If I could go back 30 years and show this kid the video I'm about to show you here today,
I would. The point is, I made some muscle building mistakes along the way,
both in the kitchen and in the gym. And what I want to do here is share with you my 16 biggest
to prevent you from making them as well. And so, we kick this off with maybe one of the
more embarrassing admissions. But that's what this video is about. I actually opened up my magazine
as a kid and I thought that I'd look like this, like Shawn Ray just by simply doing what he was
doing. And I kind of wasted a whole hell of a lot of time in the process. And if I only knew that it
wasn't just the routine of 36 to 40 sets of chest that was creating this physique, I probably could
have been doing something a lot more productive with my time, like a lot less junk volume that
would have led to a lot better results. And not just that, a lot less of the body breakdown
that would have come along with trying to copy these routines and that led to some of the other
mistakes I'm going to reveal to you next. Mistake number two is not realizing soon enough
that not all oats were created equally. You see because as a kid I ate a lot of these
thinking I was doing something healthy. Except the problem with that is, along with my two servings,
because one was never enough, came 28 grams of sugar. And if I look at the sugar in this,
there's zero. And we know that when we're trying to build muscle, what we eat is going
to dictate the results that we get. And loading your body up with sugar, again,
even at an early age, is a big mistake. Know, the difference, this here is about ten grams shy of a
can of soda. Not likely what you're looking for when you're trying to build muscle.
This next one is kind of a double regret because I mentioned already how I followed
those bodybuilding routines to the point of actually breaking down my body. See,
I've talked about before the fact that I wasn't really blessed with the greatest of
feet. As a matter of fact, these flippers here have set me up with some pretty chronic knee
issues that I deal with even today. But doing those marathon workouts in that given state,
realizing that every single step produced more pains than gains, well, I probably should have
done something along the way to intervene. But I didn t. Because I felt that I should just keep
doing what I was supposed to be doing. All those squats, all those leg extensions, I just kind of
did what I was told to do. But back then I didn't know any better. And I don't know whether or not I
should blame myself more for not respecting my own body's limitations or for continuing to do
what I shouldn't have done in the first place. Regret number four has to do with not knowing
the value of the unshrug when it comes to building a bigger chest. Now let's face it,
I never had the greatest chest and still don't to this day, but I think a lot of it goes back to the
fact that every single chest exercise I performed was dominated by a shrug during it. And what I'm
telling you is it's very easy to consciously get rid of that by simply unshrugging your shoulders
and being aware of that on every chest exercise. On a bench press, if you take your shoulders and
you forcefully bring them down before you initiate the exercise, it does something
very important. It puts the shoulders back and it puts the chest at the first line of defense.
In other words, the chest will be the muscle that gets preferably recruited at the bottom of every
single bench press, making it more productive for its gains. I could do this on a crossover,
and I could do this on a dip literally on every single chest exercise in the gains
that you see because of the better recruitment that you get is noticeable. And it's definitely
something you want to make sure that you're not doing as well, because if you are,
it could be the very reason why you don't see the chest gains that you're after.
Mistake number five was actually being much too rigid with how I ate, and I paid the price for
it. And it wasn't until actually even as late as my New York Mets days that I became more flexible
or slightly thereafter. We used to board the plane for, let's say, a 12-game road trip out
west and be handed an envelope just like this with nothing but $100 bills and cash in it,
which was part of our daily stipend as our meal money. Well, a lot of the guys actually just
keep that money and add it to their salary at the end of the year. I would have pretty much
nothing left over because I was spending mine. I'm making sure I could eat a very particular way.
So, I would go out to LA and I'd actually sit down in the restaurant. They would sell eggs for about
18 bucks or so for two eggs. I said, Can I just get some egg whites? And they want to know, Well,
how many do you like? I'm like, I usually eat six egg whites. They'd come back and build me
$36 or even more, $48 for the six egg whites. And I would actually pay it because I was so
obsessed with the idea that maybe not eating my egg whites in the morning would cost me either
in terms of a percentage or two of body fat or not being able to look a certain way.
So, I became a lot less rigid and more flexible after, when I actually started living at home and
my wife opened up my horizons to other foods. And what happened? I actually got more muscle mass,
I actually stayed just as lean, and I think I'm much better off for it.
This next regret of mine was actually one that became fully apparent to me once I
became a physical therapist, and that is undervaluing correctives in terms of
their ability to help us build muscle. Because they seem like the little exercises, you know,
the ones that you don't really want to do. But the real power of corrective exercises,
especially when you do them consistently, is that they plug those leaks, right? They fill
in the gaps that allow the bigger muscles, the ones that get more of the attention,
to actually do their job better so you can improve your strength if you do correctives. You can
improve your esthetics if you do correctives. Even just doing external rotation can actually
improve the appearance of the chest by putting your shoulders back in a better posture.
There are so many benefits that come from corrective exercises that elevates them to
equal importance in your workouts. And again, I wish I paid more attention to it a lot earlier
age because I don't think I would have been broken down at the age I was either. These things
will work, and they'll work really well. So, this next one is another one that's a little
bit embarrassing because it reveals maybe how much I disliked the gym early on in my training.
And it's certainly how I dislike the discomfort of training. Because I shied away from the discomfort
of contraction when I probably should have been reveling in its ability to actually create muscle
growth. So let me explain a little bit. When I talk about all the time moving a weight
through space, I talk about not just lifting it up and down, but actually contracting it
through space. And with that, it's going to become likely a lot of discomfort, maybe even
a feeling of cramping. And I discussed this on the Andrew Huberman podcast a few months back,
that it's actually a great thing. You should be seeking out it contraction, discomfort,
almost a cramping type feel because it helps to build my muscle connection. You can almost tell
whether or not you've got a good ability to grow a muscle if you have that discomfort capability
when you contract it. You have to be able to get that muscle to a point of discomfort and not shy
away from it, but revel in it, even if it limits the number of repetitions that you can perform.
That contraction is key in realizing this more quickly than I did is going to serve you well.
Mistake number eight was actually not honoring my natural sweet tooth because I grew up literally
eating everything that you see on this table for breakfast. I was a total cereal guy. However,
when I first started to get serious about what I was eating and I tried to support my efforts
in the gym, I got rid of everything I possibly could that I thought might
be a problem for me nutritionally. However, it wasn't really honoring that
whole idea that I never really got rid of my sweet tooth even to this day. So,
what do I do? I make sure that even in my healthier approach to eating, I have ways to
placate that sweet tooth that's still there. So, I have my yogurt in the afternoon, which
don't judge is actually still gives me a little bit of a treat, especially if I add some whipped
cream on top. I have my frozen yogurt that I talk about every single night as somewhat of a treat
for my sanity to kind of keep me on track. I even have my own protein shake every single
day that tastes literally like a chocolate fudge brownie. The idea is, without having
some of these outlets, to still keep me satisfied knowing that the sweet tooth will always be there,
I wouldn't have been able to stay consistent with what I eat. And for me that's the key,
being consistent has kept me the way I look and has allowed me to build muscle as I got older.
Mistake number nine was actually a crucial oversight when it came to building muscle,
and that was forgetting about the eccentrics on pulling exercises specifically. And there's a
big difference between push exercises and pulling exercises. We know that when we're doing a pushing
exercise like a bench press, we don't forget the eccentric because we do it to protect ourselves,
that weight can come crashing down on you. However, when it comes to pulling exercises,
the weight is almost always falling safely away from you. On a curl, it's just going to drop away
from my body. If I did a row, the weight is going to drop away from my body. If I did a pull down,
the weight it's going to just rise back up safely to the stack so there is no threat of
the weight and therefore there is no reminder for you to actually slow it down. And one of
the main drivers of hypertrophy, one of the big three, is eccentric overload.
And by forgetting to slow down the eccentric and create that internal muscular damage that is a
stimulus for new growth and repair, it's a big mistake to make and one that you want to make
sure that you're not doing. Certainly, something you can learn from me. Speaking of overload,
when it comes to building muscle, you're going to want to make sure that you're progressively
adding load. And it doesn't limit itself to just the weighted exercises. And I think one
of the big mistakes I made a long time ago was not applying that to bodyweight exercises as well.
You see, what I would do is perform more repetitions of the same exercise. Really
try to drive up the number of reps I could do rather than try to drive up the difficulty of
the exercise variation I was using. Rather than continuing to just bang away at, let's say,
100 pushups a day, how about doing maybe 40 or 50 of a more difficult, more overloading, challenging
variation of the pushup? And that's where I think people should spend more of their time.
And the same thing when it comes to pull ups instead of just trying to continue to increase
rep after rep after rep be satisfied with fewer reps if now you're handling more low
with the addition of some weight. Remember, calisthenics exercises are still exercises,
they're just utilizing a different form of resistance. Forgetting to apply additional levels
of resistance is going to hold you back. Mistake number 11 is one that I've been talking
about for a long time, and that is if you don't prepare, you prepare to fail. And when it comes
to having your meals ready and what you're going to eat, your nutrition has to be on point,
and it has to be consistent. So, here's a couple of things that I recommend that you do.
Number one, have something available. In bulk. So, in terms of protein, a big bag of frozen chicken.
Here, sweet potatoes, tons of them up here already in prepared containers. That was gotten from Stew
Leonard's catering menu. I told you guys to utilize the catering menus of these places so
we can buy them in bulk and not have to spend as much. But taking that to kind of the next step and
that is if you can, prepare the actual plate that you're going to eat ahead of time for the week.
Now doesn't have to be the same food, but what I'm talking about is that the slightest slip up,
the slightest inconvenience where you don't feel like putting together even the stuff
that's already in your freezer and put it on a plate and you reach for something else,
you could fall off of your plan. And when you do, there goes to consistency, and all of a sudden now
you're back on track to a bunch of bad meals. And so, my next big regret was not realizing
sooner that I actually was not the athlete that I thought I was. You see,
not all athletes are created equal, and that means you probably shouldn't hydrate the same way. See,
I thought I was Michael Jordan and I grabbed Gatorade all too often as my sole source of
replacing my lost electrolytes. The big problem is I wasn't running up and down the court sweating
my balls off for two hours like Jordan was. I was performing maybe 30 sets of a chest workout
with about three minutes of rest in between. It's not the same. So you didn't have to be replacing
electrolytes at all. As a matter of fact, I should have just been drinking water, this
was just a bunch of sugar and a big mistake. So, number 13 turned out to actually be my lucky
number because it's where I realized the value of the Face Pull. You see, the Face Pull is something
that, again, might fall into that corrective exercise category that I've already told you about
is not something you should be overlooking. But beyond that, it's not just a corrective exercise,
it's a muscle building exercise and one that's incredibly important for building up the muscles
of the upper back and mid scap area that we just don't often train enough. And you can never get
enough strength and development in these upper back muscles to counteract the postural demands
and overuse that we get from a lot of our pushing exercises that we do. So, believe it or not,
when I was 13 years old, I actually accidentally ran into the value of the Face Pull because I had
that five pound Marcy dumbbell of mine that I just kind of moved around and all kinds
of motions to try to feel like I was doing something at least respectable in the gym.
It was the time that I actually leaned over and tried to pull it straight back that I realized
how difficult but beneficial it was for my upper back. I guess that's where you can say the benefit
of the Face Pull started for me. Of course, then I forgot all about it and never did it again for 20
years until I realized now how important it is as far as its role in training. And it should be part
of everybody's training routine. Hopefully you won't forget about it after today.
I've shared some pretty big regrets so far, but this might be one of my biggest of all time,
and that is not realizing that the most important supplement that I could actually put in my body
was right here, just regular water. And for so many years I literally just use thirst
as the determinant factor of whether or not I should be taking a drink. So, what I do now,
and I've learned my lesson big time, is I start my day, every single day,
I've covered this tip with you before with two bottles of water sitting right next to my sink
in the morning. I have to chug them down first thing when I wake up. And the good news is it kind
of kick starts a lot of good things happening. But most importantly, it's at least providing my body
with a jumpstart on the water that I'm going to have to sustain for the rest of the day.
And by doing it first thing, I do remember a lot more now, I don't just use thirst as my
guide for whether or not I should be drinking. The idea here, guys, is that muscles are 70%
water. If you think that you can walk around chronically dehydrated and get the most out
of your muscular development, you're making a big mistake. Don't make the same one I was.
So, this next one is one that I actually wished I learned a hell of a lot sooner.
And it wasn't until I gained my education as a physical therapist that I did. And it's trying
to train through an injury rather than around an injury. And there's a big difference. And it was
the appreciation that I got from understanding just how interrelated all these little muscles
and bones are to each other and how we have options if we just know what to do.
You see, for years I mentioned earlier that I had troubles with my knees and rather than banging
away the exercises that were just exacerbating the situation and making it worse, I could have
redirected my attention to something that would have allowed me to let the body and tissues heal
and still train and gain strength. I talk a lot about my torn labrum and
how I actually learned in later years to be able to train around that. In other words,
not stopping training altogether, but not continuing to do exercises that inflame the
tendons that are already problematic. So, when I did my chest training exercises that would light
me up every single time, like a Bench Press were replaced with a simple Crossover. And no,
it wasn't an ideal situation, but it was one that allowed me to continue to train where
there was lots of pain before. And continue, most importantly, to stimulate the muscle
and make gains until it was able to actually properly heal. And then I can get back into
doing the Bench Press. Having a smarter approach and being willing to zig and zag. But still train
is a really important weapon to have in your arsenal. And the sooner you realize that you
want to work with your body. Rather than against it, the more uninterrupted your gains can be.
And at number 16, we have to talk about the most important training variable of them all, or at
least the one that we almost always forget. And that's the manipulation of time. Because time can
be literally the great equalizer. If you forget to manipulate time in favor of things like reps,
sets and exercises, well, you could be making a giant mistake. Because time can dramatically
increase the intensity of your effort. I have no greater example of this than one time when
my sister told me, Hey, listen, we're going to church and we're leaving in 15 minutes.
And I knew I couldn't afford to miss yet another workout. So, I did exactly what I would normally
do in 45 minutes to an hour in 14 minutes. And the amount of work that I was forced to
do in that condensed period of time served to increase the intensity to a level I had never
experienced before. But it planted a seed that would later on become a very important part of
my training. And even the amount of time that you rest in between sets, if you decrease that
rest to the perfect amount of time, you can get more out of your workouts because you
keep that intensity high from set to set. It's actually part of our effective rep strategy
that I shared with you here before. If you want to actually try something that will
show you firsthand what this feels like, make sure you check out the 100 chest workout guys,
I promise you, it's a different experience and I want you to give it a try.
If you haven't already, make sure you click, Subscribe and turn on your Notifications
so you never miss a video. And also, if you're looking for full programs, guys,
we have them at Athleanx.com. I hope you found the video helpful. Tell me what other things that you
are dealing with that maybe I didn't cover here. I love to hear them down below. See you soon.