- What's up, it's Chris Heria.
Welcome to another vlog.
Today, I'm gonna be sharing with you
five things I wish I knew
before I started working out.
As someone that's been doing this for over 10 years,
I took time to think of things
that someone just getting into working out
could significantly benefit from
and find it really helpful.
So hopefully you can apply these five things
a lot earlier on and progress a lot faster than I did.
So with that said, let's get right into it.
All right, so the first thing is gonna be nutrition.
Having a balanced diet and being very aware
of my macronutrients.
When I first started working out,
I was about 135-140 pounds.
And I always knew that you needed to eat to grow
and the importance of protein.
And I would increase my calories and my protein intake
in order to gain more muscle mass.
But at the beginning, I didn't actually track my macros
to find the exact number of calories and protein I needed.
It was a lot of trial and error for me at the beginning,
but if I had counted my macros,
I probably would have gained a lot more muscle mass
a lot faster, and I probably would have been
a lot more shredded earlier on.
Oftentimes, people think that they're eating a lot
and enough to grow bigger, when in fact
they may not be eating enough the right things
or too much of one thing and not enough of the other.
On the other hand, some people just getting
in to working out have the opposite issue
trying to lose weight.
They may be thinking that because they're working out
and eating less that they should be getting leaner,
but they're wondering why they're not,
and that's 'cause they can be still unknowingly
in their caloric surplus despite eating less
because they didn't keep track of their calories.
By keeping track of exactly
how many calories you're consuming,
it's gonna be more accurate for you to track
whether you're really getting enough protein,
and if you're actually on a caloric surplus or deficit
in order to build more muscle or lose fat
and get leaner and more shredded.
So if you're not already doing so,
being very aware of your macro nutrients
and having a balanced diet will immediately
give you results.
Remember, you're already training hard,
you wanna make sure that you're covering
all the other aspects to see the most success
as fast as possible.
(soothing music)
Now, the second thing that I think
is really important to learn early on
is how and when to breathe when you're working out.
And that can make the biggest difference
in adding more reps and even lifting heavier
when you're training.
(upbeat music)
Now, there's lots of people that have been training
for years that still don't know
the importance of breathing properly,
or even how to breathe properly while they're working out.
And just like how breathing properly
will increase your power, strength, and repetitions
while you're training, not breathing properly
will actually decrease all of those things.
And not only will you gas out a lot faster
and not be able to deliver your power and strength,
but you may even end up hurting yourself.
For example, if you exhale all your air
going down on a heavy squat,
you may not be able to come back up.
But if you exhale going up on your squat,
you're gonna be able to deliver more power,
which is gonna increase your repetitions.
And if you're increasing repetitions,
you're gonna be able to build more strength and muscle.
So, first I wanna show you how to properly breathe
while you're training.
You wanna breathe in through your nose
and filling up your diaphragm,
and then you wanna exhale through your mouth.
You wanna empty out your diaphragm.
So to really get the hang of it
just put your hand on your stomach,
breathe in through your nose,
you should feel your stomach getting bigger,
out through your mouth, you should feel
your stomach sinking in.
Breathing like this is gonna allow more oxygen
into your body, which is needed for your brain and muscles
while you're working out.
It also helps you to regulate your heart rate,
allowing you to stay in the game and train a lot longer
versus breathing from your chest
and easily gassing yourself out really fast.
So even if you feel like you're out of breath
and you're breathing like this,
just try to stop and regulate your breathing
in through your nose, out through your mouth,
and you're quickly gonna be able to regain control
and get back in the game.
And as I said before, the timing of
when you're breathing matters a lot as well,
especially with the type of training that you're doing.
For example, if I'm doing a heavy lift on a squat,
as I said before, I'm gonna breathe in through my nose,
filling up my diaphragm before I go down.
I'm gonna hold it, go down, and as I come up,
I'm gonna be exhaling and releasing the oxygen
from my diaphragm.
And depending on how heavy it is,
I'll probably take a new breath with each rep.
Same thing for a heavy deadlift,
I'm gonna breathe in at the bottom, hold my breath,
release some air when I get to the top,
and then when I put the weights back down,
I'm gonna release the rest of my air and start again.
And giving me more power with the lift.
Now, if I'm doing something with more repetitions,
like bench press or full planche pushups,
handstand pushups, I'm gonna inhale
at the beginning of my repetitions,
and then I'll give a little spurt of exhale
while contracting my core with each repetition.
For example, breathe in.
Just like that.
Now, if I was doing something else more
of like an isometrics movement,
like a volt hold or a plank, for example,
I would be regulating my breathing the whole time.
Breathing in to my nose, holding my core,
squeezing my core and exhaling slowly and consistently.
(hissing sound)
Making sure that it's consistent and also even
as I breathe in, hold, and breathe out.
So start regulating your breathing while you're working out,
you're gonna increase your power and strength.
You're gonna increase your endurance and your repetitions.
And by increasing all of that,
you're gonna increase your muscle mass
and improve your physique as well.
(upbeat music)
All right, moving on.
That's gonna be knowing the right progressions
to be able to advance faster.
When I first started working out
I was actually intimidated by a lot of the harder exercises,
like the one-arm pull-up, full planche pushups,
or even the muscle of thinking that
there were too advanced or unattainable to reach.
And I had the common misconception
that I couldn't start training for them
until I was at in advanced level.
I actually wish I had started training them way sooner
as the very first progression to these exercises
are very beginner friendly, like the Australian pull-up
or the tuck planche.
And I would have achieved them a lot sooner if I did.
And a lot of the progressions that were the most effective
I had to discover on my own and the right time to use them
according to my fitness level.
if I would've known exactly what progressions
to do in the exact order, I would have achieved
these exercises way sooner, and I would've hit
way less plateaus in the process.
And on the same note, knowing when to progress
onto the next progression and not staying
on one progression for too long, is very important to know,
as a lot of people actually get stuck on a progression
like the straddle planche or the handstand push up
against the wall, instead of moving on
to the next progression.
That even happened me when I was training my planche,
and that's why I stayed drilling
and perfecting my straddled planche.
I was waiting for a sign to tell me
that I was ready to move on to start training
for the full planche, when I really should
have just been continuing to move up the progressions
instead of staying to perfect my straddled planche.
And once I actually decided to start moving on
to the next progressions, I started actually
to obtain my full planche.
So always focus on consistency, never get stuck training
the same progressions, and always strive for progress
and to move on to harder exercises and heavier lifts.
And if there's an advanced goal exercise or skill
that you want always follow the steps
with somebody that has already done it successfully.
There's a lot of information on the internet out there
and there's a lot of people that are talking
about things that they've actually never done,
or maybe have just read about.
You wanna learn from the people that have actually done it,
and have done it successfully.
And moving on to the fourth thing.
That's gonna be a better understanding
of your muscles and human anatomy.
I started taking training more seriously
when I was around 17 years old.
And when I was younger, I would train with what
I had already learned from martial arts
and what I had learned training with other people.
Now if I were to just start working out again
for the very first time, I'd start by learning
as much as I can about the human anatomy and physiology
as this is gonna help in developing a deeper understanding
on how all the muscles of the body interact
with one another.
And this is really important when it comes
to seeing the bigger picture and training your body
to the best of its capabilities.
When I think of my body and its abilities
I relate it to a knife.
You want a knife to be as versatile as possible
and as sharp in every area.
Now not all knives cut the same.
For example, not all knives you can cut a rope with.
But the most effective knife will be able
to use its blade in any situation.
It will be able to pierce, cut, and slice
using all the surface of the blade.
And that's how you wanna see your body as well,
being very effective, not just for every muscle group
in your body, but for other types of training as well.
And without a proper understanding
of physiology and anatomy, you can be walking into the gym
thinking that you're gonna get big arms
just by doing dumbbell curls, not understanding
that there's many muscle groups in your arm
that make up and help the strength in your arms,
not sharpening all the edges of your blade
and making a weak ineffective body.
So have a proper understanding
of all the muscle groups in your body
and how they all work together
and focus on sharpening all aspects of your blade.
All right, moving on to the last piece of advice
that I have for you guys.
That's gonna be to find a physical activity
that you're passionate about and use it
as natural motivation to work out.
When I first started training,
I was into skateboarding and martial arts
and eventually freestyle calisthenics.
And with those physical activities,
I was able to naturally produce motivation
without having to seek motivation
every time I was gonna start my workout session.
As every time I would see improvements in my strength
and workouts, I would see it transfer over
into my other physical activities.
Like having more powerful legs for skateboarding,
improved cardio for endurance and more explosive power
for martial arts.
This mindset of having another purpose for my workout
changed the whole mood for my workouts.
Instead of dreading my cardio and workout sessions,
I was actually excited and pumped to workout.
As every time I would train and get stronger,
I would get better at my craft.
That was easy motivation for me to be more consistent
and to train harder, while improving me aesthetically
and athletically in my sport.
Not just training to look strong,
training to actually be strong.
Improving and strengthening my craft
I'm passionate about is all the motivation
I need to train harder every day.
So find the craft you're passionate about
and let that be the reason why you're training.
And you're gonna enjoy every second of every routine
and have no problem being motivated every workout.
And that's gonna be five things I think is super beneficial
that you can start doing right now
that will completely change your fitness game
and have you excel a whole lot faster
and get a whole lot stronger in a fraction
of the time it took me.
So if you enjoyed the video,
definitely smash that like button.
Comment down below, lemme know what you want
the next video to be about and share this video
with a friend that can use these tips
to start taking their training to the next level
and start seeing some real results right now.
And don't forget to get my personal workouts
and workout programs that I've created
with specific goals in mind,
like building solid muscle while simultaneously
getting shredded with minimal to no equipment.
Make sure you download my app,
Heria Pro in the app store or Google play store
and make sure you become a member on heriapro.com
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Speaking of Heria apparel, I'm dropping
my brand new collection at the end of November.
You just saw one of the windbreakers
as well as one of the shorts dropping in the collection,
but you've seen other pieces from the collections
in other videos on this YouTube channel,
like the white jack pants, blackjack pants,
and many more.
Stay tuned to the end of November
and check back at chrisheria.com for the drop.
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on my Instagram, Chris Heria.
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'cause every single post I always do some type of giveaway.
If you want a chance to be a part of that,
make sure you're following me on IG.
So with that said, I'll see you
next Thursday, 2:00 p.m. USA Eastern time.
Mad love.
Peace out.
(bright music)