From time to time I get emails from prospective clients on getting in better shape and dropping body fat. Invariably the mail will end with ‘but i do not want to get tooooo big’.
When I do start working with the client I may have to ease their notion that by lifting heavier weights they will not get huge. Obviously this question is more common in women but what guys forget is that in order to look amazing you actually have to get bloody stronger. Week in week out the gyms I train in are filled with guys and girls lifting weights that are way below their potential, lifting with poor form and mostly doing exercises that do not give them much bang for their buck. For example, which exercise is going to have a more beneficial effect on your body – a few sets of biceps curls or a few sets of chin ups. Are the chin ups going to work more muscle than biceps curls – YES.
On the technique front, I was in a gym last week doing a few overhead squats (up to 70kg now for reps so its going ok) when the guy beside me was doing deadlifts. I admired the fact that he was doing deadlifts but it was with such poor form that I just had to stop him. On my first comment on his poor form he actually responded with “but it’s just my warm ups”. Well then warm up properly man. After some correction he was lifting much better and if he maintains the advice given he will not hurt his back doing a massively beneficial exercise. The really funny thing was that the guy on the other side of me was also doing deadlifts with even worse form – think of the hunchback of notre dame and he was a trainer in the gym! I did not correct him.
Deadlift help needed!
This is why when the average person attends a gym they tend to get a cookie cutter program i.e. the same program everyone gets. A client told me today that her mum went to a gym for the first time recently and the program given involved over 10 different machines and that was just the weights part of the feckin program. Simplify people.
Overall, if you want to get fitter, drop body fat and look/feel your best then you most certainly have to get stronger and this goes for all exercises and in particular exercises like pull ups, inverted rows, press ups, deadlifts, squats, lunges, overhead presses, squats, olympic lifts etc
Please have a look back at some of my videos of any of my clients lifting really well with decent weights. Note that the girls and guys do not look MASSIVE yet are in very good shape. So do not moan about flabby arms, stomach etc if you have not gotten any stronger recently. By getting stronger not only will you increase muscle tone but your energy will increase, your metabolism will increase, you will drop more body fat, have better control of sugar levels and overall have a better quality of life. All of this becomes more important as you get older as you will lose muscle as you get older unless you weight train. Keep preserving your muscle and this will give you a better quality of life every single day.
Finally, I will finish with a video of my good self doing deadlifts using 190kg on a final set for 5reps. This is over twice my bodyweight and although I do not consider this amazing but I do think that any guy who wants to look his best needs to be hitting double bodyweight deadlifts. For a woman a bodyweight deadlift is a good standard. Remember if you are not getting stronger on the basic exercises then please do not expect to get in better shape.
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