Physique

Shooting the Breeze With Frank Yang: A Talk of Aesthetics and Athletics

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I was given one rule: make it aesthetic. Knowing Frank, I wasn’t surprised. And since Frank was kind enough to vomit +3000 words into this interview twice (funny story: we went back and forth through Facebook, and then Frank’s account got deleted for many violations [rather unsurprising], which deleted the entire first interview), I’ve made the following accommodations:

I busted out my WACOM tablet and sketched Frank for the header to this post. (Not that this sketch would indicate, but I was one inch away from going to school for art. It’s been years since I’ve done anything remotely artistic though, so cut me some slack.)
I eliminated my questions from the interview, forcing you to create your own interpretation of the original question asked.
I bolded the first gleaming thought of Frank’s replies.

If you couldn’t tell, the Frank I’m referring to is none other than Frank Yang. If you know of him, sit back and enjoy. If you don’t know of him, prepare yourself…on many levels.

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Some Results and Q&A About Combining The 40 Day Program and the PLP Program

In the previous article in this series, I explained how and why I combined The 40 Day Program with the PLP Program. Check it out here to get the full story: How and Why I Combined the 40 Day Program and the PLP Program.

At the end of the first article I dropped some crazy comments. Comments like:

Combining The 40 Day Program and the PLP Program…

Was the most important training experience of my life.
Had a crazy effect on me both mentally and physically.
Delivered surprising results.
Was the catalyst of conquering skinny-fat syndrome.
Was the equivalent of going Super Saiyan 4. (My armpit hair turned red. Just a little.)

And you’re probably wondering who what when were and why these things happened.

Stop wondering.

Just read.

The results of the 40 Day Program + PLP

Let’s get one thing straight: For the 60 days I combined these two programs, I didn’t care about progress. Ever. I had the most lackadaisical attitude of my training life.

I don’t think I looked in the mirror, “physique gawking,” more than twice. I never cared about how strong I was. Or how strong I was getting. Training was just “something” that happened every day. I was emotionless.

90% of the time I deadlifted 225 pounds. (Around 50-60% 1RM at the time.) I floor pressed a 75 pound dumbbell. I hip thrusted the same 225 pounds that was on the bar for deadlifts. I curled 95 pounds because it was easy to throw 25’s on each side.

My exertion rating for weight stuff, on a scale of 1-10, was about a 5. Didn’t care to strain more. Sometimes strained less.

But here’s what happened…

First, I stopped hurting. Gone were the minor aches and pains I had prior to starting.

1. My right shoulder was a wreck. I couldn’t overhead or bench press. (Why I opted for the unilateral dumbbell floor press.) But my shoulder slowly started feeling awesome. Day in and day out. It never failed. Overhead carries felt so damn good. Haven’t had any shoulder problems since. And I’ve been incline pressing and overhead pressing regularly. (In addition to playing softball and throwing regularly.) Not once did I do a fancy or frilly “prehab,” “rehab,” or any other “-hab” exercise.

2. Back then my chronic knee pain was creeping back too. My left leg (bad knee leg) was the only leg I could use when I was on crutches. It hated life. But two weeks into the program the pain subsided.

3. My body felt great. No pain. Anywhere. I felt like I could tackle the world.

Second, I started growing. Ironic considering I wasn’t training or eating for growth.

My arms started showing shape. Being skinny-fat, this was a bit weird. Arms were hard to come by. Yet they were the largest they’d ever been.

The shoulder growth was most surprising. They “anchored” my arm for the first time in my life.

My body just felt solid. Didn’t look in the mirror often, so it’s hard to comment on a per-body part basis. But I just seemed to “fill out.”

(Picture on right from time period of running both programs.)

Third, I noticed favorable changes in body composition.

Pants fit differently. Abs showed signs of life.

Fourth, I started to appreciate progressive overload. (Which, by the way, is different than strength.)

Throughout the 60 days I never added weight to the bar. But things churned because of the high frequency. Too often we associate progressive overload with weight on the bar. Bad mindset.

Here was my “overload” across the 60 days:

Pull-ups, squats, push-ups: 2370 reps
Deadlifts: 550 reps
Curls: 1100 reps
Hip Thrusts: 2200 reps
Dumbbell Presses: 550 reps
Waiter’s Walks: Who knows

I don’t care to calculate this against a traditional routine. But I know it’s “more.” Trust me. With numbers like that, it’s no wonder adaptation took place.

Fifth, my chin-up and pull-up ability skyrocketed.

Sixth, it reconceptualized my idea of stress and recovery.

I guess that’s normal any time you do 50+ chin ups for 20 consecutive days and feel great every step of the way.

Seventh, it made me focus on the bigger picture.

I made progress just by showing up. Showing up, not necessarily training with eye-popping intensity, became the priority. This has since stuck with me.

Eighth, it did some interesting things for my skinny-fatness. But I’ll save this for its own section. (After the Q&A.)

Common questions about doing both programs

Common question: So should I be bulking or cutting on this program?

Common answer: I have no idea.

In the Solutions for the Skinny-Fat Series, I mentioned capping training at four days per week to optimize carbohydrate cycling.

Training daily is a carbohydrate cycling hiccup. Can’t really happen unless you’re waiving intensity with carbohydrate intake.

This kind of program doesn’t really waive intensity.

I don’t think you should have a “bulk” or “cut” goal when meshing these programs.

The mesh isn’t ideal for maximizing muscle mass. It’s ideal for people that are tired of overthinking things. Tired of obsessing. Tired of details. People that need a mental and physical break.

Training daily might not seem like a “physical break,” but somehow it is. Just don’t be an idiot and max daily.

Common question: I’m a beginner. Can I do this program?

Common answer: No.

The 40 Day Program is for an intermediate lifter. I was deadlifting 225 pounds emotionlessly. This really isn’t that much weight. But it’s certainly above beginner range. You have to build a base of strength first.

Something like a 315 pound deadlift and 10 consecutive chin-ups is a good place to start.

Common question: Can I change exercises?

Common answer: Do whatever you want.

I violated The 40 Day Program structure because I needed to. Because it worked for my specific situation.

Do whatever you need or want to do. Just don’t go and substitute tricep kickbacks for deadlifts.

Common question: Am I going to get strong doing this?

Common answer: Die.

I’m going to be honest. I didn’t notice very much in the way of strength gains. But I don’t blame The 40 Day Program for this. I blame myself. Because I didn’t care. There were days I could have lifted more for my 2×5. But I didn’t. Just didn’t care to.

As I said: Don’t do this program if you have a specific, tangible goal. Do it out of apathy. Sounds nuts, but it’s just what I recommend.

And if you’re looking for strength gains, I think this program is more applicable to bring up a “similar but different” lift. For instance: If you’re a great bench presser, but haven’t inclined. You’d tackle the 40 Day Program with the incline press. Not sure tackling it with the bench press would yield huge benefits. Or I should say I don’t think it will deliver the same benefits. (Just my opinion though.)

Common question: How should I eat? Do I carb cycle with this?

Common answer: Dunno. And no.

80% of my diet was paleo. Eggs, meats, vegetables, fruits. The other 20% was whey protein and oats when I wanted to eat them. Was usually only once or twice per week.

Again…the apathy thing.

Common question: Will I lose muscle on this program?

Common answer: No. Unless you forego a movement responsible for your growth.

If you’re used to doing squats and you ditch squats, your legs will probably shrink a little. But I know of no one that trains consistently and loses their muscle. Nonsense if you ask me.

Common question: What lifts should I do on The 40 Day Program?

Common answer: Whatever you want.

Dan John gives you the guidelines. Just sack up and pick things you enjoy doing. Just don’t get all obsessive and pick twelve different pressing variations with the thought of rotating them on a daily basis or something crazy.

Pick one press you love. Pick one posterior chain movement you love. Etc…

You do them often. Better enjoy whatever it is you pick.

Common question: How did you train that often? Didn’t you spontaneously combust!?

Common answer: If you’re asking this, you’re overthinking it.

Common question: How did you spend so much time training like this?

Common answer: Simple. It’s really not that much time.

PLP workouts took about ten minutes. The 40 Day Program workouts took about 30-45 minutes. That’s about an hour every day.

Common question: Do you have any thoughts on incorporating hill sprints into this?

Common answer: Absolutely!

I actually did hill sprints during this. Just do them once or twice per week. Treat them more as speed training sessions. Less as HIIT. Spend 20-30 minutes getting quality runs in.

Did you do any warm up sets for the deadlift before the 2×5?

Common answer: Yeah, usually some reps at 135.

Common question: Technical question, based on what you said: you did BW squats in the PLP instead of lunges?

Common answer: Good observation.

I actually intermixed them at my preference. If you have severe knee pain, go with body weight squats. Otherwise, lunge. Your legs will grow more. (More volume.)

Common question: Why are you answering questions like an asshole?

Common answer: Because they don’t matter.

For one time — just one time — stop over thinking things. I could lie about some magical things I did in combination with the program. Perhaps plug a certain diet or advertise a supplement – deceive you somehow.

I could say that “X” was the sole reason this “worked.” That “Y” might make it work better. And I’d probably make a lot of money from plugging some expensive things into those X’s and Y’s.

But I’m not here to do that. I’m never here to do that.

I’m here to tell you something. Something important. Something you don’t want to hear. Something that someone needs to tell you.

Combining The 40 Day Program and the PLP Program works because it teaches you the most important concept in fitness: just show up.

As my inbox floods with questions (this is fine, I like when people say hello), I can’t help but wonder how many people are going to “ask” themselves out of a training program like this.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know how to calculate my carbohydrates given the daily aspect of this program. Therefore, I can’t do it.”

“I”m sorry, I don’t know how much weight to lift. Therefore, I can’t do it.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t pick one press. Therefore, I can’t do it.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t have Master Roshi to coach me. Therefore, I can’t do it.”

To all of those people not willing to show up, I’m the one that’s sorry. Sorry for you.

There’s something about committing yourself to daily training that’s stimulating. But you have to be ready for it. You have to know your body “just a little bit.”

But you can’t focus on progress. You have to numb yourself. Otherwise you’ll overtrain.

You have to do one thing to make this program mesh “work.” That’s it.

Just one thing.

Show up.

Here’s some icing.

Don’t look in mirrors.
Don’t obsess about bulking.
Don’t think about cutting.
Keep your diet mostly paleo.
Add some tolerable starchy carbs a few times per week; on the days you feel drained.

But none of that matter unless you’re showing up day in, day out.

The skinny on what it did to my skinny-fatness

The program combination and daily stimulation does some wild things to your physiology. I consider the combination the catalyst that suppressed my skinny-fat shell.

But I’ll be back Wednesday with the full details of that, and details of how to become a charter member for my skinny-fat program. (Get the reduced price, free coaching, and all that fun stuff.)

In the meantime, send me any question you have about combining The 40 Day Program and the PLP program. Drop them below. I’ll give a serious (read: non-ass) answer and add them to this post.

Why and How I Combined The 40 Day Program and The PLP Program

And there sat the eleventh tip. The coup de gras of the first article I ever wrote for skinny-fat ectomorphs.

11. Every. Damn. Day

I’m going to end on a crapshoot. Some skinny fats are soft because they’re babied. From a biological standpoint, having muscle is an artifact of living a lifestyle that demands its creation. So it may be worthwhile to try training every day to provide a signal to the body that being a skinny fat just isn’t going to cut it.

Something tells me that running a combination of Waterbury’s PLP and Dan John’s 40 Day Program could do wonders for anyone.

Zoinks, Scoobs.

The questions poured in. Rightfully so too.

How do you carbohydrate cycle when you train daily?
Should I lift every day?
Should I do the 40 Day Program with more reps?
What kind of toilet paper do you use?
Should I train in extreme gravity like Goku did?

It’s finally time to answer all of the questions. This is a dive into how and why I combined the 40 Day Program with PLP, and what (I feel) it did for my skinny-fat genetics.

Why I chose the 40 Day Program

It was March 2011. I’d just gotten out of my cast. I walked with a severe limp.

The first month of recovery was all rehab (mainly balance stuff) and upper body training. But squats and deadlifts soon followed.

One day I squatted 315 pounds. Questioning my sanity immediately followed.

There I was. Two months removed from getting my cast off. Six months removed from breaking my foot in practically every place that it coulda’ broke. Yet I was teetering around with over three hundred pounds on my back.

It struck a chord within me.

I stopped caring. Squatting no longer mattered. What mattered was my health.

The deadlift seemed safer. I didn’t have to teeter out of a rack. I didn’t have to move under a load. I could just stand and lift.

But that still didn’t sit well in my stomach either.

I asked myself: “What would be best for my foot?”

My answer: Low load, high exposure.

Just so happens that the 40 Day Program is a low load, high exposure program that works just fine with the deadlift.

The choice was made: I’d train daily.

Why I chose PLP

Waterbury’s PLP article came out when I was a teacher. I read the article in between my classes. It intrigued me. But I still had my cast on at the time.

PLP popped back into my mind when I decided to train daily. It seemed reasonably do-able with The 40 Day Program. I was already gonna’ be training daily. And it would increase my muscle gaining potential. The 40 Day Program isn’t really a “mass” program.

Just so happens that the two programs blend perfectly.

PLP doesn’t stress the spine and gives volume that The 40 Day Program lacks.
The volume on PLP isn’t a concern because The 40 Day Program is low volume. The higher days of PLP (Doing 60+ chin-ups daily) would interfere with most other programs.
The 40 Day Program takes care of barbell lifts of interest. PLP takes care of body weight exercises of interest.
Both are perfect high frequency programs.

And the blend just “worked” for me. Neither program was “too heavy” or “too much” for my foot.

How I blended them together

The 40 Day Program is 40 days long. (Who saw that one coming?) PLP is 60 days long.

What gives? How did I make it work?

I tailed frequency a tad after the 40 days of the 40 Day Program. I only lifted five days per week on the 20 days after the 40 Day Program.

The 60 days of PLP stayed consistent.

What I ate and how I structured my day

I did this during the summer. I had no obligations—one of the best parts about being a teacher. So I could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.

Mornings started with a cup or two of coffee and writing. I was six months into intermittent fasting at this point.

At 11:30AM I did the PLP routine. Only took about ten minutes to finish. Even at day 60.

I ate after that. One pound of ground turkey. Some veggies. Piece of fruit.

Wrote some more for the ol’ blog you’re reading now and watched Curb Your Enthusiasm for a while. Did the 40 Day Program stuff at around 4:00PM.

Took about 45 – 60 minutes most days.

Second meal came after. Usually six eggs and more veggies. One or two days per week I’d throw some starchy carbs into this meal. Nothing to break down the house though.

Relaxed for a bit.

Around 8:00PM I had a bowl of cottage cheese (one cup or so) with psyllium husks and flax seeds. A man’s gotta’ poop with regularity. Right?

The specifics of each program

PLP training was upbeat. I rotated through exercises without much rest. But I never did more than twelve reps per set. I felt that more reps per set would be too stressful and eventually hinder the program. (Just my feelings.)

My 40 Day Program template:

Deadlifts 2×5
Unilateral Dumbbell Floor Presses 2×5
Hip Thrusts 2×20
Power Curls 2×10
Waiter’s Walks 2×20 yards

No. It wasn’t “exactly” what Dan John woulda’ ordered. But it was what I needed at the time. Hip thrusts gave extra lower body work without loading my foot.

I also ran hills once or twice per week. Nothing scientific. Ten-or-so reps of this steep fifty yard hill that was at my girlfriends apartment. As fast as possible to the top. Walk back down. Catch wind for a minute. Let the heart rate relax. Breath slowly and deeply. Then go again. It wasn’t meant to be HIIT.

I also played softball a few times every week. And I played ultimate frisbee on Saturdays when my foot held up.

The results of both programs

These sixty days could have been the most important sixty days of my training life. It taught me something that I can’t really explain in words.

The results were surprising.

Physically.

Mentally.

Everything.

I consider it the catalyst that took me to the “other side” of skinny-fat syndrome.

But I’ll save the results and good stuff for next blog post.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The skinny-fat product update

In other news…

I’ve been getting bombarded. Questions about my skinny-fat resource continue to pour in. Creating something that I’m proud of is a tough task. I want this thing to be great. I won’t settle for anything less.

I have seven documents right now. Two completed interviews. And I’m still working. It’s still being edited. Then it’ll be designed. And then I gotta’ do the juicy stuff to get it up for purchase.

But I have an idea! Ideas are good!

I’m throwing around the idea of a beta launch. The people that jump on the beta offer will help refine and create the end result.

There will be a heavy discount for the beta users. But there’s going to be a strong cap on the amount beta users allowed. I’m only one man and I can only sift through so much feedback. This feedback will come from a private support group that will have exclusive access to me and other beta users.

But I’ve said a bit too much.

The X Physique Part II – Do These Things, Not Those Things

Think of where you want to add muscle. I know you have a few spots in mind. And these spots are probably your trouble areas — areas that don’t seem to add muscle quite as well as rest of your body.

Everyone has them. And acknowledging them — and wanting to build them in portion to the rest of your body — shows that there’s a little something more to physique than just questing for absolute muscle mass.

It’s about absolute proportional muscle mass.

And the proportion most everyone is after?

The X Physique. The X Look. The X whatever-the-hell-you-want-to-call-it. See The X-Physique Part I – What It Is, Why You Want It, and What You Should Know About It and 5 Old School Methods for New Muscle if you aren’t familiar with this fabled body frame.

And as for developing the the X Physique?

Don’t worry — I got you covered. Just do these things, not those things.

Do This, Not That for an X Physique

Do some kind of chin-up every day. Never go to failure either. Slowly and steadily increase volume over time.

Don’t avoid chin-ups in favor of rows. Chin-ups are difficult, I know. But don’t be an idiot. If your elbow is giving you problems find a way to do chins with a neutral grip.

Do your curls with a thick grip. They’ll help your biceps grow, especially if you’re skinny. And biceps can go a long way in creating a pleasing physique from the front. Fat Gripz do wonders for this.

Don’t toy around with curl variations; pick one or two and work with them over time. Heed the thick grip recommendation above. (Hint: barbell curls and hammer curls are the answer here.)

Wear shirts that fit tight around the neck. It de-emphasizes your lackluster upper chest. Just make sure it isn’t so tight that it makes your lower chest look like you have a C cup. (Unless you’re a chick, in which case this is a good thing.)

Don’t wear loose clothing. Be picky here. Make sure you try your clothes on before buying them. They have to fit your body right. Clothes can make a big difference.

Do a bunch of chin-up variations, pull-ups included. Sure, we do chin-ups frequently. But you don’t have to drone yourself into one variation. Sternum chin-ups, front lever pull-ups, and basically any variation where you’re hanging on something works.

Don’t do nothing but chin-ups, your elbows won’t be happy. Mix in some pull-ups at the least. Buy some rings if you can. Have fun.

Focus on the muscles you need to grow. Look at yourself and see what muscles need to be bigger. It’s probably the shoulders and lats.

Don’t focus on muscles you want to shrink. They won’t. Nothing’s going to shrink your waist. It will grow with everything else. The key is making the muscles in the point above grow that much larger in comparison.

Do incline presses on a 30 degree incline. It will hit your upper chest best. A 45 degree incline shifts most emphasis to the shoulders.

Don’t flat barbell bench press. Unless you’re a powerlifter, in which case, why the hell do you care about proportion?

Pick stuff up and put it overhead; this requires a lot of lifting on your own feet. Picking stuff up will make your back grow. Getting it into a position to press it overhead will make your upper back grow. Putting it overhead will make your shoulders grow. Are you seeing why this is important?

Don’t do a lot of things sitting down. Incline bench pressing. That’s about it.

Do a lot of things where your hands support your body weight. Chin-ups, dips, levers, handstands, planche practice. (Rings help with this.)

Don’t let the bar be your only form of upper body resistance. Putting your body weight to use in challenging ways does wonders — especially if you’re progressing to straight arm gymnastics ring work.

Front squat. It will hit the upper back in a unique way.

Don’t get fancy with leg exercises; the barbell is the solution. Squats. That is all.

Pull with a snatch grip sometimes. This can be power snatches, snatch pulls, or snatch grip deadlifts.

Don’t forget about conventional deadlifts. It’s still the base pulling exercise. Get good at it.

Do barbell rows with your back parallel to the ground. You’re going to be doing enough pulling with your body vertical.

Don’t ditch barbell rows in favor of dumbbell rows; your troubles can be solved here. Old timers used to barbell row on top of a box to get a full stretch at the bottom position. The barbell and the stretch are the take home points.

Do some Olympic lifting. See the part about getting stuff to your shoulders and putting it overhead.

Don’t do shrugs. You’re better off doing another exercise that will contribute to something else too. Just do your deadlifts and finish with a shrug.

Get to your solid base.

Don’t think you need to be 200 pounds to look good. Frank Zane — who many considered to have had the “best” physique – only weighed 185. And that was likely with performance enhancing drugs in his system.

Overload chin-ups with sub-maximal volume. If you add one rep to the total amount of chins you can do every week, you’ll be up 50 reps within a year. It won’t happen, but it shows you the power of volume over time.

Don’t overdo weighted chin-ups. One session per week at max.

Flare your elbows on your rows and use some oomph. Flaring your elbows will hit your upper back more. This is a good thing. Also use your legs a bit to get the weight moving. The upper body will be further overloaded by the increased weight you’re using. Don’t flop like a fish or anything, just use a controlled boost.

Don’t row with super strict form. No one that does is worth a salt. Learning how to create and use force with a little extra body movement is key in almost every lift. Why do you think old time Olympic pressers shifted their hips back and forth on the press?

Go train now. You won’t get the physique you want reading articles online all day.

Don’t leave without signing up for my newsletter. The five day course will help you.

Should You Bulk or Cut? (Skinny-Fat Must Read)

Does your current body composition dictate whether or not you should bulk or cut?

Should you let random people on the internet shape your personal appearance?

Is there some secret path that successful people scour in the cycle of gaining muscle and losing fat?

I’m not totally sure I understand why people ask whether they should cut or bulk, but what follows will lead to your answer. (And it just may surprise you.)

“Should I bulk or cut?”

Ever since seeing this question on many forums, I can’t help but wonder why the majority of people seek answers for their own physique in others. Everyone has their own favorite ice cream flavor. Your opinion on what a “decent” physique is unique to yourself. Asking someone else what you should look like is a little…strange.

Nevertheless, random rant aside, I think the question originated from the idea that, given a certain body fat percentage, you sit in a better spot to either gain muscle or lose fat. In other words, does body fat effect the ability to lose fat or gain muscle? In other words yet, can you build muscle as effectively if you’re fat as compared to if you’re skinny?

Yes. And no.

If you’re overly fat, gauging muscle building progress is difficult. Muscle is harder to “detect” under fat, and it’s easy to get discouraged from an an apparent lack of results. (Whether or not change is happening is arbitrary, as it’s all about perception for most people.) The antithesis of this example is my little cousin. He’s a soccer player with a pretty low body fat. After two weeks we could tell that my program for him was working. There was nothing to stop the muscle from showing. Fat is like wrapping yourself in a blanket. The more blankets you have around yourself, the tougher it is to get an idea of what’s underneath.
If you’re overly fat, your hormones (insulin, estrogen, cortisol) are supposedly “out of whack” and less capable of building muscle. Yet there are many powerlifters that aren’t necessarily skinny that seem to do just fine in the muscular department, not to mention overeating in itself is also capable of building muscle in the absence of exercise in some populations.
If you’re incredibly lean, your hormones are supposedly “out of whack” too, although this only seems to be an issue in females with regards to pregnancy. Not so much with gaining muscle.
If you’re trying to stay incredibly lean, finding an ideal balance of “enough” calories to recover from training and build muscle while also staying lean is tricky. It’s easy to run in place — eat less than needed — and fail to make tangible progress in any one direction.

While the above points are the most scientifically relevant to the question at hand, they truly don’t matter under most circumstances. The hard science behind all of this can only take you so far. The true answer lies within both your psyche and your self-perception.

Why you should get lean

If there’s one thing people remember about what I’ve written, it’s my recommendation in 3 Reminders for the Skinny-Fat Ectomorph to get lean before trying to build muscle.

This recommendation has nothing to do with hormones, muscle building potential, or any of that fancy stuff.

It has everything to do with how you percieve yourself.

Skinny-fats, among many others, have a lot of emotional issues. I know because I lived the life. I was once told I had “girl boobs.” I wished, hoped, and dreamed I lived a different life.

These mental and emotional issues take credence over everything because until they’re sorted, you’ll never make headway in the right direction.

If you’re self conscious about your body fat, the last thing you want to do is add more body fat to your frame. It’s nonsensical, no matter how much “potential” you have to build muscle.

I can’t count how many e-mails I’ve gotten about this, and how many times it spirals people down bad paths. Here’s one from just the other day:

Well, I noticed an increase of belly fat, and not much increase of anything else in the mirror…so I went back to thinking…maybe I should get rid of all the fat first and then try to bulk, because if I continue things will get worse…you know this constant cycle.

It’s running in place. And this almost always happens.

But it’s a two way street for the following reason:

But again, I am still confused about should I cut to a low BF% first at all. I can see how that’s not going to be a pretty picture either.

…

I can only imagine what would happen if I did a more aggressive calorie reduction. I like the idea of getting rid of all the excess body fat first, but then I’m afraid I’ll look the skinniest I’ve ever been.

Tricky situation indeed.

The benefits of getting lean

The worst thing you can do is bounce back and forth between between bulking and cutting, failing to make respectable strides in any one direction.

You decide to bulk, you get too fat, then you cut down back to your original level. You decide to cut, you get too lean, and then you eat your way back to your original level. Congratulations. You just entered the hall of failure.

Pick a direction, and stick with it. If you’re self-conscious about body fat, that direction should be to lean down. It goes back to one of those neglected principles earlier.

If you’re overly fat, gauging muscle building progress is difficult. Muscle is harder to “detect” under fat, and it’s easy to get discouraged from an an apparent lack of results. (Whether or not change is happening is arbitrary, as it’s all about perception for most people.) The antithesis of this example is my little cousin. He’s a soccer player with a pretty low body fat. After two weeks we could tell that my program for him was working. There was nothing to stop the muscle from showing. Fat is like wrapping yourself in a blanket. The more blankets you have around yourself, the tougher it is to get an idea of what’s underneath.

But there is more.

Getting lean is a lot easier than building muscle. You can get close to as lean as you want to be within one year if you’re at or under 20% body fat. You will probably not reach your ideal level of muscularity in one year though. So losing the body fat initially gets positive feelings rolling for the road ahead.
In light of the bullet above, if you bulk first, you’re going to end up cutting and rebulking. Few people are willing to stay outside of their comfortable body fat level year round. I don’t see the point in the bulk-cut-bulk-cut-bulk ordeal when you can just start from a solid lean base and then slowly build muscle from there as written about Getting Lean and Staying Muscular. (The only downside to being lean is that initially increasing calories is met with trepidation for fear of re-gaining fat. This is a small hurdle to overcome though.)
If you bulk first, you have a longer cut ahead of you.
Being lean makes bulking progress easier to gauge.
Being lean is better for minimizing damage potentially done during a bulk. You can sense if you’re on the right or wrong path faster. Damage is easily reversible. If you overeat for a two weeks and notice yourself extended beyond the comforts of your body fat, it’s only going to take one or two weeks to return to baseline. This is the entire idea behind Nutrient Autoregulation: The Clean Bulk That Actually Works. (A book of mine to accompany a few resources I’m working on. Explained more in Getting Lean and Staying Muscular.)

Don’t make this mistake

I’m going to go ahead and assume that if you’re asking whether or not you should cut or bulk, you have both muscle that needs gained and fat that needs lost. (Why else would you ask the question?) Although this seems like a stupid thing to mention, I know people that have 10% body fat and wondering if they’re “too fat.” (OK, you got me. That was me at one point.)

Quick mention: in the name of body fat, and to give yourself a better picture of what body fat percentages truly look like, I highly suggest checking out Nerd Fitness’s Everything You Need to Know About Body Fat Percentage.

If you want muscle, you should probably gain muscle. If you want to be leaner, you should probably lose fat. But if you want to be muscular and lean, get lean first and chip away at the muscle building process. This means you can stay lean year round without turning into a lardcase. And by “lean,” I mean around 10-15% body fat.

From my experience, it’s unrealistic to maintain a lower body fat than 10% if you’re going to build muscle. You can maintain a lower body fat if you’re not trying to build muscle though.

A final must-read on getting lean

Getting lean doesn’t mean foregoing all training outside of “cardio.” Some traditional lower intensity aerobic work can be implemented into your training, but the most important facet of getting lean is increasing or maintaining strength via strength training. It’s often common to “save” strength training until a lean state is hit, but this is a mistake. (And a topic for another day.) So don’t forget to play around with the barbell on your quest down to a comfortable body fat. And If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out my archive of skinny-fat resources.

Bulking disclaimer: I’m not a big fan of the traditional bulking and cutting designations, but I realize their use. In the sense of this article, I’m merely using them to mean either losing fat or gaining weight—be it during a low “clean” process or a hulk weight gain process.

+++++

Your turn: What do you think? Get lean first or bulk up first? What path did you follow?

Keep Your Mind on Your Muscles and Your Muscles on Your Mind

You’ve probably heard the saying, “Curls are for the girls.” The idea is that building muscle requires a steady diet of squats, presses, chins, pulls, and all of the wonderful movements you can do with a barbell that are worth a damn.

I couldn’t agree more, really.

Anytime I get an e-mail from someone about aesthetics, my first reply is nearly always, “Do you strength train? How strong are you in the basic barbell exercises?” Of course, I’m then met with, “Well, <insert excuse here>.”

It’s simple: if you’re weak, and you want a better physique, find a way to get strong. Nothing improves your body composition quite like it.

As for what exercises you should do, I have two tips:

If there’s a barbell in your hands and you’re standing on your own two feet, it’s probably good for you.
If you’re hanging from something and moving your body weight through space, it’s probably good for you.

This whole “strength” thing may or may not be news to you. From a general perusing of the athletic fitness scene, getting stronger is one of the most common pieces of advice.

And that’s exactly why I’m going to add a note here: don’t forget about your muscles. If there’s an underrated, underused, underappreciated, underwhatever aspect of the aesthetic fitness game, it’s feeling the targeted muscles work during any given exercise.

So more weight is better…until you can’t “feel” the muscles execute the movement.

“If you really want to experience the greatest benefits from your training, you must enter a stage of deep concentration. Do not let your concentration be broken by anyone or anything.”

- Steve Reeves

In the quest for strength, it’s easy to forget feel. Often, training is a tao of slapping more weight on the bar, hiking it in the air, and rubbing the joints down after.

MORE STRESS = MORE POTENTIAL

The muscles that encounter the most stress have the greatest potential for growth. Short track speed cyclist are a great example of this. Their quads are huge because they encounter the most stress.

Increasing the mind-muscle connection increases the stress on the muscles. And if greater growth potential wasn’t enough, it also decreases stress on the joints.

Part of me thinks a lack of attention to the mind-muscle connection is why we’re in this age of repatterning. I would know, because I’m the middle of it with my book, An Athlete’s Guide to Chronic Knee Pain, and my contribution to Muscle Imbalances Revealed.

“Activate this.”

“Activate that.”

“Your muscle has amnesia.”

It’s all the same.

Lackluster mind-muscle connections throw more stress on the joints. It’s like the muscles tell the connective tissue, “Hey bro, take this.” And then they give them something to hold. This happens until the joint can’t carry anything else, eventually dropping what they’re already carrying.

Unlike more complex repatterning (more for sports implications), the mind-muscle connection stems from conscious thought. That’s all. This isn’t accidentally driving to an old house.

One of my best anecdotes comes from the principles of An Athlete’s Guide to Chronic Knee Pain. Sometimes, people instantly get rid of knee pain by simply putting their mind to use in a new way.

I just finished your book. I was having patellar tendon pain EVERY TIME I stood up from a chair. I’m now extending the hips similar to the way you described in your RDL chapter, and the pain has disappeared. I’m already impressed. Now to translate this to Olympic weightlifting…

- Jahed Momand

HOW YOU CAN INCREASE THE CONNECTION

Unless you’re Olympic weightlifting, the question isn’t to find out “what” exercises need more mind-muscle connection, the question is “when” you’re going to get your mind in gear. Every exercise could use refinement.

Start with places you have joint pain. I’m a firm believer that a lot of the injuries we like to claim are a result of “x” “y” and “z” imbalance are nothing more than terrible mind-muscle connections with the muscles that are supposed to be working. Lo and behold, “Here, hold this bro.”

If you have regular “flare-ups,” follow my three day rule.

If I train and feel it in your joints more than your muscles for one day, I ignore it. Could be a fluke.
If it extends into a second day, draw back the weight. Train with higher repetitions. Try to fix things.
If it extends into a third day, evaluate the problem. Something is wrong.

As for how to increase your connection, I like Frank Yang’s “anatomy book” technique of pretending the working muscles are a different color than the rest.

1. I credit this to Frank Yang . During every repetition of every lift, picture your body as nothingness except for the muscle you’re targeting. Check out the dudes in anatomy text books with different colored muscles. Envision that. Seriously. Try it. It works. Close your eyes and practice it before every set. Think of the targeted muscle lighting up bright red in a sea of white.

- The Best Damn Guide for Building Upper Chest Size and Strength

But the color strategy won’t matter unless you’re training in the right repetition range. Anything below six reps usually trips the body’s “holy shit, I just need to survive” mechanism. Thinking about much of anything is difficult. Contrary to popular belief, you can still get strong training with reps in the 6-10 range. It’s done the same way: add weight to the bar over time. A novel concept, I know.

And before I get the hatred, I’m not downing the importance of strength. Dan John hits it when he said: “You need to do two things to get stronger: add weight and do more reps. The answer has never been: lift light weights for high reps, or lift heavy weights for few reps. The answer remains: Lift heavy weights for high reps.”

But my addition to this is: heavy weight, high reps, with the mind in control of the muscles at work. (And by high reps, I’m talking about 5-10, which is “high” compared to the “few” reps referenced by Dan.)

- The X Physique Part I – Why You Want It and What You Should Know About It

So get strong. Please, get strong. Seriously. Get. Strong.

(It will save me some e-mails in the long run.)

Just make sure your muscles are coming along for the ride.

How to Look Great Naked

Embrace your vanity.

This is a suggestion I give everyone when constructing a training program.

My reasoning for such recommendation?

Looks matter.

Below is a video interview done with JC Deen, author of LGN365: A Complete Body-Recomposition Course. (Yes, LGN stands for Look Great Naked.)

For quite some time, I’ve been mingling with the idea of getting some interviews up on this website. When I texted (read: threatened) JC Deen about being the first lovely face on the first lovely episode, he had no choice but to accept. (Unless he wanted shanked at a dark hour outside of his house.)

So I’m proud to introduce to you the very first interview in what is hopefully a long stretch of interviews with people that I believe are worth checking out when it comes to wisdom of athletic fitness.

Audio only version only available by downloading the mp4.

What we discuss:

How JC dropped out of school and still found a way to fitness.
Why JC hates “clean” eating.
Reasons JC summons unearthly demons to fight against fitness marketing.
Some of JC’s recent training that has him jacked and looking great naked.
LGN365, which is JC’s recent course that teaches people how to look great naked. More on this below.

ABOUT LGN365 AND LOOKING GREAT NAKED

LGN365 is JC Deen’s recently launched course. As we mention in the interview, the product really is about…well…looking great naked. And as we also mentioned, this is much more than a “program.” JC corralls interviews from the far reaches of the internet, not necessairly the fitness community. For instance, inside LGN365 is an interview with Leo Babauta, author of legendard blog zenhabits.

As usual, if you have any questions about what JC’s got going on, shoot me an e-mail. If I can’t answer it myself, I’ll make sure it gets taken care of.

anthony.mychal -at- gmail.com

Interview Notes / Links of interest:

Don’t complain:

Audio isn’t perfect, I know. Such is the “feeling out” process of this kind of thing.
It’s long, listen to it in your car on your commute or something.
The audio version isn’t available on iTunes, but it can be downloaded here.

LET’S TALK

What do you think about training with means of looking great naked? How much of your training is split between athleticism or performance and looks? Drop your comments below.

Getting Lean and Staying Muscular

Tired of seeing your muscles deflate and dilapidate when you’re trying to lose fat?

Withering into nothingness as the weeks wane on traditional cuts isn’t uncommon.

Luckily, there are some things you can do to combat the carnage of cutting.

Getting lean and staying muscular is possible, and it’s not as difficult as you think.

OLD ADVICE THAT HOLDS TRUE

Get lean first.

That was my advice in 3 Reminders for the Skinny-Fat Ectomorph, as well as many other articles and e-mails, because muscle is difficult to maintain when dieting down. Yet I still get e-mail after e-mail saying: “Every time I try to lean down I lose my muscle.”

Yeah, I kind of told you that would happen. But I guess I never explained why it would happen. So here’s the deal: If you plan on losing weight in a short amount of time (ie: a “cut”), you’re going to take some muscle with you unless (and this is a big unless) your nutrition and training are 100% spot on.

Usually, the faster you try losing fat, the more muscle will go with it.

The changes you have to make to lose fifteen pounds in eight weeks will be more drastic than the changes you have to make to lose fifteen pounds in twelve weeks.

These are the same changes that sabotage muscle mass.

(Hypothesis: This, I think, is why distance running is seen as a pacman of muscle tissue. When “cutting,” most people do some running while dropping their calories. Muscle goes bye bye and “cardio” gets the blame. But is it the aerobic training? Or is it that you’re going into short-term starvation?)

WHY YOU LOSE MUSCLE

Your muscles grow in response to training and nutrient intake: eat enough of the right food (see my Diet to End All Diets), train intensively and consistently with the right lifts (see a sample program in Skinny-F at to Superhuman), and get enough rest.

To ensure weight gain, most people overshoot their nutrient intake on “bulks.” They gain both muscle and fat, knowing that they will “cut” the fat after. Most “cuts,” however, alter both the training and nutrient intake.

Let’s think about this.

Two things that went into building muscle (nutrient intake and training) are changed. So what was responsible for all of your progress is suddenly non-existent or altered. How couldn’t your muscles also be affected?

WHAT NUTRIENT DEPRIVATION DOES

People usually say it takes 500 calories above your maintenance level to build muscle. (I’m not sure this is true, nor do I care to find out as I’m not a fan of exact numbers when it comes to nutrition.) To lose fat, however, the opposite is recommended: 500 calories below maintenance.

So if you come off of a 500+ calorie bulk and go on a -500 calorie cut, you’re swinging your intake 1000 calories and expecting muscle tissue to maintain the same level of homeostasis.

Even without adjusting your training routine (even though most people do), this change in calories in enough to effect levels of muscularity.

LOSING FAT AND GAINING MUSCLE

Most times, short-term fat loss programs also affect muscle tissue. To test this myself, I dropped 1000 calories from my diet for five consecutive days. The amount of food I ate wasn’t that far under what I would normally eat on an “off” day. The main difference was that I ate like it was an “off” day even on training days.

Over the course of the week, I noticed my muscles wither into apparent nothingness. This only took five days. Imagine what would happen over the span of eight weeks.

This consistent nutrient deficient mindset of most cuts is what propels my recommendation: get lean now. Be done with it. For the natural trainee, being lean and muscular simultaneously is much easier if you build slowly from a solid base.

WHAT IS THIS “SOLID” BASE?

Right, I keep talking about a “solid” base and not really quantifying it. First and foremost, don’t confuse “solid base” with “disgustingly lean six-pack.”

If I attempt to maintain a sickening level of leanness, a few things happen:

Strength (even slow cooking it the way I do) stagnates.
I lose motivation to train.
I get injured (likely trying to train at my previous level and pushing through days I have no motivation or mental clarity).

I would never be able to maintain a decent lifestyle or training regimen if I tried to stay as lean as possible every day.

Note that I said day.

My nutrition philosophy is based off of something I like to call nutrient autoregulation. While I touched on this in a previous skinny-fat article, it’s basically cycling calories (carbohydrates and fats for the most part) on a daily basis depending on both mood and feel.

Some days I just know that I need more calories or carbohydrates. (This comes from experience.) Or if I’m feeling especially lean, I’ll eat more. (I’m privy to eat a lot if I feel like I need to.)

So some days my body lives in a state of nutrient overload. Other days it lives in a state of nutrient deprivation. But I never go outside of my comfort zone and I always appear relatively “lean.”

In any given week, I rotate through having a no-pack to a two-pack to a six-pack. This fluctuation helps me maintain focus and have daily-to-weekly mini bulk-and-cut cycles. And I can only do this because I started out lean enough to afford the caloric fluctuations.

I live by the philosophy of never being one-to-two week away. So I allow fluctuations in body composition. Just nothing that can’t be undone within one week. This allows me to litter this website in half naked pictures of myself with a sick-pack and gain muscle at the same time.

When it comes to physique and “bulking,” part of me thinks that we should never be more than two weeks away from what we feel are “perfect” bodyfat levels. Perfect will of course be subjective.

But once we move beyond the two week feel, things get scary. You’re digging deeper. And it’s a lot harder to crawl from deeper holes.

So you can dig one hole, 50 feet deep, or you can dig 10 holes 5 feet deep.

Both work.

But finding a way out of the 50 foot hole is much more difficult.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BULKING AND CUTTING

The one week philosophy is just what I prefer and can be summed up with:

Get to your ideal body fat level
Use nutrient autoregulation: overshooting nutrient intake some days, undershooting nutrient intake some days
Never wander out of your body fat comfort zone to the point of being able to undo the damage within one-two weeks (this takes some practice)

If the one week philosophy doesn’t sit well, you can still do traditional bulks and cuts. They essentially transform the one week rule into the eight week rule, meaning most people that bulk set themselves up to hit their ideal body composition after eight weeks of cutting.

But trying to lose fat in eight weeks requires the drastic and constant caloric swing. Therefore, most people simply aren’t big enough at the conclusion of their bulk to hit their ideal physique at the end of their cut.

This is why the cycle of bulking and cutting repeats yearly for most people. One winter of bulking and one summer of cutting simply doesn’t add the amount of quality of lean mass people want, so they repeat it over and over, year after year.

Say a twelve week bulk leads to twelve total pounds gained. Traditional bulks (read: natural, non-steroid) usually end in a 50-50 body fat to muscle split, so six of the twelve pounds is muscle, the other six is fat.

By nature of the caloric swing, a cut will take one to three pounds of muscle with it. (There’s a good chance that this isn’t lean tissue anyway, just increased glycogen and fluid storage that usually accompanies bulking. So even though it appears as solid muscle, it isn’t.) This results in three to five pounds of muscle gained over the entire body. Seems like a lot, but it isn’t readily noticeable spread across the entire frame.

So in order to be happy after a bulk and a cut, you will likely have to bulk beyond your ideal weight and escape the illusion of glycogen and fluid retention being “solid” lean tissue. This means gaining more fat—something most people aren’t comfortable with. (And let’s not forget the theory that fat sacks, once created, are there forever. They shrink, but don’t disappear.) Most people aren’t comfortable getting overly fat, which is why the cycle of bulking and cutting reoccurs yearly.

So it’s safe to generalize and say that your bulk—all bulks—aren’t as successful as initially thought, especially when considering the issue of glycogen and fluid storage.

GAINING MUSCLE AND LOSING FAT WITH FASTING

Fitness fads come and go, hence the word fad. But this intermittent fasting bit is different. The infamous clean bulk was infamous because it used to be damn near impossible.

Until intermittent fasting.

Now a day, a lot of people are able to get lean and gain muscle simultaneously. Or, at least, get lean and maintain muscle.

While scientific theories can be used to explain just why this is, I have a different “theory”. One that doesn’t involve hormones or any special scientific principles.

Just pluses and minuses.

Traditional cuts involve repeated days of eating below maintenance calories. These days are designated with a (-) symbol, representing coming in under your calorie goal. (-)’s doesn’t bode well for muscle. Muscle is metabolically expensive. The body won’t hold onto all of it if basic energy needs aren’t being met.

Traditional cuts log a (-) every day, so muscle isn’t prone to stick around.

But with something like intermittent fasting or nutrient autoregulation, there are (+) and even (o) days thrown into the mix.

(+) represents coming in above your calorie goal
(o) represents coming in at your calorie goal
(-) represents coming in below your calorie goal

Take Brad Pilon’s 24 hour, twice per week, Eat Stop Eat fasting for example. Two to four days per week log a (-) because of the fasts. But the other three to four days can log either a (o) or (+). These (+)’s and (o)’s, representing adequate or beyond adequate nutrient intake, go a long way in maintaining muscle. Starting from a solid base is advantageous because it allows for more (+) days as opposed to (o) days, making muscle gain more likely.

HOW TO DECIDE WHETHER TO CUT

With something like fasting or nutrient autoregulation, managing (+)’s, (o)’s, and (-)’s can be done to the point of losing fat, maintaining muscle, and even gaining muscle. But starting out with too much fat makes managing much more difficult. The solid base, however, affords more freedom. So it’s better to have a solid base, but it’s not absolutely necessary.

Although logging consecutive (-)’s can sacrifice muscle, it gets the fat loss job done faster. So ask yourself just how much muscle you really have and whether or not it’s going to be worth tip toeing around.

Using myself as an example, I wasn’t carrying around much muscle at the beginning of my journey. Although I didn’t know how to at the time, I technically could have used the (+), (-), and (o) system to try to lose fat and gain muscle. But going on a straight cut is beneficial for some because it gets you to a comfortable body fat level faster, reducing psychological baggage. It also allows you to monitor changes in body composition better. When you’re puffy, you’re always puffy. But when you’re lean, you can compare everything to your lean level — “bloat” is much easier to detect.

If you’re not immediately worried about body fat or don’t want to sacrifice muscle, however, spend some more time on the process and opt for nutrient autoregulation or some kind of intermittent fasting scheme that fluctuates between (+)’s, (-)’s, and (o)’s.

Here are some things to take home:

In order for muscle to grow, it needs “enough” nutrients at times. This “enough” will never happen on a constant caloric deprivation (ie: traditional cuts).
If you’re doing traditional bulks and cuts, recognize the swing you’re putting your body through.
Most bulks aren’t as successful as initially perceived because of fluid retention and loss from the subsequent cutting.
To get lean and maintain your muscle, it’s best to rotate between days of more nutrients and day of less nutrients.
Intermittent fasting allows adequate nutrient intake on most days, meaning muscle is prone to stick around.
Logging too many consecutive (-)’s increases potential for muscle loss.
Operating from a solid base makes muscle gain more likely, and makes it easier to run nutrient autoregulation from.

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How do YOU normally gain and cut weight? Do you follow the traditional bulk and cut? Or do you do something different? See you in the comments.

The X Physique Part I – What It Is, Why You Want It, And What You Should Know About It

Don’t kid yourself.

It’s not about absolute muscle mass.

It never has been.

Yet you train like it is.

Pick your physique: Steve Reeves, or Ronnie Coleman?

Of course, I know the answer.

That’s because it’s about proportional muscle mass.

It’s about the X Physique.

WHY THE X PHYSIQUE IS APPEALING

Growing up skinny-fat, I had narrow shoulders, small wrists, and a wide waist. While I always wanted big muscles, they were the means to the end, more so than the end itself. What I really wanted was proportion – wide shoulders, a narrow waist, and powerful legs. Together, these form something known as the X Physique.

For a long time—and for whatever reason—I associated this X Physique with athleticism and virility. I’m no oracle, but I was onto something.

Fear Primes May not Affect Women’s Implicit and Explicit Mate Preferences

Women value physical characteristics in men such as height, muscularity, and broad shoulders (Buss, 1994; Barber, 1995; Franzoi & Herzog 1987)…

Foundation of Human Culture - Human Morphological Variation

Narrow hips are another advantage in fast running….

Human Evolution and Ultrarunning

According to that hypothesis [D. M. Bramble and D. E. Lieberman, "Endurance running and the evolution of Homo." Nature, vol. 432, pp. 345-352, 18 Nov. 2004], such well-known human traits as lack of body hair, high perspiration rate, upright stature, high arches, broad shoulders, and large gluteus maximus were selected through evolution to make it easier for us to run long distances.

The Science of Sex Appeal: An Evolutionary Perspective

…Using facial photos of male college students that were cropped at the neck, those with faces that women rated as attractive had more pronounced wedge shaped torsos (broad shoulders and narrow hips), a masculine feature many women prefer. In addition, these same males had stronger grip strength scores (see also Fink, Neave, & Seydel, 2007; Sell et al., 2009), and more sex partners…

The Science of Sex Appeal: Sexy Body Motions

Proportions alone are associated with physical attractiveness. In the crudest sense, the more you appear like a certain sex, the more attractive you will be be. We don’t like ambiguity. [My conclusion: Since the X Physique is so culturally recognized in males, it's what's deemed as attractive from first glance. Same can be said for females and the hour glass shape.] We look for immediate cues to tell us whether or not someone can be mated with.

YOU NEED TO EMBRACE SOME VANITY

Is it cultural? Is it evolutionary? Physiological?

Really, who cares?

Part of building a body that matters is being proud of what you look like.

The seed is implanted. And as long as it’s there, we have to address it. So embrace your vanity. When I was in 9th grade and a classmate told me I had “boobs,” I sure didn’t care about culture.

Of course, it’s not good to base the entirety of your existence on your physical-self. But let’s face it: feeling good about your appearance trickles to every aspect of your life.

How you perceive yourself is the most important step in any physical transformation – and why I started the Skinny-Fat Ectomorph series with a post on mentality.

Bottom line: If you have any semblance of aesthetic regard, and you don’t address it, you will fail. If you have no hook with how you look, don’t worry about it. But if one slice of your brain wants bigger arms, and you ignore it, you’re cooked.

YOU’RE SCREWED, SORT OF…

Shoulder and hip width are genetically determined, and you can’t adjust skeletal structure. So if you’re born with narrow shoulders relative to your waist (like me), you have a lot of work ahead of you to make yourself into an X.

Instead of hating your parents and cursing to the clouds, focus your energy on building muscles in the right places to give yourself a better shot at the X Physique.

It sounds easy, but I kind of already know your problem.

You’re focusing on the wrong places.

The term “broad shoulders” is a bit misleading. If you’re throwing all of your focus to the front deltoids, you’re wasting your time.

THE NEED TO KNOW 1: TRAIN LIKE A BODYBUILDER

Everyone wants programs. But programs pale compared to principles. You won’t often find me writing programs for free on this website. I’m much more concerned about you developing the right philosophy – a mindset that sticks with you for life.

The following will be hard to swallow. But stop thinking about maximal strength. Just stop.

The goal here isn’t to break powerlifting world records. The goal is physique. That’s all.

YOU NEED TO TRAIN LIKE A BODYBUILDER, NOT A POWERLIFTER

I’m not talking about doing machine work or a host of isolation exercises, either.

When it comes to lifting weights, the goal is to continually overload the muscles. The easiest and most trackable way to do this is by slapping more plates on the bar. The problem with this philosophy is that the muscles become secondary to the weight.

But the muscles are what actually lift the weights.

This is different than most athletic performance methods. Plyometrics and the likes are more suited to train the nervous system and the entire musculoskeletal complex. So muscular control isn’t as concerning.

But when dealing with “carving” a physique, Arnold said it best: ”The weights are just a means to an end; how well you contract the muscles is what training is all about.”

This shift away from muscular control — in my opinion — is at fault for a lot of barbell related injuries. You should be lifting weights — unless you’re doing a complex or overspeed movement — with your mind in your muscles.

Control the weight, mentally and physically, through-out the entire range of motion. Make the muscles work in every phase. Think about them squeezing and lengthening.

And before I get the hatred, I’m not downing the importance of strength. Dan John hits it when he said: “You need to do two things to get stronger: add weight and do more reps. The answer has never been: lift light weights for high reps, or lift heavy weights for few reps. The answer remains: Lift heavy weights for high reps.”

But my addition to this is: heavy weight, high reps, with the mind in control of the muscles at work. (And by high reps, I’m talking about 5-10, which is “high” compared to the “few” reps referenced by Dan.)

The goal is to “sculpt.” Remember, it’s about proportional muscle, so what muscles get stressed the most in movement is important. And you can control this with the mind-muscle connection.

THE NEED TO KNOW 2: IT’S LESS ABOUT PRESSING

Broad shoulders are a hallmark of the X Physique. But it’s not about pressing, really. Pressing is secondary. Maybe even tertiary. So if you’re benching to grow the upper body for the X Physique, you’re missing out.

It starts with the back. Hands down. Most famous poses for showing off the X Physique don’t even involve the shoulders.

More specifically, it starts the the lats. The lats are the number one muscle to give someone a wider look. Some people even call lats “wings.” And I’m all about wings and taking flight (metaphorically) here at Life As Sport. Hell, even birds expand their wings to intimidate others. Big lats are a big mental boost.

THE NEED TO KNOW 3: BIG ARMS HELP

After building wings, building big arms helps create an a wider look. Yes, I said it. Big arms. But this only applies is you have the right back development.

Big arms without the wide lats means you just look like another goon. But taking one look at Don Howorth will help you understand what I mean.

THE NEED TO KNOW 4: PRESSING POSITION MATTERS

Of all body parts, the chest is the most finicky. And despite what I said earlier, pressing is still important. It’s just not the end all.

One thing to note about the X Physique and pressing is that puffy chests usually lose. Arnold had a great physique, but he rarely gets put in the same category as others for having the X Physique.

In this regard, the chest and pressing exercises chosen are important and should tailor to your body type. Blindly flat benching because powerlifters do won’t get you very far in the aesthetic column.

THE NEED TO KNOW 5: IT’S NOT ABOUT SIZE FOR THE SAKE OF SIZE

Although I touched on this earlier, if you’re in the running for an X Physique, it’s less about gaining a set amount of weight. Being 200 pounds reveals little about how that muscle is packed on your frame. It might be more beneficial to be 190 with the muscle in the right places.

It’s important you pick exercises and divide your time among what will propel you towards your goal. In other words, everything you do should have a specific goal or meaning attached to it. Don’t do anything for the sake of doing it. Make sure its specific rationale fits in with your entire rationale.

In most cases, a good physique is an illusion between muscle groups built in the right proportion when compared to one another. Anyone with an X Physique will immediately be perceived as more muscular, even if they are smaller or lighter.

This is the beauty of proportion, and is something that has been lost over time.

Again, not to dog basic barbell training — it is certainly is important — but the idea of not tailoring your program to your psychological wants (getting an X Physique, for instance) has cursed the population of people that pick up weights. The vast majority lift to look better — even if they lie and use the “it’s all about strength” excuse.

For someone that never wants to compete in powerlifting, there’s no reason why they can’t forego flat benching for incline benching, if that’s something that will work better for them. It’s not like swapping out benching for bosu ball one arm semi sumi functional presses. It’s one basic barbell lift for another. And I’m all about basic barbell lifts. Just the ones that are best suited for each goal. Consider it basic barbell training with a twist.

MOVING ON FROM HERE

Take the above advice and use it to adjust your program or fix your mindset as needed. I’ve been saying it for a while: if you want big arms, curl. Sure, do your chins and rows. But curl too. Make sure your program address your psychological desires, first and foremost. And then ask yourself if you have a specific type of physique that you’re reaching for, and if you’re actually doing anything to reach it.

Future articles in this series will give more specific advice on how to build an X Physique through exercise selection and whatnot. I don’t want to give you too much at once, of course.

But let me ask: What do you think of “sculpting” a physique? And what do you think of training for looks? Is it short-sighted? What’s the difference between lifting weights in front of a crowd and posing in front of a crowd? Should it be all about performance?

Drop your comments below. And most importantly, send this article to a friend if you think they’re lost or caught up in a philosophy that isn’t best for their long term progress.