“Wow, really? I always thought I had to do X, Y, Z in order to hit my fitness goals. Knowing I don’t have to do that anymore is going to make this so much easier and more enjoyable!”
-said by dozens, possibly hundreds of clients
Look, one of my favorite clients of all time (Ms. Tracy!) doesn’t call me St. Nate the Myth Buster for no reason.
Sure, the best thing I can do as a coach is show you the way to your goals.
But a close second best thing I can do is show you what to NOT worry about.
So many of you are trying to run to your fitness goals but you’re carrying dozens of Bricks in a backpack slowing you down. Those bricks represent the myths you’ve been believing.
But hey, it’s not your fault.
Your doctor’s got bricks. So does your Momma and Grandma. And let’s not forget magazine covers (are magazines still a thing??), blogs, and of course social media.
Everyone has an opinion. But that doesn’t make their opinion right. Yes, even if they’re a doctor, someone you trust a lot, or someone that has a great physique.
So who should you listen to? That’s a conversation for another day. It’s worthy of it’s own post. But to sum it up I’d say you should listen to someone who has helped dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people like you.
And if you’re just an every day man or woman looking to get lean, strong, and healthy…I’ve got a pretty solid track record. So perhaps you’ll consider listening to me?
With that in mind, here are 3 myths I personally believed for years before finally turning my back on them.
- You Have to Do Squats, Deadlifts, and Bench Press for Best Results
- Doing More Sets Always Gets You More Progress
- More Protein Always Leads to Better Progress
Recommendation 1- You Have to Do Squats, Deadlifts, and Bench Press for Best Results
Let me be clear, I’m a huge fan of the Barbell Squat, Barbell Deadlift, and Barbell Bench Press. They are fantastic lifts and there’s a reason people have included them in their programs for decades.
In fact, the majority of our clients use at least one, if not all of these, in their program.
The movements are extremely effective at hitting a lot of muscles at once and building overall strength. 2 things we like very much! This also means including them in your program is very efficient. It gives you a huge bang for your buck so you don’t have to spend a ton of time in the gym since you’re hitting a bunch of muscles at once.
But here’s the kicker- these movements are not the best lift for every single client.
Now before I dive into this, let me say that WAYYYYYYY more people can do these exercises than realize it. Most people, and if I’m being honest many trainers, don’t know how to properly teach these movements. So more people than currently do can include these movements in their program if they’re just taught how!
After some expert coaching though, we may still decide it’s time to choose a different exercise.
And I’ll give you a personal example. I was way too married to these 3 movements for too long. I always felt like Dumbbell Bench Press movements felt way better to me and got me way better results. BUT I just felt too attached to the barbell bench that it took me about 8 years to finally remove it (mostly) from my program. After I switched to primarily Dumbbell Bench Presses my strength and muscle mass increased a lot!
We don’t jump to making these changes quickly because we do love the barbell squat, deadlift, and bench press. But we do make them any time it’s needed!
Because we aren’t married to 1 specific exercise. We’re married to the idea of choosing exercise that allow you to train hard, pain free.
Recommendation 2- Doing More Sets Always Gets You More Progress
One of the most destructive lies in the fitness industry is, “if some is good, then more is better. Always!”
This advice is not only bad, it’s literally dangerous.
For example, water is so so good for you. It’s a necessity! But drink way too much water and it will literally land you in the hospital or kill you.
Unlike many people and their dumb “brick” opinions, I’m far more interested in giving you a precise recommendation or a target to aim for (plus or minus) rather than just saying “yeah do as much of this as you can.”
So here’s the truth about sets.
Your first set per workout/per week gets you the most amount of gains. The second set gets you additional results but not quite as many as the first. The 3rd also gets you extra gains but not as much as the 2nd set.
It’s the law of diminishing returns!
***Note- this does assume each set is taken close to failure. Because one mistake many make is they trade in QUALITY (good form, full range of motion, taken close to failure) for QUANTITY (doing a bunch of mediocre sets multiple reps from failure.) This is no bueno!!)
When having these discussions about number of sets, it must be assumed that the sets are all high quality sets.
Which means at some point, additional sets per workout/per week won’t help you out.
And to many’s surprise, if you keep doing additional sets you’ll actually start getting less progress. (see my super duper fancy chart below.)
So when it comes to sets, you want to fall somewhere on the first half of the graph.
Now you’ll notice I didn’t include numbers on the graph. And I can’t!
I could give you a ballpark, which I’ll do here. BUT this is really something you have to decide for yourself. Everyone’s ideal number of sets per workout/week is different. Sometimes wildly different!
It all comes down to how much you can recover from! Which is why doing too many sets results in LESS progress. Because you’re now doing too much work for the body to optimally recover from.
You want to experiment for yourself to see what your ideal “volume” or number of hard sets per workout/week is.
If we’re talking weekly, you can see gains with as few as 2-3 sets per muscle group per week. Now this is almost never going to be optimal for someone, but it is a start!
Most everyone would benefit from doing 4-6 sets per muscle group per week. Now if you’re older or you’re not recovering well (don’t sleep a lot, high stress life, etc.) this may be close to your ideal.
A good number of people might still benefit from 7-10 sets per muscle group per week!
And while doing 10 sets or less per week is enough to get great results for pretty much anyone…some might want to experiment with even higher volumes (even as high as 25-30 sets per week).
If I can share my own personal bias:
1. Most of our clients are doing between 5-10 sets per muscle group per week
2. People with health issues, are older, are super busy will totally benefit from just 2-3 sets per muscle group per week
3. Rarely do we have clients do more than 10 sets per muscle group per week but if we do it’s basically always 15 sets or less and is likely done for a short period of time to focus on a specific bodypart. The rest of the muscle groups would be trained in the 5-10 sets per week range.
- I think the only people who need more than 15 sets per muscle group per week are people who have already built 80-90% of their maximum muscle and strength potential and are trying to get that last 10-20%. While this is a super cool goal, close to ZERO of our clients care about getting to this point. If you’re an every day man or woman and you strength train for 3-5 years about 3 days per week, you’ll be able to achieve an incredible physique and likely will have zero desire to do more work to gain a few more pounds of muscle
- When in doubt, err on the lower end of sets per muscle group per week BECAUSE we know you can make gains with very few sets and it makes sure you don’t overdo it and risk injury or burnout
- If you experiment with more volume, which I think just about everyone should, do so slowly and methodically. Test out doing 2-3 more sets per muscle group per week for several months. See how you feel and progress before you add more.
Recommendation 3- More Protein Always Leads to Better Progress
First, it IS true that more protein equals more gains. And this is true with even insanely large protein intakes.
BUT we have to look at protein intake in context with everything else in their diet and how it affects training, recovery, etc.
Protein IS the building block for muscles. And it’s true that the VAST majority (90-95) of our clients underconsume protein when they come to us. If you’re under-consuming protein, ESPECIALLY if you’re below 60g per day, you should exit out of this blog and go cook yoself a steak RIGHT NOW.
This section is really for the protein overachievers lol.
For those that do consume a lot of protein (1 gram per pound of bodyweight or more):
- If you feel good, training and life and physique are amazing, then keep doing your thing!
- If you’re tired of eating so much protein, your energy level are low, and you’re not getting the results you want…you might want to reduce your protein intake to 0.7 to 0.8 grams per pound of bodyweight. And if you have a lot of weight to lose,,ou could even use the 0.7/0.8 multiple based on your goal weight instead of your current weight.
Studies have shown that the more protein you eat, the better muscle gains you’ll make! Which is awesome. And if you’re getting the results you want by eating a ton of protein…keep it up!
But it’s a law of diminishing returns concept here too. Yes, more protein equals more gains. But the early bumps in protein, like going from hardly consuming any to consuming a decent amount, get you the best results. Going from a decent amount to a lot (like 0.7/0.8 grams per pound of bodyweight) will also get you more results but not quite as much as going from hardly consuming any to a decent amount.
If you consume even more than that you WILL get better results, but for most it won’t be a massive difference.
BUT the reduction in carbs and fats you make by eating more protein can often lead to less energy, less intense workouts, etc.
Like all things in fitness (and life), you need to find a balance with your protein intake. Enough to maximize gains but not so much that it takes away from everything else.
Here are some basic recommendations we make at Steel for protein intake:
- Bare Minimum (if you aren’t here, get here ASAP!!!)- 60g daily for Women/80g daily for Men
- Decent- 80g daily for Women/100g daily for Men
- Pretty Good- 100g daily for Women/120g daily for Men
- Fantastic- 0.7/0.8g per pound of target body weight
So to wrap it up, just know:
- Barbell Squats, Deadlifts, and Bench Press are AWESOME exercises and you should do them if you can. BUT, and don’t jump to this too quickly, if there is an exercise out there that gets you better results…make that jump ASAP and don’t look back!
- Stop trying to do as many sets as possible. Instead, focus on doing high quality sets (good form, full range of motion, taken to 1 rep shy of failure) and finding the sweet spot. Yes, test out doing more sets, but don’t do more just for the sake of doing more. Find the sweet spot for you!
- If you’re underconsuming protein, please please please eat a lot more of it! You’ll thank me later! But if you’re in the small percentage of eats a ton of protein, you have my permission to reduce intake some. Some people who consume a ton of protein find they feel better at slightly lower intakes.
If you’re ready to take your fitness to the next level and you want to work with Expert Trainers who are PRECISE with every recommendation they make to you so you can get the best results with the most efficient amount of effort and time…let’s talk!
Fill out the “Consultation” form and I’ll reach out within 24 hours to schedule your consultation where we’ll discuss your goals and the details of the program!
