Are you tired of feeling self conscious about your body and ready to finally achieve that impressive muscular physique you've always dreamed of. In this episode, we're diving deep into the world of body building. For everyday lifters like you and me, we're going to explore the principles the benefits the strategies to help you transform your body and life using this fun practice known as bodybuilding. Whether you're a complete novice or have some experience with lifting weights, get ready to learn everything you need to know to kickstart your bodybuilding journey the right way. Welcome to the wit's end weights podcast. I'm your host, Philip pape, and this twice a week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self mastery by getting stronger. Optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition will uncover science backed strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle and mindset with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry so you can look and feel your absolute best. Let's dive right in Whitson weights community Welcome to another solo episode of The Whitson weights podcast. In our last episode 161, the bioenergetic solution to low energy and chronic health issues with Jay Feldman, you learn about bio Energetic Health, Jay discussed the impact of maximizing cellular energy on your mental health, metabolism, longevity and more. He addressed modern diet, culture, stress and lifestyle in the context of your health, and offered practical solutions to adopt a sustainable energy boosting diet without relying on restriction or willpower. Today, I'm very excited for this one, actually, Episode 162 bodybuilding for everyday lifters who want to build their dream physique. We're exploring the world of bodybuilding, and providing you with a guide to help you build your dream physique, you're going to learn the fundamental principles of bodybuilding, I'm all about principles, methods are great. But understanding why we do these things gives you the power to do them in many different ways. We're going to talk about progressive overload proper form the role of nutrition in supporting your bodybuilding goals. We'll also delve into the benefits of bodybuilding, because I think there's something to be said, for understanding why we do this right beyond just the physical appearance. There's also the mental health, there's the overall physical health and how to set realistic goals, how to track your progress, and how to overcome plateaus and challenges along the way, all the things. Now whether you are completely new to bodybuilding, and by the way, this is bodybuilding with a little b as my coach Andy Baker would say, not the big B competitive physique sport, this is just everyday lifters who want to sculpt their physique. Or let's say you've been doing this for a while, and you're ready to take your training to the next level. As always, on this show, we share knowledge, we share strategies, so that you can transform your body to get that physique that you want. Now, before we dive in, there is probably a reason you are listening to this particular episode. Maybe it's because you've been working out, you've been working hard in the gym, but you're still not seeing the physique results you want. And I firmly believe that most people struggle, because of the conflicting advice because of the dieting advice out there that's quite restrictive. And all of this one size fits all templates and programs that just don't work for individual people for their individual lifestyle and response. So if you had a way to finally break through those plateaus, and achieve the strong, lean, healthy body wanted, without feeling like you're fighting against yourself, that's why I put out this episode. And also, this is the week to make that happen. Because I'm very proud to announce that we finally and officially opened enrollment for the new Whitson weights physique University, which is in my opinion, the I'm a little bit biased. In my opinion, it's the best solution out there. If you're looking to transform your physique, take your fitness nutrition to the next level, and do it in a way that feels right for you. And that's the key. My team and I have spent hundreds of hours putting this together so that it has everything you need. Okay, and we delayed and delayed until it had at least the things that I would have personally wanted in a program like this if I started four or five years ago, and the things you get are a done for you personalized nutrition plan, custom design courses, on everything from metabolism to training to menopause, fat loss to nutrition, okay, and if you liked the podcast, you're going to love those courses they are even more targeted and directly to those topics and issues. Every month we're going to drop monthly workout programs tailored to different goals. And all of this is tied to a private community where you can check in get one on one guidance from yours truly and join a live coaching call every week and since we are focused on body building and workouts today, I wanted to give you a quick rundown on that because in Whitson weights physique University you'll receive for brand New physique focused workout programs each month. So what you hear in the podcast today, we're gonna go through the whole all of the principles of all of this, how it's set up. And then the programs complement that because then the actual way that you execute those principles, we've got programs for novice and intermediate levels, people who have full access to a gym or limited home gym, or a travel, gym, and even a female lower body focused program in there, and I expect that we're going to expand on that as more people join the program. So if you want to apply everything you're going to hear in today's episode, to achieve the physique of your dreams to take control of your health and fitness journey, go to Witson weights.com/physique. Or click the link in my show notes to enroll in Whitson weights physique University. Again, that's Whitson weights.com/physique, or just click the link in my show notes. This is a monthly cancel anytime program. And I made sure to include a 21 day money back guarantee so you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain, including, of course, the gains with a Z. Okay? And by the way, if my voice sounds a little bit scratchy, or very smooth, like a radio DJ today, it's because I'm getting over a very, very minor head cold. And that that explains why I might sound like a different person not sure. All right, let's dive into today's topic bodybuilding for everyday lifters who want to build their dream physique. What is bodybuilding? That's, that's the question right? Before we dive in, what the heck is bodybuilding, I would define bodybuilding as either a discipline or a practice, however you want to think of it that involves using resistance training, to develop and sculpt your muscles for aesthetic purposes. Now to do that, there are things that you do along the way that are shared with what power lifters do with what various sports athletes might do with people who just want to get strong but don't care as much about their physique will do. There's a lot of commonality, especially early on in that journey. But bodybuilding, specifically when we use that phrase, right, besides conjuring up of course, enhanced bodybuilding, you know, Arnold, and Ronnie and Cutler and all those guys. It also might evoke Natural Bodybuilding of the physique sport, but we're talking about the little be bodybuilding, which is just sculpting your body not just getting bigger and stronger, even though I would argue that that is a prerequisite to sculpting your body. So we all want to have that. It's also making, you know, crafting a balanced and proportional physique that showcases your muscularity, and your symmetry and your definition. Now some of that might be less important to you like symmetry and having very specific small muscles pop in certain areas, that that might strike you more as like the physique sport side of it. But we all have something we want to look better on our body, let's just be honest, some of us have genetic disadvantages in certain areas. Some ladies and even men might have big or small buttons and they want to change those, they might have bigger small shoulders, a bigger small back, you might be more responsive in one part of your body to another. And so we talked about symmetry, that could just be as simple as, hey, I'm not too happy with this part of my body, whereas this part of my body is perfectly fine. How do I you know, address that disparity? At its core, though, it really is about building muscle. And building muscle does also require building strength. And so we're going to cover some of that as we go through here. But the whole point of this episode is to focus a little bit more on the physique side, it's kind of a lifestyle, right? This is a not you don't have to do this. You don't even have to do it for your health. But I think there are aspects of bodybuilding both mentally and physically that if you want to pursue them outside of the physique sport, which requires an extreme level of dedication that we are not going to address today, we're talking about the lifestyle piece of it. If you think of what it includes its rigorous training, it's carefully planned nutrition to get those results and those actually will benefit you anyway, when it comes to your health and fitness overall, even if you don't want to take it to some extreme level. Okay, so that's what I define as bodybuilding. Now, let's talk about some of the incredible benefits of bodybuilding that go beyond physical appearance, right? Regular training, regular bodybuilding training, which we're going to define a little bit what that is, as distinct from say powerlifting or just general strength training. Regular bodybuilding training can still significant still, it can significantly improve your health and fitness, because you are, you know, you're challenging your muscles with resistance exercise, which I think some everybody on the planet should be doing anyway, you will have to increase strength in order to do that because the the expression of strength and the increase of it over time is perfectly aligned with the same principles to increase muscle mass. Alright, it actually helps you on the endurance and cardiovascular side as well because you end up doing a little bit more volume and endurance type work. Obviously increases your muscle mass. It enhances your For lack of a better word, functional capacity, right? Just your capacity to do things in the world and makes everything easier. We're not talking about getting big, big balloon muscles that are useless. No, this those are those old tropes are out the window here we're talking about getting strong and looking good. Nothing wrong with that. And we know there's tons of research that shows that resistance training in general improves everything, it improves bone density, it reduces the risk of chronic disease like obesity, type two diabetes, and it promotes better cardiovascular health. I mean, there are times you know, there are countless individuals, including many of my clients who because they have muscle mass, because they resistance train, they have very, very healthy bloodwork, even if they carry a little bit of extra weight. And this is why I think the idea that we are not so much overweight, as under muscled is a very important concept. All right now, there are more benefits than that. Right? Those are the physical benefits. I also think bodybuilding can have a positive impact on your mental and emotional well being. Again, if we're not talking about the extreme side of the sport of bodybuilding, which can lead into a negative territory, though it doesn't have to just the general day to day everyday bodybuilding, let's think about it. Okay. And I talked to Steve Hall about this, he was great. I love his approach. And other guys that I've spoken to like Dr. Eric helms who are natural bodybuilders, they have this sense of discipline and dedication. All right, sometimes we use discipline as it is a dirty word. But it's sort of a honed discipline that becomes habitual, not something forced, you know, it's not like you have to be restricting yourself to be disciplined. It just is what you become right? You're dedicated, you're committed, you have this consistent training and nutrition approach. And it develops that strong sense of self discipline, right. And that translates into other areas of life. You can call it whatever you want, you can call it resilience, you can call it, what sort of grit, right perseverance. And as you start seeing the progress in your physique, because you are getting these wins along the way, you're likely going to get a boost in your self confidence and your self esteem. So I love the combination of all of these, I think, an approach that focuses on some strength and physique development can be super healthy for you mentally and physically, and expand into other areas. All right, and that is above and beyond the benefits of just exercise, right, like moving and lifting weights, you get the endorphins, you reduce stress, you reduce anxiety, symptoms of depression, you have this more positive outlook on life, because you can accomplish these things with your body. It translates to your mind, right? I could go on and on. I love this stuff. Okay, so and I think there's benefits a bodybuilding lifestyle gives you beyond just trying to hit numbers or trying to like, you know, if you're a power lifter, and you're just focusing on the numbers, I love that I love competition. But I think there's an extra added benefit for life in general, when you kind of combined the whole thing. So now, this is a good segue to briefly talk about bodybuilding versus powerlifting. All right, both of these are lifting weights, but they're different goals. There different training approaches, bodybuilding focuses on developing this well proportioned, visually appealing physique, with an emphasis on muscle size, right size, symmetry and definition, not so much maximum force and strength. That's where powerlifting comes in. Now, powerlifting is a competitive sport. But it's also just like bodybuilding has a lifestyle type, you know what I'm saying? Like you can, you can lift, kind of as a power lifter, without being a competitive power lifter, meaning you focus on the big lifts, the squat, the bench, and the deadlift, maybe also the overhead press, you're trying to push up your maximum numbers, you're gonna go after that, at the some trade off of potentially your physique along the way, because you want to gain a lot more weight, and things like that, which is totally awesome, because at the end of the day, there's a lot of overlap. Like even bodybuilder is going to have to spend time building muscle gaining weight and being, you know, slightly fluffy or soft in certain phases before they cut and reveal that muscle. power lifters, though, are not really concerned with aesthetic is the way I'll put it. Their ultimate goal is to lift as much weight as possible. There is a middle ground though it's called Power building. Some people don't like that term, I'm perfectly fine with it. It makes a lot of sense. powerlifting and bodybuilding. You combine the two, what do you get? Well, you get a type of training. That's a lot of fun, because you're pushing some max weight. And you're also doing some, you know, muscle mass and direct work to build your physique pay. It's great. Best of both. And I've run programs that incorporate all of these. And there's no right or wrong for you. It's just what is your goal. And by the way, you can switch between them. You can spend six months just going after numbers, then you can spend six months just doing bodybuilding. Or you can spend six months doing Power building and combining the two. All right. That's what I love about all this. There's plenty of flexibility you never get stuck in a box. Now. I do want to take a quick tangent and talk about the sport of bodybuilding just for a second. Now I know very little to nothing about enhanced bodybuilding. Other than, you know, the guys look like freaks, we are fascinated by that. I am a junkie for all those documentaries about, you know Arnold and all the other classics, the guys from the heyday of bodybuilding, I love that stuff. Recently though, there's been more emphasis on natural bodybuilding, just like in powerlifting, there's been more, you know, raw and unequip powerlifting focus lately. And with Natural Bodybuilding, the idea of course, is to build the best physique you can the most muscular physique you can without performance enhancing drugs, it's tested, right, you're not using anabolic steroids, growth hormone, insulin, any of that, and relies solely on your own effort, proper training, nutrition and supplementation, along with, of course, your genetic potential, which, which is going to be a limiting factor for some people, you have to start fairly young, and train hard and avoid injury and all these other things, it is definitely a sport to be admired for those who are in it. It's also very extreme, and some people have come out of it, or some they get it. Others have it. So really depends, right. And, you know, the I would say the natural approach, at least is going to be healthier from you know, because you're not taking these drugs, it's going to be more sustainable to the sport overall. And but it also, you've got to think of your long term health and well being over short term gain, if that is your goal. So it comes down to what your goal is. And that's a great segue into my next, you know, I've got my notes really well organized today. Next segue is on setting realistic goals. So we've got the basics down, what is bodybuilding? What are the benefits of it? How is it distinct from powerlifting? And how do we get started? All right, before you just jump in and just do a program, because that's one of the problems people face is cookie cutter programs that somebody else is doing, they look at their results, they think, Okay, I'm going to follow the program, and I'm going to get that same result. The first thing we have to understand is it's got to be tailored to you. And you have to start from where you're at. That means what, you know, what is your current fitness level? How much time do you have available to go to the gym and do it consistently? Right? Listen, I've run six day bodybuilding programs, if I took a brand new client who never trained and say, Hey, why don't we just jump into six days a week? Are you crazy? Like maybe they'll do it with a lot of sacrifice. But that is not the way to sustainable habits. So for most beginners, I'm gonna start with three days, you know, three days is totally doable for most people. In fact, I would say it's a minimum, unless you're a kind of a special population, you're very old, for example, or some sort of injury history, or you just absolutely can't fit it in. I would say three days is good. And then also what are your resources? The other thing about goals is not just starting where you're at, but seeing where you're going to be, and having realistic expectations. First thing, is it realistic for you to create an amazing looking body? That is strong, fit and healthy? Yes, I can say that emphatically, no matter who you are. Now, will that look like you want it to look? By? By number one any point in time in the rest of your life? Meaning? Can you look like that supermodel you admire? If you don't have those genetics, or that shape, or that height? Or whatever? The answer is, maybe maybe not. So that I can answer for you, what I can say is that, based on your starting point, you you're going to experience a certain level of change over a certain period of time. And so for most people, when they first get started the first month, you're probably not going to see much physical change, you might feel a massive physical change as you get stronger. But you may not see much of a physical change until about a month, but as early as a month, you can start seeing a change, you know, even three to four weeks. Because this is where you get past the initial phase of your body just getting used to the movements, neuromuscular adaptation, all of that, and then you start building muscle mass, and you start to see that and if you're combining it with a good nutrition program, and you're losing some fat as well, that's going to accelerate that visual process, I would say after three months, you should see some meaningful difference. Now, again, meaningful doesn't mean you got to your quote unquote, dreams physique, in three months, it depends on where you're starting at. And most people who have not been focusing on their fitness, they probably have 2030 pounds of excess fat, they're not in great shape. You know, cardiovascular health has a lot to be desired, and you haven't really lifted very much or very effectively. And so it's going to take longer than three months to get to anything close to what you want in terms of at least a starting quote unquote, Dream physique. I would say one year is a solid benchmark to plan for, to look back and say, Wow, okay, I've spent, you know, nine months building muscle and then I did a three month cut. As an example. That's a good one year Periodization Program. You should see a pretty decent change. You know, a new lifter a male can probably gain, you know, 10, maybe 15 pounds of muscle in that first year. If they do it right, let's say 10 And then they lose maybe 10 pounds of fat. You've just gained a massive improvement in your you know leanness and your look in that first year, even if you're just doing Basic powerlifting style strength training. But you can enhance that a little bit with some extra body building type work, especially for the areas that you are deficient in, you know, like, if it's your shoulders or your butt or your calves or biceps, or what have you. I'm gonna say five years and 10 years are the next two big points. So you might, you might say, Wow, go from one year to five years, that's like a huge time to wait, well, what are we waiting for, we're not waiting for anything, we are enjoying this process along the way, I want you to get it into your skull. Because it's something that took me a long time to learn that we're not trying to get the thing we look like in five years, we're trying to have a lifestyle that we really, really enjoy on a day to day basis, where we enjoy how we move, and how we eat, and how we think and how we feel and all those things along the way. And it never really feels like a sacrifice, it feels like something we are destined to do something that is aligned with our values, something that we look forward to every day in a positive way. And yeah, it's gonna be hard. But hard is different than, you know, misaligned is what I'll say heart is different than misaligned. Okay, so let's put it this way. I've been training hard now for about four or five years, effectively after I did, like 10 years of CrossFit that wasn't effective. And I'm finally getting the physique that I'm like, You know what, I'm getting pretty happy. Like, for a 43 year old guy, I never thought I could even be anywhere close to this, you know, visually or functionally. Even I've had injuries and I've had back surgery, I've had shoulder surgery, and you know, all the interruptions of life that we get. And I'm not trying to be a competitor, I just try to enjoy the process. And as I go along, make sure that I'm collecting the data on is it working for me? Is it working for me physically, visually, and mentally? And emotionally? All the things right? So I probably be coming up and fight on my five year mark, say, this year or next year? And I look back on that. And I'll say, Well, where did I come in those five years? And it's an incredible amount of transformation. It really is. It's from soft and fluffy too, you know, got a little bit of definition and chiseled areas of my body that I'm proud of. But can I get more? Yeah, Heck, yeah. And so the next point after that, it's probably the 10 year point, within 10 years, most people can hit their genetic potential, if they've been doing it consistently. That is what I'm trying to talk about with realistic expectations. Building a remarkable physique takes time, it takes consistency, it takes patience. But if you are doing the right thing, now, you're gonna go as fast as you can go. And if you're doing the wrong thing, you just will never get there. That's important, you hear what I just said, if you're doing the right thing, you're gonna get there as fast as you're gonna get there, right? Assuming we avoid, you know, the overnight quick fixes, comparing yourself to others who've been training for many years, we focus on the progress, we focus on the wins along the way, you're actually gonna get there as fast as you can get there. Right? That what's the phrase, the fastest path is the long game or something like that? You know, doing it right is the fastest path. So where am I going with all this? When it comes to realistic expectations? First start where you are today? What's your current fitness level? How much time do you have? And what are your resources? We'll get into some of these things specifically. And then where can you be what are your milestones along the way in the future of where you can be like set those expectations, and the sobering realization that it really could take years to get to the final physique can be flipped, reframed into a positive of okay, then, you know what, I want to enjoy what I'm doing every day along the way, then. And so let's make the process as great as it can be. All right. So speaking of where you're at, and you as an individual, every individual is going to respond differently to both training and nutrition. And this is complex, there are a lot of factors, the more people I interview on the podcast, about gut health, about alcohol, about hormones and menopause, you know about genetics, like there are so many factors. Now they are not excuses, right? And there are a lot of silly things out there. There are a lot of silly concepts like body types. I think it's silly. The ectomorph mesomorph, endomorph thing like it's popular in bodybuilding culture, but I think the those types of things are just oversimplifications. There's no need to pigeonhole yourself into these categories. I don't think it's scientifically validated. And so instead of doing that, how about you just focus on your body's unique response to the things you do? You do something you see what happens? You collect that data, you change, you do something else? You see what happened? You collect the data? Oh, that worked? Well. There's my win. Awesome. motivates me to do that again. Does that make sense? So this involves experimenting with different exercise programs, not program hopping. So just what I want to put that caveat out there not. Oh, it didn't work this week. So I'm gonna change next week. Oh, it didn't work this. No, no, I want you to give any workout program at least I'm gonna say, eight weeks. If especially if you're new to this, give it eight weeks, give it give it 12 weeks, before you make any sort of determination on whether it actually worked or not. Right. There is a time component to it. We can't be impatient. But it's, you know, what kind of routines work for you what rep ranges work for you. And by work for you. I mean, not only Do you respond to them physically? But mentally? Do you enjoy those rep ranges? Do you look forward to them? Do they push you, you know, there's a lot of psychology in this there really is. And there's a wide range of possibilities for any given person. When it comes to bodybuilding, when it comes to powerlifting, there isn't as wide a range, there are different ways to train and get there, you're still trying to go for Singles Doubles triples, when it comes to bodybuilding, you have a lot more flex in there. All right, and what works for you may not work for the next person. And what works for the person that you saw on Instagram may definitely not work for you, you never know. Be willing to learn about yourself and make adjustments based on your progress and your goals, which means you're gonna have to track that progress, which will we will talk about today. But factors like genetic variations, how old you are male female, right? Females tend to recover better than males, for example, and can handle more volume. But that's a generalised statement that may not be true for you. Do you have prior training experience? Were you the guy in their 20s, who was like already bodybuilding and jacked and then you let yourself go for 20 years? Now you're getting back into it? You know, you may respond more quickly to training. What's your nutritional status? You know, are you training fasted? Do you do low carb versus moderate carb? How's your sleep quality? How's your stress management? How's your overall health? You know, do you have any diseases? Do you have any autoimmune conditions, I could go on and on. But all of these influence your body's response. And so all we can do is say you are one person that's quite unique. The principles will apply to everyone. But the methods may have to change for you. All right. And I mentioned sleeping here. If I were to pick any one of these things, and have one of the biggest impact on your ability to be successful in bodybuilding and physique development, it's getting enough sleep. Yeah. Besides training, which is kind of an obvious, right? It's getting enough sleep for muscle recovery, for growth for health. All right, I just wanted to just go on a quick little tangent because it's not sexy, but it's super important. Okay, so we talked about your individual response. One of the other things that is going to determine what you do is your equipment and resources, like, where are you going to train, because this happens to be one of the biggest excuses people have, I can't get to the gym, the gyms too far I don't have the equipment, I can't afford blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right. And the two most common options here are either you set up a home gym, or you join a commercial gym. And they both have pros and cons. And once you pick one, you've got to make sure that thing has everything you need. And if it doesn't have everything you need, that you know how to make adjustments. So your budget is of course important here your space if it's at home, and then your preferences. I mean, do you want to commute an hour to the gym? Probably not. But if it's five minutes away, hey, what about your schedule, if you would like to be able to train twice a day for 20 minutes instead of once a day for 90? Maybe you need a home gym? Okay? Hey, this is Philip. And I hope you're enjoying this episode of weights and weights. I started Whitson weights to help people who want to build muscle lose fat and actually look like the lift. I've noticed that when people improve their strength and physique, they not only look and feel better, they transform other areas of their life, their health, their mental resilience and their confidence in everything they do. And since you're listening to this podcast, I assume you want the same things the same success, whether you recently started lifting, or you've been at this for a while and want to optimize and reach a new level of success. Either way, my one on one coaching focused on engineering your physique and body composition is for you. If you want expert guidance and want to get results faster, easier, and with fewer frustrations along the way to actually look like you lift, go to Whitson weights.com and click on coaching, or use the link in my show notes to apply today. I'll ask you a few short questions to decide if we're a good fit. And if we are, we'll get you started this week. Now back to the show. I'm a huge fan of a home gym, but I understand that everyone can have that for various reasons. It's about as convenient as you could possibly imagine. Because it's right there. You can just hop out of bed and go workout. Well, after you eat. Okay, it gives you a lot of flexibility. It gives you privacy. I mean, ladies, you know, there's the whole gym intimidation factor there are there's the guys and ladies the annoying factor of just dealing with people you know, like, I mean, a lot of people in gyms are great people, but some not so much. So it depends. The downside is you know, the money to invest in home gym, of course. And it takes a lot of actually build a gym that has enough equipment, variety, especially when we talk bodybuilding. And you're like, Well, what do I do for leg press and Hack Squats? What do I do for other leg type development or back work or lat pull downs, etc, right? The mind starts to go to like how many 1000s of dollars you're gonna have to spend, but it doesn't have to be that way. Now on the other hand, a commercial gym gives you access to a ton of equipment, right? And maybe personal trainers, but most of them aren't that great. I'll be honest, but maybe you'll find one. It could be motivating for you to be around other people. that people love working out with others and the atmosphere and the energy. And then the cost is usually kind of a pittance. You know, it's pretty low for most gyms unless you go to a really good like lifting gym, and then they're gonna charge you what it's worth, they may charge you 150 200 300 a month, I don't know, like, kind of like a CrossFit gym or powerlifting gym. And then you know, dealing with the one thing I hate the most about the gym is just having to fight for equipment, like if you go during peak hours. So if you opt for a home gym, you get my notes here, if you opt for a home gym, then I actually covered all this way back in episode eight, early days, early days, I don't listen to my own episodes from back then I just can't You know, I feel like I've developed a lot since then I can't do it, but you might enjoy it. And the information in there is solid, Episode Eight, build the ultimate home gym to make gains save time and be consistent where I talk all about the equipment that goes into a home gym, the amount of space it takes up, why you would want certain equipment and so on. Again, I don't know how well it's aged for some of the details in there. I've probably added to my home gym since I made that episode. But the basics are going to be a power rack, an adjustable bench, a barbell plates, and dumbbells. Those are the basics. Beyond that there's all sorts of machines and equipment you can invest in. If I had to pick one thing, I would add a lat pulldown cable type machine. And if you have a power rack that allows for all sorts of attachments, usually there is a lat pulldown that can go on the power rack that has a top and bottom cable positions. And that opens up a lot more and then beyond that you can get into Okay, do I need some sort of leg machine or pressing or like PEC deck type machine when you get further on and you have the money for it? Alright, so that's all I'm gonna spend on like where you train because the commercial gym? Well, so that's not all I'm going to spend on that real quick commercial gyms vary quite a bit. And the first thing I always ask people to do, they have a rack and barbells because if they don't have that, I feel like you're severely limiting yourself for some very effective movements. Even though you can get all your workouts done on machines and cables. I feel like both effectiveness and just pure joy and fun of getting strong and building muscle requires a barbell in there. Okay, that's just my opinion. So, there are plenty of commercial gyms that do but then there are some that just don't have that some that don't allow deadlifting some that don't allow chalk there's like all these rules that I just frankly don't like and it's why I have a home gym, but totally up to you and you can still make it work. And by the way, the workout programs that I dropped in Whitson weights physique University every month, I've got an entire list of exercise substitutions for every type of body part, any any lift, you need to find a substitute for you can whether you know it's bands, dumbbells, kettlebells bodyweight that's, that's kind of the way it's done. And bodybuilding gives you that freedom that you're not stuck in having to do this exact one movement. You know, if it says barbell row, you don't have a barbell. Okay, do one arm dumbbell rows, do two arm dumbbell rows, you know, do seated cable rows, there's a million ways to go. Alright, so the next thing I want to talk about is some of the principles of bodybuilding itself, that drive the programming. Okay, the first one is the absolute key to muscle growth. And that's progressive overload, okay, we can't say it enough on this, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say this to the cows call come home, the idea of gradually increasing the demands placed on your muscles over time, to force them to adapt and grow stronger, and larger, stronger and larger. And you achieve progressive overload. By increasing some training variable, the weight lifted, the number of reps, the number of sets, right, it just the overall volume in some way. So if you're currently working out in a way that has you lifting the exact same 10 pound dumbbells, on the same movements, time and time again, for weeks and months on end, you're not doing it right, that is not progressive overload. Progressive overload is you did five reps at 10 pounds. Now you can do six reps at 10 pounds, or you did five reps at 10 pounds. Now you're gonna do five reps for 12 and a half pounds. That's it. And if you're not doing that, over time, in general, and getting in general, stronger in general, and most movements here not getting stronger or building muscle. All right, I mean, do I have to point to studies and meta analysis that show this we know this is the key factor in maximizing what we call muscle hypertrophy, increasing the size of your muscles. So make sure to consistently challenge yourself and strive for progress. And the reason I start off with this is first of all, it is the key principle. But second of all, you may already be running a program now and training in a certain way where the program's pretty good. You're just not executing it in a way that allows for progressive overload. Or the other scenario I see. Ladies you know you are is you're following a youtube program, trainer or an app where every workout is different, you know? Yeah, your sweat gets up, you move a lot. You maybe you're using dumbbells Maybe you're using barbells. Maybe it's like a CrossFit style thing where you've got barbells involved. But it's always different. It's kind of random, and you're not actually doing, let's say, the front squat on Monday every week and progressing the way you're doing like a front squat Monday, then maybe two, Thursday's later, you're doing, you know, a back squat, and it's kind of random. Okay? That's also not progressive overload, you may get incrementally stronger over the years, but you're not going to get strong in a time efficient way to actually build your physique. So progressive overload. The second principle is the, I guess, it's a combination of principles, but its volume and frequency. All right. training volume is really the total amount of work that you perform in a workout session or a training cycle. And manipulating this piece is going to help you not only with muscle growth, but also preventing plateaus and helping with recovery like don't so that you don't overtrain. And if you're a beginner, you can handle a decent amount of volume and frequency. And then over time, the volume is going to naturally go up with the progressive overload. And that is why sometimes the frequency has to come down as you get stronger, right. So it's kind of these variables all depend on each other in some way. And, you know, frequency is how often you train a particular muscle group, right. So that's like, if you squat Monday, Wednesday, Friday, that's your frequency of the squat. And a higher frequency is generally more beneficial, right? They give you, they give you more opportunity for muscle protein synthesis for muscle repair. But there's something pushing against that frequency, and that is your recovery. So when you're a beginner, you can squat three days a week, and you recover within 48 hours. As you get stronger and stronger, the amount of stress placed on your body is so great that you can't recover in two days, it might take three, it might take five, it might take two weeks, the stronger you get. And that is where balancing frequency and recovery frequency and volume prevents overtraining. And is is one of the core principles of effective programming, you know, on this curve, as you get stronger and stronger over time, it becomes a little trickier over time, it really does. But that's also at the point where you've developed your form and your skill and you're ready to learn these more advanced strategies. And there's a lot of great researchers out there that that look at this stuff. I mean, you've got like Brad Brad Schoenfeld, who, a lot of his studies that he where he worked with other researchers have looked at hypertrophy in the context of frequency, for example. And we generally find that, you know, again, more frequencies better, but only to the point where it doesn't impede recovery. And there are high frequency camps out there that that, like, subscribe to, you know, five day per week type training, where you change the, you change the movements, but hit similar muscle groups, and you're hitting them from different angles. And there is some merit to that. But I, I would generally favor the stress and the intensity over the frequency like I'd rather you, you hit it hard and train hard. And by that I mean like within a few reps shy of failure, proximity to failure is where we call it, then just get a whole bunch of volume and frequency because I feel like that can lead to more injury problems with recovery. And it's also from a practical standpoint, hard to fit into most people's schedule to like consistently have a high frequency for certain movements. But I'm not 100% against it depending on who you are and how your body individually responds. Alright, so we covered progressive overload, we covered volume and frequency. The next thing I want to talk about is rep ranges and rest intervals. Okay? So rep ranges are just the number of reps you perform in a set. And when you're thinking bodybuilding, most people think something like eight to 12, I would say I would expand that range. And think of bodybuilding as anything from four up to like 20. Okay, beyond 20. From a practical standpoint, even though it can work for hypertrophy, it's just it takes a lot of time, it's mentally very hard to work in that range, there's a whole bunch of reasons, I would just generally avoid that. When we get down to the four or less now we're talking powerlifting, you know, maximal force production strength, but I kind of include like four or five, six reps in the bodybuilding regime, because I think there is a place for kind of working on the edge of power building that's still bodybuilding. And I've done this myself and my coach, Andy Baker has a way of programming using top sets and back offsets, where you kind of reduce the volume, but you get more stimulus. And you cover two different rep ranges every time you do a movement. So you might do a, let's say, overhead press, and you'll do sets of you'll do one set of four to six, followed by one set of six to eight. And so the set of 68 Of course the load comes down, but you get more volume. And in both cases, you're still stressing the muscle in different ways and you're pushing close to failure. During all of that, so when we say what is optimal for hypertrophy, it's a wide range, it's, it's like, you know, five to 30 reps, but we're going to narrow that to, what did I say, I think I said four to 20. Because I like having that four in there. I don't know something about four rather than five sticks with me here, but it doesn't matter. It's close enough. And so having said that, you should incorporate a variety of rep ranges. And it depends on the muscle group, it depends on the movement, right? Like, stiff like deadlifts, or Romanian deadlifts or something like that, you're probably not going to work in very high rep ranges on those, you're gonna go pretty heavy, pretty low rep range. Whereas, you know, lateral raises, or seated polls, or even lat pull downs, or like bicep curls thing, you know, smaller muscle groups that say, more isolation work, you might work in 812, even 15, if you're doing calf raises, if you do an AB work, you might be in the 15 to 20 range. So the other aspect of this is mental, like you don't want to get bored. So part of this is just fun, just mixing things up. We're not even getting into advanced techniques today, but like all the intensity techniques, drop sets and all that that's a whole other thing, right. And I think I covered that in another episode about progressive overload, to make it even more interesting. But going back to Okay, so we talked about rep ranges, let's talk about rest intervals, because I think some people don't pay enough attention to how long they're resting between sets. And I think it can greatly impact the intensity and volume of your workout. Because if the rest interval is too short, yes, you're going to have more of this what we call metabolic stress and the fatigue on your muscles. But that can be a negative, if you're trying to get more work in, in the subsequent sets, it can be a positive, if you're trying to save time and deliberately push your muscles close to that fatigue. So it depends on what you're lifting. If you're, if you're lifting heavier weights, you're lifting lower rep ranges, I'm gonna go for more two to three minutes, if not even higher, three to five or even higher, if we're talking like very heavy deadlifts, where you're taking long breaks, and all of that stuff can fit in a bodybuilding program. And that's why I want to mention them. Because there's generally a sliding scale, you know, the bigger heavier compound lifts, longer rest period, the medium ones are kind of in the middle. And then the the really small stuff, or the intensity techniques are going to be in the on the lower end. But the point is, pay attention to it. Because if you're missing reps, or you feel like you haven't progressed on your progressive overload plan, are you simply cutting the rest period too short and too fatigued to actually hit what you would have hit? If you had rested? Long enough? That's what I would, I would say you should ask yourself, Okay. Um, the next principle is going to be training to failure. Alright, so why did I leave this till toward the end of the principles? No reason other than I thought, sometimes I sometimes I put this before progressive overload, because it's hard to progressively overload unless you are training, right. But I wanted to establish the principle of progressive overload first, in this episode, and then tell you some of the ways we make that successful. Okay. So training to failure is just performing a movement or an exercise until you cannot complete another rep with proper form. So forget cheater reps, I'm talking about proper technical form. Now, training to complete failure, what we would call zero, our IR reps and reserve or what we would call 10 RPE. Rating of perceived exertion, same thing, zero reps left can be a very good way to stimulate muscle growth, especially for isolation work. It should be used sparingly, in my opinion, because of the chance of over injury and, you know, overtraining and injury. So I think most of you should be working in what we would call the nine RPE, or eight RPE. Rain, so eight would be like two reps from failure, nine would be one. Again, for those of you who just can't stand that I'm seeing RPE, so many times I get it, it's just another, it's just another damn way to say the same thing. Alright, so one to two or two to three reps short of failure is probably good for almost everything, with the exception of very small direct work, or you could go to failure, or if you're using an intensity technique, and you go to failure. And then on the other hand, we have like, if you're doing big barbell back squats, deadlifts pressing, you might be three rep shy of failure, you know, two to three reps shy of failure. And that's all that means. Proximity to failure, gets you close enough to get the effective, stimulative reps that causes muscle growth. If you stay in that regime, you'll be great because then you'll be able to progress over time. Okay. So that's a very important principle. The next principle is a big one in bodybuilding. And that is the mind muscle connection. This is the conscious focus, the mindfulness and the control. You have over the muscle that you're training during an exercise. And everyone does it differently. But I think of it as actively thinking about the target muscle and visualizing it contracting. And you're all you're doing is you're creating a visual picture of time, what you're doing to what you're seeing in your mind. And there's this thought that you can then enhance the activation of the muscle and improve the quality of those reps by doing so. And I highly encourage it, because what you'll find is, you'll surprise yourself, you'll realize that those lat pull downs you've been doing for years, aren't actually hitting the lats. If you really think about it, I would suggest turning off the music, turning off the distractions. If you're in a public gym, put some like headsets on so you can only hear your own swirl of the ocean in your head. And really just squeeze think, you know, focus, be mindful and and try it out. Try it out with every movement and see if you don't learn something about yourself, and how to do that movement a little bit more effectively. I'll tell you, as long as I've been lifting, I still do this and surprised myself. So the other day I was doing Romanian deadlifts, and watching back on the video, and my coach also told me this, he's like, You know what, you're starting to get a little bit less tight in your back then you used to be with the rep, you get a little bit sloppy, right, not rounding my back or anything, but it's just this tiny, less tightness in my back. And I saw that I saw what he was talking about. He said, All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do my RDLs. And I'm going to really look up right and squeeze my shoulder blades together and let the bar hang. And then as I go down, really focus on not, you know, breaking my knees, so that I feel that stretch in the hands, the hamstrings. And instead of allowing the bar to touch the ground, I deliberately kept it from touching the ground just a tad. Right. Because I have enough I have enough flexibility and range that it will touch the ground on an RDL even when done properly. But I deliberately kept her from doing that. So it stretched my hamstring all the way to lengthen position and just kind of held it there. And then came back up with the rep. And I squeezed my back all of this was in my mind as a form of mind muscle connection. And when I was done, the video confirmed I had tightened up my back. But more importantly, where did I feel the soreness, I felt it in my obliques and my lats kind of the where I didn't feel it was in my low back. And of course, I felt that in my hamstrings as well, that's where you're supposed to feel it. But in terms of your back, and your isometric contractions and all that, I felt it kind of around my trunk. And it felt safer than I had been doing it before, which felt like it was fatiguing my lower back too much. And I noticed the difference, because then I did not feel as sore in my lower back later in the day. And the next day after doing the articles that way, using mind muscle connection. So it's a very valuable and functional tool. In my opinion, it is not, whoo, it's not just a bro thing. It's a real thing that can really help you with muscle activation. And potentially then greater muscle growth because you're doing it right and you're really hitting the muscle and you're not wasting your time in the gym. All right, another thing that's important, which I can segue nicely into now is form I just talked about my form of the RDL. Maintaining proper form during all your exercises has got to be way up there on the list. Especially if you're newer, you know, once you get into it, and you become proficient at the skill of lifting you, you know, form tends to be less of an issue. But it should always be on your mind regardless. And I like having a cue every time I do a lift. So what even if it's like leg curls, I still want to think of one thing that I'm engaging with, to ensure proper form. Because the silliest little movements could be the ones that hurt you. Right, you could go throw a safety squat bar on your back and use it to do calf raises. But because you're not really thinking about having that tight back, you're thinking about your calves, all of a sudden, you're putting all this pressure on your spine and now causes a back issue. And you were just doing a simple calf raise, right? It's very important. Okay, we've got to take this stuff seriously, folks, we really do. This is what makes the journey fun. I mean, in my opinion, I don't know about you, I love personal growth and learning and getting better at something. And this is this is what I mean by enjoying the process and not worrying about the final physique results. Because if you get this process down, oh man, your results. And women, ladies, man, results are going to be amazing. You're just going to look back and say, Wow, that's it was totally worth it totally worth the journey. And so proper form is great for muscle engagement, right? It's also part of that mind muscle connection we talked about, it's going to prevent injury. This is maybe the number one reason to do it. And then you're gonna be able to progress long term because you won't be out of the gym. You won't be missing reps, you know, you'll be hitting the correct muscles. The converse of that is poor form, right? Which can lead to I'll say muscle imbalances. I hate that term. But but it actually can you know, if you're doing things asymmetrically, you can have one party body that's stronger or bigger than another joint pain. You're gonna plateau in your growth if you're not using the right form and You can get injured. So if you're a beginner, take the time to learn and practice proper form for every single exercise. And I'll say do it before you increase the weight significantly, I don't want to say do it before increasing the weight at all, I think you should be starting moderately late anyway, and then you're going to build up. As you build up, you develop the form, get the form down during that phase, and then as it starts to get heavy, your form is good, and you keep going. Alright, and this is where a trainer, a coach, um, Hey, join Whitson weights physique University and post a video and get a form check. It's one of the things we're going to provide there, for everyone who's in there. So, man, yeah, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna keep pitching that because let me tell you, if you're not in there, you're missing out. All right. Now, we talked about tracking progress. I know this episode is going to end up being epically long for solo episode, but I hope it's also massively valuable for those interested in developing your physique. It's got all my thoughts in one place. Alright, so tracking progress and making adjustments super important. We want to regularly monitor anything that's going to change that gives us useful information that we can act upon. That's really all it's about, okay. This would be of course, your body weight, your circumference measurements. And for bodybuilding, that's, that could be a lot of measurements if you want to get really detailed about it. But at a minimum, it's your chest, your waist, your neck, your biceps, your thighs, for ladies, also your hips. And then for everybody, if you want to add in like your calves, for example, or your shoulders, you can do that. You're gonna measure your strength, which is just your progressive overload, right, you're gonna measure your lifts and how the progression over time and you should see that either the, how close you are to failure is going up, the reps are going up, the weights going up, the volume is going up, something's going up. And then even your appearance, yes, I mean, we're talking about a building. So if you want to take progress photos, or judge your appearance visually, or in the mirror, or whatever it means to you, these are all important for gauging the effectiveness of what you're doing. And I would combine these methods together and track them, you know, track them in a sheet. So again, another plug for WWE pu, I have a physique and body composition or physique and biofeedback tracker, and that I put together and it's based on my own personal sheet that I've used for years. And what you do is you put in all your measurements in there on a weekly basis, or whatever basis you want. And then you can compare any two time time points to see how much you've changed how much fat you've gained or lost using a formula, and then the muscle to fat ratio. So it's pretty cool. It's pretty great. If you have this data and you put it in there, you'll know exactly Hey, am I actually gaining muscle on a one to one ratio to fat? Or I'm actually I'm actually losing mostly fat right? Am I actually getting leaner stronger improving my physique are my biceps actually growing and so on. So the really the the other reason we want to track is not just to see the growth, but the see see any lack of growth, if we have plateaus, if we are stagnating, these are very, very common challenges faced by anybody trying to live the bodybuilding lifestyle or just hit fit. plateaus. Okay plateaus with your weight and nutrition plateaus with your training. When you hit a plateau, the worst thing to do is just do nothing, right. We want to assess your program, we want to assess the numbers and look at where you can adjust. Maybe you need more volume, maybe you need to change a rep ranges, maybe we need to change exercise selection, chances are it's more in the principles. Are you actually progressing? Are you actually training to failure? Are you using good form all the things we already talked about? And then of course there's nutrition nutrition is a huge aspect of this that we is the elephant in the room, right today is not about nutrition primarily, but I'm going to bring it up occasionally. Because it's also extremely important in getting the leanest in the physique you're going for in combination with the training. So we've got our protein intake, we've got our, you know, energy balance, right? Are you trying to gain Are you losing your ratios for your macros, all that good stuff. And of course, we know how important protein is. So if you're not already eating a lot of protein and you're trying to body build, that's probably the first thing you want to clean up is just eat more protein. The other macro that I love his carbs, too. So go listen to my episode, more muscle, more carbs, the one that got a lot of hate, which I'm absolutely totally proud of. And even today, I saw somebody comments on a YouTube video of my recent episode about eat less move more is terrible advice. And he said, you know, all you got to do is cut carbs and that that's the way to get lean. Here we go again. Okay, motivation and mindset. This episode would not be complete without addressing the psychological piece of this. So we are not talking about physique, competitors, because I can't go there. I haven't competed. I do understand that there's a whole psychological aspect to if you're going to get extremely lean, and be a natural bodybuilder or a bikini competitor or something like that. It's a whole separate thing. But just in general. It's a long game. We talked about that before. And so staying quote unquote motivated which love or hate that word, we're going to use it and having a positive mindset are, I think two of the most important things to long term success. And the motivation comes from self motivation. From the self discipline of doing something, getting a result, getting a celebrating that result and then doing it again to continue producing the result. And if you don't get the result you want having the data that you just tracked, we talked about to tell you that you're not getting the results so you can change and get the result. To me, that is where motivation comes from. It moves it pushes, it motivates you motive, right motion, if you want to go with the Latin root of the word, as opposed to something else like pushing, you know, you have momentum, you have motivation. That's where I'm going for. When I say motivation, and positivity. It's the idea that you can do anything. Yes, I'm going to hit these reps, yes, I'm going to progress. Yes, I'm going to get stronger. Yes, I'm gonna go to the gym. Yes, I am strong. Yes, I'm capable. Yes, I'm beautiful. All of those things, even if you always still have more that you want to achieve. So having these like micro goals, you know, daily goals, weekly goals, quarterly goals, long term goals, and having some sort of roadmap at any given time for progress, it gives you a sense of purpose, the plan isn't going to go perfectly. In fact, it won't even, it won't even go adequately. Within about a week, I will tell you that for a fact, if you've ever had up a well laid plan, it's gonna start deviating from day two. But that's okay, because the plan gives you a direction and you can constantly tweak that plan. And this is where finding inspiration, finding podcasters you identify with joining communities and programs that you identify with role models who align with your values will promote healthy, balanced, you know, approach to living, and a healthy, balanced approach to bodybuilding because I think it can be a fun, positive, healthy pursuit. So surround yourself with that support, you know, like minded individuals who share your passion. I'm definitely one of them. So please count me in your corner, join our Facebook group, go to online events, free paid, I don't care, whatever is within your budget, engage with others who can offer encouragement, advice, and yes, even accountability at times. And remember that the setbacks, the plateaus, the challenges, these aren't negative things, these are just inevitable in your journey. And there are opportunities to learn, to adapt to come back stronger, and so celebrate the wins. Don't worry about the things in your way these can be overcome. All right, and we're going to reinforce the positive habits and the positive mindset that drives long term success. So that was kind of my little motivational speech helping your mind. And, you know, we're gonna conclude this episode shortly here. I'm a little bit long winded today. But I really do believe that bodybuilding is a life long journey, I want to be doing bodybuilding of some kind, you know, physique development, strength training, until the day I die, I really just do, I've seen so many people in my life, very close to me, it's very sad, who get weaker and weaker, and they get injured, and they go on medication and one thing spirals after another, and they just cannot live. And I hate to say it that way. And they may even, quote unquote, not live for decades. You know, when we talk about healthspan versus lifespan, and I think being healthy, being strong. And then yes, even bodybuilding, the positive aspects of it, are a process of self discovery, right? You learn about yourself, they're a process of personal growth, and their process of physical transformation. So it's kind of the best of everything, why not? Why not go after that? Embrace the process. Recognize that the rewards are in the journey, consistency, patience, those are the most important qualities. I'm sorry, I'm not here to sell you a quick fix, right. But trust the process, stay committed, enjoy it along the way. I can't stress that enough. So yeah, what is bodybuilding, it's building a better body but also building a better life. And if we have clear goals, if we surround ourselves with supportive people, if we remain resilient, we are going to reap all of those rewards of this incredible, amazing pursuits. Okay, just a last friendly reminder that if you are looking for physique, focused bodybuilding style workouts to go along with these principles, if you want the actual workouts, you know, here are the days a week here, the movements, here's the set range rep ranges, you know, sets and reps, here's a way to log it, whether you're intermediate or beginner lifter, whether you have gym access, or a home gym, you know, and there's even a female program in there. Everyone enrolled in Whitsun weights physique University are going to receive four programs every month, whatever your level or equipment access, and if you want those if you want the courses if you want the one on one support, custom nutrition plan, a supportive community to help you apply all of these principles from today. Just go to Whitson weights.com/physique or click the link in my show notes to enroll in which in weights physique University, again, that's what's in weights.com/physique or click the link in my show notes to enroll. In Whitsun, which was a university we're gonna be calling it w WP you I don't know if it'll stick maybe it's a mouthful. But again it is a monthly cancel and on anytime program and I made sure to include a 21 day money back guarantee so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain and look if you liked this show if you appreciate the amount of work and effort I put into making this accessible understandable and work for you that is what you're going to get in what's awaits physique University I've got, I've got my, for lack of a better phrase blood and sweat all over it Okay, metaphorically, and that you're going to get that kind of support, so it's going to be incredible. If you're in it, definitely don't miss it. Sign up now while you know the price is a steal before it goes up. And in our next episode, Episode 163 The most important overlooked secret to sculpting a body you'll love with Kate galley. We talk about taking care of the most important person in your life. Who is that? That is you yourself. You're going to learn how to master your inner dialogue, how to prioritize prioritize your health and happiness, and to tailor your self care practices to fit your lifestyle. You're going to learn practical tools as always, to reshape your daily routine so it aligns with your core values, and propels you toward your best self. If joy and happiness are truly important to you. As always, stay strong. And I'll talk to you next time here on the wits end weights podcast. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of wit's end weights. If you found value in today's episode, and know someone else who's looking to level up their weights or weights. Please take a moment to share this episode with them. And make sure to hit the Follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode. Until then, stay strong