Your arms and back have to do an enormous amount of work to lift your entire body, which is why being able to perform many reps is an effective way to improve not just the obvious muscles — your back, arms and forearms — but can also help you build incredible core strength.

In fact, as an exercise physiologist and strength coach, I’d go so far as to say that the pull-up is the world’s most under-appreciated way to develop your abs—and every other muscle in your midsection, for that matter.

All of that is great, but there’s one problem: It’s an exercise that gives a lot of people a lot of trouble, regardless of whether you’ve been training for years or just started.

If you are struggling to perform a pull-up — or you wish you could do many more — I’ll share a few simple-to-learn techniques that aren’t taught enough and will change everything about your pull-up performance.

By the time you’re done, you’ll not only be surprised by how quickly you can improve, but also by how many of the methods used to increase your upper body strength aren’t actually pull-ups.

Can’t Do a Pull-up? Start Here

If you can’t do any pull-ups, odds are you’ll blame it on your lack of back strength. To become stronger, you might start doing countless 1-arm rows and other dumbbell or barbell exercises.

While those exercise will make you stronger (and are a part of the solution), they won’t guarantee that you’ll be able to do more pull-ups. That’s because pull-ups aren’t just about your back.

Even if you have a really strong back, you can struggle with pull-ups if you have a weak core.

Core stiffness, or being able to create tension throughout your torso, is a key part of successfully doing a pull-up.

Your shoulder blades are connected to your torso. A stiff, stable core gives your arms something strong to pull on. And that can have a massive impact on your ability to lift your body.

So if you are struggling with your pull-ups—or can’t do a pull-up at all—train your core with these moves.

(If you prefer to watch all tips, here’s a video breaking down a lot of the progressions we’ll discuss today. In it, you’ll see my friend and fellow coach Tony Gentilcore demonstrating a lot of the moves discussed here.)

Hollow Body Holds

Start by lying on the floor. Lift your arms overhead (biceps in line with your ears), keeping your elbows straight.

Cross your hands and your ankles. Then press your hands and ankles into each other to create tension, and lift up into the hollow body position.

Let’s talk about that term “hollow” for a second. You might hear it and think: “belly button to spine.” DON’T DO THAT.

In a good hollow position, your abs are securely braced, as if they were about to take a punch. Take a breath in and squeeze. If anything, your abs will move slightly outward.

Start by holding a hollow body position while pressing your hands into each other and pressing your ankles into each other. This builds some of the body tension related to the position of hanging from a bar.

Hold this position for 5 seconds or 2-3 breaths per rep, maintaining as much head-to-toe tension as you can (more on how to create tension). Take a 5-second break, then repeat for 5-6 reps per set. Over time, you can increase the duration of your holds. If you can maintain tension for a full minute, that’s really good.

Hollow Body Horizontal Pull-ups

Next, you’re going to use a dowel or broomstick. Hold it in both hands as if it were the pull-up bar.

Start with your arms straight and elbows locked out, as if you were hanging from a pull-up bar. Then, while you hold the hollow position, bend your elbows to pull the bar across your face and toward your chest line, mimicking the pull-up movement.

The goal here is to maintain the core strength requirement while including an arm movement that replicates the pull-up—all while trying to breathe.

Hold the hollow body and try to complete 8-10 reps, breathing out as the bar comes to your collarbone.

Hollow Body Leg Raises

Are you a boss at the hollow body work? Great! Then it’s time to take it up another notch.

You can create some additional arm stimulus, and increase the challenge to your core, by doing a leg raise. Keep both knees locked out and cross one foot over the other. Pull down on the stick and lift your toes toward it. You may even be able to touch your toes to the bar, depending on your level of strength and control.

The big thing to remember here is to maintain tension throughout your lats to help pull your torso up. Squeeze the bar as hard as you can in your hands and think about pulling down on the bar as much as you are pulling up with your legs. This tension in your arms, back and core will help you lift your legs more easily.

Perform a set of 5-8 reps.

Stability Ball Rollouts

Another exercise that develops core stiffness is a stability ball rollout. There are two ways you can perform the movement, and both are helpful to your pull-up quest.

Option #1: Try to keep your abs tensed and press your hips forward, allowing your arms to extend out as you move. Then pull back with your hips.  This version will place more emphasis on your abs and lower back, while taking some of the work off of your shoulders

Option #2: Do the same thing as you did in option #1, but use your lats to try and pull the ball back with your elbows to return to the starting position. In this version the shoulder angle is changing, which means the muscles that control the shoulders will be under greater load.

Complete 5-10 reps of either option, or both if you’re a little crazy.

How to Build Strength on the Pull-up Bar

Before you start pulling, it’s helpful to build your skill hanging from the bar.

Bar Hang

You might struggle at maintaining a dead hang from the bar due to grip strength. Hanging for 10-30 seconds can be a simple and very effective way to build the grip strength needed to perform pull-ups.

Hanging Shoulder Shrugs

When you can conquer that challenge with ease, your next goal is pulling your shoulders down and tight to your ribs while holding the same hollow body position you used on the ground.

Hold that position for 5 seconds per rep, breathing out forcefully with each contraction.

Hanging Leg Raises

Have the hollow body hang down cold? Good. You can add in some leg raises to really take it up a notch.

Start with a bent knee leg raise. The key is to not sway.

If that’s no problem, try a straight leg raise. Again, you want to avoid rocking back and forth. The movement should be slow and controlled.

In all likelihood, you will find at least one of these moves challenging. Because your goal with these is quality, not quantity, you can use “micro sets” to accumulate volume. Try to hit 10 amazingly good reps total. To do that, you might need to perform 5 sets of 2, or 4 sets of 2-to-3, or 3 sets of 3, and so on.

If you wanted to get a little crazy, you could try to bring your toes to the bar. Use your arms to help pull-up on your torso to get a more horizontal angle on the movement.

Pull-up Training: Mastering the Movement

Now let’s “grease the groove” of the movement in a way that will help you develop strength if you’re a beginner, and provide value if you’re more advanced.

Flexed Arm Hang

The flexed arm hang is a simple, yet underutilized move that will have all the muscles in your back and arms firing hard.  

To perform the move, just grab the bar and jump up. Keeping your chest as close to the bar as possible, hang there as long as you can tolerate. When you start to feel yourself coming down, fight the lowering for 3-5 seconds so you can get some eccentric strength development out of the move.

Try to maintain 10 to 30 seconds per hold, accumulating up to 30 seconds in a workout.  For eccentric reps, try to keep it to a max of 5 reps of 3-5 second eccentric lowering unless you want to look like a T-Rex for a few days after your workout because you’re too sore to extend your elbows.

Band Assisted Pull-ups

Once you are able to do flexed arm hangs (and the 3-5 second lowering) with skill and control, you should be ready to try the pull-up.

If you want to ease yourself into the movement, start by using a band for assistance.

The thicker the band, the more assistance it provides. Similarly, placing two feet in the band versus just one gives you more help when you perform the move.

Start with the thickest band you need in order to execute the move, then work down to smaller, thinner bands over time.

(More ways to use resistance bands in your workouts here.)

The “Pernicious Pull-up Power” Workout Routine

So how do you put all of this together into a realistic pull-up training plan you could use on a regular basis? Glad you asked.

You want to “train for the movement” frequently. Three to four times a week is ideal.

Notice I said “train for the movement” and not “train the movement itself.” That’s because not all of your sessions need to include pull-ups. In fact, you’ll only perform actual pull-ups one day per week on this plan.

Here’s a sample calendar of what this pull-up training plan looks like:

DAY 1

Hollow Body Holds – 4 sets x 5 reps/set x 5 second hold per rep

Bar Hangs – 4 x sets x 6 reps/set x 5 second hold per rep

Flexed Arm Hang – accumulate 30 seconds

DAY 2

Hanging Shoulder Shrugs – 4 sets x 5 reps/set x 5 second hold per rep

Hollow Body Horizontal pull-ups – 4 sets x 8-10 reps/set

Hanging Leg Raises – 10 total reps

DAY 3

Hollow Body Leg Raises – 4 sets x 5-8 reps of smooth controlled tension

Eccentric pull-ups – 4 x sets of 4-5 reps working on 3-5 second eccentrics

DAY 4 (Pull-up day!) 

**If you can’t do a pull-up, perform…

Band Assisted Pull-ups – aim for a max of 3 reps per set

** If you can do pull-ups, then….

Pull-ups – start with a single max set, then perform 3 sets of 50% of this number. For instance, if you do 6 on the first set, do 3 sets of 3.

Following this pattern will help you develop pull-up specific strength in your back and arms and the core stiffness needed to accomplish the movement. Since there are a max of three moves per session, you can combine this simple calendar with your current training program.

Pull-ups may never be easy. But by training for them specifically, you’ll soon be able to do a lot more than you think.

READ MORE: 

The Fastest Way to Do More Pushups

The Tension Weightlifting Technique: How to Make Every Exercise More Effective

Do Carbs Actually Make You Fat?

Dean Somerset is a kinesiologist, strength coach, author and public speaker who specializes in injury and medical dysfunction management through exercise program design. The seriously in-depth “The Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint,” which Somerset and Tony Gentilcore teamed up to create, is available now. Born Fitness is not an affiliate and has no financial stake or interest in the product, but we do genuinely think Dean and Tony are rad, and are way better at pull-ups thanks to their knowledge.      

The post How Anyone Can Master the Pull-up appeared first on Born Fitness.

Far too much time is spent arguing about the best exercise, the best workout, or even the perfect time to rest. Whether you’re a bro, a brainiac, or both, the worst thing you do in the gym is overthink the process and ultimately overcomplicate the search for the best workout plan.

I see far too many people trying a little too hard to figure out exactly how many reps of bicep curls need to be performed to add another inch, or if resting 23 seconds instead of 30 seconds will jumpstart the metabolic process.

The science of transformation is a timeless formula of less complication and more focus on just a few factors that work.

Your body doesn’t major in the minor, so it’s time to stop focusing all your energy on the insignificant details.

To reach your goals, many rep ranges are needed, rest periods will be varied, and some form of periodization should be incorporated. There really is no such thing as the ideal workout plan. There are elements that we know work. Styles of periodization, supplements with supportive research, and exercises that trigger more muscle activation. But that doesn’t mean there’s one magic bullet.

The proof of training diversity is everywhere. Research as far back as the 1970s showed that many types of workouts “work.” And new scientific findings continue to show the same thing. Need proof? A recent study tested rugby players who performed two completely different types of periodized programs. The results? Both ended up with great results, and participants in each group added a similar amount of strength.

Think Less, Gain More

The science of transformation is a timeless formula of less complication and more focus on just a few factors that work.

It means less time stressing the small details, and more time just trying applying the principles that work, and then seeing what triggers the biggest response for your body. In terms of muscle building, here’s what you need to know. 

The Rep Rules

I love heavy weights. Higher reps? The pump feels great, but they’re not how I love to train. But I know that both play a vital role, so they’re all incorporated into my training. If you really want to gain size, you need to push on all methods of growth, and that includes some of what you don’t enjoy.

Using low (1-5), medium (6-12) and high (15+) rep ranges to ensure that you’re triggering all of the processes of muscle growth. Because some exercises are best for gaining strength, while others are ideal for tension or creating the pump, you’ll want to include diversity in your training plans.

This doesn’t mean altering up your workouts every day, but it does mean going through cycles (anywhere from 4-8 weeks, or sometimes even longer) where you rotate your reps and the movements you perform.

Equipment isn’t a Limitation

Everyone knows that squats, deadlifts, presses and rows are staples of building a better body. Doesn’t matter if you’re a man or woman, beginner or advanced. However, too often the focus shifts too narrowly to the back squat, the barbell bench press, and the bent over barbell row.

Don’t get me wrong; these exercises are timeliness and the foundation of movement. But variations of these lifts from different angles (such as an incline press) or in ways that create different stressors (like doing sumo deadlifts or Bulgarians split squats) will challenge your muscles in ways that force change and adaptation. These are both good things.

And if you think doing incline press with dumbbells won’t help you build a bigger bench, then you’re falling into the same pattern of faulty thinking as the guy only doing 8 reps on every exercise.

Movements are transferable and even beneficial because the different angles—or doing single-leg or single-arm variations—are more likely to strengthen a weakness you didn’t even realize was holding you back.

Even “isolation” exercises, such as curls, shoulder raises, leg curls and cable exercises, will help create more tension at lighter weights that will allow for the pump and growth.

The Best Workout Plan Formula

Everyone makes too big of a deal about how long a workout should last. Is it OK to lift for 45 minutes? 60 minutes? A 2-hour soul crusher?

Ultimately, the right workout is the one you’ll complete every day. While growth is not dependent on how much time you spend in the gym (especially if too much of it is spent chatting or texting), total volume (sets x rep x weight) is vital to your gains.

That is not an excuse to start doing 10 x 10 of every exercise and expect your body to instantly grow.

You have to train your body to make the most of the increased volume. Add weights, reps, sets, over time, so that the end game is greater volume through a variety of changes, rather than arbitrarily thinking that completing a certain number of reps per exercise is the golden ticket to a more impressive body.

When you push on all the buttons, you’ll quickly learn two things:

1. The types of exercises and design that work best for you.
2. That focusing less on one aspect and more on the bigger picture results in a lot more gains and a lot less complaining.

Some days, my workouts are as simple as this:

1. Deadlifts
2. Bulgarians split squats
3. Sled work

It might seem ridiculously basic, but for some of my goals, it’s incredibly difficult and effective.

At the end of the day, narrowing your focus and being able to maximize intensity and consistency will matter more than anything in terms of transforming your body and seeing the results you want.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Deconstructing the “Best” Workout Plan appeared first on Born Fitness.

Now, understand that the world you are looking for does exist. And it’s not hiding in some fitness Eden. It’s the same world you live in, one filled with big box gyms, cardio rooms, CrossFit boxes, mobile fitness apps, swimming pools, rowing stations, stadium steps, and every type of exercise in between.

While different fitness enthusiasts have their preferred method of burning calories (and rightfully so — a world without different opinions would be pretty boring and limit innovation), the reality is that many things work in fitness.

The biggest problem with Tabatas is that people took a great concept (higher intensity, less rest) and destroyed the execution.

The same reason people get frustrated looking for “the answer” in nutrition applies in fitness, too. There is no one answer, and there are many types of exercises that burn calories.

While any type of activity can help you burn fat, certain methods — like weight training — are more efficient than others. And while it’d be easy to tell every person to just lift some damn weights (I do it quite frequently on my blog and on Twitter), there’s one small problem: Some people don’t like lifting weights. In fact, they hate it.

No matter what they do they can’t fall in love with the iron and the challenge of pushing themselves to lift more weight, perform more reps, or do it all in less time. These people are oftentimes written off. They’re told their approach to fitness won’t work, and generally ignored and left as fitness loners.

I hate that. You see, any type of exercise can be turned into a fat burning experience. Fitness shouldn’t be a place just for those who conform. It’s a platform for those with desire to make improvement. And who am I (or anyone else) to insist that fitness must occur on my playground?

While my preference always focuses on resistance training and trying to lift heavy objects, I care much more about helping everyone become active as opposed to convincing people to do things my way. (Dear fitness industry: Please read that sentence again. And then spread the word.)

So for those of you looking for a different approach to fat loss (whether with weights or not) it’s time to take a well-known recipe for fat loss, and apply a modified version to your activity of choice.

The Tabata Method: What We Know

Some of you might have heard of Tabata Protocol. Many view this method as the holy grail of fat loss, and here’s why.

In the mid-1990s Dr. Tabata designed a study where one group of people performed “steady state” cardio for 60 minutes. This is what most people have historically considered fat loss exercise: slug away for 60 minutes at a constant pace, let the elliptical tell you that you burned a ton of calories, and then call it a day.

The other group? They just pedaled on a bike for a pathetic four minutes. (Or as long as it takes you to karaoke to “Living on a Prayer.”)

But it wasn’t any regular four minutes; the participants biked as fast as they could for 20 seconds (max effort), rested for 10 seconds, and then repeated this pattern for eight rounds until time was up.

Sure, 60 minutes of exercise versus four minutes of exercise doesn’t seem like a fair trial. And it wasn’t: The four minutes was superior to the 60 minutes in terms of overall conditioning and fat loss.

And thus began the evolution of high-intensity training and intervals. Push yourself really hard and rest less, and you can burn more fat. The concept is simple, but the execution is one that has still been hard to apply correctly. Until now.

How to Burn Fat Faster (And Why You’re Doing It Wrong)

The biggest problem with Tabatas is that people took a great concept (higher intensity, less rest) and destroyed the execution. If four minutes is great, then eight minutes must be incredible. And if eight minutes is incredible, then 16 minutes must be mind blowing.

Yet, much like many other things in life, sometimes more isn’t better. And in the case of Tabatas, that’s exactly what’s happening.

Remember, the key to Tabatas was the intensity. Push to you maximum output, rest for just enough time to keep that intensity at it’s highest, and then get back to work.

The secret of Tabatas is not just the work-to-rest ratio; it’s the fact that you can push your body to the extreme and experience supreme benefits.

Now, that’s not to say that you can’t do two or three or four rounds of Tabata style workouts. But those additional rounds might have diminishing benefits if your intensity isn’t as high, which is what happens if you maintain a 20-second exercise-to-rest ratio for long periods of time.

By round four, odds are you’ll be moving at an intensity that is far from your max. Or in other words, you take your output from being a sprint to a marathon. And in a marathon, a sprinter won’t win because he or she can’t sustain his or her intensity for the duration needed.

The solution: Manipulate the work rest ratio so that you can squeeze in a longer workouts and maintain higher intensity.

This approach is not Tabatas.

Calling every type of four-minute interval Tabatas is like labeling every type of high intensity training or Olympic lifting as “CrossFit.” (It’s not, so please stop.)

But, it is taking the Tabata concept (high intensity, low rest) and applying it in a way that you can have a short workout (12 to 20 minutes) and push yourself in a way that will deliver great results by maintaining higher intensity.

Designing Your Fat Loss Approach

Creating workouts is a science, but not all plans need to be overly complicated. Here’s a three-step approach that will start you on the right track and familiarize your body with the type of intensity you need to see results. [Note: by the rules established above, this is not the Tabata method.]

Step 1: Choose a form of exercise of your choice.

Note: It must be something that allows you to push at a very high intensity. If you choose to walk, then you must be able to run. If you want to bike, then bike harder. If you’re swimming, swim faster. And if you’re lifting weights, you’re picking a weight that you can lift for about six reps. (For other activities, I think you get the idea.)

Step 2: After a thorough warm-up follow this routine:

• 10 seconds of high intensity work.
• 30 seconds of rest or low intensity work.
• Repeat for 8 rounds (or a total of 4 minutes)

Step 3: Rest one minute and then repeat.

Follow this process for three to four total rounds, or a total of 15 to 20 minutes.

This way, you choose the activity you want, spend enough time to produce real (visible) results, and keep the workouts short enough that time is never an excuse. The result is a workout with enough rest that you can maintain a higher intensity for a longer period of time.

Best of all? You can make progress at any activity, burn fat, and not have to completely sacrifice your schedule to become fit. And while it’s just 15 to 20 minutes, if you push the pace and maintain a high intensity, you’ll be shocked by how much you can transform your body.

Personalize Your Fitness Plan

Want to work one-on-one with a coach to cater a workout plan to your goals, your lifestyle, and your schedule? Now you can. Click here to learn more about Born Fitness coaching

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Tabata Training, Fat Loss, and the Intensity Effect appeared first on Born Fitness.

To help you understand the difference between a good workout, working harder, and training smarter, I interviewed Sean Hyson, C.S.C.S, fitness director for Men’s Fitness and Muscle & Fitness, and the author of The Truth About Strength Training. You won’t learn any new exercises or magic bullet workout secrets, but the strategy you’ll gain will be as valuable as any other lessons you’ll find. -AB

Should Your Workout Kick Your Ass?

It’s a funny irony that while we want everything else in our lives to be easier, we expect our workouts to be absolute torture. Listen to people talk about their personal trainers and watch their eyes light up when they say, “our last workout kicked my ass!” Meanwhile, TV shows like The Biggest Loser advertise by showing people on all fours, crying and pleading to make the workout stop so they can catch their breaths. There are even best-selling workout DVDs with names like Insanity, promising to deliver the toughest routine you’ve ever tried.

On the one hand, we want mobile devices that do our banking, cars that run on vegetable oil, and complete pre-packaged meals where all we need do is heat and eat, but when it comes to exercise, we insist on the most excruciating experience possible.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have to change my body that way.

It goes without saying that losing weight takes hard work, but somehow, the modern world has become convinced that the only way to see results is to grin and bear it while you hold your feet to the fire. The way fitness is depicted on television and elsewhere in pop culture leads you to believe that losing fat means endless cardio, taking little to no rest between sets, working till you puke, and severe dietary restriction. The message is clear: to look good, you need to make yourself feel bad; you need to endure suffering.

But what if you don’t?

First of all, the idea that you need to burn an enormous number of calories through exercise—or that you even can—can be considered a myth. Eric Ravussin, a weight loss expert and professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., told the New York Times that “exercise by itself is pretty useless for weight loss.” His point was that people easily consume more calories than they can burn, and that the extra strain of exercise stimulates appetite, making it even easier to replace the calories you worked off.

Just look at the numbers. According to research done by the Mayo Clinic, a 160-pound person performing high-impact aerobic exercise will burn only 533 calories in one hour. (Note that most people aren’t capable of sustaining an intense pace anywhere near that long.) Now consider that a healthy dinner of four ounces of skinless chicken breast and one cup of rice contains 385 calories. That’s right: Eat one light meal and you’re a stone’s throw from breaking even with the calories you burned in that day’s workout.

Does this mean exercise is useless for fat loss? Of course not. Aerobic training taps into fat as a fuel source and weight training builds muscle, which increases metabolic rate, so there’s plenty reason to work out, and work out hard. Research even shows that exercise aids in keeping weight off once it’s lost. A 2009 study looked at 97 women who had lost an average of 27 pounds each and then returned to their old eating habits. The exercisers—those following a walking or weight training program—regained less weight than those who did no training and, interestingly, the weight they did gain back didn’t go to their midsections.

The take-home is that exercise isn’t nearly as important as diet for pure fat loss, so no matter how hard you work, you won’t see results until you’re eating smarter. (However, exercise is still an important part of the equation.) And starving yourself isn’t the way to go either. Diets that promise weight loss faster than one pound per week aren’t to be trusted (yes, it can happen, but go in with realistic expectations), and if you do use one to lose weight more aggressively, you can be sure it isn’t all fat.

5 Ways To Lose Fat (The Safe, Efficient Way)

I radically transformed my body in 12 weeks, losing 30 pounds while gaining significant strength. I wouldn’t say the process was a breeze, but I didn’t dread my workouts or curse my diet. Here’s a five-step program that summarizes what I did and will let you lose weight with minimal pain and suffering. In fact, it’s designed to let you do as little as possible.

1. Create a Realistic Diet

Consume 12 calories per pound of your body weight daily. So if you weigh 180 pounds, start eating around 2,100 calories. Get in one gram of protein per pound of your body weight and let 20% of your calories come from fat. The rest of your calories can come from carbohydrates. This is the diet I recommend in my e-book, The Truth About Strength Training, and the one I follow. It will work for anyone

2. Lift Heavy Weights

Compound exercises like the squat, deadlift, and bench press were at the center of my own weight-loss program. Together, they stimulate virtually every muscle in the body, preventing that muscle from being lost when calories are low. (When the body gets the message it needs to hold on to muscle, it does, even when resources are scarce.) Reps don’t need to be any higher than eight on your main lifts, and should often be closer to five.

I can hear your screams. “What? Five reps is too little. I can’t burn any calories with a set that short.” That’s true, but you’re not trying to burn calories with weight training, as that’s largely a waste of time anyway (see above). Rather, low reps imply heavy weight, and when you’re dieting hard, you don’t want to perform long sets with a heavy bar on your back, believe me. Lack of energy leads to a lack of focus, and then accidents happen.

3. Focus on Recovery

Heavy training is tiring and stressful to the central nervous system—the control center in your brain for all your muscle actions. Even when you’ve caught your breath, you often need to wait longer before performing your next set, as your nervous system isn’t recovered enough to recruit all the musculature needed. This can mean rests of up to two or three minutes between sets, especially when calories are low and recovery ability is compromised.

I’m not saying there isn’t any value to the fast-paced circuits that some trainers set up for their clients—they boost growth hormone naturally and do increase calorie burn—but I recommend making them a smaller part of your program. Put in your time on a squat or press, and then you can follow it up with a two-to-four exercise sequence where you perform higher reps with little to no rest between sets. Just be sure to pick exercises that aren’t affected by your fatigue. Breaking form on rope slams and kettlebell swings isn’t as dangerous as losing it on stepups and bentover rows.

4. Limit (or Stop) Jumping

The Biggest Loser seems to have everybody doing plyometrics these days. The trouble is, plyos aren’t for everybody. Explosive exercises, such as jumps onto a box, clapping pushups, and single-leg hops and bounds are advanced exercises best used by athletes who need to be quicker and more agile. If all you need to do is drop 20 pounds, there are safer ways to go about it. And the heavier you are, the greater your risk of injury when performing plyometrics.

So why do we see them being done by overweight people all the time on TV? As far as I can tell, it’s because it makes for good TV. That is, if you like watching people suffer.

5. Start Sprinting

Box jumps require a bit of experience and athleticism to do properly, but sprinting up a hill is doable for almost anybody. Find a fairly steep grade and dash up it. Walk back to the bottom and, when you’re ready, charge up the hill again; repeat for about 20 minutes. (You don’t need to go again right away—in fact, this may cause you to break form and get hurt, so don’t.) While running on flat ground can cause pulled hamstrings or hip flexors in beginners, sprinting on an incline slows you down so you don’t put the same pressure on your lower body. You can still work hard and not get hurt. Imagine that.

A form of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), sprints allow you to burn calories at an accelerated rate for days after the workout. They also increase your conditioning, which will help you perform better overall in the gym and in any recreational sports that you may be doing to stay active and fit. While fat loss comes mainly through dietary changes, increasing your overall activity level carries you the rest of the way, and sprinting can play a big part in that.

In addition to sprints, I’ve also done longer cardio sessions—i.e., walking—to burn extra calories and improve general conditioning. Walking can actually help enhance your recovery from weight training sessions, making it a multifaceted tool in your overall fat-loss program, despite the fact that it doesn’t kick your ass.

In fact, it’s kind of nice.

Sean Hyson is the Training Director of Men’s Fitness and Muscle&Fitness magazines. He is the author of The Truth About Strength Training.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Should Your Workout Kick Your Ass? appeared first on Born Fitness.

Exercise science isn’t rocket science, but it’s still a science. Without knowing it, most people are making some of the biggest workout mistakes.

After all, there’s a reason that some workouts—while apparently similarly—offer very different results. People who design programs for a living understand what works, and it’s oftentimes not what you think. There are many relationships—such as fatigue, force coupling factors, recovery, total work capacity, and many more (such as your performance goals)—that play an under-appreciated role in great workout design.

A good program strikes a balance between what you want to do and what you need to do, so you can keep training pain-free.

That’s why I turned to Sean Hyson, C.S.C.S., author of the 101 Best Workouts of All Time. As the title would suggest, Sean has quite a bit of experience working with people who are known for designing incredible workouts. And as Fitness Director of Men’s Fitness, he’s seen a bit of everything. He identified some of the most common errors people make when creating workouts. -AB

The 5 Biggest Workout Design Mistakes

Everybody wants to be his own personal trainer. You feel like nobody knows your body better than you do, so who better to figure out how to make it bigger, stronger, and leaner? The problem is that you are your own worst enemy, and your own ego, imagination, and preconceived notions of what it takes to change your body can hold back your progress (despite your “insider knowledge”). But eventually, we all want to take the reins of our own training, so if you’re going to do so, or already have, at least know the pitfalls to avoid.

Mistake #1: Doing Way Too Much

This is easily the most prevalent and destructive problem among beginners and experts. Sometimes you just can’t imagine doing fewer than five sets for an exercise, when in reality (and especially for beginners) two or three is usually enough.

The problem stems from the sport of bodybuilding, and the workout routines its champions—who are always genetically gifted and often steroid-enhanced—have made famous. Through magazines, other media, and pop culture, we’re led to believe that if we want bigger arms, we need to do four different types of curls as a bodybuilder would do, using drop sets, taking each set to failure with a five-second negative, or some other advanced technique.

The truth is, thankfully, building muscle is not that complicated. At least not for people in the early stages of their training or who have no plans to use performance-enhancing drugs. Look at how many sets, on average, some of today’s most popular strength and physique coaches prescribe in a workout.

• Jason Ferruggia: 12–16 total sets
• John Meadows: 10–12 total sets
• Mike Robertson: 10–15 total sets
• Jim Wendler: 10–14 total sets

Here’s a quick primer on some popular styles of training:

Whole Body: If you’re training your whole body in one session, one compound exercise per muscle group is enough; two to three sets each.

Upper/Lower Split: Hit one main lift (such as a bench press or a squat), follow it up with two assistance exercises that train the same muscles and the opposing ones for balance, and then finish with some work for the abs/arms/calves/forearms (or any area you deem to be a weak point).

Body Part Split: Three to four sets of about five different lifts ought to do it.

Doing more work than necessary can lead to overtraining and injury, not to mention time-consuming workouts. As with medicine, you want to find the minimum effective dose that nets results. Train hard and you’ll see that you don’t need to train for too long. 

Mistake #2: Doing Too Much Of One Thing, Not Enough Of The Other

Whenever we set a goal, we tend to gear our training toward only that one thing, and forget about all the other little things that aren’t a priority. The only trouble is that those “little things” count. For instance, many guys start lifting weights because they want to build a bigger chest. They start doing all kinds of presses, flyes, and pushups in their workouts, because they’re eager to see their pecs grow.

Unfortunately, they’re not thinking about their shoulders and upper backs, and how all that extra work is going to affect them.

Remember this line, which in the fitness world is akin to the golden rule: “Whatever you do on one side of a joint, you need to do an equal amount on the other side.” While a certain amount of imbalanced training is helpful for bringing up a lagging muscle group (when it’s a major weak point), most of the time, including when you’re a beginner, you’ll make faster progress when you keep things even.

If you’re going to do 20 sets for chest on chest day, do at least that many for back on back day.

Balance is especially important for chest training because of the action the shoulders take. Pressing motions draw the arms in front of the body, lengthening the muscles on the back of the shoulders and tightening the front delts and pecs. Without rowing movements to counteract this motion, over time, you’ll develop a tight chest and rounded shoulders, setting you up for shoulder injury in addition to bad posture.

Try supersetting push and pull movements so you can always be sure you’ve done enough back work. Also, write your workouts down. Keeping a log helps you keep track of balance.

Mistake #3: Ignoring The Little Things

This is an extension of the last tip but warrants its own entry. While all you may want out of training is a big chest, ripped abs, or a stronger bench press, you have to pay attention to the small details that make them possible.

Every workout, no matter what kind, needs to begin with a warmup. Part of that warmup should include foam rolling and stretching to promote blood flow and loosen tight muscle groups.

You should also work stretches and exercises that specifically target muscle imbalances into your training from time to time. These include a piriformis stretch (what strength coach Eric Cressey calls the seated 90/90 stretch) for the hips, and facepulls to protect the shoulders. Get used to the idea that not every exercise you do will be glamorous, fun, or immediately evident as a step that brings you closer to your goal.

A good program strikes a balance between what you want to do—so you’ll stay motivated to train and enjoy the process—and what you need to do, so you can keep training pain-free years into the future.

Mistake #4: Not Understanding Anatomy

Another misconception that bodybuilding culture has injected into mainstream thinking is that the body is just a collection of disparate parts. Many people think that if they squat on Monday they can still do a full back workout on Tuesday, complete with back extensions or, incredibly, even deadlifts. As if the lower back isn’t getting enough work from squatting.

It’s true that the deadlift trains the entire back hard and it is often categorized as a “back exercise”, but it’s also murder on the legs. Just because you don’t happen to be sore in your legs after squatting (hey, it can happen) doesn’t mean your body is ready for some heavy pulls only a day or so later. This kind of thinking shows a lack of understanding of how these exercises work, and while your training doesn’t need to be ultra-scientific to be effective, it does have to respect some rules.

Rule #1: Never train shoulders the day after a chest session

Rule #2: Limit your direct lower-back training to days you squat and/or deadlift.

Rule #3: Don’t superset exercises that demand a lot of your grip, such as rows and chinups.

Rule #4: Unless you’re dead-set on body-part training, consider breaking up your workouts according to movement patterns. It’s easier to understand which exercises should be done on which day when you think of your routine as consisting of push and pull movements, rather than chest day, shoulder day, and so on.

Mistake #5: Second Guessing Yourself And Getting Bored

Hopefully, this article hasn’t thrown you into a panic, making you second-guess everything you do in the gym. Because more important than doing things correctly is that you actually do something consistently.

Thanks to the Internet, there’s more fitness information available today—right now—than there ever has been in history. With that much to look at, it’s no wonder you’re confused about what to do. The solution is to pick one thing and block the rest out of your mind, at least for a few months. (Don’t worry, it will still be here when you get back.) You’ll never make progress if you doubt what you’re doing or continually hop aboard the latest trend. A flawed program—and ALL of them are, to some degree—that you commit to is better than a superbly designed one that you’re unsure about or want to tamper with.

The best way to become your own trainer is to do what real trainers do—apply one program for a while and see how it goes, learn from it, and make changes only as needed. The key is making sure that you’re following the best workouts that follow the principles we know work. When you’ve given something a proper chance, only then will you know what does and doesn’t work for you, and you can stop getting in your own way on the path to building the body you want.

Mistake-Proof Your Workout

You want the best information without having to spend the time searching the web or guessing if your hard work will lead to results.

CLICK HERE to learn how you can make sure your workouts and diet are always on the right track.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post The 5 Biggest Workout Mistakes appeared first on Born Fitness.