Simple = Strong: Tempo & Supersets

look training does not need to be complicated to be effective so today i'm going to show you two of the most powerful training concepts you will ever implement and give you some free workouts to put to the test let's roll [Music] [Applause] [Music] simple equals strong this is a functional bodybuilding model keep it simple and repeatable and you can have great success functional bodybuilding grew out of a need to bring back simplicity into my own training after about eight years dedicated to the sport of crossfit where the pursuit of elite fitness often meant pushing for more and more complexity and training designs and concepts there were two particular principles that allowed me to reclaim my health my strength and my vitality and i'm going to share them with you today see when systems of all kinds the body included start to break down or have problems we must always return to the simplest solutions if your computer is acting up 99 times out of 100 all you need to do is power down to do a hard reboot and get back online that's the computer's way of getting rid of the excess and going back to the simple foundations the same can be said for nutrition when i start to see my body composition change in a way i don't like or when my energy levels start to become low or unpredictable i can almost always trace back to diet and how i've gotten too complicated so i reboot my diet i get back to whole foods like meat vegetables fruit and a little bit of starch i cook it all for myself and i reduce the number of flavorings and seasonings i'm using down to just the basics like salt and pepper and what it does it solves 99 of my diet related issues so in the event that you've gotten off track with your training simply by adding too much complexity or pushing too hard with your intensity where do you turn for the reboot what's the foundational equivalent to a system reboot like your computer the answer equals resistance training but not just any type of resistance training specifically it is resistance training that thoughtfully includes two variables variable number one supersets variable number two tempo when properly prescribed and followed closely the impact of these two variables is substantial we can heal joints transform body composition improve strength and increase daily life functionality dramatically with just these two basic lifting concepts today i'll break them down and review how we implement them within a sample workout as a bonus i will also give you a third pillar to functional bodybuilding that pairs perfectly with this style of resistance training if you follow the link in the description below you can get your hands on this entire workout that you will see me and my wife performing in today's video for free to demonstrate these concepts i've enlisted the support of my beautiful wife and my decade-long training partner megan to join me in a workout pulled directly from the persist program which has three tracks and if your main goal is to change how your body looks while also moving better the body composition track i'll showcase is where it's at all right let's dive into concept number one supersets for efficiency see the traditional approach to training in resistance formats would be you come to the gym and you have five exercises for the day you focus on one at a time you do three to five sets of each the rest time between each set can vary but you'll complete all your work on one exercise before moving on to the next often all five exercises are focused on the same body part like leg day or chest day the superset approach you would come to the gym with one to two particular movement patterns in mind to train an example would be upper body pushing and pulling so instead of doing five sets individually you would pair two to three exercises together and perform them back to back alternating between them back and forth at the end of the day you might end up with the same amount of total work as the traditional approach but by pairing the movements you can reap some additional benefits what are those benefits well number one is efficiency see time is precious if you have 45 minutes to train then you want to maximize your time and results for the sake of simplicity let's just say that for optimal recovery between exercises you need about two minutes between sets you could sit around for two minutes on your phone while you wait or you could spend that two minutes going to do another exercise that works the opposing muscle groups and therefore allows you to continue to rest before your next set in essence you can just sneak in another set without negatively impacting your lifting the second benefit comes from movement combinations supersetting isn't just valuable because it saves you time but by pairing certain exercises together you will compound effects that make the strength or hypertrophy benefits of doing them together far greater than the sum of doing them by themselves why is this there's an intensification that happens when you do more work in a given amount of time the result can be a full body stimulus that has neurological and hormonal implications that positively impact your results furthermore i'm a firm believer that one of the most impactful fitness traits on quality and life is your work capacity work capacity or the ability to perform work inside a given amount of time domain if enhanced by doing precise supersets this will be felt in your day-to-day life next up let's talk about variable rest periods for work capacity and intensification once we adopt the superset training format we have a few more variables we can start to tweak to increase intensity and develop more work capacity in today's session the first superset used 90-second rest periods to ensure adequate recovery to optimize the strength benefits of that particular superset in the second superset we used 60-second rest periods along with higher time under tension to build more metabolic stress with these accessory lifts for hypertrophy and muscle endurance adaptations lastly the number of movements that we choose can alter the training outcome traditionally a superset would be two exercises performed back to back however inside of functional bodybuilding we'll often prescribe anywhere from two to four exercises in a single superset in doing so we can change the rest time between subsequent sets of a single exercise we can also add movements that are redundant in larger four movement supersets to give like a specific muscle group multiple different stresses from different angles and loads all right let's unpack concept number two which is tempo how do we read tempo see tempo refers to the speed at which all four parts of a single movement are performed it's about control building strength through time under tension and not exclusively just through the weight on the bar or the load you have to understand how to read tempo before you can utilize the principle well so how do you read tempo well there are always four numbers inside a tempo prescription and they always represent the same portions of any exercise this is a key point to address since sometimes exercises like the squat begin at the top while other exercises like the pull up begin at the bottom for consistency we'll always use the following format the first digit refers to the lowering phase otherwise known as the eccentric contraction this is the portion when the muscle are stretching under load in the same direction as gravity we're always stronger in this direction the second digit that's the bottom of the repetition this can represent a pause of any duration or there can be a zero which means we do not pause at the bottom of the exercise the third digit represents the upward phase aka the concentric contraction this is the portion of the exercise when the muscle is contracting under load and working against gravity we're always going to be weaker in this direction than the eccentric or lowering phase and finally the fourth digit represents the top of the repetition and again this can represent a pause of any duration or there can also be a zero here which means we do not pause at the top of the rep so if we look at these concepts inside the workout we did you will start to see very real examples and applications in the bench press example we used a 4-1 x1 tempo this exercise starts at the top so we'll read from the first digit and that will give us our tempo four seconds lowering one second pause on the chest x means you're going to move with as much speed as you can with the given weight to the top of the repetition and then we hold one second at the top when we're locked out for the pull-up example we're using a 3-1 x2 tempo since this exercise starts at the bottom of the repetition we'll go and read from the third digit and move to the right to get the tempo prescription so we start with x we're gonna pull up to the top as fast as we can we're gonna hold for two seconds at the top of the pull-up then we're going to lower for three seconds to the bottom and finally a one-second pause at the bottom before we start our next rep another term you're going to hear us throwing around when we discuss resistance training and functional bodybuilding is time under tension this is a useful way of thinking about weight lifting if you do 10 reps in 10 seconds versus doing 10 reps that take you 60 seconds to complete the impact on your muscle tissue and body will be dramatically different in the first example the time your body was under tension was only 10 seconds versus the second example where it was 60 seconds okay let's make the assumption that you're always going to be loading as heavy as you can for a given tempo that you're using if that's the case then there will be certain time under tensions that will be optimal for developing absolute strength speed strength muscle endurance muscle hypertrophy and more a heavy set of 3 in the back squat at 2 0 x1 that would be a great tempo for top end strength meanwhile a set of 10 in the back squat at 4 1 x1 that might be much better for muscle hypertrophy this can vary greatly from person to person but it is worthwhile to note that once we start to assign tempo we have a lot more control over outcomes and training with more control we can remove randomness that many people experience with lifting programs that lead to no results or plateaus okay key point here why you should not rush a pause why are pauses or a lack thereof so important in training the part of the tempo lifting that gets the most attention is often the eccentric portion of lifts generally it's the aim to slow down the lowering phase of any lift and many people can get this right away even if they go slightly too fast but one of the most overlooked aspects of tempo lifting is the length and execution of pauses and there are two types of pauses the first type of pause is a pause when you are more or less at rest take for example you're at the top of the squat or the bottom of the pull-up you're not exerting too much effort in those positions the second type of pause is when you're in a challenging position the example would be the bottom of a squat or at the top of a pull-up where you're really having to work hard to hold those positions i've seen people rush and skip these often when you're in the challenging position of a lift you want to get out of there as quickly as you can you'll often rush that portion of the lift count fast through that pause this can look like not pausing long enough at the bottom of a squat or shortening the pause at the top of a pull-up the other common fault and common occurrence that people tend to not think about is when it comes to pausing too long in the resting position so if you're performing pull-ups and the tempo calls for 2 0 x1 this means you are not to pause at the bottom of the repetition in other words you never get to rest the same is true for a 3-0 x-zero tempo back squat zero pauses means you're always moving and your legs are always under constant tension and this can make lifting very difficult let's take a look at the row example we're doing a tripod kettlebell row you can see this play out specifically as i'm doing these repetitions the entire set is under tension there are not restful breaks with one single pause at the top of each repetition when the muscles are contracting hardest against the resistance and then there's no pause at the bottom that means i'm constantly working for 30 to 40 seconds of this set without a break all right i hope that discussion of supersets and tempo really helped to solidify how those two concepts can make a dramatic difference in your lifting but now we're moving on to conditioning breathe and move well [Music] [Applause] [Music] as promised i have this bonus for you today with functional bodybuilding no lifting session is complete without some breathing work the true functional bodybuilder is someone who can breathe and move well but our mission is that we want to teach you how to perform conditioning work that doesn't break you down instead we want to reinforce the same quality principles from the resistance training supersets we just covered we want to complement all the work we just did to build muscle and strength and not break you down so how do we build our work capacity without introducing unnecessary risk of injury this is the magic of functional bodybuilding and is what we strive to include in our training programs through what we have categorized as our functional pump conditioning functional pump conditioning is breathing work that uses a variety of cardio tools body weight movements and weight training intentional control points to keep intensity in check and optimize quality and muscle contractions in order for this to complement the controlled approach to lifting that we follow so often we have to have ways to check our intensity inside of conditioning workouts too if we use tempo and supersets and rest periods for weight training then we need to have a similar toolbox of control points for conditioning work i've spent the last 10 years practicing understanding and cataloging ways to bring those control points into conditioning workouts some of them but not all include the following interval work with work rest cycles slow cycle time movement selection exercises like the turkish get up that you're seeing right now that take a long time to complete each repetition there's simplification of contractions choose exercises that have a relatively low complexity to them this way you do not introduce too much risk when you are under aerobic fatigue aerobic pre-fatigue or something we call buy-ins these help to dampen your power slightly so you cannot rush and race your way through these workouts combinations of loading and bodyweight exercises this allows us to control speed build in some additional strength and work accessory exercises in to the conditioning work that complement the weight training concepts from above so this workout format that you're seeing started with a two minute row to get the heart rate and the breathing rate elevated and in turn the following movements are going to be slightly more challenging and more pace regulated to perform this is an example of an aerobic pre-fatigue or an aerobic buy-in next up in this workout we went through a triplet of turkish get-ups sit-ups and body rows you can watch here but this slow cycle rate of turkish getup was complemented by two faster exercises if this had just been fast exercises then our paces would have been much faster as well throughout the whole workout we may have built more aerobic fatigue and or lactic acid the quality of our movements might have diminished even further but with the introduction of the slow turkish get-ups we incorporated some strength work some core work and gave us an opportunity to regulate our breathing and our pace so as to stay away from the dreaded red line in our conditioning work where your vision gets blurry your form starts to suck and you start to hate life i hope today's review of these two extremely important training principles along with the visual representation of how to put these concepts into practice will resonate enough with you that you will go try it out for yourself today add in the bonus of conditioning work that complements this lifting style perfectly and you have yourself functional bodybuilding in a nutshell if you're watching these final moments of this video then i want to say thank you your time is precious and i do not take it lightly that you have given up some of it to hear me talk about what i love to do remember to go down to the description below grab that free pdf of today's workout go give it a try and i'll see you next time thanks for joining me [Music] you

Channel: Marcus Filly

Views: 8,690

Rating: 4.9630485 out of 5

Keywords: functional, bodybuilding

Id: dYQRL94X2B8

Length: 18min 16sec (1096 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 10 2021