A lot of new workout plans, vitamins, and studies come out all the time with different tips on how to train, so it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. It may never be clear-cut how to get the best results, and it depends a lot on your own personal goals. But what’s more important is to stick to tried-and-true training ideas that you’ll always remember.
You shouldn’t overthink your training routine—there’s no need to make things hard. These old-school methods are simple and have been shown to work. To get the best advice, we talked to Tony Hale, an expert on natural health, and David Schenk, the owner of Iron Anthology in Los Angeles.
Much of Schenk’s free time is spent teaching his clients useful exercises, which include different kinds of squats, lunges, and pushing and pulling exercises. These are the building blocks of power, and you can change them based on your exercise goals.
If you want to gain muscle, you’ll have to lift bigger weights and give your body more time to get used to them, which means you’ll need more rest. “You’re going to have to keep your rep count somewhere between eight and 12.”
As for the rest of your workout, you shouldn’t totally ignore one part of fitness in favor of another. However, doing too much running will definitely make it harder for you to gain weight.
According to Schenk, you should try to eat good calories. “Sometimes, guys looking to gain mass have a hard time doing it because they burn a lot of calories while working out and have good metabolism, but that doesn’t mean you should go for junk food.”
You do want to gain weight, but we’re sure you want strength. If you eat a lot of empty calories without a plan, it won’t help your body get bigger and stronger; it will just make you fatter.
Schenk says that when you’re really hungry, like after a run, you should make a protein shake instead of going to the fridge. This can help you control your hunger and speed up your healing. That way, you can be more focused and careful about the healthy foods you eat to make sure you gain weight at a healthy rate that will help you reach your goals.
Even though it may not make sense, your body needs fat to do its basic job. Don’t cut out any fat from your diet because you think too much of it will hurt you. Too much of anything can be bad for you.
Pay attention to monounsaturated fatty acids, which are important fats and can be found in foods like dark chocolate, nuts, seeds, avocados, and nuts. If you don’t eat enough, your body won’t be able to flush out and replace stored fat, which can make it build up and become harmful over time.
“By consuming healthy fats, like coconut oil, on a consistent basis, you can train your body to burn the fat it’s holding in [loose connective] tissue,” Hale adds. A lot of things in the body need fat to work, including brain repair. “Give your body what it really needs, and it will be more willing to let go of old garbage it has been holding onto for too long.”
Here’s the other side of what Schenk was saying before. He still says to do the basic exercises like squats, lunges, and pulling and pushing movements, but in a different way.
“Aim for a higher rep count with lighter weights, 15 or so, with decreased rest time,” says Schenk. You have a better chance of getting a body with a lot of lean muscle if you work out regularly.
In general, try to stay active during your workouts and not take too long to rest between sets. As you might expect, you’ll also want to make your workouts more cardio-based than heavy weightlifting.
Of course, only do what is reasonable. But keep in mind that your body will stay pretty much the same unless you tell it to change. If you don’t just want to maintain, you’d be in the minority. Always keep in mind that a workout plan shouldn’t just include doing the same movements every week.
Somewhat of a “shock to the system” is needed if you want to get stronger, but you don’t have to be cripplingly tired the day after a workout.
“You want your body to ask, ‘What? What is this jerk trying to make us do'”?” Hale says, “We can’t do this.” “Give your body a reason to get stronger, and it will.”
After working out, a lot of guys feel like they can do anything. It’s hard to argue with that sense of achievement and joy. But remember that you just broke your muscles, so you won’t get stronger until after you’ve healed. This way, your body will be in better shape for your next workout than it was for the last one.
So don’t just go too hard in the weight room by coming back too soon; also take it easy from time to time. You’ll get a lot more out of your workouts if you rest and sleep for eight hours afterward instead of going out, drinking a lot, and then going back to sleep for a few hours.
“Remember, if you don’t take some time to take it easy, your body is constantly in breakdown mode, so how are you ever going to build, strengthen, and repair?” Hale says.