Most of the folks who join our gym have never been to a real strength training facility. Racks, platforms, chains and chalk are mostly new to them. We try and get people as comfortable as possible with the new equipment and methods. This way they can begin to benefit right away.
A lot of this enlightenment to functional strength training involves clearing up the differences between the methods, goals and benefits of bodybuilding vs. those of strength training. We then try and explain how they are connected in some great ways and how one helps the other. This way, people have the tools to reach their individual goals in the most expedient way.
Nonetheless, typical questions from many of our new folks, especially younger guys include “When are you getting a Preachers curl?” or “Where is the decline bench”. They also ask why we don’t have mirrors in front or our racks and platforms so they can “watch themselves”. When asked why they want this equipment, the specific answers include, “well, I really want to work on developing a sharper peak on my biceps” or “I want to chisel up the bottom of my pec muscles” (Did I mention that these questions are almost always from younger guys?).
You can pretty much bet that these guys did not take us up on our free instruction for squats, bench pressing, dead-lifts and standing presses. Nor did they ask for our recommendations on diet. Nor are they doing any of the primary assistance exercises like dips, Romanian dead-lifts or chin-ups. Nor did they review our brief summary of the physiological rationale behind making absolute strength in certain primary indicator exercises (like squats or bench presses) the number one goal. Ditto on learning how muscle fibers (cells) engage, or the benefits of explosive, intense neuromuscular efforts, or optimal programming. Nope, they just come in and do curls and some other cool looking stuff they saw in the latest edition of their favorite body-building magazine – over and over and over again.
This is when we need to reiterate the differences between body building and strength training. Luckily, the big increases in muscle mass they attach to bodybuilding will be an inherent result of the strength training program we put them on. On the contrary, if they just concentrate on pure body-building, the many benefits of the strength training will be lost. Back to their questions and intentions regarding looking like the top pro-bodybuilders. Our reply: “Trust us, male or female I promise that looking like any of these folks will bring you complete satisfaction with your physical aesthetic:
Okay, this may be where extreme athleticism ends – it’s a really good ending! Funny thing is, I see a lot of amateur athletes and weekend warriors who look just as good – this is entirely attainable! Further, these ladies and men are far more functional and healthier relative to their counter-parts at the extreme end of professional body-building:
Interestingly, many top athletes have physiques that look very similar to the natural drug-free bodybuilders who get much less attention than the biggest ones who must take a plethora of drugs just to be competitive. Natural bodybuilding though, can take even more hard work, time and effort than the version rife with drugs since even more increased dieting, time at the gym and cardio exercise must take the place of pharmaceuticals.
Please, don’t get me wrong here. There is nothing wrong with body-building! We all body-build! Anyone who tells you they do not want to look “jacked” in their underwear is lying. I just want good looking muscle without all that hard work and sacrifice. Also, I want it to stay that way all the time. I don’t want to look really good for just one day when I get up on a stage and pose. If you put function (strength, power, speed) ahead of form on your priority list, some wonderful things begin to happen:
- By putting optimal function first, instead of just maximizing muscular size we end up getting both. (This does not work the other way around)
- Far less time at the gym is required – shorter workouts (roughly an hour or less) Far less visits to the gym are required – 2 or 3 per week will be just fine
- Improving function will inevitably involve higher intensities and that means equally increased periods of rest and relaxation to recover – (why we’re at the gym less)
- Increased bone, tendon, nervous system strength and improvements in concentration
- Greater fat loss occurs since the increased intensities of functional training will increase and prolong our resting metabolic rate (which will burn fat all of the time)
- The fastest and largest muscle fibers are engaged, along with the full spectrum of other smaller fibers – that’s why this is the most efficient way to resistance train
- You create a much stronger hormonal response building a base for much greater muscle growth and size, if and where you want it
- YOU STILL GET THE GREAT LOOKING MUSCLE!
Yes, you will still get great looking, dense muscle. You can still look like much like a natural bodybuilder. Now though, your muscle won’t just look good, but it will do something! You can also look more like the athletes from the first set of pictures. The great news is that you will look like this pretty much all of the time and be exceedingly healthy, strong and as functional as possible. But it’s gets even better because we can use bodybuilding tricks selectively, any time we want to build mass on a particular body part. For guys, this is usually bigger arms, shoulders, legs, or whatever body parts you wish.
We can also steal a few bodybuilding tricks for getting that really lean look. A Paleo diet produces the same or better long term results than the high protein, low-carb diets so popular today. Further, it already naturally includes ketosis, carb-cycling and many of these other effective fat burning ideas. Many of those ideas are used in bodybuilding, but not within the healthy and sound context of naturally raised meats or other elements of what is proven evolutionary science related to our food.
Bodybuilders are very adept at losing only body fat. By keeping their “cardio” work really low in intensity such that they are burning off only body fat. This will be accomplished for us by participating in sports or activities outside of the gym. This will not only be more enjoyable, but much less painful than killing ourselves on some treadmill set at the steepest incline and turned up to the highest speed.
We can use some of their methods surgically as we need them and simply incorporate them into our strength program. We can get all this without the incredible sacrifice and time in the gym that most bodybuilders must undergo to get to their temporary competition state. With this simple strategy, we can have our cake and we can eat it too!
Again, I don’t think there is anything wrong with bodybuilding. Personally, I don’t have the desire, discipline or work ethic to thrive at this endeavor. It is an extremely taxing (perhaps the most taxing) physical activity both physically and mentally. Every one of the bodybuilders I have spoken with, even at the lowest amateur levels has described the work, sacrifice and time involved to be excessive. For most it is simply impractical to maintain on a consistent basis. The endless hours in the gym and dieting to get to such a low body fat percentage puts them in a world of solitude described as nothing short of “lonely”. Further, the hyper competitive nature of this sport can become physically dangerous with extreme forms of drugs, dieting, and de-hydration. A few of these guys have described their physical and mental state just before a contest as “numb”.
I believe we get confused because in our busy lives bodybuilding is what we are mostly exposed to in the media as the means and end result of diet and fitness. Most of the fitness information we are sold simply says “if you do this, you will look these huge, shiny, muscle people…really!”
The reality is that most of us will never have the time or interest to endure such physical hardship. Still, the vast majority of the public would love to appear at least a little more like the super-muscled bodybuilders (at least the natural ones) who adorn so many popular magazine covers. With a good strength training program that is a realistic, reasonable goal that we will actually accomplish. That we can do!