How To Build Great BICEPS

A bulging pair of biceps is one of the most immediately noticeable signs of a strong individual.

Are your biceps lagging?

Incorporate the following into your training:

Volume & Frequency

Granted you have good recovery and follow a solid training program, VOLUME is the biggest key to increasing muscle size. (Volume = load x reps x sets). If you curled 100 lbs 10 reps for 3 sets, your total volume for curls was: 100 x 10 x 3 = 3000.

To fix lagging muscle groups, start by upping the volume a bit. One of the easiest ways to do this ties in with another EXTREMELY IMPORTANT muscle building principal: FREQUENCY. Muscles respond better to more frequent training. (For more on why frequency is so important, check out my blog: WHY CAN’T I GAIN MORE MUSCLE?)

If you’re following good programming, you’re already training your biceps AT LEAST twice a week. Simply add 2-3 sets of 8-12 of some curl variation to a training day where you DON’T normally train arms. This won’t seem like a lot, but will up your weekly volume and frequency drastically.

It’s easy to overdo things when applying more volume. More isn’t always more. Start by just adding in bicep work on one training day you wouldn’t normally do bicep specific movements. See how your body responds. Over time, you can gradually apply this concept to more training days until you start to see the changes you want.

Work the Angles

It’s important to vary the angles you use when training biceps (think: changing where your elbows are in relation to your torso). Consider three different bicep curl variations:

Standard barbell curl: Elbows NEXT to the torso

Seated incline curl: Elbows BEHIND the torso

Preacher curl: Elbows IN FRONT of the torso

Due to the different angles and elbow positioning being used, each exercise has a much different point during the rep where muscle activity is maximized. Changing the angles you work the biceps with is presenting the body with new stimulus; crucial to keep muscles adapting and growing.

For more on this:

MIND PUMP: Build Your Biceps With Angles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2He1S159OEA

Full Range of Motion

If you’re not training your bicep exercises through their full range of motion, you’re shorting yourself muscle growth on EVERY REP. Full range of motion leads to more muscle damage, which in turn leads to more muscle growth.

There is a time and a place for shorter range of motion reps (i.e. chasing the pump). Just make sure the majority of your training is focused on taking the muscle through full range of motion.

Focus on the Negatives

The eccentric (lowering) portion of the rep isn’t something we think about a lot. However, a large part of the muscle damage we acquire during a training session actually occurs during the eccentric portion of your reps.

If you’re simply dropping the weight from the top of your curls, you're not maximizing the exercise. For more muscle growth, focus on slow, controlled 3-4 second negatives when curling.

Don’t Major in the Minors

Bicep specific training is important for good arms, but it shouldn’t make up the majority of your training. Movements like deadlifts, chin-ups, etc. will create the most change in your body, and will provide a HUGE bicep building stimulus to boot. Focus on your foundational, multi-joint movements first. Add in your bicep specific work AFTER, using the above concepts.

Published by Boris in Blog

January 10, 2018 — No Comments

How To Get Abs

Abs. We all want ‘em, but hardly ANYONE has visible abs. Why is that? Are they truly that hard to achieve?

Not at all. The problem is, most people take the wrong approach to getting abs. Endless crunches and some cardio aren’t the solution. A shredded midsection requires proper ab training and MORE IMPORTANTLY proper diet.

Diet

The problem for most people isn't underdeveloped ab muscles, it’s the layer of fat covering them. Train your ab muscles all you want, they’ll always be invisible if the fat layer is too thick.

Losing excess fat around your midsection is the KEY to getting visible abs.

The fitness industry makes losing fat seem like a complicated process, but it’s really quite simple. You don’t need to follow keto, paleo, or any other diet. They all lead to fat loss through one basic principle:

If you burn more calories than you eat, you’ll lose fat.

This is known as a CALORIE DEFICIT. Sound WAY too simple? Good. Let’s not overcomplicate this, it’s easy.

Fat loss basics

One pound of body fat is equal to 3,500 calories.

To lose one pound of bodyfat in a week, you need to eat 3,500 calories less than your weekly maintenance calories (the amount of calories you need to maintain your body's current weight/mass). So, if you ate 500 calories less than usual every day for 7 days, you should have lost about a pound of fat. (500 x 7 = 3,500)

If you don’t know your maintenance calories, get a rough estimate here: Calorie Calculator

I HIGHLY recommend starting in the 300-500 calories below maintenance range.

“Why not just create a huge deficit to lose fat as quickly as possible?”

Your body adapts to all things. When your calorie intake dips too low, your body tells your metabolism to adapt by slowing down. A slowed metabolism means slowed fat loss. This can lead to a nasty rebound after your fat loss phase is over, and months of trying to repair your damaged metabolism.

Extreme calorie deficits also force your body to turn to your hard-earned muscles as an alternate source of fuel. Muscle is extremely important for getting and staying lean. The more muscle you have, the more calories consumed go towards maintaining said muscle, while fewer go towards being stored as body fat.

Adjusting Calories

At the beginning of your fat loss phase, simply subtracting 500 calories from your maintenance levels should be adequate for good results. As time goes on, things will need to be tweaked to continue to see results.

Ideal fat loss will lead to .5-1lb of weight lost a week. Averaging over 2 lbs lost per week can lead to drastic loss of muscle mass and a slowed metabolism.

If, after two weeks of being in a calorie deficit, you’ve lost 1-2 lbs, or your body measurements have decreased, don’t change anything, you’re on the right track.

If weight isn’t changing, but you’re noticeably leaner or body measurements have decreased, DON’T reduce calories.

If your weight and body measurements stayed the same, reduce weekly calories by 3-5%.

If you gained weight, reduce weekly calories by 5-10%.

Repeat this process until you reach your goal, or feel you need a diet break.

Training

Getting and staying lean is hard work, and isn’t realistic for most of us to maintain year round. Although you always need to be somewhat lean for abs to show, thick, well developed abs will show at higher body fat percentages. This allows you to enjoy life (and food) a bit more, while maintaining visible abs.

Most have poorly developed abs due to incorrect training.

1,000 daily crunches + cardio isn’t the answer.

The BEST way to train abs is like you would any other part of your body: in phases, with low to moderate rep ranges. (HOW OFTEN SHOULD I GO TO THE GYM). Apply the same principles here.

For more on why FREQUENCY is so important: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31bXfA-_Yog&t=194s

Movements

When training abs, no need to get too crazy with tons of different movements. Choose 2-3 basic movements:

One with lower body fixed, pulling the upper body towards the lower (i.e. crunching). You’ll feel these more in the upper part of your abs.

One with upper body fixed, pulling the lower body towards the upper (i.e. leg raises). You’ll feel these more in the lower part of the abs.

Add in a rotational (if you have a healthy back) or anti-rotational exercise for oblique focus and INJURY PREVENTION. (For more on the importance of anti-rotation training, check out this youtube series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsfbmAn0eTU )

BAIRFIT SAMPLE AB TRAINING PROGRAM

Phase 1: 3 weeks. 2 minutes rest between sets.

Day 1 & 3:

Hanging leg raise 3 sets of 8-12

Weighted crunch 3 sets of 10-15

Pallof press 2 sets of 10-15/side

Day 2:

Reverse crunch 3 sets of 10-12

Ab wheel 3 sets of 10-15 (Form is often butchered, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqiTPdK1c_I&feature=youtu.be )

Cable wood chop 3 sets of 10-15/side (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZTYFFV9z6Q)

Phase 2: 3 weeks. 30-60 sec rest between sets.

Day 1&3:

Superset:

Hanging leg raise 3 sets of 15-25

Weighted crunch 3 sets of 15-25

Landmine rotation 3 sets of 10-20/side (For form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z38soIj-FDg )

Day 2:

Superset:

Reverse crunch 3 sets of 15-25

Ab wheel 3 sets of 15-25

Cable side chop 3 sets of 15-25/side

Getting rock hard abs isn’t as unrealistic as you might think. Don’t overcomplicate things. Focus on staying in a calorie deficit, train your abs frequently in low to moderate rep ranges, and BE PATIENT.

Published by Boris in Blog

January 10, 2018 — No Comments

Why Can’t I Gain More Muscle?

Packing on muscle should be a fun process, not frustrating and confusing. Are you at a loss for why you’re not making gains? Let’s look at some common reasons your progress might be at a standstill:

Training frequency: NO MORE BRO SPLITS. Frequency is EXTREMELY important to muscle growth. When you train a muscle, you damage it, creating micro-tears. These tears are repaired through a process called MUSCLE PROTEIN SYNTHESIS. Protein synthesis is CRUCIAL to building muscle. (Brook et al., 2015) (Damas et al., 2016)

The timeline for protein synthesis is a bit debated, but most studies put it somewhere in the 48-72 hours range. (Phillips, Tipton, Aarsland & Wolf,1997) (Miller et al., 2005) After this, the muscle building essentially stops, NO MATTER HOW SORE YOU ARE. This means that if you’re only training a muscle once a week, there’s approximately 4-5 days in the week where that muscle isn’t growing. Use a full body or upper/lower split. These allow you to train much more frequently. (To learn everything you could possibly want to about protein synthesis, check out this link.

More frequency = More protein synthesis = More muscle

Training to failure: Pushing yourself in the gym is important. Pushing TOO hard can be a progress killer. Previous blogs (How often should I go to the gym?) discuss in depth the negatives of overtraining. Focus on stopping every set 1-2 reps short of failure.

Incorrect training intensity: Think of working out as a form of stress. When you go through an intense training session, you’re adding more “stress” for your body to recover from.

If you constantly push yourself to the limit, the most beneficial thing you can do is occasionally take some time for yoga, meditation, a nice walk, etc. When you’re in an extremely stressed state, adding more stress with an intense workout will cause you to regress, because your body can’t recover from it. Occasionally lowering the intensity will allow you to make MORE PROGRESS, your body will be able to handle/adapt to it.

If you’re constantly relaxed in everything you do, you could benefit from more stress in your life. Stress is necessary for adaptation/change. Give a few weeks of intense workouts a go, you’ll see amazing changes.

Not using phases/periodization: After 3-4 weeks of training in the same way, your body becomes fully adapted to your current training style. This makes introducing a new stimulus every 3-4 weeks crucial. Your body is forced to adapt to the new stimulus, creating muscle and strength increases. An easy way to do this is using 3-4 week PHASES. Every 3-4 weeks, change the focus of your workout (i.e. strength, hypertrophy, pump). This ensures constant progress, due to your body constantly being forced to make new adaptations.

A basic layout of a phased program:

STRENGTH: 3 weeks

4-6 Sets of 1-4

Rest 3+ minutes between sets

HYPERTROPHY: 3 weeks

3-4 sets of 8-12

Rest 1-2 minutes between sets

PUMP: 3 weeks

2-3 sets of 10-20 reps

Include supersets

30 seconds to 1 minute rest

Not focused on compound, free weight movements: Compound exercises are movements that use multiple joints at once. Compound free weight movements such as squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, etc., work much more overall muscle mass than machines or isolation exercises. The much larger amount of muscle mass worked by using compound, free weight exercises means much more potential muscle growth. Use machines and isolation exercises sparingly.

Poor sleep: The best programming and diet WON’T make up for poor sleep. Sleep is CRUCIAL for building muscle. Adequate sleep is essential to muscle recovery and production of hormones essential to muscle growth. Not exactly groundbreaking stuff here, but do YOU consistently get 7-8 hours of sleep per night?

Sleep is just as important as your training and diet. Make it a priority, and you’ll get results.

Poor nutrition: Building muscle requires a caloric surplus (you need to be eating more calories than you’re burning in a day. If your training and sleep are on point and you can’t gain size, you’re probably not eating enough. (For more info on what and how to eat to gain size, see my blog “What’s the best diet for bulking?”

Gaining muscle is simple: Train correctly, sleep lots, eat for your goals. The body you want will come with patience and consistency.

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26169934

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27219125

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9252485

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1474228/

Published by Boris in Blog

December 10, 2017 — No Comments

Is It Worth the Money to Hire a Personal Trainer?

As a personal trainer, the number one objection I get is price.

And I get it.

Personal trainers get a bad rap, and often for good reason. Most are undereducated, unmotivated, and underpaid. Many trainers are simply people who worked out a bit, achieved decent results, and got an online certification. They haven’t learned anything new since. Now they waste their clients’ time running them through a random string of exercises they saw on Instagram

The key is finding a GOOD trainer. Not usually easy. (It is for you! Check this out)

That being said, finding a talented trainer can be absolutely LIFE CHANGING.

Emotionally:

I’ve seen clients go through some incredible transformations. Every single time, the thing that stands out to me isn’t the clients dramatically changed physique, so much as their emotional growth.

In the 21st century, appearance is everything. We tie the entirety of our self-worth to how we look. Watching your body drastically change for the better can have an incredible impact on your confidence. It’s so amazing to see a client who USED TO BE overweight and insecure, NOW living a much happier life as a strong, confident, and driven individual.

A good trainer has high emotional intelligence, and is capable of walking you through the mental side of a transformation; helping you build healthy relationships with diet, exercise, and self-image. All too often people we see as “fit” have even worse relationships with body image/self-esteem, food, and exercise than extremely overweight individuals. Are these people really any better off being “fit”, but hating themselves? A good trainer grooms you physically AND mentally.

Mentally and Physically:

No matter your current level of fitness expertise, finding a GOOD trainer is always going to streamline the process of reaching your goals.

Everything from proper form to proper nutrition is covered. You could know absolutely EVERYTHING about fitness, and still get huge benefits from the ACCOUNTABILITY a good trainer provides. Having a talented trainer in your corner will ALWAYS take things to the next level. Most of the most brilliant fitness minds I know still have their own personal coach. Everyone can benefit from more accountability and an outside perspective.

You should ABSOLUTELY invest in YOURSELF by hiring a trainer IF:

YOU HAVE MEDICAL BILLS DUE TO POOR HEALTH: Save yourself some money in the long-term by investing in a good trainer (if you’re cleared for exercise). Talented trainers have a great knowledge of CORRECTIVE EXERCISE, and can fix many of your aches and pains. That chronic back pain your doctor couldn’t help you with other than “Ibuprofen/don’t lift heavy things”? A good trainer can probably fix that.

I’m always amazed by people who will spend thousands on cortisone shots and medical procedures due to their awful health, but are unwilling to spend a few hundred a month on a trainer who will add YEARS to their lives, alleviate their aches and pains, and keep them out of the hospital.

Compare & Contrast:

Spend a few thousand dollars now to work with a good trainer. You get a long, healthy, happy life with your friends and family. You never have to miss activities or events due to physical ailments.

VS.

Spend MANY MORE THOUSANDS of dollars on: surgeries and trips to the hospital. You also suffer from chronic aches and pains, and eventually miss out on YEARS of life with friends and family, due to dying earlier than you needed to.

Is it really even a question?

YOU’RE SPENDING MONEY ON SUPPLEMENTS: Stop. Take whatever you’re spending on supplements and invest it in a coach. Most supplements don’t give NEAR what they promise (a topic for a later blog). The results you’re looking for aren’t in ANY supplement. Results come from proper programming, nutrition, and consistency. A good trainer can give you all these.

YOU’RE SPENDING MONEY ON FAST FOOD: Want to get healthier, but still constantly find yourself eating out? Take that money and invest in a trainer. Think of it as forcing your hand. You’re swapping out one unhealthy habit (poor nutrition), for two healthy habits (more/better exercise, better nutrition). You can’t lose!

Hiring a talented trainer can improve your life in so many aspects. I highly recommend it.

Published by Boris in Blog

November 30, 2017 — No Comments

EVERYTHING You’ve Heard About Fat Loss Is A LIE.

Everything. The fitness industry is full of myths perpetuated by the supplement industry and broscience. All this misinformation can make fat loss seem incredibly confusing. Let’s clear up three of the most common myths:

Myth #1: Eat multiple small meals a day

You’ve probably heard that to lose fat, you need to eat every few hours because it speeds up your metabolism.

Backers of this myth often cite something called “the thermic effect of food” or TEF. When we eat food, our bodies require energy to digest and turn it into fuel. When you use this extra energy to convert food to fuel, your body burns more calories than it normally would- this is TEF.

So eating six small meals a day would mean your metabolism is constantly running at a high rate due to TEF right?

TEF is equal to about 10% of calories consumed, no matter meal size. If you eat five meals in a day, at 500 calories each, the TEF of each meal is 50 calories. After five meals, your total TEF is 250 calories. However, if you only ate one massive 2500 calorie meal, the TEF is still 10% of 2500, or STILL 250 calories. So, it literally makes no difference for your metabolism whether you eat one or six meals a day.

Your total daily caloric intake is what determines if you lose fat or not. Focus on creating a calorie deficit, and eat whatever number of meals is most convenient for you.

Myth #2: Eating fat makes you fat

This one almost makes sense.

Shouldn’t eating more fat make you fat?

Fortunately for us ribeye lovers, this is the furthest thing from the truth.

Adequate fat intake is crucial for hormone regulation. Out of whack hormones lead to increased body fat storage, and leave you feeling worse overall. Higher fat intake keeps hormones at optimal levels, which promotes energy, muscle building, and libido. Higher fat diets also keep blood sugars from spiking and crashing, which will give you more consistent energy throughout the day. Furthermore, fat is very satiating (it makes you feel full), which can help make low calorie days more tolerable. Consuming enough fat is key to staying healthy as you shed body fat.

Myth #3: To lose body fat, do lots of cardio

The truth is, to create long-term, sustainable changes in your body, cardio is one of the least effective things you can do.

But cardio burns more calories than weight lifting, shouldn’t it be better for fat loss?

Your body adapts to cardio very quickly. For several weeks, running three miles every day will give you great results. Soon, your body adapts to your current level of cardio. From this point forward, you see very little fat loss from running three miles daily. But, since this is the activity level your body is now used to, a sudden decrease in activity will lead to fat gain. Now you have to run three miles a day just to maintain your current weight!

Excessive cardio sends your body the signal that endurance is a high priority. To better adapt to the focus on endurance, your body becomes more efficient with its calories by slowing the metabolism. A slowed metabolism means slowed fat loss. Quite the opposite of what we’re trying for.

Simply focus on resistance training and a diet that allows a calorie deficit, while still giving you the nutrients you need to be healthy. Sustainable fat loss and long-term health are sure to follow.

Published by Boris in Blog

October 15, 2017 — No Comments

How Often Should I Go To The Gym?

#beastmode... #teamnodaysoff... Buff dudes on social media bombard us with it constantly. “#trainharderthanme” they dare us. Everyone in the fitness industry seems to be telling you MORE is the answer. MORE supersets. MORE days in the gym. MORE intensity. You’ve been following their workouts, but results aren’t near what you expected. So what gives?

What if I told you training HARDER isn’t the answer?

More doesn’t always equal more

Training intensity and the ability to push yourself are extremely important to muscle growth.The problem is, it’s easy to forget that OUTSIDE of the gym is when your muscles are actually repairing and growing. Studies show that pushing too hard, too often can actually hinder your progress significantly, leading to decreased strength, elevated cortisol levels, lower levels of IGF-1 (an essential hormone to growth), and a plethora of other negative side effects. (Izquierdo, 2006) (González-Badillo, 2005)

Imagine your muscles are sitting at a baseline pre-workout. As you train your muscles, you damage them, causing the muscles to dip below said baseline. For the next 48-72 hours, a muscle building signal is being sent out to your body, telling it your muscles need attention to recover and adapt to the stress of the workout.

However, if we do too much damage, your muscles drop too far below the baseline. The best the body can do is repair the muscles back to the previous baseline, if not a bit lower. Think of this as a “recovery trap”: you do too much muscle damage for your body to recover from. The best your body can do over the next three days before the muscle building signal fades, is repair the muscles back to the point they were at previously. This is why you can perform endless sets and reps, and still not make progress, or even get weaker.

So MORE isn’t the answer. But I still don’t know how many times to go to the gym?

The key to a successful training program is figuring out what’s the LEAST amount of training you can do, while still achieving good results. This is the MINIMUM EFFECTIVE DOSE.

Finding your minimum effective dose

Most beginner and intermediate trainees will find their minimum effective dose is around 3-4 days per week of well programmed resistance training. Training in this range allows you to touch on each muscle group AT LEAST twice per week, acquire enough volume and muscle damage for growth, while also allowing adequate time for recovery.

Start with either full body training (3 times/week) or upper/lower split training (4 times/week). Both training splits allow you to train every muscle group a minimum of twice a week. Studies show that, volume being equal (sets x reps x weight = volume), muscles respond much better to being trained more frequently (2-3 times/week) than the typical “bro-split” of training a muscle group once per week. (Scheonfeld, 2016.) Training muscles with more frequency also allows you to lower intensity, which is helpful in avoiding the recovery trap.

What about the other days of the week?

Once you find your minimum effective dose, you should be building muscle, and feeling fresh every time you hit the gym. I highly recommend sticking with 3-4 days a week of heavy resistance training for as long as possible. Most trainees will find the ideal balance of training, recovery, and having a life outside the gym in this range.

On off days, active recovery is a great way to speed up the muscle building process. Try to make active recovery something you enjoy, like hiking, biking, or even light band or bodyweight exercises.

However, if you want more time in the gym, the “Focus Sessions” concept used in Mind Pump’s MAPS Aesthetic program is perfect. (https://www.mindpumpmedia.com/store/qRjerrKY) Focus sessions are used to add more volume and frequency to lagging body parts or areas you really want to focus on, without doing too much muscle damage. These sessions shouldn’t feel nearly as intense as your 3-4 foundational training days. The focus of the session should be on one specific body part you want to grow more (i.e. shoulders, calves). Stick with higher rep ranges (15-20), and focus on the mind-muscle connection (really “feeling” the desired muscle work). Make sure to stop well short of failure.

Once again, I highly recommend sticking with 3-4 days a week of training as long as possible. If you have a strong urge to train more, or want to bring up lagging body parts, add in 1-2 focus sessions per week.

What really matters

The most important part of any training regime is making sure that it’s enjoyable and sustainable. Mental burn out is a sure way to stop progress. If you’re constantly exhausted from your training, or feel you have no social life because you spend all your time in the gym, you’re doing too much.

If you relate to this, shift your focus to finding your minimum effective dose. You’ll be amazed how much better you look AND feel.

Sources

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16410373

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16095427?access_num=16095427&link_type=MED&dopt=Abstract

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27102172

Published by Boris in Blog

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