Eat Train Prosper

7 Reasons your Legs Aren't Growing | ETP#30

August 10, 2021 Aaron Straker | Bryan Boorstein
Eat Train Prosper
7 Reasons your Legs Aren't Growing | ETP#30
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

Talk about an episode near and dear to our hearts. In this episode we're covering 7 potential mistakes you might find yourself making in your eternal quest for pants-splitting quads, glutes, and hamstrings. Admittedly, it took us many years to realize, learn, and accept these mistakes as we made them ourselves. After listening to this one, may the Gods bless your future leg sessions with the most glorious offerings of gains.

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[aaron_straker]:

Happy Tuesday, everyone, we come back to another episode of each train. Prosper today, Brian and myself are going to cover a handful of reasons why your legs aren't growing. something Brian and I know very much about because we

[bryan_boorstein]:

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]:

struggled for many years and it is something that we would often talk about with our own frustrations. So before we get into that brand, what's latest with you?

[bryan_boorstein]:

What is the latest? we just recorded with Eric Helms a couple of days ago. That episode just dropped. so uh, as of us recording this right now, this moment that episode dropped. so make sure you go check that out on all the platforms. It hit super hard. Er, it came and delivered great conversation. Um, in my world, my intgram is still hacked. As of this moment, I'm still keeping hope alive, but also, Um, kind of in the mindset of acceptance, you know a worse case scenario. I don't get my account back. I have a new account and uh, I just need to kind of move forward from there and keep putting out content and talking about things that are important to me and uh, nothing else really changes from there. So Um, still waiting on Instagram. It is what it is and then I guess, uh, regarding my like, diet and training and stuff like that body weight was was super down. Um, I think I even mentioned on the last episode that I dropped something like four pounds in ten days and I'm actually really glad that it's It's kind of stabilized since then because that was just a little too much for me and I'm up about a pound pound and a half from where it plummeted to Um at the end of those ten days. And so I'm really happy about that. Um, I'm also really happy that I don't feel like depleted like I was at the end of those ten days, Like I literally didn't feel. Um, like I felt small and flat. I hadn't been training right. I'd taken a week off and there were all these kind of cascad of effects That impacted why four pounds were down in ten days, but Um, coming back to eating like, I've actually been eating more than I've anticipated. Uh, the last few days I've been in like the twenty six to three, twenty, six hundred to three thousand calorie range, which is really like my maintenance,

[aaron_straker]:

Yeah, the De.

[bryan_boorstein]:

slightly above maintenance. Maybe,

[aaron_straker]:

Probably,

[bryan_boorstein]:

um, but I just kind of felt like I needed it, so so I've been doing that and then um, At some point I will decide that it's time to go back down to twenty three or twenty four hundred, and dig for the last. I guess I have about five pounds left to go 'cause I'm at one eighty seven now, so I'd like to get to one eighty two. That's kind of like my, my, my goal, Um, just putting it out their goal and then uh, as I get close I can kind of adjust whether it. maybe it's one, eight three or one eighty one or something like that. But uh, it's definitely you know. I'm thirteen pounds into a potentially eighteen pound diet so well over halfway and that feels good. Uh, doesn't seem too hard yet. Regarding uh training, this has been the craziest thing. I just put a post up on my insiggram yesterday about this, but um, I took my week off, and prior to the week off of training I was stuck at five hundred and eighty pounds for eight reps on my hack press. Just like consistently every week. It was like five eighty for eight and then five eighty for eight, and then five eighty for eight, and for like months and months and months, and I was just like you know, I'm I'm dieting. So what else can I really expect? Like? At least I'm not losing strength. You know, Um, during that period of time I was trying to train my legs every four days like I was of this mindset that you know as soon as they're no longer sore and they feel recovered, I should train them again, so essentially you know, the day after they'd be a little sore. The the day after that they would be sore if you flex them or like punch them, but you wouldn't like feel it walking around, and then the day after that there wouldd be no soreness and then I'd train the next day. Um, but it's weird 'cause I guess it's possible that I wasn't actually recovered even though there was no soreness. You know, I may have needed a little bit of extra time. So what happened was I finished my week off and I went into my first leg session and I got like a really easy ten reps. And that was not really surprising. I mean, it was sprising because I hadn't progressed in so long, but but I justified it easily, you know as the. the. the fatigue had flushed and I was finally able to manifest fitness right. Um, and then this week, uh, okay, no, no, no, So after that I changed my leg training frequency because I was like, maybe my legs aren't recovered. I just kind of like threw that idea out into the world, and I switched my leg training up, so I took my hams string work and I do it on one day and then two to three days later I do my quad work, and then two to three days after that I do my handwork, and then two or three days after that quadwork again, so it ends up being every like five to six days that I'm training the same muscle group now instead of every four day, and so I come back into my next hack. Press session, and this time I got twelve reps, so it went from eight before the week off to tend the week after the week off to twelve the next week. And uh, that's just insane to me because I literally hadn't made progress in months. and now I've added four reps. so um, I don't exactly know what to think of it, but it's awesome and I'm still dieting and I am training my legs less often. So mentally that helps too, because you know when you're training every fourth day it's like, Oh, it's leg day again. It's so hard like you get this anxiety, kind of, but every six day it's like I'm ready. I'm like excited. you know, so so it's kind of even a different attitude going into it and I don't know how much of an effect that has, too. so, Um, for whatever it's worth, I'm going to continue with this frequency and just kind of see how long I can ride this progress train and then um, I can kind of gather my thoughts and reassess at that point.

[aaron_straker]:

I like how you said that the anxiety get when it's like day, and I definitely get that, especially like for for example, yesterday yesterday I was just su a little bit low energy and I just wrapped up a luunnch for coaching, which is just a lot, just time consuming on lots and lots of calls. lots of work to do and'm just a little bit lower energy and I know like Hey, I can't train on Tuesdays, because I just have too much work to do in in the podcasts and stuff like that. Um, and then on, you know Sundays, I go hiking, so it's like I need to train on that Monday, so I don't throw off my schedule really bad and it's just like yesterday. it was a. A Monday was a like day and I was just like Damn it like, 'cause it's just it's hard. you know. It's just like more mentally taxing, And I wonder like you said if it's just kind of like one of those recovery things. I also like how you said about switching or splitting up hamssterring and quad days. Um, because, for example, like I do like r d. ls, Right is like my, you know, um lengthened position, Uh hamster movement, and then I go right into Hack squats and it's just like it's It's taxing. It's like it's taxing on like my soul, Right because like pushing the r d ls, it's difficult, right? You're like shaking at the end and stuff like that. And and and then I'm like Okay now, I' have like two sets to warm up on Hack squat. And then I need to push myself really hard there and it's just like it's defeating is like kind of the feeling and I was thinking if like, uh, I've been tossing around this idea of like maybe running like a, like a front back type, type of uh, a split or something like that, where just the legs like the. the legs are the hardest things you really train right. You can push your chest really hard and it'll get like sore and stuff, but

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, Mhm,

[aaron_straker]:

you don't get that like that like just central kind of fatigue over your entire being that you get from like pushing ry ls really hard, or the pendulum squad of the Hack squatter. You know any type of squatting movement So it has been something I've been thinking about splitting up, so it is cool to hear that. Uh, you have recently done that.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, I've never in my whole life of training ever done a routine where I splitds ands I've done. I've done a routine where I put what was it. I did quads and chest and shoulders on one day, so like you, kind of said it' like an interior program and then I put back back biceps and uh and ham strings on the other day, so I've done a routine like that, but I've never had a routine where the the sole focus of the day is like this is a quad day or this is a ham string day, Um, and it's actually really cool for a lot of kind of what you mentioned, so I have three main movements on each day and so like on. Quad day, there's a big squat style movement like a pendulum or a hack or something like that. there's an isolation movement like a leg extension, and then I finish with the single leg movement. So the single egg movement, even though it's brutal and it's hard. it's not like it's your primary overloading movement for the day. It's like almost just a finisher, So the amount of weight that you're using on it isn't nearly as high or it. it isn't quite as damaging and fatiguing as it would be if you were doing it first. Um, so I have kind of those three different movement patterns, but there's really only one that just sucks your soul right

[aaron_straker]:

Exactly

[bryan_boorstein]:

and then on hams string day, it's kind of the same idea. I have. like a leg curl, Uh, an r. d, l, or like a good morning hip extension. Sometimes I'll I'll do a day where like some hip extensions, some good morning, and then one day's just hardy l. and then I usually do um another leg curl after that which is still a leg curl and some glue work. So it would be like a a cast gluop bridge, or I just added in the uh glut focus leg press where the feet are up high and narrow and you're kinda um, just only using like a partial range of motion to stay in the The gluop, but um stuff like that like, even though it's using the Hack press machine, it's using it in a very different manner than the way that it's being used when it's like your primary overloaded movement, So um, I really like the freedom that may. Freedom's the wrong word, but the way in which that split allows you to put your primary focus into that one area because it really is like. like when you have an ry. l in a hack squat. Even if you think that you can put equal efforts into both, you're probably going to put more effort into the one that's first. And honestly, it makes sense that you put Ayel first just because trying to do an arty all and embrace your midline after doing hack s watchts would be wildly rough.

[aaron_straker]:

yeah, I, whenever I do the artdyall, it has to be like the first thing. or maybe I' do a calfs or something before, but like

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]:

it has to be or else I'm goingnna, I'll be straight at all. I'm goingnna have ass it a hundred percent. If I don't

[bryan_boorstein]:

do you do? Uh, like a mechanical tension type set of like curls before you already else ever.

[aaron_straker]:

I do act. I don't do a mechanicaltsion type set, but what I will do is I'll go get on it right, and then I will do like six reps on like a very light weight. Move it down one. Do six raps. Move

[bryan_boorstein]:

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]:

it down one and just till I get blood flow back in there. So or' not back, but like get blood flow in there, so there is like warm. but I won't. uh, I do that just to really warm them up. Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]:

Interesting. Yeah, no, I think that that approach work too. That's actually. I think I've heard something similar on John Meadows. Yeah, but I think on his, he takes the sixes all the way until you

[aaron_straker]:

that's where I got it from John meadows. Yep, it's perfect. I love it.

[bryan_boorstein]:

can't do six anymore.

[aaron_straker]:

Yeah, he does. I generally will not do that,

[bryan_boorstein]:

totally.

[aaron_straker]:

especially before an r. do. especially before an r. do.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, nice. I like that a cool. Well, what's going on in your world and any updates for the people

[aaron_straker]:

um, no, I mean training's going. I said no, and then I go into talking about it. Training's going really really well, which is fantastic. I. I wrapped up my diet, you know a couple of days ago, Um. and what's really really fun is just like each week I go in and'm like man. I got you know fourteen raps last week. I don't think I can do more and it'll do like sixteen or seventeen. Um, So it's it. I'm just very happy with the progress right now and now I know it's going to continue 'cause I'm just literally adding more food every single week, which is fun. Um, yesterday I was on the the Pendulum squad and Uh, I instead took the approach of, instead of trying to add more reps on the first set, I was like I'm going to match the first set because I really want to be able to get ten on my third set And I had failed that the two weeks prior, so I kind of took a little bit of Uh, Brian miners, like Uh, double dynamic progression, Um, and I was actually able to add a rep on each set two and three, which is really really cool, Um. And the third one was like a full outut, like Bals Wall felt absolutely awful. Uh, the second one felt it was very, very challenging. But the first one was like I was like Okay like there's twelve reps like I'm good with that like I probably have two more. Um, but it was it was. It was pretty cool. Uh, I, I generally con. I found of myself I can push my first set almost always and beat reps. But then I like, kind of like

[bryan_boorstein]:

Tank?

[aaron_straker]:

blow, blow my load on the first set. and then I'm done versus That's two and three and I'm like struggling to match reps. Uh, 'cause I just pushed the first set way too hard. Uh, so it was cool to kind of uh, take a little bit of a different approach there. but I mean no things are going going great here like obviously energy levels are improved. you know, with with food coming up, my weight is still. I'm about hm, a pound and a half to two pounds up from uh, my bottom, so I was like one, ninety two point three or something like that today. Uh, but things are going really real good. I'm approaching that like one, ninety four to one night, like mid, somewhere in the one ninety Fours March, which is where I have a picture from like the like, December, twenty, nineteen, twenty nine. Yeah, which was like, I think like the best I ever looked, so I'm really interested to see like I when I get to that weight. Like how I'm going to compare Now, you know, a year and a half later or whatever, So, uh, pretty cool. It's pretty cool that that that time horizon is very near within two weeks, probably

[bryan_boorstein]:

Was that picture from two thousand nineteen on the way up or on the way down?

[aaron_straker]:

on the way up. Yep.

[bryan_boorstein]:

So's comparing apples apples? I like that.

[aaron_straker]:

exactly. yeah. Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]:

Well, should we talk about the topic for the day?

[aaron_straker]:

let's talk about it.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Cool you introduce.

[aaron_straker]:

Yeah. so we're going to talk about today. Iss, kind of like. Uh, I think we have like six or seven reasons why that are probably very likely if you find yourself in this scenario, why your legs aren't growing or why you think your legs aren't growing. It's a little bit of back storyor here. When Brian and I were, you know, training a lot together when I was a member at Briryan's Crossbt gym, and we kind of started getting a little bit outside of our our goals being crossedfit related, and more just into like feeling good. you know, physique type stuff. Um, we found ourselves with a lot of similarities, right, We're about the same exact size. Our weights are usually within a few pounds of each other. We have like good back development like Brian's shoulders, obviously massive compared to mine, but we both found that like our legs were just like, significantly smaller than everything else on our body, and it was frustrating because we squatted a lot. We squatted often. We were roughly pretty strong, for you know, being cross fit at, you know, twenty thirteen, twenty fourteen. we had over four hundred pound high bar back squat P, Rs. But like our

[bryan_boorstein]:

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]:

legs just didn't grow, and then for both of us, it kind of became this mission as we transitioned into more hypergphy style training. Um to kind of bring those up, and it's been an uphill battle for me for like years now. But what I'm happy to report is like my legs are finally growing. They have grown and that's one thing I'd say. I'm most proud of coming out of this most recent diet. I just wrapped up is like I was just afraid my legs were going to like disappear again and they really haven't. They're probably the best and not even probably. they're the best they've ever looked like. I'm feel very confident saying my legs are larger now at, you know, a hundred and ninety one pounds than they were when I was two twenty seven, you know, and that's damn near forty pound different body weight. Um, so I'm very pumped about that and we're goingnna cover some of the reasons that we've you know, found that we kind of fell into these traps and that you might find into yourself You wantnna add anything to that.

[bryan_boorstein]:

A. have you? Yeah, I just have a question. Have you measured your legs?

[aaron_straker]:

not since. probably like October, but I have the uh. mm. What is it called? Like the measure? It's not a measuring tape, but it's like a measuring tape, but I don't know the correct terminology.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, it's just like a fabric. a

[aaron_straker]:

Yeah, yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]:

fabric measuring tape or something. Yeah,

[aaron_straker]:

I have one of 'em. I have to find out where I have it packed with our you know lifestyle in my suitcase. whatever, but I should be. It is a a good thing. I should, uh, give myself a a run there and then see what it's at.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Dave Mcconey's got me all on this. Uh, every time that I send to a picture of anything he's like. I don't care what's your measurement. You know.

[aaron_straker]:

Mhm.

[bryan_boorstein]:

That's like the only thing you carries like pictures are deceiving. Where's your measurement? So so now I'm always trying to remind myself, even though I'm just like you, like it's somewhere in my house and like I don't know where it is and I need to go find it. Um, so yeah, we have a list of six or seven things for why your legs might not be growing, and uh, Erar and I both agree that probably the number one most important one on the list is that training legs is freak and hard. It's so much more painful and less enjoyable than training Chester Arms, and you really don't like see it happening as you're doing. I mean, it's like you can watch your arms in a mirror and you can like see and feel. I'm working, but when you're doing a hack squat, you're just trying not to die. So uh, it's really just survival and we'll get to this, But I think that part of that is that because it's so painful it's almost even more difficult to like. truly connect with the legs. What do you think about that?

[aaron_straker]:

Yeah, I mean, it's something that just like very recently, I'm talking about within the last like two, maybe months or so. I'm I was always one of those people like. I just have a great connection with my chest. I don't know why I don't even really enjoy training chess, but I can do like two warm upsets, and my chest is already like blown up like

[bryan_boorstein]:

Mhm?

[aaron_straker]:

pomp. You know, I can feel it good for legs. I'd have to do like five sets on the leg extension and then like you know, drop sets and stuff like that to get like a a pump in like stimulus sleep where I can like feel that I'm actually like doing that with my legs. It took me that was for like years, only recently have I been able to like. Like yesterday, I said I was on the on the pendulum squat. After that first set that I pushed hard like I just sit down betweencause. My legs were like so blue. And

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yep,

[aaron_straker]:

was I did you know, three warm upsets of five raps with light weights, And then I went into my twelve reps at my first, you know, my working my working weight and I'm just like I've finally been able to like connect and contract them properly and push with the right muscles and not let my back in. You know, hips take over's one of those things. you need to spend some time learning that, or creating those connections you know subjectively and it's it's hard to do because it's so displeasurable.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]:

I do think there' some some weight that that carries. For sure.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, I. I think this even goes back to kind of like, kind of some of the conversation we had with Eric last week in in that like when you're doing a squat like he. He was right in that If you just go down to the bottom and then you stand back up again like you're going to do knee extension like your quads are going to work. but like subjectively, there's actually something happening down there where you can. You can force that tension into your quads and keep it there, but it's God awful when you do it like it has the same type of just gut punch feeling as like when you're at like a failure set of situs, and you just like feel like you're co rotting like that's the type of feeling that you get if you stay in your quads at the bottom of a squat versus doing what I did for years and years and years, which was getting to the bottom and letting my gluts and the doctors take over essentially dropping. My hips further back so that the tension goes off my quads because it was so painful to do that. Um, and so I, I still don't exactly know how much of a difference that really makes. but I, I would. I. I. I believe that if we were able to test this that we would find that it makes some type of difference. Um, and I think that you'd probably agree with that.

[aaron_straker]:

Yeah, and I think this is a. This is a part that we're going to cover a little bit later. but so many people and this includes myself. For a long time. I'm like. Okay. Well, I'm you know, I'm at. I'm at parallel and below parallel. Like I'm doing. I checked the box right. There's nothing else I need to do and I guess, depending on you what you're looking for that does check the box. but if you're really your goals like quad hy, pertrophy, there's a lot more you can do. Um, but yeah, I mean it's just and I remember coming back to like when I would do. like, you know, when I look at training programs and stuff before, and they would have like make squats for sets of eight like. No way I'm stopping at like five right, because it's like squats of eight. You know that's that's cardio and it. I mean. what is it? Cardio? Like? No, right. it's not, but it kind of is like when I come off the hack one or anything like that like my chest is fucking pounding. I'm very out of breath. I need to sit down and stuff like that where if you do like a set of you know, ten on the lap, pulled down like it's challenging, but you're not like you know, gasping for air. you don't have that. Like whole body, you know is doesn't feel a great type of feeling. It's it's just a completely different feeling. It does not feel great to push a hack squad. a pendulum squat, a front squat, something like that. for sets of eight to twelve, it's it's It's an objectively non pleasurable feeling.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, yeah, I think there's some like. There's a certain level of determination and grit that you have to have to train legs, especially in hpertphy, ranges, not to take anything away from like power lifting. But every time that I've ever done like, uh, three, three by three or three by five or something like that, you just kind of set your mind to it and you do it, but it doesn't really actually hurt Like during it, you just kind of like do it and then it's done like you have to prepare, embrace, and get like mentally psyched up. And there's a whole. There's a whole mental side of it that's different than than hyper training. But when you're like in it and you're you're doing a set of like twelve to fif fifteen or ten Wps on like a bilateral squat pattern movement, you just have to. You almost have to go in search of that pain like you can't try to shy away from it. You have to go looking for. How can I move my body in such a way that I drive more attention to an area that already hurts like shit, and I don't want to. Everything in my body is telling me to shift the tension to my glues, But I have to like not do that and keep driving further into the muscle. That's the. That's the determination that a lot of people just don't have because it sus and painful.

[aaron_straker]:

agreed. I, uh, it wasn't until I like, really committed it like I'm going to. this is a goal, right I? I like. I'm happy with my physique except for like my quad development, and it's been this uphll battle. It wasn't all like. Okay, I know this is going to in. By painful. We mean like Um. you have that like um. lactic acid feeling built up in

[bryan_boorstein]:

the metabolite effect

[aaron_straker]:

in the muscle. The metabolite effect in the in the muscle. Not like your joints are painful. Type of deal. Um,

[bryan_boorstein]:

right,

[aaron_straker]:

If anything, I would say this type of training is actually beneficial for your joints because you're taking them through full range of motion and generally lose it using a more like to moderate load. Um. my joints feel better than they ever have. Um. in this Esence training. This, in this way, uh, and yet it's just uh. I just committed to it and there was a There was that like bridge period where I was miserable all the time because it was like a new feeling kind of like, you know, going back to crossfiit right that first day. When you go to cross fit, there's some people who are like I'm hooked. I'm never going to leave personally. I told myself I was never going to fuck and go back because it was so miserable. Um, but then like you bridge that kind of purgatory area and then you become more accustomed and and comfortable with what that awful feeling feels like. so it is slightly less awful because you've been there before you know. It is kind of like a a pre wreck for achieving what you want out of it, type of deal. So it does get easier in my opinion. In that regard,

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, no, for sure, you are more like mentally prepared for what you have coming.

[aaron_straker]:

Exactly anything

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]:

else on that first, uh, first one,

[bryan_boorstein]:

no, I think we are Wes own.

[aaron_straker]:

cool and uh number two. We. We briefly alluded to this when we talking about the first one, but your reps are just too low. Um, you could be potentially confusing strength. What is probably optimal for hypertrophy? For example, I will have. uh. I had I, two guys. Actually in this round of of my coaching that I just uh launched. Who came to me from? Like doing like five by five Stuff. They're like, Oh, yeah, I'm training. you know, five by five and I had and I explain. I like okay, There's nothing wrong with that. but if your goal is physique and hypertphy, we're going to move a little bit and do more hypertrophy. Specific rep ranges a little bit higher rap ranges, and that kind of goes to what we were eluuding with Like doing like. Sets of you know, three to five on a squad is generally like, very acceptable. And but if you're telling people hey, we're going to do exces of ten, or you know eight to twelve'. Wella, why are we this is? that's awful. Why are we doing that much? It's little. Generally, it's been found to be probably more optimal than the lower rep ranges for the specific goal of hypertphy. What do you have to that one?

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, we covered a study in one of the early episodes on this show. Um, it was an episode where we went over a bunch of studies. I want to say was like episode seven, eight or nine. something like that, but um it compared. I think it was a Showingfeld study, but they compared ten sets of three to three sets of ten, and they got similar levels of hypertrophy because they both essentially did thirty reps. But the group that did ten sets of three had like all sorts of joint pain, and they were like, really fatigued subjectively like on their question form they were like, Oh my God, this is awful like I can't continue with this type of training. And then the group that did three by ten and was like, Oh yeah, this was great. like you know, I got great results. It didn't take that long. My body feels wonderful. Um, so I think that that kind of goes to show that like, Yes, you can get hypertrophy and lower rep ranges, but you have to match the total amount of volume and the when the reps are so low that they don't actually count as a hard set. it starts to become ambiguous. So like In the range of you know, six to thirty repses for hypertrophy, Yeah, that's true. Like I said, A six to failure or a set of thirty to failure is probably pretty close set. A thirty probably would make you feel a lot worse, so I, I see you know value at least in compound movements on airing on the side of six, but that's still not three. Um, And then I think as you get below six, you really do have to add volume and add sets to make up for those reps that you miss and that time under tension. And then you do have all of those compounding effects associated from that study like the joint fatigue, and just the overall systemic fatigue, and and all of that stuff. So, um, I think it's It's pretty obvious across the majority of research right now that if you're going to make highyperch for your goal and you want to increase the size of your legs, that squatting in the six to twelve rep range is probably good, and you know, doing isolation like movements in the eight to twenty five rep range is probably a pretty good idea.

[aaron_straker]:

Yeah, pretty good. on that one.

[bryan_boorstein]:

cool.

[aaron_straker]:

Number three, you're not using movements that are advantageous for your limb lengths. This was probably the number one culprit for Brian and I.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]:

I used to be very subscribed to this notion. All you need is to backw in back squat often and you'll have these massive legs because I read old testostereation, and like that said that, That's what I did. I got decently strong like I said, You know my my best, one twenty five, My legs never really grew, Um and realistically like I'm I'm I, I have a lanky billt, I and five foot eleven, Um, very long femers, and for an I have very good angle dorseflection, like much better than the average person, and even at that rate like I have, I can't squat with a upright torso with a bar bell on my back just upon my lip. Lengks work, and through years of training how I had different performance and different things, like my posterior chain is much stronger than like my quardz type of deal. so whenever I would squat once I would reach a certain load, my hips are sorry, My my knees would shift back into a more vertical position, taking my quadruceps out of that fully lengthened position, and my hips and back would take over more the load because they were stronger to move it. And when you're balancing a barbell on your back that the the balance is a massive part of it. So I did that for a number of years, and I didn't see much progress and then eventually I learned became a little bit wiser and started using things like the hack, squat, um, leg press pendulum squat, a Bulgarian split squat, Smith machine squat. Some of these things that remove that balance aspect and allow me to put myself in a more advantageous position, allowed me to get reach a fully lengthened position, Uh, in the bottom, with my um knees out over my toes, with my heel flat on the ground. Still and loan, behold started getting much better tension in my quads and would was able to reduce my loads a lot. Check my ego at the door and my legs started growing. Um. So Brian, what do you think about that

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, I mean, I a hundred percent agree there. I can't really backwat super welll, highb, either, So you've seen me if you follow my stories and stuff over the last year and change working on trying to find different variations of back squad that allow me to continue to to prioritize the quads, such as elevating the heels using a safety squat bar or things like that. If these are tools that we had in the cross fit days, Um, like if we even knew that elevating the heels was was a tool to use versus being a scale for people with shitty and cultursyflectioncause That's really how we used it right. Like it'd be some person that comes in and they don't squat very well. So you're like, Oh, you should totally just elevate your heels and fixes everything. Um, and it does for a lot of people. Like if the issue is ankle dorseyflection, Like it, it probably does. But um, if we knew about that back then, that's a tool that we could have used and it would have obviously changed the back squad, so we wouldn't have been back squatting four hundred pounds for reps anymore. We. But even if we're doing two seventy five for reraps with the heels elevated, or whatever it is that is, is giving more attention to the areas where we want to drive it, So if your limb lengths are not great for a back squat, that's not a big deal. Make the back squat better so that it fits you, or find a machine that fits you, Um, But trying to fit what's the saying? A round peg into a square hole that doesn't produce great results. Um, and then, what was the other thing? I was going to say?

[aaron_straker]:

while

[bryan_boorstein]:

Hm.

[aaron_straker]:

you think about it? I

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yep,

[aaron_straker]:

one little there.

[bryan_boorstein]:

yep,

[aaron_straker]:

Even once I did become a little bit aware of this, there were a few times where I would attempt to make the Barble backswat like advantage. In with these new things, I I learned and I would push it at higher up ranges, and what I would always find is my lower backward fatigue before my quatz, would,

[bryan_boorstein]:

Mhm.

[aaron_straker]:

Even with all this new information and stuff, and some of it that that moment are right, based on your limb length and your torsal length, and that sort of thing, and even like I said, when I did have this new information that I applied, I still wasn't able to get what could out of a hack squad or a Smith machine squad where I didn't have. To balance it with my back in that moment becoming a limiting factor for me

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, For sure. I, I couldn't agree more like I. I went out and bought a pendulum squat machine when I already had like a hack leg press right like I clearly value what the machine offers And and it it really came like the. The. The need in my head came for the pendulum. After trying all of those the squat variations and realizing that that they were good, they were significantly better than the back squat in its natural form for me, but like a lot of the same things would still happen, so if I'm like three r, i r or something like that, I can keep that perfect form with a safety squat bar, and with my heels elevated, I can do perfect squats and stay in my quads, and like, really fight through the sticking point without compromising, but as I get to like two one and potentially to that. Wp, where you get a little shaky in the middle, there would just be natural compensations occurring, and even if it only looked subtly like there was anything happening on video, it felt like there was a lot happening in my body. Um, and so being able to switch to a pendulum squat or a hack squat when I get through that sticking point, it's a hundred percent because there's tension driving through my quads that are pushing through that sticking point and not some internal shifts into like my gluts or into my hips and low back and stuff like that that are compensating, So I think that Um, all of this kind of comes down to just making sure that whatever movement is best for you or how you select the movement as best for you should be based on. Which movements allow you to stay in the muscle that you're trying to work without shifting out of it and compromising your form?

[aaron_straker]:

exactly. And that's the real reason why those movements and exercises are set her great. Because they stabilize your back for you

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yep, For sure.

[aaron_straker]:

ready to move the next one.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Ne. Yeah, so the next one very straightforward Your repcadn sucks. Yeah, this is. Uh. this is a good one because in the puser pursuit of highpertrophy, we don't want to use momentum at at ah, at the bottom position. I guess if you're talking about a squat styll movement or whatever, we don't want to be bouncing out of the hole, we don't want to use the stretched reflex that you see the Olympic lifters and the power lifters use. because their goal is to get up with the weight. They don't care what muscles are getting the weight up. They want to get up, so a stretch reflexes something that helps them achieve this in the pursuit of hyperchphy. If you're not going to pause at the bottom, you better slow yourself down as you get to the bottom so that you change direction without bouncing off of your calves. So that would be one way that I see um cadence affecting things, Um, I, I think an obvious one is an explosive eccentric like we should be exploding up as fast as we can to drive as much tenention as possible into the Fastwich muscles. One thing I want to say that I think might make sense to people is I like to think as the lowering phase as being the rep. and then I get to the bottom after driving so much tension into the wrap as I'm lowering. I'm just like how much tension can I drive into my quads over this period that I'm lowering myself down And then the whole idea of getting back up is just let me get back up as quickly as I can so I can do another actual lowering phase. Um. so if you try to approach your training where the lowering phase is the most important part and then the concentric is just a way for you to do another lower, then I think that kind of changes the perspective of the way that you think about the way that you approach your cadence in general, Um, and should have like a really solid positive effect on the outcome of your training.

[aaron_straker]:

I love that. the real reason I love it is that you alluded to something that I was going to bring up, but explained it much better. The the kind of the stereotypical thing that you see in the in the gym with the hack Sw, for example is there's a stopper at the bottom and you see people load like four or five plates on each side and they put their legs in a A in a advantageous position to move weight, and then they don't control the eccentric, and they just slam the hack

[bryan_boorstein]:

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]:

squad off the stopper at the bottom and then they like drive up right, and then they slam it off the bottom again, and there's just like there's a whole half. Of the Wp, that they're not doing anything, they're not controlling the weight and they're using that as like a false bottom. Um. but that is where you create all that tension. Um. In a movement that's where you're it's I mean, it's a length and overload movement and you're basically removing that length and overload by slamming it off the stop at the bottom. So really controlling the eccentric, like Bryant said, Treating that as the rep. and then this standing up portion is really just how you reset to start your next rep. Um, controlling it right, and not using that rebound and just driving with the correct musculator. and that will really really change things for you. I, I'd say that's probably one of the biggest things I've changed in my training in the last like two two a years as I have like a like standard. Repcadence instead is probably like a two county centric on. Pretty much. I don't want to say everything, because I'm sure there is something that I don't. but I've really controlled my ecentrics on every single movement and that's Per, turned out really well for me.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, it's just a way that you can get back to the length and position again. It's like get me to the length of position. Hold as much at tenention as you can, and then let's get out of there as quick as possible, so that we can get back to the length and position again. And that's kind of the way I think about lifting now, whereas I think for many many years I thought about it as the Wp up being the thing, And so it was just like Who cares about the way down Because it's really the way up. That like is the hard part right, but really you can make the way down really really hard if you want to. I want to talk about one other thing regarding cadence that I think is really really important and and often missed. And that is people not having consistent breather S at the top of their Wp. The top of the rep is the period of the rep where there's pretty much no tension on your legs. You're just standing there recovering. So what I would love to see is that on your first wrap you stand up and you take one breath, and then you go back down and then on your tenth rerap, you stand up and you take one breath and you go back down and when you reach failure or whatever your target r i r is, that is your target r i R. Without extending your breathers, I can't tell you the amount of times that I've watched a set of someone post in in one of my Facebook groups and it's like I'm watching it and I'm trying to in my head determine like Okay. When are they going to like rack the bar, blah bla, blah. So they'll do like six and it's like a grinder And then they stand there for like seven seconds and they do seven and it's a grinder and then they stand there for like ten seconds and then they do eight and it's even more of a grinder and I'm like No, God, please. No, don't do another Rp, You know, Um, so I just I. I really really encourage people to make sure that your breathers are consistent, repp, to rarap, And if you cannot execute another Wp without extending your breather, then you've reached failure. That's the end of your set like you don't need to create all that fatigue just standing there so that you can do another rep that doesn't really even have that much tension on the muscle that you're trying to train. So that's kind of one of my pet peeves, But it's also something that I think is really really important and um, I'm going to make an instrugrm post on that.

[aaron_straker]:

That's a good one. That is something. admittedly I do. I am a little bit flexible with myself for some like stuff. for for example, yesterday on the Pensrum squad, I try to do that one breath right and I don't. I don't lock it fully out, because I want to keep it there. I try to not even really take a full breath because I want to keep as much tenion on my legs

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]:

as I can. Once I get into that like one r, I will give myself like two breaths. I try and get like two big, too quick, big breaths and go again because those are like those last like I'll have a grinder,

[bryan_boorstein]:

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]:

but I do not like. I don't sit there if I' taking or anything like that. I, I'm cutting it. Plus, I don't think it will really help me. I think I'm truly failed at that point. I don't think I'll get the rarap. Um, but yeah, that is a. That is a really important point.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, yeah, I think as long as you consistently execute it the same way where like say, you get like your tenth threatp, with no pauses, and then you take two breaths before your eleventhp or before your last Stp, whatever your last rep is, and you know every week you're like Okay. I'm just going to go until one wrap. from what I think I can't do anymore, and then I'm going to pause for two breaths, and then I'm going do one more wrap or something like that. Then at least you have consistent information. But when people are using breathers as a way to extend sets and fa, a fake progress, Fame progress, I think that's where it kind of becomes an issue.

[aaron_straker]:

Yes, correct, and I always follow the same thing, so the consistency is there.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yp, totally well, I think this kind of plays into the next. Uh one as well, which is you're selling yourself way too short. You're cutting your sets set three or four or whatever R. I are, and not really ever knowing what it feels like to get to one or even two. R. I all right. what do you think about that

[aaron_straker]:

Yeah, I mean, this kind of goes back to that first point where it's just freaking hard. It's It's not pleasurable really, and you think that like Okay that the rep has slowed slightly or I'm just trying so so hard Is like such an effort that that has to be at right. I, I'm close to failure when realistically unless you've ever pushed yourself safely on something like a hack squad. A pendulum squat, something where you, you don't have like any real risk of injury with a technical failure. You just don't know. Um,

[bryan_boorstein]:

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]:

for example, and this is what really kick started. Um, my thought for this one yesterday on my third set of of the Pendulum squad. I really wanted ten reps because I had failed at nine for the two previous weeks and I wanted some redemption. Um, When I hit the fourth rap on that third set, the thought creeped into my head and it was like Fuck. This is moving really slow Like there's no way I'm going to make this. Um, and that was only four raps in. And then I

[bryan_boorstein]:

right,

[aaron_straker]:

cont, and then I proceeded to to do another six reps successfully after that thought had creeped in. So this is a really good example. So if you're finding yourself in this scenario and maybe you're a little bit, maybe you're scared to fail. you know, and that's perfectly viable film yourself, See

[bryan_boorstein]:

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]:

what your raraps look like when that thought creeps into your head, and I guarantee when you watch that video you're going to poish shit. That rap moved really fast. There's a diotomy between the subjective perception of how your reps feel, and then when you watch a video of yourself how they look like you know a third person point of view. That is something I found incredibly true myself. That from you?

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, I think you, you pretty much nailed that. I. I just want to talk a little bit about programming. Um, because I think that I don't agree with a lot of what Mike is Rotel says, and I do agree with a lot of what he says. I think he's very logic based and he's a smart dude, and in the way that he kind of prescribes training is that he has a messocycle start at somewhere around three to four reps from failure, and then he has you add weight every week or reps one of the two, Um. with the idea that eventually, if you just keep adding weight or reps by week four, five or six, you're going to run into failure. Um, and so I think one really cool aspect about that is that it ensures that you know where failure is if you have if you're following a program and say you mess up and you accidentally start at seven r. i r. Because you just don't know better. If you just keep adding weight and a rep every week, you'll eventually hit failure too. And then that gives you information you're like. Oh, well, it took me seven weeks to reach failure and I really wanted it to be four or five weeks, so you know next messocycle. I should start at where I was in week three or week four, so that I can then progress in in a a smaller messo cycle length, or or whatever it is that they're trying to do. It gives them information. So that's one thing that I've essentially stolen from Mike. To give him full credit, Um, and I use in all of my general programs. I don't program my individuals necessarily this way unless they're I don't really work with novices, but I would probably program a novice somewhat like this just so they can experience failure too. But in all my general programs because I don't know how all the people following the programs, I don't know how they how good they are. enguaging r, I r. I pretty much start all messocycles at around three, r, i r, and that is my idea. You know, leave a runway so that you can add weight or reps every week, and then by week five or whatever it is, you should run into failure and then start the next mess of cycle and you have more data and you can move forward from there, so I think that as like a general approach of of just kind of questioning yourself, like Am I training hard enough? Do, do I actually know what one r i r feels like? Well, hell, just add some waitighter a rep every single week and eventually you'll learn, you know. So, um, so I think there's a lot of utility there and that's why I think it's so valuable as a tool in a general program.

[aaron_straker]:

was there another side to that? No?

[bryan_boorstein]:

No, no, no, no, I was just I just want it yet. Did I? did? I sell it like there were two sides, Because I was just going

[aaron_straker]:

In in the beginning, Yeah,

[bryan_boorstein]:

to say like I want to give my credit for for this idea because I think it's very valuable and I think it teaches people where failure is. If you don't know where failure is. It's a great tool to figure it out.

[aaron_straker]:

I agree, and like

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]:

full disclosure, here I, with my own training. That's generally. I'm a much bigger fan of adding raps as opposed to we, because I, in my personal experience, I, it's difficult for me to gauge how much weight to add, And if you, you are kind of changing two variables per week. I really like pushing raps. and then once I say onp, you know the first session I do something. I guess eight reps and then up to like the fourth session on and on rep on that first setem get like twelve or thirteen. I'm okay. It's time to bad weight and then I generally will like increase. like I don't know. ten percent or whatever is a decently reasonable, Um. increment based on the available increments of weight to add right. If you're doing dumbbells, it's generally

[bryan_boorstein]:

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]:

five pounds, Um,

[bryan_boorstein]:

yep,

[aaron_straker]:

maybe ten, depending, uh, and kind of start over. I, I love adding that I'll work with the same weight for six, seven sessions in a row. Sometimes, uh, and I I love it. so

[bryan_boorstein]:

So is that purposefully done with the idea of starting with more reps from failure and then gradually working to less raps? Or is that like literally like you're actually progressing five raps across that period of time, and like your rars equal every week?

[aaron_straker]:

so when I f. when I have like a first set, like a session of of A of a cycle or something like that, I will. I don't wantnna. call it sandbgging. but I'll leave a little bit. I'll leave like

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah,

[aaron_straker]:

two and maybe three. I wanna see where my recovery's at. Make sure I'm not my. My training design is actually intelligent, and then, to be completely honest, so this is somewhere. I wouldn't say I disagree by with any, with any, by any means, but I have just found it different for myself, Like I can push to one r. a r. I will push one I a offered sometimes like six weeks in a row. Um, My fatigue doesn't really accumulate any more then than it was previously and then I can literally. you know, give it. I generally will repeat a session about seven to eight days late. No, uh, whatever, if I did it like Wednesday, it might be like next Friday, right, so I think that's not ninetiess or something like that. Later I can push to one r, i r, and squeeze out usually another rap to two reps, Usually two reps on the first set. And then if I'm following a little bit of that d, D, P. I might be, you know, like one extra on r onses two or three, and I will push that for really until I stop or if I, you know, want to train for my training cycle a little bit, but this is kind of getting into the next. the topic we have here, but I just personally recover very very well and fatigue generally does not accumulate too much like I can think of only like two times in the last year of training where I felt like I really needed a D load. That wasn't you know, Um, mandated by moving in my lifestyle, and that one was when I was training doing that three times per week, likeg training, which was just a shit ton of volume

[bryan_boorstein]:

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]:

and I would get sick every single Saturday. Um, and the other one was just a lot of intensity techniques. But whenever I'm usually just generly following like straight sets, I just, I find that my body does recover pretty well, but because I do a lot of recovery, this type of

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, yeah,

[aaron_straker]:

stuff.

[bryan_boorstein]:

no, totally. I think that's why that's why I said that I think this approach of the the Isel style approach is best for like a general program, Um, but for like myself, and usually I would say when I have individual clients and I can actually learn them. Um. The process usually involves there being about a an intro week where we're at like you know, two to three r, I r for intro week. Kind of what you mentioned like just feeling out the movements and then after that we're just like zero to two r, I r. Pretty much the rest of the way through and just trying to progress with similar, Um, similar fatigue, um metrics week to week, so um, so I agree, I don't see any reason that that you that you need to or should do the Israel approach. I just think that it's great for a general population and that it ensures that at the end of every messo cycle there's a period of of assessment where you know what failure feels like.

[aaron_straker]:

exactly? Yeah, I agree. Completely, anything else on that one

[bryan_boorstein]:

No,

[aaron_straker]:

cool moving into number six. Uh, you're not recovering or eating sufficiently to support the adaptations that need to take place for your legs to grow. Um. the easiest one here is like I I find. when I. you know when starting new clients like I am right now, a lot of people's recovery is just poor. Um, to be completely honest and frank, people do not sleep sufficiently. Um. There's still this large fear of carbohydrate, especially people you know, slowly migrating from the functional fitness, paleo, um, type type of community into kind of you know what I would consider. Brian and myself are like hobbyiest to bodyuilders. I guess you could say Um, and that's one thing I find. it's like I, Just that is why how I and I used to be that person I know, because I was that person who I did need carbs, and I slept five hours per night And there was you know. I didn't know that drinking alcohol after a leg day would impede my recovery and all these things so like I know, because I've been that person and now I'm on the other side of that fence and I' know how how massively I can change my recovery period. You know my length to recovery, and how in that in that directly, kind of Um points to how much volume I can handle and all these sorts of things. Because of these other aspects that are, I do what you know the other twenty three hours outside of the gym.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, I mean, recovery is obviously the secret Souce. That's literally. Why in physique sport like you' inented to essentially just train and then sit on your ass. There was a saying when I was coming up in the in the sport. I guess you'd call it in the late nineties and somebody told me he was like you, listen, young man, if you want to get big, never sit when you can lie, never stand when you can sit, and never walk when you can stand, And I was like Yes, sir, you know, got it. So so that's what I tri to do, but um, but there is kind of like some some information there that we can that we can glean from that in that everything that we do outside of the gym is impacting our recovery in some way, Um, whether we're enhancing our recovery by like eating well and sleeping well in Dec, stressing, and uh, all those things, or whether we're uh, causing recovery issues via poor sleep, additional exercise stress and life and work and marriage it with kids. I mean all the things that happen in life, so I think that the the important thing to understand is that we can do everything in our power to optimize recovery. but recovery is difficult to optimize in certain conditions. I think, even using myself as an example here right so I just changed my leg training to go hams every th, uh, six days, and quads every six days. So this is significantly lower frequency than I was doing, and I didn't really increase my volume. Maybe the reason I had to do this is because my recovery isn't great. So there are things that you can do with your training. if your recovery isn't great. In my situation, I am thirteen or fourteen pounds down in a diet. I've been dieting now for two and a half or three months. It's It's relatively long to be in in a choloric deficit right. There's a stress on the body there. There's probably a stress on the mind, even though I don't really feel the diet to be that difficult yet. Um, I still have to con consistently restrict things that I actually really want or kind of want. Um, but there's there's a cost to that. Um. I'm having to walk a lot to help me burn calories and stay in a deficit. And even though it's just walking when you're doing fifteen thousand steps, some days that also has a cost to it. So I think that these are all things to kind of take into account, and then when you put all of your recovery currency on the table, and you realize that maybe you're not recovering optimally. Eh, you can do things to help yourself recover optimally like Aarin talked about. But be, if you're just in a deficit and your recovery isn't optimal right now, then you just need to be aware of your volume and frequency and probably manipulate those variables so that they fall into line in your program in a way that fits your life and allows you to kind of still fit in quality sessions where there is progression or maintenance of strength occurring.

[aaron_straker]:

I't really like done anything else on on number six.

[bryan_boorstein]:

No, I think that counter transition's pretty well under the last one though, 'cause I mentioned you know walking and so the last one is you're cardioing away your legs, Uh, plus kind of associated fatigue costs and impact on recovery and performance. So this is very much in line with the post that I put on instigram. The other day there was a an equation for fat loss where I basically talked about how the key to losing fat is walking and lifting, because cardio comes with a larger fatigue cost like typical cardio And it's and it's more like intense form right, whether you're doing like hit intervals where you're going for like a twenty or thirty minute run or your mountain biking or some sort of other something like that, there's going to be a fatigue cost associated with that, so so A you're you're causing fatigue. B, you're putting yourself into uh, an energy deficient state where now you need to eat more to compensate for for that energy that you exerted Um, and see, you're actually potentially gonna impact the quality of your lower body sessions, which is the thing that actually builds your muscle. Um, I don't think that this is as much of a concern if you're keeping your cardio twenty four hours before or twenty four hours after your leg session. I think that that would be probably a sweet spot where at least you're not goingnna, really cause a huge issue, but I still believe that any fatigue that you're putting on your legs like this goes back to the thing. like If you, if you're goingnna, if you can walk or don't don't walk If you can stand, and don't run If you can walk and don't sprint. If you can run, I mean you can go all the way down the chain, and like, the more intense that you get with your movement, the more impact that that's going to have downstream on on your performance and on the ability of your body to hyperch your legs.

[aaron_straker]:

Yeah, I think that that is a really big one. Especially. I mean, if you see so many people on the stair mill and doing all these things um that they think are necessary, and one it could be. Um. One last little angle could be a little bit of a Um. comparison of your goals right. If you are in a fat lost phase, it's probably worth saying you're not going to be growing that much new tissue on your legs to to

[bryan_boorstein]:

right.

[aaron_straker]:

trade off right opportunity, cost on on what your goals are. Because Youre when when it comes to like recovery or fueling a a cardio session or whatever it is, competition of resources. And however you prioritize where those resources get, um, like allocated within your, your body is really going to be slightly beneficial for your, you know, obviously fat laws, slightly beneficial for your uh leg, hy, pertgy goals. But just knowing that there is that trade off and you have to decide what is most important to you in the next you know, three months or two months or however long your your periodization is,

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yeah, I mean, I think that you can, even though, kind of play the little devil's advocate to that and say that like you know, if if you're doing a bunch of cardio instead of like, if you're doing a bunch of higher intensity cardio over slower intensity cardio, even though your goal is to like, Yes, you're trying to take your body weight down. And you understand that you're not going to gain muscle in your legs, You could potentially be risking muscle in your legs, And a perfect example of that is my physique competition from two thousand Fifteen, Where I, I went into the prep for that competition, basically squatting like four hundred for a triple or something around that and then by the end of my Pp, which was you know, twelve or thirteen weeks later, I put two twenty five on the bar, did it three times and felt like I was going to die and rack it. Um. So I was doing cardio right, I was. He had me to cardio four or five days a week. I was doing like hit intervals and like steady, stay and walking, and like all these things, and my legs shrunk And I can definitely say that, like you know, in that moment it didn't matter because I was doing men's physique and I think that that was kind of. the idea is like you only have to show your upper body. Who cares but what it did is it taught me some really valuable information that doing cardio makes my legs shrink and I think that you, while, while I am an n of one, I have seen that same thing occur across the board with tons of other people. and uh, so I think it's a real thing. And if you're going to be in a deficit and understand that you're not going to be building muscle, you should be trying to protect your muscle. And uh, so cardio cardio cardioing away your legs is is a real phenomenon that we should probably avoid

[aaron_straker]:

I One hundred percent agree with everything you said.

[bryan_boorstein]:

Co. dig that.

[aaron_straker]:

Yep. Yep. especially with the the higher hit stuff. Um, because resources and it's no one's really doing as much that you're not really doing your cardio with your arms right. It's being done with your legs and then you

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yep,

[aaron_straker]:

can metabolatealyze that local tissue for energy substrate. So Yeah, really a hundred percent spot on everything you said.

[bryan_boorstein]:

dig it. well, I think that's Uh. that's thepde man,

[aaron_straker]:

Yup, so guys, I think it is a really good, really good one, Brian. I think we were able to provide a lot of value on some takeaways that we've learned over the years, and now how we are benefiting on the other side, our legs are finally growing and

[bryan_boorstein]:

Mhm,

[aaron_straker]:

I don't feel as ashamed about them anymore. Hopefully you feel the same way. Um,

[bryan_boorstein]:

Yp.

[aaron_straker]:

they will do some more episodes like this that really break things down from what we found, So as always, guys, thank you for listening and we'll talk to you next week.

Introduction and Updates
Splitting up quads and hamstring training to improve focus?
Backstory on our own leg hypertrophy challenges.
#1. It’s freaking hard. Training legs is more painful and less enjoyable.
#2. Your reps are too low. You're confusing strength with what is probably optimal for hypertrophy.
#3. You're not using movements that are advantageous for your limb lengths.
#4. Your rep cadence sucks.
#5. You're selling yourself way too short. You're cutting your sets at 3-4RIR and not 1RIR.
#6. You're not recovering or eating sufficiently to support the adaptations that need to take place.
#7. You’re CARDIO-ing away your leg growth.