Master The Basics First
Want a bigger or nicer booty, want huge pecs, wants a chiseled muscular physique? Of course you do, so I’m sure you looked up “the best” booty building exercises or “best” chest workouts and found all kinds of things on the internet, some free and some cleverly marketed for a moderate price. The problem is almost all of that stuff is crap, it’s click-bait or marketing strategies designed to get your views and your money. What it’s not, is genuine fitness advice with your best interest at heart.
Many of the workouts and strategies you’ll find out there are very specialized strategies, which don’t really apply to the recreational exerciser who’s looking to get better in general. Those strategies are for seasoned athletes who have nearly maxed out their potential and are looking to squeeze a small increase in performance out of a big jump in time and energy devoted…this is the opposite of what most people are looking for... most people are looking for the biggest bang for their buck!
So, before we go down these specialized rabbit holes wasting valuable time and money, let's explore and master the basics.
If it was good enough for Arnold, it’s probably good enough for you. We’re talking about things like push-ups, pull-ups, overhead press, rows, squats, deadlifts, lunges and running. It’s really not that complicated. “But how will I build my butt? Will my chest grow???” Listen, if you can’t already deadlift twice your bodyweight or bench one and a half times your body weight…then hell yeah you’ll grow! What are we even talking about here?! This is like the equivalent of me asking how to bake a wedding cake when I haven’t even mastered ready bake cookies…you’re just not there yet. Master the basics, spend a couple years finding out what your weaknesses and strengths are, and then after you’ve earned it, check out some ways to adjust your program to go for more specific goals. Without building a strong foundation, anything else you try to pile on will just crumble, your ceiling with be so low with any new skillset or goal you have because you didn’t take the time initially to set yourself up for success.
I get it though, I’ve been there, I read articles just like this when I was younger and thought “nah, that’s not me, I’ll crush it anyway, I’ve got the basics locked up.” But in reality I did not have the strength recommended or the mobility and despite what I thought I definitely did not have proper form. Now, years later I’ve basically come full circle and am still working on mastering the basics…but this time I’ve accepted their value and have gotten better results than ever before.
Let’s talk about what mastering the basics actually means. Before we get into numbers for specific exercises lets just note that you should have enough core strength and mobility to perform all of these exercises well and with full range of motion. Particularly hip, shoulder, ankle and wrist mobility, without those you will have some serious limiting factors and likely run into nagging if not serious injuries as the weights go up.
SQUATS – A good metric to aim for is to squat (below parallel) 1.5x your lean mass for 4-6reps.
DEADS – Either sumo or regular, 2x lean body weight 4-6 reps.
LUNGES OR SPLIT SQUATS – 4-6 reps with 1x lean body weight added.
RUNNING – You should be able to run a mile in under 10 min (that is totally reasonable). You should also be able to sprint up hill for at least 30 secs unbroken.
BENCH – If you can bench 1.5x your lean mass 4-6x you have mastered the basics there. Or 1.25x if Dumbbells.
PULL-UP – We want 4-6 reps with an added .5x lean mass for mastery of pull-ups. For me at 210 lbs that’s essentially adding 100 lbs extra.
OVERHEAD PRESS – Hitting 1x your lean mass for 4-6 reps is legitimate mastery of shoulder press, most people will struggle with this because they never took the time to work on shoulder mobility or core stability.
ROW – I’d like to see 1.5x Lean mass on either bent rows or cable rows with control tempo and good form, or .5x lean mass with a dumbbell row for 4-6 reps.
If you pass all those tests, congratulations…You have mastered the basics and are ready to crush something advanced and I’m sure you will find great success at whatever you decide to do because you have an excellent foundation.
If you did not pass some or all of these tests and you have serious fitness goals, then it is time to swallow your ego and get to work. Know that reaching these basics goals here will almost certainly help you towards your long term goals and most likely give you a much higher potential. I still have not reached these metrics for myself, not all at once anyway, but I also admit to myself that I haven’t hunkered down and focused on them for any significant amount of time, as I was distracted by other goals and other skills and I always came back and thought to myself “Man, I would’ve done better at that if I just got strong and mobile beforehand.” So, after years of going through that cycle I too and putting the ego away for a bit while I try to lead by example.
Good luck and happy shredding people.