TMGP Ep 05 with coach Leo Kruger

oo another white boy with a podcast pronouns Jim bro another white boy with a podcast you want to see the video it went viral hi gains gurus and welcome to tmgp the muscle growth podcast episode 5 I am your host Rosco and today we're welcoming coach Leo Krueger onto the show beyond the world of coaching Leo leads a double life as a business intelligence analyst where he specializes in creating and analyzing data models it's a job that keeps him on his toes but Leo's true passion lies in the realm of fitness and muscle growth currently Leo has the privilege of working with a diverse group of 55 clients ranging from those embracing the lifestyle to competitive athletes with a notable 65% being phenomenal women the proof of their Collective hard work is reflected in 20203 impressive placings nine first places four second places and seven third places it's a testament to the dedication and commitment of the incredible individuals that he has the honor of coaching as a programming and hypertrophy expert Leo brings a wealth of knowledge to the table particularly in the realm of performance-enhancing drugs Peds his academic background includes an honor degree in quantity surveying from the University of Petoria complemented by his personal training courses through Tri Focus and various online certifications including j3u by John J he is also a proud lifetime member at prep coach academy by Victor black with almost 17 years of personal jum experience under his belt he took a brief Hiatus before diving head first into serious training over the past four years he's been coaching clients initially keeping it lowkey due to work commitments however in 2023 Leo made the leap to actively grow his online coaching business expanding from around 10 clients to nearly 60 in less than a year the significant step allowed him to Branch out on social media sharing insights tips and inspiration with a broader audience in today's episode we'll delve into topics ranging from effective programming to the nuances of hypertrophy all while exploring the fascinating world of muscle growth given that brief glimpse into Leo's coaching and bodybuilding background let's jump right into the show hi coach Leo hey Rosco how's it been I'm well thanks and yourself doing good C from plan thanks for having me on the show only a pleasure I'm excited cool so let's get to it can you briefly introduce yourself and your journey into the world of bodybuilding and coaching yeah sure so so I think uh the the first time I fell in love with the gym is about 17 years ago it's actually longer than that ago um and uh my journey actually started when I was really young um I was very sporty and played a lot of sports I got pushed into a lot of sports from a young age by my parents mostly my mother and uh the sport that stuck was swimming um we were myself and my sister was very very good at swimming from very young age um pre school age and then into primary school age and we swam at a a very high level well we have a very high level coach coaching us for swimming and um one of the things that we had to do three times a week was to do a JUMP program um before we hit the pool so and this was when I was um you know just getting into primary school I was no I was a little bit older probably like 12 years old or so um when we when we started doing Gym training three times a week before swimming for swimming training and um we started both at virgin active uh cuz it was a big pool at virgin active mainland in Petoria uh and a very nice uh gym there so we so we did a lot of gym uh gym work before training and and um the ger work was always more fun to me than the swim training was so uh from my young age is sort of like grabbed at me and um my parents decided to to even build us like a pullup by at home and my sister and I were like we were really young so um she could do just as many pull-ups as I could at that stage and we would challenge each other every day to see who can do the most pull-ups and uh yeah physical fitness was always a big thing to me so that was my kind of my first exposure in the gym um but when the bug really bit me was uh in high school early in high school um I had a couple of friends that uh played rugby really really well and um you know they always they had to eat the gym quite often as well and I would go with them and uh start training properly you know um well what we thought was properly so I was about 14 15 years old um really getting into the gym and then uh yeah just contined to to exercise I was pretty skinny started to hit my stde in in uh in metrick when I was about 18 years old um and from City years I I was for five years at University um that's when we really started to JY hard and and tried to become like the big guys the in the gym you know so every day was was revolving more around when are we going to gym um as opposed to when are we going to class so he skipped a lot of class unfortunately um for gym sessions but anyways we all passed so that was fine um so yeah that's how I got into the gym and uh started training and only in the past five years or so I started uh coaching online it wasn't really a thing I was expecting to do but uh my path just went that way and I started helping clients and uh started the business just started taking move this year so um I'm very fortunate in in um being able to do coaching now as well so that's an awesome introduction thank you so much so what got you into the coaching aspect of it so I suppose about 6 or seven years ago I decided to uh I had to restart my gym Journey basically about 6 to seven years ago by there was a period where I had ex extreme amount of stress I started uh a couple of businesses uh I was working extremely hard I was working seven days a week 16 hour days um I was pretty much burnt out and I didn't I told myself I didn't have time to exercise and and I I did have a little time but I mean everybody can make a little bit of time for exercise and and uh it just sort of got me depressed after after a while and a few years went by where I like hardly got to the gym hardly done any exercise and I sort of like I lost all of the muscle mass that I gained and I actually I got like skinny fat you know and you know what that looks like and and it it was really depressing to me and um there's multiple factors to to to why that happened and everything but um at the end of the day I just uh I just decided you know like I can't can't do this anymore I can't live like this anymore I made some career changes uh got some time back and really just dedicated myself or forced myself you know to get back into the gym and and and um once that bug bit me again it was it was I couldn't I couldn't stop um I was I remember when when I just started enjoying the gym again I would see how many days in a row I could go to the gym without taking a rest day you which is obviously not like the best thing to do but I would go like three three weeks 20 days or 21 days without skipping gym once and um and yeah they just uh you know it just really sank into me and it and like I just had this desire this Burning Desire again to exercise and see where where I can take my body um and couple years after that um I started looking good again I really got my gains back quite quickly um because muscle memory and and that stuff and I knew what what I was doing in the gym in the first place so it wasn't like I was a newbie starting out not sure how to diet how to train how to recover that stuff I already knew a lot of that stuff I just learned more of it as we went along um a couple of friends asked me to you know help them out um to get back into shape and and sort of Coach them just more as a as a as a favor than anything else and and I didn't obviously accept any money for it cuz I wasn't even qualified I was like okay cool well I I'll help you out I'll create a diet for you I'll give you a training plan and that type of thing so I helped a few people out like that for free um probably for couple of years two years or so um I didn't really have time at the then to take on more clients or I didn't have the desire either to make it like a business or ask money for it um but the demand just started coming in Via social media um and I started posting a bit more about Fitness and so on so I would get some DMS from people asking me for help and and asking you know do I do coaching and stuff and I turned a lot of people away because no it wasn't something that I was doing and then I just thought thought to myself well I mean I can start this thing small I don't have to take on a lot of clients I can you know start taking two or three paying clients or and see how it goes and then if I don't have time to get to all of them then I just wouldn't take on more the the next month or the next month you know so I sat uh with about 5 to 10 clients for probably a year or two um without advertising or anything just took some of them on that that asked me via DMS um and I just love the the aspect the coaching aspect I just I really love getting involved with people's Fitness Journeys and um the icies of it you know it's it's it's a bit of a it's almost like a puzzle every person is a is a bit of a puzzle like everyone's so different and uh that's why you can't just get this information online and copy somebody else's what somebody else is doing and think it's going to work for you um it's so unique and and I just love the whole process from beginning to end solving those problems helping people out and uh it just evolved from there and eventually I started uh I competed as well and I started coaching more and more clients and I got more and more demand um to the point we are now that I've I've got quite a few clients on my book and uh and yeah I absolutely love I just absolutely love love coaching and and and I'm hoping in the near future to to make it my um my soul my soul business my soulle income uh but I have a little bit of ways to go there but I have plans so don't want to take on too many clients at one time because I really do put a lot of time and effort into each client um I'm extremely thorough with my um analysis of them and my checkins and the way I treat them the time I give them um I like to explain how I do things and why we do things so that they know as well some some would say it's not like a good business model but um I want them to be self-sufficient at the end of the day as well um that if they do ever leave me as a coach they actually know why we did some stuff and they can continue with that on their own um and you know making the best out of their fitness journey even without me so yeah that's how I sort of got into it and that's where we are at the moment and uh uh it's just getting better day after day and I just honestly just love coaching well that's an epic reason to be in the game and I think it's inspiring your mindset about it and the way that you treat each person uniquely and as a piece of the puzzle that's really cool and I think that if more coaches did that it would be better for everyone and like you said maybe it's not the best business model but giving a better product is so much better than than just low quality and then quantity yeah so you know there's two two sides of the coin right so there's the one side that says hey this isn't this isn't a clever thing to do because you might be shooting yourself the business-wise but the other thing is the the whole value aspect of it and I've created because I I I I I do my online coaching through through an app right so everything gets done on on the app but inside of the app I built in a educational section as well uh so that my client I I created videos and content and PDFs and things that they can just basic thing it's not very um indepth it's just this simple things to keep in mind um and the simple reasons behind why we do what we do and if they understand some of those principles then their progress is better and their progress is quicker and they adhere to the plan a lot more because they understand why we are doing things it's not just throw this at them and say Hey you do this and then they have to say yes sir I'm doing this and you know it doesn't matter what just tell me what to do coach I'll do it like yes I understand that mindset but if you also just have a um basic understanding of certain principles um of why we do certain things you're much more likely to stick to it your progress is going to be better you're going to have to want to stick with me longer because the longer you are with me the better progress we make because the more I learn about your body and more I learn about you the more um uh specialized we can get around your diet and your training and your recovery and at the end of the day the quicker we can make progress so um yeah there's two sides of the coin so I see it from that aspect um adding value and it adds to and it just comes down to adherence at the end of the day as well it's like easier for clients to adhere to the plan over a long period of time makes my job easier gives them um more satisfaction more uh results at the end of the day so to me that's a winwin absolutely and I think people will go way further um when they understand why they are doing things and I'm sure that they really appreciate that because a lot of people like you said will just throw them the book tell them exactly what to do and some people that works but for a lot of people it's actually way more useful to understand why they're doing things and to be more um to understand better and to learn that's also an epic thing that you've got going there yeah so I mean it's it's completely optional like if you want to learn more the the opportunity is there for you um or the platform is there for you if that's not your thing then whatever just follow the plan and we'll do what do it yeah so I'm catering for for every trying to everyone yeah that's fantastic so well done on getting back to it from being out of it for so long and then making the necessary life changes to to get back to it do you think that your sister can still do more pull-ups than you I should hope not um she's still in pretty good shape but uh yeah I can put quite a quite a large sum of money on on it uh I think I'll beat her this time around yeah okay you guys should do a little competition sometime no no just easy money easy money yeah Easy Money better not good question yeah good question can you explain muscle growth and the mechanisms involved yeah so I think I think if we're talk about muscle growth we talking about the hypertrophy response um which means in increasing muscle size um so I mean that's what everybody most people are interested in that are going to be listening to this podcast in any case so there's some basic principles uh that go into that and um yeah so hypertrophy has a couple of principles the first one probably would be uh mechanical tension I think a lot of people confuse that with the load it's it's the same thing but it's not the same thing um so you need to challenge your muscle you need to have an adequate stimulus to challenge your muscle otherwise you're not going to get any growth right so I can give you this quick example you can take a pencil in your hand and and you know uh bicep call the Bensel 10,000 times you're not going to get any growth out of that your muscle is not going to grow no matter how many reps you do because the tension that is put on placed on your muscle is not adequate enough to force an adct so you won't grow so that's that's one key principle is is is load or mechanical tension um there's a bunch of others obviously time under tension how long you keep that that muscle uh under tension um proximity to failure I think it's probably one of the most important ones um how hard you push yourself and obviously Progressive overload getting stronger and better at a movement or exercise over time um so so if you don't continually stimulate or force your muscles to grow at a greater degree um week by week let's let's call it week by week but it doesn't to be week by week but on average they'll have no reason to grow they'll no have have no reason to adapt so you have to apply progressively apply um a strategy that's going to challenge them more and more each time that you ex will per exercise so that's uh that's a principle of progressive overload exactly and it's all very very valid point again that's just pretty straight you mentioned time under tension do you do use constant tension when you work out and do your clients use it or what are your thoughts on constant tension and time and attention well I wouldn't say yes the two of them sort of go hand in hand right so performing an exercise slower obviously places that muscle under tension for a longer period of time um so research wise we have so much research on this now so having a a muscle for a longer period of time under tension just creates a a a better hypertrophy response um so I often within my training programs I specify you know how slow you should actually do the exercise um and I sort of explain to clients how how you know how long should the r be should it be like 2 second negative 1 second positive um type thing so what we try and focus on is and what I try and teach and explain is uh The Eccentric portion of the movement for that exercise is more important to the concentric portion of it and and we've got a lot of data on that as well so doing like a slow we call it some people call it a negative rip right a slow negative rip we in complete control of the the way all the way through um that uh con uh that uh exentric part of the movement should usually be around twice as long as the uh concentric part so you know if we take a a dumbbell press you are going down or the dumbbells you want to take one two seconds maybe and then um one second up um so in that way you're increasing the time and detention um and you're also forcing yourself to stay safer because you won't be able to lift as much load uh or weight um you'll have less injuries and you get a higher degree of muscle growth out of it so um yeah time and attention extremely important part of of hypertrophy so that you don't believe in isometric holds or stopping at the top or bottom of the rep you you keep it going consistently constant tension no I wouldn't say I don't believe in it um so there's I'm not as naive to think that there's just one way to do things I think there's needs to be a reason or methodology behind what you're doing so obviously there are some um there's application to it right it just depends what you want to achieve so there are times where you would let's say Focus just on one portion of the r not having a full range of motion uh or doing a concentric all there are reasons for that and and um what I was speaking about earlier is is is more applicable to the General Public public and the general population and uh the general person in the gym when we start talking about isometric holds and you know uh working in only a short range of motion uh or range of movement for a specific period of time then we starting to get into things that are more and more advanced right so those things do add up and they do make a difference but the basics stay the same right so just do the basics first and that's where your main growth comes from and down the line um there is a place for that and I do incorporate it um but it's not something that gets used or should have as much uh attention on it as the basics uh you know full range motion slow reps time and detention mechanical load that type of thing um so yeah I I'll never say I don't believe in in this or that or whatever because some something might work better for one person than another person and there's not always there there's more than one way to do things um so I do believe in it I I just believe it has a time and place okay I I believe that certain principles at certain techniques there should be a reason why you're doing it and if you can't tell me what is the what's the reason behind this why am I doing this specifically now um as opposed to just normal RBS MH then I mean you've you sort of put yourself in a box already so um yeah if you have a good reason why not okay so you typically recommend full range Mo motion and then 2C um Ecentric 1 second concentric this is obviously a complete generalization but would you say that that's a good starting point and then from there then you will decide based on specific people what works better for them and then adapt accordingly yeah so I think that's a a pretty uh generally a good good line to follow is um full range of motion but when we're talk about full range of motion that's not the same for everyone right so my full range of motion and your full range of motion might not be the same for a specific exercise and and that's just basically because Anatomy yes anatom that's one of the one of the biggest reasons mechanically we we're not exactly the same another reason is um you know flexibility and Mobility uh especially in the joints um another thing is injuries we have to work around injuries and and pain points and uncomfortability so uh so I always say full range of motion for you is where you can get the the most range out of a movement without any pain without any significant discomfort that causes pain right you should never have pain there's there's a pain not the pain of I'm pushing really hard here my muscles are burning pain but like a injury type of pain you should not have that um knees that are hurting ankles backs that are hurting those S of things then you need to change a exercises or find different variations that could support a larger range of motion or range of movement and then obviously work on those weaknesses in your in your movement patterns with flexibility and Mobility uh exercises and those types of things so yeah I think generally go as deep or as as far as you can with the movement without any pain uh control the we all the way uh both directions control it but put some extra emphasis on the uh uh uh eccentric part of the movement and the stretching of the muscle um as opposed to just the squeezing of the muscle because yeah we have a lot of evidence surrounding that that just makes it a bit that tells us it's more efficient absolutely and I'm guilty of that I always used to just focus on the concentric aspect and more recently I've started focusing on that slow Ecentric and I'm hoping that it's going to pay its dividends yeah for sure it will yeah what what role does nutrition play in supporting muscle hypertrophy probably plays the largest role of all uh over and above exercise obviously you need to create this this the stimulus first right so um once you've created the stimulus by exercising and forcing your your your body to adapt you need to um feed the body feed the feed the muscle right so uh nutrition is how your body rebuilds and how your body grows so it's extremely important and um anade protein intake is obviously the first thing that we think think of because uh we need a an adequate protein intake to support muscle protein synthesis and the reparation of of muscle fibers that you damaged within the gym so they can grow back and grow be at the end of the day so um food is everything almost you know I mean you go back to even from the the body wers from from the' 60s 7s 80s they just and even now everybody just hammers on nutrition nutrition food is the most anabolic thing that you can put in your body and and it's so true um and good food obviously um high quality sources of protein sources of carbohydrates and fats um it matters food choices matter um fuel your Vol no what sources do you typically um recommend high quality protein and carbs and fats and all the rest which which are one your go-to are great rice is great um if you want more fiber you pick a you know a brown rice um cereals are great I just I try to limit the sugars um not that sugar is a is inherently a bad thing um but it's something that we want to um you know take in in moderation so we incorporate um as many different foods as possible to get as many different micro and macronutrients in from different sources as possible and that just leads to a healthier body a healthier gut and uh I think at the end of the day uh a bit of physique you mentioned their healthy gut how how important is having a healthy gut extremely important so you know they all saying where they say you are what you eat it's uh I'll take it one step further it's not you are what you eat it's it's you are what you digest um if you are unable to adequately digest food and turn it into nutrients that can be assimilated and pulled into your muscles or into your cells in your body um doesn't mean anything um so your gut is extremely important your gut health um there's so much data that's come out on this lately your gut health is even linked to uh brain health um and chronic stress um places a lot of stress on your on your gut which then again increases inflammation in your body uh increases bad bacteria building up in your body more toxins get released into your bloodstream than it should get um watery you become ill quicker uh your immune system is is is down regulated because of gut health um your whole physical appearance can be so different just if your gut health is um is good so I was saying there was like a really interesting study that was done it was done on rats but I mean we have so much D human data as well on on Cut Health now that it's not even uh it's not even a question whether it's relevant or not it's it's like we know it's relevant um but what they did was they they overfed some RADS and they other one group of rats and the other group of rats uh they kept nice and healthy then they tested the the gut bacteria and the gut microbiome of of both of them um and it was vastly different like completely different and this is exactly what we find in humans as well if we go and look at the gut microbiota from an obese person and a a healthy person or a fit person it's like night and day it's vastly different um so what they did was they extracted the the um the uh the the gut bacteria from the obese rats and the same thing for the uh the healthy rats and they swapped them around they placed the the they SWA the uh the gut micro biot around and the previously obese rat started to lose weight without um any change in their diet or any change in in physical activity and the healthy rats started to gain weight um without any other external factors being changed at all so just that would tell you um how important proper gut function is it also supports anabolic uh compound anabolic functions in your body um insulin production blood glucose levels um it literally influences 90% of what's going on in your body so it's it's it's extremely important and how can you monitor it well firstly by how can you improve it is is probably a good good good question so you you usually know when your gut health isn't good you it's um you don't digest food very well you have reflux um you get bloated you feel like you're holding a lot of water um a lot of times people feel sluggish so your bowel movements are regular yes um and uh yeah so so pretty much that so um certain Foods would obviously promote the the the growth of bad bacteria and uh cause inflammation in the body so the way to improve it is pretty straightforward like we need a lot of we need fiber in our diets a lot of the processed highly processed foods uh that a lot of us eat is completely devoid of fiber and nutrients we need firstly we need proper fiber in and we need a variety of foods um we need uh micronutrients to support gut health uh so we need to have adequate fruits and vegetables in our diet we need to have high quality carbohydrates in our diet we need to have fiber in our diet um and also uh Prebiotic foods like um if you don't have a lactose problem things like um Greek yogurt uh to promote healthy growth of of bacteria is always a great option to have in your diet so that's why I I honestly feel that for most people a vast majority of people just having uh a balanced diet of um a lot of different foods good foods is the best way to go um it keeps things it's not boring you have a lot lot of food groups to choose from a lot of foods to choose from you don't like one thing there's definitely a replacement for it um and it will keep your keep your gut healthy and um yeah also so like uh bad gut health is obviously linked to like a ton of uh illnesses um heart health um cancers um all of those things can be linked to bad gut health um so having having a good gut stops toxins uh certain toxins certain bacterias certain um poisons entering the bloodstream and when they actually do that's when you get sick and that's when you're not feeling well and um it affects pretty much everything yeah no absolutely and you make good points about it being incredibly important to eat good foods and and that kind of thing to promote good gut health um you mentioned that you utilize protein Powers um what what supplements do you use besides protein pows and which protein pows in particular do you prefer right so there's a there's a couple of supplements that I think are really worthwhile um one of them would be br pows it's not um it's not a must it's not a I have to use it but it just makes things uh more convenient right so it's an easy way to get in protein um we usually just use a straightforward way protein um that has no added nothing else added uh in terms of uh no fillers no Fellers those types of things and then you you know you make go you have to trust your brand um to not do that to not do Amino spiking or nitrogen spiking or you know adding those fillers in that actually mean nothing um so it's a really easy quick way to to get protein in it gets absorbed really fast um and for the vast majority of people it digests really well and really easily for those that whe protein does not digest really well that's usually people that are pretty um sensitive to lactose um an an isolate oh way uh isolate protein can can help it's a little bit more expensive but it it's a little bit easier on the gut for those that do have some uh issues with digesting um but like I said it's not a must it's not one of those I have to use supplements it just makes things easier you can replace it with food and that's perfectly fine um one of the other supplements that's uh probably right at the top of the list is creatine monohydrate um so just the monohydrate version that's probably it's the cheapest version right you get you get a lot of creatines on the market that oh not monohydrate and they cost a lot more but they don't offer any more benefits so creatine is actually the supplement that has the most studies on it's the most studied supplement of all time uh so we know it works it really does but what's really interesting about creatine um is that um it's it's now it it's it's long been thought but it's it's been proven now in quite a few research papers to to even help with uh cognitive function um so it's it's even a neuroprotective compound so it protects your brain it um helps with Lethy um so it's really good for your brain it's really good for your muscles you recover quicker you can train harder it's a source of an energy for your muscles in the form of ATP um so it's a a fantastic supplement that can an extremely safe supplement um that can be used pretty much by anyone a young old male female um it's a safe supplement and it really does work uh I think one of the other things that we can talk about quickly talk about as well is caffeine I mean that's been around for ages but it's a it's a supplement that really does work I mean it's uh it increases uh alertness it uh increases training performance um it increases your metabolic rate so it uh you could lose more fat because you're using it um it's a fantastic supplement to be using so the top of my my my top list of supplements that would help for um for training would be creatine monohydrate uh protein powder and uh caffeine those three are probably uh right at the top of the list of things that really do work there's a bunch of others obviously um but keep it simple those are the ones that are core and quite cheap well very cheap um and they work so absolutely I I utilize all three of those and um I know my gym session is is not as good if I don't take my pre-workout um so that caffeine is is a necessity especially when training at night um well not too late obviously cuz then it can keep you up but but after like even even just a cup of coffee a cup of black coffee before your training um can benefit you so much um you don't need to have a pre-workout with caffeine in you can just drink a cup of coffee you can even get caffeine tablets that are really cheap and easy to find so um use caffeine tablets as well and if you're sensitive to caffeine I mean just don't use it it's it's fine there things that are useful to use um but yeah we'll just keep it to those top three I suppose for now okay okay no brilliant and in terms of the amount of protein that you suggest is it do you go with the standard 1 gr per kilogram of body weight or um or sorry one gam per um pound of body weight or 1.6 G per kilog body weight or what what you use or different um so it's a good it's a good um measuring stick right so uh like 2 G per kilogram is uh a good one it's the same as one almost as is same as one per pound right so one per pound would be 2.2 G per kilogram that's that's adequate protein intake uh females uh would need a little bit less than that um but there's nothing wrong with you know using the exact say you know two two grams per kilogram for a female as well um I like to keep protein high in in most cases um protein's very satiating uh it it has a high thermic effect so it's uh by just by just increasing your protein intake on a daily basis uh you can increase your metabolism and and burn more fat um at the end of the day and obviously you need adequate protein amounts of protein to to build muscle as well so yeah I think it's pretty safe to say two grams per kilogram is a is a good is a good um a good goal to have little bit less a little bit more doesn't really matter but yeah that's that's sort of where I would aim aim for um for most people general population yeah okay and what would you say or the biggest training mistakes that um people tend to make during their initial years of training versus maybe intermediate years or um Advanced years so I think there are like um three overarching pillars to this right so I think the lack of patience is the biggest pitfall um especially people starting out because muscle is slowly accumulated right so and I and I understand in the world that we're living in today there's like so much Social pressure and social media is in your face and everybody looks so good and big and buff and and it's hard to tell somebody that's like starting out um I I get it quite a lot with with with the younger guys that I help um they'll send me a picture of somebody and say do you think I'll look like this in a year or look like this in two years and then you know I have to be like listen but um this guy that you're showing me most probably has 10 years of hard trading under his Bel you have to barrel down and just you know focus on your own path um not somebody else's path you know just keep progressing um and stay patient right so your muscle is built by the gram so it's it it comes on slowly so you need to be patient um so uh lack of patience is the first one the second one I say is is um lack of consistency so you might have the best plan in the world but it doesn't mean anything if you don't execute it daily weekly monthly yearly um you have to be consistent in this game if you're not consistent at least 80 80% of the time you're cheating yourself right so consistency doing the boring stuff they in day out same thing over and over is boring it can get boring um but it's what works right staying consistent um and then I think the last big one is lack of discipline so everybody talks about motivation but motivation is fleeting and motivation is fickle motivation only lasts couple of seconds or a couple of minutes or a day if you're lucky but discipline lasts a lifetime so use the motivation to build habit good habits good habits daily consistently leads to discipline discipline leads to success so if you have discipline it doesn't matter what situation you're in um your good habits will take over but if you don't have discipline um bad habits are really easy to creep in and you'll just one day say oh screw I'm having a bad day let me just completely fall off the rails I'll get back to it Monday right that's the last thing that you want because it breaks your breaks your momentum and it's easy to fall into that pit and Monday becomes Wednesday and Wednesday becomes Friday and Friday becomes next Monday but if you have if you have your discipline established it's the likelihood of that happening is very small so lack of patience lack of consistency and lack of discipline I think those are the biggest bit Falls um that you know the beginning to intermediate guys usually face no AB absolutely I see a lot of guys start out and they go to the gym consistently for a week or two weeks or a month give them two months and then they're like okay well i' what now like I've be doing it consistently discipline and then they lose motivation and they give up but it's unfortunate because I reckon they need to try for at least a year minimum before actually assessing whether it's worth it or not for them yeah definitely I mean you can go to the gym and bust your ass and train as super hard as you want go to sleep the next morning you look in the mirror you look the same as yesterday now it's I mean you put all of this effort in but you don't see it you not you don't see it right so it takes time it takes time and and you have to play the long game you have to see into the future 3 months down the line um 6 months down the line 12 months um yeah yeah so just patience stick to it stick to it no exactly and on that how how has research changed the way that we do things well I mean ree research today is like playing such a massive role um everybody's on about it any everybody's like uh substantiating everything with studies left and right and uh half the people don't even read the studies or understand what they're reading um it's great like don't get me wrong like research is fantastic it's but what research has has done is it's pretty much just it's proven what we've been doing for the past 50 years in in in the fitness industry there are some massive things that have changed right but the people that have been truly successful um in the bodybuilding World 50 years ago 40 years ago 30 years ago they pretty much doing the same thing that we're doing today we might be a little bit more efficient today and have a a you um a few more things to leverage off of and more knowledge but you know what we've done is through research we pretty much just confirmed a lot of the Bro Science um so research is great I mean it it gives us so much insight and I love research but I think a lot of people focus too much on on research and not practical application so research is great cool don't forget about it learn about it learn about what there is okay but focus on the basics focus on doing the 90% um to the best of your abilities because the other 10% is going to make 1% change in in your Fitness and physique so go chasing silver bullets and silver Lings um just do the basics right and and the basics are substantiated by by by res you know we've um it's awesome to have all of these studies and being able to prove a lot of these hypothesis that we've had for so many years um but yeah there are some awesome Landmark studies that I suppose came out really recently uh that gives us more insight into building muscle quicker and more efficiently um a massive one is um actually quite a few but there's there's quite some really good meta analysis and and the peer-reviewed studies that came out in that support um hypertrophy greater hypertrophy where the muscle is placed in a lengthened position you know um so that stretch part that we even spoke about earlier in the episode where you know you really try and get deep into that range of motion and and and and focus on the Ecentric part of the movement stretch it uh and then go to the other part of the movement that that negative part of the movement where you place your muscle in the stretch position actually causes more muscle growth than uh than we a full would have thought yeah than the full full range of motion would have thought um so knowing those things is is great but you know the the best the best of the best have been incorporating that in anyways and they didn't even know it it's just now they actually know it now we can uh you know make more informed decisions based on it so uh it's interesting it's nice to apply uh but don't get lost in research and lost in a science if you're not sure try it for yourself and monitor it and see if it looks you know absolutely a lot of people ask me things I'm like I don't know do it try it try it log write a log try it for a couple months write down your findings and then come tell me what what did you find did it work for you yes no we not all the same absolutely no I totally agree with your point of view on Research being excellent and useful but it's only useful if you actually go and and do it and do the Practical side of it if you just read it you're never going to grow if you're not actually utilizing it or or just jimming um you actually need to to practice what what you read to to get gain actionable research so yes absolutely on that one um that those long l partial that study was actually done by Dr Milo wolf and he was on the this podcast um few weeks back so that's the exact that's his um his study that he ched about I should go listen to that I most definitely will yeah it was awesome study like um I mean it it's uh very very interesting another thing that's pretty interesting just touching on that is you know it was pretty that lengthened lengthened um part of the yeah so that was applicable pretty much to the whole body but interestingly enough the glutes were a bit different placing the glutes under you know the lengthened position didn't actually produce more um more hypertrophy than uh they're not so there was a lot of people kicking back on um uh doing uh hip thrusts because the hip thrust the top of the movement is is where you really is where the where the muscle is not not in the lengthen position is actually in the in the shortened position that's where you feel it the most right and the and because the study sort of came out and these studies started coming out they were like okay thrust s down just do squats um but um I don't know if you're familiar with Brett contas yes yeah yeah so uh he was he was involved in in in some of these studies as well um which also just shows like the glutes are a little bit different at times um they benefit almost as much from um you know the the shorten position as the long lengthen position so keep doing your hip thrusts he's known as um like the glute building expert he's the glute guy and uh he's been involved in so many um studies uh so he's contributed so much to the uh to the industry um and if you want to if you want to learn how to if you're a lady and you want to learn how to build your glutes um just go follow him for a while and just uh you know just see the exercises that they do and how they do it uh is just phenomenal in the way that he's he's he structured his um his business yeah he is the glut yeah he's the GL not he's the guy it looks like he's done his PhD probably in in some kind of area yes correct yes for sure okay yeah I'll definitely I must invite him on the podcast at some stage personal success stories could you share a particularly challenging or inspiring in experience from your own training or coaching career that listeners can learn from I think the the I think the most important thing that I learned and we know this is is probably that that section that part of my life where I sort of lost I lost um moment momentum and I lost Fitness and I think the most important thing that I learned from that and and a lot of people can can relate is exercise is the best anti-depressant anti- anxiety the drug that there is um even if you just get a little bit of exercise in each week it literally can change your life and you need to make it a longevity thing you need to make it a part of your daily routine you need to um you need to make it fun for yourself and enjoy it um but it's so critical exercise is just so absolutely so so critical for our mental health our physical health um and our longevity so I mean can even all the way go down to um the studies that that talk about uh the more muscle mass you have the the healthier you're going to live and the longer you're going to live I'm not talking about the 300b freaks that um on on pets and compete and stuff I'm talking about people that are the general healthy people that go to the gym and and and focus on adding muscle mass to their frame muscle mass on your frame is what keeps you healthy it's what keeps you young and it's what um is going to give you a longer lifespan at the end of the day um yeah so you want longevity bu right absolutely and I totally agree and all the data supports having more muscle being very good for you in the long run and then you can pick up your kids your grandkids and you can get up quity all those kind of things you know that's what B so we can't like we all want to live a successful and a happy and a good life and um but if your body's broken your body's broken and you're struggling to exactly like you said struggling to play with your kids or your grandkids or this or that you know um we can circumvent that most of us can circumvent that just by by being Physically Active absolutely for if you were going on a spaces Shi Tom mils and wanted to maintain muscle size what 10 exercises pieces of equipment would you choose to take with you it can be any machine or exercise but you have limited space and I often get this one wrong because people want to say okay I'll take a whole squat track and then on the squat track they'll do lots of different EXC that's what I just to yeah so just just 10 exercises to maintain your full as much muscle and full body composition as possible so for example like a pullup would count as one but for example it can be wide grip and regular that's still just one but a chin up would be different then it's no longer yeah so pullup would be one so I think you hit the nail on the head there just a general wide normal pullup that'll be one some kind of squat variation would be another one whether that be a normal ball ball squat or a hack squat or something personally I would pick a hack squat if I can have a hack squat there but some kind of you're going to have a hack Squad you've got a hack Squad so some kind of squad creation then I would have some kind of bench exercise say I I would have incline down ball press um for sure so let's do that at what angle 45 or low angle yeah yeah 30 to 45 degrees is good so anywhere there you're you're pretty good um then something to pull right I I i' I'd love a Smith machine to do um I'm talking about me personally because I usually I would say like yeah no I would say barbell barbell Rose off the ground is fantastic but I have some lower back issues and like I just I can't progress on that so but I can progress on a Smith machine which is just a bit more stability and support So a Smith machine row definitely do that um normal Barb Al cools for biceps don't need anything else barbell CS that's it um triceps will have the close grip bench press so we are targeting the triceps so we can even get some chest growth out of it um I don't know how many we're at but honestly I'd have some kind of D exercise I I would have a a uh um a lateral raise but with a pulley not with a dumbell uh we I have constant tension if that's possible please um I'll have that uh we got to have a soorry why one a pulley yeah for for dels like side like side lateral okay side so side laterals will have that one front uh front like the fronts get enough work in any case so I'm not worried about that my re dels will get enough work with the pulling side pulling work that we doing from the Smith machine so um then we have to have a cal machine like you can't not train CS right um yeah so let's just go with a standard standing cough raise machine actually no it's a donkey car phase machine so seated no no no it's it's a donkey car phase ma it's not seated it's where you Hing at the hip like the the the weight is like um you bend forward and the weight is lying on on top of your uh your hips right so you like bent at a angle like this and the weight is there at your hips um okay so hinging at the hips would cause more um straighten on the on the um what are we talking about the the carves straight on the carves so that would be more effective right so then I would have a seated hamstring string coal machine M okay okay she put that hamstring in that lengthened position and really I love that machine I think it's my favorite hamstring movement that's that um then just for overall uh strength and functionality just a overhead military press with a bbell that's always a good thing to to have in yeah I think you're pretty com if you can just see those you'll probably reject you'll be you'll be reject you you'll stay big on Mars to fight the mar yeah you I'm pretty sure you're still going to be losing muscle mass you know but um yeah it's going to it's going to help well if they can pack you your protein and stuff maybe not yes yes so if you have those ration and I think I think good rations yeah yeah okay um who are your favorite influences in the body w industry wow okay um I want to say Arnold but I don't yeah Arnold yeah but like old or like back in the day Arnold not today Arnold not no I get you I get you right so he still Al there no he's still of I know but I just I get you know I get J that seen the Arnold I have actually not I have actually not right so you got to pick you got to pick him because I mean he he revolutionized things I you know he's so iconic and and everything say um but other than other than him I'm I'm a massive Dorian Yates fan um I think we can learn so much from him in the training methodology that he brought to the table um that is so relevant today that everybody is talking about the low volume high volume intensity type uh scenario so Dorian Yates obviously Rod colan was just the freak of nature from a different planet um I love Jay Cutler and what is doing for the industry and what he keeps doing is just he's so busy and he's so busy in the industry he's everywhere he's um uh he's podcast he's uh yeah his podcast his YouTube show is so good and uh he promotes the industry so much um coming back closer to more recent people um love Derek Lansford uh [ __ ] you know um I love en and then I love these hard training guys that train like super super hard like Jordan Peters and if you know him um if you want to know what intensity looks like uh go follow Jordan Peters and see how well Jordan Peterson sorry not the the bodybuilder not the um the psychologist not yes no no he actually coached the guy who came on the first podcast he was his coach for for is it okay yeah so if you if you want to see um what real intensity looks like just go and have a have a look at how that guy trains those group that that group of people um Dante trell uh uh Jordan um James Hollings head uh Dusty HW those are those are guys that like to takes training to the next level and it's you can spot from a mile away this guy is is training himself into the ground um just the way they go about their training sessions and how focused they are for every rep for every set it's such a they're so switched on mentally um to perform that it's just like it's admirable and I like to um model myself uh after that type of trading methodology yeah so so that's like the bodybuilders but obviously like U I've got a lot of respect for uh um people like Andrew Dr Andrew huberman it's a neuroscientist um I love Lane Lorton um he's got his PhD protein synthesis yeah so I love uh it's controversial but I love Victor black y had what is who Victor black uh I say's he's brought um so much to the industry in terms of per performance-enhancing drugs and and research and just um not research that he's done himself but uh putting research together and making it understandable um and creating Frameworks from research so that we can stay safer um John J's great I love his j3 university um yeah so there's so many so many people that I respect and I could go go on for days but good God but yeah I get you yeah just briefly um we are getting close to the end but you mentioned high volume versus low volume can you summarize your thoughts on high volume vers low volume and what kind of reps and set schemes you'd give in general of course it's the person dependent but yeah yeah okay so there's a big discussion around high volume versus low volume and once again there's many ways to going cut it's not to say that um low volume or high volume is superior to well it's not always superior to the other right Some people prefer one to the other um and that's fine right so if you like something more you're more likely to stick to it so I mean that that's that's definitely a consideration um what you like more but I have a bias um a little bit of a bias and I believe that lower volume I'm not saying like super low volume just lower volume in the ranges that you know dorate sort of did I feel that it's more beneficial um but there's a caveat to it doing lower volume you really have to up your intensity you you need to take your sets harder and further than you think you could have could have because otherwise you're going to waste your time so you need to get really close to failure you need to be super intense you don't need a lot of sets you don't need a lot of exercises um so my my uh my methodology kind of is like let's let's go into the gym with high intensity we smash the training session focus on each set on each rep push super hard finish your training session go home eat and recover we want to go in force an adaptation and then go recover so that we can grow because we don't grow in the gym we break down muscle in the gym so we want to almost limit the time that we're in the gym um so we just want to go in force that adaptation and leave so um anywhere around 15 to you know 15 to 20 set working sets a week with body part is probably a good good good way to throw at it rep ranges that's also sort of been proven to be not as important at all so heavier weights with lower reps is not necessarily going to build more muscle than lower weights and higher reps um it's more to do with the proximity to failure how close are you getting to failure and actually it's more difficult to push your sets to failure when you're doing lower weight and more reps because then your cardiovascular system is in play right so and that's not always what you want um because some people might be unfit and their cardiovascular system would give out before their muscles would give out so their failure would would be limited by the cardiovascular um um vascular so I don't know so it also depends what you like but I I'd generally say between eight and 20 reps is is is always a good rep range I I vary it uh some exercises heavier some some lighter and I structure my training programs in training blocks right so this training block that we are currently in might look different than the next training block so this training block for the next couple of months might be lower volume handling higher weights but the next one might be a bit higher volume and handling lower weights and more reps so it also depends how how the person responds on that um as well so not everybody's the same like I said so but I tend to lean to the to the lower lower volume and really high intensity training uh um being extremely focused during sets and Reps and and really just like murdering your muscle um before stopping uh living into yeah so before before stopping your sets so I I I like that because it limits the time in the gym and gives you more time to recover and actually um grow absolutely you've got to train hard yeah irrespective you got to train hard right so um and I just think that most people don't even know what trading mod is yeah no I feel like I was one of the those people until a few or until more recently cuz I I always trained what I thought was hard but I think that I overestimated what one r or two R is and you know what a lot of people need needs uh actually need at some point most people need a train failure no yes but you need somebody um training with you that that knows how to get there to push you to those limits right so that that switch in your brain gets flipped because as if you've never been into that zone like truly been into that zone or pushed into that zone you don't know what it feels like you think you do but have have somebody that much more experienced that really knows how to push into failure stand next to you while you're doing a hack Squad where it's safe right and have that person determine when you get out of the hack Squad you don't determine when you get out that that person there is is going to try he's going to keep you safe and he's going to push you to failure and actually show you what failure looks like and feels like and once you've done that and you actually really experienced it the switch flips and you can do it by yourself but until somebody has pushed you to that level put that gun to your head and said listen if you don't do one more rep I'm going to fire this bullet and true failure is you're not going to to do that RP so you're dead that's what true failure is so having that mentality um and pushing yourself that far um or having somebody do help you do that um I think is really important the difference between the the Champions and the average yeah yeah yeah and and I mean I was exactly the same I thought I was training super hard until um my first coach started training with me and um and we were doing exactly what I was speaking about doing the ha Squad and I was like I'm I'm done like I want to get out and he pushed me back in that act Squad you keep going and um I thought I was done but I I could do three four five more reps and I did that yeah so I wasn't even close that wasn't even close to failure I thought I was yeah but your mind was failing before your body that's it that's it so for closing thoughts what advice or parting words of wisdom do you have for our listeners who are looking to embark on their own journey of muscle growth and he it's your journey it's not somebody else's it's Unique stay in your lane focus on what you can do and what you can do progressively better day after day try and be better than yesterday you're not going to be perfect don't fixate on Perfection we're not looking for Perfection we're just looking for consistency if you can just be consistent in something and do it the same thing over and over again uh you will succeed so find what you enjoy enjoy the journey enjoy the challenges learn from your failures be steadfast and consistent um and keep your eyes on the prize it's going to take a while it's sorry to burst your bubble it's going to take a while you're not going to achieve what you want in 6 months or most probably not even a year but you're going to be way further ahead than what you were yesterday so enjoy the journey um embrace the difficulty embrace the challenges and uh stay clest absolutely you make an excellent point and thank you so much for your time and really appreciate everything that you've had to offer today thanks rosar I appreciate it it's good to it was good to be on the show thank you thank you appreciate it goodbye Gaines gurus thank you for listening and see you on the next episode of tmgp