The Most OVERRATED Bodybuilding Factors (and what’s und… — Transcript

All right, what's up everybody? So today I've got eight different training variables. I'm going to go through each one, say if it's overrated or underrated in my opinion, give my reasoning, and just my brief thoughts on each training variable.

variable so on the menu for today rep ranges volume machines proximity to failure diet Progressive overload training instinctively and last but not least number eight will be genetics so with that said I'm going to dive into the first one which is rep ranges I

So on the menu for today: rep ranges, volume, machines, proximity to failure, diet, progressive overload, training instinctively, and last but not least, number eight will be genetics.

a little over under their target rep range that I had prescribed for them and this is just something where it's really not that big of a deal uh there's so many lifts that work well in a variety of rep ranges and you're not really

So with that said, I'm going to dive into the first one, which is rep ranges. I actually think rep ranges are a bit overrated. This is probably one of the more common questions I get from my clients. They're asking what rep range they should use, if they can change rep ranges, if it's okay if they went a little over or under their target rep range that I had prescribed for them.

across the board is a waste of time you could kind of make the case for four but why not just do five or six uh it's just getting a little bit too low to where you might not actually see the best

And this is just something where it's really not that big of a deal. There's so many lifts that work well in a variety of rep ranges, and you're not really training different functions of a muscle by going a little bit lower or higher. Of course, there are, in general, going to be certain rep ranges that you want to avoid. I'd say 1 to 4 pretty much across the board is a waste of time. You could kind of make the case for 4, but why not just do 5 or 6?

exceptions to that but usually around 15 plus 20 plus especially like 30 plus you just don't really want to be doing a whole ton of your programming there uh for just practical reasons fatigue uh endurance cardio breathing wise um even

It's just getting a little bit too low to where you might not actually see the best growth, and fatigue might be a bit higher. No point in really just going that low. Same problem on the other side of the spectrum. If you're getting usually above, I'd say for most lifts above like 13, 14, 15 reps, of course there are exceptions to that, but usually around 15 plus, 20 plus, especially like 30 plus, you just don't really want to be doing a whole ton of your programming there.

weight for 25 reps that's guaranteed to be what maybe a minute and a half maybe even two minute set depending on your Tempo it's like I just I don't know how everybody's going to stay so focused for that it's going to be a little bit

For just practical reasons: fatigue, endurance, cardio, breathing-wise, even just sensations like the pump and the burn, they get a bit extreme at that point. And even something else that nobody really talks about: just your overall mental focus. It's like if you know you're going to be moving the weight for 25 reps, that's guaranteed to be what, maybe a minute and a half, maybe even two-minute set depending on your tempo.

to get out of the lift is going to be important too that can be useful uh but again preference is mostly going to be key here if something's lengthen biased like say A Smith bench or a preacher curl uh doing a little bit lower reps

It's like, I just, I don't know how everybody's going to stay so focused for that. It's going to be a little bit tricky. So with rep ranges, preference will override in most cases, but I would say skewing rep ranges to be a little bit higher or lower depending on the resistance profile of the lift and just what you're looking to get out of the lift is going to be important too. That can be useful.

use heavier weight might actually have some benefits so usually that's kind of the rule of thumb that I like to go by uh and for stuff that is super short biased usually higher reps feel a little bit better I don't know if it's just the

But again, preference is mostly going to be key here. If something's lengthened-biased, like say a Smith bench or a preacher curl, doing a little bit lower reps, like maybe 6 to 8, 6 to 10 kind of in that range, is totally fine. Going higher in reps just doesn't necessarily provide any extra benefit, especially if the lift does give a really good stretch.

lifts volume is the next one volume is the the longer I lift the more I realize volume is overrated ultimately it's just your workload the best way I could describe this just to sum sum it up real quick you want to beat your muscle to a

Going a little bit lower in reps just to use heavier weight might actually have some benefits. So usually that's kind of the rule of thumb that I like to go by. And for stuff that is super short-biased, usually higher reps feel a little bit better. I don't know if it's just the slightly lighter weight that feels better or if it's just heavier weight that's awkward.

under very high effort close to failure you're pretty much good and diminishing returns are going to be a thing there's Nuance to that but I'm not going to spend this whole video talking about that but with volume you don't need a

Either way, as long as you're within that like 5 to 12, 5 to 15, 6 to 15 range, you're pretty much good for most lifts. Volume is the next one. Volume is the, the longer I lift, the more I realize volume is overrated. Ultimately, it's just your workload. The best way I could describe this, just to sum it up real quick: you want to beat your muscle to a pulp during a set, but how many times you do that is far less important.

that smoke your muscle it's not really about how many you actually do volume I like to use as a tool for if everything else is exhausted and your volume is already on Like the quote unquote Lower Side that's kind of like all right

So as long as your sets are being pushed very hard and you are getting a good proximity to failure and just getting everything within your muscle activated and firing under very high effort, close to failure, you're pretty much good. And diminishing returns are going to be a thing. There's nuance to that, but I'm not going to spend this whole video talking about that.

sets a week or should I do 10 sets a week it's like just just pick one it doesn't actually matter what one you start with because you don't even know so only way to find out is just through

But with volume, you don't need a whole ton of it. You don't want to do just a little bit, but as long as you're getting productive, difficult sets during your workout, that's pretty much fine. So it's more so about at least having some working sets that smoke your muscle. It's not really about how many you actually do.

works at least in in most cases and it's it's something you can experiment with so easily too number three is going to be machines machines and I'll probably always say this I mean I guess it depends on what the community kind of

Volume I like to use as a tool for if everything else is exhausted and your volume is already on like the quote-unquote lower side, that's kind of like, all right, everything's good, maybe you're still on a plateau, maybe you do need an extra set. That's when I think increasing volume can actually have benefit.

mess up specifically free weight squat patterns where just doing a machine if you have access to a machine can lock your Technique in really nicely so uh most people are going to be hip dominant if you're quad dominant that's extremely

But if you're just talking about like, oh, I haven't seen any gains, should I do seven sets a week or should I do 10 sets a week? It's like, just pick one. It doesn't actually matter what one you start with because you don't even know. So the only way to find out is just through your training, and it really just isn't something to worry about or focus on.

what's going on if you're a a more trained lifter or you're more athletic generally speaking you can override this a little bit easier but I would say for people that maybe aren't as gifted genetically or just aren't as athletic or maybe you're

There's so many more things that are more important. Volume seems like one of these things where more is always better. It's just not quite how that works, at least in most cases, and it's something you can experiment with so easily too.

something like a quad biased Squat and anytime your quads start to activate and kind of get close to failure your hips just start taking over so using machines in these situations are just incredibly useful there's also a lot of movements

Number three is going to be machines. Machines, and I'll probably always say this, I mean, I guess it depends on what the community kind of trends towards in general, but I would say machines are actually underrated.

you can do like a body weight leg extension too but those are just two things that machines can do that you have a much harder time doing with your own body weight uh hack squats you can't really do with without a machine uh it

They're just so versatile, and they pretty much guarantee that you are going to be doing the lift properly. There's so many lifts that are easy to mess up, specifically free weight squat patterns, where just doing a machine, if you have access to a machine, can lock your technique in really nicely.

much solely train on machines these days and that's not to say free weights aren't aren't good or they're not worth using it's just if you have machines available I would probably just pick the machines as long as you don't have a

So most people are going to be hip dominant. If you're quad dominant, that's extremely rare or you've trained yourself to beat that in a very specific kind of unique way. Most people are going to have a hard time taking their quads close to failure because their hips are just going to take over, and they have no idea what's going on.

machines machines are designed by smart people too this is something that nobody really talks about these aren't just like random dyel guys that are like oh we'll just make this to fill up more space in a gym they're designed by

If you're a more trained lifter or you're more athletic, generally speaking, you can override this a little bit easier. But I would say for people that maybe aren't as gifted genetically or just aren't as athletic, or maybe you're severely detrained, like you were athletic but you've been sedentary for, say, 10 years or so and you're in your mid-30s and haven't done anything since high school or college, it might be difficult for you to learn how to do something like a quad-biased squat.

we have so many intelligently designed machines and people will just write them off entirely because it's a machine and it's not hardcore so um yeah and I used to do this a lot myself unfortunately uh machine super underrated if you treat it

And anytime your quads start to activate and kind of get close to failure, your hips just start taking over. So using machines in these situations is just incredibly useful. There's also a lot of movements that you just straight up can't do with a free weight that you can do with a machine.

think there's been a lot of talk about uh four reps and Reserve is equal to failure is equal to zero reps and Reserve I just don't really see this as true I think it makes a lot of logical

A leg extension comes to mind, hamstring curl comes to mind. Of course, you can do Nordic curls, and you can do like a bodyweight leg extension too, but those are just two things that machines can do that you have a much harder time doing with your own bodyweight.

a it's a good source of accountability because if you're someone that has a hard time finding that happy medium of pushing yourself but holding back ever so slightly just setting a goal to zero R is a great way to train because you

Hack squats, you can't really do without a machine. It just supports your hips like a barbell never could because it doesn't have that external stability. So machines are super underrated. You're not getting any less stimulus from machines than you would with free weights.

tank uh this is something that you can use maybe as you're more advanced if you find that you can get equal growth from holding a couple reps in the tank that's fine but I'd say for the vast majority

If anything, you'd get slightly more, and I pretty much solely train on machines these days. And that's not to say free weights aren't good or they're not worth using. It's just if you have machines available, I would probably just pick the machines as long as you don't have a specific preference.

than safety and I it just doesn't make sense in in most cases to leave a bunch of reps in the tank uh especially when proximity failure is very closely correlated related with how much stimulus and how much growth you

If you prefer free weights for whatever reason, then ultimately that could override, but if you're looking for the best results and pretty indifferent towards the tool you're using, machines are always going to be a really good choice.

people put way too much of their mental energy and focus into diet it really is overrated of course there are leanness preferences and that's where diet is a bit more important if you have a specific preference by a specific

deadline take uh bodybuilding for example a very obvious example uh this is something where their body fat has to be at certain points at certain times like they have deadlines so you can't just bulk up to 25% body fat and

continue the bulk even if it's productive unproductive whatever obviously 25% is unproductive that's a little bit too high but if you have a show in 3 months you have to be probably 12 to 14 % body fat at that point and

whether it would be more productive to slowly bulk up to 17 18 19 20% or cut to um say 8 n 7% and do a show doesn't really matter it's like you have it has you have the show that you have to be

ready for so uh that's why I think the general population or just recreational lifters similar to myself no matter how seriously you take it there's been too much of a focus on diet because I think a lot a lot of the stuff we

learn in that has been popularized in the community has been from competitive bodybuilding where we need to take take the training stuff but the diet stuff just doesn't really apply to us so uh that's one thing that I do think is

overrated uh I think the foods that you eat specifically for muscle growth are also overrated like chicken rice and broccoli uh I think we're kind of beyond that I don't really need to expand on that but I also think protein's been a

bit overrated too I don't need a whole ton of protein I barely slash don't even eat meat um and I've I've been all right so far so number six is Progressive overload and this is a tough one to answer so I'm

actually going to say progressive overload is actually both overrated and underrated this is kind of a unique one because it's very context dependent you can have uh a variance in in my answer based on your own context with things

such as personality type what niche of the fitness industry you're in ETC there are so many things that changes whether it should be a focus or whether it should not be a focus or whether it should be your primary focus or maybe

something like your the fifth most important thing on your to-do list in the gym um at least Focus wise so it really does depend on your situation I would say for my specific Channel my Channel's been built on a foundation of

kind of giving the warnings of making Progressive overload too much of a focus and the downsides of that I I think a lot of people here probably fall under a pretty pretty similar category as myself where you focus just way too much on

strength and focused way too much on paper and adding reps and Progressive overload and it was at the expense of your overall technique and stimulus it was just to sum it up it's kind of just ego lifting but not really for the sake

of your ego you're just constantly anxious about adding a rep or or adding weight to the bar because it's been shoved down your throat by the fitness industry for so long uh specifically a a lot of it from like powerlifters and

strength oriented people too which which is a whole other topic uh but I would also say progressive overload is underrated as a primary focus um or at least as a high priority for people that need some accountability to actually

make sure their training effort stays High uh session over session so you get some people that will train until it kind of feels hard uh but they're they're they're a little bit too passive and they're not they don't go all out in the gym and

there are people a lot of beginners especially because you just haven't really learned the ropes of training yet where keeping Progressive overload as a bit higher thing on your priority list can be useful where if you feel like

some days you're super motivated and you go in and you crush it and then the next day if you're not feeling motivated then it's easy to just kind of stop a little bit shy at failure maybe you're still

training kind of hard but not as hard as you could well tracking your training and focusing on your most recent or your best performance gives you a guideline of what you can actually handle so if you're doing say something like a lat

pull down and you start off doing 100 lb for 10 reps on a great session where you went all out you were motivated you were fired up then the next session you do 100 lb and you stop at five or you're

doing warmups and 80 feels kind of heavy that day I'm not saying it's not okay to Auto regulate your training and adjust your reps or you're working wait a little bit day by day but it gives you a

pretty good basically guideline of reference to what you can actually handle and I'd say in in 98% of cases regardless of how you feel or or how you slept avoiding the extremes of course regardless of how you feel how motivated

you are you can match or beat your previous performance in a lot of cases uh and that's something that I think people don't talk about quite enough where motivation at least for me seems a little bit overrated where it's like

whether you're sad happy motivated depressed whatever like physically you can handle what you've done most recently and avoiding the extremes like injuries like sleeping less than 4 hours or something ridiculous like that you can match performance very easily so if

you're someone that you feel like your motivation and your effort levels fluctuate like crazy tracking and keeping a closer eye on Progressive overload can definitely be useful but on the other side of that same coin uh for someone like myself and I actually have

quite a few clients that still are kind of in this mindset where they have to just chase the numbers they don't feel good about themselves if they don't add a rep to every lift it's like that's just it's sad to see people kind of fall

into that where you they constantly have to focus on technique they constantly have to refine things and pull back uh it's just something where if you train hard and you give it your best effort and you genuinely know that at the

bottom of your heart whatever you don't have to focus as much on Progressive overload still track things still write down your workout still keep a log book at least of your working weights and ideally with reps too but don't live and

die by that that does that should not dictate how you feel during each session that should not dictate if you if it was a productive session or not ultimately it's just the general Trend in your numbers in your measurements in your

body weight in your progress pictures like it's just another one of those variables that's useful but it's not something to live or die by next one will be training instinctively so this this is uh kind of a similar one to

Progressive overload where you have some people that should be using their instincts a little bit more than they are and you have some people that are the other way around where maybe they're using their instincts too much and there's there's two sides to this as

well where you have instincts that will tell you what hard training is and you can listen to those or you can also listen to your instincts that say let's cons of energy this hurts we're giving you painful Sensations you're out of

breath and your muscles burning let's hold back so instinctive training that's kind of tough to Define because you have such a big spectrum of instincts that you could choose to listen to or choose to ignore based on what your mindset and

your motivation levels in your approach overall is so if you're someone that you find if you don't if you aren't detail oriented about your training and you do try to train a little bit more instinctively but you find that your

instincts tell tell you to hold back and tell you to stop a set once it starts to hurt or maybe take more days off from the gym than you know and most of the time we deep down we kind of know what

this is you kind of have that guilt up in your head you know you can do better um this is probably a situation where training instinctively it could still be useful but probably not the best for you at this very moment you should be a

little bit more um I guess a little bit more detail oriented with your approach track everything uh and focus be a little bit more logical than instinctive uh in this situation you also have people that listen to the instincts of

their body telling them that what they're doing is productive and it's hard training because your body will tell you uh but I see a lot of these people and I've done this myself in the past especially as a beginner where I

would do something that I know feels good that I know feels right that I know is super challenging and stimulative for hypertrophy but based on maybe something I read or something I saw on Instagram I would change my training to suit

whatever social media set is optimal so a good example of this is uh when I first started lifting I saw some post about uh like Hammer Strength machines being just like a I don't even remember what it said but it was like use hammer

strike machines for X reason I had been doing dumbbell bench for pretty much the majority of my time lifting as a beginner and keep in mind this is still like my first few months of lifting I was like 17 or something but just just a

quick example I could think of off the top of my head so I would do dumbbell bench all the time and for me that that lift just felt great uh I was very used to the movement it's not a very stable

lift but I practiced it enough to where I was very stable with it I got an excellent stretch the resistance profile felt great even though if you asked me what a resistance profile was I I would have no idea what that means but I could

still tell it was length and biased it was stretch focused and it felt good I didn't know that stretch was important I didn't even know what length and bias meant but it felt good it also converges I knew that felt good but I didn't even

know what converges meant I didn't even think about these things but when I was kind of told by social media or maybe it was a friend at the time I don't even remember to do a Hammer Strength machine

instead this uh the machine that I used was super short biased I didn't even think of these but it just felt super awkward it was this kind of weird uh it was like an incline press I don't even

remember what Hammer Strength machine it was but it was a super awkward feeling one that just didn't quite click right for me and it didn't really make sense the resistance profile looking back yeah the resistance profile was wacky I

probably had like the seat on the wrong height or something too but it just didn't feel right but I stuck with it for longer than I should have uh because I didn't trust my instincts when I should have so sometimes you just have

to go with your gut if you're someone that knows how to push yourself and you know how to train hard sometimes it's best to just not overthink and just go in and do what you know feels hard and

feels good and feels very potent in the gym so uh up next I do want to give a shout out to Barbell Apparel the sale is continuing with the pants all pants jeans and Cheetos $99 you can see what

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not just the pants but you can see all the shirts and stuff that I wear in my videos too so the last one for genetics this has been kind of a hotly debated topic on my channel recently obviously I

posted a video saying how I got big with average genetics um basically I'm just going over I'm going over my mindset with lifting and in that video I'm not it wasn't me saying here's why I have average genetics the way I see it is

whether I'm average a little above or a little below I think I'm within Striking Distance of the average 25-year-old male uh and I I don't think that I have any particularly special gifts or anything that maybe holds me back more than it

would the average person uh I'm not I'm not far enough away from average in either direction to make a big difference is ultimately what I'm trying to say so with genetics this is something that if you take kind of a a I

guess a broader picture with this if you step back a little bit and look at the bigger picture you could say that if you tell people genetics don't matter and anybody can do anything that will always have a better result than if you say

genetics determine everything and your fate is already chosen for you you your potential is already out there it's already Chosen and if you have bad genetics you're just screwed you could argue that this first option is the better way to go about things uh for

somebody with a platform like myself but I do want to make sure I don't get carried away too far into that because ultimately like with my channel I'm I'm trying to motivate people to lift I have this crazy passion for lifting and I try

and let that show in my videos and I try to avoid any excuses or at at the very least giving other people excuses so for somebody like myself or somebody in my shoes when we're super passionate about lifting it's easy to say that maybe

genetics don't matter or maybe it's easy to want to say that and I want to make sure my message doesn't get twisted at all what I'm trying to say here is most people use genetics as an excuse when

it's really not uh I'm also trying to say that I don't have Elite genetics you can baate me on that if you like I know some people do think I actually genuinely have aite genetics I think that's insane I think at best I probably

have above average maybe in the 75th percentile but like I I've been there done that I've trained with guys that are just like I I could School them in any discussion about lifting or programming or or anything and they'd still be

bigger than me uh it's taken me a while to get to where I'm at I'm not trying to and and it's another one of those things where people will say I have an incentive to say I have average or bad

genetics because it would um if I said I had good genetics it would discount my hard work if there was a way to take a genetic test and it came back that I had 90th percentile genetics I I don't

really care that much even if you do have say Elite genetics good genetics or whatever you still have to work super hard to get to your potential regardless so I'm personally not really worried about that I just want to make sure that

I I don't go against my own gut with this conversation and say that I think I'm gifted and I don't think you can get to where I'm at because I really don't think I'm gifted in any particular way

so to get that out of the way I would say when it comes to good or bad genetics there's a few different topics with this and we might not all be on the same page with anything like good or

good or bad genetics for what uh is it for your overall ability to to build muscle are you somebody does somebody with good genetics have the ability to put on 50 pounds of muscle in their lifetime and someone with bad genetics

can add 10 to 15 that's a pretty big deal obviously that's a random example but does good genetics mean everybody can add 40 lbs give or take a couple pounds to your frame but it will look much better on somebody with good

genetics than it would on someone with bad genetics uh just based on insertions body fat storage things like this I think what you talk about with genetic itics determines a lot of of their importance I would argue that your

overall ability to add muscle is the most important genetic Factor the timeline doesn't matter as much I would also say the way that your muscles are shaped or the way they insert doesn't matter that much it's like things that

really aren't worth talking about however if you have just a your body is just straight up not able to add as much muscle as somebody else regardless of the time frame whether it takes a someone with good genetics 3 years to

add 30 pounds or someone with bad genetics eight or nine years those also aren't worth worrying about in my opinion but if you're actual potential muscle that you're able to build in your lifetime is vastly different from good

versus bad genetics I do think that's pretty important that's really the only thing I'd be concerned concerned about in the whole topic of genetics um and from what I can tell and it's so hard to tell because you could have someone that just has

like the worst insertion ever but they have really good genetics for overall muscle abil muscle building ability muscle building potential it's such a hard conversation to have uh but I would say I've seen a lot of people that you

would assume to have bad genetics or just straight up do have bad genetics from like a skeleton or body fat distribution or overall muscle insur insertion standpoint I've seen a lot of those people have insanely jacked physiques that you would never assume

that they could get to just based on the way that their physique looks um and I just from seeing that happen so many times I have a hard time saying that genetics are going to be super important but of course this is going to be a

debate That Never Ends because there's really no way to figure out if genetics are good or bad uh mostly because it's pretty subjective too I would say just to leave this video off on some optimism this is something I've talked about a

while back on the channel I think a lot of people have what I would call delayed Noob gains where if you're an overall say less athletic person or maybe like I said earlier you are someone that's pretty athletic but maybe you've been

sedentary and you're very detrained uh or you just have a higher body fat percentage and you're just not as athletic because you have a higher body fat percentage it might take you longer to get your Noob gains like if you take

someone that's trained in sports uh very good athlete in good physical shape and you just have them go into the gym and they already have good coordination and everything anyways and say um would it be a high pain tolerance yeah High pain

tolerance that means you can handle more pain I I think I don't know if it's the other way around but if you have a high pain tolerance you can probably make your Noob gains and most of your gains

much faster and it might be just the point where you match up perfectly with that chart where you gain 10 to 15 pounds your first year of muscle 8 to 12 6 to 7 3 to 5 1:2 etc for the rest of

your liftting in career but I think a lot of people aren't primed to make their best gains earlier on in their lifting career but they might blow up at like year six or seven after putting in so much work just to get to the point

where the training is actually effective enough to make them grow like how someone that is genetically gifted would actually grow so hopefully that makes sense but either way that's pretty much all I got for today's video so if you

have any questions or anything you want to add to that conversation obviously leave it in the comments and that's it so I'll see you guys in the next one