5 Tips to Optimize Your Workout
Today I want to dive into the nuts and bolts of training session optimizing. I’ll be focusing on how to obtain greater results with little extra effort. Many of us lead busy lives and can’t commit our entire lives to training. It only makes sense to make the most of our time. By the end of this article you’ll have knowledge to bring your #gainz to an entire new level. Let’s get started.
#1 Nutrition
As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, nutrition doesn’t need to be complicated. And neither will this. But if someone asked me, “Matt, when does nutrition matter the most?”, I’d always respond “before and after your workout young lad/lassie”. What we supply our bodies with before and after a workout can make a big difference in long term progress. With intelligent planning, our nutrition supports the adaptation we are seeking, whether that be muscle building, strength, fat loss or skill acquisition. Mismatched nutrition to our goals will lead to mediocre results. In the following paragraphs I'll be focusing on the pre (1-2 hrs before) and post (0-60 mins following training) workout windows, as it relates to performance, muscle and strength gains. So if your goal is to lose weight, these recommendations won’t fit your individual paradigm. Fat loss article to come.
Pre Workout Nutrition
Protein
The food’s you consume before your workout should digest quickly so your blood is overflowing with nutrients come GO time. This means selecting the right foods is key. Ideally you want to pick a fast digesting protein source like greek yogurt, protein powder, eggs or fish. These foods not only digest easily, but they have optimal ratios of amino acids to support performance. It's best to stay away from red meats, like beef and pork, and vegetarian sources of protein with large amounts of fiber as fiber slows digestion, and plant sources of protein tend to have less optimal ratios & quantities of amino acids. That’s not to say you can’t make plant sources work, it just requires more consideration.
Recommendation: 20-50 grams of protein from a high quality, fast digesting source.
Bodyweight (kg*) 60kg or below: 20-30 Grams of Protein
Bodyweight (kg) 60-80kg: 30-40 Grams of Protein
Bodyweight (kg) 80-100kg+: 40-50* Grams of Protein
*divide lbs by 2.2 to get weight in kgs
*greater amounts may be required for behemoths
Carbohydrates
Contrary to what Fat Bastard says, carbs are not the enemy. Like proteins, pick something fast digesting. Think white rice, white pasta, low fiber cereals (cheerios, frosted flakes), lower fiber breads (rye, sour dough), white potato, carbohydrate powders* and fruit. We want your blood vessels chock-full of sugar to fuel training. The amount depends on your body weight and the intensity of your workout. Typically, workouts that are voluminous (higher sets & reps) burn more carbohydrates than strength based (lower sets and reps). This is because longer duration voluminous sets dip more into the sugar burning part of metabolism, called glycolysis. Unlike what mom used to say, “Now eat your vegetables Matty”, for pre workout meals I recommend keeping vegetables to a minimum as 1) Vegetables and cereal don’t mix and 2) Fiber slows digestion.
*(gatorade, dextrose, maltodextrin, maxy waize, highly branched cyclic dextrin)
Recommendation For:
Strength Workouts: 0.5g of carbohydrate per 1 kg of body mass.
Ex. If you weigh 100kg, you would consume 50g of carbohydrates pre workout.
Muscle Building Workouts: 1g of carbohydrate per 1 kg of body mass.
Ex. If you weigh 100kg, you would consume 100g pre workout.
Keep in mind, these are just recommendations and require adjustment to fit the individual. These guidelines provide a safe and reasonable starting place. You shouldn’t get diabetes nor will you go hypoglycemic.
Fats
Let’s talk about fat baby, let’s talk about you and me. Unless you’re restricting carbs or doing a low intensity workout with the goal of increasing fat burning efficiency,* I recommend limiting fat pre workout. Many long distance endurance athletes follow this approach but I’m speaking to people interested in being big and strong. In my experience I’ve found carbohydrates to have the upper hand over fats when it comes to fuelling performance and most research on this topic agrees. And with improved session performance (higher weight, sets, reps etc), comes greater gains over the long term.
Another reason for limiting fats pre workout is that they slow down digestion, which is what we're trying to avoid. Remember, we want our blood chock-full of nutrients. For athletes that get hungry during a workout or have a gigantic caloric demand, I’ll sometimes have them use a faster digesting fat source like MCT oil before their workout.
Recommendation: For most, keep fats to a minimum. Trace amounts of fat coming from lean protein sources works well here. For behemoth athletes and athletes with light speed metabolisms, adding in 5-20g of MCT to your pre workout can be beneficial.
*Off topic, but important: Improving your fat burning efficiency does not mean that you’ll automatically get a 6 pack. When we improve our ability to use fat as fuel, the ratio of carbohydrates/fats that our body uses at rest and exercise is shifted. We end up using more fat and less carbohydrates. If we over consume our energy demands for the day, we will still accumulate body fat. The first law of thermodynamics still applies.
Post Workout Nutrition
My goal isn’t to bore you to death so i’ll keep this section brief. Post workout is the time to get proteins and sugar into the body pronto so that the construction crew has the tools required to build you back bigger and stronger. In current times of research paper wavers and fasting advocates, you’ll hear that skipping your post workout meal is cool and it won’t affect your gains. What they're saying has merit but why take the risk? If you did a hard, high quality session, why delay the recovery process. This doesn't mean that you need to slam a protein shake as you hit the change room, but aim to get in your post workout nutrition within an hour of finishing your workout. Sound reasonable?
I repeat…fast digesting protein and carbohydrate sources, with minimal fat.
My personal go to: Cookies and cream protein powder, white rice, almond milk, corn flakes and a banana. A delicious, dopamine rising, #gainz driving, performance striving rice pudding. You can thank me later.
Protein
Post Workout Protein Recommendation: 20-50 grams of protein from a high quality, fast digesting source. This is where protein powders work fabulous.
Bodyweight (kg*) 60kg or below: 20-30 Grams of Protein (g)
Bodyweight (kg) 60-80kg: 30-40 Grams of Protein (g)
Bodyweight (kg) 80-100kg+: 40-50* Grams of Protein (g)
*divide lbs by 2.2 to get weight in kgs
*greater amounts may be required for behemoths
Carbohydrates
Post Workout Protein Recommendation for:
Strength workouts: 0.75-1.0g of carbohydrate per 1 kg of body mass.
Ex. If you weigh 100kg, you would consume 75-100g post workout.
Muscle Building Workouts: 1.25-1.50g of carbohydrate per 1 kg of body mass.
Ex. If you weigh 100kg, you would consume 125-150 g post workout.
Ideal Food choices: White rice, white pasta, low fiber cereals (cheerios, frosted flakes), lower fiber breads (a nice rye), white potato, carbohydrate powders* and fruit
*(gatorade, dextrose, maltodextrin, maxy waize, highly branched cyclic dextrin)
Fat
Recommendation: Similar to pre workout, keep fats to a minimum. Trace amounts of fat coming from lean protein sources are fine.
#2 Training A Muscle Versus Training A Movement
In my earlier days of lifting I didn’t get the difference between training a muscle versus training a movement. I wish I learned this sooner. I focused on the movement, and rarely on training a specific muscle. It was about moving more weight at all costs. It didn’t matter if my goal was to get stronger or bigger, it always came down to moving heavier weights. When prioritizing heavy lifting, your body selects the technique that gets the lift completed with the most ease. And as weights get heavier, compensations (changes in technique) occur that our bodies tissues aren’t always prepared for. In my case, these compensations left me injured and with muscle imbalances. My glutes & delts ballooned but my quads and pecs stayed small which was not only unappealing, but it left me injured. Learning and mastering each specific technique is mandatory for preventing injury & maximizing strength and size of your muscles. Let’s get into the details.
Training a movement is exactly how it sounds. You’re training a movement like the bench press, squat, deadlift or overhead press to get stronger in those specific lifts. In this case, you need to treat the movement like a skill. The focus of movement training is to execute the movement with a biomechanically advantageous technique that allows the greatest weight to be used. This will increase the strength of that movement overtime. When technique is constantly varying, it’s difficult to improve on said lift as the brain constantly shifts between neuromuscular pathways. The more a technique is repeated, the more ingrained the neuromuscular pathway will be, creating a stronger & more refined signal overtime.
On the other hand, when movement efficiency is the primary goal, it’ll be harder to selectively grow muscles. This is because the central nervous system (CNS) recruits the strongest muscles for the jobs, leaving weaker muscles to have less involvement. So if you’re bench pressing and the goal is to grow bigger pecs but your body is primarily using the triceps and shoulders, likely the shoulders and triceps will grow but your chest will lag behind. If your goal is to be strong & explosive, like most athletes and powerlifters, then this difference is irrelevant so long as the chest doesn’t become the biggest limiting factor in your bench (can be addressed with accessory movements) and the technique doesn’t place unnecessary stress on tissues that aren’t prepared to handle the forces generated.
Now training a muscle is completely different. Specific muscle training is more correlated with muscle building, also known as hypertrophy training. When training a muscle to grow, your goal is to put the greatest amount of tension through that muscle. This means using the least efficient biomechanical position for that specific muscle. Your focus isn’t to get from A to B; it’s now about maintaining maximal tension throughout the muscle’s entire range of motion. You won’t be able to handle as much load, but the specific muscle you’re targeting will receive a greater stimulus to grow.
If you’re bench pressing and you want bigger pecs, you need to determine the optimal shoulder & elbow position to accomplish this. This said position would make the pecs the primary mover of the exercise and would cause the shoulders and triceps to be less involved. Still, the goal overtime is to get stronger in these less advantageous positions without letting technique falter as fatigue sets in. If technique from rep to rep changes and no standardization in execution occurs, it’s difficult to know whether or not you’re progressing. You should expect to gain strength as muscle tissue is built because strength and muscle size are highly intertwined.
Lets dig deeper into the specifics of the bench press under both circumstances. Think of the powerlifter who retracts his shoulder blades, arches his spine, pushes his feet into the ground, tucks his elbows and moves the bar explosively versus the bodybuilder who flares out his elbows, keeps his spine flat on the bench, eliminates leg drive and uses more control. The powerlifter is training the bench (the movement), whereas the bodybuilder is training his chest (the muscle).
After many years of training, the powerlifter will have a bigger bench press and the bodybuilder bigger pecs. This sounds pretty logical, doesn’t it? I would agree. If you want big pecs, execute exercises like a bodybuilder and vice versa for the powerlifter. Well unfortunately, that’s not what I observe in most gyms. Most bodybuilders are lifting way too heavy with a disregard for execution (yes this was me in my earlier days). This is fine and dandy, however, more load usually equates to less tension through the desired muscle as the CNS alters the technique to accomplish the exercise. For the genetically resilient and elite this might work but unfortunately, most don’t fall into this category (blame your parents). Like I’ve stated before, it usually ends in injury and a disproportionate physique. Less commonly do I see powerlifters training like bodybuilders, but it still happens. So if you’re that powerlifter spending 10 minutes in the squat rack and 50 minutes on the pec dec, you might need to reevaluate your programming.
To summarize, if your goal is to develop a well proportioned & injury free physique, you need to learn how to train and isolate individual muscles. If your goal is to get as strong as possible, treat your exercises as skills that allow you to move as much weight safely and efficiently. That’s not to say that a bodybuilder should never focus on skill/strength training and a powerlifter never on muscle gaining. Each discipline requires both techniques to excel because as I’ve mentioned before, they are highly correlated. The importance is knowing HOW and WHEN. Knowing WHEN comes down to knowing the objective of your training cycle and the specific exercises within your cycle. If you’re programming for yourself, you need to decide. If you have a coach, make sure you receive clarification. The HOW can come through working with a knowledgeable coach and learning how individual muscles function.
Recommendation: Learn the differences in technique between training a skill and training a muscle. Train with a knowledgeable bodybuilder or powerlifter to learn the difference in execution. Additionally, make sure you know the objective of each exercise so that you can apply the proper technique, whether that be training an exercise as a movement, or muscle.
#3 Cut out ALL Distractions
Cutting distractions during your workout is a game changer. I’m referring to people scrolling through Instagram, checking emails and texting. Being glued to your phone makes it challenging to get in a high quality session because your brain is being pulled in a million directions. Emails from John, photos of Big Booty Judy on Instagram and hilarious cat videos from your best friend, are not helping your workout.
Instead, the time between sets is the perfect opportunity to reflect on your last set, have a drink, slow down your breathing, log your previous set, or get the digits from the guy or gal checking you out. By cutting out distractions, your following set will be of higher quality and you can get more work accomplished faster. Remember, like any skill, exercise gets better with consistent practice, reflection and refinement. Therefore, use your time in the gym wisely. When we're distracted by external factors such as our phone, we won't be 99.8% dialed in during our sets. So turn off your phone and get your head right, to get your body tight.
Recommendation: Put your phone on airplane mode or at least sleep mode. Dedicate all your attention to the workout and experience your workouts & #gainz reach a new level.
#4 Keep a Training Journal
For someone looking to get bigger and stronger, having a training journal to log your reps, sets and weight is one of the most valuable behaviours you can have. The name of the game is progressive overload, whether that be by volume, load, or a combination of the two. If you don’t know what load or the # of sets you did in your last session, how the heck will you know what you need to exceed in the next workout? Overtime, progression in load & volume must occur and having a journal will help you track that progression. Tracking of markers such as load, sets, reps, tempo and rest will provide you with the data to know whether or not you’re progressing or beginning to stall.
Additionally, keeping a training journal is extremely useful for reflecting on prior training, figuring out what works and what doesn’t. Your body is dynamic in terms of response but overtime you will observe trends that will likely set you in the right direction.
Let's go through a couple examples.
In the lead up to a powerlifting meet you perform rack deadlifts for 4 sets of 4 as an accessory movement. At the meet, you increase the personal best (PB) of your deadlift by 10lbs. In the lead up to your next meet, you perform deficit deadlifts for 4 sets of 4. This time you underperform from your PB by 10lbs. If everything else stayed the same (not likely), you could infer that rack deadlifts are a better accessory movement for peaking your deadlift.
Now for a bodybuilder. In your last bodybuilding contest, your calves looked extra juicy. The judges commented on how good they looked while you strutted around in your underwear. Looking back at your log book, you determine you were performing XYZ exercises for a total of 10-20 sets per week for the last 8 weeks of prep. For the next show, you got greedy and performed 15-25 sets for 8 weeks, thinking the judges aren’t going to believe their eyes. Unfortunately, your calves came in less juicy, and rather flat looking. The softball bulge turned into something not even your mom would love. From this, we could infer that in order for our calves to look best on stage, we’re best staying between that 10-20 range during prep, and that more isn’t necessarily better.
*These examples are extremely general and simple, but I think you know what I’m getting at. You can use tracking to objectively quantify progress while also being able to reflect on past training to better program for future training.
Recommendation: Record your workouts on paper or on your phone. Record the sets, reps, weight, rest and tempo. After each training block, reflect on the progress you’ve made. Did you meet your expectations or fall short? Where did you do better? Compare prior blocks and look for any major differences between programs. Plan your next block accordingly.
#5 Studying the Workout
This tip isn’t one I hear often, but I think it’s important especially if you’re doing your own programming or receiving your programming from a coach. Before you begin your workout it’s beneficial to review all of the exercises that you’ll be doing beforehand. Preparing for a workout will ensure that it has good flow and that you’re properly executing exercises. This could mean watching detailed youtube videos that go into greater detail than your standard 15 second clip. By reviewing your upcoming workout, you’ll gain valuable information such as proper set up, specific cueing, small technique alterations, progressions/regressions and how an exercise should feel. Sometimes being prepared can be a time commitment but it’ll save you frustration and time while enhancing your training. I’ve personally found that studying upcoming workouts can be extremely helpful and beneficial with my own training. I find nothing worse than having to spend an extra 10 to 15 minutes between exercises to figure out the next one. If you find this frustrating as well, it might be worth giving it a shot.
Recommendation: In the hours or days leading up to your workout, set aside 20-60 minutes to review your upcoming workout. I highly recommend knowing your workout and each exercise - especially at the beginning of a new training phase. Write down notes and keep them handy.
In A Nutshell, If you want to get the most from your training, you need to
1) Get your pre and post workout nutrition dialed in
2) Understand and learn the difference between movement and muscle training
3) Cut out all distractions, and I mean all
4) Do like a professional data logger
5) Study, study, study!
Follow these 5 simple tips and I guarantee you’ll get every last drop out of your time spent at the gym. Honestly, most of these tips are extremely simple, even the meatiest meat head (myself included) can do them. And remember, most of these tips are behavioural based. This means starting with one tip and repeating it daily will eventually turn it into an automatic habit. Master, and then start on the next.
If you have any questions or feedback related to anything I discussed today or you just want to chat, feel free to reach me at matthew@endurehp.com.
