Weightlifting: What I've Learned

Intro

“Fitness is a journey, not a destination.”

I started working out in 1998. I've experimented with almost every workout ever conceived. Whole body workouts, push-pull, 1 body part / day, plyometrics for speed and vertical jump, BFS, HST, negative reps, forced reps, and even weird stuff like isometric holds.

I want to share what I've learned with beginners, interested parties, and anyone looking to get started. The following principles are the best practices I've learned in the last ten years.

Disclaimer: These principles are for people of a beginning or average experience level in weightlifting. If you'd consider yourself at an advanced level (many years' experience, competitive bodybuilders, collegiate and professional athletes, etc.), you may learn something but I doubt my recommendations will take you to the next level.

Functionality in Fitness

“Modern fitness is defined by appearance rather than actual horsepower.” - Gym Jones

Everything I advocate doing is biased toward performance – not muscle size or having a good-looking body. I'm more motivated in achieving power / strength, speed / explosiveness, and stamina / endurance. I'm motivated to be stronger, faster, and longer-lasting than others. I like to show up to any sport – even one I don't know how to play – and be one of the better players from sheer athleticism.

If you achieve above-average performance in strength / speed / stamina, you'll have an attractive physique. But not necessarily a physique for the magazines.

Your priorities will determine how you exercise. Muscle size is an indicator, but does not equate muscle strength. Competitive strongmen and powerlifters don't do bodybuilding shows. And professional bodybuilders only pose.

At the beginning to average levels, your muscles will grow as you get stronger. The difference between muscle size and strength isn't an issue until you must prioritize between muscular symmetry and continuing strength gains (it seems like a good problem to have, and at which point you'll be at an advanced level).

Body Types

Finally, my recommendations are for the vast majority of people who aren't built of a mesomorph body type. Mesomorphs are the people who were naturally buff all their lives. They easily pack on muscle. Their biggest challenge is the inherent laziness that comes with always having been stronger than other boys. Most of this type are overweight, but sturdy as a brick house.

This type – which comprises a very select few among the population – play by different rules given their genetics.

Compound Movements

“Keep it simple, stupid.” - KISS Principle

I only do the bread-and-butter weightlifting exercises. Compound means that the movement recruits muscle fibers in more than one body part. For example, the squat uses quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, back, and core muscles. Bench press recruits chest, triceps, and shoulders.

The opposite of compound movements would be isolation exercises, which I don't do anymore. Isolation movements include arm exercises, flyes, shrugs, anything with the word 'curl' in it, etc.

Compound movements are more conducive to my functional fitness philosophy. These exercises train the body for strength you'll actually use. I've described each compound movement's function below. Conversely, isolation exercises train for strength that will rarely if ever be used.

I don't do arm exercises. I've found that the bicep and tricep muscles are sufficiently worked during compound movements. If you hold 250+ pounds in your hands for four sets of deadlifts, your biceps will get strong. And if you follow those deadlifts with four sets of rows and two sets of pullups, your biceps won't need any further work.

In principle, I believe isolation exercises have little or no use when considering functional fitness. And that's why football players don't do them.

Below is a list of my compound movements in order of importance.

Squats – the most important exercise. Using your legs to move something.

Bench – the most important upper-body exercise. Pushing something. (I prefer barbell, but dumbbells are good.)

Deadlifts – picking something up from the ground.

Rows – pulling something toward you. (I prefer barbell, but dumbbells are good.)

Dips – pushing yourself up from a surface. Body weight.

Pull-ups – pulling yourself up to a surface. Body weight.

That's it. That's all you need! Do these exercises hard and heavy for strength and big muscles.

Honorable mention:

Military / Shoulder Press – definitely a compound, functional exercise. I was born with broad, strong shoulders, so bench press and dips are enough work for my shoulder muscles.

Upright Rows - another shoulder workout, pulling instead of pushing.

Power Cleans – only a strength workout – they don't do much for size. But I think they're bad-ass.

Free Weights

I only use free weights – bars, dumbbells, and my body weight. I don't do anything with the word “cable” in it, or anything on a machine. There is certainly a benefit in those exercises, but less bang for the buck. I spend all my energy doing only the most profitable exercises.

I've heard that free-weight squats and the bench press recruit stabilizing muscle fibers – fibers that aren't used in exercises like leg press or Nautilus bench press. However, I've also heard an expert weightlifter testify that the machines nowadays are so well-designed that they force you to complete the repetitions with perfect form.

I'm not sure which argument has more merit, but I do know that free weights are more conducive to my philosophy of functional fitness. Free weights are already more convenient than any situation life will present. The bars fit nicely in your hands, and the plates allow for even loading on each side. It's already easy enough. There's no need for machines, cables, etc.

Heavy Weight

“Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder but don't nobody wanna lift this HEAVY-ASS WEIGHT!” - Ronnie Coleman

I've found that when lifting weights, the weights are supposed to be heavy. Very heavy. I aim for a weight I can only lift five times (5 reps). Nothing's wrong with sets of 6 – 8 reps. But I think that once you can do 10, you're not training for strength so much as endurance (unless you're on steroids). You can train for muscular endurance with calisthenics at home.

I think heavy weight is mandatory for muscle growth in body types like mine – the ectomorph. I must be lifting very heavy weight or I quickly slim down. Mesomorphs probably take greatest issue with this principle of mine.

I often hear women protest against the heavy weight principle. They say they don't want to get buff. Ladies, you should lift heavy weight too. You're not going to get buff. It's not in your biology. I suggest you try to get big and buff – it won't happen. Men spend blood, sweat, and tears to get buff – and some still don't. It's not something that's going to happen accidentally or inadvertently.

Lift heavy weight.

Whole-Body Workouts

This is another principle more specific to my ectomorph genes. However, I've read that whole-body workouts “elicit the maximal hormonal response” (credit Tim Ferriss).

I feel that, in the extreme example of 1 body-part / day workouts, my muscles shrink in the 4 – 6 days in between workouts. I prefer to hit all my muscles often – every other day. (Obviously, put at least 48 hours between whole-body workouts)

Note: this principle will not apply to guys using anabolic steroids. If you're using steroids, you don't need a maximal hormonal response because you're hormones are at a super-human level already.

Keep Workouts Less Than 1 Hour

The body goes into a catabolic state after about an hour of resistance training. That is, the body starts burning muscle to fuel those extra sets. I wish I'd have known this for the first several years of my fitness career. Like most people would, I thought harder work led to better results. My good buddy Craig and I used to work so hard for so long, thinking that hard work and supplements led to the best results.

To the contrary, I've learned that less is more. Work smart, not hard.

I actually finish my workouts in 30 – 40 minutes. I watch the clock and try to complete my work quickly. I spend about 2 hours a week in the gym. A lot of guys give me funny looks when they see me leaving long before them when I arrived after they did. But are they bigger or stronger than me? Rarely. I spend much more time training for speed and stamina than strength. And I'm pretty strong.

Note: this principle also does not apply to guys on anabolic steroids. I understand that, on steroids, recovery times are improved so they may not revert to a catabolic phase as quickly. By definition, anabolic is the opposite of catabolic.

Muscle Confusion

The muscles get accustomed to regular workouts. After a while, they don't work as hard to complete the workouts. Therefore, they're not breaking down or rebuilding bigger than before. This is why it's important to keep the muscles confused.

When switching to a different workout, you'll feel it the next day. I've noticed a difference when merely doing the same workout at a different gym with different equipment. It doesn't take much to confuse, but it's especially important in workouts like mine where there isn't much variety. Below are a few ways to trick the muscles:

• Switch from barbells to dumbbells
• Switch angles, grip, etc. – e.g., change bench to incline bench, change pullups (overhand) to chinups (underhand)
• Do one week of 20-sets (I know this contradicts my heavy-weight principle, but it's only one week for confusion's sake)
• Do one week of isolation exercises (confusion's sake)
• Switch exercises – e.g., squat to leg press or lunges, bench to pullovers or weighted dips (again, just for confusion's sake on a short-term basis)

Abs / Core

I've only had very ripped abs once in my life – while boxing. I burned ~1000 calories every workout. I was also hitting weights and dieting – regularly eating laxative in an attempt to get down to 168 lbs. The key to magazine-cover abs is cardio and a super-strict diet. A lot of people insist on low-weight, high-rep crunches or low-rep, weighted situps. I don't have a strong opinion either way.

My favorite ab exercises are dead bugs. I learned about dead bugs from a college football player. Lie on your back with your hands stretched out above your head. Suspend your feet and hands two inches from the ground. This is the starting point. Touch your left toes to your right fingers. Then lower your left foot and right hand to the starting position. Now touch your right toes to your left fingers. This is one rep. Core strength. You'll feel it.

Tools

Gloves – If you care about keeping soft hands, use them. I never had soft hands to begin with so I don't care.

Wrist-wraps – These assist in holding weight that is too heavy for the hands to hold. When I first learned how to use wraps, I thought they were a godsend. Now I view them as a mixed bag. The negative effect of wrist-wraps is that your forearms don't get worked. Holding 250 pounds in your hands or holding your body weight from a pullup bar strengthens the forearms. At the same time, if your deadlift progress is being stunted because your hands can't hold the weight, your glutes and hamstrings will suffer. Those muscles can grow faster than the forearms. My solution to this dilemma is to not wear wraps for my first 2 sets of deadlifts, in which I do the reps in a slow and controlled fashion. I put on the wraps and increase the weight for my last 2, super-heavy sets that I can lift off the ground but can't hold in my hands.

Belt – Wear it for squats and deadlifts. I've thrown my back out a handful of times and it's the worst. One time was so bad I wasn't in the gym for months. Just wear the belt.

Supplements – I've tried creatine, NO2, glutamine, tribulus, fat-burners, and more. Some show results and some don't. My experience is that the ones that do work only work while you're using them. So I don't use any except protein powder, which I always have in the house. I don't even consider whey a supplement so much as food – a convenient way of ingesting protein. But since the benefits of the other supplements eventually vanish, my attitude is 'Why bother?'

Diet

There's a lot of literature on diet that you can read. I'm not going to add anything new. I'm actually a bad example as I'm prone to overeating greasy fatness. I love to eat too much. But these are some common sense bullet-points to take away.

• If lifting weights, you need a lot of protein. 1 gram / pound of body weight is the industry standard. However, you can't eat six chicken breasts for breakfast and consider yourself set for the day. The body can only digest 30 – 50 grams of protein in one sitting. So you have to spread the protein infusions throughout the day.
• Eat breakfast every day.
• Eat fruits and vegetables.
• Drink lots of water.
• Alcohol is the most overlooked source of excessive calories.

Sample Workout

I'm always mixing my workouts up, but this is what I'm currently doing.

Day 1 - Push

• Squat - 4 x 5 x 275 lbs
• Bench - 4 x 5 x 185 lbs
• Dips - 2 x failure
• Rows - 2 x 6 - 8 for technique
• Deadbugs - 2 x 10 - 15

Day 2 - Pull

• Deadlift - 4 x 5 x 315 lbs
• Rows - 4 x 5 x 185 lbs
• Pullups - 2 x failure
• Bench - 2 x 6 - 8 for technique
• Knee Raises - 2 x failure

Note

I'm not interested in arguing about the best way to build strength / mass / power / etc. This is a suggested workout for beginners and busy people who want to be big and strong. Not people competing in Strongman competitions or trying to be the buffest body on the beach.

But nice comments are welcome, of course.