Being entitled can be defined as feeling that you have the right to do or have what you want without having to work for it or deserve it, just because of who you are.
As we grow older we might feel like we want to live the best lives, with the best things and experiences because that’s what we deserve.
In reality, we don’t deserve anything in life. The world owes us nothing.
The better question to ask ourselves is instead of what can the world do for me? What can I do for the world?
And only once we provide value to others will we reap the rewards and be able to live our best lives.
I’ve had a sense of entitlement before, everyone experiences it at least a little bit during their lives.
You think you’re special. But it’s just naivety. In reality, before we say we deserve better or we’re too good for something. We should put actions in place to accomplish whatever it is we really think we’re entitled to.
And only by hard work and accomplishment of whatever it is we think we deserve, can we really prove that we deserve it.
Maybe at your place of work, you think you deserve to be promoted. Why do you think you deserve to be promoted? Are you doing your role as best as you can? Could you do better? Have you spoken about it to your boss? Has he given you advice? If you haven’t been promoted yet, chances are you probably don’t deserve it yet.
It’s Okay To Want Better
If you want a better job, or to improve some area of your life, that’s fine. But we honestly can’t say we deserve something or have an attitude of entitlement until we put in the work every day and achieve said goal.
To feel like you deserve to reach a goal, or to have an entitled attitude without putting in the work every day is really just making your dream a wish.
The Bottom Line
To feel like we’re owed something from the world for no reason at all is complete lunacy.
Ultimately we’re responsible for our lives and we’re in the driving seat. But only if we’re willing to do the hard work every day to succeed can we truly say we deserve anything. There are no shortcuts.
When Arnold Schwarzenegger built his physique. His look was due to the fact that he always put in the reps. He never missed a workout, always ate appropriately and dedicated his life to his goal of winning Mr Olympia.
If we want to accomplish our goals in our lives. We need to put the reps in. Without putting the reps in we stagnate in accomplishing our goals.
In the Little Black Book Of Workout Motivation By Mike Matthews, he advocates that every Monday you should take a cold shower to get out of your comfort zone. Following this challenge, I took a cold shower every week for 3 months and here are the benefits.
1. They Increase Wakefulness And Reinvigorate You
The science on cold showers indicates that they don’t do anything special.
But the cold showers definitely shocked my body into waking up. Because the water was so cold ( the lowest setting on the dial) it resulted in me deep breathing which left me feeling awake, invigorated and full of energy.
The cold water also constricts your blood vessels and causes blood to move to your organs to keep them warm.
If you have a cold shower then a warm shower alternating between the two you can improve your circulation.
Because heat opens up your blood vessels and promotes blood flow. Heat also helps sore and tightened muscles relax.
If you alternate between the two you’ll get the best of both worlds.
2. They Teach You How To Do Hard Things
If left to our own devices jumping into an Ice cold shower would be something that we have an inherent dislike for.
The reason being is that it’s hard and uncomfortable.
But having cold showers is one way to force ourselves to do hard things even though we don’t want to.
And this can help with many things.
Because many activities that are hard but can also improve our lives are inherently uncomfortable.
Such as:
Working out (it’s hard and uncomfortable).
Working on a project that needs your best effort ( it’s hard and uncomfortable).
Reading books (especially harder to read books such as classics).
Building a good life for yourself and your family (obviously no easy task).
To achieve many important goals, and build the lives we want at times will require the ability to do hard and uncomfortable things even when we don’t want to. Cold showers are good for training this ability.
Theodore Roosevelt once said, ” Nothing worth having comes easy”.
And if we can train ourselves to do hard and uncomfortable things, when we face hard and uncomfortable problems in our lives we’ll be better prepared for them.
3. They Can Help You Breath More Deeply
During our hectic lives, most of us don’t really focus on our breathing. It’s easy for our breathing to go unnoticed because it’s automatic, so why should we focus on it?
But not breathing deeply is a big mistake. The good thing about cold exposure is that it stimulates your body to take deeper breaths, which decreases the levels of CO2 throughout your body and helps you to concentrate.
Whereas shallow breathing can trigger anxiety and cause dry mouth.
Different Civilazations And Cold Showers
Arguably the toughest soldiers in history, the Spartans had a disdain for hot water. They thought hot water was for the weak and unmanly. They would only use cold water.
There is a tradition in Finland where you first go into a sauna for several minutes and then cool off in an ice-cold lake.
Japanese people also have a ritual called Misogi. Where they effectively douse themselves in water under a waterfall.
Wim Hof’s Proposed Benefits Of Cold Showers
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably heard of Wim Hoff. He’s basically made cold exposure and deep breathing almost mainstream.
I agree with most of Wims proposed benefits of cold showers such as:
Reduced Stress levels
The nature of deep breathing when taking a cold shower can definitely lower the stresses in our daily lives.
Deep breathing has been found to do this on its own. But due to the uncomfortable nature of cold showers, they can make normal life seem quite nice in comparison.
Higher Level Of Alertness
There’s no doubt about this one. Taking a cold shower is an excellent way to wake up in the morning and increase your levels of alertness.
Increased willpower
Again, cold showers are hard and uncomfortable and if we can train ourselves to do hard and uncomfortable things when we don’t want to, the better our lives will be.
Other Claimed Benefits Of The Wim Hof Method
Stronger Immune Response
Essentially the Wim Hof Method Is just deep breathing with some cold exposure. There is a study on his site that indicates people who performed the Wim Hof method have a better immune response to pathogens.
This might be true or it might not be.
But I think the increase in immune response would be marginal compared to if you did things like:
Exercised Reguarly
Slept 7-9 hours per night
Limited alcohol intake
Reduced your stress levels
Ate a healthy diet
Yes, you could add the Wim Hoff method into your regimen as well. But focusing on breathing techniques and cold exposure without focusing on the fundamentals ( the list above) is putting the cart before the horse.
Weight Loss
Cold exposure probably does increase your metabolic rate ( how many calories you burn when you do nothing) but again it would be marginal.
Cold exposure is definitely not the main thing you want to focus on if you want to lose weight.
Here’s what you want to primarily focus on:
Eating in a calorie deficit ( eating fewer calories than you burn)
Procrastination can be defined as the action of delaying or postponing something. Such as an activity or a project, but includes many things. You may have procrastinated that time when you put off going to the gym, writing that blog post, or reading that book.
You might be procrastinating now by reading this article.
Procrastination is nothing new to human nature, but with a few strategies, I outline in this article, you’ll be able to conquer yourself once again and slay the gremlins of procrastination.
Would you have a great empire? Rule over yourself.
Publilius Syrus
1. Schedule Your Hardest And Most Important Tasks As Early As Possible In Your Day In Order Of Priority
As you go about your day some things are clearly more important than others. For example, if your goal is to build a successful blog or a great physique then some things take priority.
To develop a great physique the most important things are to eat the correct number of calories and macronutrients for your body, and consistently work out multiple times per week. Because if you consistently did the aforementioned things, within a few years you’d massively improve your physique.
And for building a successful blog you need to prioritise writing good content every day. If you did that, within a few years your blog should grow exponentially.
The examples I’ve mentioned include tasks that are inherently difficult. And procrastination usually manifests when we try to make consistent progress in anything difficult.
What I find helps me tackle the hard things in life such as working out, or writing is to schedule them as early as possible in my day.
Regarding writing, as soon as I wake up I’ll write for an hour and then go to the gym for 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on if I’m doing cardio or lifting weights.
Action – Whatever you’re procrastinating on right now try and schedule that hard task/activity as early on in your day as possible.
You’ll find that you feel a sense of peace and achievement throughout the rest of your day, instead of feelings of anxiety and guilt.
2. Write Down The Benefits Of Doing The Hard Things And The Downsides Of Procrastinating
If you write down the positive reasons for doing difficult tasks, it can add fuel to the proverbial motivation fire.
For example, if you consistently procrastinate instead of going to the gym then you’re sacrificing who you could be for who you are. No improvement, stagnation, and potentially worse health in the long run.
Whereas if you think about the positives, such as feeling the endorphin rush from exercising, having more energy, more confidence and being happy when you look in the mirror, then the decision to work out is a no brainer.
Action: Write down the advantages of completing your difficult task/ activity vs the disadvantages of procrastinating.
3. Have A Disdain For Instant Gratification
Right at the heart of procrastination is instant gratification. It’s the pleasure of regularly eating a family-sized bag of crisps in the moment that sabotages the long term rewards of being at a healthy weight.
It’s the Netflix binge you go on, instead of starting the meaningful project.
Eating crisps and watching Netflix in moderation are perfectly fine things to do, but make sure you get the hard activities (that are a breeding ground for procrastination) out of the way first.
Action: Once you’ve completed activities that you’d normally procrastinate on, give yourself a reward in your downtime. This could be watching Netflix for an hour after a productive workday, and/or fitting in some chocolate into your nutrition plan.
Use Deadlines To Your Advantage
When you have a clear deadline/goal of say losing 2-4 pounds per month (if your goal is weight loss). Or writing a minimum of 4 articles per month (if your goal is to build a blog). You always know what to aim for.
Having definitive outcomes can definitely help fight against procrastination. Because they cultivate a sense of urgency.
As a rule of thumb no deadline no urgency, but if you do have a deadline there will be a sense of urgency.
What About Activities That Will Never Have Deadlines?
Some tasks like building and maintaining relationships, eating a healthy diet, and reading don’t really have clear deadlines.
So what I like to do is think of the end of your life as one ultimate deadline.
If you’re lucky, you get around 80 years or 4160 weeks on this planet, and if you’re reading this article a chunk of them have already been used up.
So what do you want to achieve throughout your life?
Some questions to ask yourself to satisfy the ultimate deadline are:
How do I want to be remembered and what for?
What am I procrastinating on now, that I’ll regret later in life?
What activities although hard, provide me with the most benefits that I’m currently procrastinating on?
Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.
Become An Optimist And Have The Belief That What You’re Doing Matters
For example, if you’re writing an article or creating a project that can benefit others, derive motivation from the fact that what you’re doing will make life easier for others and hopefully solve their problems.
If you have this mindset, you’ll instantly make your work more impactful, and have confidence that what you’re doing matters.
Or if you’re working out, think of how much of a better person you’ll be if you become the fittest and healthiest version of yourself. You’ll be a nicer person to be around because you’ll feel healthy. You’ll generally be more productive and sharp in all aspects of your life. And you’ll set a good example for others.
When you look at how the hard things that benefit you (which you normally procrastinate on) actually have a net positive effect on the world around you, you’ll do them for the sake of doing them. No matter how unmotivated you feel at the time.
Motivation comes and goes. It’s the doing of activities that actually creates motivation. You don’t get motivated by doing nothing. You get motivated by doing the hard things consistently enough to see yourself making progress. The progress keeps you motivated and it’s a truly virtuous cycle.
The Bottom Line On A Practical Guide On How To Stop Procrastinating
There isn’t a single person in this world who doesn’t struggle with procrastination.
Make sure to schedule your most important tasks as early in the day as possible in order of importance.
Write down the positives of completing the hard tasks/ activities vs the downsides of procrastinating.
Have a disdain for instant gratification. It’s at the very heart of procrastination.
Use deadlines to your advantage, and remember death is the ultimate deadline.
Never let go by Dan John is a great book about “lifting, living and learning”. So many principles can be taken from fitness and transferred to other parts of your life and that’s what Dan dives into in this book. In this article, I’ll be giving you my top 5 takeaways from Never let go.
1. ” For the bulk of the population this small movement – driving your knees out with your elbows – will clarify squatting forever”.
When a lot of people learn how to squat they struggle to get deep enough, and a lot of people (including myself) have noticed their knees cave in.
Doing this simple drill of:
1. Getting in a deep squat position.
2. Driving your knees out with your elbows.
3. Holding this position for 30 seconds or more on the days you don’t train legs.
Will help your knees stay in line with your toes. And will help you get more comfortable in the squat position. This will make barbell squatting feel much more natural. I know it did for me.
2. ” Make Yourself A Slave To Good Habits”
In a sense, our habits are what help us get from point A to point B. They’re our systems. They can work for us or against us.
For example, the guy who orders a takeaway every night and consumes way more food than he should has a habit that is making him feel overweight and unhealthy.
Michael Phelps kept up the habit of swimming in the pool 3-5 hours per day 7 days per week which led to countless Olympic medals.
We all have the freedom to choose our habits. Working out 3-5 times per week, eating healthily, tracking your calories and going to bed early are habits that have big returns.
If you develop these habits you’ll dramatically improve your health and body composition.
The key is to become a slave to the right habits that have a positive impact on your life.
3. ” Look at your goals. Look at your behavior. Does your behavior match your goals? “
No matter what we say we want, whether that’s to attain a Hollywood physique, to start our own business or any goal really.
Our actions will always give us a true representation of what we really want. If we say we want to get in shape but don’t become the type of person who works out or pays attention to their nutrition. Then it’s just a wish and we didn’t really want it.
Nietzsche wrote:
“The value of a thing sometimes lies not in what one attains with it, but in what one pays for it—what it costs us.”
No matter what goal you have I think a good question to ask ourselves is ” Are we willing to pay the price of our ambitions”.
4. “There’s a lot of good in simply striving to achieve the best you can be”
No matter what there will always be someone bigger, stronger or more successful than us. But so what. Does that mean that you shouldn’t even start? Of course not. Everyone starts somewhere.
And you never know, if you start now on your goal you could make amazing progress 2 or 3 years from now.
Seeing yourself get stronger, and making progress in the gym (and outside of the gym) is satisfying by itself.
The squat and deadlift are fundamental in most training programs. But do you need to squat and deadlift to make progress? Or can you do just fine without them? That’s what I’ll be answering in this article.
It All Comes Down To The Amount Of Volume ( Hard Sets) That You’re Doing
Without a shadow of a doubt, the barbell squat and deadlift are up there with the best exercises you can perform. But that doesn’t mean you have to perform them.
Although you can do just fine with even fewer sets than this if you’re a beginner. Just look at reverse pyramid training. That’s a very low volume approach but because people are progressively overloading their muscles (getting stronger) they still make progress with RPT.
What Exercises Can You Swap Squats For?
So say you’re currently barbell squatting at the start of your leg workout for 3 sets. As long as you swap this exercise out for one that targets the same muscle group you’ll do fine.
You could swap barbell squats for Bulgarian split squats, or the leg press and you’d do fine as long as you were getting enough volume in and getting stronger.
What Exercises Can You Swap Barbell Deadlifts For?
Although deadlifts and squats are basically full-body exercises, the squat is more of a leg exercise. And I see the Barbell deadlift as more of a back exercise but you could make an argument that it was also a leg exercise.
A perfectly viable option to swap the deadlift with could be a row or a chin-up/ pull up or lat pulldown because these are all back exercises.
To Squat And Deadlift Or Not To Squat And Deadlift
If you can perform the squat and deadlift properly I’d say do them because they’re both amazing exercises. But its not madatory that you perform them.
As long as you’re doing enough hard sets and getting stronger, then you can make progress regardless of whether you squat and deadlift or not.
But just remember to swap them out for one of the aforementioned exercises if you choose not to perform them.
The Bottom Line On Do You Need Squat And Deadlift To Make Progress?
As long as you’re getting stronger and doing enough volume you’ll make progress.
Try and barbell squat and deadlift in your training if you can. Because they’re great exercises.
If you can’t perform squats or deadlifts swap them for another compound exercise for that muscle group, and you’ll do just as well. Provided that you keep getting stronger.
Thanks for reading.
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This article is going to be about mini cuts and why you should or shouldn’t use them. Before I get into the meat and potatoes of this article I need to briefly go over what a cut and a bulk is.
What Is A Cut?
A cut in fitness and nutrition terms is a fat loss phase. You cut when you want to reduce your body fat levels.
What Is A Bulk?
A bulk is usually what precedes the cut. It’s a prolonged amount of time that you spend gaining weight. Which if you’re doing everything right should be some muscle and some body fat.
When someone has been on a long bulking phase and has gained too much body fat they cut.
For someone who has got a lot of fat to lose, they could be cutting for months and even years depending on how much fat they have to lose.
So for someone who needs to lose a lot of fat a traditional cut is the best way to go. Until all the body fat they want to lose is gone.
What Is A Mini Cut And Who Should Use Them
A mini cut is a short amount of time that you spend cutting (losing body fat) anywhere up to 4 weeks in a fat loss phase Is what I class as a mini cut.
If you only want to lose 4-8 pounds of fat a mini cut can work for you. If you’re doing everything right when you’re cutting you can quite easily lose 1- 2 pounds of fat per week.
So if you cut for a 4 week period you can easily lose 4-8 pounds of body fat.
Why I Like Mini Cuts
Only having to cut for one month is much better than cutting for say 2-3 months. Because lets be honest being in a calorie deficit sucks.
A Good Way To Schedule Your Cuts And Bulks Using Mini Cuts
Here’s how you can do it:
Put yourself in a slight calorie surplus of 10% for around 4 months. This way you’ll gain around 1-2 pounds of fat per month.
At the end of that 4th month, make sure you cut for a month which should undo the fat gain. But should reveal the new muscle you’ve gained during the bulking phase. You should gain roughly 50% muscle and 50% fat when you’re in a calorie surplus, so during those 4 months, you should gain around 4 pounds of muscle.
I know this doesn’t seem like much but it makes a big difference. And if you do it this way you’ll gain around 10 pounds of muscle per year. Without having to go on long gruelling cuts.
And if you think about it. Gaining 10 pounds of muscle in a year is actually very good. Because overall most average men can only gain around 40 pounds of muscle in their life. And women can only gain around 20 pounds of muscle in their life.
So after a few years of bulking and using mini cuts, you should gain all of the muscle and strength available to you naturally. Providing you’re willing to keep getting stronger. Because in the long run, the best way to gain muscle is by getting stronger (progressive overload).
An Example Of A Mini Cut
Say that someone who weighs around 170 pounds at 10% body fat wants to gain muscle.
They then go on a 4-month lean bulk. At the end of this lean bulk they’ve gained around 8 pounds. 4 pounds of fat and 4 pounds of muscle. During this period they’ve gained around 2.5% body fat.
Their new body fat is around 12.5%. So if this person wanted to get to 10% body fat again, they’d go on a 4-week mini cut to lose those 4 pounds of fat.
Their new weight after the bulk and mini cut should be 174 pounds at 10% body fat (4 pounds of muscle gained at the same body fat).
The Bottom Line On Mini Cuts
I think mini cuts are great for gaining muscle and staying at a relatively low body fat percentage.
You can bulk and cut with mini cuts or just use traditional bulking and cutting phases where you might start at 10% body fat and bulk up to 17.5% body fat and then go on a long cut back to 10%. It’s up to you, but personally I don’t enjoy the long cuts.
Using mini cuts is in my opinion the best way to make lean gains.
Thanks for reading if you need any extra help send me an email at contact@henrypaget.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
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The Push, pull legs routine is one of the simplest and most effective training routines you can do.
When you’re finished reading this article you’ll know exactly what PPL is and I’ll provide you with a free routine that you can use right away.
What Is The Push Pull Leg Routine?
Push pull legs is a popular strength training/ bodybuilding routine that you can use to develop muscle and strength.
You can program this style of training to work out either 3 or 6 times per week.
On PPL routines a usual week might look like this:
Monday: Push day.
Tuesday: Rest day.
Wednesday: Pull day.
Thursday: Rest day.
Friday: Legs day.
Saturday: Rest day.
Sunday Rest day.
Or:
Monday: Push day.
Tuesday Pull day.
Wednesday: Legs day.
Thursday: Push day.
Friday: Pull day.
Saturday: Legs day.
Sunday: Rest day.
The first routine is the most sustainable PPL routine to follow. If you choose the latter it’ll most likely lead to burnout and injury. The latter routine is for people who are advanced (3-5 years of proper lifting experience).
For most people, I’d recommend choosing the first PPL routine. You can do just fine with it and you should be able to make gains for a long time doing so.
I personally wouldn’t even choose the last one. I just wouldn’t like to spend 6 days in the gym. 3-4 days in the gym is enough for me.
The Push Muscles
On a push day you’ll primarily be working muscles such as your:
Chest.
Triceps.
Shoulders.
When you perform exercises for these specific muscle groups you push. For example, in a dumbbell shoulder press, you push the dumbbells up and control them on the way down.
On the bench press, you push the barbell up towards the ceiling and you control the weight on its way down.
And think of a tricep pushdown. The push is in the name.
To keep it simple, push exercises are when the weight is being pushed away from you.
The Pull Muscles
The Pull muscles are your:
Back.
Biceps.
Think of the barbell deadlift you pull the weight up your legs. A pull is when you bring the weight towards you. Pull exercises also include rows, chin/pull-ups, lat pulldowns and bicep curls.
The Leg Muscles
The muscles of your legs are:
Glutes.
Hamstrings.
Quadriceps.
Calves.
Your legs are the biggest muscle group in your body. And this is one of the reasons they can be the toughest muscle group to train.
Here are the best exercises to include in your leg day:
Push Workout (Monday) Barbell Bench Press 3 x 8-10 reps. Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3 x 8-10 reps. Dumbbell Bench Press 3 x 8-10 reps. Side Lateral Raises 3 x 8 – 10 reps. Tricep Pushdowns 3 x 8 – 10 reps.
Pull Workout (Wednesday) T Bar Row 3 x 8 – 10 reps. Dumbbell Row 3 x 8-10 reps. Lat Pulldowns 3 x 8-10 reps. Bicep Curls 3 x 8 -10 reps.
Leg Workout (Friday) Leg Press 3 x 8-10 Reps. Bulgarian Split Squats 3 x 8-10 Reps. Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts 3 x 8-10 Reps. Seated Calf Raises 3 x 8-10 Reps.
Notes On Routine:
If you want to include barbell squats and barbell deadlifts into this program swap the leg press out for barbell squats. And swap the T bar row out for the conventional deadlift.
The reason that I haven’t included barbell squats and deadlifts in this program is that they can be complex exercises if you haven’t learned them properly.
I Recommend reading starting strength before incorporating squats and deadlifts into your training. Because if done incorrectly squats and deadlifts can quite easily result in injury.
Once you can get 10 reps with a given weight increase the weight by 2.5kg-5kg and aim to get 8 reps.
Rest 3 minutes between compound exercises for example the leg press, rows, bench press, shoulder press, squats, deadlifts lat pulldowns, chin-ups/pull-ups, lunges.
Rest 1 – 2 minutes between sets of isolation exercises like bicep curls, lateral raises, tricep pushdowns, calf raises, hamstring curls, leg extensions etc.
If you can, try to record yourself to make sure you’re performing the exercises correctly.
Once you’ve done this program for 8 weeks take a week off the gym and after that repeat the program again for another 8 weeks.
Make sure you warm-up for the first exercise of each workout. Once you’ve done this you should be warmed up for the rest of your workout. Although I do recommend warming up for the barbell bench press and dumbbell shoulder press separately on push day. Because one is primarily a chest exercise and the other a shoulder exercise.
A Warm-Up Routine
First warm-up set – 50% of your heavy working sets for 12 reps.
Second warm-up set – 70% of your heavy working sets for 4 reps.
Third warm-up set – 90% of your heavy working sets for 2 reps.
Here’s an example:
If you normally deadlift 100kg for your working sets for 8-10 reps here’s what the warm-up would look like:
First set – 50kg for 12 reps.
Second set – 70kg for 4 reps.
Third set – 90kg for 2 reps.
Then perform your working sets.
Why The 8-10 Rep Range?
First of all, there’s no best rep range for gaining muscle. You can gain muscle in a variety of different rep ranges.
But the reason I choose the 8-10 rep range. Is because you can build just as much muscle in this rep range as you can in the lower rep ranges. Without as much wear and tear on your joints.
For example in this study 17 young men were assigned to 2 groups.
One group performed 3 sets of 10 reps (10 rep max). Subjects rested for 90 seconds between sets.
In the second group, subjects performed 7 sets of 3 reps (3 rep max). Subjects rested 3 minutes between sets.
What this study found was that both groups built around the same amount of muscle and they both got stronger.
But the 10 rep max group was able to get in and out of the gym quicker compared to the 3 rep max group. And the 10 rep max group felt that they could complete more sets.
The 3 rep max group experienced more joint pain and experienced more injury. They regularly felt tired and zapped from this sort of training.
So the reason I think it makes sense to work in the 8 – 10 rep range is that generally higher rep training isn’t as tough on your joints as lower rep training. And as long as you’re getting stronger (utilising progressive overload) you’ll gain just as much muscle.
I think it’s best to train in a variety of different rep ranges for the best results. But if you’re just getting started, training in the 8-10 rep range will do you fine. Getting stronger from workout to workout is what matters the most.
The Bottom Line On The Push Pull Legs Routine
A 3-day push pull legs routine is one of the best routines you can do. It’s simple and effective. Anyone can get in the gym 3 times per week.
I used a push pull legs routine when I used to work 12-hour night shifts and sometimes worked over 50 hours per week. This routine worked for me because It’s extremely flexible.
If you can’t work out Monday, Wednesday and Friday just make sure to fit the workouts in whenever you can. Make sure you get all 3 workouts in.
As long as you’re getting stronger at this routine you’ll make progress. I guarantee it.
Thanks for reading. If you need any extra help send me an email at contact@henrypaget.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
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This article is just as much for me as it is for you. Because even though many of us know what to do when it comes to health and fitness. We sometimes miss the forest for the trees and get bogged down in the inessentials. These fitness reminders should help you get back on track.
1. Drink Enough Water
Drinking enough water helps with digestion, workout performance and preventing headaches (it can prevent dehydration). These are just a few benefits although there are many more.
Regarding how much water, I recommend that you aim to drink 3-4 litres of water per day to start with.
Although how much water you need to drink can be determined by a few other factors
such as:
Body weight.
Activity levels.
Body temperature (if you sweat more you need to drink more water).
But on average 3-4 litres should be adequate for most people.
2. Have A Calorie Target
Are you trying to lose fat? Then you must be consistently hitting your calorie deficit target. If you want to maintain or gain weight you also need a calorie target in mind as well.
To work out your maintenance calories (the number of calories to maintain your weight)
multiply your body weight in pounds by 15.
Done that?
Good.
If you want to lose weight take 500 calories away from the number you just calculated. This should put you in a calorie deficit.
And if you want to gain weight/ muscle add 200 calories to that initial number you calculated. This should put you in a slight calorie surplus.
3. Have A Protein Target
Eating 1 gram of protein per pound of your bodyweight is sufficient for:
Keeping you full.
Helping you build/ maintain muscle.
For someone who weighs 170 pounds, this would mean eating 170 grams of protein every day.
4. Limit The Junk In Your Diet Follow The 80/20 Rule
You can absolutely still include any form of junky goodness in your nutrition plan. As long as it’s not the majority of your calories. That’s fine.
I like to give myself the option of eating 20% of my nutrition from any food I like. For me, this is mainly chocolate or Ice cream.
So if you were losing weight and you needed to eat 2000 calories a day to do this, you could eat 400 calories from chocolate or ice cream if you wanted.
But you must make sure that the rest of your calories are coming from healthy whole foods. Foods like fruits, vegetables, lean meats, healthy fats, grains, fish, etc.
5. Make Sure You’re Strength Training 3- 5 times per week with some additional cardio
Regarding cardio, I like walking. It shouldn’t interfere with your weight training as much as high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and moderate-intensity cardio.
6. Get 8 Hours Of Deep Sleep Every Night
Sleep is so underrated. Getting 8 hours of sleep will dramatically improve your recovery. It’ll also make training more enjoyable. And everything is just easier when you’re not tired and run down all the time.
7. Don’t Drink Too Much
Drinking too much alcohol can lead to many problems so I try to limit my use to effectively 0 but occasionally I have 1 or 2 drinks. Hangovers are the worst. But drinking in moderation shouldn’t affect your body composition goals.
Thanks for reading, if you need any extra help send me an email at contact@henrypaget.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Most products in the fitness industry are completely useless. But there is a handful of products that can definitely be worth the money and can make your workout experience more enjoyable. In this article, I talk about the best workout equipment.
1. A Weightlifting Belt
A weightlifting belt can be a great product to have because it helps to increase intra-abdominal pressure.
When you lift weights (especially when you squat and deadlift) you brace. This means taking a deep breath into your diaphragm and contracting your abs like someone is going to punch you in the abs.
It’s perfectly fine to brace without using a weightlifting belt. But because using a belt increases your Intra-abdominal pressure it’ll help you brace harder, and you’ll also find it easier to brace while lifting heavy.
This will result in you lifting heavier weights while keeping your trunk nice and rigid.
Alan thrall gives a great video explanation on why wearing a weightlifting belt can help.
I personally only use a belt for barbell squatting and find that a belt width of 4 inches is best and most comfortable. But for deadlifting I prefer to use a smaller belt or no belt at all. This is because a belt that’s too wide can obstruct me from getting in the proper bottom starting position of the deadlift.
2. Squat/ Powerlifting Shoes
Squat shoes are great because they have a slightly raised heel and have a firm base to push off.
The raised heel is great because it helps you get in the bottom position of the squat much easier.
A lot of people lack the ankle flexibility to get into the bottom position of the squat. So the raised heel means that you don’t have to have amazing ankle flexibility as the heel is already raised around 0.75 – 1 inch.
Just using squat shoes can dramatically improve your squatting experience. Some people put plates under their heels instead of purchasing squat shoes but I think this is generally a bad idea.
Squatting on plates always felt uncomfortable for me. And I never felt stable doing it.
Using squat shoes was a game-changer for me. They significantly improved my squat.
A lot of people squat in running shoes in commercial gyms. This is a bad idea because running shoes normally don’t have a solid base to push off. Which can lead to you feeling off-balance when you squat.
When any sort of lifting is concerned and especially squatting and deadlifting, you need a solid base to push off.
Personally, I like to squat in Adidas Adipower powerlifting shoes (they’re linked below) and deadlift barefoot. For the rest of my lifting, I use vans shoes because they have a solid base.
The shoes I recommend are linked below.
3. Liquid Chalk
As most commercial gyms don’t allow real chalk to be used I always bring in liquid chalk for deadlifts and squats.
When you’ve been training for a few months you’ll find that your back and leg strength significantly outpaces your grip strength. When this happens I like to use a mixed grip for deadlifts alongside using liquid chalk.
Using a mixed grip and liquid chalk, I never have a problem hanging on to the bar. Grip strength shouldn’t get in your way after using this approach while you’re deadlifting.
For the barbell squat, I also like to use liquid chalk so that my hands can stay as close to my shoulders as possible. Because the closer my hands are to my shoulders the more upper back tightness I can maintain, this keeps the bar nice and firm on my back.
I’ve also seen some powerlifters put natural chalk on their competitor’s backs during powerlifting meets. The chalk on your back and hands can also help the bar stay in position.
Liquid chalk can also be great for maintaining your grip strength during chin-ups and pull-ups.
The liquid chalk I use is linked below.
4. Lifting Straps
Lifting straps can be used for conventional deadlifts instead of chalk, heavy barbell shrugs, heavy Romanian deadlifts and many back exercises.
They’re primarily used so that your grip strength isn’t stopping you from progressively overloading your other stronger muscles. They’re similar to liquid chalk but not as messy.
Here are the lifting straps I like to use:
5. Wireless Earphones
Wireless earphones have been a game-changer for me. Because it’s so annoying when you’re walking around the gym and your wire gets caught on something and the earphones come flying out of your ears.
I remember a time when I was on the cross-trainer and my wire got caught on the handles when I was performing a sprint interval. My phone ended up getting launched about 3 metres across the gym. Thankfully it was okay.
Regarding the choices, Apple AirPods are a great choice if you can afford them. But I’ve tried other cheaper alternatives that have also worked fine.
The Bottom Line On The Best Workout Equipment
Alongside good gym wear, I don’t think there’s much more workout equipment needed than what I’ve covered in this article. You could make the argument for knee sleeves and wrist straps. But I’ve always done well without them. It always makes sense to have a good water bottle that lasts. The one I use is linked below.
What workout equipment do you use? Let me know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading.
Speak soon.
-Henry
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As I don’t give many updates on my blog about what I’m currently doing training-wise. I thought I’d write this article on my current program. The reason being is because I think it might benefit people who’re just getting started on their health and fitness journey.
My Program Is Built Around Compound Exercises
Compound exercises are exercises that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. For example, the leg press is a compound exercise because it works your quads, glutes, and to a lesser degree your calves and hamstrings. Whereas a calf raise isn’t a compound exercise as it isolates your calf muscles and it doesn’t target any other muscle groups.
I Do Include Some Isolation Exercises
This program is built up from a majority of compound exercises but there are a few isolation exercises thrown in. This is to get extra volume (hard sets) to specific muscle groups.
For example, if you do a dumbbell row, your biceps are worked, but they’re only the secondary muscle group. The primary muscle group moving the weight is your lats.
And for that reason, I find that smaller muscle groups like your biceps can benefit from direct training. Where they’re the primary muscle group. This would mean doing an Isolation exercise like a bicep curl.
Isolation exercises help us target a specific muscle group while letting our other muscles rest.
My Current Program
Monday – Chest, triceps and calves. Barbell bench press – 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps. Incline dumbbell bench press – 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps. Flat dumbbell bench press – 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps. Tricep pushdowns – 3 sets of 8 -10 reps and the Standing calf raise machine for 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps.
Tuesday – Back and biceps. T bar row – 3 sets of 8 -10 reps. Dumbbell row 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps. Chin-ups 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps ( add weight using a weight belt when you can get 3 sets of 10 reps with good form ). Dumbbell bicep curl – 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps.
Wednesday – Day off
Thursday – Chest and shoulders
Incline dumbbell bench press – 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps. Seated dumbbell shoulder press 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps. Standing lateral raises 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps. Rear delt fly machine 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps.
Friday – Legs Leg press 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps. Dumbbell Romanian deadlift 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps. Leg extensions 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps. The seated calf raises 3 sets of 8 – 10 reps.
Saturday & Sunday off
Notes On The Program
Always warm-up for the first exercise. After you’ve completed your first exercise you’ll be warmed up for the rest of the workout.
A template for warm-ups sets:
First Warm-up set – 50% of your working weight for 12 reps.
Second Warm up – 70% of your working weight for 4 reps.
Third Warm-up set – 90% of your working weight for 2 reps.
For example, if you can leg press 100kg for 8 – 10 reps here’s how your warm-ups might go:
First set – 50kg x 12 reps.
Second set – 70kg x 4 reps.
Third set – 90kg x 2 reps.
Work sets…
Have 3 – 4 minutes rest between compound exercises and 1 – 2 minutes rest between isolation exercises.
Always control the weight don’t let the weight control you.
Always leave 1 – 2 reps in the tank. This means not training balls to the walls on every set. It’s okay to train to muscular failure (when you can’t perform any more reps) on your last set of isolation exercises because the risk for injury is very small on those exercises.
Once you can get 10 reps with a given weight put the weight up by 2.5 – 5kg and aim to get 8 reps.
Focus on getting just a little bit stronger week after week.
When Romanian deadlifts get heavy use straps. Because your leg and back strength will be stronger than your grip strength at a certain point. Straps help you to keep progressively overloading your glutes and hamstrings even when your grip strength can’t keep up.
After 8 Weeks Of Doing This Workout Have A Deload Week Or Have A Week Off The Gym
It’s very hard to just go on and on without having a full week off from the gym or even just training lighter. Make sure to have a little break from lifting after every 8 weeks or so for one week.
Either have a full week off from the gym or reduce the weight by 50% and perform the same amount of reps for each exercise during the deload week.
My Experience With This Workout Program So Far
After having some time off the gym because of a condition called costochondritis. I’ve had almost 3 weeks back in the gym now and so far my:
Bench press has increased from 50kg x 10 to 75kg x 8 and I know it’s going to keep increasing. Hopefully, I can get back to my best numbers of 115kg x 3 with patience and consistency.
Dumbbell row has increased from 22kg x 10 to 34kg x 8 and I’ll hopefully get back to my best of rowing the 50kgs dumbbells again soon.
Dumbbell shoulder press has increased from 14kg x 10 to 18kg x 9. Which is far from my best of shoulder pressing 40kg dumbbells. But hopefully, I’ll be back there soon.
And my leg press has gone from 170kg x 8 to 190kg x 8. Which is also far away from my best of repping in the mid to high 200kg’s.
But so far this program is doing what it was made for. Which was to make progress.
And even though I’m considerably weaker than I used to be. The act of working out and making progress from week to week is still just as satisfying.
So if you’re thinking about starting a training program and think that you’re “too weak” I’d say just start. No one really cares what you’re doing.
It’s comparing yourself to who you were yesterday that matters not who somebody else is today. If you do the right things success is predictable. In the gym, that starts by committing to a workout routine.
Thanks for reading.
If you’d like any extra help send me an email at contact@henrypaget.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
henrypaget.com 