Gym musts and dont's

It’s an understatement to say that the amount of fitness advice out there is vast.

That’s why I believe I had to share the main points to focus on and to avoid, both in terms of exercises and in terms of the approach and method for training.

There was a time in my “fitness journey“ where I was getting daily headaches from watching so many Youtube videos on the newest exercises and training programs and splits and stretches etc., etc., etc.

The truth is, if you nail the basics, 90% of the progress guaranteed.

Thus, this post’s goal is to provide an outline of the basics!

What to do, what to avoid at all cost.

Let’s start with the musts

Musts

In terms of exercises:

• chin ups or pull ups: these should be the backbone of your back/pull training. Get stronger on these, and your pulling strength overall will skyrocket. Also, on the chin ups mostly, the technique is quite difficult to mess up, and you can progress them quite easily. Strict pull ups may require more mobility and technique.

• dips: these are the squats for the upper body. Straighforward technique, extremely easy to overload and progress, and they work pretty much all pushing muscles. Again, these should be the backbone of your pushing strength.

• benchpress: should anything really be said here? The classic or incline benches are the GOAT’s for chest development.

• pulldowns: really, these are extremely similar to the pullups, but with the advantage of being easier technically and easier to overload and isolate the back. Whatever grip you use, as long as you stick your chest up and pull, back engagement is guaranteed.

• rows: rows are to the back what the bench is to the chest.

• ohp: the overhead press, be it with dumbbells or barbell, is an irreplaceable option for shoulder development and strength. Easy technique, a vast amount of muscles recruited and effort required; maybe even the key to burst plateaus in upper body strength.

• lateral raises: no better shoulder builder than this. Be it cable or dumbbell, doing these for high reps will give your shoulders the resilience and size characteristic of a superhero. There is no decent workout plan without these.

• squats: THE exercise. Core strength, quad strength, balance, stability; you name it. Push the squat for a few weeks, and progress is guaranteed.

• deadlifts: beware here. Most think of deadlifting as “going heavy“. Not at all. They are a must for back and harmstring strength, but only when performed with clean technique and full ROM. Preferentially, RDL’s and Jefferson curls are better, since the progress here actually translates into something useful.

• arm isolation: while there is a general tendency to dismiss arm training nowadays, in favour of compound exercises, as long as it is not the backbone of your upper body training, a specific arm day is a must. Not as a push day, not as a pull day. Arm day, an extra arm day. Most lack actual strength and size here.

In terms of the approach:

• progressive overload: this is THE principle to follow for all of your training. Small increments, close goals, with infallible consistency, is what gets long-term, permanent results. One more rep, cleaner technique, one more kg, etc. Get better at at least one of these on one exercise each workout, and gains will surely follow.

• frequency distribution: take into account the size and workload and goals for each muscle/muscle group. Shoulders: many times a week with low weight and moderate volume is better. Quads: at most 2x a week with high intensity is the way to go. And so on. To each different muscle, a different stimulus.

• volume: same as with frequency; bigger muscles require more volume less times a week, smaller ones less volume more times a week.

• intensity: closely related to progressive overload, the intensity (going to failure and beyond) is a determinant factor in your progress. Take at least one set per exercise to or close to failure to maximize muscle growth.

• dropsets: besides mechanical stress, there is also metabolic stress: increasing the muscles contraction capacity and endurance. Dropsets are the key to this: taking the muscle beyond mechanical failure, on to metabolic failure.

• ROM: this is a tricky one. Your range of motion does not always have to be full, or always short. This is a tool to be used. On the more compound exercises, it’s not necessary to have a crazy ROM, just enough to contract and stretch the muscles measureably (still, NEVER half-reps). The more isolation, the more ROM and the bigger the stretch, the better.

• weight distribution: when to use what weights? With compounds, it’s best to go heaviest after the warmup, and then do a couple more sets with proggressively lighter weights, to use that fibre-recruitment and get more volume. With isolation, it’s better for a build-up to a last set to failure with dropsets.

• warmups: always make sure that your joints are mobile and warm and your muscles activated before lifting heavy. That being said, don’t spend 20 min. doing band-work and crazy stretches; the best warmup is some mobility followed by really controlled and light versions of the exercises you’re about to perform.

• cardio: it does NOT kill your gains. In fact, it increases them. It improves our bloodflow, recovery, overall health, work capacity, you name it! A must if you want improved athleticism, too. Now, of course you should not warmup with srpints before lifting; cardio always goes after weights, in order not to lose strength due to fatigue.

That’s about it for the “musts“. Of course, there are countless little tips to take into account, but those are the biggest points necessary to adress.

Now, the important part: the dont’s

Dont’s:

Exercises:

• anything bosu ball: ever seen those exercises balancing on a ball, with one leg, with your eyes closed? That is absolute nonsense. This is neither beneficial for balance, nor muscle growth, since none is trained with principal focus. Either lift to gain muscle, or train you balance and reflexes separately.

• anything weird combos: also, any exercise that combines two movements, as, for example, a bicep curl into and overhead press, is useless. Why? One of the two movements will alway be understimulated, since strength varies greatly, and it is overall too fatiguing, so neither part can be pushed to failure. At most, you can combine movements as in an overhead walk, or a snatch, but anyways, the main purpose of those is not to build muslce, but strength.

• circuits: doing 5 exercises for the same muscle in a row? Avoid that at all cost. One useful thing is actually combining two antagonistic exercises, like pull ups and dips; another, not useful thing, is to combine many similar movements in succession. Unless it’s a dropset, make sure to

• nothing where ROM is not sufficient: compromising ROM or technique merely for weight is useless. I did say that ROM does not always have to be full; but that doesn’t mean it should be left aside altoghether!

In terms of approach:

• dirty bulking: this should already be familiar; how could it ever be a good idea to get excessively fat to “gain weight quicker“? Never compromise health and longevity for short-term gains.

• cutting and bulking too quickly: now, neither should you abandon your bulk too early; don’t start cutting until it’s necessary! Of course don’t get fat. But, as long as you don’t dirty bulk, you shouldn’t worry about it. Bulk for a good time, and then cut properly. Don’t just spend a few weeks, worry about “feeling fat“ because you gained 1kg of mass, and then cutting again to have made no progress overall.

• light weight high reps: this is one of the biggest misconceptions out there; light weights for high reps don’t “tone“ you. Spot fat loss is impossible. It can only be general. In any case, this is a waste of time, since it’s not good for either cardio, fatloss, or muscle gain.

• cardio first: never do cardio right before wieghts. Yes, it might be okay in the morning if you then lift in the afternoon, but never just before. It will fatigue you and make your lifting suboptimal.

• isolation first: if you’re not on arm-day, always start with compound movements first, in order to have the most strength and power.

• doing the opposite of anything in the musts, of course.

And, as before, we could go on and on with the errors and misconceptions; those are just the biggest, most common, obvious ones.

As stated, this is just the tip of the iceberg, but this also covers most of the basics. And, with the basics nailed, training gurantees results.

This is one of the few areas where positive returns are certain if the baseline amount of work is done and the knowledge possesed.

Hope you enjoyed this post!