The Bioneer's book (an updated version from the one I got a year+ ago) can be found here: www.thebioneer.com/product/sft2/ And here's my most recent book for hypertrophy enthusiasts: www.verityfit.com/product-page/resurrecting-your-gains-finding-your-muscle-growth-formula Happy reading and thanks for watching!
Hi Geoff, absolutley unrelated fitness question but, could you do a hair tutorial? Lol I know it sounds stupid but your hairstyle its great and I would love to try It. Maybe just a community post or an instagram post lmao.
@@enzoconstantinoromo364 Thanks! I cut my own hair. I grab offending chunks of it that seem too long and then snip them off. That's the extent of what I do.
Bruh, Sensei... We ain't gotta gaslight about the mobility thing. Just a good session will have your torso tensed up. It's crazy cos one thing I've noticed is that I get really good gains and get back all of my mobility by doing the exact excercise that hurts just to imagine another rep on that same muscle. It's when I try train past my best pump that I start wasting fuel and feeling... just sluggish, but not pumped or burned
Hey man, thanks so much for the shout-out! And for linking my book 😁 Really appreciate it 💪💪Awesome video, too! Really entertaining and loads of good points. I definitely think bodybuilding-style training gets unfairly thrown under the bus. There are so many beneficial adaptations that come from it! Don't think I'd have my current career without it! Going to be checking out your older videos now! 🔥
My Dad hit me with that exact "bodybuilders have fake muscle" quote when one day, two lifters entered our Taekwondo class and weren't *immediately* amazing at it. Like, no shit. He did however not have a problem asking them specifically to help carry stuff when we moved, wonder why that is.
Lol yea taekwondo is way too snappy and fast moving for bodybuilders to excel at. They have way too large of muscles but it's definitely not impossible. People like juji mufu would probably be pretty good at it
@@ShawnSchulz lol yea exactly I thought so. You could tell he had trained in something cause of how flexible and bouncy he is. He's also not "muscle bound" to the point where he can't touch his back and stuff
-someone says : Being stronger, more conditioned, and more durable is definitely functional. Bodybuilding training increases those attributes. People confuse attributes with skills that's why they say its not functional. -but others says :Skill beats attributes in most cases and the skills can increase fast than bodybouilding _but i say : in survival or extreme situation those skills save your life and not some attributes . anyway a combination of both worlds are the perfect combination like the bioneer shows in his videos
I followed a pretty notable Crossfit coach who asked his audience what the best athlete to transfer over to the sport was. People threw out "running backs, decathletes etc", he came back with the right answer..... bodybuilders
Especially if you are not going after the "optimal" exercises and do Basic movements and get strong at all of them + some Conditioning Work is kind of the best of both words, in my humble opinion.
@Gilon Kraft are you sure about that? Any sport? Most posers do not have or does not have good coordination. What makes you think they can excel at finesse sports like swimming or gymnastics where they can even do basic crawl, dodge, lateral movements etc? Its because someone has big muscles does not equate to being good at any sport. Body builders also have crap work capacity. Why you think they tire out easily when you ask them to do sprints or maximal lactate steady state? Its because they have poor working capacity cardiovascular wise.
Theres not a single fitness channel where you wont find something to disagree on. The Bioneer is a very talented guy. i cant fault him, his channel is first class.
Steve Shaw had a really good point about bodybuilders from the Golden era. He said even if the bodybuilders themselves didn't train for strength, they're still f'ing stronger than most of the population
Being stronger, more conditioned, and more durable is definitely functional. Bodybuilding training increases those attributes. People confuse attributes with skills that's why they say its not functional.
@@dokuaccount3172 Yes but skill plus 'attributes' beats only skill. And in some cases, 'attributes' by themselves can beat skill, for example if Eddie Hall was to have a have a fight with a female MMA fighter lol.
As a hiker, my performance has vastly improved since I started to lift. I can pull myself up with ropes easier from doing pullups and pulldowns and I can take steeper steps with less effort thanks to doing squat and Bulgarian split squat. Also all grocery bags in one trips now. For longevity, one of the biggest reasons it's not uncommon for seniors to trip and fall isn't simply loss of hand/eye coordination. It's also muscle loss. If more seniors trains, they can definitely decrease chance of falling and breaking their hip.
As you get older, you can use a minimal amount of volume to maintain your strength fairly easily, but to prevent atrophy it's quite a bit more volume. I have a really hard time convincing my mom (in her 70s) that lifting weights is extremely functional. Just going for walks and doing mild cardio isn't going to help you fight osteoporosis or muscle atrophy.
@@nmnate That doesn't make any sense. To prevent atrophy, you just need 30% of the volume used to build your muscle. If your mom went to lift, she would not only not atrophy, but get bigger lol. However to keep strength adaptations, intensity is needed else you will lose part of it. As example sure I can do minimal volume, but it still gotta be high intensity, else I can't keep my strength as it's not specific enough. Your mom is either lazy or uneducated. If she doesn't want to lift it's okay, even stuff like bodyweight squats and pushups will benefit her greatly over a few months. However strength training is needed for optimal health, there's no discussion about that anymore.
@@soez_strg6166 Regardless of my mom's status (lazy, ignorant and uneducated is probably a good summary), I don't think we'll disagree that it doesn't take much to stave off atrophy. The meta-analyses seem to point to ~4 sets per week as a minimum effective dose for hypertrophy and 2-3 sets per week for building strength (hence my comment about preventing atrophy needing a little more volume, but I probably just should have said hypertrophy). My main issue is that so many folks are averse to resistance training. They've been programmed over the years to believe if something "hurts" (or gets sore) to not do that. (Don't lift with your back! You could get an injury!) Folks are also discouraged for exerting themselves (fallacy of high weight = more injurious), so when they do try resistance training, it's completely ineffective as they're not using relevant weight at reasonable proximity to failure.
Dont tell me, I live in the third floor, no elevator and now I can carry a box of 6x2L water bottles in one hand and a bunch of grocery bags on the other 😂
Finally someone said it! I'm so tired of these "Oh running on a treadmill and walking on your hands is functional!" Any physical ability that improves your body in a way that helps you in a specific area of your daily life is functional. Yeah handstands and Olympic weightlifting won't really be functional for a 70 year old grandma who has difficulty getting up from the chair.
Handstands are fun and look cool. Also many girls are into it. I can do free handstands but they are not functional for doing any task. However they force you to have your coordination and mobility on point. If you want to do more than just standing, like a push up your strength requirements are high as well.
@@DanielDimov358 you’re balancing on your hands you need balance coordination and core strength all which are more useful in daily life -for example walking or getting out of a chair as a geriatric, than simple front and mid delt activation achieved through a strict press for example and obviously the delt activation and bone density gains are the same in a bodyweight strict press as in a handstand push up
"A pyramid is only as high as its base" (RIP Louie Simmons) I think bodybuilding like most people do it is an absolutely amazing foundation for pretty much any other sport or athletic endeavor. You get more jacked, you get some cardio, you learn to move your body safely through all imaginable scenarios, you likely get more flexible through squats, deadlifts, fullrange pressing etc. Your strength and power output increases. Sounds pretty "functional" to me
@@masonmalaguti3463 if two guys start an athletic endeavor at 20 the guy who has 5 years of bodybuilding is going to have a WAY better foundation for almost any sport imaginable if it doesnt happen to be running a marathon.
@@Kinta02 If you train sport specific bodybuilding yes cuz athletes dont bodybuild there legs. The difference is tho is that the training for bodybuilding is push weights to failure it would take a while to get out of that cycle.
@@masonmalaguti3463 That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, it'll take time to get out of that cycle? What does that even mean? The bodybuilder will have a muscular foundation to build upon which is beneficial in almost any sports endeavour
I'm into mobility and calisthenics. Recently hopped onto bodybuilding since gym open again. Deadlifting, rows, and overhead presses helped me gain full back bridge and other bending skills faster than my previous progress. So yeah it's very functional.
@@CaneSugarCane thoracic mobility and strength. I had the overhead and shoulder extension RoM and strength. But I was weak/tight in extending the upper back in an upside-down position. Similarly I was almost instinctively able to perform deadlift in good form because it feels like an inverted front lever.
In the same way calisthenics progressions help with it, strength, measurable progress, and resilience to injury. Deadlifts, specifically Romanian deadlifts strengthen the glutes, hamstrings, and hip flexors which all help with stabilisation and proper load management in the position. Rows help to strengthen the scapula, lats, rhomboids, and rear delts which also help with stability and injury prevention. The OHP when done correctly is a great test of overhead pressing strength, and makes it far less likely you'll injure yourself due to strength issues or lack thereof (someone who OHP their own bodyweight has the strength to be able to handstand push-up but might not because of specificity issues like balance) which makes the isometric portion of the hold much easier when all the other aforementioned muscles are working in tandem with each other. That being said, the law of specificity still applies, you still need to be practicing the exact movement you want to achieve, however the OP implied he's doing some variation of back bridges with these compound lifts as accessories to assist his progress. ("Gained back bridge and other skills faster than my previous progress")
@@CaneSugarCane the previous two, no idea. But OHP could help with overhead extension mobility. That being said, I'm primarily a calisthenics athlete and the OHP made my planche better lol
The moment I realized that lifting and cardio wasn't just for "looks" was when I had to help move furniture. Legit life saver, everyone who is helping you will want you to carry things though because you gain the reputation for being the stronger one in the group
An additional function that bodybuilding does provide is more skeletal muscle, and for us older middle aged folks, that keeps us healthy and not old and broken.
Recent example I just had. Couple years ago before I started lifting I climbed a 14er in Colorado (mountain over 14000 feet), I made it but it took pretty much the whole day and bout time I started the descent back down my legs were dead and I could barely walk. Took me 4 more hours of wobbling to get back down to my car... fast forward to last month I tried the same climb and I got to the top in a fraction of the time I did last time and my legs were so fresh that I literally jogged all the way back down. I contribute that almost completely to lifting. It affects everything in my life, from bending down to pick something up, walking up stairs, even sitting down and standing up. Stronger muscle equals more functional imo
Agreed. And the more strength you have in varying positions at varying ranges of motion, can only result in better functionality. Pretty simple to understand.
@@liamburns8554 yep, muscles are used to extend and contract which pretty much means TO MOVE, so if you get more efficient at moving I'd say it's functional
agree, stronger muscles help in your day to day life. id usually get back pain from sitting all day or leaning over the sink to wash my face but now my lower back can usually take it.
@@eneribackwards same. I couldn’t carry a shopping basket when my back was at the worst. One thing that really helped was modified side planks and planks, modified to be harder. But if I listened to RUclips comments I was totally wasting my time doing planks, despite getting way more core strength and fixing pain.
I'm a 50+ year old female. I like that I can easily carry a huge bag of dog food, or all the grocery bags inside in one trip, or a full ice chest, or help my husband carry a 36hp engine around in the garage. These are things that help me function in my life.
I think bodybuilding is verry functional. The act of having a lot of muscles makes you a individual that it harder to mess with and you get lots of respect from other people. This is a huge function that is verry underrated in day to day life. There have even been studies that show that more muscular individuals make more favorable trades. The psychological effect of having more muscle than others is huge.
Fantastic Discussion, and one that has been brought up a lot lately on YT. Extra Points too, for The Bioneer inclusion. Love the guy, and it would be wonderful to see a conversation/fun chat about all things training, anything else between the two of you lads.
People saying that it ain't functional has never gotten laid before, coping, or obese in real life. Like seriously, bodybuilding will increase your confidence and I can now pass my genes because of it
I've done running and bodybuilding stuff, and in my opinion bodybuilding absolutely can help you be able to work longer and harder. It has SO MUCH carry over for my manual labor job its not funny. It's very functional for me. I also don't get tired like I used to from my day to day job
IMO bodybuilding is the best functional type of training for everyday life, life in which we mostly get up or sit down from a chair, carry packages or pick up objects from a certain height or from the ground. All of these types of movement can be strengthened through bodybuilding.
Im a very lean guy, 171cm 60kg BMI is around 20 and bodyfat got around 16% An younger and heavier guy was always complaining about back pain, I told him I had to skip work in the past while being younger due to back pain but now since lifting weights consistently I feel no pain at all. He gave me an excuse that he had hernia so it wasnt related to strength, but I watched how he lifted heavy boxes from the floor and I could see he had no strength nor technique and just jerked it off the floor. Six months later he started to exercise at home and is watching his diet, I can tell his mood got much better overall.
Big muscles are also sugar sponges that don't need insulin to take up sugar. I think natty bodybuilding is great for those worried about type 2 diabetes.
I remember years ago watching a ben rice video and him saying something like "train your compounds like a powerlifter, your accessories like a bodybuilder, and your mobility like a strong man". I still follow that advice today.
Before even watching the video, bodybuilding style of training is the most functional style in existence, you train each muscle/joints in mutiple angles and you're getting stronger in each one of those movements which can then later be beneficial in every possible activity
I think this common refrain comes about because people are used to seeing bodybuilders who do not perform as well as they look. Of course, they perform well above how someone who doesn't bodybuild does, but there is often a disparity between how impressive they look and how impressive they perform, because obviously the focus is on looks.
Which one is more impressive to you, a body builder poser or a weight lifter doing power cleans, clean and jerk and power snatch? Im pretty sure its the latter. You cannot screw up hypertrophy, but you can screw up olympic lifting where it requires more technique than just posing in the mirror.
BB training is probably the second-tier base for any sport's GPP, only preceded by something called "sufficient mobility(which is joint flexiblity+stability, so basically active ROM)" which is sometimes more then one thinks one possess, more often then I would like to see
Bruh. Two 'funtional' stories of bodybuilding: I'd been lifting for six months when it was time for me to restock the chicken feed. I hit up our local farm store to grab six or so 50lbs sacks, and these bags are normally pretty awkward to carry. No handles, just bulbous sacks. It wasn't a problem though as I could toss a bag onto each shoulder from the ground and do a few trips on my own. Don't think that'd happen before then. After a year of lifting my friend challenged me to an arm wrestling match in front of our families. Pressure was on as this guy is very tall and large. He'd also been doing bodyweight movements for a while so I know he's strong. Anyway, I don't think I'd arm wrestled anyone for at least a decade but I won and the room fell a bit silent as [I think] everyone expected my buddy to win. After that he decided to train with me for a couple days and learned bodybuilding is hard.
Hahaha, man! I love arm wrestling people who think that we're weak, cuz we're big. I haven't lost a single match in my life, not even before I started lifting.. Idk why they think they can win now lmao
My take on 'functional training' is training to perform well in a fight or survival situation. Strength an stamina is the idea, I think of Nate Diaz or a hunter gatherer.
I train my triceps through its full range of motion in both the stretched position (overhead) and the contracted position (pulling something just behind me). I train all of the functions of my hamstrings, with a both a hip hinge and a leg curl. I could go down the list and list off a dozen or so other muscles that I train more completely than any powerlifting-only, calisthenics-only, or Oly lifting fanatic does. IMO bodybuilding properly done is the most functional strength sport.
excellent video it always irked me too when people would say lifting barbells isn't functional i reckon it just became a ploy used to sell their own "functional training" plans as a labourer i often have to lift fence or scaffolding poles functional for daily life as these people want to interpret it is entirely dependant on what you personally do in your life
@@Quikate powerlifting and weightlifting are based on performing good on a few exercises. Powerlifting on SBD and weightlifting on snatch, cleans and jerks. The training has to be specific to improve these particular lifts, and is periodized to peak at a particular time. Bodybuilding is just lifting whatever, however, with infinite exercises, higher volume, no speficic to anything in particular.
@@Quikate Powerlifting focuses on performing 1 rep with the highest weight on just 3 movements, weightlifting is the same although it uses more “athletic” movements, whereas with bodybuilding you can have way more freedom in exercise selection for a multitude of reps, which is arguably more useful than powerlifting and weightlifting because you’re accustomed to a wider spectrum of movements; when you bodybuild your strength is more related to the muscle mass that you carry rather than how precise you are in performing a certain skill (like powerlifting and weightlifting); given that bodybuilding focuses on higher reps it also builds more muscular endurance than the other sports; lastly bodybuilding is focused on aesthetics (whereas many powerlifters and weightlifters don’t care about that so a good % is fat and visually unbalanced in their muscular development) which gives you extra points if you want to attract someone
I was a non competitive power lifter for 6 years. 5 months ago I switched entirely to a hypertrophy program to allow some repetitive stress issues to heal. I had thought a minimalistic big-three-focused program would keep me functional into old age. But recently, I’ve experienced a couple minor “athletic miracles” that I always figured I lacked due to poor hand-eye coordination. My current hypothesis is that my current, well-rounded, hypertrophy-focused program has strengthened a bunch of (small & medium sized) muscles I had long neglected. This seems way more “functional” and better suited to aging well
I can use the guise of body building to increase my flexibility through progressive range of motion, develop areas to combat sedentary lifestyle aches and pains, all while getting jacked. That sounds pretty damn functional to me. Even endurance sports benefit noticeably from resistance training. I.e. improving your squat has a positive effect on your cycling FTP. Would be cool to see a video focusing on developing work capacity over time and improving your cardio in a strength context.
As a new parent, I've learned to appreciate curls more. If I'm lifting a child, I'm going to lift him slowly, not power clean him to my shoulder! And when bopping a child to sleep, my back is absolutely fine with the workload, but my biceps tire first. Can't 1-rep-max a child to sleep!
Bingo. It reminds me of the powerlifters who for the most part can't stop crapping on people who try to make themselves look better. I'm sorry bro that I don't want to just bloatmax or look like a DYEL, who just happens to lift heavy weights. We have different goals. We are NOT THE SAME.
@@Aycefr lol. I know some people who bloatmax but they are pretty cool dudes, I just find the ones who won't admit to it and crap on someone having different goals annoying mainly. I first heard the term bloatmaxing on one of the lifting meme channels 😂
Accidentally left my phone in the back of a taxi a couple of weeks ago. Had to chase it down the street for over 800meters which I ran in under 3 minutes. I was surprisingly not breathing that heavy or winded at all afterwards either. That comes entirely from bodybuilding style training in my case.
as a manual labor dude, i can confirm that after a certain point, powerlifting doesnt really help my job. Like, after i achieved a 200kg deadlift(now im at 250) and even less than that, there is nothing THAT heavy in my job and if it is guess what. I will either get help from one of my coworkers or it will be something that we will lift with a machine of some kind(forklift etc). The problem with heavy stuff in my job is not really the weight of the things we carry. Its either the awkward shape or their volume. For example, a plasterboard is 20something kg which is ridiculous light when you consider i can lift a lot more in the gym. However, the volume is big, it doesnt really have a grip like a barbell and to top it all of, if the wind is really blowing against your way, suddenly the difficulty doubles. Just like you said in the video, bodybuilding will help you build a base for every physical activity in life. After that, its your choice to specialize on what you consider important
True there are some items where the extra strength just doesn’t really help that much. But it’s still very useful in some places. For example as a mechanic I can lift some pretty big truck wheels around by myself which is something I’d struggle a lot with if I hadn’t been strength training
most important function for me personally that body building gives, your body is less likely to waste away early as you get older, you will lose some strenght but relative to all the people that dont, and provided you arent unlucky genetically and you have a decent diet and lifestyle habits, bodybuilding will keep you strong and fit well into your old age both bones and muscles and whatever connective tissue inbetween. and ofc higher rep workouts keeping that heart strong.
I mean it’s considerably more functional than just doing a single hour, 3x a week, being sedentary, or relying on a manual trade job for example. There’s a reason gladiators and elite warriors looked pretty good even for the standards of antiquity. The average Centurion was about 180lbs and they were not tall. They weighed about the same as a Navy SEAL while having a smaller average height. You have more power output, more strength, more endurance. Ancient Greeks knew that physical exercise + food made bigger men…And we aspire to look like those men now. Ironic we would call this a “non-functional” body type.
I would just like to add that the late Bill Pearl's books about training, specifically the one titled Getting Stronger, used bodybuilding protocols primarily and is considered one of the finest books on "functional training" for sports. There's a lot of value in bodybuilding for athletes.
Yeah, I’m very much of the mind that proper bodybuilding is one of the more transferable physical activities. Very “functional” and very necessary. *Hell yeah* to this video !
Bodybuilding is extremely functional for the average human, you're getting bigger and stronger, has potential to improve posture. Anytime you need to carry something like when you move it wont be such of a hassle because its not like you need to be some freak athlete with a low 40 time, you just need some base strength which will be gained whether you are powerlifting or bodybuildling.
An example why bodybuilding might not translate to real world: I was doing close grip dumbbell press and ran out of triceps energy, then I noticed my wrists weren't straight, and when i straightened them, the triceps suddenly got the energy back. SO, if you're doing exercises with straps, gloves, perfect grips, etc, you won't be able to carry furniture just because of imperfect grip, and the powerful muscles shut-down.
Good video. It's important that fitness creators who are interested in conveying solid informaton and dispelling myths and misconceptions address this particular topic as well. That's a fairly common assertion, especially coming from people who do some other stuff, that bodybuiding isn't "functional". Equally as meaningless. Don't have the stats, but setting aside total noobs from the general population who have never lifted a dumbbell and think that gaining muscle is as easy as it is ultimately disadvantageous, there are a significant number of.. "bodybuilding haters" should I say (?) among different training modalities and fitness fads (of which there are nowadays a whole bunch), who believe or spread the notion that theirs is a far more "functional" training style/modality/discipline. And precisely the first point is to define what the word "functional" even means for a given detractor. Because it seems to mean different things to different people. And the way it is often used to criticize bodybuilding brought me to the position where I currently consider a meaningless buzzword, popular in the world of fitness jargon nowadays. It is supposed to mean something "positive" (something that bodybuilding purportedly lacks) yet is essentially devoid of meaning. It reminds me strongly of the way the word "natural" is used by those who are into the "alternative" medicine. There are several interrelated reasons why I believe the word "functional" as it is often used in the fitness circles/world is basically meaningless, some of which are: 1) Lack of understanding of biomechanics, 2) Lack of understanding of exercise physiology and nutrition involved in training for strength and muscle hypertrophy, 3) A particular version of...naturalistic fallacy, that translates into a supposedly lesser/worse carryover of bodybuilding to everyday life needs and concerning health benefits, some of the items often included or implied might be: a)Training that focuses on moving your body and/or body parts relative to space is deemed more efficient, beneficial or desirable than moving objects/weights relative to your body, because muscles are supposedly there to "move your own body first and formost", b) Gym equipment/machines and even freeweights are considered worse/inferior to just using your own weight, because it "less natural" (and therefore less efficient/beneficial/etc.), c) Isolating muscles and seeking for greater stability to perform an exercise is deemed as less effective or limiting your capacity to "improve your joint mobility" and undermining your "ability to move in space", etc. etc. As a sidenote, regarding terminology, I personally prefer "hypertrophy training", because "bodybuilding" per se has a somewhat more specific meaning.
I gotta disagree a little with the point raised that training for maximal strength is not as helpful in day to day life because it’s not often we are tasked with lifting a really heavy object a single time. This is true but by increasing your 1rm any given task becomes a smaller percentage of your hypothetical max output and all things equal people can perform more reps with a smaller percentage anyway. This result would def be bolstered by the inclusion of more endurance focused training on top of improving the 1rm but I do think a combination will usually outperform an endurance only approach. Examples that come to mind are the 225 combine bench test where the lead up to the test is highly endurance focused but the preparation prior to that is building the largest strength base so that 225 is more submaximal. I’m also just super bias here but it’s something that I’ve observed in strongman training where at the amateur level we are performing events for reps a lot more often than we are for a max
That's fair. I imagine if we took 1000 people who lift, their reps with 225lbs and their max would correlate pretty well. If someone benches 700lbs, they're gonna get a ton of reps with 225lbs even if they've never trained for max reps. I guess it's more a question of at what point is it no longer worth getting stronger for normal day to day stuff, although that's a pretty low bar for most people given modern lifestyles, so I don't even think that's why many people train.
I think the best thing is to just to do both. That's the beauty of the conjugate system/concurrent periodisation. You stay peaked for maximal strength, and yet most of your training is still focused on hypertrophy/bodybuilding style training.
The thing is most ppl in these comments have BB and strength training confused. BB is for aesthetics. Personally I strength train daily with added cardio. I don’t care how my chest & biceps look. I’m focused on moving heavy loads as safe as possible
You see this phenomenon with almost any sport where athletes inadvertently build muscle from improving in their sport. Cyclists got huge legs. Rock climbers and swimmers have huge backs. Football players have huge legs as well as strong upper bodies. So all of these different athletes built their bodies, and needed to do so to reach their level. Bodybuilding being necessary to sports automatically makes bodybuilding functional.
I did some HIT-style training that made me far stronger than I was. I then got a job where I had to pack hundreds of pounds around the site. I had to move about 40 tons of steel up some stairs one day. 300+ pounds at a time. I would say that the VERY intense workouts I did literally made me capable of this work.
The more I workout with different modalities the more I realize consistently and recovery are by far the most important things for any goal more so than having the perfect program or training. Lift stuff, eat, sleep, and drink. You’ll be “functional.”
Awesome video man, I jus wish u also uploaded to rumble as I basically only use RUclips for a couple fitness channels like yours, but otherwise I’ve boycotted RUclips for rumble
Thank you, you actually made me realize hard work is hard work no matter which form it is training it is. Each form of training has its own pros and no cons because any training is better than doing nothing. Great content 👍
bodybuilding ( natural ) is probably the best thing you can do to age as gracefully as possible, it's functional from a health perspective, maximizing your muscle mass potential drastically reduces your risk of diabetes and many other diseases, muscle has so many positive benefits from a biological point of view, it even benefits brain health as everything is connected and is one organism, a positive benefit in one area will have knock on effects in others, people are jealous of muscles nothing ever changes
It's helped me be able to move heavy objects in the garden, remove trees, help people move furniture, strength in sports, and carry people when they need help. It's pretty dumb to say it's not functional. It also lowered my heart rate. I don't do cardio, because I spend my energy on lifting.
The misconception comes from people conflating ego lifters/half reppers/leg day skippers with what bodybuilding is. Bodybuilding done badly shouldn't be a reflection on proper bodybuilding training. For me, bodybuilding has the best grasp of muscular balance - removing asymmetries and imbalances has big time athletic/functional carryover
One thing that I would like to point out here is that these days I see people’s leg workouts only consisting of machines and no free weights. They will do 3-4 machine squat variations, not even doing any free squat/lunging variations. Machines are not inherently bad however I do think if you only do machines that can be a problem. So in that context doing any free squat variation will be way more functional than spending entire workouts on machines. However there’s lot more to this discussion and cannot be conveyed in a small comment.
My weight training routines are sometimes quite functional. For instance, after my drop sets of dumbbell presses and lateral raises, I'd grab a 45-lbs kettlebell in each hand and do a minute or so of farmer's walk around my training area.. getting the forearms flexed and feeling my shoulders getting stretched and activated at the same time right after shoulder sets, with a pretty long time-under-tension. Or, after drop sets of dumbbell curls and hammer curls, I'd pick up a 45-lbs plate and bring it up to my chest, arms locked like in the upper part of a hammer curl rep, and walk around, just like doing the previous farmer's walk, just to keep my arms and shoulders pumped and activated with a long time-under-tension right after working out my arms. These routines do seem to build up the endurance of these muscle groups at generating significant amounts of force over prolonged periods of time. I think there are many ways to incorporate more functional strength endurance tweaks to regular weight training routines.
I sprained my bicep doing preacher curls. I was seated way too low. So that when I lowered the bar from the seated position I lowered it too much and felt a pop. It certainly made me think more before lifting. But I only took a few days off and just kept it easy for awhile.
went on a week long canoe trip this summer, had to carry a 65lb canoe on my shoulders for a mile and a half. would not have been as feasible before lifting
I’ve gotten hurt more times playing pickup basketball than lifting. There’s a way higher chance of getting hurt from sudden changes of directions than a single controlled movement.
This is very true. Force is mass x acceleration after all. High speeds can really fuck up your joints more than a deadlift with botched form. All it takes is a quick torque and boom, now you can’t walk on one foot.. meanwhile even a really scuffed deadlift or squat will probably only leave you with some aches
Well I work a manual labor job where I frequently lift trampoline boxes, heavy duty shelf boxes, large gun safes, heavy couches, etc. I believe lifting 400-600 pounds for daily training would benefit me incredibly🤣🤣
He made a lot of good points but I would say that bodybuilding or most lifting styles in general neglect often muscles that are not visible but are to varying degrees of importance such as rotator cuffs, hip flexors, hip rotators, quadratus lumbarum, etc.
Bodybuilding and fitness in general is a springboard for everything else in life. I’ve been much more energetic and productive since I started lifting again. It’s made me a better musician even.
Unrelated, but...I'm totally gonna start doing the chest supported rows I've seen you doing. I'm a basement dweller with no room for a cable machine, so it's been tricky going heavier on rows whilst partially taking lower back out of the equation...
The first time I tried to run a 5K, there was no carryover, even old people were faster than me. I finished around the same time overweight people did XD There's more carryover for sprinting 100 m.
Geoffrey, is there already a video of you talking about unilateral before compounds? Precisely Bulgarian Split Squats before Heel Elevated HB Squats, my goal is Hypetrophy but i heard that Compounds are always first, but since i started training at home and then went to a gym, let's say without looking like a Psycho that i grew a kind of "love" for Bulgarians lol, and then doing Heel elevated Squats (obviously because i didnt have more than a pair of 45lbs dummbells) so i want to know if i can implement the training that i did at home to the Gym and have great results Cheers and keep up the good Content!
The Bioneer's book (an updated version from the one I got a year+ ago) can be found here:
www.thebioneer.com/product/sft2/
And here's my most recent book for hypertrophy enthusiasts:
www.verityfit.com/product-page/resurrecting-your-gains-finding-your-muscle-growth-formula
Happy reading and thanks for watching!
Hi Geoff, absolutley unrelated fitness question but, could you do a hair tutorial? Lol I know it sounds stupid but your hairstyle its great and I would love to try It. Maybe just a community post or an instagram post lmao.
@@enzoconstantinoromo364 Thanks! I cut my own hair. I grab offending chunks of it that seem too long and then snip them off. That's the extent of what I do.
Bruh, Sensei... We ain't gotta gaslight about the mobility thing. Just a good session will have your torso tensed up.
It's crazy cos one thing I've noticed is that I get really good gains and get back all of my mobility by doing the exact excercise that hurts just to imagine another rep on that same muscle. It's when I try train past my best pump that I start wasting fuel and feeling... just sluggish, but not pumped or burned
@@TheTyroofToriyama what are you on about mate?
Hey man, thanks so much for the shout-out! And for linking my book 😁 Really appreciate it 💪💪Awesome video, too! Really entertaining and loads of good points. I definitely think bodybuilding-style training gets unfairly thrown under the bus. There are so many beneficial adaptations that come from it! Don't think I'd have my current career without it!
Going to be checking out your older videos now! 🔥
Here’s a real youtube channel to watch on fitness.
Unlike Geoff who records in his mom’s living room and just does reaction videos to real fitness RUclipsrs.
@@radcliffjr7834 How dare you. He records in his little Chinese apartment. There's a difference
@@radcliffjr7834 Go outside and maybe try to talk to a woman
@@vincentlee7359 Uuu someone have problem with waman ajajaj xD
My Dad hit me with that exact "bodybuilders have fake muscle" quote when one day, two lifters entered our Taekwondo class and weren't *immediately* amazing at it. Like, no shit. He did however not have a problem asking them specifically to help carry stuff when we moved, wonder why that is.
Your dad is right - I asked some bodybuilders to do my calculus homework and I got an F...truly fake muscles.
Lol yea taekwondo is way too snappy and fast moving for bodybuilders to excel at. They have way too large of muscles but it's definitely not impossible. People like juji mufu would probably be pretty good at it
@@landoncube769 juji is actually trained in tkd. i think he might have a black belt
@@ShawnSchulz lol yea exactly I thought so. You could tell he had trained in something cause of how flexible and bouncy he is. He's also not "muscle bound" to the point where he can't touch his back and stuff
-someone says : Being stronger, more conditioned, and more durable is definitely functional. Bodybuilding training increases those attributes. People confuse attributes with skills that's why they say its not functional.
-but others says :Skill beats attributes in most cases and the skills can increase fast than bodybouilding
_but i say : in survival or extreme situation those skills save your life and not some attributes . anyway a combination of both worlds are the perfect combination like the bioneer shows in his videos
I followed a pretty notable Crossfit coach who asked his audience what the best athlete to transfer over to the sport was. People threw out "running backs, decathletes etc", he came back with the right answer..... bodybuilders
Makes sense. High work capacity punishment-loving generalists!
Alexander, I remember you mentionning that in your videos, and my own experience would tend to agree with such statement.
What coach was it? On RUclips?
Especially if you are not going after the "optimal" exercises and do Basic movements and get strong at all of them + some Conditioning Work is kind of the best of both words, in my humble opinion.
@Gilon Kraft are you sure about that? Any sport? Most posers do not have or does not have good coordination. What makes you think they can excel at finesse sports like swimming or gymnastics where they can even do basic crawl, dodge, lateral movements etc? Its because someone has big muscles does not equate to being good at any sport. Body builders also have crap work capacity. Why you think they tire out easily when you ask them to do sprints or maximal lactate steady state? Its because they have poor working capacity cardiovascular wise.
Theres not a single fitness channel where you wont find something to disagree on. The Bioneer is a very talented guy. i cant fault him, his channel is first class.
Steve Shaw had a really good point about bodybuilders from the Golden era. He said even if the bodybuilders themselves didn't train for strength, they're still f'ing stronger than most of the population
Being stronger, more conditioned, and more durable is definitely functional. Bodybuilding training increases those attributes. People confuse attributes with skills that's why they say its not functional.
Skill beats attributes in most cases. However your skill can increase fast
@@dokuaccount3172 exactly, in survival or extreme situations skills are what save your life and not a bicep curl
@@dokuaccount3172 Yes but skill plus 'attributes' beats only skill. And in some cases, 'attributes' by themselves can beat skill, for example if Eddie Hall was to have a have a fight with a female MMA fighter lol.
@@Hagridissavednow In survival and extreme situations it's better to be stronger and fitter than not
The problem comes with bodybuilders on PED's, I think. They are unathletic, weak and sick. Natural bodybuilders are usually pretty athletic and strong
As a hiker, my performance has vastly improved since I started to lift. I can pull myself up with ropes easier from doing pullups and pulldowns and I can take steeper steps with less effort thanks to doing squat and Bulgarian split squat. Also all grocery bags in one trips now.
For longevity, one of the biggest reasons it's not uncommon for seniors to trip and fall isn't simply loss of hand/eye coordination. It's also muscle loss. If more seniors trains, they can definitely decrease chance of falling and breaking their hip.
As you get older, you can use a minimal amount of volume to maintain your strength fairly easily, but to prevent atrophy it's quite a bit more volume. I have a really hard time convincing my mom (in her 70s) that lifting weights is extremely functional. Just going for walks and doing mild cardio isn't going to help you fight osteoporosis or muscle atrophy.
@@nmnate That doesn't make any sense. To prevent atrophy, you just need 30% of the volume used to build your muscle. If your mom went to lift, she would not only not atrophy, but get bigger lol. However to keep strength adaptations, intensity is needed else you will lose part of it. As example sure I can do minimal volume, but it still gotta be high intensity, else I can't keep my strength as it's not specific enough.
Your mom is either lazy or uneducated. If she doesn't want to lift it's okay, even stuff like bodyweight squats and pushups will benefit her greatly over a few months. However strength training is needed for optimal health, there's no discussion about that anymore.
@@soez_strg6166 Regardless of my mom's status (lazy, ignorant and uneducated is probably a good summary), I don't think we'll disagree that it doesn't take much to stave off atrophy. The meta-analyses seem to point to ~4 sets per week as a minimum effective dose for hypertrophy and 2-3 sets per week for building strength (hence my comment about preventing atrophy needing a little more volume, but I probably just should have said hypertrophy).
My main issue is that so many folks are averse to resistance training. They've been programmed over the years to believe if something "hurts" (or gets sore) to not do that. (Don't lift with your back! You could get an injury!) Folks are also discouraged for exerting themselves (fallacy of high weight = more injurious), so when they do try resistance training, it's completely ineffective as they're not using relevant weight at reasonable proximity to failure.
Dont tell me, I live in the third floor, no elevator and now I can carry a box of 6x2L water bottles in one hand and a bunch of grocery bags on the other 😂
Finally someone said it! I'm so tired of these "Oh running on a treadmill and walking on your hands is functional!" Any physical ability that improves your body in a way that helps you in a specific area of your daily life is functional. Yeah handstands and Olympic weightlifting won't really be functional for a 70 year old grandma who has difficulty getting up from the chair.
Handstands are fun and look cool. Also many girls are into it. I can do free handstands but they are not functional for doing any task. However they force you to have your coordination and mobility on point. If you want to do more than just standing, like a push up your strength requirements are high as well.
@@dokuaccount3172 I agree. I'm learning it myself. But at the same time I can't say they're any more functional than an OHP for example.
Yeah, the calisthenic people who hate on traditional weight lifting are annoying as hell.
@@DanielDimov358 you’re balancing on your hands you need balance coordination and core strength all which are more useful in daily life -for example walking or getting out of a chair as a geriatric, than simple front and mid delt activation achieved through a strict press for example and obviously the delt activation and bone density gains are the same in a bodyweight strict press as in a handstand push up
Of course it's functional but it's not good biomechanics not good for sports
"A pyramid is only as high as its base" (RIP Louie Simmons)
I think bodybuilding like most people do it is an absolutely amazing foundation for pretty much any other sport or athletic endeavor. You get more jacked, you get some cardio, you learn to move your body safely through all imaginable scenarios, you likely get more flexible through squats, deadlifts, fullrange pressing etc. Your strength and power output increases.
Sounds pretty "functional" to me
not for athletes tho
@@masonmalaguti3463 if two guys start an athletic endeavor at 20 the guy who has 5 years of bodybuilding is going to have a WAY better foundation for almost any sport imaginable if it doesnt happen to be running a marathon.
@@Kinta02 If you train sport specific bodybuilding yes cuz athletes dont bodybuild there legs. The difference is tho is that the training for bodybuilding is push weights to failure it would take a while to get out of that cycle.
@@masonmalaguti3463 That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, it'll take time to get out of that cycle? What does that even mean? The bodybuilder will have a muscular foundation to build upon which is beneficial in almost any sports endeavour
@@drno62 look up edge u and then you will understand
I'm into mobility and calisthenics. Recently hopped onto bodybuilding since gym open again. Deadlifting, rows, and overhead presses helped me gain full back bridge and other bending skills faster than my previous progress.
So yeah it's very functional.
How on earth do the strength/muscle building exercises - deadlifts, rows and ohp *carryover* to a full back bridge??
@@CaneSugarCane thoracic mobility and strength. I had the overhead and shoulder extension RoM and strength. But I was weak/tight in extending the upper back in an upside-down position.
Similarly I was almost instinctively able to perform deadlift in good form because it feels like an inverted front lever.
In the same way calisthenics progressions help with it, strength, measurable progress, and resilience to injury. Deadlifts, specifically Romanian deadlifts strengthen the glutes, hamstrings, and hip flexors which all help with stabilisation and proper load management in the position. Rows help to strengthen the scapula, lats, rhomboids, and rear delts which also help with stability and injury prevention. The OHP when done correctly is a great test of overhead pressing strength, and makes it far less likely you'll injure yourself due to strength issues or lack thereof (someone who OHP their own bodyweight has the strength to be able to handstand push-up but might not because of specificity issues like balance) which makes the isometric portion of the hold much easier when all the other aforementioned muscles are working in tandem with each other. That being said, the law of specificity still applies, you still need to be practicing the exact movement you want to achieve, however the OP implied he's doing some variation of back bridges with these compound lifts as accessories to assist his progress. ("Gained back bridge and other skills faster than my previous progress")
@@CaneSugarCane the previous two, no idea. But OHP could help with overhead extension mobility. That being said, I'm primarily a calisthenics athlete and the OHP made my planche better lol
@@deocommunist988 yup that pretty much sums it up.
The moment I realized that lifting and cardio wasn't just for "looks" was when I had to help move furniture. Legit life saver, everyone who is helping you will want you to carry things though because you gain the reputation for being the stronger one in the group
boutta start charging tips when I get to the furniture moving age 😂
I always heard in the army that all this muscle was just gonna slow me down, but i sure was assigned to carry 80 lb artillery shells a lot
An additional function that bodybuilding does provide is more skeletal muscle, and for us older middle aged folks, that keeps us healthy and not old and broken.
Amen! 👍🙏👏
Recent example I just had. Couple years ago before I started lifting I climbed a 14er in Colorado (mountain over 14000 feet), I made it but it took pretty much the whole day and bout time I started the descent back down my legs were dead and I could barely walk. Took me 4 more hours of wobbling to get back down to my car... fast forward to last month I tried the same climb and I got to the top in a fraction of the time I did last time and my legs were so fresh that I literally jogged all the way back down. I contribute that almost completely to lifting. It affects everything in my life, from bending down to pick something up, walking up stairs, even sitting down and standing up. Stronger muscle equals more functional imo
Agreed. And the more strength you have in varying positions at varying ranges of motion, can only result in better functionality. Pretty simple to understand.
@@liamburns8554 yep, muscles are used to extend and contract which pretty much means TO MOVE, so if you get more efficient at moving I'd say it's functional
agree, stronger muscles help in your day to day life. id usually get back pain from sitting all day or leaning over the sink to wash my face but now my lower back can usually take it.
@@eneribackwards same. I couldn’t carry a shopping basket when my back was at the worst. One thing that really helped was modified side planks and planks, modified to be harder. But if I listened to RUclips comments I was totally wasting my time doing planks, despite getting way more core strength and fixing pain.
I'm a 50+ year old female. I like that I can easily carry a huge bag of dog food, or all the grocery bags inside in one trip, or a full ice chest, or help my husband carry a 36hp engine around in the garage. These are things that help me function in my life.
Should be able to do that at 50 anyway
@@basketball7677 Women don’t have testosterone bro. Muscle degeneration is quicker for them unfortunately
Excellent take. People don’t consider how much fitness influences their day-to-day life until they can’t do those things anymore. Kudos to you.
🥚less
I think bodybuilding is verry functional. The act of having a lot of muscles makes you a individual that it harder to mess with and you get lots of respect from other people. This is a huge function that is verry underrated in day to day life. There have even been studies that show that more muscular individuals make more favorable trades. The psychological effect of having more muscle than others is huge.
Been a long time fan of the bioneer dudes legit and super functional training is one of the best books i’ve ever read.
Yep, great channel and he definitely nailed that book, was excellent.
I just want to be a pretty good buddybuilder. Keep pushing guys yall are doing good. I believe in you!
Naturally likeable and naturally built....love this bro
Fantastic Discussion, and one that has been brought up a lot lately on YT. Extra Points too, for The Bioneer inclusion. Love the guy, and it would be wonderful to see a conversation/fun chat about all things training, anything else between the two of you lads.
People saying that it ain't functional has never gotten laid before, coping, or obese in real life. Like seriously, bodybuilding will increase your confidence and I can now pass my genes because of it
Bodybuilding training is functional for my girlfriend giving me compliments ☺️
I've done running and bodybuilding stuff, and in my opinion bodybuilding absolutely can help you be able to work longer and harder. It has SO MUCH carry over for my manual labor job its not funny. It's very functional for me. I also don't get tired like I used to from my day to day job
IMO bodybuilding is the best functional type of training for everyday life, life in which we mostly get up or sit down from a chair, carry packages or pick up objects from a certain height or from the ground. All of these types of movement can be strengthened through bodybuilding.
Im a very lean guy, 171cm 60kg BMI is around 20 and bodyfat got around 16%
An younger and heavier guy was always complaining about back pain, I told him I had to skip work in the past while being younger due to back pain but now since lifting weights consistently I feel no pain at all. He gave me an excuse that he had hernia so it wasnt related to strength, but I watched how he lifted heavy boxes from the floor and I could see he had no strength nor technique and just jerked it off the floor.
Six months later he started to exercise at home and is watching his diet, I can tell his mood got much better overall.
Big muscles are also sugar sponges that don't need insulin to take up sugar. I think natty bodybuilding is great for those worried about type 2 diabetes.
9:20 ( injury? )
Proper training doesn't just prevent injuries, it also cures them
Yep, weightlifters and lots of field sport athletes do bodybuilding to prevent and deal with injury. It's just usually called something else.
Just got your newest book and it has already answered some burning questions I've had. Great work!
Glad to hear it!
I C forsen1
I remember years ago watching a ben rice video and him saying something like "train your compounds like a powerlifter, your accessories like a bodybuilder, and your mobility like a strong man". I still follow that advice today.
Love the wacky collection of standard (1") vinyl-coated concrete weights Bioneer was working out with. Brings back memories of my teenage years.
Before even watching the video, bodybuilding style of training is the most functional style in existence, you train each muscle/joints in mutiple angles and you're getting stronger in each one of those movements which can then later be beneficial in every possible activity
I think this common refrain comes about because people are used to seeing bodybuilders who do not perform as well as they look. Of course, they perform well above how someone who doesn't bodybuild does, but there is often a disparity between how impressive they look and how impressive they perform, because obviously the focus is on looks.
Which one is more impressive to you, a body builder poser or a weight lifter doing power cleans, clean and jerk and power snatch? Im pretty sure its the latter. You cannot screw up hypertrophy, but you can screw up olympic lifting where it requires more technique than just posing in the mirror.
@@PhiyackYuh You cannot screw up hypertrophy? LOL
@@PhiyackYuh you sound insecure
@@PhiyackYuh Because a bodybuilder can't learn Olympic lifting, right?
@@PhiyackYuh spoken like a man with a shit physique
BB training is probably the second-tier base for any sport's GPP, only preceded by something called "sufficient mobility(which is joint flexiblity+stability, so basically active ROM)" which is sometimes more then one thinks one possess, more often then I would like to see
Bruh. Two 'funtional' stories of bodybuilding: I'd been lifting for six months when it was time for me to restock the chicken feed. I hit up our local farm store to grab six or so 50lbs sacks, and these bags are normally pretty awkward to carry. No handles, just bulbous sacks. It wasn't a problem though as I could toss a bag onto each shoulder from the ground and do a few trips on my own. Don't think that'd happen before then.
After a year of lifting my friend challenged me to an arm wrestling match in front of our families. Pressure was on as this guy is very tall and large. He'd also been doing bodyweight movements for a while so I know he's strong. Anyway, I don't think I'd arm wrestled anyone for at least a decade but I won and the room fell a bit silent as [I think] everyone expected my buddy to win. After that he decided to train with me for a couple days and learned bodybuilding is hard.
Dude is legit writing an shonen anime
@@kayo5011 Of course, the arm wrestling match ended with a KAMEHAMEHA!!!!!
@@coolikedat9983 oh. My. Dayum. That’s brutal lol
Hahaha, man! I love arm wrestling people who think that we're weak, cuz we're big. I haven't lost a single match in my life, not even before I started lifting.. Idk why they think they can win now lmao
@@coolikedat9983 shit man. Your friends doing MMA should be lifting weights.
My take on 'functional training' is training to perform well in a fight or survival situation. Strength an stamina is the idea, I think of Nate Diaz or a hunter gatherer.
I train my triceps through its full range of motion in both the stretched position (overhead) and the contracted position (pulling something just behind me). I train all of the functions of my hamstrings, with a both a hip hinge and a leg curl. I could go down the list and list off a dozen or so other muscles that I train more completely than any powerlifting-only, calisthenics-only, or Oly lifting fanatic does. IMO bodybuilding properly done is the most functional strength sport.
Nothing is functional. So is everything.
Facts 🏋♂️
Schrödinger's Functionality
Enjoyment numero uno. That's the first part of any diet and exercise plan.
Gotta love The Bioneer
You and Adam are by far the best fitness channels out there. Love the content!
excellent video
it always irked me too when people would say lifting barbells isn't functional
i reckon it just became a ploy used to sell their own "functional training" plans
as a labourer i often have to lift fence or scaffolding poles
functional for daily life as these people want to interpret it is entirely dependant on what you personally do in your life
Hot take : proper bodybuilding training (programs including all body part + cardio) is more functionnal than both powerlifting and weightlifting.
Not hot take at all
It's just being smart enough to figure that out
How are those 3 things different from one another? (Serious question)
@@Quikate one builds your entire physical structure the other two are lift specific sports
@@Quikate powerlifting and weightlifting are based on performing good on a few exercises. Powerlifting on SBD and weightlifting on snatch, cleans and jerks. The training has to be specific to improve these particular lifts, and is periodized to peak at a particular time. Bodybuilding is just lifting whatever, however, with infinite exercises, higher volume, no speficic to anything in particular.
@@Quikate Powerlifting focuses on performing 1 rep with the highest weight on just 3 movements, weightlifting is the same although it uses more “athletic” movements, whereas with bodybuilding you can have way more freedom in exercise selection for a multitude of reps, which is arguably more useful than powerlifting and weightlifting because you’re accustomed to a wider spectrum of movements; when you bodybuild your strength is more related to the muscle mass that you carry rather than how precise you are in performing a certain skill (like powerlifting and weightlifting); given that bodybuilding focuses on higher reps it also builds more muscular endurance than the other sports; lastly bodybuilding is focused on aesthetics (whereas many powerlifters and weightlifters don’t care about that so a good % is fat and visually unbalanced in their muscular development) which gives you extra points if you want to attract someone
I was a non competitive power lifter for 6 years. 5 months ago I switched entirely to a hypertrophy program to allow some repetitive stress issues to heal. I had thought a minimalistic big-three-focused program would keep me functional into old age. But recently, I’ve experienced a couple minor “athletic miracles” that I always figured I lacked due to poor hand-eye coordination. My current hypothesis is that my current, well-rounded, hypertrophy-focused program has strengthened a bunch of (small & medium sized) muscles I had long neglected. This seems way more “functional” and better suited to aging well
I can use the guise of body building to increase my flexibility through progressive range of motion, develop areas to combat sedentary lifestyle aches and pains, all while getting jacked. That sounds pretty damn functional to me. Even endurance sports benefit noticeably from resistance training. I.e. improving your squat has a positive effect on your cycling FTP.
Would be cool to see a video focusing on developing work capacity over time and improving your cardio in a strength context.
As a new parent, I've learned to appreciate curls more. If I'm lifting a child, I'm going to lift him slowly, not power clean him to my shoulder! And when bopping a child to sleep, my back is absolutely fine with the workload, but my biceps tire first. Can't 1-rep-max a child to sleep!
Functional trainers seem to be incapable of promoting their style of training without talking down on bodybuilding and strength training
Bingo. It reminds me of the powerlifters who for the most part can't stop crapping on people who try to make themselves look better. I'm sorry bro that I don't want to just bloatmax or look like a DYEL, who just happens to lift heavy weights. We have different goals. We are NOT THE SAME.
@@Madchris8828 bloatmax lol I’m gonna use that from now on
@@Aycefr lol. I know some people who bloatmax but they are pretty cool dudes, I just find the ones who won't admit to it and crap on someone having different goals annoying mainly. I first heard the term bloatmaxing on one of the lifting meme channels 😂
Accidentally left my phone in the back of a taxi a couple of weeks ago. Had to chase it down the street for over 800meters which I ran in under 3 minutes. I was surprisingly not breathing that heavy or winded at all afterwards either. That comes entirely from bodybuilding style training in my case.
as a manual labor dude, i can confirm that after a certain point, powerlifting doesnt really help my job. Like, after i achieved a 200kg deadlift(now im at 250) and even less than that, there is nothing THAT heavy in my job and if it is guess what. I will either get help from one of my coworkers or it will be something that we will lift with a machine of some kind(forklift etc). The problem with heavy stuff in my job is not really the weight of the things we carry. Its either the awkward shape or their volume. For example, a plasterboard is 20something kg which is ridiculous light when you consider i can lift a lot more in the gym. However, the volume is big, it doesnt really have a grip like a barbell and to top it all of, if the wind is really blowing against your way, suddenly the difficulty doubles. Just like you said in the video, bodybuilding will help you build a base for every physical activity in life. After that, its your choice to specialize on what you consider important
True there are some items where the extra strength just doesn’t really help that much. But it’s still very useful in some places. For example as a mechanic I can lift some pretty big truck wheels around by myself which is something I’d struggle a lot with if I hadn’t been strength training
Plus occasionally getting to lift an inline 4 is always a big ego boost 😂
most important function for me personally that body building gives, your body is less likely to waste away early as you get older, you will lose some strenght but relative to all the people that dont, and provided you arent unlucky genetically and you have a decent diet and lifestyle habits, bodybuilding will keep you strong and fit well into your old age both bones and muscles and whatever connective tissue inbetween. and ofc higher rep workouts keeping that heart strong.
so basically, improves your quality of life
Bodybuilding + cardio will easily bump your lifespan up by a decade I’d wager. Really good stuff
I mean it’s considerably more functional than just doing a single hour, 3x a week, being sedentary, or relying on a manual trade job for example.
There’s a reason gladiators and elite warriors looked pretty good even for the standards of antiquity. The average Centurion was about 180lbs and they were not tall. They weighed about the same as a Navy SEAL while having a smaller average height.
You have more power output, more strength, more endurance.
Ancient Greeks knew that physical exercise + food made bigger men…And we aspire to look like those men now. Ironic we would call this a “non-functional” body type.
I would just like to add that the late Bill Pearl's books about training, specifically the one titled Getting Stronger, used bodybuilding protocols primarily and is considered one of the finest books on "functional training" for sports. There's a lot of value in bodybuilding for athletes.
Geoff: "There is no such thing as 'fake muscles'. "
Liver King abs enters the chat*
It is Stomach''s calluses , not muscles 😂
Yeah, I’m very much of the mind that proper bodybuilding is one of the more transferable physical activities. Very “functional” and very necessary. *Hell yeah* to this video !
The main function of bodybuilding is getting me jacked, which is good enough imo
I like the way you give out the information on every video, and overall you seem very likeable. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
powerlifter: it's called hypertrophy for strength
proceeds to do basically bodybuilding routine
Bodybuilding is extremely functional for the average human, you're getting bigger and stronger, has potential to improve posture. Anytime you need to carry something like when you move it wont be such of a hassle because its not like you need to be some freak athlete with a low 40 time, you just need some base strength which will be gained whether you are powerlifting or bodybuildling.
The reward is also extremely high for some of the lowest risk type of training
Been doing bodybuilding training for 6 years…went from kinda athletic to usually the most athletic person in the room or on the court
An example why bodybuilding might not translate to real world:
I was doing close grip dumbbell press and ran out of triceps energy, then I noticed my wrists weren't straight, and when i straightened them, the triceps suddenly got the energy back.
SO, if you're doing exercises with straps, gloves, perfect grips, etc, you won't be able to carry furniture just because of imperfect grip, and the powerful muscles shut-down.
Geoffrey looking like an absolute unit doing those cable curls.
Good video. It's important that fitness creators who are interested in conveying solid informaton and dispelling myths and misconceptions address this particular topic as well. That's a fairly common assertion, especially coming from people who do some other stuff, that bodybuiding isn't "functional". Equally as meaningless. Don't have the stats, but setting aside total noobs from the general population who have never lifted a dumbbell and think that gaining muscle is as easy as it is ultimately disadvantageous, there are a significant number of.. "bodybuilding haters" should I say (?) among different training modalities and fitness fads (of which there are nowadays a whole bunch), who believe or spread the notion that theirs is a far more "functional" training style/modality/discipline. And precisely the first point is to define what the word "functional" even means for a given detractor. Because it seems to mean different things to different people. And the way it is often used to criticize bodybuilding brought me to the position where I currently consider a meaningless buzzword, popular in the world of fitness jargon nowadays. It is supposed to mean something "positive" (something that bodybuilding purportedly lacks) yet is essentially devoid of meaning. It reminds me strongly of the way the word "natural" is used by those who are into the "alternative" medicine.
There are several interrelated reasons why I believe the word "functional" as it is often used in the fitness circles/world is basically meaningless, some of which are: 1) Lack of understanding of biomechanics, 2) Lack of understanding of exercise physiology and nutrition involved in training for strength and muscle hypertrophy, 3) A particular version of...naturalistic fallacy, that translates into a supposedly lesser/worse carryover of bodybuilding to everyday life needs and concerning health benefits, some of the items often included or implied might be: a)Training that focuses on moving your body and/or body parts relative to space is deemed more efficient, beneficial or desirable than moving objects/weights relative to your body, because muscles are supposedly there to "move your own body first and formost", b) Gym equipment/machines and even freeweights are considered worse/inferior to just using your own weight, because it "less natural" (and therefore less efficient/beneficial/etc.), c) Isolating muscles and seeking for greater stability to perform an exercise is deemed as less effective or limiting your capacity to "improve your joint mobility" and undermining your "ability to move in space", etc. etc.
As a sidenote, regarding terminology, I personally prefer "hypertrophy training", because "bodybuilding" per se has a somewhat more specific meaning.
I gotta disagree a little with the point raised that training for maximal strength is not as helpful in day to day life because it’s not often we are tasked with lifting a really heavy object a single time. This is true but by increasing your 1rm any given task becomes a smaller percentage of your hypothetical max output and all things equal people can perform more reps with a smaller percentage anyway. This result would def be bolstered by the inclusion of more endurance focused training on top of improving the 1rm but I do think a combination will usually outperform an endurance only approach. Examples that come to mind are the 225 combine bench test where the lead up to the test is highly endurance focused but the preparation prior to that is building the largest strength base so that 225 is more submaximal. I’m also just super bias here but it’s something that I’ve observed in strongman training where at the amateur level we are performing events for reps a lot more often than we are for a max
That's fair. I imagine if we took 1000 people who lift, their reps with 225lbs and their max would correlate pretty well. If someone benches 700lbs, they're gonna get a ton of reps with 225lbs even if they've never trained for max reps.
I guess it's more a question of at what point is it no longer worth getting stronger for normal day to day stuff, although that's a pretty low bar for most people given modern lifestyles, so I don't even think that's why many people train.
I think the best thing is to just to do both. That's the beauty of the conjugate system/concurrent periodisation. You stay peaked for maximal strength, and yet most of your training is still focused on hypertrophy/bodybuilding style training.
If you combine moderate cardio under a variety of methods with basic strength training, you'll be advanced in your physical abilities.
The thing is most ppl in these comments have BB and strength training confused. BB is for aesthetics. Personally I strength train daily with added cardio. I don’t care how my chest & biceps look. I’m focused on moving heavy loads as safe as possible
Working up to a 700 pound deadlift would be beneficial for work as the forklift in the warehouse could be replaced by me haha. 💪🏋️♀️
love the bioneer and you
Glad to see I'm not the only one to use the EZ bar like a Swiss army knife.
that's exactly why bioneer is one of the top 5 fitness on youtube in my opinion
You see this phenomenon with almost any sport where athletes inadvertently build muscle from improving in their sport. Cyclists got huge legs. Rock climbers and swimmers have huge backs. Football players have huge legs as well as strong upper bodies. So all of these different athletes built their bodies, and needed to do so to reach their level. Bodybuilding being necessary to sports automatically makes bodybuilding functional.
I did some HIT-style training that made me far stronger than I was. I then got a job where I had to pack hundreds of pounds around the site. I had to move about 40 tons of steel up some stairs one day. 300+ pounds at a time. I would say that the VERY intense workouts I did literally made me capable of this work.
5:57 I see what you did there 👌🤣🤣🤣
There is a mobility issue, as my back got bigger, I can no longer scratch the center of it properly, I can just tickle it. :D
The more I workout with different modalities the more I realize consistently and recovery are by far the most important things for any goal more so than having the perfect program or training. Lift stuff, eat, sleep, and drink. You’ll be “functional.”
Awesome video man, I jus wish u also uploaded to rumble as I basically only use RUclips for a couple fitness channels like yours, but otherwise I’ve boycotted RUclips for rumble
Hot take: On everyday life, Bodybuilding is the most "functional" weightlifting sport. (Maybe just behind Strongman).
Thank you, you actually made me realize hard work is hard work no matter which form it is training it is. Each form of training has its own pros and no cons because any training is better than doing nothing. Great content 👍
4:57 little does Geoff know, I am forklift certified
"What kind of life do you have?", that just opened my eyes about powerlifting... Thanks, great video!
bodybuilding ( natural ) is probably the best thing you can do to age as gracefully as possible, it's functional from a health perspective, maximizing your muscle mass potential drastically reduces your risk of diabetes and many other diseases, muscle has so many positive benefits from a biological point of view, it even benefits brain health as everything is connected and is one organism, a positive benefit in one area will have knock on effects in others, people are jealous of muscles nothing ever changes
Yep, plus lifting weights (particularly compound lifts) is really good for your bones and helps keep osteoporosis and arthritis at bay.
Great video glad someone addressed this
It's helped me be able to move heavy objects in the garden, remove trees, help people move furniture, strength in sports, and carry people when they need help. It's pretty dumb to say it's not functional. It also lowered my heart rate. I don't do cardio, because I spend my energy on lifting.
The misconception comes from people conflating ego lifters/half reppers/leg day skippers with what bodybuilding is.
Bodybuilding done badly shouldn't be a reflection on proper bodybuilding training. For me, bodybuilding has the best grasp of muscular balance - removing asymmetries and imbalances has big time athletic/functional carryover
notification gang
lol I just happened to open youtube at the right time "no views, uploaded 45 seconds ago" lol
Gang
One thing that I would like to point out here is that these days I see people’s leg workouts only consisting of machines and no free weights.
They will do 3-4 machine squat variations, not even doing any free squat/lunging variations. Machines are not inherently bad however I do think if you only do machines that can be a problem.
So in that context doing any free squat variation will be way more functional than spending entire workouts on machines. However there’s lot more to this discussion and cannot be conveyed in a small comment.
Good video, most stereotypes about bodybuilding are directed towards high level bodybuilders on peds it's unfair to be roped into them as a natural
Soy "I lift to be strong in my daily life" vs GigaChad "I lift because it's fun"
My weight training routines are sometimes quite functional. For instance, after my drop sets of dumbbell presses and lateral raises, I'd grab a 45-lbs kettlebell in each hand and do a minute or so of farmer's walk around my training area.. getting the forearms flexed and feeling my shoulders getting stretched and activated at the same time right after shoulder sets, with a pretty long time-under-tension. Or, after drop sets of dumbbell curls and hammer curls, I'd pick up a 45-lbs plate and bring it up to my chest, arms locked like in the upper part of a hammer curl rep, and walk around, just like doing the previous farmer's walk, just to keep my arms and shoulders pumped and activated with a long time-under-tension right after working out my arms. These routines do seem to build up the endurance of these muscle groups at generating significant amounts of force over prolonged periods of time. I think there are many ways to incorporate more functional strength endurance tweaks to regular weight training routines.
I sprained my bicep doing preacher curls. I was seated way too low. So that when I lowered the bar from the seated position I lowered it too much and felt a pop. It certainly made me think more before lifting. But I only took a few days off and just kept it easy for awhile.
In my opinion functional is a marketing term without any meaning behind it.
Anything that gets more views
watch the bioneer before saying that
i thought u were gonn hate on the bioneer.
but then you agreed and i was like, hell yeah!
went on a week long canoe trip this summer, had to carry a 65lb canoe on my shoulders for a mile and a half. would not have been as feasible before lifting
I’ve gotten hurt more times playing pickup basketball than lifting. There’s a way higher chance of getting hurt from sudden changes of directions than a single controlled movement.
This is very true. Force is mass x acceleration after all. High speeds can really fuck up your joints more than a deadlift with botched form. All it takes is a quick torque and boom, now you can’t walk on one foot.. meanwhile even a really scuffed deadlift or squat will probably only leave you with some aches
TLDW:
Get into bodybuilding to be better at golf
Thanks man, now time to be the best golfer out there!
The chad golfer
Well I work a manual labor job where I frequently lift trampoline boxes, heavy duty shelf boxes, large gun safes, heavy couches, etc. I believe lifting 400-600 pounds for daily training would benefit me incredibly🤣🤣
He made a lot of good points but I would say that bodybuilding or most lifting styles in general neglect often muscles that are not visible but are to varying degrees of importance such as rotator cuffs, hip flexors, hip rotators, quadratus lumbarum, etc.
chill with the gains bro peeps are gonna start spectating
Bodybuilding and fitness in general is a springboard for everything else in life. I’ve been much more energetic and productive since I started lifting again. It’s made me a better musician even.
Unrelated, but...I'm totally gonna start doing the chest supported rows I've seen you doing. I'm a basement dweller with no room for a cable machine, so it's been tricky going heavier on rows whilst partially taking lower back out of the equation...
When i help my family out with renovating the weekend house, it sure feels pretty functional.
The first time I tried to run a 5K, there was no carryover, even old people were faster than me. I finished around the same time overweight people did XD
There's more carryover for sprinting 100 m.
Geoffrey, is there already a video of you talking about unilateral before compounds? Precisely Bulgarian Split Squats before Heel Elevated HB Squats, my goal is Hypetrophy but i heard that Compounds are always first, but since i started training at home and then went to a gym, let's say without looking like a Psycho that i grew a kind of "love" for Bulgarians lol, and then doing Heel elevated Squats (obviously because i didnt have more than a pair of 45lbs dummbells) so i want to know if i can implement the training that i did at home to the Gym and have great results
Cheers and keep up the good Content!
as somebody whose upcoming job entails picking up and putting down fitness equipment i think bodybuilding is going to be VERY functional for me