You’ve heard the random and often odd comments your bro’s talk about at the gym. All random discussions pertaining to nothing in particular. The worst comments are the ones about exercise and the comments that follow. I’ve heard some of the worst discussions about exercise that have truth to them. Sometimes you just want to say “WAKE UP”, but you decide the effort is not worth it. It’s time to lay it on the line, and take a good hard look at what your broskies are saying.
“Bro, I heard squats are bad for your knees”
So Joe Schmo had overheard a discussion on squats and the effects on knees. Joe decides to play telephone and slaughter what was said. He relays what he thinks he heard on poor flexibility causing knee problems. That’s when Joe Schmo turns into Dr. Joe Fitness. He decides to approach his body gearing up for the squat rack. Joe stops him just before the set to let his friend know, he doesn’t want to see him wreck his knees. Joe suggests the leg press is just as beneficial and they can really get a good burn with some leg extensions. Nice work Joe, you’ve just turned your friend into a culprit of your bad hearing!
What Joe should’ve said: “Hey bro, let’s check your form before you hit this. We need to check your ankle flexbility and hip movement.”
“Dude, you gotta hit arms twice per week for big guns”
Easy chief. Joe, while you are rockin’ some sweet 15 inch guns in your cutoff Bieber T, you are far from being right. I’m not sure why people have this notion that arms need to be worked multiple times per week. If you have lagging arms, check other things prior to jumping into working them twice per week. Program design, exercise execution, and form. Unfortunately, Joe and his bro enjoy a good hip swing with their biceps curls. They also tend to favor using the rope for triceps extensions to “really get definition in their tri’s”. Again, focus on form first. Then, choose exercises you can feel working, and not the one’s people simply tell you they work. Not all exercises work the same for every person.
What Joe should’ve said: Dude, you’re all over the place on those curls, let’s lower the weight and focus on just working your biceps. Next, we’ll hit some weighted dips for the tri’s.
“We need to do at least 4 exercises per body part to fully work the muscle”
This approach sounds accurate. I mean, people do incline, flat, and decline bench. They usually finish it up with a variation of flyes. This approach may work well for someone who’s chemically enhanced, but for most it does not work. Your body does not possess the energy, endurance, and recovery necessary to put in this kind of work. THIS IS NOT A CHALLENGE. Do not think that my statement is a way to push you and make you feel like you can do these brutal workouts. Look, you may be able to finish the routine, but at what expense? Your muscles may be “fried”, but what did you gain? By that fourth exercise your strength is minimal. So, you grab LESS weight and hammer out your sets. No wonder you feel it takes a full week for your muscles to recover.
*Shakes head in frustration*
What Joe should’ve said: Broski, that workout we saw in Muscle & Fitness is a bit excessive. Let’s cut it in half, we can do the same number of exercises, but less sets. That way, we can use heavier weight on each set to get the most out of our workout.
“We’re gonna hit abs again today bro, you gotta work ‘em after every workout”
Joe and his buddy decide to head to the mats for yet another brutal pounding of their abs. They are lean fella’s, but their abs don’t quite show through. They’ve gotta work their abs more, right? Wrong! Overtraining any muscle can leave it looking deflated and undefined. Your body can retain fluid in these areas, and may even lose muscle mass due to overtraining. Joe and bro don’t believe in this approach, they see other guys who are ripped and they work them all the time. Believe it or not, you can get abs working them frequently, but you can get the same results working them less often. Your diet plays the key role in this one, and with the right diet, you need very little ab work.
What Joe should’ve said: Bro, we’ve hit abs everyday this week, we need to back off a bit. I’m not seeing results with this approach. We need to cut out the beer on the weekends, because my diet is spot on, and this overtraining isn’t helping.
It’s good to see that Joe has had a change of heart. There are a lot of misconceptions in the gym. People spreading things around with little background knowledge. People tend to assume a one-size fit’s all approach works best. This is not true, and people need to make adjustments or seek out someone who can. Your body has its’ limits and it’s time to realize that less is more, as long as the less is all out effort. If you are backing off in aspects of your training because your workout last an hour and a half, then you are not training at your full potential.
