Stronger Than Your Boyfriend
Stronger Than Your Boyfriend
How to Start Strength Training
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Staring to strength train?
In this episode, we talk about what to focus on and why if you're new to training.
We talk about beginner gains, squat mechanics, and the 8 foundational movements you should focus on in the gym. We also cover the importance of grip strength.
Studies mentioned in this episode:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00421-003-0833-3
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25739559/
Welcome to the stronger than your boyfriend podcast. A podcast for anyone into fitness, even you, Planet Fitness teams. Love me a good $10 membership. We are Heather and Katie, owners of Barclay Fitness, here to help you sift through the bullshit and toxic misinformation that permeates the fitness industry. Today we're gonna talk about how to get started with strength training.
SPEAKER_02Okay, let's just like do a little sorry, do a little disclaimer, like, don't come after us, Planet Fitness. Not that we're big enough to. But Planet Fitness is great. It's just we mean like when people first start off, they go right to the machines. And we're gonna get into that. But so when most most people start out with their training, specifically strength training, it's because they're motivated, right? Maybe it's the new year, maybe they've gotten some inspiration from Instagram or somewhere. Um, and what ends up happening is that people try to do everything at once because they're feeding off of this motivation, meaning they go from doing nothing to trying to strength train five times per week, cardio every single day, cutting out every single food that they enjoy because some dummy told them to, and this is how you get results or whatever. But what we need to, what we want to address and what is the most important thing when you are a beginner is that less is more. Seriously, you guys. It may, you may feel like you're not doing enough at first, but I can guarantee you that you are. I like having people who are newer to resistance training to literally only do one to two full body workouts per week. And we're gonna get into what those workouts should look like, but that's kind of the cadence I like to start people at. And they're not even these workouts for these newer people are not even that intense. They're actually lower to moderate intensity. Okay. When it comes to strength training, you need to think about practicing the foundational movement patterns versus getting a super hard, sweaty workout, right? And that's where I feel like all these, you know, beginners kind of the trap that they fall into because they just want to feel like they're doing something and they want to almost feel like they're getting the results, like within that one workout, right? So that's why we really, you know even for more advanced lifters or people who've been strength training, like it's still really good to practice those foundational movement patterns. And again, we're gonna get into that. So this is gonna pay off dividends in the future as you continue going along with your training or you know, throughout your training journey, because you will master your technique and ensure that you're training through a full range of motion, which is where you're going to see the best strength and muscle gains happen.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So we want to do the least amount of work for the most amount of reward, right? And that way we have somewhere to go in the future. So honestly, anything will pretty much work at first, as Kitty said. Um, in fact, I want to go into beginner gains a little bit here in this episode today. We've talked about beginner gains in the past or newbie gains, you may have heard them called. Um, but let's go a little more in depth into this. So the length of the beginner gains stage, um, if you've heard of it, it varies. But a couple of things are typically happening during the time when you first start training. So there's a longer duration of muscle protein synthesis and new neuropathways being developed from learning and experiencing experiencing a new stimulus. In fact, a 2015 review of the literature on this topic found that when it comes to muscle protein synthesis, there's a much greater and more prolonged spike in newbies than experienced lifters.
SPEAKER_02In muscle protein protein synthesis, that just means gaining muscle, right? Like just for any new person, like building and forming, like muscle, I guess if you really, really want to simplify it. Sure. Yeah, sure. Okay. Just if there's any like newer, newer people and they don't know what that means. So I'm gonna just say that it means hypertrophy, so gaining muscle.
SPEAKER_00So that coupled with the fact that learning a new skill involves actual changes in the brain, right? And so we can see why the rate of our gains would be amplified at first and then plateau more over time as we adapt. So I'll put a couple studies in the in the notes if you want to read more on this. Um, so yes, a lot of things can work at first, but if you dedicate yourself to learning a new skill, you're you will reduce your risk of injury and actually maximize your potential by being more effective. So, one of the issues is that the we see is that people are unsure on how to perform the very important foundational movements correctly. So they avoid them. But that actually leads to people really not maximizing their potential and potentially setting themselves up for higher risk of injury due to imbalances. For example, let me just give you a story. When I first started lifting, and you may relate to this, um, I didn't really know what I was doing, right? So I was like, okay, I can go into the gym. I know that these machines are something that I can like figure out because there's instructions, right? And I thought they'd be safer. And then I knew I could do like a shoulder press and a bicep curl and crunches. Like I knew I could master those movements because they were easy. Unfortunately, if you think about what this means, this means I'm only training my vanity muscles or doing exercises in a fixed and unrealistic position, which is machines, right? So machines are great for accessory training to your compound movements if you want to add something in, but they aren't really helping you develop any fundamental movement patterns. Um they're weird positions, people don't fit on them a lot. And then hitting biceps, shoulders, and abs a couple of times a week, right? Like I'm severely neglecting my posterior chain. So that's kind of what I did when I first started. Uh no wonder I have back pain now. Um, but you know, I wasn't hinging or rowing or, you know, using any of those important posterior chain muscles, which tend to be weaker already because we're forward-moving people as humans, and most of what we do is like forward and pushing. So working pulling muscles and hinging motions are critical to reducing injury. But the fact is that people are scared to do them because they think deadlift, they think I'm gonna hurt my back, so they just avoid it. And that is not good.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, just a note on like the ratio of like pushing to pulling, I always program a tad more pulling motions in general for clients in their programming, and that's probably something we can get into in a different episode in the future. But kind of going back to the machines debate, it's like people just default to the machines when first when when they're first starting out because it's it's easy, right? And it's comfortable, right? I see, I I see questions on this all the time about you know, those people who are just starting out, and you know, that's why we we were kind of joking about the Planet Fitness thing, is because it's mostly machines, right? Um, and it's not bad. Like machines have their place, but really it's few and far between as to like what workouts they should be in. And kind of piggybacking off of what Heather was saying, like if you're just doing these these movements, like the vanity muscles on the machines, you're not actually building as many neural pathways as you think because you're not actually building that core stability, the balance you have to use to do these movements like squatting, deadlifting. I mean the variations of each, right? Like we we preach a lot, like doing unilateral training like that is huge for skill development, which carries over to your balance and stability for those more like compound lifts. So I don't know, it's it's really important for us to do this episode because it it is very overwhelming for someone who is a beginner, right? And they don't know, they don't know better as to like what movements they should actually be working on. So they're just like, okay, I'm just gonna run through this circuit of machines and hear, you know, I got a good workout. Which again, like if it's your first week of training, sure, you probably will get a good workout and you probably will, you know, sparking will end up sp sparking some muscle growth, right? But after that, it's like, where do you go next? And and do you just kid continue to do the same machines, same circuit of machines? No. Like, and that's why it's important for us to help educate people on how to start training correctly so you can build that solid base of strength that will help you progress in your fitness journey. Like, basically, I wish I would have known this when I first started resistance training, kind of like Heather said, because I've had to relearn a lot of movements over the years as I learned more about perfecting my form and technique and just programming in general. So Right.
SPEAKER_00And if you think about using a machine, right, you like people always ask, is a machine better than nothing? Well, yes, yes, to a point. But when you're doing a machine in a fixed position, you're only getting stronger in that fixed position. That's the rule of specificity, right? You have to move through a specific range of motion to get stronger at that range of motion. So in reality, like sure, your biceps can get a little strong if they're in the exact position the machine puts you in. But in real life, when you're carrying the groceries, et cetera, the bicep curl, it's still not gonna do the same thing, right? And you're also not stabilizing all your joints. I'm using biceps, but you know, things like that, like you would with squats and hinging and rowing where your biceps are being used. But in reality, like the main prime movers are your larger muscles, your lats, your hamstrings, you know, your low back, things like that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, where you're gonna see the most bang for your buck, right? And another thing with machines, it's like, what are they? They they create these machines based off of like an average like male, right? Like, yes. It's like a five-seven male who's like 180 pounds. Like, first of all, I'm not that. Not a lot of people are that, but it's just like an average calculation that they use to to make these these machines, so they're not taking into account everyone's personal biomechanics, right? So, like it you might feel really awkward on some of these machines, anyways. And it's just like you're severely limiting your range of motion and what you can do, and as far as like your abilities and how you personally move in space, right? Which is really important.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it it is interesting because if you go back and kind of look at the history of fitness in general, it's interesting, but like um the fitness equipment, I guess, industry. Yeah, um, it's a very expensive industry. And if you look at like Nautilus and like the first equipment and stuff, um, and why it was created and and how much money it brought in, then you kind of get a better idea of oh, okay, this really may not be have been made for me. Like wait, why was it created? Well, we're not gonna get into this podcast because I don't have all the stats okay, but yeah, there's some interesting history behind like exercise equipment.
SPEAKER_02But maybe we should do a QA podcast on that, and I'll just ask you that question.
SPEAKER_00Potentially. Watch me be like totally off base here. But anyway, okay. Um, before we move on to more like the crucial movements to do when you start training, because we've talked a lot about what you shouldn't do when you start training, or you know, what maybe what isn't the most beneficial when you start training, um, we are gonna move into what you should do so we can actually answer the question and help. Um, but I do want to cover a common question which is asked a lot, and that is how much muscle mass can you gain with resistance training? Right. So a lot of people ask this, and we're talking about newbie gains. So I kind of want to talk a little bit about the the differences in newbie gains versus intermediate versus advanced. Um, the answer is it totally depends, right? So studies have shown quite a bit of variation in numbers when estimating this, mostly due to the fact that there are a ton of variables at work here, right? And the definition of beginner versus intermediate versus advanced lifter varies in all the studies as well. So keeping in mind that there's a ton of variability here. Generally, what you're gonna find when you look into the literature is that men are estimated to be able to gain muscle at a rate of one to 1.5% of their body weight per month when they first start, right? Versus when they're advanced, it goes down to 0.5% of their body weight per month in advanced stages. And women are estimated to have the potential to gain muscle at a rate of 0.5 to 0.75% of their body weight per month in their beginning stages as a newbie, versus when they move into advanced, it gets to 0.25% and lower per month of their body weight. So you can kind of see the differences here. And I talked about a little bit about why earlier, but again, the the newbie stage is real. Like beginner gains are insanely strong. Um, and again, the stage is like dependent on the person, but six months to a year is kind of like the the estimate, but it could be longer, it could be shorter. And this is all gonna depend on nutrition, frequency of training, volume, training history, your age. Like, are you younger? Are you going through puberty? Are you older? Are you going through menopause, you know, genetics and more? So all of that is variable.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I just feel like that women are gonna listen to this and they're gonna get scared, like of gaining this muscle. So I just want to touch on this a little bit. I know, but I feel like when people first start, they're like, I just want to get lean and tone. And it's like that toning is not a thing, you guys. If that, if you are saying that that's your goal, what you mean is that you want to gain muscle. So if you're scared of these numbers happening, please like just get over it because you're gonna look amazing and you're gonna just be more functional and you're gonna live longer.
SPEAKER_00So like keep in mind that we lose muscle mass. Yes, as we age. If we don't combat that with resistance training, it is the only way to fight it is resistance training. And we lose it as we age. I think starting as early as age 30 in some people.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, I just feel like women like who have those goals, like this, they just want to have like long, lean muscles, which we've totally debunked in the past on this podcast, right? And they automatically think, like, oh, when they start resistance training, they're gonna look like some female bodybuilder who's on a million drugs and they're, you know, their their nutrition is dialed and they sleep, and that that's basically their whole life, right? So they look like this, you know, not normal person, right? Because most bodybuilders who compete don't look like normal people, right? So like that is not going to be you. This is very important, and I guarantee you'll love the way you look, especially like the first few months, like based off of like where you at, where you were at in the past, right? It's just like you're gonna build all this muscle and you're gonna feel so much better. So just keep that in mind. Like, don't be afraid of these numbers. And remember, like, those are those numbers are kind of they're not arbitrary, but they're definitely estimates, right? So like every person has individual genetics and you know what they've done in the past. Like, have you even played sports in the past? That will probably be um a an indicating factor of how much muscle and strength you're gonna build at first, anyway. So, okay, I want to go into like a breakdown of what these workouts would look like. Okay, as far as like, remember I, you know, kind of touched on the beginning. We want to maybe start you with one to two full body workouts per week. So ideally, you want to incorporate all the fundamental human movement patterns. So that includes a squat, a hinge movement, a push, which is for upper body, a pull for upper body, you're hanging, you know, some sort of hanging, you're carrying something, you're rotating, and you're lunging. So lunging, I kind of like um use that as more of like, okay, a unilateral lower body movement, right? So let's break down an actual workout that you newbies can follow. So we want to start with squatting and mastering your body weight as far as the load. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So we're gonna go into a little bit of each move. So when you think about the squat, because a lot of people are afraid of the squat, they don't want to hurt their knees. Um, not as afraid as this of the deadlift, but still. Um, so there are it the thing about the squat is there are no fine rules about what a squat should look like. Everyone's biomechanics are different. Um, and if I can find this video, that's really awesome. I will post it in the show notes. And um, we may actually have a screenshot of it in one of our blogs, but it's basically um a scientist and he's taking like this this this uh little metal figure of a human. I'm gonna do a really bad job explaining this. And he's like moving uh the levers, so he changes the the length of their torso, the length of their tibia, the length of the fibula, and and then shows how the squat looks different based on those factors. So keep in mind that everyone's squat is going to look different. But the things that you should focus on when you're squatting is what your hips are doing, um, when they're breaking compared to the knees, when they're rising compared to the shoulders, um, as well as uh keeping your weight in the middle of your foot and I guess keeping your core engaged for the most part. So things that are gonna vary from person to person are gonna be like foot width, right? So depending on if you're taller or shorter, um, how your hips are built. So play around with some different foot width ideas. Um, I like to start around shoulder width apart and then either widen or narrow based on how I'm feeling. Some people can do all of it and train all different variations of this. Other people really have an ideal foot width that feels good for them. Um, and then you're gonna want to break at the hips and the knees as you come down. Um, and you want to think about the whole time keeping the weight in the middle of your foot, sending your hips back, but I want your toes on the ground because one of the things that I hear a lot is keep your weight in your heels, right? And that's bullshit. You you want to keep the weight in the middle of your foot and you want to ground down behind your big toe, your little toe, and your heel. So you're creating a tripod of strength through that foot. Barefoot is best to do this. Um, and keep that weight in the middle of your foot throughout the entire movement. And if you think about that, it should naturally cause your feet to grip the ground, drive your knees out so they are tracking your toes in the right direction instead of caving in. Um, and everything should just kind of fall together. Everything kind of starts with a feet, in my opinion, when it comes to a squat.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And your knees are probably going to go past your toes. Oh, yes. Like that's kind of what Heather was alluding to, as far as like keep your weight in your heels.
SPEAKER_00Like that's allow the dummies to travel forward if you need to. You just need to keep your heels on the ground.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And like Heather was saying, like, everyone's biomechanics are so different. Like I have some clients whose legs are so long. So like their knees are gonna go far past their toes, right? So yeah, I mean, I feel like most people will naturally, especially when they're just starting out like mastering the squat, they're gonna just go into the natural like stance that feels best for them. So I would just like master that before we start adding load to it, right? And definitely once you start getting into more like weighted squats, like, yeah, there are some standard, you know, uh things we wanna see, I guess, as far as like, you know, where the what load you're holding, as far as like, is it staying over the middle of your foot? That's like one of the main ones. But for now, like just practice on like feeling gaining that stability, especially at the bottom of the squat and just like feeling the full range of motion.
SPEAKER_00So also um the goal of full range of motion is so to get the hips below the knees or at least at the level of the knees. So hips parallel to the knees, ideally, tiny bit lower is ideal, right? If you can go beyond that, great, but you have to keep a neutral spine during it. So I usually have beginners just focus on let's get to parallel and then slightly below is really the goal. Yeah. Right. Yeah. What are your thoughts on that, Katie? Because I know you do some really deep squats.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, and I but I've like trained myself to have that stability in that really deep squat, right? But I do think that I've seen a lot more like knee pain come up when they are even stopping at parallel. So and again, this is more force. Yes, this because you're the reason why that happens is because you're not taking your joint through the full range of motion. So you're actually creating a lot of force on your knee to stop that that movement of the squat, right? From from traveling um, you know, to its lowest depth, I guess you could say. So, but I will say there are caveats. This is why it's so individual for every person, because like I have a couple clients, like we it takes so much for uh me to get them to squat to even parallel because their legs are so long, their femurs and their tibia is just so long. And it's just like if there's no pain, that's fine. Like we can work in in shorter ranges of motion because that person just needs to do that. They're just like almost physically incapable of getting that, you know, uh hips below parallel squat, which I feel like um there are some like that's kind of like a like 1%. I don't know, the actual percent.
SPEAKER_00I can't remember the percentage, but there's a very small percentage of people who definitely have hips that just or a body shape that just doesn't allow them to squat. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I I think I have a couple of those clients. So it's not bad. Like you're not squatting wrong if that is you, but I guarantee that most people that isn't you, so just work to get that full range of motion. So, okay, let's go on to the next movement pattern that you should incorporate in your workout. So the next one is a hinge. So this one you're moving with your hips, right? So these are the movements, so or any hinge type of movement. Um, these are gonna be like your deadlifts, good mornings, um, you know, stuff like that. So you should start though by mastering the body weight hinge and practicing maintaining the proper pelvic position during these, which would be that interior pelvic tilt. So for the body weight hinge, um, just to like illustrate like what this would look like, um, you probably want to start with a slight bend in the knees and literally just push your hips back and forth as you're doing the movement and try to stabilize the spine as much as possible. So try to keep the back, you know, I hate kind of hate saying this, but quote unquote flat if you're looking at it from the side, right? Um, and so also like the pelvic position I touched on, that anterior pelvic tilt. So how you can think about this is as you're initiating the movement, I almost tell clients to like think about arching your lower back a little bit because it may seem counterintuitive. However, at the end range of this hinged position, you'll you'll notice that your back stays or your spine is more stabilized, or you're able to stabilize your spine more and it's staying quote unquote like neutral, right? Or flatter if you are looking at it from the side um or if someone else is looking at it from the side.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, and when she says arching your lower back, uh what I think of it as is stick out your butt, stick out your chest. Exactly. That's what it's not that's kind of what it looks like. That's an anterior pelvic tilt. If you think of your pelvis as like if you were standing up tall and you had your hands on your hips, your pelvis is a bucket of water. And if you dump that bucket of water forward, you spill the water forward, that's an anterior pelvic tilt. If the water spills backwards, that's a posterior pelvic tilt. And I'm here doing this as well. She is. I'm watching her right now.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, that's yeah, no, beautiful explanation. And like I I also I'm glad you clarify that because I feel like when people hear like arch the lower back, they're thinking of like, all right, someone on Instagram who's trying to get the best fucking booty shot and they're just like arching so hard, it looks like their like back is gonna break.
SPEAKER_00So not if you're hypo hypermobile and you already have that anterior pelvic tilt, definitely it could be a little much more.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so these are subtle movements. Like you can even take a video and just like do the anterior pelvic tilt, the posterior pelvic tilt, and just watch like what that looks like and what your spine does during these movements, and you'll see it's not very, it's not very big motion, but it's it's very subtle, but it's also very important to master these. I've had clients in the past who like I try to get them into that interior pelvic tilt position and they just can't move that way. And I'm like, wow, this is crazy. And it's and I'm talking like they can barely even move their pelvis like a couple inches into that that motion. So yeah, it's definitely important to that's why, you know, I want to um emphasize this for like any beginner out there, it's really important to master that as well, um, which again will just kind of help you master this hinge movement in general. So, but also like if these hinge movements, which usually gener are generally people are tend to be stronger during any like deadlifting type movement, these are pretty easy for you. You can definitely like grab some lighter dumbbells um or like a light kettlebell and hold it, you know, against your chest, but still practice that bodyweight hinge movement if you wanted like a little bit more load. However, like I said, less is more. And if it, you know, if you feel if it feels like you're like flying through this, maybe grab like a light dumbbell or something. But if you're doing it and you're really trying to feel and connect to the movement, connect to the muscles that you're working, I feel like it'll be enough load at first, especially in the beginning. So awesome.
SPEAKER_00All right. So we've got the squat, we've got the hinge. Next up is the upper body push and pull. So So for upper body push and pull, you have to think of, we have to think of planes of motion for this. So for the push, there's gonna be a vertical push and a horizontal push, and same thing for the pull, vertical and horizontal, right? So you wanna include both in your training at some point. So I don't know, Katie, when you do full body workouts, say they're doing twice a week, would you say, okay, we're gonna do a horizontal push and a vertical push the same day, or would you put like the horizontal one on Tuesday and the vertical one on Friday or whatever?
SPEAKER_02That's exactly how I do it. So let's say they're kind of beginner or they're not beginner, whatever. Um, I'm always gonna incorporate one of each and usually on different days. Because if you think about it, like you don't, if you are doing a full body workout, you don't need to do two upper body pushing movements in one workout because you're trying to hit every foundational movement pattern in the workout. So that would kind of be overkill in my opinion. So yeah, like for example, I would do like a some type of like push-up or bench press one day, and then the other day I'd do like a an overhead press of some sort. So that's kind of like an example of what I would do.
SPEAKER_00So that was a horizontal and then a vertical for pushing, and you need to do the same thing for pulling, which I think is where people mess up. Yes, right? Yeah, they're either doing like, I don't know, like you need to do a horizontal pull, which is some version of a row, and then a vertical pull, which is pull-ups, lap pull downs, things like that. Pullovers, technically, I guess are a vertical pull. Yeah, I guess they could be.
SPEAKER_02Do you want me to give like an example of what I would go for? Yeah, I guess like, so I feel okay. I personally think that everyone should be able to do a pull-up. So my clients, whether they want to do a pull-up or not, are gonna do a pull-up. So that's I'll generally do like a variation. Let me say this. When people are first starting out, their strength is probably nowhere near getting them to do a full pull-up or a chin-up. So it'll be some variation of that. Yeah. So let's say if it's like, okay, if that's your vertical pulling movement for the upper body, maybe we have to start with just some like isometric holds. So that's one of my like main um starting points for people as far as like training the pull-up. So maybe we're doing like um we have to solidify the the end range in the top of the movement. So maybe they're just doing like um like a chin over bar hold, right? Just isometrically holding. However, they're not really taking, which isometrics, isometrics are great, right? They're very underutilized, in my opinion. However, for a beginner, I still want to get them, you know, those pulling muscles working through a full range of motion. So I might just cut the sets down for each. So maybe I do like two, one or two sets of like that, that, you know, chin over bar hold. And then maybe we do like a lap pull down, right? To just get a little bit more volume and take the muscles through a full range of motions, just so they could feel like what that feels like. Um, and then, like I there said, like a horizontal row, which I would include on the other workout, maybe like a single arm dumbbell row or like a bent over dumbbell row or some some sort of variation for that. Like there are plenty of variations that we can do. Um, but usually for beginners, I like to do the dumbbell variations just because um, you know, maybe they're still mastering the hinge movement. If we're doing like a full barbell row, they have to like hinge and stabilize in that position while doing a row. So there's just a lot that goes into it. And with a supported like dumbbell row, you really are just focusing mostly on pulling with the lats versus like stabilizing yourself because you are supporting yourself on the bench. So that's just kind of like an example.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, and we like to emphasize, like we said earlier, a little bit more pulling for people just to improve their posture. And we find that upper back muscles and lower back muscles tend to be weaker than you know the muscles in the front due to just sitting and moving forward all day. Yeah. And we also like to emphasize learning how to retract and depress the scapula when it comes to the back. So learning how to kind of use um your back muscles to control and move the scapula.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So basically what Heather means by that is just think about like if you're holding your arms in front of you, right? You're you'll notice your shoulders are like probably slightly, you know, pulled forward. So retraction would just be pinching your shoulder blades back while keeping your arms straight. So a lot of times, you know, if I have people do that just to illustrate like what that feels like, they'll um default to like bending their elbows just because they want to get more range of motion. But if you just hold your arms out, pinch your shoulder blades back, that's scapula retraction. And then depression is just moving it down, right? So you're moving your scapula down, so those muscles in your upper back down. So shoulders away from your ears. Exactly. So you're now in that pinch back position. Now you're just kind of pulling down as hard as possible, right? So it's really hard to describe what that feels like. You just kind of have to continue to practice it, especially because we're not as connected to those back muscles, right? Because we just don't see them. You know, it's not the muscles we see in the mirror, you know, we're getting ready for the day or whatever. And it's just not something that we think about, right? So it takes a minute to get connected to those muscles, I would say. Um, so it's good to just like that's a good drill to even practice that, but just keep that in mind as you're doing these pulling movements to really try to, you know, retract and depress the scapula based off of whatever pulling movement you're doing.
SPEAKER_00So and that kind of brings us into hanging and carrying, right? We kind of talked a little bit about hanging, but we can go into this in a little more detail.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So definitely go back and listen to our episode on grip strength after this and why it's important and all the ways you can you can train it because hanging and carrying requires a lot of grip strength, and you know, vice versa, you are training your grip strength when you're doing it. So let's start with hanging. This is such an underrated slash underutilized movement because it not only drastically improves your grip strength, but it is imperative to keeping the shoulders healthy. Like I was reading some studies, I don't have them here, but I was just reading some. Maybe there were more like case studies about how people had these like crazy shoulder injuries. They went through all these surgeries, and then once they just got on this routine of just hanging from a bar every day or you know, a few times a week, their like shoulder pain just gradually disappeared over time, which is crazy. Like our shoulders are meant to be in that position. They're supposed to like be stacked, right? A lot of times, just to like illustrate this, I'll have clients like do a shoulder press and then they're pressing up and their arm is like forward of their head, which is not a stacked shoulder position. Like it should be, like if you're overhead, I'm doing it right now. Um, if your arms are overhead, they should be able to be stacked. So, what do I mean by that? You're stabilizing with your upper back. So I like to think biceps by the ears, right? And your arms are straight overhead. Like, and most people can't do that. But if you incorporate this hanging, I guarantee you'll you'll get the mobility to be able to do that. So when you are hanging, grab the bar and make sure your thumbs are fully wrapped around the bar, you guys. Like, I don't know why people just default to like not using their thumb. That's a huge, like one of the most important components of training your grip, right? To get the muscles in your hands working. I think it's to hit the lats more.
SPEAKER_00I think it people feel like it, because I've done it with lat pull downs before. Well, that's fucking stupid. I mean, like you're hitting your lats. Like just work on connecting to your lats and you'll hit the lats. Like, if you think about when your thumbs are on the bar, I feel like people think they feel more internal rotation with their shoulder versus your thumbs outside. Like it almost feels like you're externally rotating your shoulders just a little bit more, but I think that's just a disconnect, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that that's what I'm saying. Like, just be better and like try to connect to your muscles more. Maybe not in like the pull-ups at first. Maybe, you know, practice doing other movements and then also practice while you are doing your pull-ups. Like, I mean, I get if you're like a bodybuilder or whatever and you're trying to hit the different angle of the lats, like you're working your lats, you guys. And especially if you're a beginner, like you don't need to worry about that. I want you, I would much prefer you get the grip strength gains from the hanging than like working your lats in a different way. But also, like you're just hanging, we're not really like doing pull-ups, right? I mean, this will eventually lead to doing pull-ups and built, you know, getting the prerequisite strength to, you know, be able to do pull-ups, right? But I really want you guys to be in the habit of wrapping your thumb fully around the bar. So with hanging, the goal is to where you can hang off the bar, you know, hang on the bar with your feet off the floor for 60 seconds, but you you're gonna need to work your way up to this. So maybe you have to start with some light foot assistance, right? That's fine. So like maybe you're resting your toes lightly on the floor while you're in that hanging position. I have clients do this. Um, at first, I've had a lot. Um, and it's crazy like how quickly their strength improves on these and shoulder mobility, just doing that, even like two to three times a week that I'm seeing these people. So um, and then like from there, maybe progress to 10 seconds with your feet off the floor, 20, 30, and so on, right? So um just go at your own pace and just see where you're at. And a lot of times, like I can push people, like I can see like, hmm, did you give up on that? Because it's hard. You're just hanging there, like you're not doing anything. So it's hard to just like isometrically hold and you know, kind of like not be really entertained while you're doing it in a sense. So it's hard mentally to get through it, and I guarantee you could probably do a little bit longer than you think, especially after the first few weeks of training the grip. So, um, so hanging also stretches or stretches, like I was relating to the mobility part, stretches and strengthens the, let me see if I can say this right. Supra spinatus tendon. Good, I did it. This is the tendon that's mainly responsible for shoulder strength, mobility, and endurance. So all the good things, right? Um, so kind of like you know, what I was talking about before with those case studies, if you have a shoulder injury, again, like disclaimer, talk with a doctor or a per uh physical therapist, but hanging is probably one of the best interventions I've found personally with my clients to restore that mobility in the shoulder. Um, and sometimes can per you know prevent surgeries from happening if it's a consistent part of your routine, right? Because I know a lot of people who come to me or us, like they just had this shoulder pain for years and we incorporate this, and it's just like, oh, well, we don't need to do all these like crazy interventions to to keep their shoulders healthy anymore. So um, granted, like everyone's different, like, still talk to your doctor and physical therapist, but just like based off of experience and what I've seen. So word. Yeah. Cool. Okay. Yeah. You want to talk a little bit about carrying carrying, yeah. So um, it's literally just what it sounds like. You're just you're gonna pick up a heavy thing and you're just gonna walk with them in your hands. Um, so at first, just start with some basic dumbbells or kettlebells and just walk. And I like to program for people for carries at first, just like a time limit and versus like trying to go for distance, like, okay, we're just gonna go maybe two sets and we're just gonna walk for 30 seconds and we're just gonna see how that feels for you. Um, you know, grab a weight where you, you know, you think that you can do. And again, we can just adjust up or down if we need to. So not only will this improve your grip strength and in shoulder strength, but also trapezius strength. So those are kind of like your upper back muscles, right? Um uh yeah, I don't know. Like we carry shit all the time, right? It's it's you know, we carry groceries. Like I'm talking about like daily life here. So it's really rewarding to see this carry over into daily life. Like, you know, the the classic grocery example, like you're trying to carry all the groceries in in one trip from the car, right? But I mean, I feel like if it wasn't so awkward, I feel like, you know, most of the people we know who like strength train can easily do that, right? Like just because our grips are so strong. But in general, general, like daily life just feels easier when your grip is strong. And it's so important to just have these these grips strength training components in your training. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And like Kitty said earlier, if you go back and listen to our grip strength podcast, I can't remember which episode it is, but grip strength is basically a like a biomarker of health now, right? Yeah. It's so important for longevity. And so Yeah, it's a predictor of longevity. It's pretty crazy. So okay, let's move on to rotation. We're almost done with all the prime movements that you should be focusing on when you are a newbie going into the gym. Um, rotation is important, obviously. Um we have the transverse plane we need to move in. Uh, moving in all our planes is important, and there are plenty of great rotational movements out there, um, including like wood choppers, where um you do get some spinal flexion and rotation at the same time. So, you want to explain what a wood chopper is?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so you could either do this with a band or a cable. Yeah. Um, set a set the the cable at the top of the machine or the band at like the top of a rack. And basically you wanna start with your hips and shoulders squared, like so you're kind of like sideways to the band or the cable. Um, and you're gonna start with your again, your shoulders and hips squared. Um, and as you're grabbing the band or the cable, you want to make sure that your arms are straight out in front of you. Where I see people go wrong with this is that they, as they do the movement, they start to bend their arms. So they're getting a little bit too much tension in the arms, in my opinion, versus the the core or too much load in the arms over the core. Um, so your arms are straight, grabbing the handle. And then basically you're just gonna rotate that band down towards the opposite hip, right? And towards the end of the movement, you're probably gonna wanna pivot your foot slightly. So the foot that's closest to the rack um uh where the band is attached to, you're probably gonna pivot that just to get that full range of motion, but you don't want to do it too much or like bend your knee too much when you're doing it.
SPEAKER_00So and you can go high to low or low to high for these.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and you can even do it with the cable set in um like the middle of the rack too.
SPEAKER_00So I also really like anti-rotation movements. Yeah. So if you go back and listen to our episode on how to train your core correctly, or maybe it's called you're doing core training all wrong, whatever. We go all into all of these like rotation, anti-rotation movements. Um, but basically anti-rotation is movements that involve resisting rotation. So these are great for, you know, priming the body to brace against unexpected torque, um, and that will keep your spine healthy and strong.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would argue that the this is probably the most important component of training your core because like this is so you've probably heard the story of someone who's like, you know, they they bend down to pick something off the floor and then they threw their back out. This is why, because they don't have that core stability and strength. And these anti-rotation movements are going to strengthen that component, right? So basically, like you think anti-rotation, you're trying to just resist it, right? So, like one of my favorite movements is a the kettlebell drag or kettlebell pull through, whatever you want to call it. So you're just in like a high plank position and you're just dragging a dumbbell or a kettlebell from one side to the other, but the goal is to try to minimize the hip and shoulder shifting as much as possible, and it's way harder than you think. So that's a really good one, too. Right. So um, okay. Yeah, cool. Let's talk about uh the last one. Single leg. Okay, lunge. I feel like you don't necessarily have to incorporate a single leg squat variation like a lunge or a split squat at first. I mean, you totally can build it into your workout, but you're definitely getting a lot of tension in the legs from the the squats and the hinging movement that we talked about in the beginning, but it's definitely important to incorporate at least at some point in your training. But you know, if you want to start at first, that's fine too. Um, so lunges and split squats. So what's the difference? Lunges incorporate that locomotion component. So you're stepping into the movement, whereas split squats, you set up in a static position and just move with your feet in that fixed position. So I would generally have people probably start in that fixed position, so like the split squat before we go into lunges and incorporate that locomotion component, right? So um, and you know, like I said, it's important to train unilateral movements in general, but we find, and that's why it's one of our pill, you know, pillar, one of our um main pillars of movement, right? Is because we find, especially for the lower body movement or lower body in general, it's really important to continue to train that balance and stability, which is obviously very important as we age and yada yada, like we talked about. So um and again, like we're more often on one leg than you know, on one arm, if that makes sense. So, like, think about like walking, right? We tend to see a lot of imbalances and weaknesses that stem from the hips, um, and these unilateral lower body movements will definitely help to correct that.
SPEAKER_00So I think it's important to train unilaterally, even in the beginning as well. No, you're right. Because like if you have someone doing a squat and we're talking about keeping the weight in the middle of the foot and they're feeling like they can't, their knees are caving, uh, this is this is common, honestly. Um, a lot of times it's because they don't have stability in their foot and angle. That's very true. Right. And so what's gonna help that? Unilateral movement.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and sometimes, and again, this is why it's so important, and this is why I actually like we recommend hiring a coach who can like program properly for you because sometimes I'll have someone, like Heather just said, like they're doing a squat and they they can't keep their knees in line with their toes. It just everything's a mess. And then I'll have them start training split squats over the regular like bilateral squat because there are those such big imbalances, you know, in the balance stability or whatever, or just strengthen their feet and ankles in general. So if that's you, like definitely you could even either swap the the split squats for the regular bilateral uh body weight squat, or you can add both. Like it's definitely up to you. It's definitely important to incorporate. So yeah, that's that's a good point.
SPEAKER_00Even adding to your warm-up like some sort of like single leg toe touch, or if you're not even there yet, then like a single leg balancing on one leg it can be down. Yeah, like any anything where you're like barefoot, probably. Yeah, and working on a single leg is gonna help with your bilateral movements.
SPEAKER_02You can literally just barefoot, um, do it barefoot, please. Um, if you can. Um, but just like stand, like start to like lift your knee up towards your chest on and just stand on one leg and see if you could just like move around. Um, and that definitely helps too. So yeah. Um, yeah, I also just want to like touch on after like talking about all these movements. Like, I feel like people are gonna be like, where's the biceps and where's the tricep movements? And it's like, they're in there, you guys. They're incorporated in all of these movements. That's why it's like stop focusing on these like muscle groups that you're training, but focus more on these movement patterns because you are going to hit all of those muscle groups. Like, for example, the biceps, you're gonna hit your biceps plenty with things like pull-ups, chin-ups, pull downs, rows. It's just like doing extra like bicep work at that point is almost like not a waste of energy, but it's it's just kind of like extra that you probably don't need, um, especially at first. So yeah, just wanted to touch on that.
SPEAKER_00Like, yeah, especially if you have limited time, like don't focus on the smaller assistance muscles because they're being used in those big movements.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and and that's the whole thing. Like, we want to do the least amount of work to elicit the most amount of change at first, and well, really in general with your with your training. And that just means touching these foundational movement patterns because not only are they gonna get you strong as shit, they're gonna carry over into your daily life. Like, I don't really think doing bicep curls and lateral raises are gonna carry over that much into your daily life. And so I just feel like that's what people default to when they first go to the gym. Like curls and lateral raises. I got it. I'm done. Vanity muscles, biceps. Yeah, vanity muscles, speech muscles.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. All right, awesome. Well, hopefully that was helpful. Um, if you have questions, you can always reach out, specifically in our Facebook group, stronger than your boyfriend. Um, if you're looking to get started, these were the movements that you kind of want to master that we recommend. Uh start with your body weight and then add load as you gain that stability and strength. You can also check out our blog. I I've probably linked a bunch in the show notes here, but um, the foundational movement patterns one is a is a good one to start with. So you can see these movements, movements in action. Maybe check out our our YouTube channel for those YouTube videos as well. Um, and of course, if you want more guidance or you want to ensure you're doing these movements correctly, feel free to reach out about coaching uh by filling out our interest form on our website. Our coaching is fully remote, so no matter where you live, um, and it's very accessible uh in price compared to like personal training, right? Yeah. So um, yeah, and then we'd love for you to join our community and uh you can even post videos in that Facebook community and get feedback for free. For free, which is I tried a lot of my pet. Yeah, yeah. We're very active in that group as well. So we would uh we would love to help you out and yeah, yeah, and follow us on the social media.
SPEAKER_02No uh Instagram definitely, yeah. I guess TikTok would try to do better. YouTube, I'm gonna start trying to do the YouTube thing now. Wow, I gotta keep up with all these young people in their social media actions. Awesome. Cool. All right, we'll see you next time.