general for promoting more strength, stability, and control. And so using this as an opportunity, if you don't have a barbell to really focus now on lateral training and strength and support, it makes a massive difference when you then, when you then go back to barbell training, when you have access. Well, this is, that's a great another great example, right? Justin, because let's say you're somebody who, you know,

is at home now because of this, because of COVID, and you before could, you know, squat 300 plus pounds, and you're like, okay, all right, Adam, I'm hearing you, but what am I supposed to do? Grab a pair of, you know, 80 pound dumbbells in each hand, still only 160, even with the band that's still maybe 200. Where do I put them? Where do I put them?

Right. But now here, you have it. Now try doing that with a Bulgarian squat. You do a split squat, Bulgarian split squat, much more challenging. You do that hanging on to 50 or 60 pound dumbbells, and you will get an incredible workout. In fact, a lot of people I end up regressing from a squat

into the Bulgarian split squat to get good at that first anyways before I take them to a barbell squat. Yeah, I think the two most challenging barbell exercises for people to replace with dumbbells are your barbell squats and your deadlifts. I mean, pretty much everything else that I can think of off the top of my head is a straightforward, just switch it to dumbbells, like I said,

presses, rows, all that stuff. But like barbell squats, how do I transfer barbell squats to dumbbells? Well, I think the best way you can do it is exactly what Adam and Justin are saying, which is don't put the dumbbells on your shoulders or your back, although you can do that by the way. That is one way to do a squat with dumbbells.

But you can also do a Bulgarian split stand squat or lunges, which essentially are single leg squats. The form is very similar if you're looking at the front leg, and you get great muscle building results from doing those exercises. They are not weak alternatives. They're actually phenomenal alternatives for a lot of people. They are not weak alternatives. They're actually phenomenal alternatives for a lot of people. A gallblitz squat, if you wanna keep your feet together,

try a gallblitz squat holding a dumbbell and then focus on your form. And I would do that in fact, for a lot of clients, it's like you said Adam, I would take them off a barbell squat. We would do gallblitz squats for a while to get their form better. Well, to Justin's point in the shout out to Boyle,

I mean, he's, I mean, revered is one of the best trainers, especially athletic trainers that are, that are in our field and would make the case that he would not even do barbell squat whatsoever. And it's not that I agree that you'd never need to do it or should do it. It's just that that's how valuable the Bulgarian split squat is in replace of a barbell squat is some would tout it as better. So it's, he has the best track record in terms of keeping athletes healthy out of any

coach out there. So it's just, you know, and you got to take it with a grain of salt. This is why it kind of goes back and forth, you know, in terms of the nuance of the value of barbell versus dumbbell, they both have value. And so it's just a matter of shifting your focus and now focusing because you're limited in access, we focus on dumbbells. Right, now deadlifts, that's a difficult one, right?

How do I, what do I do instead of deadlifts because I had a barbell before, now I'm stuck with dumbbells. Well, try single leg deadlifts with dumbbells. Give that a shot and watch what happens. Now here's the thing, you're gonna love this, right? Let's say you can pull 400 pounds off the floor. I bet you can't single leg deadlift 200 pounds.

You can't do half. You'll be lucky if you can do 100 pounds if you've never done these before. Now what does that tell you? That tells you there's a lot of room for improvement. In fact, you should quickly be able to get to yourself to the point where you could do 100, 150, let's say you're deadlift 400 pounds,

you'll get yourself to the point where you could do maybe 150 pounds in your hands doing a single leg deadlift. Then when you go back to your double leg, you know, barbell deadlift, watch what happens to your strength and stability. It's pretty incredible. Sumo deadlifts, these are wonderful. You can do these with dumbbells.

I used to do these all the time with clients, especially clients who weren't deadlifting three or 400 or 500 pounds. You could do those exercises pretty well. So if you just have dumbbells and bands, you're sat, no joke. You are pretty much sat. I mean, you're okay with just bands, but if you have dumbbells and bands, you're really, really, you're really, really well off. Now, here's the next question that I always get, which is, how do I progressively overload? You know, so I get this DM all the time, like, Sal, I'm using the dumbbells, they go up to 30, you know, I'm getting strong. I need more than 30 pound dumbbells. Do I just do a million in one reps?

Well, I would reference the episode that we did on progressive overload, right? I think we listed eight or nine different ways. For some reason, when that, it's a popular term used in our space. And if you're new or newer to fitness, it doesn't quite make sense completely to a lot of people. And then the easy understanding is, oh, when I keep adding weight to the bar, that's progressively overloading it, right? And that's true, that is.

But there's so many other ways to progressively overload the body to see consistent change in the body. And it's not just load. There's other ways to challenge the body with tempo, time under tension, the strength curve that we talked about. There's a lot of, in that episode, we go into real depth

about all the different ways, but there's lots of ways that you can continue to challenge yourself without just adding more weight to the ball. My favorite way is technique. In fact, these days, when I'm getting stronger and an exercise, I don't add more weight. I slow down the tempo and I focus more on the technique.

Which ironically is what we did with our clients. Oh, exactly. I never, I was never, I never eager to just slap ten times. Right, as a coach, I was always, I always leaned that direction. Ironically, I didn't with myself. You know, I ego lifted and did everything

and I coached against myself for many years. But with a client, I was always responsible like that. I shared in a recent episode if I put a weight on a bar or on a cable, whatever we were doing and a client said, oh, that was really easy to get 10 or whatever reps I had them doing, then I wouldn't just, oh, okay, let's add more weight because I knew the importance of getting the technique down with my client so well that I would say, no, let's add more weight because I know I knew the importance of getting the technique down with my client So well that I would say no let's not add load then let's slow the tempo down instead of you Pumping out those 10 at the tempo you were those last three to four slow it way down and make those 10 reps feel really challenging

That's progressively overloading without adding any more weight. Totally. So I'll give you a good example, right? So if I were to guess for myself, you know, how much weight I could lift for 10 reps in a bench press, it would be around 220, something pound, maybe 220 pounds or 225, right? 10 reps, that's what I could do. And that's me really struggling and pushing and probably going to failure. Could I get myself to feel that level of intensity with 150 pounds on the bar?

I could, I totally could, I could slow down, I could squeeze my- He's my hip harder. Grip it harder, I could squeeze my chest real hard at the top, I could go down, pause at the bottom, create a ridiculous tension, and I could make a weight that is far lighter, feel as hard as they have your weight. Well this is what you can do if you're limited by the weight of your dumbbells.

If you find yourself getting to the point where you're doing more than 20 reps on something and you're like, gosh, I don't want to do 35 reps on every exercise. I'm starting to lose the resistance training benefits. Slow down, focus on the squeeze, focus on the stretch, pause the reps, change your technique, go deeper, go lower, and watch what happens to your results. Your body starts to, it responds just like it would if you were progressively overloading with weight. In fact, I would argue in many cases, it might respond better because maybe you've never focused on these things before.

Oh yeah, people took the time to really like segment out their left and like really focus on the isometric portions where you can build the most strength and the most difficult part of the lift is such an advantage for you going forward. The part where you're just recruiting the muscle fibers and you're gaining more access to this force that now you can apply to lifts, that is part of the strength. That is something that you're going to carry with you as a new attribute. When you go to then load more weight. And like you guys said before, even if you need

actual more intensity, let's add some bands into the mix as well on top of the dumbest. And the truth about everything that we're talking about, I've had a lot of conversations with friends and family and old clients that are like, Adam, what do I do? I'm now home and I have minimal, everything, is reframing the situation that you're in. Instead of looking at it like, Adam, what do I do? I'm now home and I have minimal everything, is reframing the situation that you're in. You know, instead of looking at it like,

oh shit, I can't go to my gym anymore, I'm not gonna get as much results. Here's an opportunity for you to put a lot of energy and focus on all these techniques that you were neglecting using before because it was just easy to add weight or it was just easy to go do a different machine because you needed variety or novelty to stimulate more growth or you continued results.

So instead of feeling bad or upset or disappointed or frustrated that you don't have access to all these tools, here is an opportunity for you to focus on other aspects or other ways for you to progressively overload the body that doesn't require all these random machines. And so that's been a constant conversation the last two to three months. And before we had created these mods for all these clients that for our programs, I'd be getting these DMs,

like, oh Adam in the middle of following aesthetic, what do I do with all these cable exercises? And it's like, it's actually really easy transition. Okay, so Adam just mentioned mods. So here's what we did for our maps programs. We have a bunch of core. We consider our core maps programs, right? So maps and a ballic, maps aesthetic, maps performance, maps split, our hit program, which

is high intensity interval training. Those are all of our core lifting programs. So what we've done, this is for existing customers and for new potential new customers' clients, is we've added modifications to all these programs as if all you had were dumbbells. So let's say you follow Maps Esthetic, which is a more advanced bodybuilder type routine, right? Every single exercise in there, that's not a dumbbell exercise. We have added a replacement that's dumbbells. So now you can follow all these programs, all these maps programs, and all you need are a pair of dumbbells, and you can do the entire

entire program. And the way we're launching this, because this is all out, and those of you that already have our programs, you've already seen these, they're already in your library, they're in your blueprints, everything's already there, but the way we're launching this is we're gonna offer all those programs

and the mods included, the at-home workout mods included, 50% off. Now, those of you that have been with Mind Pump for a long time know that we only ever offer a big, big discount like this. Maybe once or twice a year. So this is a big deal. But again, maps in a ball, like maps performance, maps aesthetic, maps split, maps hit. All now have at home workout mods where you just have dumbbells and they're all available at 50% off. This is a flash sale. It's going to end Friday night at midnight. So I think that gives us what 48 hours dug. Is that a 40 hour? So between 48 and 72.

Okay, so about two to three days, that's it. We don't like to offer these longer than that because we don't like to devalue the programs. But again, we're launching this. Here's how you get those programs if you don't have them. Go to mapsfitnisproducts.com, that's M-A-P-S-F-I-T-N-E-S-S products.com. And then use the following code to get 50% off. It's at home 50. So that's A-T-H-O-M-E and then 5-0. There's no space there. Use that code, you'll get a discount. By the way, there's no limit to how many programs you get,

so you can get all of them with that same code. It doesn't expire if you use it once. You can get all of them at 50% off and they all will come with the mods. So that's it. Look, mine pump is recorded on video as well as audio. So if you like listening to us in your ears, imagine seeing us with your eyes.

Check us out on YouTube, Mind Pump Podcast. You can also find us all on social media on Instagram, Mind Pump Justin, Mind Pump Sal, and Mind Pump Adam. That's where you'll find us. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and a ballad, maps performance and

maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is MindPump. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is Mindbump.