If you are trying to change the way your body looks, and you are not lifting heavy shit, you are most likely not optimizing your time spent training (not working out, not exercising, TRAINING).

Before I get too deep into this, I’d like to provide some context about who I am specifically addressing in this post. I’m assuming A) that you have actually made a decisive decision to change the way you look B)only have 3–4 hours a week to train C) don’t have unlimted resources to have optimal conditions like a personal chef, personal trainer, etc and finally D) have never adhered to a proper weightlifting program for an extended period of time. Now that we have those assumptions out of the way let me explain why you need to be lifting really heavy stuff.

Lifting weights is the most optimal way to increase your muscle mass. Sure, you can cycle and your legs will get a little bit bigger or you can swim and you may gain some shoulder/back muscle, but those are minimal and they will quickly stop after you’ve received your “newbie gains”. In addition to adding muscle mass, lifting HEAVY weights increases your bone density (because your body adapts to load). If you are a man and reading this, you might be like “sweet I’ll read on, I want muscle mass”. If you are a woman, you might be thinking “I don’t want to add any muscle mass”. Let me stop that silly train of thought right here. See the below image:

Both 5lbs!!!!!!! The fat takes up way more volume…about 3x as much!

This image should stick with you forever. The next time I hear a woman say “I don’t want to get bulky” or “I just want to tone” I’m going to blow a gasket. You look toned when you have good muscle defenition and low body fat. PERIOD. It is EXTREMELY difficult to add significant amounts of muscle mass. Accidently getting too “bulky” is almost impossible. If you were to lose 10lbs of fat and GAIN 5lbs of muscle(depending on your experience, could take a year or two to gain that much muscle), you would look SO SO SO different than you do right now. To put it as succinctly as possible, eating in a CALORIC SUPRLUS makes you bulky (too many donuts, mexican food, sugary drinks, pizza, etc), lifting weights does not.

Now that we are passed that bit lets get to training tactics. There are all sorts of weight lifting programs out there. A lot of them are really good and a lot of them suck. Because of the assumptions we made earlier, I’m going to address the TYPE of weightlifting program that I believe is optimal given those constraints we talked about in paragraph 2. I prefer weight lifting programs that PROGRESS LINEARLY. What exactly does that mean you ask? It means that on a repeated cadence, you do the same lifts and either increase the number of reps you are doing or add weight to the lift. One of the more popular programs out there is Stronglifts 5x5. You do 5 Sets of 5 Reps for 3 different lifts on an alternating A/B schedule. So on Monday you would do workout A, Wednesday workout B, Friday workout A, the next Monday workout B etc on and on. Each workout, you add 5lbs to the lift. Here is what happens when you stick to this program for 4–6 months. You start with super light weight and you think the workouts are stupid and easy (this is good for your mental state, you want to feel like the workouts are easy). Then, over time, YOU GET STRONG AF!!!!! Seriously, you keep adding weight and before you know it, you are as strong as you have ever been in your entire life. Sound ridiculous? Nope, it’s what happens when you INCREMENTALLY IMPROVE over time(works in other areas of life too, not just in the gym :)). It’s like the Greek tale of Milo and the Calf. Milo had to carry a baby calf to the next town every day. The calf grew an UNNOTICEABLE AMOUNT each day and over time, Milo turned into Ivan Drago. Same principle.

Think about this for a second. No matter if you are a man or woman. If you get stronger than you ever have before, and you keep your body weight the same as when you started, do you think you are going to look worse or better?I’ll answer for you. 100000000000% you will look way better. Now imagine if you actually achieved that strength and LOST a total of 10lbs!!! If you are a man, you are going to look like Brad Pitt in Troy or Ryan Reynolds in Blade 3. If you are a woman, you are going to look Kate Beckinsdale in Underworld 3 (yes please :)!!!). Get strong AF while maintaining your weight or losing some means that you have changed your body composition. When you change your body composition to more muscle and less fat, you will look amazing!

As we approach that time of year for New Year’s resolutions, be honest with yourself. Is your physique where you want it to be? If it’s not, is your current plan (or lack thereof) going to get you there? How do you know? Who is holding you accountable to that? If you have never participated in a legitimate strength program, give it a shot. If you are a 5'11 Male and can Bench/Squat/Deadlift 250/350/400 at 10% body fat, I promise you that your physique will stand out tremendously. Likewise for a 5'4 female that can do 150/200/250 and be at 15–18% bf, you are going to look so SEXY!!! (Adjust those strength standards +- for taller/shorter folks).

If you are interested in getting a bit of coaching for a program like this, I would be DELIGHTED to assist you. I’m not a certified personal trainer and this is not my primary job. I just genuinely enjoy helping people work towards something that otherwise was elusive. Leave a comment below or shoot me a note on social media if you are interested in working with me.

IG: cashflo Twitter: thumbtalkin .

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PS

I want to make a MASSIVE caveat here. Your total calories consumed is very very important. If you are EATING MORE THAN YOUR BODY BURNS, you will gain weight. PERIOD END OF STORY. I’ll leave more details about diet for another article, but in a nutshell YOU MUST EAT LESS THAN YOUR BODY NEEDS IN ORDER TO LOSE FAT!!!!!! The vast majority of people OVER estimate how many calories they burn and UNDER estimate how much they eat. Thats why most people gain fat over time.

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