Everyone wants to build muscle...
Harry Purvis • 14 January 2020
But not everyone knows how to do it.
Everyone out there, whether they admit it or not, would like to build more muscle. That's a fact.
Some, more than others, but everyone does. Regardless of age, gender, goal, training history, injury list, occupation.
So, for this weeks' email, we thought we'd cover a few reasons why you may not be building muscle:
1) You’re not performing exercises properly.
How you do an exercise, is more important than what exercise you’re doing. You could have the perfect program for you on paper, it could contain all the ‘correct’ exercises for you, but unless you’re executing that well, you will be wasting your time. The HOW is key here. An Incline DB Press can be done in a hundred different ways, all with different outcomes.
2) You’re doing the wrong exercises.
You need to be doing movements in the gym (not the park!) that you can actually execute well. Complicated movements, tend not to be the best for overloading your muscles, as there’s too much to think about. Go with basic exercises, that fit your biomechanics, and work hard on them. Professional bodybuilders, who tend to have the most muscle mass in the population, aren't doing single-leg Bosu ball squats.
3) Your nutrition is poor.
This is an obvious one, but what you’re doing outside the gym is just as important as what you’re doing in the gym. Don’t expect to be building kilograms of muscle each month, if your diet is only looking good for 3 days of the week. Ditch the junk food/alcohol, and see your progress 10x. Sufficient protein (1g per lbs of body weight is a good place to start), sufficient calories (tiny surplus each week) and patience.
4) You’re trying to lose body fat.
Apart from in a few cases (new to training, good genetics, etc) then building muscle whilst trying to lose body fat simultaneously is very difficult/impossible. Pick one, and stay with that for a few months. If you’re lean already, the look to focus on muscle gain (energy surplus) and if you’re carrying a lot of body fat, then look to get leaner first (energy deficit). A lot of our clients at Visfit, when starting with us build muscle and lose body fat, but that's because they're being exposed to a novel training stimulus. Either upgrade your training (a lot) or accept that some fat gain is inevitable.
5) You're not training hard enough.
Even if you have the best plan, the best execution in the gym, the best nutrition, the perfect amount of sleep, low levels of stress - you still need to train hard. Go to failure. Push yourself. Get someone to push you. Get out of your comfort zone. Muscles respond to progressive mechanical tension put on them - that means make them work!
6) You’re giving up too soon.
Building muscle takes a long time. Months, years, decades. Don’t expect to have a Men's Health cover model body after 4 weeks of regimented training/dieting - it will take longer than that. Lock yourself in for the long game, and stick at it. All of us (trainers) at Visfit have been training for 10+ years. If you're reading this, and you're feeling disheartened about your lack of muscle gain progress, look at how long you've been doing it for. Chances are, you're only getting started.
uffff rustled a few feathers on the weekend with my email. And subsequent IG video 😂 (the whole ‘don’t get fat in the first place’ thing) People didn’t like it .. Because bad habits are difficult to undo. Right? By their very nature/definition.. ‘habit’ It’s part of your lifestyle. You’re better off not adopting them in the first place. Best tip to stop smoking? Don’t start in the first place. Want to NOT be hooked on drugs? Don’t take them initially. Best way to be in shape? Don’t get fat in the first place. See what I mean? >> But our relationship with food is a complicated one .. It’s far from straightforward. We eat when we’re happy (celebrating) We eat when we’re sad (comfort food) When we’re stressed (stress eating) When we’re bored (mindlessly going through a big pack of milk chocolate digestives) 😂 It’s complicated. >> but the solution is straightforward << And that’s where a lot of us go wrong. Nutrition is so simple & straightforward. Sometimes .. I honestly don’t even know how nutritionists are even a thing. As Piers Morgan famously said: (the best way to lose weight is ..) “Eat less food & do more exercise” Happy Tuesday 😂✌️ Harry
You know what THE best tip for being in shape is? The number one thing. That will guarantee you stay in tip-top physical condition. Mostly forever Which actually .. Maybe gives you one of the biggest bang for your buck returns on life quality. When you actually think about it. Maybe more than more money. After you’ve had your basic needs met. Going to be pretty honest here .. The tip .. is not getting out of shape in the first place Yup. Brutal isn’t it 😂 If you’re reading this & you’re out of shape. Then you can’t do Plan A. It’ll have to be Plan B. Exactly the conversation I had with someone this week. If you never allow yourself to get out of shape .. You’ll never have to experience the difficult journey to get back to fitness. Which is tough. And it’s such a difficult pill to swallow. We can’t turn back time 😩 >> How often do you see young fat kids out & about? Quite a few times no? Especially now. 20 or so years ago. Probably not as much. But if my local KFC is anything to go by .. uffffff. And damn .. Those kids will have it tough. If they ever want to be in great physical shape. They’ll have to work pretty damn hard later on in life to get back to it. (not very PG of me of course..) But it’s the parents’ fault, not the kids. >> And look. It’s not easy staying in shape either. It requires effort, willpower, determination .. You name it. But it’s a HELL of a lot easier staying in shape. Then trying to get back into shape. Happy Sunday ✌️ Harry
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So there’s a guy that comes to the gym atm. And from what I can see .. (I could be wrong here btw) It looks like he literally comes in for 5 minutes. Does 1 or 2 sets of pull-ups 2 sets of pec dec Something like that. Then leaves. No exaggeration. He doesn’t put his bag in the changing room. So I literally see him coming in & out of the gym in 5 or so mins. And it’s an interesting one Which I want your opinion on. (reply to this and let me know) Are we team “Something is better than nothing .. even doing a 2-minute workout is better than nothing at all” in which case this guy’s ‘workout’ is sensible, justified, on the right lines etc Or Are we team “C’mon .. if you can only spare 5 minutes each day for your training .. you need to reassess your priorities a bit” because what can you honestly get done in 5 minutes ..? I spend more time picking the playlist I want to listen to 😂 >> It’s a tricky one for me. I’m tempted to go with the latter. Although I do agree with the former too. .. there is a relatively high FIXED cost in coming to the gym anyway .. Right? You get a lot of the faffing involved whether you’re doing a 5-minute workout. Or a 2-hour workout. So you MAY as well make it an efficient use of time. And train for at least .. what .. 30 minutes as a minimum? Hell .. it takes me 5 minutes to just warm up / get my head in the zone for training. I know it does for my clients too. Instead of leaving the gym straight after you’ve got ready for training. Hit me up with your thoughts pls 👋👋 Have a great Monday too. Harry
People do crazy things for attention these days. Especially online. We’re in the middle of the whole “do anything to get views” era. And it makes it difficult to figure out what is actually real. And what is just staged/set up for the video. Like those “I surprised my husband/wife/friend” type videos. We’ve all seen. Which, most of the time. Are hilarious. But then you realise. There are multiple cameras in the same room rolling 😂 With the perfect lighting & setup. And you realise it’s just staged. But it’s been liked by 3m+ people. So they’re winning. >> You know what else falls into this category? Workouts The ones you see on Instagram / YouTube. The more different Out there Funky The exercises are .. The more attention it gets. You know what doesn’t get anywhere near as much attention? The bread & butter basics .. Consistency doing the same exercises week in week out Progressive overload Rotating through the same 2-4 movements for each body part That sh*t doesn’t look sexy on Instagram. It doesn’t get the cray attention. Unlike some of the other stuff you see on there. >> And you know what the funny thing is .. Fate loves irony. And the mega fit / in-shape people doing these stupid workouts. For views. Actually got their physique in the first place by doing the boring stuff they would never post about because it doesn’t get any traction (read that again) 😂😂 Mad when you think about it like that. Anyhow - off to the gym. Cya ✌️ Harry
What seems completely unattainable for some .. Is easily attainable for others. In many facets of life. Not always. But often the time. Let me give you an example. Body composition related of course .. So whenever I post some sort of half-naked ‘physique update’ on my Instagram. I always get the same comments. (from ONLY guys obviously .. those memes are 100% true😂) Things like: “how do you stay that lean all the time” “was this an old photo or recently?!” “that’s too lean, you need to eat something” no capping here btw. I do genuinely get comments like this on almost all of them. And yeah sure .. Some of it comes down to good lighting Me knowing my best angles Some flexing But you know what? Given my lifestyle My job Where I am all-day The habits I have ingrained into my daily routine .. it’s actually not too difficult to maintain a lean-ish physique (with abs) year-round. Right? I mean .. If I didn’t maintain a decent level of body fat condition. Then I’m in the wrong industry. Whereas if I had an office-based job .. Wasn’t in the gym all-day Had 2 young kids Wasn’t able to go to bed at 9 pm most nights Had to eat & drink out to ‘entertain clients’ etc Then I’d probably find it impossible to maintain this level of condition. Maybe only getting there for a week or so after a prolonged period of dieting. Who knows. Maybe that’ll happen to me in the future 😂 >> So moral of the story. Don’t let others drag you down to their level ✌️✌️ Harry
Had to get this one off my chest this morning. Because I see it so often. Almost every day. Some PTs stiiiiiil putting their clients on the treadmill. For the first 5-10 minutes of a paid session. Client parts ways with hard-earned net cash .. .. Just for the trainer to spend a good chunk of session time % Walking on a treadmill. And get this .. Those same clients. Probably took longer to walk to the gym from the office And probably at a faster pace too. Everyone walks fast in London. Especially when you have places to be. So technically .. The 5-minute moderate walk on the treadmill is most likely. A cool-down rather than a warm-up 😂 I mean c’mon. The fitness industry has moved on from 2011 .. Hasn’t it? >> I get all my clients to do a warm-up. Sure. Everyone needs to do one. Myself included. But it’s not on the treadmill. They’re exercise-specific isometric contractions Which hugely IMPROVE how your body/muscles work before training. More range of movement More stability Better contractions etc You don’t get any of that from walking on a treadmill. Especially if you walked 5 minutes to get to the gym in the first place. Rant over 🤭😅 Harry
So this is just a thought. Something to throw out there. While we’re about to attack Wednesday. I think one of the reasons IF seems to work ‘well’ for fat loss. Thinking about it from a logical/practical perspective. Is that going for relatively long periods without eating at all is a good thing. Snacking/grazing is the calorie deficit destroyer For a number of reasons It’s usually uncontrolled It’s usually done unintentionally / almost subconsciously The food choices are energy-dense You can’t even remember what you’ve eaten half the time Even I’ve done it before. Demolished a whole pack of ‘something’ whilst watching a movie at 10 pm. Without even thinking about it. Just mindlessly grazing. .. So eliminating that to a large extent. Is going to make it a lot EASIER for you to stick to a deficit. Difficult to eat in a big surplus consistently. If you’re only having 2x clean-ish meals a day. With no snacking in between. As opposed to 2x main meals. With about 9 snacks in between them. See what I mean? >> I don’t personally do IF. But if you look at the timing of my meals each day. I spend a large portion of the day/night.. not eating 4.30 am breakfast 7.5h gap 12ish lunch 6h gap 6ish dinner 10.5h gap So I’m doing 3x meals. But they’re pretty spread out. It’s sort of like doing a semi-IF. Because I just don’t snack that much. Food for thought ✌️ Harry
So have an interesting story for you this morning. Happened last week. There’s this ’new guy’ at the gym. Who trains either on his own. Or with one of his mates. Sort of in shape Not super lean You know those tradesmen / manual labourers who clearly have a lot of muscle. And are pretty strong. But don’t have the shape of like a Mens Physique Bodybuilder. You know the kinda person I’m talking about? He trains pretty hard Makes a LOT of noise Attracts attention to himself Sweats a ton etc Does his WHOLE workout on the Smith machine basically. Or in and around it. >< Again .. nothing unusual about any of this tbh. This isn’t the main bit of the story .. The funny thing. He had other members coming up to him afterwards 😂 In the changing room. Asking for his workout routine How long he’s been training for How great it looks How difficult it was etc I was walking past like 🤭🤭 And for me .. It’s such an interesting thing to observe. / establish why people were so intrigued. I rarely / ever get people coming up to me and asking for my routine. But I probably train the opposite to this guy. My conclusion is: Us humans are attracted to new, shiny, fancy objects. That potentially offer us something better than what we’re used to. And this guy’s training style .. Represented that. Rightly or wrongly. What are your thoughts? Would you have asked him for his training routine?! 😅 Let me know. Harry