Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 395: Maximizing the Pump

Episode Date: November 3, 2016

Besides making you look good, does the pump have any muscle building benefits? In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin reveal the benefits of sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, AKA "the pump." Have Sal, Adam & Justin personally train you with a new video on our new YouTube channel, Mind Pump TV. Be sure to Subscribe for updates. Get MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic, the Butt Builder Blueprint AND the Sexy Athlete Mod (The RGB Super Bundle) packaged together at a substantial DISCOUNT at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Get your Kimera Koffee, Mind Pump's first official sponsor, at www.kimerakoffee.com, code "mindpump" for 10% off! Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Each week our favorite reviewers are announced on the show and sent Mind Pump T-shirts!

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. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. Hey listeners, you're going to hear us talking about the pump, aka transient, circle, plasma, hypertraffey. We're talking about how to maximize the pump. If the pump contributes to muscle growth, with the type of environment your body needs to be in to get a pump, and different techniques to

maximize the pump, one technique that we kind of gloss over is known as occlusion training. This is actually one of the more breakthroughs types of training that we've seen in the last 10 years. It's relatively new. It's extremely effective effective the studies and science supporting it are pretty conclusive uh... however you need to do it properly doing occlusion improperly can be quite dangerous you can find the occlusion guide at mine pump media dot com it's only twenty seven dollars and we break it all down for you again mind pump media dot com occlusion guide twenty seven

bucks just to do that You're again mindpumpmedia.com, occlusion guide, 27 bucks. Just to do that robot voice you do. All right. Yeah, I want you, you want to do it for me. Oh. So good. My name is Nipi. It's so good.

Adam, can you do a robot voice? Why do you do that, bro? Come on. Huh? I don't do voices. What do you do when you're doing one right now? That's my voice. It's really easy to do. You're voice, you know what your voice is?

Your voice is you doing your voice. Like it's you're trying to do your voice. That's it. It's, stop trying to do your voice. It's just talk normal. Okay, I know, seriously. Do the robot voice. My love is radio voice.

Wait, hold on, let me get in character, guys. Ugh, Adam. Adam. Adam. You let me get in character, guys. Ugh. Hey, Adam. Adam. You gotta go to an op, yeah. You gotta go smoke a 10 packs of cigarettes. Wait up, wait up. Is that what it really sounds like? Is that like a smoke 10 packs of cigarettes?

A little bit. At least. Oh man. Yeah, it's like borderline. You sound like that smoker, and except she's got a baritone. I swear it on. Well, when it's from, you guys, I mean. If she grew balls. Before we come here, you know, and we're, I'm really interested to see except she's got a baritone. I swear to God. Well, what it's from, you guys know, I mean. If she grew balls.

Before we come here, you know, and I'm really interested to see if you can tell a difference because I already know the difference when I went from teaching four times a week to teach in two now is, man, it tears my throat up after. What are you teaching? Class, we're not. Oh, what do you do here?

I don't know, I don't know. You're sitting there. You're throwing up. You said you were, you said you were throwing up. We're even in the last't know. You're not good. You said you were. You said you were. No, I'm with you. You said you were turning your throat up. I was like, hey, now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. So that was questionable. Yeah, I'm yelling for three hours straight. So, you know, once in the next. If that motherfucker's job. Everybody's job. We'll see. We'll see what it what happens afterwards.

I have a feeling that it will change a tiny bit. Because when we listen to podcasts on the radio, right? I don't feel like I sound like that when I talk to you guys. I think it's part of it's. I'm trying to figure out more. I'm more down a little bit. I'm trying to figure out why I have the kermit quality to my voice.

I can't, I still can't understand what's happening. Mm. It's like, just in the back, like, you know, like up just and high in the knees. Yeah, just in the back. You will never pass up an opportunity. No, I have to. I'm just trying to figure out why, you know what I mean?

Why does that happen? You're just nasally. What if I, you talk to your... I have to talk to you. You talk to me. Do I plug my nose? What if I plug it, it's worse. No, it comes down.

I think I'm pretty lower. It helped it. It did. So I should just do this the whole time. Now that is weird. When you plug your nose, it fixes it, but if I want to see you acting with like a low voice, like show me your lowest voice. You can't put me on a spot. Come on bro.

It's not even a voice, like it's like a... Did you get from putting me on? Welcome to my, that's not that good. It sounds the same deeper come on I can't stop it deep. Oh, I don't like you telling me that Do your robot voice Adam? I don't have a robot voice damn it. I don't do impressions I'm not I can jolly from house over home. I've heard your feelings enough times now. Oh yeah. You uncle Jesse is out here.

Is that your? Yeah, probably. Yeah. Adam's Danny. I was at our club one, our club sports, excuse me, club sport, not club one anymore. Club sport. Hey, if you want to go sign up there, by the way,

you should go talk to Mariah. Yeah, she's our girl. Hooks it up, shout out to her for sure. And the club, the club's so beautiful. I can't wait till they get their little kitchen place that they got coming out of the little restaurant. Yeah, the cafe, the building's out of there. But you know what's so cool.

I took a picture of it. I'll post it up in the form if you guys remind me. Is, have you been there when they have the kids class? I have. It's pretty neat. Dude, they deal a lot of cool stuff. They do. Yeah, they deal a lot of cool stuff. They do. Yeah, little kids work out class.

Yeah, I was very, very impressed with the programming for children. You know, because right now there's a lot of buzz going on with this whole, there's a lot of controversy, right? With the whole CrossFit for Kids, you know, that's going on right now. It's really big. It's really popular.

I hope it's successful like their MMA program. Remember that? Oh yeah, I was good. Yeah. Punching with medicine balls. Yeah. What about one? Kick and punch and punching. Yeah. The medicine ball. So there's a bunch of that going on. And then I see something like this and I'm like, you know, this is how it should be done. You know, I wish somebody could

take a page out of what the dress them who wrote who wrote right. I didn't want to interrupt them. I was just I was just observing. No, a lot of it too. Mind you, the girl that was teaching the class, you could you could tell she's could tell she's just made for kids, man. Because I look at that, and I'm like, that is so awesome, but there's no way I could do that. Like, 30, there's probably 35 little kids. We make the kids cry. Oh, God, I just don't have patience, you know.

But she does, and the way she was with them, and it was just so great, the stuff that they, I mean, very clever shit. I mean, they were, they were setting up these cones and just making them do little, just real basic footwork stuff between there and then they had to climb over a box. Were they enjoying it? Oh, yes.

And she made it into kind of a game and fun and then they would hula hoop and then they would do like these, you know, walking Frankenstein. They were doing all these great, great moves. And you could literally see, you could see the kids who were gonna be athletes. I mean, I can tell. Of course. You could's it's like dressed. Oh, it's so obvious you would you would have you could pick me out

Fucking if I was a kid like that kids gonna be on a microphone This mark I was bookworm. I was gonna let it move for radio. I was so worried that she was catching because I I was just so intrigued by Oh, you don't look creepy, dude. Yeah, right, and I'm taking a picture, and I'm like staring at these kids. I'm like, God, she probably seems so fucking weird, huh, right? But I was really impressed with the programming. The next time I'm in there, Awesome Mariah, or Mariah, if you're listed, I know Mariah listens,

if you see me, I'm interested to know who actually programs the children's program there. How crazy is that? That nowadays we have workout classes for children. It's awesome. No, no, no, it's awesome, but how crazy is that? Children's program there is done very well. That nowadays we have workout classes for children. It's awesome. No, no, no, it's awesome, but how crazy is that that you need to, like there's a desire to just need a marker for that?

I mean, they've cut a lot of recess time, you know, in some school districts and stuff. Almost all schools, right? Well, I don't know about beliefs, but definitely extracurricular activities. Vanished, you know, like we have to really seek it out now. Because when I was a kid, to the kid, I don't think we went more than, I don't think we ever went more than two periods

without a minimum 15 minute recess break. Really? Yeah. I think the most we ever did was a back-to-back hour class. That was like a longest stretch of your day was two classes back-to-back all the way till I was in eighth grade. So at least for me, that's how I grew up.

What did you guys do at recess? What was your favorite activity? Basketball. Tetherball or basketball? Yeah, really? Yeah. Red, red, red, red. What did you do?

I would talk to girls. Really? Yeah, you would talk to girls? I would. I talked to girls. Sometimes I play football. This is in fifth grade. Yeah, and I talked to girls and then we'd chase each other

and all kinds of weird stuff. Uh-huh. What happened? Cudi Monster. My first girlfriend was... I first girlfriend. I developed my communications fields actually. I see well you guys were still painting the end of all I was learning how to communicate to the opposite sex so you just reminded me something really funny So it's my my first girlfriend's first grade Yeah, was it really I was killing it? Oh my god, you would that far back? Yeah, I did, actually. Fourth grade was mine. She had red hair, name was tally. Yeah.

I'm not weird how you remember that shit. Oh, I remember all that. I remember this, I was sharing a story with you guys that, that the first time that I broke up with my fifth grade girlfriend, I broke up with her in that 15 minute recess. And we all came back in a class and her name was Emily. She was still out by the, the Ferris Will and she was crying all by herself. And the teacher made me go out and go talk to her. It was the fucking hardest

thing I read. I do is. But you know what's crazy when you think about how your character is formed as an adult. One of the things I've always been really good at is communicating like with with women with stuff like that just speaking my mind. But I didn't. It's not me. It's not you. It's me. I'm sure I didn't say. I'm sure I didn't say. I know I'm the last person to talk to you right now. But I just want to thank that teacher because talk about having a good teacher though. It's not your fault that you're ugly.

She made me go handle that though. She made me- They would never do that. Oh, they would never do that anymore. But she told me to go out there and I needed to talk to her. I had my friend break up with her because that's what you do in that age.

You know what I'm saying? Of course, you don't do with them. That's way too young to break up yourself. That's do in that age. Yeah, you know, of course you do. Yeah, I mean, that's way too young to break up yourself. And this is that's a lot of pressure. So, you know, I, I told Greg, Greg go tell Emily, we're not boyfriend and girlfriend. So he told her she starts crying and she stays there. And of course, I don't know. She's, I'm going to go over and talk to her after I broke up with her.

So I go into class. And you know, we had, remember those old, those old classrooms with the like, you know, they were trailers, trailers, right? And you could see out the window those old classrooms with the like, you know, they're trailers trailers, right? And you could see out the window at the one window on the side. She was just out there crying. Yeah, and she was sitting out there in the tan bar by the little Ferris well thing. Just crying. Can I say something now?

Can I say something now? Because I have a daughter and I would want to be trapped. Yeah, but I went talk to her. Not that it's your fault. I went talk to her. But it still want to kick her happens. I still want to kick her out. I had the to her. Not that it's your fault. I went talk to her. You know, it still wanna kick her out. It happens. I still wanna kick her out, so.

I had the opposite happen. I had my first kiss ever, like with this girl, right? We're outside, it was like fourth grade. No, yeah, fourth grade. And so we were outside the classroom. And, you know, I just went for it. I'm like, hey, you know, boom, and it happened like we're outside.

And like, the teacher called her mom. And then the next day she broke up with me. Wow. I was like, you cock, block and bitch! My first kiss! Fourth grade ruined it! Jesus. I didn't say that, but now I think of back.

I'm like, wow. That's horrible. I had two, there were two girls that were friends. What were their names? Diana and Kristen. And they both liked me. So they both wrote me a letter and it said, who do you like more? And there was a box, unreached name.

Would that be great if women did that like an adulthood right? Dude, you wanna be able to tell you how gangster I was? That's awesome, how do you know how gangster I was? I like you both. No, no, no, no. So the paper had, we should all hang out. Deanna, box underneath it, Kristen, box underneath it. no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Yeah, but I did have and then in seventh grade, I had a eighth grade girl. This is a Utah over here. I grew up here, dude. Okay. What

Utah? I wonder where all these ideas come from. Adam trying to make a joke. I was when I when I and then when I was in seventh grade, check this out. This is fucking horrible. I don't know about you guys, but you know in your certain age, your hormones are already kind of raging. So it's not like you're not, I mean, you're definitely aware of the opposite sex But you're way too intimidated to do anything about it. Oh, yeah, so even though you're like fucking horny and all you ever think about is You know all kinds of crazy shit if a girl comes up and actually tries anything. Oh you start sweating for us You've run away like yeah, I'm not gonna Seventh grade I remember this in seventh grade. There was an eighth grade girl that I it's like shit

I had the biggest crush on her. Yeah her friend comes up to me and said I forgot her name Damn, but her friends like hey so-and-so wants to be your girlfriend So I'm like yes break was over lunch was next. I'm like oh my god. What do I do? So literally we just fucking stood next to each other and I didn't say shit And this happened for like two day like two days in a row where I just kind of stood around her like didn't know what to do. Super intimidated and she's waiting for me to make a move And I didn't do shit and she broke up on me. Do you remember that regret it to the stage? That's like between six and eighth grade right? Oh, it's a seven grade between Between six and eighth grade was totally those years that and I have no idea what you're just a kid

You're just an awkward wool and it's and the the kid your friends take it your friends are pressure I knew it took it. I have no idea what you're just a you're just an awkward well and it's and the the kit your friends take it your friends are Pressure you took it. I know that your friends are pressuring you to do it still take it because they they're they're too afraid to do it Or they don't have a girlfriend I do like dude you gotta make out with her what instead I remember we read a park one time Did you French kiss? Oh, yes, yeah, it was like this it was like it the whole day was set around this like We're gonna go meet and kiss and like everybody's watching You know saying it was just like her friends my friends super intimidating back at 315 Super turn on now to meet nowhere the picnic bench. We know we got plenty of time No teachers are gonna be over there anything like that you guys are gonna kiss her friends are with like my me and my friends are all the

Over here we could see them over there and they were like okay We got 15 more minutes. You go you're gonna kiss her right you can give her the tongue or what you slip the tongue to You're saying like it's like this big old, big old, you know, it's just a fucking watch me work this. Oh my god. It's so, it's hard. You're gonna miss this fuck, messy as shit. It's so funny how the same situation is so different

as an adult. Like, imagine now, for girls like, hey, I want to meet up with you and make out with you, but my friends are gonna watch. So different. Yeah. It's an old difference now. Now you're like, fuck, wake up right now.. You're calling us and like hey you guys want to come

Yeah, it would be a hell of a chick. They're watching. I know kind of parties. You're growing. Yeah I don't know. Yeah, it's just very intimidating. Were you intimidating? I feel like Justin was probably the smoothest at the youngest age I was pretty well, you know, versed with the late Well, you know, versed with the late. Well, you just not... I'm not. I believe better back then. That's good. Yeah, that's good.

I believe all of it up until you said it. Seriously, it's like the Uncle Joey thing works when they're younger. Yeah, I mean, it never works on my mom. You know what happened? They're just like, you know what happened? Oh my god, you remind me of my dad my You know what happened? You know what happened? Oh my god, you remind me of my dad. You know, you're something. Me and Adam sucked, Hellabat is kids made to hone our skill.

You were really good at a young age, never developed a path. Never developed a path. It's just a work. You know, and then I hooked them in and then I was set. It's going back out there, I would be like, just shredded a lot. This is why it would be great to have Courtney on the show so we could ask her. So, someone, someone, someone, someone you will throw me into the bus. Dude, at a whim, like would be like, just shredded. This is why it would be great to have Courtney on the show so we could ask her some of the... She will throw me into the bus, like at a whim,

like she's even care. I was too intimidated, even at the age of 18, I could be intimidated so easily. I actually had a client that I trained, who I don't wanna say too much because fuck, I don't know if she'll ever listen, but I don't have it talked for for years, but she was very attractive, very sexual,

30 something year old woman. I'm 18 year old kid. So this is like the stuff of fantasy. Well, this is like making the news headlines. And for my birthday, she's like, hey, I'm gonna come pick you up and we can just go hang out, just me and you. And she was totally forward about what she wanted to do

and it was gonna happen. And I didn't even show up. I didn't even show up, dude. And she never came back for training. That's right, I did when it was gonna happen. And I didn't even show up. I didn't even show up, dude. And she never came back for training. That's right, I did when I was so scared. Yeah, when I was a freshman, I had a senior ask me to prom. And I was like, ah, no.

Yeah, you're too scared to do. You had a senior chick ask you out when you were a freshman? Yeah, well, you were the shit, bro. For a minute. That's like a big deal. Yeah, but for a minute. You gotta see what she looks like though. Yeah Well, even she was she was good. Yeah, she was your type. You know, bro. Even you're the you know even even even even

Harry armpits, even insecure, even secure girls and and ice cold. They're not confident to ask somebody out like that I mean that takes some that means you fucking you you were a big swing and dick on campus. No, like we were in Spanish together so I you know, kind of put a little vibe in there. Oh, so she wasn't very bright then, right? Spanish, she was in Spanish one when you were a senior. She started. We watched, yeah. Yeah.

That's it. Yeah, but she was hot. What is it, let me do this again. Wait, Spanish one senior. Yeah, she was, maybe she wasn't that smart. You're right. Did she ride the short bus? It was like, you know, it was like a makeup class.

Come on, guys. He's all, yeah, I mean, he's all, he's all, extracurricular. He's that baby, I want him, oh my, oh my, you take off your helmet. I'm going to move it aside. Dude, maybe she took French first. I mean, had to convert over to Spain. She guys are assholes Okay, she wasn't that dumb. She wasn't drooling

Oh god, oh god, they're so bad. Oh shit so bad. Yes, rassles. So anyway Where we going anyway? What are we doing? I want to you wanted to actually talk about this. I think it's a great topic Wow, that was a fast, we're all with, you like that, yeah, Greg. Gregor skip. Time for fitness. Yeah, right.

We are a fitness punk, I swear to God. We have five minutes left to talk about some fitness. No, we were gonna talk about the pump, chasing the pump. Ooh, and. Just, ooh, totally awesome. Let's talk about this. You may be, maybe that's how dirty it is. There's lots of things to be said.

There's lots of things too. I actually like this because I'm willing, I pump. I am still like experimenting with different stuff the way we train and noticing the way my body responds when I really focus on the pump versus when I'm really focused on strength and then when I kind of blend the two and you know, I have a little bit to say that I'm through my experience and I'm curious to hear some dialogue with you guys on and theories because this is something that like bodybuilders, so my peers, hardcore man, like it's all about the pump.

It's almost every bit of any sort of science or anything that's intelligently written by a bodybuilder comes from chasing the pump type of theory, you know, and the time-intertension and the pump and pump pump pump everything and you know, you get so indoctrined by that you start to believe that it's the end all and not always did not the end all but you know Just being somebody who's switched over to training purely for strength I've seen the benefits not only of that but that it's probably even more beneficial when it comes to building more muscle, but then there's something to be said about what the pump makes us look like and so the difference is the traction.

Do you guys remember the technical term for the pump with the scientific term is? The suckle positive. Sorry, I remember to be... No, I tried to beat it. Twinsy. Just in from $50. Yeah. A transient circle plasma hypertrophy.

So circle plasma. So what's the transient part? The pump is because the pump is temporary. So that's why it's transient. So circle plasma is a word that it means all of the non muscle fiber structures within muscle, the fluids, the glycogen, the blood, the water, all of that stuff that's not actual muscle fiber, which, believe it or not, actually makes up more of your muscle than muscle fibers do. Your muscles are made up of a lot of things other than muscle fibers. So, sarcoplasm encompasses all that.

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy means increasing the sarcoplasm and transient means it comes and goes. So, the pump is the ability of, is your muscles basically getting more blood going in than going out and this, they feel really tight. They enlarge for a short period of time. It feels engorged. It feels engorged. It is a boner for your muscles, literally. It's almost no different. And the pump itself, here's the thing about the pump.

The reason why the pump is important, there's multiple reasons. And one of them is the simple ability to get a pump tells you quite a bit about your body's state, you know, what state it's in. So if I'm dehydrated, if I'm not nourished properly, if I'm really tired, my ability to have a pump is going to be compromised.

Right, declines. Yeah, so if I'm in the gym and I'm working out and I'm having a tough time getting a pump is going to be compromised. Right, declines. Yeah, so if I'm in the gym and I'm working out and I'm having a tough time getting a pump, it could be a signal that I'm not in the optimal environment to build muscle. And so the pump itself tells you, many times tells you, wow, I'm in this great environment to build muscle. That being said, the pump itself has got some beneficial abilities, some beneficial properties to building muscle. And one example is when you take it to the extreme, like when

you do occlusion training, occlusion training is where you tie off a muscle. Well, and this is really, the science behind occlusion I purchase if you training really that is comes from that Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean when you tie off a muscle you have to do it properly by the way So if you don't know what I'm talking about make sure you look up a clue Yeah, what do you say like tie off your muscles? Yeah, we have a guide that we offer super inexpensive mind pump media.com But anyhow if you do it right you tie off the muscle and you you prevent even more blood from leaving the muscle. So it just exaggerates the pump. It's very painful, but that also contributes to muscle growth. So the pump itself has got some benefit to building muscle.

You can increase the amount of circle plasm within muscles, but it also contributes to, it's also one of the signals I think your body reads when it comes to, you know, to building muscles. So the pump itself is not necessarily a bad thing to chase. I just think people get stuck. They get constantly stuck chasing the pump, and not moving out of that phase. And you want to think about the things

that give you a better pump, faster pace, supersets, higher reps, lots of volume, which are great, but if you do those all the time then you're missing out on the lower reps, the slower pace, the building more strength, the central nervous system adaptation. And you'll find that if you focus, if you stick in the pump too long, you'll start to lose gains and lose strength. Can you kind of tie in like lactic acid in that role as far as like the pump and like, you know, describe as far, cause I know some people like, I remember people asking me about a lactic acid

like that being the cause of muscle soreness and all this is kind of like a, something people ask me all the time. You would die if that built up your body. That's what people, we used to say that. I remember it was a trainer used to say, oh that's very common saying. That burning sensation is lactic acid building up

and it's like if lactic acid is a- It goes away, it's actually quite, you build up waste products as you're exercising, but the minute you stop, your body gets rid of them pretty well. So it's not leftover lactic acid, it's actually sornous inflammation from muscle damage and there's still a lot that's unknown about muscle sornous and muscle damage because you can train the same way

for so long and that gets sorny more, but still a list of an adaptation response. Well, I feel like there's still a lot to learn too with the difference it makes your body aesthetically look training strength versus training hypertrophy. And I think the way some bodybuilders look, I feel like I can look at somebody and kind of tell their program basically.

And I know, and that's not just, and not just from what I've seen like other bodybuilders, but really what I've noticed with myself the last couple of years is, I was definitely this guy. So I trained, superset everything, total hyper. Always chasing the power. Always chasing the power.

I could not tell you probably since, okay, from 16 years old till about 19 years old, I used to only do like six reps. Because back then I remember being a kid and reading magazines that, okay. You have to do low reps. You gotta do low reps, heavy weight if you wanna get big. Then the first time I found out that was a myth

and then I switched over to high reps. I saw the greatest change in I'd ever seen my body. So you guess what I did, never returned. Oh, you did was that now. So all I did was that, so I chased. That's funny, because without realizing you repeated the same mistake. Exactly, 100%. So now a majority of my 20s, So all I did was that. So I chased. That's funny, because without realizing you repeated the same mistake. Exactly.

100%. So now a majority of my 20s, I'm chasing high-perchvy. I couldn't tell you from 20 all the way till about 27, 28 years old. I don't think I ever fucking drop below six reps. Ever. I think six was like a super low day. Most everything I did was between eight to 10 reps

and then a lot of super setting, right? So I had the, and what I've noticed with my body then, and what it is, how I feel different is this. And I just got back into hypertrophy training right now, which I haven't done in a long time. And holy shit, my body looks different. Because now when I get the pump, now I have a massive, a massive, massive pump

in comparison what I did before. Now before, I would have to keep this pump to kind of get that look, and then I would deflate. Like I would look all, like when I was all full of blood, full of water in my workout, I really liked the way, my muscle belly's looked, I liked the way, but then when I would stop and then the rest of my day, and I used to always say, God, I wish I looked like,

the way I looked when I worked out. Well, my body now looks more like and I used to always say, God, I wish I looked like the way I looked when I worked out. Well, my body now looks more like what I used to look like when I worked out with no pump whatsoever. And I tribute that a lot of that to a lot of good strength training and building solid muscle that doesn't require any fluid to be pumped into it to look all bubbly looking. I'm solid. Now when I go get a pump, it's ridiculous. The pump is insane.

I think it's interesting too, to note that. And I know I don't have, I wish I had, like this is something I'm like, this I'm researching a lot of this and reading a lot of this stuff right now. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of science because they'll measure, I mean, there's not a lot of science

because when they do certain tests, the measure muscle size growth or whatever, they'll use certain tests that don't necessarily measure like a straight circumference. They'll look at density in the muscles and it's tough, right? It's tough because it's total circumference of your muscles. If your arm grows, there's many ways it can grow. One of them is by growing muscle fibers. Right. And the other, again, is having more fluid than in them. And simply changing your diet might change the circumference of a muscle because you have more fluid in it versus not me.

Go get dehydrated and you will. And you say being hydrated. Yeah, and you'll lose muscle. I think it's also interesting that certain sports getting the pump is a bad thing. You know, like if you're a rock climber, the last fucking thing you want is a pump for performance. Yeah, because you can't function. You have no more dexterity at that point. Exactly. Same thing when Ace of Training and Jiu-Jitsu or Judo, if your form has got pumped from

trying to get a choke or holding a grip, you know, really strong, you're fucked. You lost strength in that grip. So it's an interesting thing when it comes to athletic performance, you can utilize the pump to help you build muscle, but you might not wanna get real good at getting too pumped. And I think it has more to do with training more for endurance and over time, you lose that, you don't get that huge pump anymore, but you're able to continue to produce that repetitive motion. For example, if I now get on a mountain bike,

and I haven't ridden a mountain bike or bike for a long time, if I get on a mountain bike right now and ride around I'll get a big ass quad pump for sure But if I stick to riding for a while I'll lose that pump on my performance Yeah, yeah, my body starts to adapt to it. There's there's something set to be said too about so part of why I used to preach You know training hypertrophy and high repetitions, was also the safety factor. I definitely, the bad side of heavy strength training is learning to discipline myself of not continuing to push that.

You get so excited with the PRs and chasing heavier and heavier weight that I'm more at risk for my form to break down and then create imbalances or injuries. Even if they're slight injuries and stuff like that or even slight imbalances, they still are. Where when I was training 12, 15 repetitions and supersetting, it's such a lightweight for me that the ability to control it and keep myself in really good posture while I'm moving

the weight and having good mechanics is a lot easier. And then when I would fail and break down, it's a lot easier to control that and not allow yourself. It's a very different mentality, training when you're working out to get a pump, versus working out to get stronger or to lift more weight. It's a very different mentality. I mean, if I get underneath a barbell to squat

and I'm going heavy, I am really focused on tension. I'm really focused on mechanics. I'm getting into the groove. I'm coming down, staying tight and I'm driving through. Riding your way through every rep. Exactly. If I'm looking for a pump, I may focus on keeping the tempo a little faster, maybe not stopping at any moment.

Or if I do, when I do stop at the top, I'll flex the shit out of my quads and emphasize the squeeze there. You know, I'm doing a little bit of a different focus. And what I, what you'll notice is if you, again, if you stay in one phase for too long, you're gonna get, you know, your returns will start to diminish.

If you switch your phases properly, they contribute to each other quite well. I just did this recently because I hate, I hate squatting over four or five reps. I do not enjoy it. I just don't enjoy it. It's just, it's fucking, I am with you on that one. It's grueling.

I wanna throw up, I hate it. I'd rather just do singles and doubles. It's deadless. Yeah, but when I do do sets of eight to 10 reps and I go much lighter and I focus on getting a little bit of a pump, when I go back to my strength training, I'm stronger. Well, I would like to say something about that

because I like to point out when there's some, here's some shitty about us, something that we all agree on that we're all kind of anti-cardio. We're none of us really push high intensity cardio just in a little bit does. But here's one benefit right there. I can think of that if you're really cardio adapted, doing high volume squats is not that bad

because your heart is used to pumping that much blood, that hard, that fast, where for us, that's why it's such a nightmare for us, because we don't push the heart like that a lot. So then you get under a bar, and even though it's only 135 or 225 on your back, which is not a lot of weight, dude, doing 10, 15 repetitions is just,

it's not hard for your legs, it's hard for your, like you're breathing heavy, you're getting a breath. Yeah, I'm at a breath now. I'm at a ruins the rest of my workout. Yeah, I feel like my legs get lightheaded, you dizzy, if I'm not teeing, sets in real quick. So there's some benefits, you know, someone asked a question other day on Q&A about that about, you know, that's being so anti-cardio, and you know, there's some, but that also, if you really cared about that, like you don't really

care that you fatigue, you got it, you know, but that's something you, you have to push yourself through when I know that I've been training, when I've been training in the three to five rep range for a long time in school, I know I got eight to 12s ahead of me and whether I like it or not, I need to be there. It reminds me of like your characters, like in video games where you have a guy that like your focus is power, your focus is strength. It takes away from the other. And your bar, like every time you do this, it takes away from another one of your

adaptations. So you just have to kind of look at it that way. You can't merge it all together. Oh, yeah, it's like, Oh, you're just going to be inefficient in all of them. No, 100%. It's like you get five stars or whatever, and you can distribute them however you want. Distribute it.

Yeah, you can't get five in all categories. It's going into this one, but you want to definitely fluctuate it, so that way it improves everything. But it's a little different than that, because if you know how little different than that because if you know how to manipulate your training, if you know how to phase your training, all of our programs are phased for a reason. If you phase them, will you only have a hundred units of measurements

or whatever, if I give 50 over here, now only have 50 left to give to other pieces? Not necessarily because they contribute to each other if you phase them properly. Now if you just focus on one, yes, you will start to lose those other adaptations. But you'll still have a preference that like, so if you're an endurance person specifically, and you want to still maintain that regiment like going forward, but you want to entertain

more strength and entertain more power into your regiment to benefit what you're doing running wise, that's totally different. Like somebody that's in the gym that just wants to look ecstatic, that's totally different. Somebody that wants more sports performance, that's different, but you definitely want to go

through the whole process to have it all affect you in a phasal approach. Not 100%. Now I'll tell you one of the things that the pump is most valuable for as a trainer. I use it as a tool to signal when my clients' connection to a muscle had improved. Let me explain.

If you find it hard to get a pump in one particular muscle, the odds are you've got a really bad connection to that muscle. If you bench press and you find you get great pump in your triceps and shoulders but not so well in your chest, you're not having a good connection to your chest. If you do a hip thrust and you're like, man, I feel a pump on my hamstrings but not in my glutes, you might have a poor connection to your glutes. And so many times I would ask clients, does that muscle feel tight?

Does it feel like it's inflated? And if they said no, then we would continue to try to get a pump in that muscle because a couple things happen. When you get a pump in that muscle, you can feel it. Now I can feel that muscle working. So you've got that feedback, right? So now that I'm doing an exercise and I got this muscle that feels engorged and pumped, I can kind of feel it working or not, and I can adjust my form or my intent while I'm doing the exercise.

Number two, as I'm getting a pump, it's again, it's telling me, I'm finally firing that muscle properly. And I have a great example that I experienced myself as a kid. I almost never got a pump in my lats when I worked out as a kid. I would do back exercises like crazy. I never neglected working my back, but I would never get a pump in my lats when I worked out as a kid. I would do back exercises like crazy.

I never neglected working my back, but I would never get a pump in it. I always feel on my arms. And the first time I got a pump in my lats was when I incorporated a pre-exhaust super set where I went from dumbbell pullover, which is more of an isolation movement for the lats, to pull ups, which is more of a compound movement

for my lats. And I remember this like it was yesterday. I was really young, I must have been, I don't know, 16, 17 maybe. And I remember doing that super set after the third set, I was like, holy shit, like I feel my Lats are pumped, like this is crazy. And from that day forward, I was able to target my Lats and feel them differently than I ever had before, even though I had already been working out my back in my lats for, you know, two years. So that's a nice, that's something you should pay attention to.

If there's a muscle you have a tough time getting a pump on, chances are you have a back connection to it. You just remind, you know what Doug, write this down. Here's a series that we can do on the YouTube channel. This reminds me of when I first started as a trainer early on and a client would tell you something like that, you know, I would just, well, focus more or I would keep going back to the mechanics.

Like, we will, you know, rotate your hips this way and I would focus on that because that's what I knew really well. Now is a trainer in all the experience that we have. Now I have lots, lots of little tricks to teach someone. Like, you brought up the, you know, them not, like them doing like, you know, an exercise and filling in their hamstrings and not their glutes. So now, instead of like now, if I was training somebody

and they told me that, we would stop what they're doing, I would take them somewhere else and I would help them get that reconnected by teaching them a movement that would help them. And then bring them back, okay, you feel that? So they can move, we target, and then we bring them back to the compound. Exactly.

Where I think that's really good information, not only for trainers that are training clients, but even for people like that are listening, going like, yes, that's me, when I squat, I can't fill it in my glutes, or when I do chest, I fill my shoulders and triceps, what are some things that we do for our clients that help them get that connection

and get that understanding, and then bringing them back over there to help them out. I think that would be a great little series we could do several, you know, also this is all planning and prepping your warm up and in your cool down and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, absolutely. How you Pringed the body before I'm everything. Before I start to get into it. So the pump, you know, tells you your body's in a good environment, a good state to build muscle. The pump itself builds muscle. We now what we've done is we've briefly kind of gone over the best methods to getting the best type of pump.

I think we should go into a little more detail. Like, what are the best techniques for getting a great pump? And I wanna be clear though, the techniques we're gonna go over will work sometimes. They're not gonna work if you always do them. So whatever we advise you to do, you go try it, you're gonna get a great pump.

I promise if you keep doing it, it'll stop working. It's it, you're gonna get a great pump. I promise if you keep doing it, it'll stop working. It's gonna get you're gonna get diminishing returns. But one of my favorite techniques for getting a pump is a strip set. Stripsets for me always elicit that type of response. And in a nutshell, a strip set is lifting a weight until you're pretty close to failure, then moving to a weight down. Yeah, you take you move then immediately without rast, you move to a weight that's lighter and you continue the exercise. I haven't done that a long time. Yeah, so I'm gonna stop you right now too.

I love these different bench. It's important that you note this or that we explain this because here's where you get into a lot of the muscle magazines and all the different like strip setting, pyramid, super setting, you know muscle magazines and all the different like strip setting, pyramid, super setting, you know, tries that all these different. See everybody doing that with a curling bar. All these different techniques. Okay, so we have to keep this in mind.

Where this is going to be the most value or the biggest bang for a buck is when you are in a phase of hypertrophy and that is already your main focus. So for example, if you're like in the middle of, you know, I'm training for strength and like we're in phase one of maps This is not where you start to play with this. No, no, no, it's not the purpose of that. It's specific phase Yeah, but if I was in phase three of let's say maps black or maps red then here's a great tip or a great thing that I can throw in there It's because we like we've always told people even though we've Created these programs for you guys. we've always encouraged flexibility within them.

So those that want flexibility, you want to know, how do I incorporate a drop set, how do I incorporate a superset and chase the pump like that? Where would you guys use that? Here you go. This would go somewhere in phase three, you would do some of these techniques that we're going to talk about right now. It doesn't belong anywhere else. It belongs in a specific phase.

And then it belongs with you moving on from that after you've done it for a while. So not always doing this all the time. Right. So so back to the strip set, you lift away. You go to pretty close to failure. You grab a lighter weight and then you do it again and you repeat this three or four times. So a very common way to use this would be with dumbbells because it's so easy to grab the next dumbbell. And I like doing this exercise for things like laterals,

front raises, curls, and I'll grab, let's say I grab the 25s, I do my laterals, go to fatigue, rack them, and then I grab the 20s. Rack them, then I grab the 15s, rack them, and then I grab the 10s, and then I rest. And you will get an incredibly, you know, skin tight pump from doing something like that. Now, I also want to be clear, it's a very advanced technique, and it does cause a lot of damage.

So, this is not something you want to incorporate into your routine more than I would say once or twice a month. It's more of an advanced technique. Something that's a little easier that you can do, that isn't super advanced, that you can do every, almost every time you work out within a phase of this type of training, would be to emphasize the two ends of the rep.

And what I mean by that is you want to emphasize the stretch of the rep, and then emphasize the squeeze of the rep. This is a very basic, easy technique to improving the pump of a particular exercise. So if I'm doing like a fly for my chest, I'm going like I'm coming down and getting a real deep stretch under tension, good control.

I'm not in an area where I'm gonna hurt myself. Then I bring them together and then I press my hands together and I squeeze the heck out of my chest for, you know, three to five seconds and then I go back down into the stretch. You could do this with almost any exercise, especially isolation based type movements, and this is something you could do almost every workout because you could pick any exercise and do this type of thing. That also will give you a nice, also great for communication wise too, like if you're trying to get any specific muscle to wake up and be active in that lift.

Like I've done that just intuitively, especially with the chest too, and I'm not feeling it and get involved with my bench press. I would go to the flies and I would do that same exact thing. You just describe stretch it out real good, squeeze it real hard, make sure that I'm getting it to respond the way I want. And then you go bench press. No, I go bench press. Yeah, see, that's a great technique. I love a, either a barbell or a big dumbbell.

So either a big barbell or a big dumbbell movement, supersetted with a cable move. For example, like a bent over row, and then I'll go over the cables, and I'll do like a, you know, lap pull down with cables or something, or I'll do like a barbell bicep curl, and I'll go over the cables, and I'll do like a, you know, lap pull down with cables or something, or I'll do like a barbell bicep curl, and I'll go over and do cable curls real light. So I'll do my big, my big movement with the barbell or dumbbell, and a little bit heavier and more challenging,

then I'll go over to the cables, really light and concentrate, and that's all I'm doing is pumping more blood in there. Super sets are just, you know, combining two exercises back to back. There's a lot of different techniques that you can use with this. You can do like what Adam's doing is just two exercises for the same body part, or you can pick an isolation movement and go to a compound movement, or you can flip that and

do a compound movement to the isolation movement. Then there's another way we can do a super set. We actually talked about this, I think, on a YouTube video. Yeah, and that's where you work, a think on a YouTube video. It did, yeah. And that's where you work a muscle and you work its antagonist. So you work whatever muscle you work, you superset it with an exercise that works the muscle.

That's opposing it to tricep. Exactly, so bicep to tricep superset, which I still to this day, almost every time I work out my arms, I go bicep to try to set super set, chest to back super set, quad to hamstring super set. Yeah, there'd be a compound set, that's what that is.

Yeah, it's still a super set, but you're right, it's a compound set. Yeah, yeah, it's a compound set. It's a compound set. You know, even though there's not like a, you have to do it this way or not, I find it important to do, if you're gonna, you're gonna pair exercises,

is to do the more mechanically challenging one first before you go do, like a machine or cables, super safe, super easy, you know what I'm saying, like it's hard to screw up. It's better to finish with that. Yeah, to finish with a movement like that, where you're just kind of fatiguing it anyways and pumping blood in, your big gross movement,

whatever it is, whether, no matter what muscle group we're talking about, what it'll be. Yeah, do that. Do the big one first that requires more skill to do it when you're not fatigued and you can give everything you got into it. And then when you're already fatigued and gassed out, you're going over to do it. And this is kind of where we talk, we talk shit about machines a lot, right? Because this is kind of the order of operation.

It's the perfect place for them. Yeah. Here's where they come into play. You go over, you do your big bar malbume, then you go sit over on your preacher curl bench machine and you pump the arms or whatever. Another less known technique that you can do to get a better pump in the muscle is to take the rap

and to break up the rap into smaller segments. Now, there's one exercise that people, if they do do this, there's only one exercise that they'll tend to do this with and it's curls and they'll call them 21s. And that's where you take a full, like a full curl, right? I go from straight arm all the way up to my arm flexing all the way up at the top. And what I do is I break that up into three reps and so I do so many reps coming up halfway, so many reps going down halfway and then so many full reps.

You can do this with almost anything. I could do this with a squat, I could do this with a lunge, I could do this with a bench press or a shoulder press, where you take the entire rep and you do so many reps within a part of the range of motion. I would be interested to see the science on this. Okay, so in 21s, for example, you're short in your range up half, half, and then you do full range of motion, right? And like you said, you apply that.

I'm curious to see if there would be any more or less benefit to building muscle than if you were to do just 21 fucking full reps. I would, yes, definitely. And I'll tell you why, when you're training within a particular range of motion and focusing on that, muscles get strong in pretty specific ways. And when you look at the sliding filament theory and how muscles tend to, muscle fibers attach to each other and contract, when you're shortening the range of motion, you're training a part of the muscle fiber and you're putting most of the focus there.

So in essence, what you're doing is you're fatiguing a part of the rep more than if you were just doing full reps And so it just changes the it just changes the stimulus. Yeah, but that's to me Because having to stop it that almost that almost supports Steponnie's argument with doing the preacher crow and working the lower by no not at all It almost does it's you're getting pretty close when you start playing with that because it still has the same attachments And you're still met no if you look at the muscle fibers, I'm not talking about muscle fibers

from here to here, from the lower to the mid-bisep, from the mid-bisep up. It's all the muscle fibers, but the way they connect to each other, you can change where they, when you're adding force to where they break apart, and that's what causes the damage.

It happens along the entire muscle. Nonetheless, a bicep contracted halfway. My point is, muscle fibers are attached to it. What my point is, if we're talking about a sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and chasing the pump, I would like to see a study done

where you compared someone who did 21 repetitions, full repetitions with a lighter weight versus someone who did 21s, and which one would technically have more benefit if there wasn't yet all. I think if you did a head-to-head competition full reps are always in a win. I think if you did a competition where someone utilized both and offered it as a variety, then you would see some benefit.

Okay, fair enough. You could never replace full reps. Okay, I think that's important to know to our listeners, don't understand, because easily somebody hears that and they go like, oh, that sounds superior. Now I'm going to go start doing 21s with stuff to chase this bomb. Think about it. No, it's not bad.

No, it's just a technique. But think about it this way. Let's say I'm doing a squat. If I'm doing a barbell squat and I have weight on my back and I stop halfway and come back up, think of the forces on my body when I stop halfway, having to reverse that force and change directions versus stopping at the bottom, reversing force and coming up. It places a different stress on the body because of the positioning. So it's just another little trick or technique that you throw in there. And in breaking up the reps, makes things fun. And I'm telling you, if you throw that technique in here and there,

you'll find that that same exercise that you always do that doesn't really give you a pump, you break up the reps and next thing you know, you're getting a good pump from it. Well, and I think this is what's important and what I used to tell clients, when they ask questions like things like 21s and stuff is, hey, when we're chasing the pump and that is our focus,

these are all great fun ways to manipulate that and there's benefits to changing that all together because all of it we're chasing the pump right. I'm not gonna how you look at it whether it be the pyramid or the stacking, the drop set, the super set, the compound set, really the desired outcome is pretty much the same. And ultimately utilizing all those tools within that phase of your training would be awesome and would be ideal and that's how you would do it. This is where you can get creative when you come back to do, you know, like say your second round of Maps 7 Obalisk.

Exactly. You're coming in and there are a lot of different techniques to pull from and each type of phase that, you know, we promote, you know, as far as like in performance or, you know, in aesthetic and this is where like that's why why we have room for mods and things like that. But you do want to focus on, if that's a technique that you're going to implement, you want to focus on that technique and do it with enough time and effort and energy to really see how it's affecting you. Here's a good technique that is overused.

It is a good technique, but if you use it improperly and overdo it, then it's bad. And that is keeping constant, what bodybuilders will say, tension on a muscle. I hate using that term because they're so inaccurate with it, because a muscle's under tension as long as you want to keep it under tension, regardless of the position.

But what they mean by that is they mean they shorten the rep. For example, if I'm doing a shoulder press and a bodybuilder says, oh, don't go all the way up and constantly move the rep. Don't stop at the top. Don't stop at the bottom and don't lock your elbows out at the top because we want to keep constant tension. The reality is you're going to keep constant tension if you straighten your arm out and lock it out and maintain good tension yourself versus doing what they're doing. The reason why they're doing it that way is because it is an effective way to get a pump. When you're constantly flexing, flexing, flexing, flexing, flexing, extending a muscle,

not pausing at the either end of the rep, it's a very effective technique to get a better pump. On the flip side, if you do go full, full range of motion and you still want to get a great pump, you can. All you got to do is internally create that tension. If I'm at the top of a shoulder press, and I lock my elbow and I relax, yeah, I'm going to definitely lose some tension,

but if I push it up and drop my shoulder blade and tense everything up and stay super tight, I'm not losing tension. And I'm still creating that pump and dusing. And here's where the skill of working out comes in. This is one of the hardest things as a trainer to communicate to clients that you're trying to teach is something that you're talking about right now

because the natural thing for the body to do when you lock out a full product. And this is how all these things grow legs. This is where the bro science comes from because there's a little bit to be said to doing that because a person who doesn't understand how to do that, how to internally keep themselves connected and focused on that could easily lock out

and then they just let the elbow be showing to get the force. And they're not engaged with their muscles like they should be. It's like locking your knees on your standing. Exactly, right? Exactly, coming up. Coming in a leg press and completely locking all the way out and your knees bowing out and your knees are

what are, holding it, like, yes. And that was like, that's what we used to say when I used to tell people when I was a trainer early on was, you know, oh, don't lock out because you don't want to put that, you don't want to put that on the joints. You know, so we don't want to put stress on the joints when to keep the tension on the muscle the entire time.

But a lot of that is because people don't understand that concept. They don't understand that they can fully extend and concentrate on the muscle that is supposed to be holding their verses. They can still squeeze the muscle. Absolutely. Absolutely. But the natural reaction for the body, because the body is always going to choose the easiest path for us.

It's supposed, it needs to. Yeah, it has to. It's the most beneficial thing, one of the beneficial things it does. If your body constantly seeked out the most difficult way, you be fucked. Right? So you need to be conscious of that. And that's that's this is where the skill of training really comes in is that that's why it's something that takes this is why we have jobs, right? This is what why it's just not anybody can walk in the gym, look at how someone performs their size perform it right away because there's coaching points to this and learning to teach your clients,

learning how to teach yourself, how to communicate to your body like this, that just because I'm getting the weight up, isn't this, that's not completing the rep really, like really understanding what you're trying to perform, what you're trying to execute through the entire movement, that's what's really important. And that takes time, it takes practice,

it takes understanding mechanics and full full range of motion always wins, and learning that full range of motion doesn't mean you lock out and relax the body. It means you fully extend, and you keep tension on the muscle that's working. You do, and it's full range of motion is king. However, all these techniques that you can do that involve partial reps and focusing

on different portion of the rep, they have some value. just gotta keep in mind that they're tools. These are small tools that you can use to accelerate your progress or to throw different things at your body to keep it adapting. Partial reps is another one.

Partial reps, this is an advanced technique again. This is not something you can do very often because I promise you will get diminishing returns. You will burn yourself out. But partial reps are great. I mean, with partial reps, you go into an exercise with full reps. Once you hit that point where you can't do another

full clean rep, then you progress to half reps. And you continue the rep. Very intense, very intense. Partials done properly are extremely intense and will fatigue your body very quickly. It's something you want to do pretty seldomly, but when you do do them, if you do them properly, you will notice a boost in muscle and performance.

I got one for you guys. Here's an old school on how long has it been since you've done this? How long has it been since you've done a cheat set? Oh yeah. Oh. And this is something. I ain't never. Well, the girl that's not your girlfriend. Yeah, no

So cheat sets are are most certainly a technique It's definitely in advance very very advanced technique because you're normally using a weight way beyond What you probably should be using for that isolation type of movement or whatever it is that you're doing But you're using you are using momentum you are using things to assist the lift and you're not in the strict position, but you're also maintaining really good core activation and stabilizing yourself while you're doing it, so you're safe.

So it's one of those things. Arnold was a huge advocate of like cheat sets for like bicep curls with a barbell. Well, there is a proper way to do it. Like if you do it, if you're doing, you know, cheating on your barbell curls where you're involving a little bit of a swing, you don't necessarily start the set that way.

That's how you end up with the set. So if I start with a heavy weight, I'm trying to go strict until I need to cheat now to squeeze out more reps. What I'm essentially doing is I'm essentially aiding myself, lifting this weight, and I'm making it lighter through using a little bit of body English. It's not that different from a force from four straps. Again, four straps, another massively overused

and abused technique, but a force set is, if I'm doing a set and I can't do it anymore with good form, my buddy adds just enough help to help me complete a couple more reps. This is again, super advanced, you don't do this very often at all. But if you throw it in every once in a while, it's in the bro Bible. You'll see, yeah, because I see dudes in the gym

and I swear to God every fucking set dude is cheap. Like, come on, two more. I'll help you two more. It's like every time they work out. And then you're not going to see progress. Well, and that's just, when you were training, like, God, I win was the last time either. One of you guys needed a spot.

Like, somebody, one of my buddies, saw me working out and he got behind me. Like, just, some people have that, they feel that, like if you're talking to, you're talking to your buddy and he's still exercising, like, talking to him, it's like, it's just natural for them to get under to help. Well, not unless you, like, your whole day is devoted to this one PR you're trying to hit.

Yeah. That is, well, there's about it. That's the last time I think I had anybody near me was when I was trying for a PR on my squat, maybe six, seven months ago. I was talking to you. Yeah, that is there right? Well there's about it. That's the last time I think I had anybody near me was when I was trying for a PR on my squat maybe six seven months ago. Yeah, or that thing that was probably the last time that I did that was when I was pushing away. I wasn't sure I could even get, but if I'm any other time of the week or the year or the month. Yeah, I don't want somebody to help me. I don't need somebody to help me. There's no point in it. You're not getting that much more benefit to doing these forstress. And just like you said, there's a lot of other techniques that give you that same type of benefit as what a forstrip

or training to failure is. I don't need somebody. I could do a cheat set that day. I really wanted to do that. I really wanted to do that. Eliminating having to have a gym partner is so liberating. You know what I mean? Like, fuck somebody else.

They're not going to be consistent the way you want to be consistent. When did that start though? Like the whole gym partner thing and having a partner to work out? There's another broad, high-voltage standard. Bodybuilders, bodybuilders did that. It was a big thing. They worked out together. It was a small community.

They all worked out together and it just became, it wasn't a thing you did by yourself. For them, you know, it was a thing you did with your friends as a group. Well, powerlifters are really into that too, because you need to test testosterone and the animals right next to you. Well, when you're testing yourself with heavy weight, you definitely might need to. It does help, I mean.

But, you know, nowadays equipment is great. I mean, you get into power, you get into cage, you can set up the safeties. Yeah. And you're safe. You're probably safer than if you had a spotter without the cage, right? Uh-huh. I actually prefer that. Like so when I I fail all the time at squats

So I said I don't have and there's a lot of times where I'm pushing my limits by myself and I just bail bail And I actually I actually kind of like pushing that one because I want to practice that I want to be good at failing Like I want to be able to be okay. Definitely a technique to bail it. Yeah Yeah, and I think it's something that people should practice. You do it right, you do it safely. You learn from somebody that knows what they're doing. But once you get that down, I mean, that's another great YouTube video right there.

How to bail on a squat. How to bail on a squat. That's a great lift. How to bail on that. How to bail on a power clean. How about on a bench press? Yeah. Because that, and by the way, there isn't a great way

to bail on a bench press. There's just a way to bail that you won't die. It depends on the bench that you have there, but yeah, you're screwed. No, if you don't have, yeah, if you have a regular bench press, there's a way you bail, and that'll still suck, and there's a way that you bail, and you'll die. So, yeah, well, you don't go towards your neck. Exactly. You gotta learn, you gotta learn the other way.

But yeah, I think one of the big takeaways here is, I think if you're listening, and you have a muscle group or an area that you find, it just doesn't respond very well, it just doesn't grow like the rest of them. I bet you 10 bucks, you probably can't get a good pump in it. I think buddy, we've got a lot of listeners. You've got a lot of listeners, man. You might have to battle out. You got that in your jam.

You probably have a poor connection to that muscle. So at that point, I would say focus on the battle. You got that in your jam. You probably have a poor connection to that muscle. So at that point, I would say focus on the pump. I really, I really, I've never thought of you. Like think about your calves, like me. No, no, absolutely. I think it's a great technique. It's so true too when somebody has a hard time getting a pump or filling it there more than likely.

Now that when I think back, yeah, it's almost always a connection. Dude, I remember like my calves, like, you know, they've grown a lot since I started, you know, from years ago, but they're still a hard body part for me to grow, but I remember I just would go heavy, and I wouldn't get a good pump, and I'd get no results.

Then I started focusing on getting a pump with the calves and just getting more connected to them, and now I can go heavy and see results, but I couldn't before. Not only, there's another argument for getting better posture to get better connectivity, you know, even if you're a bodybuilder. Yeah.

Oh, no, 100%. But you know what, you know what, you're going back to what you're saying too, that's kind of cool because I'm gonna use that. I'm gonna use that for sure. Because I think that would tell me a lot too of what, like let's say I, you know, I have somebody who's like, I don't feel like my chest, I'm like,

we'll keep wrapping them out and then let's find out where we are connected. You know what I'm saying? Where is it being sent right now when you do this? Is it shoulders or more traps? It'll tell me about a lot more about their teagings. Yeah, a lot more about their imbalance and where I should address.

It would happen to me with my abs because for the longest time, I treated abs as a secondary muscle group, like most people because I would just get lean and know there's my abs. And at one point, I realized that you can build the abs like any other muscle. So I started focusing on really squeezing

and getting proper form and using resistance. And I'll never forget, because it wasn't that long ago, it was probably, I don't know, five or six years ago, I got a pump of my abs, which I'd never experienced before. I couldn't even let even realize you could get a pump of the abs,

but of course you can, it's a muscle. Felt a pump of my abs, could see them bulging out. And from that point forward, I was able to feel my abs with lots of exercises that tend to be difficult to pump my abs, could see them bulging out, and from that point forward, I was able to feel my abs with lots of exercises that tend to be difficult to feel the abs like leg raises and proper planks and all that stuff.

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