Hey Scott I don't know if you have read my last post but I also wanted to ask you about your opionon on other options. I am considering to switch to lifting 4 days a week at some point, what is your opionon on the two 4 day splits: Upper Lower vs Push Pull (putting quads on push day and hamstrings on pull day rather than having a whole workout for legs like in PPL). If you wanted to only lift 4 times a week, and you had choose between those two options which would it be? I haven't tried it but I would think Push/Pull would be better than Upper/Lower because Upper/Lower has the problem of Upper workouts taking too long? If you do deadlifts, Pull-Ups, and one type of row, then a flat press and incline press, a overhead press, lateral raise, dips, barbell curls, that's not very much volume but that's already a pretty long workout, especially if you are working on strength on the main lifts and have to rest 2-3 min after every set?

Also related to this, what do you think about AlphaDestiny suggesting full-body workouts rather than splits? He says that anyone could do it if they raise their work capacity, however especially if you do lower reps on the main lifts this workout would take hours, like doing a Legs, Pull, or especially push workout already takes around 90 min, so wouldn't you end up in the gym for 2-3 hours if you do a full body workout? I like the idea of full body workouts but I don't understand how they wouldn't take a long time.

Always go to a dead hang. That is full range of motion my bro. By going to a dead hang you are letting the lats stretch out completely, andyou are making the eccentric longer - eccentrics are where you break down the most muscle remember.

Any wrist strap will do really. They basically take your grip strength out of the equation. By wrapping the straps around the bar and having them attached to your wrist, it's like having a hook on there. As long as your hand is holding onto the strap, then even if you aren't fully gripping the bar, the strap will be holding it and keeping it 'attached' to your hands.

I think Upper/Lower workouts would be best, personally, but that's because I like more volume, and I feel like if I had to workout 4 days a week, that would be best for me to hit chest and back and legs and everything as hard as I could with my training days. However, if you know that you get better results with less volume and more frequency, then maybe having a Push/Pull split where you could train legs 4 times week would be beneficial. It's about what works best for you.

Alex is a smart dude, and he knows what works for his body, and that is full body training. It's just not for me. Do I think it can work? Absolutey. It's all about managing your workload in that situation, and doing basically just what is essential to see results - so that might mean skipping isolation work in favor of just doing a compound movement for each body part.

1. Okay I think I got the pull ups down, because I felt my lats burning a lot first time during them.

2. I got some strapos but something seemed not right and this guy at the gym said he used them before but that they aren't durable and don't wrap around the bar well. So this is the one he was using, I also found another with good reviews, which would you suggest?:

https://www.amazon.com/Lifting-Wrist-Straps-Rip-Toned/dp/B01J7L8FFO

https://www.amazon.com/Harbinger-Padded-Cotton-Lifting-Cushioned/dp/B01FR2C6YS

3. Why would U/L be better for Chest/Back/Legs? Also why would it be more more volume and less frequency then Push Pull? Both are 4x a week, how could the volume be different? I'm just curious since almsot no one does Push PUll 4x a week, only thing is some people say it's hard training legs everyday.

4. So upper lower still allows for isolation but in full body you don't have room for it.

1. Awesome!

2. Honestly either one. They look pretty similar, they are a similar price, and I have never tried them so I can't say which is best. But straps are straps for the most part, they're all very similar and if you are only paying $10 for a pair that's pretty cheap.

3. As I said, because you can hit everything with a bit more volume. If you are doing Push/Pull workouts you can't spend as much time on each muscle group because you have to hit EVERYTHING that pushes and pulls in one session. Also, just my opinion. Do what works best for you my friend.

4. Kind of yeah. You could have room for it in full body, but then you would either be sacrificing staple compound movements or making your workouts super long.

Okay thanks, out of curiousity which straps do you use?

IronBull Strength straps! https://muscularstrength.com/Lifting-Equipment

Hey Scott my weight has gotten stuck at 152lb for several weeks, however my strength has gone up though. Since a stronger muscle is a bigger muscle does it mean that I am building muscle and losing fat then (recomping)? If yes then should I just keep eating the same and take advantage of it or should I eat more and get back to a surplus.

Also I only gained 4-5 pounds yet now the same amount of calories is no longer a surplus, is it normal for the amount of calories you need to be in a surplus to increase every 5lb you gain?

A stronger muscle doesn't always equal a bigger muscle. Look at Olypmic weight lifters - some of those guys aren't the biggest, but they can throw around weights heavier than a bodybuilder. The two are correlated, they can and many times do come as a 'package deal', but don't always go hand in hand.

If you aren't gaining weight, it is possible you have been losing fat/building muscle.. do you feel/look leaner? That's the best way to tell. And yes ass you gain weight, you will need to eat more calories becuase you're now fuelling a bigger mass overall, and a bigger mass tends to burn more calories too.

Thanks for the reply Scott, I actually seem to stay around the same bodyfat percentage all the time, around 12-14% so I will stick to eating in a surplus.

Anyway I have a bunch of new questions:

1. You know how you did that genetics test a long time ago, and you found out you have more slow twitch fibers compared to fast twitch? Since sprinters have more fast twitch fibers and marathon runners have more slow twitch fibers, if I can run/sprint really fast for short distances yet most people could beat me if we had to run a mile (lower intensity, but for longer time), does that mean I have a higher ratio of fast twitch fibers than slow twitch? I have also noticed low reps and low/moderate volume seems to work better for me. Ex heavy barbell curls work better than dumbbell curls for 10 reps each side - or OHP 5x5 works much better than dumbbell press 10-12 reps.

2. I noticed that recently you have been wearing knee sleeves during squats, why is this? You have videos of you squatting 315 for reps without anything, so I'm just wondering did you injure your knee or something and that's why you use them now or what is the reason?

3. Do you agree with AlphaDestiny that Standing barbell OHP builds upper chest? Since I started a few months ago, my standing overhead press went from 45x5 to 100x5 my upper chest seems to have improved so this makes me think that OHP may actually build upper chest? So if you don't incline press but still do OHP do you basically have the upper chest covered?

4. In your hamstrings video you mentioned aside from RDL's and leg curls, you mentioned doing hamstring ball curls, my question is what if you can do a lot of reps of that, how do you progress with this exercise? I don't see how you can add weight to it...

5. Does strengthing the calves have any affect on your strength for squats/deadlifts or any other lifts? Like if you don't want your calves to get bigger would not training them at all be bad, or would training them help your other lifts?

6. What is the best way to warmup for a 1RM, like how many sets/reps, perecentages do you warmup with? Like if for example my 1RM deadlift is 275 how would you warmup to test it?

7. What are the best exercises for increasing strength on the main lifts? For OHP I know Push Press is a good exercise to switch too if your OHP gets stuck, and deficit deadlifts and rack pulls could be good if your deadlift gets stuck, but what are the best exercises when your bench is stuck or you squat is stuck?

8. What is your opionon on asking for a lift off on bench press? I used to ask for a lift off on every working set before but now that I started doing bench again last few weeks I never ask for a lift off but I feel like I might be wasting a lot of energy getting the bar "up" out of the rack, once I got it up, then it's not hard to "pull" it forward to the starting position. I have a friend who thinks that it's part of the lift and that you shouldn't use a weight that you can't unrack yourself, what do you think? Should I ask for a lift off for all my working sets?

9. Lastly what is a good HIIT workout with Sprints? I mean like what distance per set, how many sets, and how much rest between sets? One that's like around 10-20min?

Thanks, and hope you hit 2 mil soon!

1. Probably. If you are a good sprinter and you see better results with low volume, heavy weight training, that would suggest a fast twitch fiber dominance for you.

2. I got the knee sleeves to try and gave them a crack. I loved them, they just made everything feel so much secure and tight in my knees so nowadays, because I have them, I use them.

3. To an extent. It depends how you are performing your OHP really. The more you lean back, the more your upper chest probably gets involved. It's not the primary mover though so while it might build it a bit, it won't be the focus on your OHP.

4. Use the hamstring ball curl as a finisher, or as the second exercise in a superset when your hamstrings are already pre-fatigued so that it makes it harder. You can also try slowing down the tempo to make it more challenging.

5. They won't have a huge impact on your squat/deadlift numbers. If they are big enough for your liking already, it wouldn't significantly effect your chances of increasing your squat. There are a number of 'team no calves' who seem to have decent squat/deadlift numbers haha.

6. There is no best way. Just make sure you warm-up enough so that you are ready to hit your lift. Probably a minimum of 3-4 warm-up sets and other mobility exercises for whatever muscle you are training. As you do more warm-up sets, you should do fewer reps, like a reverse pyramid scheme so you don't burn-out before your 1RM.

7. Check out the PPL program. There are acccessory lifts there for all three movements to help you build more strength - https://muscularstrength.com/Push-Pull-Legs

8. Nothing wrong with getting a lift off. Mainly for when you are going to like a 1RM or a really heavy set.

9. I like to just do HIIT on the treadmill. Sprint for 30 seconds, walk/slow jog for a minute, and repeat until you get to your set time. Or if you are doing it outside, sprint from one lampost to the next, then walk to the next lampost, then sprint, then walk etc. and repeat until you complete your set time.

Thanks! Getting closer and closer!

Thanks for the reply,

Are knee sleeves like a good idea when your squat gets strong, like would you recommend getting them when you can squat 225 or 315 or something?

So for my normal 5x5 for bench press should I use a lift off on every set then? I mean if I am barely able to unrack the bar, as in it takes like 5-10 sec before I can get enough force too be able to get it all the way up would it be a good idea to use a lift off?

I will try those hamstring ball leg curls as a superset or finisher at some point!

Honestly I would just squat for as long as you can without them. Unless you have knee issues, in which case they might be good to get now.

If you think you need a lift off, get one. If you don't think having to lift the bar off yourself is negatively effecting your sets, then don't worry about it. If you have someone there to do it, it doesn't hurt.

Awesome! 😁 

Okay. By the way am I confusing something but isn't pyramid like what you suggest, starting at the lightest weight and each set more weight and less reps (7, 7, 6, 4, 3)? reverse pyramid is starting with heaviest set first and lowering the weight and increasing reps on each consecutive set (like 3, 4, 6, 7, 7)?

Also in your most recent video about the dumbbell mistake, I have a few questions about what you said:

1. If for example the rep range is 8-10, you said for any set where you don't get the minium (8 in this case) you basically do a drop set with lighter weight for the rest of the reps. So i.e you bench 225x6, then you drop like 10 pounds and then do two more reps? Could you instead just rest 10-15 seconds and then do the rest of the reps with the SAME weight? Which would be the better option and why?

2. If you're doing a dumbbell bicep curl with 30lb and 5 sets of 4-6 reps for example and set 1 you get 6 reps, set 2 you get 6 reps, set 3 you get 3 reps, now you would either drop the weight and do 1 rep or rest and do 1 rep with the same weight, but then on set 4 you would stay at the original weight (30lb) even if on set 4 you get like only 2 reps, and then still keep it the same for the last set even though you only got 2 on set 4? I thought a long time ago you said that if you have to decrease the weight throughout your sets it's a good thing haha.

3. Also when you drop the weight how much is it usually for barbells/dumbbells?

Also unrelated to that, what warmup exercises would you do for shoulders if you don't happen to have a band? The gym I just started going to doesn't really have bands so I may buy one but if I can do it without bands that would be good.

Well a pyramid starts big and ends small with the tip at the top right? So a reverse pyramid would start small and ends big.. so I like to think of the weights as the pyramid.. so you start with small weights, and go big.. reverse pyramid.. haha. Honestly it doesn't matter, call it whatever you like. You get what I mean 😁 

1. Yes you could do a rest. There isn't a better option. As long as you get muscle fatigue you are on the right track. When it comes to fitness, there are a lot of things that don't have just one right way, one right answer.

2. Having to decrease isn't a bad thing. If you are within 2-3 reps of your rep goal, you can normally keep the same weight and either use momentum or do a rest pause to finish the set. But if you are going for 8-10 reps and only get 4 reps with the original weight, you still have 4-6 reps left.. it would make sense to lower the weight there.

3. It varies person to person. Again, there is no right answer. Just lift heavy enough that you are challenging yourself.

Just simple arm circles forwards and backwards and in and out would be good! As well as dumbbell rotations.

ok thanks Scott!

I have a couple questions on squats and deadlifts, now that I am doing Upper/Lower 4x per week, on Lower I do Squats and Deadlifts, and I am wondering if 5x5 for squats and deadlifts is too much? I see in SL program they only do 1x5 for deadlifts, not sure why...? I today hit 225 deadlift for 5 sets of 5, so I'm wondering if it's safe or not to do this volume for deadlifts two times per week combined with squatting 5x5 two times a week as well.

Now my squat honestly has been pretty bad, although bench press was my weakest lift at first, now the squat is. And it's not as if my squat is so strong that I could hit a platue, it's still quite weak. I weigh 152lb @ 5"6 btw if that's important.

Currently for 5x5:

Squat: 135lb

Deadlift: 225lb

Bench: 160lb

Strict Standing OHP: 100lb

The problem is I get stuck in the "hole", not sure why it happens, but it feels like I can't generate enough force at the bottom, I try to and get stuck, so whoever spots me has to help me a little and once I get out of the "hole" then I can finish the rep easily. The amount of weight nor the amount of reps I can do hasn't changed much. This makes me think something is wrong with my form but not sure what it is, like no one has noticed anything paticularly wrong. What can you suggest if you have had any experience with this problem?

It's safe. It will just be taxing. The other option would be to have one day where your squats are high volume with your deadlifts 5x5, and another day where your deadlifts are high volume and your squats are 5x5.

If you're struggling out of the hole, you should do pin/rack squats where you practice the lift solely out of the bottom position. So set up the racks or pins in your squat rack to the height your would squat down to, and practice coming out of the hole. You also might need to work on glute strength a bit more.