Starting Monday Podcast
Starting Monday Podcast
Building Muscle - What is important ?
Are you ready to pump up those muscles and journey through the scenic landscapes of Scotland - Barry was in Loch tay by the way! We are thrilled to share our collective wisdom on the art of muscle building and the joy of travel. We delve into the nuances of being consistent, applying effort and how uncomplicated routines can produce fruitful results.
We also unravel nutrition's crucial role in your fitness journey, from setting calorie and protein goals to understanding the difference between gaining muscle and looking muscular.
Our conversation doesn't stop at the gym doors though as we bring light to the importance of optimal sleep and stress management in fostering overall fitness. We touch upon meal timing, macro ratios, supplements and the potential benefits from recovery therapies such as massage and cold water immersion, but what really is it that's important ? Tune in and find out.
Hello guys and welcome back to the Start Monday podcast. I'm with my good pal Matthew. How are you?
Speaker 2:doing. I'm tip top. I'm absolutely amazing. Barry's on the decks. Sorry, mate.
Speaker 1:I pressed that button too many times.
Speaker 2:You pressed it too many times. Get the applause back on. It's good to see you, mate.
Speaker 1:I haven't done this for a wee while, maybe the start of summer holidays, so we've got lots to discuss. Today. We are going to go over what is important for building muscle. We're going to go from top to bottom. So basically we're going to discuss what we feel is of number one priority all the way down to the next least yes, least priority. But they all play their own part.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I might argue with Barry a little bit, just for fun. You know, be devil's advocate, of course. Why not, why not, why not? So what you've been up to, barry? You've had the whole summer.
Speaker 1:Yep Kids. Been busy with the kids Haven't been too far away. Went down to Lochte for a week. Beautiful Lochte. You've been there. Where is?
Speaker 2:it. I know the name, couldn't tell you where it is, so it's quite close to Pitlockery, Albert Feldy, that sort of killing. You know what? That I know exactly what you mean, though I've got no idea.
Speaker 1:Why have you not done your travelling in Scotland?
Speaker 2:I probably should at some point. It's very trendy right now, isn't it, for people to have their little vans and like kicking them out and driving around Scotland. I'm very jealous. I wish I did it as well.
Speaker 1:Well, in the last few years I've definitely been more places in Scotland than I would have probably because of the COVID outbreak and things like that and 100% recommend you go and visit Lochte. I'll look it up. Yeah, sounds great. Beautiful little place, smaller than, say, loch Lomond, but there's lots to do. I know Loch Lomond. Yeah, you know Loch.
Speaker 2:Lomond? Yeah, you heard of it. Yeah, have you been? I think so. As a kid maybe my parents, growing up so off topic loved the west coast of Scotland, so growing up we'd go to like Darness and all this sort of stuff. Kids would be like, oh, where you going on summer holidays? I was like, oh, spain, florida. I'm like, yeah, I'm off to Darness. I was like where the hell is that? And now everyone goes there. It's popular.
Speaker 1:It's fashionable. It's not as it's fashionable, it's just it's beautiful. Yeah, it's great, and it's on our doorstep, it's. It was so much easier this year not to get on a plane and the whole rigmarole of going on going abroad when it's like 40 degrees everywhere as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's missing it already. He's like, oh, wish I went somewhere. And I was like, oh yeah, it's so much better than Spain.
Speaker 1:I'm going to Paris next week. There you go oh yeah, and then I'm going to Granada the week after that, so very nice. How long are you in Paris for Five, five nights, going with Emma and I've never been either of. I want to go, so I'm excited. You go to the Louvre. I'll go to a few different places. I think Matthew see the Mona Lisa. I will try my best to do all the touristy bits, and you know me and not just sitting eating drink quass on in red.
Speaker 2:Well, my thing is, I love going places and seeing as much, but I went to Holy Bar Salona once and it was the 2018 World Cup and I got so drunk I didn't see anything from the World Cup on TV and after that I just anywhere I go, I think I've got to see everything, because I hate coming back and going like, oh, I didn't see that.
Speaker 1:To be fair, barcelona is a place I've never been and I'd love to go. Looks beautiful. Well, we should go together, barry because I need to go back. Maybe we should do this podcast in different locations. Yeah, yeah, yeah, if we ever get over a certain number, which it's not likely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, If we do more times that we record this yeah, what every six weeks we might get a lot of listeners to then travel the world.
Speaker 1:We're making some these days because there'll be some some day out. There is going to be well chuffed that we've uploaded today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're going to be like. Oh, my God, so happy to hear Matthew and Barry's voice again Life changing 100%.
Speaker 2:Where have you been? Have you been in holding? Nowhere. I went to Portugal, which you know, and then since then I've just been at home, working, working all summer. But the thing is I had a, I've got a wedding in September and I've got a stag do this coming week and I was like, after that I'll plan going away again. So I'll probably go to London again see the West, the West Ham's play again the mighty West Ham, and then I think I'll go somewhere in Europe probably see something I haven't seen before. Hopefully we pray Good, good. So I've got some questions for you, barry. Okay, hit me with them. Guys, he's never heard these questions before. Before we recorded, I actually had to tell them four times what they were, cause he's like what they are again. What are they again? So, barry, describe to me your perfect day.
Speaker 1:Okay, my perfect day, so I'm on holiday, nice?
Speaker 2:Are you in Scotland or are you elsewhere? Cause, remember, scotland is so beautiful and it's on your doorstep.
Speaker 1:Scotland is so beautiful, anywhere near a beach, as long as it's warm. Nice Could be Scotland, yeah, yeah, I would get up. It's going to pop down to the beach Definitely Into the water first thing Swim, weight myself up, see the sunrise. Nice, come back.
Speaker 2:Nice, black coffee Just like give it to you. Imagine you got out of the water and someone just gave it to you.
Speaker 1:That would be the perfect day. That would be yeah. And how good is the first coffee of the day? You a coffee drinker?
Speaker 2:I don't want to talk about my coffee consumption the morning, cause it's a violation to all coffee drinkers. Do you not want to know what I do in the morning? I've never told you this, I can't remember. So in the morning, guys, I drink my coffee pure, purely for caffeine. So I wake up, I get two scoops of instant coffee, I turn the tap on, put some cold water in it, mix it up and neck it. I genuinely do that every morning, jesus.
Speaker 1:I actually like coffee as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anyway, back to your perfect day. Yeah, warm coffee black yeah. No milk. It's got some warm milk. Maybe a nice leisurely walk, you know just taking some fresh air, like up a hill, a local hill or something Nah, nothing too heavy at that time, like a coastal path or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, keep it kind of flat. Yep, you know, a little bit of sightseeing. Come back and breakfast, beautiful breakfast. Yeah, what we thinking it's got to be eggs of some kind.
Speaker 2:No, if you're somewhere hot, you want like fruit. I do want fruit, yeah, but I want eggs as well. Well, I bet.
Speaker 1:I've ever seen Fruit eggs Five course breakfast. That's absolutely. This is a great day so far, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Oh, like different courses for your breakfast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to be honest with you, the day would be full of I thought to be fair, guys.
Speaker 2:I thought his answer would be like Very quick, quick. Sorry, I'm going to wrap this up.
Speaker 1:We're deep into it. Lots of eating yeah. Lots of drinking yeah, including some alcohol.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, some exercise. Waiters, a butler on your call, hopefully as well, some exercise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the sun and the best women.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's pretty much me At the end of the day, like beach lounge or looking up Sun setting. Nice little drink cocktail. You got it in one minute, right. Next question Done Favorite movie? Oh, no, actually guys wrong, because I asked my favorite movie. We all know his favorite movie is Cool Runners. We spoke about this Favorite TV series.
Speaker 1:Favorite TV series. I have watched a few, but I think I'm going to go for Breaking Bad. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, great TV show Probably would go back and watch it again.
Speaker 2:I never have, but I still I the thing is with a good end.
Speaker 1:I remember the ending, the ending was okay, but I think actually Breaking Bad and the spin-off or the prequel was the Better Call Saul. Better Call Saul.
Speaker 2:I haven't watched it. I like that as well.
Speaker 1:I like that as well, so just the two of them put together. I thought it was really good.
Speaker 2:So most recent book you've read and I'm asking this question because I know he hasn't read a book- I haven't read a book for quite a while, which is Bad, hopefully there's people out there that can relate to that? You said you started one, though have you not recently? Again, I'm Bad. I didn't read one for like six months.
Speaker 1:Well do you know what it was. I was out on Mum and Dad's and I seen a book just lying in the spare room I think a book that I bought usually go when I was younger and it was some random book about gangs of Glasgow or criminals and gangsters in Glasgow and stuff like that. And I just picked it up and started reading. I think I read the first chapter. It was quite good, actually I was getting into it, but I left the book.
Speaker 2:Did you take it with you? No, well, you should buy it there you go, but I will try my best to read it. The book I'm reading is quite good actually. The importance of being interested. The importance of being interested.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And this is about everything to do with life, you get into it.
Speaker 2:It's really good, actually, no, really good. It's an easy listen, it's nothing too complex, so you're listening to it. Brian Cox is on it as well. It's Robin Ince. Robin Ince, yeah, I do audio books. The last book I read was Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler.
Speaker 1:I think you said that word, cheeser.
Speaker 2:I don't read many books, to be honest. What is your greatest accomplishment, barry? For the listeners, what have you achieved in your life?
Speaker 1:A lot. I'm going to be quite cheesy and I'm going to say my family, it was either going to be the gym or the family, wasn't it?
Speaker 2:It's a simple question. It's a lovely family, by the way, barry.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Your new house is fantastic, by the way. What annoys you the most?
Speaker 1:I forgot you had this question. Bad drivers, quite a few things. Loads of things, loads of things annoy me, like literally, we'd be here for hours.
Speaker 2:What annoys you the most? You know what we spoke about this before. I was like in a gym. What annoys you and I think mine was dirty shoes, which still, by the way, drive me up the wall.
Speaker 1:One annoys me is if you explain something in detail to somebody no, I don't say that and then they ask you all the questions straight away after it.
Speaker 2:Barry, I just read what I was going to ask you four times. I didn't say I was not like that as well. Yeah, the worst is when you tell someone something and you know they're not listening, and then you go what was that? And you've got to tell them again.
Speaker 1:And then you go oh, and you're like oh, come on, it's a prime example in a gym setting is like you demonstrate four exercises in a row One, two, three, four. You give all information, all the teaching points, you go over it again. This is exercise one, this is two, three, four. And then like, okay, guys, what exercises are we doing again? What are we doing here? I was like, well, you know that five minute spell just a wee minute ago that I took time out to like tell you all the things that we're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1:Those are the ones that we're doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the ones you're listening to. My favorite is when someone's beside someone doing like the next exercise they're going to do there's maybe a minute of station. So they're right beside them, they can see what they're doing, and then when they get that station, go. What was that? Again, like the person beside you just did it for a minute. How did you not see To be?
Speaker 1:fair, though, like we live and breathe the gym, and we would, and they probably had a long day, or something like that Exactly. But it is funny, we're being a bit harsh.
Speaker 2:I laugh when they ask. I'm like oh so we get into some tips for muscle building, which Barry knows well because he's competing in bodybuilding.
Speaker 1:That means nothing. What would you say was number one For me? I would say the most important thing before we get into anything would be adherence and consistency. Yeah, nothing else matters unless we start with that. I don't think.
Speaker 2:Again, you can argue, can you for what's more important, like if you're not doing the right rep ranges or the right weights, or if you're consistent and inherent, you're coming all the time.
Speaker 1:First and foremost, you've got to go to the gym. You've got to start regularly lifting weights. You've got to start doing a program.
Speaker 2:So would you not say that the first one was lifting weights?
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, but you could lift weights once, or do it two or three times in a week, not do it the next week. You've got to build that consistency, you've got to build a routine.
Speaker 2:That's it, that's actually a good point, because if you're consistent and you're just running on a treadmill, are you going to build muscle.
Speaker 1:Well, if you're running on a treadmill and you're wanting to build muscle, you need to rethink it.
Speaker 2:So would you not say that number one might actually be lifting weights?
Speaker 1:Well, I think that was a given.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the speed devils abscay, I would agree. I think lifting weights and you're coming to the gym is the most important bit, right 100%?
Speaker 1:So, before we think about reps, sets, meal time and people always ask these little questions will this help me build more muscle? Is this better than this? This exercise is better for building the chest or this one? Blah, blah, blah. First and foremost, get to the gym, get a regular routine and get consistent with it, and do it weekend, month in, year in, year out. Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2:I completely agree. Consistency is key. It is interesting do you do any exercises you would categorize as fancy? People come up with certain exercises to hit certain areas and this press, that press, whatever. I think most of my workouts are pretty basic in terms of the movements. I never do anything too crazy. It's a cable curl or it's a dumbbell curl. It's not like anything fancy in that sense.
Speaker 1:I think me and you are quite similar like that. We like to do the big lifts, the basic movements, the bang for a buck exercises, the ones that kind of build the most strength or use the most muscle, and then our enjoyment comes from maybe tweaking the rep ranges or building our strength through that movement. There are other people that like to have different variations for this and that and single arm, this, single arm that use the cables, and all that is good as well, but personally for me, I like using the dumbbells, using the barbell, simple movements that require a lot of strength and effort.
Speaker 2:I feel like I could put more effort into the exercise if I'm not worrying about how specifically I get. An RDL like a Romanian deadlift is quite a simple movement. I've done it so long that to me I just put weight on it and figure out I'd have to really overthink the exercise.
Speaker 1:I do think you need to bring in that variation as well.
Speaker 2:I was just wondering. Some people don't want a lot of variation.
Speaker 1:some people don't need a lot of variation, they're more robotic. Other people to get that adherence and consistency that we've just spoke about, they actually do need a little bit more variation in their training to actually keep them interested. There are other exercises out there that we can use or sometimes have to use, because sometimes people can't do an exercise because they've got an ailment or whatever.
Speaker 2:So intensity? No sorry, oh my God, I just answered the second question. It's been six weeks, it's been too long.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you. If we're saying adherence and consistency is number one. What then Matthew is?
Speaker 2:number two. Honestly, barry, I've got no idea. It's definitely effort or intensity, which I just said out loud two seconds ago. Yes, I think a lot of people train, but they don't train hard. There's training too hard. I think some people do that as well. It's a rare occurrence. People train too hard more than they don't train hard enough. That makes sense. A lot of people are sitting at like six out of 10, sort of ranging and go oh, that was really hard. You're like was it? Was that as hard as you could? You could do that, set more, keep it. We'll weigh up things like that. So I think intensity is really key.
Speaker 1:We can be consistent, but we can also be consistent at not really working that hard.
Speaker 2:Yes, it'd be like me coming to the gym and doing a bench press for 40 kilograms, when really, in terms of where? My strength level is, yes, quite much higher than that. So intensity does matter. It does matter when you speak about intensity.
Speaker 1:we're talking about things like pushing to failure on a set, an exercise or a set, which I think a lot of people don't do enough of, as a proven way to help build muscle is to push yourself to failure or close to failure without I suppose the flip side to that is obviously common sense. So I'll suggest that you can't do that all the time.
Speaker 2:No, you can't. And that's why you would. But then you're talking like more advanced lifters will understand their fatigue and they'll be used to pushing themselves to failure, but I think you've got to hit that point. Then understand you can't always go there, but a lot of people don't get to that point.
Speaker 1:And if we're speaking mostly to everyday gym goers and people that are like our clients, that are going to the gym not wanting to be massive bodybuilders, but wanting to get bigger?
Speaker 2:Yeah, tone up a little bit like a little bit of muscle.
Speaker 1:Put it on side wanting to look good, that sort of thing. It's super important that you reach a certain point in your training where the intensity is high enough that you actually felt that you were sort of close to failure. Yeah, 100% no-transcript. If you were to train like that every single set of it all the time, you probably would then not be as consistent and then adhere into your program because you'd probably be too sore. You need days off, that sort of stuff. So there is a fine balance to it.
Speaker 2:Is that right, A hundred percent? I think intensity is quite a hot topic now, especially with like younger lands, especially in the gym, come up to me and talk about intensity, Like they go back to the old doing one working set and going really hard rather than the three and getting the volume up.
Speaker 1:So I feel like it's getting quite Well, volume is part of intensity, would we say.
Speaker 2:They're like they're different but they're intertwined, aren't they really so? Like, if you're not increasing volume, you're not doing more work, then you're not going to progress, but then if you're also just doing more volume and then not working as a good intensity, then you may as well.
Speaker 1:We know from research that more volume builds more muscle over time. Yeah, you know so, but you can't obviously jump from zero to a hundred, so you have to be in it along, you have to be in it long game. You know what I mean? Yeah, you've got to build up your volume, like you have with your training.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's both building up and reducing. And building up and reducing, you tend to find volume then will increase over time because you've got stronger excises right, or you built more muscle mass so you're lifting more weight. So three sets of 10, eight months ago with the 30 kilogram dumbbells, or there's less volume than the three sets of 10, with the 40 kilogram dumbbells and the RP's now the same because I've got stronger, like the difficulty levels are the same because I've got stronger.
Speaker 1:And there'll be a minimum amount of effort required for each individual, no matter where they are on the scale. Do you know what I mean? So if you're a beginner and you're starting out and you're new, your minimum volume will be quite needed. They'll be quite low to make progress, whereas the more advanced you get, the more volume is required. Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I think there'll always be a tipping point as well, wouldn't there? So, like you can do too much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then volume is interesting because it's like I attract volume through my clients and it depends on the excise you're doing as well, doesn't it? So, like a leg press volume, is that similar to a squat volume? No, well, the difference? There's a lot of difference in the movements and you can lift a lot more weight through a leg press. So is that better because it's got more weight on it? Well, no, so it's volume through the excise as well, correct? So, like you're building that up, so it depends, depends on what you're doing, that sort of stuff, but it is important. Volume is important, but I think intensity and, yeah, an effort level goes up there, especially with beginners to intermediate sort of lifters getting used to the pushing themselves and training hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we're saying number one adherence and consistency, number two effort levels, raising that intensity through training.
Speaker 2:And we spoke about volume, but we haven't put it at number three.
Speaker 1:We've left that Volumes in effort and intensity is in there. That's what we're speaking about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you put effort in to do two more sets, right? What's number three, Barry? I haven't blurred out so you can say exactly what it is.
Speaker 1:Well, I guess we've got to speak a little bit about nutrition, don't we? Yeah, calories and proteins and nutrition as a whole, because if your goals to build muscle, obviously the training part of it is super important, but we're kind of not going to get too far if we have sort of insufficient calories present in our diet.
Speaker 2:I would say for a lot of people, especially like Joe Pop, there's a difference between building muscle and looking muscular, isn't there really? You can look very muscular and be very lean but not be building muscle, and you can look a bit chunky and less muscular, but you're building muscle. So I think for a lot of people they get confused between building muscle and getting lean.
Speaker 1:There's a little balance there. You kind of just have to prioritize what your goal is at the time. Yeah, do you know what I mean? Is your goal more fat loss to get leaner, or is your goal to build size and build muscle? And then you have to manipulate your nutrition to suit that goal. You know, if I want to get bigger, if I want to increase size and I want to get stronger, then I'm going to have to go through a period where I'm in a surplus of calories and or else that's probably not going to happen. Oh, yeah, 100%. Yeah, during that period I'm going to also likely gain body fat as well.
Speaker 2:I feel like a lot of people, though, want to look muscular more than they want to build muscle. You know what I mean. So I find it very rare people go on like bulks. I have a lot of people who cut weight rather than bulk up. As a beginner, you'll gain muscle mass through the other two things we said, so intensity and consistency. So if you're coming all the time, you're just going to build muscle. If it's a new stimulus, you're going to build muscle. But yeah, nutrition is really important. Protein is important if you want to build muscle as well. Right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say we should be hitting around 1.5 to 2 grams of protein roughly per kilo of body weight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's literally what I was going to say. We haven't spoken about this before either. So, yeah, I recommend for mostly 1.5 to 2. You can go higher than that. You can go as high as I think there's a study for 3.1. But that's for, like top end athletes who are like trying to cut weight. So your protein will go higher as you reduce calories because you're trying to maintain as much muscle whilst you lose weight. If you're bulking, you'll probably have maybe slightly lower protein as an average and then you can go from there, also setting protein goals if your goals lose quite a lot of weight.
Speaker 2:Everyone gets a bit confused because if I weigh 160 kilograms and then Barry says, oh, you got to eat 2 grams per kilo of body weight, I'm like, well, that's 320 grams of protein. They are the hell of a man's that. So if you are a bit bigger and you want to lose weight, try and figure out the weight you want to be and then calculate the protein for that weight. So if you're 160, you want to weigh 100 kilograms, ok, that's 200 grams of protein a day. So you calculate protein for your goal weight if you're going to try and lose quite a lot. If you're already quite muscular and you want to lose like 5, 10 kilograms. You probably want to put the protein up quite a bit, so that's a good recommendation for you.
Speaker 1:I think what we're trying to point out mainly here is that if you need to put a little bit of focus into your nutrition, you need to have a bit of an understanding around calories, not always staying in a sort of deficit maintenance zone.
Speaker 2:It's good to be lean now, isn't it?
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, but long term, if you want to actually get a little bit bigger, get some muscle size in there, then you might have to consider eating a little bit more. It's great. You know getting.
Speaker 2:I've been bulking for three years now, barry. It's been fantastic.
Speaker 1:As Matthew has, yeah and yeah that's Nutrition, simple, yeah, understand it.
Speaker 2:Figure out your calories, your protein. Again. You can play about with your carbs and your fats. You can be a high carb guy, you can be a low carb guy, whatever suits you.
Speaker 1:But protein calories are quite important Next up, we've got secondary training variables. So there's no Guys.
Speaker 2:I have no idea what this means, by the way he's written on the board. I have no idea what Secondary training variables.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a little selection.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fill me in, I'm listening.
Speaker 1:This is where we speak about reps and sets and exercise selection.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, Things like that.
Speaker 1:Or even technique, how we go about our training.
Speaker 2:Yeah interesting.
Speaker 1:So all these things are really important. I wouldn't say they were as important as the three things we've just discussed, but they are obviously very important and I would put them in fourth on the list, matthew.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would agree. Like you can build muscle mass in any rep range. It gets more difficult as the rep ranges get higher to understand, as you said before, like intensity. So, for example, if I say it all, barry, we're going to do body weight squats for sets right, rather than doing 120 kilogram squat. I said, okay, we're just doing body weight. I said we've got to do. We've got to get to two reps in reserve. You could hit 20 reps and your legs will be burning Even though you've got another 40 reps in the tank. You could do if I put a gun to your head. There's no way you're going to get 40 more reps, are you? So if your intensity is off, you're going to struggle with muscle. So the higher rep gets a bit more difficult to understand the fatigue and where you've got to push yourself to. So your usual rep ranges are what Like four up to 15. In that sort of range people usually stick in right.
Speaker 1:I think most people probably lift between maybe five and 15. Yeah, I probably agree.
Speaker 2:I think I said four and 15 and he said five and 15. He's cut me off by one rep. So yeah, power lifters can build muscle mass, bodybuilders can build muscle mass. Even like endurance, people can build muscle mass. People usually stick in what the 8 to 12 rep range right For, like pure muscle mass.
Speaker 1:Generally we're going to build muscle across all rep ranges, but in the lower end of that scale we're going to be more focused on building strength and in the sort of moderate mid range of that scale we're going to be more focused on building muscle and strength. If you know what I mean yeah, 100%, completely agree.
Speaker 2:The higher rep ranges just get difficult to track the intensity.
Speaker 1:I think a good program that would include a mix of rep ranges. Maybe, not all in the same session or in the same week, but in the same cycle.
Speaker 2:If you're your bodybuilding, you're goes pure muscle mass. You rarely go below six, wouldn't you Like? You're not going to go lower than that. But powerlifters will go down to doubles and triples and all that sort of stuff. So yeah, you've got to figure out what works for you.
Speaker 2:I enjoy like powerbuilding you know I do so. It's kind of like a bit of strength stuff with quite a lot of volume stuff added on and I just enjoy it because it's not too serious. I've done a bit of powerlifting training in the past. I've done bodybuilding training in the past and powerlifting just takes too long. If I know the fatigue is quite high, I get like two hour workouts. Don't have time for it. Like my boss, nick, he trains his powerlifter. Now he's at Scottish. He's really well. He just missed out on third because he pulled the wrong weight for his deadlift. That's tough for him. But he pulled two nights. Good on him. Became fourth and his training takes forever. Even he says it's like an hour and a half two hours, just over two hours. He's like I don't get my accessory stuff done sometimes. I don't miss that. Bodybuilding I find is a bit just doing the reps finds a bit boring. So I like the bed both.
Speaker 1:That's the reason I never really stuck with the powerlifting is because you know, workouts were taken a couple hours. I was doing maybe one, two, three X-is at most, getting onto the accessory work and then just thinking that I can't be bothered. I'm done.
Speaker 2:So you do? You get to that point like, oh, the fatigue is crazy, the fatigue from lifting heavy weights and low reps for multiple sets.
Speaker 1:You know, maybe the minus nutrition wasn't matching the training as well. It's hard though.
Speaker 2:I hats off to powerlifters. It's hard to like to keep your nutrition on point when you're hitting like high fatigue levels. You know what I mean? Yeah, You're just burning out. You're just looking for anything to eat. I found I snacked quite a lot. I think it's that.
Speaker 1:But doing that type of training for, I think you know, a solid year or whatever, a solid year and a bit you know, it certainly helps overall strength 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's good training and it helps with like your compound lifts, like you got. You're good at your compound lifts, like your techniques is nailed. You know what I mean. So because you're deadlifting all the time and you're squatting all the time, so you get very good at them, bodybuilding is more fun. I like powerbuilding. Bodybuilding is not fun. Do you like bicep curls? Absolutely. Oh, my God. I did bicep curls today and I could have fallen asleep. I hate bicep curls?
Speaker 1:No, but the difference between me and you is that when I do bicep curls, at least when I look in the mirror, I can see something.
Speaker 2:Yeah Right, go on. I've had a long day, barry, go on, slag me off, go on, I'll take it.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:What else? No, to be fair, I just hate. I don't. I don't know what it is about bicep Shout out to all listeners right now who hate bicep curls. And also, and to be fair, triceps are better, but biceps are better. What about?
Speaker 1:exercise selection. Let's talk about doing arms still no, but what I'm trying to get at is that maybe you know the exercise that are best for a building muscle, for me or for you are maybe different for someone else, based on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there'll be slight variation. Right, there'll be slight variations, shape, size, um.
Speaker 1:Well, you've got like your hip yeah.
Speaker 2:So, like your hips might be in a certain way that certain lower body movements are better for you. Like, if I go on a leg press, I'm terrible. I get no range. But my flexibility through, like my quads and hamstrings, is actually that bad. But I just can't get range on a leg press because my hips are terrible. I get hip pain all the time. But if I do a single leg leg press it's perfect for me. I can get all the way down and get really good range press back up.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you'll have exercises like suit you or don't suit you. You like, you don't like, and there's a lot of staples. So, like everyone can probably more likely do some sort of squat variation right. Or like you've got in your gym like a hack squat. I don't think anyone couldn't do a hack squat. It's very good quad exercise or leg extension, leg curl. So a lot of exercises that I would say are staples in everyone's program that everyone can do. But you'll find variations, especially in movements, that you can tweak and people might suit this better or suit that better.
Speaker 1:And how highly would you rate technique? I think you're quite similar to me. We're quite strict on our form. We're a bit boring, aren't we?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think good techniques are a good thing to learn. It's an asset to have to perform exercises pretty much spot on textbook. There is variation, like, for example, with deadlifting. You can. You'll see some pro deadlifters have flex backs and their backs won't move for the whole movement, which is safe because they're used to that position. They're strong in that position, their core is very solid in that position, their backs not moving during the movement. So you can. You can get away with what people would call probably categorized as bad technique. But if you're doing machine based stuff or like volume based stuff, I think it's all about technique right, Try and use the muscle properly. That means you need good technique of the exercise variation you're doing. But you might see things like what you do back extensions rounded right, so use your glutes more. So you're in technically what people call bad posture, but you're trying to prioritize the glutes working. Yeah, so I do them as well. So people looking at you go, oh, bad posture, but you're doing it correctly.
Speaker 1:I don't think it takes much for someone to learn good technique, and when you've got good technique, I always think you're going to get that little added benefit. It's like anything. It's like anything If you, if you improve your techniques at any sport in action, like a golf swing for example, you're going to hit the ball better, do you?
Speaker 2:know what I mean? Oh yeah, 100% yeah.
Speaker 2:You know if you apply that to any example is did you see the women's World Cup England penalty shootout? Was it? Today we lost the loss of a loss, one. But though there's a penalty shootout and this one of the girls had this penalty and went 110 kilometers an hour, which is as powerful as this guy who's got one of the most powerful shots in the world, and it's as powerful as his second most powerful free kick. And this guy prioritizes getting massive legs, like most strong, powerful legs, and this girl her techniques, you know a little hop, skip and a jump and it was phenomenal and it was like a rocket. So there's an argument for good technique. No one was saying that penalty Guys, look it up. It's unbelievable, One of the best things I've ever seen in my life ever.
Speaker 1:I need to watch this now. So, yeah, good technique, it doesn't. It doesn't take much to sort of try and improve your technique, and with the good technique we're talking about controlling the repetitions as well.
Speaker 2:Not necessarily adding in some wild tempo, but just learning how to control the standard tempo is fine, like two or three seconds on the way down, one second on the way up, nothing fancy and range of motion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean we can do. We can do partial reps and things like that, but for them, for the most part, we want to be working in a, I find, like a full range of motion partial reps will work better for people who are possibly more enhanced athletes.
Speaker 2:If that makes sense they can get away with really like destroying their arms, whilst as a as a natural, you have to be quite smart about making every rep as good as possible to then progress that.
Speaker 1:That's why we should be strict with our form making sure the weights are controlled and then you know, get full, full of strange emotion for all the movements as our body allows Good, good Next up, sleep and stress. Have you been sleeping well, Barry?
Speaker 2:I have been sleeping quite well recently. Yeah, when I move eight hours.
Speaker 1:well, they say optimal is about seven and a half, is it so you mean like do?
Speaker 2:you get seven and a half, then I think I do I go no more optimal.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't know if it's because you know.
Speaker 2:I'm getting up now at six in the morning. I've had my seven and a half, if you want to build muscle.
Speaker 1:You need to eat as well, so you don't want to spend too long A black coffee color Sleeping and fasting, true, okay yeah.
Speaker 1:But sleep and stress, I've sort of put them as both sort of similar importance. I think a lot of people like every day, people that are going to gym to get a little bit fitter, stronger, even maybe to lose body fat or lose weight and things like that, they don't really put a lot of importance on sleep and are even kind of aware of their stress levels, and I always find that these are two things that really hamper my client's progress.
Speaker 2:Have you ever taken some time off and then, like, trained? I'm like how much better is that session? Yeah, you feel that when you don't have anything on, you just go to the gym train. You feel fantastic. So stress is a big thing, it's very important and we're all going to have stress to some degree.
Speaker 1:You know, your stress might be quite low, my stress might be a little bit higher, our client stress might be way higher. Their stress, stress levels are all related to whatever's going on in their life how much commitments they've got, what their work's like, their family's life, etc. Etc. So everyone's different. But if the stress is quite big then that could be affecting the sleep, that could also be affecting our effort and intensity and it could be affecting our adherence and consistency. So it kind of indirectly affects the key things that are important to build a muscle or even just to get fit and lose body fat. So I always try and help people a little bit with their stress levels, find out a little bit more about them and how organized they are in their daily life.
Speaker 2:You say it's not good enough. You've got to be way more organized. It's difficult.
Speaker 1:It's not something that it is hard, it's something that you can.
Speaker 2:It's a hard thing to manage because by the time you're thinking about managing it, it's usually too high already and then the managing it stresses you out. You'll find that I get stressed. Because you're stressed, you're like, oh God, I can't be like this. I've organized things. Oh God. Sleep is important, though I get like six to eight hours depends on my Depends if I'm up super early or not by trying it as much as I can these days.
Speaker 1:The only times I can't get a good night's sleep is if I drink caffeine too late in the day. That's the only time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do that sometimes. I saw a try not to do that In response to caffeine consumption, just like oh, it's half five, six, three, four, five six.
Speaker 1:But after a certain time I try not to come out, cut out. Yeah, because I value my sleep. It's honestly one of the best times of the day sleeping. I love it, do you? Yeah, do you not?
Speaker 2:So Barry's perfect day is actually sleeping. You should see his face, right?
Speaker 1:now.
Speaker 2:That is buzzing, that is buzzing for sleep.
Speaker 1:Go back to my perfect day, right yeah, an amazing sleep at night.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to be fair, a good sleep. You know you wake up feeling better.
Speaker 1:You wake up feeling good. It's good for your mood. You're honestly making me.
Speaker 2:It's good for your mental health Like I'm so envy to like be on holiday right now, get a good night's sleep and wake up in the morning. We need to move on. What's the next one, barry? What have?
Speaker 1:we got next. We have got like other nutritional variables, things like meal timings, macro ratios oh God, things like that Consuming around you know how many meals per day we should consume, should it be like yeah, but it's kind of like minutiae, isn't it? That's what I'm trying to say. These things are not that important.
Speaker 2:It's like supplements, for example.
Speaker 1:We'll probably fall to that they're not supplements Next after that. So these things are quite low down on the scale. They're not of huge importance. They're probably not worth us speaking about for too long, but you spoke about it before, like in terms of whey protein and creatine, etc.
Speaker 2:Haven't we Like taking those? I do, I take both, but like you don't have to, you don't have to any of it.
Speaker 2:The meal timing. Yeah, it's like a small you will like be more anabolic if you're constantly getting fed with protein throughout the day rather than having periods of time where you don't have that. But like it's just such minutiae it's really not worth worrying about. I used to worry about I don't know about you, I used to worry about it so much when I first got started going to training. I bet you did as well. Yeah, you're like oh my God, it's two hours. I need to get my food ready because if I don't have it by three hours I'm not going to get as much muscle mass. And then I was nowhere near as big as I probably am now.
Speaker 1:Well, that's why we're here. We're here to teach people not to make the mistakes that we made, because if we did this conversation 15 years ago, what I would have number one probably is supplements.
Speaker 2:You gotta have, yeah, meal timing number two you gotta eat your meals, bro. Yeah, it's a complete nonsense.
Speaker 1:So things like that would be of high importance, but they're not really. They're on the list because they're worth mentioning and they're worth speaking about, I think. Creatine, caffeine, whey protein these are three supplements that I've kept in my diet for quite a long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do all three yeah.
Speaker 1:I'd be happily recommend them to most people.
Speaker 2:But again, if you didn't have them, it's not really the end of the world.
Speaker 1:It's not the end of the world. I've went through long periods without any supplements. Same yeah If you've longed your focus on it and been consistent, putting a lot of effort in keeping your intensity high, making sure you're getting enough protein and calories in your, in your diet, whether it's through Three meals a day, five meals a day, bigger meals in the evening, littleer meals in the morning, it doesn't really matter.
Speaker 2:I found, as I cared less, I progressed more as an interesting takeaway for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Good as.
Speaker 2:I like prioritized like my life and enjoying myself outside, going on holiday, things that I found I've made more progress in terms of build a muscle and being stronger because I have again, as you said, less stress. I feel better, I have a better lifestyle. I like that enjoyable. Yeah, care less, just get your the simple things proteins up. You're consistently training, you're pushing yourself.
Speaker 1:All these things are speaking about interlink, don't they? Yeah, and one can can offset the other. Yeah, 100%, it can complement the other, you know, and, and so that's why we've mentioned a few things and these things are important. And then the last, the last thing I put was was things like other recovery methods. You know, things like massage, Stretching.
Speaker 2:Very good one to have, barry. It's a very good one. I can't be. Last time I got a massage, I just get them all time. My body's decaying.
Speaker 1:I got a massage recently and I Wish, I got massage more often.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I sports massage. I remember the elbows coming out. You do feel better and they are good. There's like the bath salts, isn't that? That's a trendy thing these days. What about those? Those tops? People have what they called. Oh yeah, you know the ones I'm on about, the Lumis spa ones. Yeah, and I spoke to two people. They put me the burst already. I was like glass I'm, but like ice baths are a thing right now as well, aren't they? And again, it's such my new shirt, if you're. If you're like a top-end athlete and you're training ridiculously hard, I understand it. If you're like an endurance athlete, I understand it. It's my new shin. They've got they. Look at the. My new shing go. That'll help information. I'll recover better help.
Speaker 1:There's not a great deal of research back in.
Speaker 2:I will. Oh yeah, I did actually read a story on cold water immersion from muscle building. Hey, you talk about muscle building on me. Cold water obviously limits blood flow. Yeah, then less blood gets like it Brings heat down, so I think the blood flow slows slightly, so you actually get less nutrients than the muscle etc. So actually hinders muscle. But like muscle building by, but like tiny bit as well, it makes you feel good as well.
Speaker 1:I've got to say, though and when I was in locked a on holiday, I went in the locks women Did you every day.
Speaker 2:And it was. You can kick a loomy span like, scoop the water into it and jump in it up.
Speaker 1:No, no, no it's went straight to lock and I felt I honestly felt amazing after and it was really cold it was like a wake-up, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a little bit of an adrenaline rush and I did it every day and you know I Was a little experiment on myself. I went when I went on holiday. I did have a few aches and pains and I was feeling a bit Soaring, stiff in certain places. By the end of the week I felt great. Was it because I had a week's rest and I didn't do any training? Was it because I went in the cold water? Swimming was a bit of both.
Speaker 2:It's like also getting out there, like enjoying the world right. I quite like that. He'll go on like, yeah, I jumped in a lock.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fantastic, imagine looking at that.
Speaker 2:I go and like I'm not gonna jump in there, let's jump in, have a bit of fun.
Speaker 1:But if you bet there'll be a lot of people that maybe are listening that that do have these looming, was it loomy?
Speaker 2:I think it's loomy spa. There's lots of different. I'm sure there's other brands If it's making them feel better. Yeah, I love it. No, fire away.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's allowing them to sleep better or To focus better or get the stress levels down.
Speaker 2:I think it helps.
Speaker 1:I think it's helping them in any way mental it's not think about the physical side of it, it's if they're saying the research doesn't really back it up. If it's helping them in a mental way, then I'm all for it.
Speaker 2:But if I walked up to you right now and I slept in the face, all your stress would go and all you'd worry about was that slap in the face, wouldn't you how we punch you in the face? That'd be interesting, guys.
Speaker 2:We're gonna film the next episode, but you know what I mean so like it's like a thing where you sit in that cold water for a second. All you think about was that cold water. It takes your mind completely away from everything else and I, quite like I used to do cold showers. I still occasionally do, probably like once or twice a week, and, well funny, feel a very like chill down after I came back From locked a and how many times you say in locked a in this bloody podcast. I was.
Speaker 1:I was one. I was wanting to go for a swim again, right, and I thought, yeah, I'll have a cold shower, right? Unreal, I can't do a cold shower house. That's so hard what you gotta do, like you put it, to the coldest setting in your shower, right you know, if you do it gradually.
Speaker 2:So what, how?
Speaker 1:hard is it to be in the cold shower for any length of time?
Speaker 2:No, it's fine. It's not it's fine, it's not you start hot, well, hot, like Luke won't, it's harder. And you go oh, big turn, that's too hard, and it goes when you go. And you go big turn, and then you're good to go. No, stand there, just cotton play. You sit there. It's great, actually, because you always think about the whole time. It's oh god.
Speaker 1:This is so. I would rather go in the cold bath. I think you know just didn't have the cold. Sure, I don't know if there's anyone can relate to that, but cold shower was sure you got a lovely new bath in your, in your house.
Speaker 2:You can fill that with ice cubes.
Speaker 1:I know we've turned us into, like speaking about ice baths and things but another sort of key Reason why I think a lot, a lot of guys do this is because it helps them overcome something that that is fear yeah like they're scared of it or that it's like yeah daunting. And if they can do that and if they can, if they can put their body and their mind through that, then they can tackle whatever else is yeah, coming today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1:I think I like that theory behind it, and I think I like people.
Speaker 2:if people doing it for the right reasons, always good, I like that but.
Speaker 1:But basically what we're saying, guys, is Be consistent, put in plenty effort, train a good intensity, work to failure Not all the time, but some of the time and build that volume. Get on top of your nutrition. Make sure that you're not always dieting, you're getting plenty calories, you are consuming enough protein, and and then everything else other than that is sort of minute but other things are super important. It's super important. There are your sleep, your stress levels, things like that missing one thing.
Speaker 2:What I'm missing lock T is a fantastic place to go on holiday, because Barry spoke about it 30 times On that note.
Speaker 1:Matthew, I've pressed the wrong button.
Speaker 2:Yeah, go on, yeah, go on. There's a little like DJ thing and he's just pressing random colors. Now, wrong one, go to the other side. Well guys, a pleasure, it's good to be back. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1:It's good to see you again, matthew, yeah, and Hopefully we'll meet up very soon so we can do us, and we will probably will film some soon, won't we?
Speaker 2:We'll record some yeah, why not?
Speaker 1:are we getting to that stage where we're confident enough to be on camera?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll be quite interesting. Be good fun with it.
Speaker 1:Well, you'll have to put on some half decent closing Can't be turned up in those things, barry sitting in his boxes right now. Anyway, guys, thanks for listening. Hopefully you learned something. If you didn't, then I'm sorry. Next time See you there.