💪 IMPORTANT REMINDERS: ✅ Get your free training and nutrition plan: www.SeanNal.com/custom ✅ Subscribe to the shorts channel: ruclips.net/channel/UCtoCSRviHk6uFIb-zqeo4yQ ✅ Check out my science-based supplements: www.RealScienceAthletics.com (Save 15% on first order with code RUclips15) P.S. If you signed up for a program and didn't receive it, make sure to check your junk/bulk folder. If it didn't show up there either then contact info[at]seannal[dot]com to have it re-sent.
What’s your opinion on creatine cycling ? Is there research that backs it as being more beneficial than simply taking a serving everyday with a break ?
I got the free custom plan. There are lot of exercises per workout. Keeping in mind your comments on fatigue, how long should each workout take (warmup, all sets, pyramids, and all)?
You don't understand what clickbait is... the title of this video IS clickbait, he says it himself in his first sentence. Also, this video is an ad to get you to sign up for his program, and all of these programs on RUclips are MLM.
I just realized that i'm probably replying to a bot comment- so many of the same replies here, same wording and sentence structure . . . haha maybe someday I'll come back and see if my reply is still here, I feel like it would be deleted by the channel owner, plus this is an old video.
00:40 01. Chasing the pump 01:45 02. Chasing fatigue 02:35 03. Relying on soreness 04:45 04. Insufficient training effort 06:00 05. Not tracking your workouts 08:00 06. Excessive workout variation 09:45 07. Choosing the wrong lifts 11:15 08. Unequal body part focus 12:40 09. Unstable exercises 13:30 10. EGO LIFTING 14:45 11. Excessively strict form 15:38 12. High rep focus 16:35 13. Short rest times 17:50 14. Cardio before lifting 18:20 15. Copying enhanced lifters We all gonna make it 💪 Peace ✌❤ Thanks for likes guys !
A couple of months ago I left a troll comment but I come around and realize you give solid advice. And yeah, I stopped doing the silly abs exercises and dedicated the extra time to more sets. Keep up the good work! 💪
My biggest workout mistake was overdoing it. I did 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10-kilometer run every day. I worked out so hard that all the hair on my head fell out, and I'm so strong now that life is just boring to me. I no longer find any goals I can't accomplish, and whenever anyone challenges me to a fight it's over in one punch.
@@kenpachiG13PUBG sorry for the late reply bro but its been great! Especially that i love working out before I started bodybuilding so I’m having fun how is it for you bro ??
As someone who's been going to gyms (for my health, not my appearance) for 40+ years, I can say this is one of the most sensible videos on muscle gain I've seen. There's so much nonsense, mainly arising from a desire to present something new in order to stop clients from becoming bored, that this video is a breath of fresh air. As a well-muscled and lean man in my mid-60s, I can say that the advice here is ideal for lifelong health and fitness. I've avoided all the trends - and the inevitably injuries they inflict - which is why I still go to the gym every day while most of those I've seen over the years have long ago given up.
If appearance doesnt change from training it also means that health benefits are muted....unless its just an issue of high BF. Building muscle mass and strength boosts health by positively affecting insulin sensitivity, metabolism and good hormones etetec...when people say I exercise for health not appearance I always have issue with that...the act of exercising has minor benefits when compared to visible significant physical and appearance changes to your body... if you are training with intensity and eating well your body will change whether or not that was your goal
he is mid 60s I think he can do what he wants at this point but cardiovascular exercises and stretching is probably best at that point with some weights included here and there @@kawasakizx10rr-trackbikeco85
@@snorman1911yes I thought that was obvious from what he stated…I suppose not everyone has the capacity to comprehend…oh well…at least they typed an entire book for their thoughts 😂
"Kneeling, iso-lateral, paused, cable-fly, drop set, super setted with a clapping bosu ball push up" with his deadpan delivery took me all the way the f out 🤣.
The principles you layout in some of these tips have become my new “basics” for working out. 44 years old and making progress naturally takes patience and hard work, for sure. Thanks Sean, crushing it
Two of the biggest mistakes are lack of sleep and not eating enough (not being in a caloric surplus). I always thought I was eating enough and was disappointed because my weight stagnated. Then I got my first diet plan created (I think it was from NextLevel Diet iirc). I realised that my previous food intake was way below my needs, although I thought I'm good. At the beginning it was hard to eat 3500 kcal in a day, but I got used to it. I started noticing real gains and it felt amazing. I wish I'd understood the importance of diet earlier.
Hey man I’m a few months into my journey I weighed 340 before I weigh 270 now and I’ve been fortunate enough to find you I look forward to being as big as possible . You’re videos excite me with such cool perspectives and incite I would’ve never would’ve known without you . Love your videos man thank you!! 🙏🏽
@@gymboundduelistygo2569 stories like yours and just seeing the transformation that happens made know it possible for anyone . And plus I come from a pretty rough past… a lot of regrets but working out helps me rise above it 🔥 focus on what’s important !
Number 13 really hit home for me. I was always taught that you need to keep moving in order to maximize muscle growth and if you let yourself recover too much (I was told specifically anything over 2 minutes) then the first set you did was null and void and you have to start all over on breaking the muscle down. Lately I've been letting myself rest longer and I feel much better about my recovery and overall effort that I am putting out in the gym. Thanks for the tips as always, Sean.
LOL, I'm almost 62 and I rest about 10 minutes between my heavy deadlifts and 5 to 10 minutes between other ,exercises. Of course I workout outside at home in Florida and don't have to hurry because someone wants my bench or weights. The 2 minute crap is what someone else came up with.
@@freedomring4813 Well of you're lifting heavy the advice has sideways been to take long breaks in between. But I'm curious, at 62, how much you deadlifting?
Yeah and at my gym the guys always tell me why are you resting so much ( 3 mins on normal stuff and 5 on compounds ) And they rest like 30 seconds or 1 minute on db bench press and do 2 reps on their own since they are too exhausted for their previous set and have their spotter do some forced reps for them Like bruh....
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Agreed. Great advice here. My only caveat would be to add that strength increase is not necessarily an indicator of muscle growth. Especially for beginners or de-trained lifters, a great deal of the increase is neuromuscular adaptation. Conversely, lower strength doesn’t necessarily mean muscle loss. We’re often just weaker on certain days for various reasons. I like your videos!
As a new lifter starting April this year, this is invaluable information. I’ve learned a lot of this over the last 8 months as I’m addicted to learning and doing things correct and efficiently, and I follow a lot of these tips. It’s a shame people don’t take 10-20 minutes of their day to come to RUclips and learn the right informers from legit people.
I’ve been working out for about of year and have made pretty fair progress, but lately I have reached a plateau and have seen much progress over the last couple months. This video has re-informed me on a lot of concepts I lost focus of from my initial start. Great video with honesty and true knowledge. Thank you man.
Thanks, you are brutally honest on the way people should work out. Those big guys on you tube are misleading people a lot everyone each on a specific work out routine.
I definitely think the biggest issue I struggle with right now in training is understanding anatomy and knowing what movements would target each muscle. It's difficult to find good information on this. I'd like to see more content like this, Sean. For instance, showing a movement, but also showing the underlying anatomy and mechanics of the muscle/muscle groups behind the movement.
@@ericosborne4122 Not really, he is just a king of fake weights. Other than that, his anatomy and physio videos are green. Only his powerlifting videos should be avoided.
Such great advice! Appreciate the great video brother! 2 years to the date into my hypertrophy training, lots of ups and downs but we keep pushing (literally).
I would like to add that if you can't beat your reps from previous workout, it does not have to mean your muscle mass has reduced, and it is not the most likely cause. It could be that there reps were slightly slower, maybe your form was a bit off last time, maybe you pushed yourself extra far on the previous exercise, maybe you are feeling slightly off that one day (slept poorly, low blood sugar, going through stressful events etc.). Sometimes performing a bit worse is completely natural when training over time.
I haven’t spoken to anyone else about this so maybe just me, but just trying to add a rep each time then eventually adding weight worked for a while, then eventually left me plateaued for a while before I figured it out If you do the math adding a rep each week is actually a very large strength increase (for example going from 10 to 11 is a 10% increase). This is easy as a beginner when strength/muscle come fast but as you progress this is impossible. Now what I do is multiply my weight * reps and make sure I progress slightly from last time, while staying in a similar rep range
This man is just a blessing for the fitness industry!! He needs to be supported much rather than supporting fake influencers Thank you so much for the genuine information sir You have my respect 🙏🏻❤️ Love from India 🇮🇳❤️
If the primary goal of your session is to stimulate hypertrophy then there are specific parameters that need to be in place for that to happen. Pump, Fatigue and Soreness are three false gauges for building muscle. 0:40 01. Centering your workouts around getting a pump. A pump is more of a side effect of your training, not the underlying cause for muscle growth or the thing that you should be primarily focused on. 1:45 02. Using Fatigue as your gauge for training success. Fatigue is also a byproduct of intense exercise but it's not a direct stimulator of muscle hypertrophy on its own. 2:35 03. Relying on Soreness - does indicate that some level of damage has been done to the tissue but again it is not a direct driver of hypertrophy in and of itself. You'll tend to get the most sore when you expose your muscles to a novel stimulus so that applies to beginning lifters in general or if you're more experienced but you're coming back from a layoff or you're introducing a new exercise into your program 3:34 Can be somewhat used as a gauge for muscle activation. Also if the wrong muscle is sore on a given exercise it may indicate that technique needs adjusting. 4:19 Mechanical Tension - primary driver of muscle growth. Applying load to the targeted muscle fibers and training them very close to or all the way to muscular failure which is the point where you can't do any more reps in proper form despite your best effort. 4:45 04. Not training hard enough - not going close enough to true muscular failure on your sets. Your body needs strong enough incentives, i.e. applying enough load, to signal to the body that adaptations need to be made in order to deal with these stressors. 6:00 05. Not tracking your workouts - Progressive overload. The reason you keep coming back to the gym stronger is because the muscle is hypertrophying whereas if the numbers in the log book have stagnated that's how you know that your muscle gains have also stagnated and that something in your program is off and needs to be corrected. 8:00 06. Excessive workout variation - muscles only respond to is the degree of mechanical tension that they're being placed under and it's actually far more effective for hypertrophy to keep your training variables constant and focus on maximising progress within those variables for a consistent cycle of training. 9:45 07. Choosing the wrong lifts 11:15 08. Unequal body part focus - don’t just focus on chest and biceps 12:40 09. Unstable exercises 13:30 10. EGO LIFTING - if you can't use a full ROM in proper form without excessive momentum or the assistance of a spotter you need to scale things back and be a bit more patient. 14:45 11. Excessively strict form - too being excessively strict with your form and completely obsessing over the mind-muscle connection. 15:38 12. High rep focus - creates a much larger amount of systemic fatigue which can start becoming the limiting factor where you're stopping the set because of that overall total body fatigue and discomfort rather than because the muscle itself is actually getting close to true muscular failure. 16:35 13. Short rest times - perform your set and then rest as long as you need to in order to feel fully recovered and to where you can execute the next set with full muscular effort. ~2-5 mins. 17:50 14. Cardio before lifting - Can do 5-10 min light cardio before workout. 18:20 15. Copying enhanced lifters - natural lifters have to play by different rules
I am a beginner and this is very helpful for someone like me. As I am already making a few mistakes 2 months in. Thank you. I appreciate the time it took to make this video for people out there like me who do not know any better.
11) The excessively strict form one surprised me. But I guess it makes sense that you're not getting the maximum hypertrophy efficiency wise if you're holding back a little/ really taking your time with reps because you have form so heavily prioritized. I strive for perfect perfect form with super slow and controlled reps but I can see how that probably prevents myself from reaching maximum hypertrophy. I will have to give it a try and see how it goes. Great video. Thanks for sharing.
Yeah form is important, but if you prioritize it too much it will prevent you from going to actual muscle failure (where you cannot produce another rep without changing the form severely), and in some cases you might never reach failure at all
6 reps perfect form then on 7-9 reps not bit a perfect form since you push yourself to your limit or you try to go failure. that's much better than having perfect reps with no sweat or struggle.
@@TovaHolmbergerYou have reached failure when you can’t complete another rep with good form. Also, it’s better to leave 1-3 reps in reserve than to go to complete failure. Better fatigue to stimulus ratio that way.
I used your training plan and I’m am seeing huge gains in the 11th week. Started doing 175 3x7 squats and now I’m doing 245 for the same sets!!! Thanks a ton for the help!!!🙏🙏👍
Mistake #7 was a big one for me when I was a beginner. In my newbie days, I thought of "the back" as one muscle. And one tricep exercise was more or less the same as any other, I didn't think about the different heads of the tricep. The Body Transformation Blueprint was very helpful in my understanding of what exercises I should (and shouldn't) be doing.
@@shevrett2658 for back I suggest doing a horizontal pull (I prefer a chest supported row) and a vertical (I prefer lat pulldown) and shrugs (I like using the trap bar). For triceps I do a rope pushdown and a cable overhead extension.
I feel like "Mechanical tension is the primary driver of hypotrophy" is for you what "Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell" for ChubbyEmu 😂 Thanks for the video!
I love this guy's advice. I'm guilty of some of these mistakes, and it's good to be aware of them. I've changed up my workouts to either add more weight or more reps, and I've noticed a big change. Don't just go through the motions. Work for those extra reps or weight.
I love everything this guy has to say. He make s me feel smart. I do almost everything he says with the exception of recording my weight and explanation convinced me. It will b my new practice
Awesome video! Love your work! I have a sidenote though. On mistake number 9 you talk about creating instability. While of course you are right that it reduces the "gains" you could had mentioned that creating instability has other benefits during a workout, like recruiting stabilizers and improving them. Progressive instability training with low weights or bands is very helpful for the elderly and for people recovering from injuries. Of course it is also very helpful for any person working many hours that cannot support a gym lifestyle.
Pretty great advice! For me when I was starting…to break it down simply, Choose a compound movement for each muscle group and always do those 2 times a week. The other exercises you do within the same muscle group should be 3-5 more and those can be whatever you like. Once you gain more mind to muscle connection as you go. You can develop your own routine by feel(pump) and the body part you feel is lacking. But keep it simple starting out and track the compound exercises only, like bench,squat etc. you keep getting stronger at those and you’ll build muscle I don’t care who you are.
Love the content. I’d love to see you do a video on training for strength vs hypertrophy and how often to change your rep ranges to keep from plateauing for each.
I started an exercise journal due to your vids, the strength gains have been HUGE recently due to my ability to always know I'm lifting more at the gym than last time. Thanks for that advice!
I have never seen anyone who is ripped go on a treadmill to "warm up" BEFORE a workout. Whenever I tell them it's a bad idea, I get the "I'm just warming up bro", it's the person who still looks the same 1 year later.
Alternate between a 5 minute walk and short sets of burpees because the climate is so damn cold, going directly on bench 5x5 is genuine suicide. There is a time and place for everything, but knowing how and why is the real key
I really appreciate these video and have to say. Even though I am a retired army infantry veteran and consider myself sort of a fitness guru (I trained soldiers for 15 years). But this channel helped me to get a much better understanding. Out of thousands of fitness influencers, I consider Sean to be the most honest and helpful. Thank you sir 👍🏻
Question: Should you use the same reps for multiple sets of the same exercise? For example: In many training plans I see exercises scheduled as: 3x8. In my Plan I ended up doing 8 reps for the first set, 7 for the second and 6 for the third. I feel like getting better intensity on every set compared to the normal 8,8,8 method (normally the first set is way to easy). Is there any downside to that execution?
Usually they’ll mean 3x6-8 or 3x8-10 so once you get that top rep range for each set on the same weight your increase the weight by 5lbs the next time you do that workout, obviously with a warm up or a workout of the same group beforehand
If your first set is way too easy but the other sets are difficult you may not be resting enough between sets. But yes you can use different rep ranges for the same exercises.
If I may indulge your attention. You are on the right concept but require a far more elaborate plan. To tax a muscle is like any vehicle accelerating onto a highway. Your engine MUST go through all the transmission gears to speed up to travel speed. Therefore, use what is called the "Flushing Principle" as you increase the blood volume to a region. In my case of a bench press (going through the gears); 16 reps @ 50, 8 @ 100, 4 @ 150, 2 @ 200. 200 can be your warm up for an endurance event, or your max weight should you weigh 150. You are searching for a rep increase, so make the increase significant. AND always train like you are showing off. If the technique can be exaggerated, that is your mental indication you are aware of proper form; a definite pause at the height of your rep, a quiet machine to show weight control, etc.
@@joomittuk There are LAYERS to fitness. The first is always cardio, to drop the overall fat on the entire body. At the same time, you want to improve the circulation pathway to deliver the elements from all the improved eating habits. NEXT is the regional muscle areas. This is where group muscle motions, or calisthenics kick in. Muscle groups place a greater calorie demand on the region. LAST is the individual muscle groups. You are placing the cart before the horse. Knock out 1000 burpees first, then figure out sets and reps of particular muscle areas.
This video was definitely built to remind mе about sticking only to the basics with progressive overloads😂. I was thinking of switching up my work out routine. Guess mastering 1 technique many times is better than many techniques once👌. Informative.
Resting is the best thing you can do for yourself if your focused on hypertrophy. 2 days is perfect. Theres no point in overworking yourself. Your muscles heal during resting days and thats when they grow.
Sean, I cannot thank you enough for your passion and will to help people. I received one complete diet, gym and supplement guide for free and as I thought what you send were just some automatic response I asked you to reply, and you did. I am amazed as this really show how close you are to your clients. Love you bro, you're the best!! /Simon, Sweden.
Incredibly informative video as always Sean. Funnily enough, I feel as if I’ve learned all of these tips throughout watching your youtube shorts and videos, yet having this succinct and entertaining video is amazing
This is great! I needed to see this, I have been hitting the gym the most I ever have since January and have seen my body change significantly, I’m gaining muscle and filling out quickly which makes me confident, but the advice here is going to help immensely. I’ve followed the link for a custom plan. And have also subbed. Thank you!
Video suggestion: you should explain when to understand that an exercise is more about form rather than loading weight. I’ve seen people trying to do lateral raises with 45 and struggling while I’m just doing 15 with proper form 😂
I'm over 65 and have only been working out for 4 years, so my main focus and concern is injury. I had some major tweaks early on, mostly from pushing to failure--and a little poor form, so I decided not to go that way. I take a full-body workout approach: I do 17 stations, in about 75 minutes, moving on when I catch my breath, 3 times a week. I take a 3-set approach to the first half of the machines, the heavy hitters: first set, warmup; second set, work; third set, challenge, upping the weight one plate at a time. When that gets too easy, I reverse the order: first set, challenge, 15 reps instead of 10; second set, drop the weight, 15 reps; third set, warmup turns into a form perfecter, as it is a lot tougher than when it was the first set. The second half of the machines are 2-setters...and bursty cool-down style stuff. I'm a convert, though! I've never felt so GOOD! hehehe...all the time! I lost almost 60 pounds in the first 6 months--and that was all the fat I had! I was also dieting aggressively. At my lowest, BMI was bottom of the scale, body fat percentage near single digits--I could see the next layer down, into sinew ladder-structure stuff, which scared me a little, so I started eating more carbs, to thicken my skin!
This is fantastic thanks, I've always trained this way without overthinking it too much, having too much variety, making sure I stay in a good rep range, and with intensity. I've gained muscle pretty steadily over the past few years, and dropped my body fat to around 10%, and yet I've still felt unnerved and insecure by watching others fitness videos on RUclips, worrying I was missing something. This no BS video is reassuring and refreshing to see, so thanks again.
I’m very motivated by the progress I made with my legs, I first began training back in June 2021 and started squatting with just the bar, I think within the month I added 10 lbs and stayed there for a bit, around August I was squatting 95lbs, September I hit 115, and in October I finally worked up to the plate 135, I took a slight decline in November with school and not being able to train and December I really didn’t train at all, mentally tired I just wanted to rest. Started back up again I decided to start from zero with comfortable weight, I’m back to 115 and will work back up to the plate which I still can do, I can do 6 reps but slightly challenging
Omg this reminds me yesterday there was a dude lifting 110 db to work out his chest and couldn’t even do a proper rep, I was like what are you on 😂 I was working out my triceps with 5lbs
Keep up the good work! Respect! This really is not meant to insult anyone, but I'm curious: When I first started suqatting I immidiately loaded up 60kg (130lb). and couple of weeks after I went up to 80kg. I thought it's normal to squat this much. Have you really been close to your limits with just the bar?
@@NodaxWoW speaking for myself, as a new person to squats and other heavy compound lifts, I don't go near my limit. I know I probably COULD squat close to my body weight, but I'd rather do a few extra reps and be comfortable that I can maintain perfect form the entire time. I don't have the luxury of ego lifting and messing up my back.
6:58 what if you can't perform an extra rep the next time you train? Should you pause 2-3 seconds after miscular feature and do the extra rep or should I do another (one more than last time) set? Or should I just stay with it and perform exactly like the last workout?
It’s like watching a video of all my struggles 1 year into weight training😂 I’m about to be two years in and this inspired me that I’m taking the right steps to a long journey, thank you.
I love these, and I love Sean's advice in general. i'll make one comment though, around 'muscle confusion', of course it's not a real physiological thing, but I think that if you're using good targeted exercises, and you're always training near or to failure, then there's no harm in changing your workouts around, even randomly. For me, it keeps the gym interesting, and also helps me stay in the rhythym if my usual machine or equipment is occupied, and I see consistent gains even though I don't follow a specific pattern of exercises. Freestyling is still a-okay in my book :)
8:56 yeah muscles do respond to the same exercise for years and years but variation is very critical and important since: 1) different exercises hits different fibers in a muscle 2) doing a exercise repeatedly in a long period of time can damage the connective tissues that the exercise puts stress on 3)novel exercises causes much better and faster adaptations Those 3 things are also confirmed in a study where they made two groups do either just squats or squats deadlifts leg extensions and legpresses with the same total weekly volume and findings where that variation group gained more muscle and they espacially gained more muscle in the rectus femoris and the vastus lateralis meaning the squat wasnt effective at targeting that exact fibers and that same concept can be applied to any muscle. And for the connective tissue thing as also stated from dr mike Israteal Every exercise puts a stress in a specific part of the joint same way they put tension on a specific muscle fiber and make it grow and that stress on joint can cause discomfort overtime leading to you not training at your full potential And i have experienced that first hand with overhead triceps extension and its really a real phenomena. The way to overcome this is just changing some of the exercises or rep ranges mesocycle to mesocycle so that you always have a good stimulus and dont hurt your joints
The 3rd one really made me feel better because I’ll work my arms and they will hurt really bad but after like an hour I don’t feel sore, my legs are a different story though my legs will hurt for days and I can’t walk normal
Great video. Thank you for the well thought out points you made throughout the video. I have been saying for years, muscle confusion is not a thing. So many lifters in the past only worked on a core set of muscle exercises and did not worry about a hundred different variations to work the same muscles. Thanks again!
Great video! I was lucky to learn a lot of these in 97 when I started. But guilty on a few still! Slow and perfect form. Coming back from a hiatus and injury. This 15 was exactly the fresh start reminder I needed! Thanks
I have one slight objection/addendum, creating instability (with low weights) is indeed a good technique derived from physical therapy to regain proper muscle function (after an injury with muscle hypotrophy.. it sure helped me a lot), but for hypertrophy I totally agree
Sean, I just want to say you are the most no B.S. fitness influencer I've seen. Thanks for the extremely informative and comprehensive content. Keep it up!
TLDR: It’s great advice and it worked for me I have followed Sean’s advice for about a month and I want to share my experience for anyone out there with the same kind of frame who wants to become more advanced in their training as well as becoming slowly jacked. I am 21 years old, 6-6’1 and I weighed about 195-200 pounds last month. Bare in mind that I have great genetics in terms of gaining muscle quickly.I started training when I was 15 but I was inexperienced. Did mostly arms and chest, not giving any thought to exercise selection. I did this for many years, hitting shoulders and back here in there and RARELY legs. My workout split was a chest/arms/shoulders/back/maybeLegs or more commonly called a bro split. The best advice I can give you is to switch from a bro split to a push pull legs, or ppl for short, workout split. Basically you will grow more if you hit muscle groups twice a week rather than once (about 30% increase in the long run). Your push workouts should focus on shoulders, mainly lateral raises if you want wide shoulders. Front delts are already hit with chest presses and overhead presses; rear delts can be shared by the pull workout. Chest should be around 3-5 exercises hitting upper, middle and lower chest and 2 triceps exercises. Pull should be lat and upper back focused, leaving the lower back to heavy deadlifts and traps to shrugs. If you have time, try to hit the long head, short head and bracchialis of the biceps for 2 set each. Legs should include heavy squats or lunges, Romanian deadlift or leg press depending on wether you want bigger quads or hamstrings, and isolation work on leg extension/leg curls. Add a superset of seated and standing calf raise at the end. Depending on the situation I’ll hit forearms on pull or leg day. 6 days a week Proper 8hr sleep, ok nutrition for those interested. Right now I have gained a solid 5 pounds of muscle mainly on back and shoulders. I have never looked so in shape. It’s now a common occurrence for people to tell me how big I have gotten. It’s crazy how a developed back change your whole physique. I hope this can help someone. If it has please let me know how it’s going!
I appreciate what you said about muscular failure I've found it challenging because you're trying to avoid injury and find exercises that can allow you to really push that muscle group to that point before accessory muscle groups give out. But I know the few times I've trained with exercises that allowed to push to that point, I've grown the most. Thx
I was definitely guilty of nr 5 and nr 6. After my 2 years of training, after the newbie gains were done, i noticed no more gains in either strenght or hypertrophy. I was just winging it and doing all sorts of exercises, changing it up every workout so i wouldnt become bored. Now granted i did train hard, that wasnt an issue, but it really became almost impossible to track my progress because i was doing a different exercise for each body part every week. Except for squats and benchpress which were constant. But yea, definitely seeing how "winging it" and having a lot of variations can impact your muscle growth now that im an intermediate.
Guilty as charged on some of the "mistakes": 1. Soreness. I just love the feeling of soreness, because it keeps me motivated. Soreness is how I personally measure whether I was or wasn't close to failure. Btw, if soreness disappears - just do drop sets (proper ones) - trust me, soreness will be back in no time, no matter if you are a beginner or a pro. 2. Short rest times. I'll gladly sacrifice 2-5% of my muscle growth potential/speed for extra endurance. I'm training to get overall stronger, meaning that I need both strength and endurance. I don't want to be that guy that benches 400 lbs a couple of times and then feels exhausted for the rest of the day.
@@Shining_Light If you can perform a full set less than 60 seconds after your previous set then there is literally no chance you are training close enough to failure. I'm not really sure what you're on about.
@@briangerra5236 Okay, let's take baby steps here: 1. Read how muscles work and what happens to them during an exercise. 2. Read what's the best way how to engage muscle fibers. 3. Read about the difference between doing sets with short rests vs long rests. 4. Read about things like "supersets" and "drops sets" (friendly tip - you will probably get super angry and mad at this point, so take some deep breaths). 5. Never comment again.
Over my 5 years of lifting I've basically made all these mistakes and fixed them, really wish I saw this video earlier but good to know I'm on the right track now
Hey Sean. Love your content. On the Andrew Huberman podcast, Duncan French (VP of UFC Performance) argued that while higher rest is better for strength output, lower rest (example was 2:00 on compound movements) is better for hypertrophy. This seems to contradict the concept I always believed in that more rest leads to higher strength, volume and therefore work output. What are your thoughts?
This video helped me out a ton. I thought I was being save by using lesser weights and high rep to avoid injury and soreness but it turns out it was just making my workouts less effective and caused me to not training hard enough. I've increased the weights of all my exercises and they actually feel more intense now. Didn't even feel any soreness afterwards
I've been bodybuilding for over a decade. Videos like this are invaluable to remind me of bad habits. It's always a good idea to go back to basics from time to time and pretend I'm just learning how to build muscle for the first time.
I am currently learning to become a certified personal trainer and throughout the course's lectures I keep relating to the concepts that you outline in your videos. Your content is of top quality and I've made huge progress because of your no BS and science based information. Always looking forward to your videos, keep it up. Cheers! ✌
I've tried for a long time lower (5-8 reps), medium (8-12) and high reps sets (12-20 or more reps) and my experience is that high reps in the most exercises I can get more muscle tension and less joint issues than other rep ranges, incluiding the free compound exercises. Obviously, it depends on lifter and your biological individuality: some lifters respond better with lower reps and others with medium or high reps.
6-8 or 8-10 is generally something that most ppl should follow. You should not be having injuries if you do it with good form, no? Maybe you are part of a minority lf ppl for who high rep would be suited for? Idk tho
@@yazdazkafraz3419 I use every rep ranges in my programming, but the high reps are good to generate muscle tension without joint issues when you train constantly with heavy weight. For the most part, I train in the rep range of 6 to 15 reps
@@kyleolin3566 I believe that high reps are suited for almost anyone because is a range that the weight is moderated to heavy that allows to accumulate enough volume with sufficient intensity while avoiding joint and CNS issues. In my experience, when I train for long time in lower and medium reps, my form starts to break and joints begin to inflame. When I switch to high reps, these issues are instantly gone and I feel less tired and in the same time I do more volume with quality.
Also just depends on the muscle you are working / the exercise you are doing. No reason to do low rep high weight lat raises where form tends to break down
Like your info. Always give true info and not clickbait garbage. I do change up my workout just because I'd been doing the standard 4 sets of 10 for years and years. Just got boring.
That mike tyson lip sync is fokkin genius. More lip sync sketches pls. Btw so refreshing to see a no bs informative fitness channel thriving on utube. Enjoy 1 milion soon bro. Well deserved.
Am so damn thankful for your channel. I'd spent years and years following athlean x and genuinely for every 1 solid new tip I would gain, there would be 2 new things i was even more confused about than before, along with about 50 new exercise variations that were apparently all essential and should be doing "every day" or it would "kill my gains"... You keep things so straight forward with no BS and i can tell you're genuinely doing this to educate people and not just to have an endless amount of content to constantly churn out. It's making all the difference for me
@@awakenedgarou that's great for you bro. I mean Jeff literally sometimes will give advice and then give advice later to the complete contrary of the initial advice, and Includes an insane amount of essential exercises, stretches e.t.c into standard workout/split when you actually listen to ALL of his advice. The fact thats it's all "pretty simple" to you borders on the paradoxical if you genuinely consume all his content, but fair play...
@@onetwo8847 it's simple because like i said before you don't have to do everything,just use what works for you he said it before ain't really that hard to understand.
Hey Sean, I just watched your video on the benefits of high intensity weight lifting and how intensity is more of a primary driver of muscle growth than volume. I want to try some of the routines you said you did when you were in your bodybuilder phase. You said your routines progressed to the point where you would do only 1 set per muscle group per week, and I was wondering what sort of warm-ups you were doing? When I lift I tend to warm up my muscles by doing a high-rep set of low weight of whatever lift I'm doing. The way you described the optimal high-intensity workout seems like the only reps should be the high weight/intensity reps, so I was wondering how you warmed up for those when you did that. I'm open to all advice if anyone has any.
15:12 is highly just an *opinion*. Slow controlled movements will never have a negative impact (even if you look like a robot). Lifting natural is fine of course but often times people may get too comfortable with movement and slowly begin having an imperfect form while not even noticing.
💪 IMPORTANT REMINDERS:
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P.S. If you signed up for a program and didn't receive it, make sure to check your junk/bulk folder. If it didn't show up there either then contact info[at]seannal[dot]com to have it re-sent.
What’s your opinion on creatine cycling ?
Is there research that backs it as being more beneficial than simply taking a serving everyday with a break ?
I got the free custom plan. There are lot of exercises per workout. Keeping in mind your comments on fatigue, how long should each workout take (warmup, all sets, pyramids, and all)?
I have a question: could you keep progressive overloading with the same exercise, for instance, I do pushups for horizontal push
Hey bro I got my program a couple months ago, I'm sticking to it! I'm happy to tell you I have lost 41 lbs so far!
I send my information twice but you did not answer ?!😔
This pretty much covers most of the biggest mistakes out there. Great video as always!
Put your shirt on
I love the love Mario shows you on every video. Kinda supportive companionship I’m patiently waiting on🤞🏾
Mário and Sean, the ones who go directly into what really matters ! Thank you guys !
Haha two real natural lifters together
🙌🙌🙌🙌
Urinating all over yourself DOES directly lead to muscle growth. Anyone disagreeing hasn't been paying attention to the literature.
This exactly. Sean doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about, yet again. 🙄
Feel the buuuurrn
You must be the guy who created my smart scale. Every time I urinate, it tells me I build muscles
Are you taking the piss ?
Urinating all over your pants is killing your gains
In an industry plagued with scams and CLICKBAIT this guy is honest and straight up, rare these days. Thank you Sean
You don't understand what clickbait is... the title of this video IS clickbait, he says it himself in his first sentence. Also, this video is an ad to get you to sign up for his program, and all of these programs on RUclips are MLM.
I just realized that i'm probably replying to a bot comment- so many of the same replies here, same wording and sentence structure . . . haha maybe someday I'll come back and see if my reply is still here, I feel like it would be deleted by the channel owner, plus this is an old video.
00:40 01. Chasing the pump
01:45 02. Chasing fatigue
02:35 03. Relying on soreness
04:45 04. Insufficient training effort
06:00 05. Not tracking your workouts
08:00 06. Excessive workout variation
09:45 07. Choosing the wrong lifts
11:15 08. Unequal body part focus
12:40 09. Unstable exercises
13:30 10. EGO LIFTING
14:45 11. Excessively strict form
15:38 12. High rep focus
16:35 13. Short rest times
17:50 14. Cardio before lifting
18:20 15. Copying enhanced lifters
We all gonna make it 💪
Peace ✌❤
Thanks for likes guys !
Thank you
Thank you
Thanks a lot !
This one is definitely gonna make it.
Thank you
A couple of months ago I left a troll comment but I come around and realize you give solid advice.
And yeah, I stopped doing the silly abs exercises and dedicated the extra time to more sets.
Keep up the good work! 💪
No. I do what I want.
No I do what I want
A troll who turned themselves around? Awesome.
Well done Mr. Troll . Welcome on the positive side 😀 stay strong. CoachT, Denmark
@@thomashald6750 no one cares who you are coach T in denmark... grown man.
My biggest workout mistake was overdoing it. I did 100 pushups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats, and a 10-kilometer run every day. I worked out so hard that all the hair on my head fell out, and I'm so strong now that life is just boring to me. I no longer find any goals I can't accomplish, and whenever anyone challenges me to a fight it's over in one punch.
xd
Bro thinks he is an anime protagonist
All that just to get shot by a nigga with wicks
bro is saitama😭😭😭
Best comment I've ever seen tbh LMAOOOO
"Idiotic" was indeed an attention grabber, and you definitely got me here because of it. Well played.
Next week' video: "How to stop looking like a dumbass in the gym"
Sean: you got me but how’d you know?
You: I follow Josh Otusanya Meheheheh
@@sandorclegane8164 I'd click so fast you have no idea 😭
@@Apophis.004 love this 😂😂😂
Yeah, i dont mind to be baited into good content
I keep on returning to this video every month to keep up with my body building journey and fix any mistakes I’m doing…sean is helping me heavy 👏🏻
How’s it going for you bro? I’m just starting so I’m new to this
Good choice. This is the sort of video that I consider evergreen content. It is very timeless.
Let’s get it! Time to do it right this time!
@@kenpachiG13PUBG sorry for the late reply bro but its been great! Especially that i love working out before I started bodybuilding so I’m having fun how is it for you bro ??
Bro. Way better forms of information out there. ruclips.net/video/WKkMhl6JmaM/видео.html
As someone who's been going to gyms (for my health, not my appearance) for 40+ years, I can say this is one of the most sensible videos on muscle gain I've seen. There's so much nonsense, mainly arising from a desire to present something new in order to stop clients from becoming bored, that this video is a breath of fresh air. As a well-muscled and lean man in my mid-60s, I can say that the advice here is ideal for lifelong health and fitness. I've avoided all the trends - and the inevitably injuries they inflict - which is why I still go to the gym every day while most of those I've seen over the years have long ago given up.
If appearance doesnt change from training it also means that health benefits are muted....unless its just an issue of high BF. Building muscle mass and strength boosts health by positively affecting insulin sensitivity, metabolism and good hormones etetec...when people say I exercise for health not appearance I always have issue with that...the act of exercising has minor benefits when compared to visible significant physical and appearance changes to your body... if you are training with intensity and eating well your body will change whether or not that was your goal
I took that to mean the appearance wasn't his primary goal, not that it didn't change.
he is mid 60s I think he can do what he wants at this point but cardiovascular exercises and stretching is probably best at that point with some weights included here and there
@@kawasakizx10rr-trackbikeco85
@@snorman1911yes I thought that was obvious from what he stated…I suppose not everyone has the capacity to comprehend…oh well…at least they typed an entire book for their thoughts 😂
Thank you this is helpful I am 43 and beat my body up doing mma and now I am getting old and am making the switch to lifting for health and strength
"Kneeling, iso-lateral, paused, cable-fly, drop set, super setted with a clapping bosu ball push up" with his deadpan delivery took me all the way the f out 🤣.
Same Lmfaooo
Legend says that's the exercise Goku did to become Super Saiyan 😂😂
That one made me laugh out loud 😂
You guys are laughing but that’s exactly how I got jacked.
Kneeling, isolateral paused cablefly drop-set, supersetted with a clapping bosu ball pushup video when? We need this content, Sean.
I do those all the time! But I take it one step further and add a weighted butt plug into the equation! Bruh, you gotta try it!
The principles you layout in some of these tips have become my new “basics” for working out.
44 years old and making progress naturally takes patience and hard work, for sure. Thanks Sean, crushing it
I love your no bs approach to fitness, while still having an empathy that actually cares for people to know the truth on the fibrous level.
Two of the biggest mistakes are lack of sleep and not eating enough (not being in a caloric surplus). I always thought I was eating enough and was disappointed because my weight stagnated. Then I got my first diet plan created (I think it was from NextLevel Diet iirc). I realised that my previous food intake was way below my needs, although I thought I'm good. At the beginning it was hard to eat 3500 kcal in a day, but I got used to it. I started noticing real gains and it felt amazing. I wish I'd understood the importance of diet earlier.
Did u have your carbs or keep them low?
Cbum eats just 1800 calories per day
@IMPERIA the last tip of the video is for you my dude
@@maciellz 🥲
@@maciellz nice one😂🤣
Finally someone who talks with sense, glad to find this video
Hey man I’m a few months into my journey I weighed 340 before I weigh 270 now and I’ve been fortunate enough to find you I look forward to being as big as possible . You’re videos excite me with such cool perspectives and incite I would’ve never would’ve known without you . Love your videos man thank you!! 🙏🏽
Keep grinding, I was at 300lbs last June I’m currently 212lbs.
@@gymboundduelistygo2569 stories like yours and just seeing the transformation that happens made know it possible for anyone . And plus I come from a pretty rough past… a lot of regrets but working out helps me rise above it 🔥 focus on what’s important !
Good for both of you guys
You're better off watching Jeff Cavalier at Athlean X imo
Any updates?
Number 13 really hit home for me. I was always taught that you need to keep moving in order to maximize muscle growth and if you let yourself recover too much (I was told specifically anything over 2 minutes) then the first set you did was null and void and you have to start all over on breaking the muscle down. Lately I've been letting myself rest longer and I feel much better about my recovery and overall effort that I am putting out in the gym. Thanks for the tips as always, Sean.
LOL, I'm almost 62 and I rest about 10 minutes between my heavy deadlifts and 5 to 10 minutes between other ,exercises. Of course I workout outside at home in Florida and don't have to hurry because someone wants my bench or weights. The 2 minute crap is what someone else came up with.
@@freedomring4813 Well of you're lifting heavy the advice has sideways been to take long breaks in between. But I'm curious, at 62, how much you deadlifting?
Yeah and at my gym the guys always tell me why are you resting so much ( 3 mins on normal stuff and 5 on compounds )
And they rest like 30 seconds or 1 minute on db bench press and do 2 reps on their own since they are too exhausted for their previous set and have their spotter do some forced reps for them
Like bruh....
Yep same here,if I go heavy I make sure I get plenty of rest to make it on my next set.I don't rush my workouts like I used to.
Hey just wanted to tell you that Plz read everything btw Jehovah and his son Jesus Christ love you so much that God would send his one and only son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead 3 days later Get a relationship with God and Jesus and confess for your sins and Live for Christ and not the world and allow God and Jesus into your hearts. God and Jesus are trying to save you from going to hell.
HELL IS NOT A JOKE. Jehovah and Jesus are all of our Gods and Lords and Saviors✝️✝️✝️✝️SPREAD THE WORD✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️Pray to Jehovah and his son Jesus Christ get saved today ✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️
Agreed. Great advice here. My only caveat would be to add that strength increase is not necessarily an indicator of muscle growth. Especially for beginners or de-trained lifters, a great deal of the increase is neuromuscular adaptation. Conversely, lower strength doesn’t necessarily mean muscle loss. We’re often just weaker on certain days for various reasons. I like your videos!
As a new lifter starting April this year, this is invaluable information. I’ve learned a lot of this over the last 8 months as I’m addicted to learning and doing things correct and efficiently, and I follow a lot of these tips. It’s a shame people don’t take 10-20 minutes of their day to come to RUclips and learn the right informers from legit people.
I’m starting this month. How’s your progress going bro
I’ve been working out for about of year and have made pretty fair progress, but lately I have reached a plateau and have seen much progress over the last couple months. This video has re-informed me on a lot of concepts I lost focus of from my initial start. Great video with honesty and true knowledge. Thank you man.
Thats a good point. I just restarted lifting a month ago. I’ll have to revisit this video myself to reassess
How has it gone since?
@@thebigcapitalism9826 your picture looks wild 💀
Thanks, you are brutally honest on the way people should work out. Those big guys on you tube are misleading people a lot everyone each on a specific work out routine.
I definitely think the biggest issue I struggle with right now in training is understanding anatomy and knowing what movements would target each muscle. It's difficult to find good information on this. I'd like to see more content like this, Sean. For instance, showing a movement, but also showing the underlying anatomy and mechanics of the muscle/muscle groups behind the movement.
Go check out athlean-x, i think he has a video on the atonomy of every muscle
@@adrianmercanzini6174 Athlean X is the king of bs clickbait fitness videos, I would steer clear of him if you want straight forward information
Play around with it. Get into alot of stretching.
@@ericosborne4122 Not really, he is just a king of fake weights. Other than that, his anatomy and physio videos are green. Only his powerlifting videos should be avoided.
@@adrianmercanzini6174 athlean x 🤣🤣🤣 he is biased
Such great advice! Appreciate the great video brother! 2 years to the date into my hypertrophy training, lots of ups and downs but we keep pushing (literally).
Probably the most straight forward, no bs, gym tip video out there. 👍🏻🤘🏻
When I do squats I get an awesome knee and lower back pump. Soon, I'll have massive knees and a ripped lower back.
Yes, i love when my knee muscles get pumped up. Knee day is my favorite
😆
Switch it up with jerking deadlifts once in a while to really work that low back.
Lmfao nooooo
@@alexanderharris539 lmao
I will honestly say that you are in the top 2-5 of the accurate information and logics when it comes to RUclips influencers or fitness instructor
I would like to add that if you can't beat your reps from previous workout, it does not have to mean your muscle mass has reduced, and it is not the most likely cause. It could be that there reps were slightly slower, maybe your form was a bit off last time, maybe you pushed yourself extra far on the previous exercise, maybe you are feeling slightly off that one day (slept poorly, low blood sugar, going through stressful events etc.). Sometimes performing a bit worse is completely natural when training over time.
This gave me a breakthrough today. Thank you.
I haven’t spoken to anyone else about this so maybe just me, but just trying to add a rep each time then eventually adding weight worked for a while, then eventually left me plateaued for a while before I figured it out
If you do the math adding a rep each week is actually a very large strength increase (for example going from 10 to 11 is a 10% increase). This is easy as a beginner when strength/muscle come fast but as you progress this is impossible. Now what I do is multiply my weight * reps and make sure I progress slightly from last time, while staying in a similar rep range
Thanks to Kartik Kshirsagar
00:40 01. Chasing the pump
01:45 02. Chasing fatigue
02:35 03. Relying on soreness
04:45 04. Insufficient training effort
06:00 05. Not tracking your workouts
08:00 06. Excessive workout variation
09:45 07. Choosing the wrong lifts
11:15 08. Unequal body part focus
12:40 09. Unstable exercises
13:30 10. EGO LIFTING
14:45 11. Excessively strict form
15:38 12. High rep focus
16:35 13. Short rest times
17:50 14. Cardio before lifting
18:20 15. Copying enhanced lifters
This man is just a blessing for the fitness industry!! He needs to be supported much rather than supporting fake influencers
Thank you so much for the genuine information sir
You have my respect 🙏🏻❤️
Love from India 🇮🇳❤️
This guy got a Playlist with V Shred.
Compliments from Indians are as valuable as wet farts
If the primary goal of your session is to stimulate hypertrophy then there are specific parameters that need to be in place for that to happen.
Pump, Fatigue and Soreness are three false gauges for building muscle.
0:40 01. Centering your workouts around getting a pump. A pump is more of a side effect of your training, not the underlying cause for muscle growth or the thing that you should be primarily focused on.
1:45 02. Using Fatigue as your gauge for training success. Fatigue is also a byproduct of intense exercise but it's not a direct stimulator of muscle hypertrophy on its own.
2:35 03. Relying on Soreness - does indicate that some level of damage has been done to the tissue but again it is not a direct driver of hypertrophy in and of itself.
You'll tend to get the most sore when you expose your muscles to a novel stimulus so that applies to beginning lifters in general or if you're more experienced but you're coming back from a layoff or you're introducing a new exercise into your program
3:34 Can be somewhat used as a gauge for muscle activation. Also if the wrong muscle is sore on a given exercise it may indicate that technique needs adjusting.
4:19 Mechanical Tension - primary driver of muscle growth. Applying load to the targeted muscle fibers and training them very close to or all the way to muscular failure which is the point where you can't do any more reps in proper form despite your best effort.
4:45 04. Not training hard enough - not going close enough to true muscular failure on your sets. Your body needs strong enough incentives, i.e. applying enough load, to signal to the body that adaptations need to be made in order to deal with these stressors.
6:00 05. Not tracking your workouts - Progressive overload. The reason you keep coming back to the gym stronger is because the muscle is hypertrophying whereas if the numbers in the log book have stagnated that's how you know that your muscle gains have also stagnated and that something in your program is off and needs to be corrected.
8:00 06. Excessive workout variation - muscles only respond to is the degree of mechanical tension that they're being placed under and it's actually far more effective for hypertrophy to keep your training variables constant and focus on maximising progress within those variables for a consistent cycle of training.
9:45 07. Choosing the wrong lifts
11:15 08. Unequal body part focus - don’t just focus on chest and biceps
12:40 09. Unstable exercises
13:30 10. EGO LIFTING - if you can't use a full ROM in proper form without excessive momentum or the assistance of a spotter you need to scale things back and be a bit more patient.
14:45 11. Excessively strict form - too being excessively strict with your form and completely obsessing over the mind-muscle connection.
15:38 12. High rep focus - creates a much larger amount of systemic fatigue which can start becoming the limiting factor where you're stopping the set because of that overall total body fatigue and discomfort rather than because the muscle itself is actually getting close to true muscular failure.
16:35 13. Short rest times - perform your set and then rest as long as you need to in order to feel fully recovered and to where you can execute the next set with full muscular effort. ~2-5 mins.
17:50 14. Cardio before lifting - Can do 5-10 min light cardio before workout.
18:20 15. Copying enhanced lifters - natural lifters have to play by different rules
I am a beginner and this is very helpful for someone like me. As I am already making a few mistakes 2 months in. Thank you. I appreciate the time it took to make this video for people out there like me who do not know any better.
11) The excessively strict form one surprised me. But I guess it makes sense that you're not getting the maximum hypertrophy efficiency wise if you're holding back a little/ really taking your time with reps because you have form so heavily prioritized. I strive for perfect perfect form with super slow and controlled reps but I can see how that probably prevents myself from reaching maximum hypertrophy. I will have to give it a try and see how it goes. Great video. Thanks for sharing.
What was the verdict? :)
Yeah form is important, but if you prioritize it too much it will prevent you from going to actual muscle failure (where you cannot produce another rep without changing the form severely), and in some cases you might never reach failure at all
6 reps perfect form then on 7-9 reps not bit a perfect form since you push yourself to your limit or you try to go failure. that's much better than having perfect reps with no sweat or struggle.
@@TovaHolmbergerYou have reached failure when you can’t complete another rep with good form. Also, it’s better to leave 1-3 reps in reserve than to go to complete failure. Better fatigue to stimulus ratio that way.
Mr. Sean Nalewanyj You are a great example on what can be achieved Naturally. I will use You as an example for my Training clients in the Future.
I used your training plan and I’m am seeing huge gains in the 11th week. Started doing 175 3x7 squats and now I’m doing 245 for the same sets!!! Thanks a ton for the help!!!🙏🙏👍
Lbs or kg ?
@@ankitthakur6618 definitely lbs
How it is it going?
Awesome growth! Keep it up!
@@ankitthakur6618 ya lbs haha kg would be nuts
Mistake #7 was a big one for me when I was a beginner. In my newbie days, I thought of "the back" as one muscle. And one tricep exercise was more or less the same as any other, I didn't think about the different heads of the tricep. The Body Transformation Blueprint was very helpful in my understanding of what exercises I should (and shouldn't) be doing.
Im a newbie to Lifting. Wondering where did you find the body transformation blueprint is it a document or a certain video?
What are you referring to by "Body transformation blueprint"?
Brah I still see is a "the back" and only do 1 tricep exercise usually, any tips?
@@shevrett2658 for back I suggest doing a horizontal pull (I prefer a chest supported row) and a vertical (I prefer lat pulldown) and shrugs (I like using the trap bar). For triceps I do a rope pushdown and a cable overhead extension.
Such an underrated of the bigger channel giving amazing gym advice! Props for always speaking the truth and not anything for clicks and views
That’s because @Athlean_X has the market cornered. Good channel and all, but there are better options out there on RUclips.
This is awesome. Years of experience distilled into a few minutes.
I feel like "Mechanical tension is the primary driver of hypotrophy" is for you what "Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell" for ChubbyEmu 😂 Thanks for the video!
I love this guy's advice. I'm guilty of some of these mistakes, and it's good to be aware of them. I've changed up my workouts to either add more weight or more reps, and I've noticed a big change. Don't just go through the motions. Work for those extra reps or weight.
I’m guilty of trying to perfect form. I fear getting injured but shall push myself more, thanks for this!
I love everything this guy has to say. He make s me feel smart. I do almost everything he says with the exception of recording my weight and explanation convinced me. It will b my new practice
Awesome video! Love your work! I have a sidenote though. On mistake number 9 you talk about creating instability. While of course you are right that it reduces the "gains" you could had mentioned that creating instability has other benefits during a workout, like recruiting stabilizers and improving them. Progressive instability training with low weights or bands is very helpful for the elderly and for people recovering from injuries. Of course it is also very helpful for any person working many hours that cannot support a gym lifestyle.
One of the mistakes I make is eating an entire package of oreos when I'm down.
What kind of mist-
That’s cute you eat Oreos when you sad 😂🤣
I stress eat too bro i feel you
Its alright, We all have a choice even if we are down to eat, things could go wrong we just have to beat it
Drinking* an entire bottle* of vodka* 😬
"I'm bulking man"
Pretty great advice! For me when I was starting…to break it down simply, Choose a compound movement for each muscle group and always do those 2 times a week. The other exercises you do within the same muscle group should be 3-5 more and those can be whatever you like. Once you gain more mind to muscle connection as you go. You can develop your own routine by feel(pump) and the body part you feel is lacking. But keep it simple starting out and track the compound exercises only, like bench,squat etc. you keep getting stronger at those and you’ll build muscle I don’t care who you are.
This video really opened my eyes to some common mistakes. It's easy to get caught up in the hype and forget the basics.
Imagine being that guy at 0:22 hired to be the posterboy for "making no gains" 😐
Love the content. I’d love to see you do a video on training for strength vs hypertrophy and how often to change your rep ranges to keep from plateauing for each.
yup important :)
Great info Sean! Hands down, this is simply THE best bodybuilding/fitness channel out there; no question about it!
I started an exercise journal due to your vids, the strength gains have been HUGE recently due to my ability to always know I'm lifting more at the gym than last time. Thanks for that advice!
I have never seen anyone who is ripped go on a treadmill to "warm up" BEFORE a workout. Whenever I tell them it's a bad idea, I get the "I'm just warming up bro", it's the person who still looks the same 1 year later.
Alternate between a 5 minute walk and short sets of burpees because the climate is so damn cold, going directly on bench 5x5 is genuine suicide. There is a time and place for everything, but knowing how and why is the real key
I really appreciate these video and have to say. Even though I am a retired army infantry veteran and consider myself sort of a fitness guru (I trained soldiers for 15 years). But this channel helped me to get a much better understanding. Out of thousands of fitness influencers, I consider Sean to be the most honest and helpful. Thank you sir 👍🏻
82nd Airborne Division Vet here. Just want to send out a "Hello" to my Brother In Arms.
All The Way, my Brother!
@@georgewilkie3580 I was waiting for someone to say something gay like “Hooah” 😂. I absolute hated jumping. More and more each time 😉
I learned most of these very early thanks to channels like Sean's.
Question: Should you use the same reps for multiple sets of the same exercise?
For example: In many training plans I see exercises scheduled as: 3x8. In my Plan I ended up doing 8 reps for the first set, 7 for the second and 6 for the third. I feel like getting better intensity on every set compared to the normal 8,8,8 method (normally the first set is way to easy). Is there any downside to that execution?
Usually they’ll mean 3x6-8 or 3x8-10 so once you get that top rep range for each set on the same weight your increase the weight by 5lbs the next time you do that workout, obviously with a warm up or a workout of the same group beforehand
If your first set is way too easy but the other sets are difficult you may not be resting enough between sets. But yes you can use different rep ranges for the same exercises.
just do 3/4sets depending what muscle ur training en dont worry about weight or reps just try progressive overload every session
If I may indulge your attention. You are on the right concept but require a far more elaborate plan. To tax a muscle is like any vehicle accelerating onto a highway. Your engine MUST go through all the transmission gears to speed up to travel speed. Therefore, use what is called the "Flushing Principle" as you increase the blood volume to a region. In my case of a bench press (going through the gears); 16 reps @ 50, 8 @ 100, 4 @ 150, 2 @ 200. 200 can be your warm up for an endurance event, or your max weight should you weigh 150. You are searching for a rep increase, so make the increase significant. AND always train like you are showing off. If the technique can be exaggerated, that is your mental indication you are aware of proper form; a definite pause at the height of your rep, a quiet machine to show weight control, etc.
@@joomittuk There are LAYERS to fitness. The first is always cardio, to drop the overall fat on the entire body. At the same time, you want to improve the circulation pathway to deliver the elements from all the improved eating habits. NEXT is the regional muscle areas. This is where group muscle motions, or calisthenics kick in. Muscle groups place a greater calorie demand on the region. LAST is the individual muscle groups. You are placing the cart before the horse. Knock out 1000 burpees first, then figure out sets and reps of particular muscle areas.
Very knowledgeable guy. I think he’s spot on.
This video was definitely built to remind mе about sticking only to the basics with progressive overloads😂. I was thinking of switching up my work out routine. Guess mastering 1 technique many times is better than many techniques once👌. Informative.
3:00 You could also just stand still for 3 hours not moving at all and for most people your legs will hurt badly because of the tension.
Resting is the best thing you can do for yourself if your focused on hypertrophy. 2 days is perfect. Theres no point in overworking yourself. Your muscles heal during resting days and thats when they grow.
Sean, I cannot thank you enough for your passion and will to help people. I received one complete diet, gym and supplement guide for free and as I thought what you send were just some automatic response I asked you to reply, and you did. I am amazed as this really show how close you are to your clients. Love you bro, you're the best!! /Simon, Sweden.
Incredibly informative video as always Sean. Funnily enough, I feel as if I’ve learned all of these tips throughout watching your youtube shorts and videos, yet having this succinct and entertaining video is amazing
This is golden ! Picking up on these when starting off is gonna shave months if not years of your building curve !
This is great! I needed to see this, I have been hitting the gym the most I ever have since January and have seen my body change significantly, I’m gaining muscle and filling out quickly which makes me confident, but the advice here is going to help immensely. I’ve followed the link for a custom plan. And have also subbed. Thank you!
Video suggestion: you should explain when to understand that an exercise is more about form rather than loading weight. I’ve seen people trying to do lateral raises with 45 and struggling while I’m just doing 15 with proper form 😂
YOUR ARE A GIFT TO THE LIFTING COMMUNITY!!
Really outstanding information. However, I have been training with weights for about 50 years and I have never “soiled” myself.
You’re missing out
Try Taco Bell for your pre workout meal.
@@EpikStar360 I might be “missing out” now but about 20 years from now I’ll probably be soiling myself without having to train with weights.
@@alphamale3141 That was the comment I was about to leave. lol
I'm over 65 and have only been working out for 4 years, so my main focus and concern is injury. I had some major tweaks early on, mostly from pushing to failure--and a little poor form, so I decided not to go that way. I take a full-body workout approach: I do 17 stations, in about 75 minutes, moving on when I catch my breath, 3 times a week. I take a 3-set approach to the first half of the machines, the heavy hitters: first set, warmup; second set, work; third set, challenge, upping the weight one plate at a time. When that gets too easy, I reverse the order: first set, challenge, 15 reps instead of 10; second set, drop the weight, 15 reps; third set, warmup turns into a form perfecter, as it is a lot tougher than when it was the first set. The second half of the machines are 2-setters...and bursty cool-down style stuff.
I'm a convert, though! I've never felt so GOOD! hehehe...all the time! I lost almost 60 pounds in the first 6 months--and that was all the fat I had! I was also dieting aggressively. At my lowest, BMI was bottom of the scale, body fat percentage near single digits--I could see the next layer down, into sinew ladder-structure stuff, which scared me a little, so I started eating more carbs, to thicken my skin!
Have you even talk to this man or you just getting a bunch of generated programs in you email?
@@ronaldhinton4379
This is fantastic thanks, I've always trained this way without overthinking it too much, having too much variety, making sure I stay in a good rep range, and with intensity. I've gained muscle pretty steadily over the past few years, and dropped my body fat to around 10%, and yet I've still felt unnerved and insecure by watching others fitness videos on RUclips, worrying I was missing something.
This no BS video is reassuring and refreshing to see, so thanks again.
I’m very motivated by the progress I made with my legs, I first began training back in June 2021 and started squatting with just the bar, I think within the month I added 10 lbs and stayed there for a bit, around August I was squatting 95lbs, September I hit 115, and in October I finally worked up to the plate 135, I took a slight decline in November with school and not being able to train and December I really didn’t train at all, mentally tired I just wanted to rest. Started back up again I decided to start from zero with comfortable weight, I’m back to 115 and will work back up to the plate which I still can do, I can do 6 reps but slightly challenging
Omg this reminds me yesterday there was a dude lifting 110 db to work out his chest and couldn’t even do a proper rep, I was like what are you on 😂 I was working out my triceps with 5lbs
You got this man!
Damn man! You added like 6 pounds every week right? That’s sick
Keep up the good work! Respect!
This really is not meant to insult anyone, but I'm curious: When I first started suqatting I immidiately loaded up 60kg (130lb). and couple of weeks after I went up to 80kg. I thought it's normal to squat this much. Have you really been close to your limits with just the bar?
@@NodaxWoW speaking for myself, as a new person to squats and other heavy compound lifts, I don't go near my limit. I know I probably COULD squat close to my body weight, but I'd rather do a few extra reps and be comfortable that I can maintain perfect form the entire time. I don't have the luxury of ego lifting and messing up my back.
Learning to feel the pump might not be the best litmus test, but like you said, it's a really good indicator that you're hitting the right muscle.
6:58 what if you can't perform an extra rep the next time you train? Should you pause 2-3 seconds after miscular feature and do the extra rep or should I do another (one more than last time) set? Or should I just stay with it and perform exactly like the last workout?
It’s like watching a video of all my struggles 1 year into weight training😂 I’m about to be two years in and this inspired me that I’m taking the right steps to a long journey, thank you.
I wanna ask you how often i need to change my workout routinev
I love these, and I love Sean's advice in general. i'll make one comment though, around 'muscle confusion', of course it's not a real physiological thing, but I think that if you're using good targeted exercises, and you're always training near or to failure, then there's no harm in changing your workouts around, even randomly. For me, it keeps the gym interesting, and also helps me stay in the rhythym if my usual machine or equipment is occupied, and I see consistent gains even though I don't follow a specific pattern of exercises. Freestyling is still a-okay in my book :)
8:56 yeah muscles do respond to the same exercise for years and years but variation is very critical and important since:
1) different exercises hits different fibers in a muscle
2) doing a exercise repeatedly in a long period of time can damage the connective tissues that the exercise puts stress on
3)novel exercises causes much better and faster adaptations
Those 3 things are also confirmed in a study where they made two groups do either just squats or squats deadlifts leg extensions and legpresses with the same total weekly volume and findings where that variation group gained more muscle and they espacially gained more muscle in the rectus femoris and the vastus lateralis meaning the squat wasnt effective at targeting that exact fibers and that same concept can be applied to any muscle.
And for the connective tissue thing as also stated from dr mike Israteal
Every exercise puts a stress in a specific part of the joint same way they put tension on a specific muscle fiber and make it grow and that stress on joint can cause discomfort overtime leading to you not training at your full potential
And i have experienced that first hand with overhead triceps extension and its really a real phenomena.
The way to overcome this is just changing some of the exercises or rep ranges mesocycle to mesocycle so that you always have a good stimulus and dont hurt your joints
The 3rd one really made me feel better because I’ll work my arms and they will hurt really bad but after like an hour I don’t feel sore, my legs are a different story though my legs will hurt for days and I can’t walk normal
Great video. Thank you for the well thought out points you made throughout the video. I have been saying for years, muscle confusion is not a thing. So many lifters in the past only worked on a core set of muscle exercises and did not worry about a hundred different variations to work the same muscles. Thanks again!
Great video! I was lucky to learn a lot of these in 97 when I started. But guilty on a few still! Slow and perfect form. Coming back from a hiatus and injury. This 15 was exactly the fresh start reminder I needed! Thanks
5:30 I was literally like "Hey hey hey..."
Good to know you were bs-ing me
I have one slight objection/addendum, creating instability (with low weights) is indeed a good technique derived from physical therapy to regain proper muscle function (after an injury with muscle hypotrophy.. it sure helped me a lot), but for hypertrophy I totally agree
Sean, I just want to say you are the most no B.S. fitness influencer I've seen. Thanks for the extremely informative and comprehensive content. Keep it up!
TLDR: It’s great advice and it worked for me
I have followed Sean’s advice for about a month and I want to share my experience for anyone out there with the same kind of frame who wants to become more advanced in their training as well as becoming slowly jacked.
I am 21 years old, 6-6’1 and I weighed about 195-200 pounds last month. Bare in mind that I have great genetics in terms of gaining muscle quickly.I started training when I was 15 but I was inexperienced. Did mostly arms and chest, not giving any thought to exercise selection. I did this for many years, hitting shoulders and back here in there and RARELY legs. My workout split was a chest/arms/shoulders/back/maybeLegs or more commonly called a bro split.
The best advice I can give you is to switch from a bro split to a push pull legs, or ppl for short, workout split. Basically you will grow more if you hit muscle groups twice a week rather than once (about 30% increase in the long run). Your push workouts should focus on shoulders, mainly lateral raises if you want wide shoulders. Front delts are already hit with chest presses and overhead presses; rear delts can be shared by the pull workout. Chest should be around 3-5 exercises hitting upper, middle and lower chest and 2 triceps exercises. Pull should be lat and upper back focused, leaving the lower back to heavy deadlifts and traps to shrugs. If you have time, try to hit the long head, short head and bracchialis of the biceps for 2 set each. Legs should include heavy squats or lunges, Romanian deadlift or leg press depending on wether you want bigger quads or hamstrings, and isolation work on leg extension/leg curls. Add a superset of seated and standing calf raise at the end. Depending on the situation I’ll hit forearms on pull or leg day.
6 days a week
Proper 8hr sleep, ok nutrition for those interested.
Right now I have gained a solid 5 pounds of muscle mainly on back and shoulders. I have never looked so in shape. It’s now a common occurrence for people to tell me how big I have gotten. It’s crazy how a developed back change your whole physique. I hope this can help someone. If it has please let me know how it’s going!
I appreciate what you said about muscular failure I've found it challenging because you're trying to avoid injury and find exercises that can allow you to really push that muscle group to that point before accessory muscle groups give out. But I know the few times I've trained with exercises that allowed to push to that point, I've grown the most. Thx
These tips are solid. I've definitely made some of these mistakes in the past, especially with my diet.
I was definitely guilty of nr 5 and nr 6. After my 2 years of training, after the newbie gains were done, i noticed no more gains in either strenght or hypertrophy. I was just winging it and doing all sorts of exercises, changing it up every workout so i wouldnt become bored. Now granted i did train hard, that wasnt an issue, but it really became almost impossible to track my progress because i was doing a different exercise for each body part every week. Except for squats and benchpress which were constant. But yea, definitely seeing how "winging it" and having a lot of variations can impact your muscle growth now that im an intermediate.
Guilty as charged on some of the "mistakes":
1. Soreness. I just love the feeling of soreness, because it keeps me motivated. Soreness is how I personally measure whether I was or wasn't close to failure. Btw, if soreness disappears - just do drop sets (proper ones) - trust me, soreness will be back in no time, no matter if you are a beginner or a pro.
2. Short rest times. I'll gladly sacrifice 2-5% of my muscle growth potential/speed for extra endurance. I'm training to get overall stronger, meaning that I need both strength and endurance. I don't want to be that guy that benches 400 lbs a couple of times and then feels exhausted for the rest of the day.
If you dont take at least a few minutes between sets then there is no way you are training hard enough.
@@briangerra5236 Do you live in the "opposite world"?
@@Shining_Light If you can perform a full set less than 60 seconds after your previous set then there is literally no chance you are training close enough to failure. I'm not really sure what you're on about.
@@briangerra5236 Okay, let's take baby steps here:
1. Read how muscles work and what happens to them during an exercise.
2. Read what's the best way how to engage muscle fibers.
3. Read about the difference between doing sets with short rests vs long rests.
4. Read about things like "supersets" and "drops sets" (friendly tip - you will probably get super angry and mad at this point, so take some deep breaths).
5. Never comment again.
I agree with both, I’m more focused on strength building than muscle building
Over my 5 years of lifting I've basically made all these mistakes and fixed them, really wish I saw this video earlier but good to know I'm on the right track now
Hey Sean. Love your content.
On the Andrew Huberman podcast, Duncan French (VP of UFC Performance) argued that while higher rest is better for strength output, lower rest (example was 2:00 on compound movements) is better for hypertrophy.
This seems to contradict the concept I always believed in that more rest leads to higher strength, volume and therefore work output. What are your thoughts?
Are u a npc
This video helped me out a ton. I thought I was being save by using lesser weights and high rep to avoid injury and soreness but it turns out it was just making my workouts less effective and caused me to not training hard enough. I've increased the weights of all my exercises and they actually feel more intense now. Didn't even feel any soreness afterwards
I've been bodybuilding for over a decade. Videos like this are invaluable to remind me of bad habits. It's always a good idea to go back to basics from time to time and pretend I'm just learning how to build muscle for the first time.
I am currently learning to become a certified personal trainer and throughout the course's lectures I keep relating to the concepts that you outline in your videos. Your content is of top quality and I've made huge progress because of your no BS and science based information. Always looking forward to your videos, keep it up. Cheers! ✌
I've tried for a long time lower (5-8 reps), medium (8-12) and high reps sets (12-20 or more reps) and my experience is that high reps in the most exercises I can get more muscle tension and less joint issues than other rep ranges, incluiding the free compound exercises. Obviously, it depends on lifter and your biological individuality: some lifters respond better with lower reps and others with medium or high reps.
6-8 or 8-10 is generally something that most ppl should follow. You should not be having injuries if you do it with good form, no? Maybe you are part of a minority lf ppl for who high rep would be suited for? Idk tho
@@yazdazkafraz3419 I use every rep ranges in my programming, but the high reps are good to generate muscle tension without joint issues when you train constantly with heavy weight.
For the most part, I train in the rep range of 6 to 15 reps
I love training heavy, but I find that my best gains seem to be in the higher rep range (15-20)
@@kyleolin3566 I believe that high reps are suited for almost anyone because is a range that the weight is moderated to heavy that allows to accumulate enough volume with sufficient intensity while avoiding joint and CNS issues.
In my experience, when I train for long time in lower and medium reps, my form starts to break and joints begin to inflame. When I switch to high reps, these issues are instantly gone and I feel less tired and in the same time I do more volume with quality.
Also just depends on the muscle you are working / the exercise you are doing. No reason to do low rep high weight lat raises where form tends to break down
Like your info. Always give true info and not clickbait garbage. I do change up my workout just because I'd been doing the standard 4 sets of 10 for years and years. Just got boring.
If you aren’t urinating all over yourself you’ve got to ask “am I even working out at all?”
Still putting out great content!
That mike tyson lip sync is fokkin genius. More lip sync sketches pls.
Btw so refreshing to see a no bs informative fitness channel thriving on utube. Enjoy 1 milion soon bro. Well deserved.
Am so damn thankful for your channel. I'd spent years and years following athlean x and genuinely for every 1 solid new tip I would gain, there would be 2 new things i was even more confused about than before, along with about 50 new exercise variations that were apparently all essential and should be doing "every day" or it would "kill my gains"...
You keep things so straight forward with no BS and i can tell you're genuinely doing this to educate people and not just to have an endless amount of content to constantly churn out. It's making all the difference for me
I'm pretty sure jeff said that you don't HAVE to do every single exercise or routine,he said each one of those was to be done if needed
@@awakenedgarou yeah jeff says a lot of things bro...
it's complete and total information overload
@@onetwo8847 ☠️pretty simple if you ask me
@@awakenedgarou that's great for you bro. I mean Jeff literally sometimes will give advice and then give advice later to the complete contrary of the initial advice, and Includes an insane amount of essential exercises, stretches e.t.c into standard workout/split when you actually listen to ALL of his advice. The fact thats it's all "pretty simple" to you borders on the paradoxical if you genuinely consume all his content, but fair play...
@@onetwo8847 it's simple because like i said before you don't have to do everything,just use what works for you he said it before ain't really that hard to understand.
Hey Sean, I just watched your video on the benefits of high intensity weight lifting and how intensity is more of a primary driver of muscle growth than volume. I want to try some of the routines you said you did when you were in your bodybuilder phase. You said your routines progressed to the point where you would do only 1 set per muscle group per week, and I was wondering what sort of warm-ups you were doing? When I lift I tend to warm up my muscles by doing a high-rep set of low weight of whatever lift I'm doing. The way you described the optimal high-intensity workout seems like the only reps should be the high weight/intensity reps, so I was wondering how you warmed up for those when you did that. I'm open to all advice if anyone has any.
Dude this is Gospel truth for muscle growth. Thank you for your frankness.
Watching the video. Consistent with your books. Great content as usual
What's a book? Can u eat it?
I get a pump just whacking away at my keyboard trying to debate all these guys chasing the pump.
Whacking away... Do u have a larger forearm to the other?? 😂
The beard has spoken
15:12 is highly just an *opinion*. Slow controlled movements will never have a negative impact (even if you look like a robot). Lifting natural is fine of course but often times people may get too comfortable with movement and slowly begin having an imperfect form while not even noticing.