2 Asses 1 Horse

I apologize but this will come across as a bit ranty but stick with me as I will actually have some helpful advice regarding this pitfall by the end. Anyone who has ever been out of shape and anyone who has ever been a trainer will be able to relate to this. Joe is fat, out of shape, and weak. He reaches out to the Googles and searches for ways to not only lose weight it also get super jacked at the same time. All the supplement websites he is pointed to say "WE CAN HELP!" Tiny disclaimer: results vary. You need to eat right and exercise while on this supplement. Etc. So as a reasonably not dumb person Joe reaches out to fitness experts and hears options from: he needs to focus on one first and get the other secondly all the way over to both can happen at the same time....at least at first. (Yay Beginner GAINZ!)

Here's the problem you have 1 ass and are trying to ride two horses. The bigger issue is they aren't going in the same direction! It doesn't work and for ideal results you need to focus on one. "Joe!" I say as I smack him across the face. "You took 20 years to become a fat slob! Is it too much to ask to take 6 months to lean out and then 6 months to focus on building?" 

"Yes." Joe says rubbing his reddening cheek.

I try to shake the thick-headedness out of him but it doesn't work. 

If you are like Joe this next part is for you. Here are some rules and facts that can help guide you on your double horse one assness thing. First let's at least get the horses going the same direction. Realize that this will be less efficient in general than focusing on one goal. Also understand that if you are new to training or it's been years since you were in good shape everything will work amazingly well for both goals but after a while you will find it harder to do both. That's where this framework comes in.

Rule 1: you need a slight calorie deficit to lose fat. If you want to keep muscle though, try not to reduce intake by much. Maybe only a 250-500 calorie reduction per day. Focus on eating your protein first then eat your carbs. This will ensure you are getting enough to keep muscle mass. I know it's sad to not eat all of your bread but hey you wanted to ride this pony so own it.

Rule 2: Lift weights. Got to build those muscles. What do you think toning is? You can't tone a muscle that's non existent. Stick to 12 or less reps so you can build muscle and strength.

Rule 3: focus on food intake not cardio. If you feel like you need to do cardio to appease your lack of understanding go for it but do short intervals with relatively long rest periods. Stuff like 1 minute on and 2 minutes off work well and don't go longer than 20-30 minutes. Long jogs for an hour and a half every day will make you crazy hungry and possibly eat away at that muscle you've been trying to build, but mainly the food splurge is the derailer here.

There you go. So do this for a year and get worse results than if you focused on one for 6 months then the other.

"But hey, what do I know Joe? You are definitely the expert here right?"

At least with these rules you will have some kind of progress and not waste as much time as most people do.

Talk Soon,

Dan Mason

Strongman competitor in the 242lb and 275lb classes and a pro powerlifter in the RPS 275lb class. He is also an Elite level lifter in the USPA/IPA. He holds instructor level ranks in Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He has been training people for strength and martial arts since 2004. For other fun stuff check his Instagram @RoninStr

Benching Like a Bauss!

So I have a decent bench. Currently my PR is 468lbs in competition and I will hit over 480lbs in August. So you can imagine that I get a ton of questions on how to get a bigger bench. Honestly for me I have always been a decent presser even with my longer than normal arms. I used to never know what to tell people. I actually hate benching. It always hurts and feels wrong. I don't even really have an arch to speak of when pressing, but after I've been asked so many times I figured I should do some soul searching and figure out why I'm not horrible at it so I can help people who are struggling.

So a brief history of me and pressing movements. I started off in martial arts and specifically kickboxing. As a result I did a ton of heavy bag work punching and kicking my life away. I am not sure on the science of it, but to me punching a heavy bag is similar to depth jumps for pressing. Also due to the positioning of a punch there isn't a ton of pec work but a lot of shoulders and tricep action. From there I went to CrossFit and later Strongman. Both have a lot of overhead pressing work thus continuing my tricep and shoulder dominance. I didn't bench all that often when doing strongman in the standard sense but I did a lot of close grip benching and slingshot and block work just to hit the triceps for locking out my log and axle presses. My best bench while I was doing strongman was 385lbs. I know it could have been better if I had hit more chest work but that's not what Strongman tests. Once I switched to powerlifting training and started bringing rep ranges down and my grip out a bit the poundages flew up. 385lbs-470lbs in less than a year. So let's address what happened throughout my training history.

First of all I have been hitting heavy bags since I was 12 years old. I am 33 now. So that means I have been, at least to some degree training my pressing muscles for 21 years. That's a pretty big base. So if you are benching 225lbs, you have been training for 6 months, and you don't know why you aren't pressing in the mid 3's then you need to stop reading now and just keep eating and hitting the weights for another few years. Rule 1 for Bauss Benching: Get some years under your belt.

Training age aside think of how many reps were spent with relatively heavy weights (for me) while training strongman. Ignore the overhead pressing and realize I was hitting close grips, sling shots, or board presses for sets of 6-10 for 4 years straight. That's in addition to the heavy overhead pressing. This is a pretty big hypertrophy base for once I started benching at higher percentages. Rule 2: Hypertrophy phases lay the groundwork for massive presses.

The next step for my bench was actually benching heavy and with a decent frequency. I was hitting more traditional bench presses 2-3 days per week. They were structured with 1 heavy day and 1-2 rep days depending on how I was feeling. Rule 3 for a big bench: Bench heavy once or twice per week.

The last thing that helped me is equal parts mental and physical and that's variety. Don't just flat bench every day. Mix it up a little. Use some chains or bands. Hit some incline bench or dumbbells. If you are hitting your chest, shoulders, and tri's you will be hitting the muscles that need to get stronger to hit bigger numbers. Also hitting those variations will allow you to address any weak spots you may have and prevent you from overuse injuries. For me the biggest part of this concept is that I don't get bored. I did come from CrossFit after all. Variety will keep you engaged with your training. Rule 4: Variety will keep you coming back and progressing.

So out of those are all well and good but I would say rules 2 and 3 have the biggest impact. It's the basic stuff that will always work. Make your muscles bigger with hypertrophy work. Make those muscles stronger with heavier weights. Peak for a month then repeat the process.

Happy benching. Now go get freaking strong!

Talk soon,

Dan is a top 10 ranked amateur

strongman competitor in the 242lb and 275lb classes and a pro powerlifter in the RPS 275lb class. He holds instructor level ranks in Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He has been training people for strength and martial arts since 2004.

You can follow Dan on Instagram @RoninStr and @RoninStrApparel
For training and nutrition advice and tips email roni