S6:E21 - 30 Minutes of Destroying your Common Fitness Questions

Welcome to the show that punches you in the face with entertainment. Welcome to the Enterprise Fitness Podcast. I am joined today by Coach Ari and Coach Cristiano. We're going to mix it up a little bit by doing Q&A questions. On my Instagram, I put up an ask me a question, and little do you guys know, Ari can pronounce just about any word. He can pronounce any word, and he has— I'm going to say he has a degree in pronunciation.

Pronunciation.

You can't even write this stuff.

Thank you for listening.

So, so he's very good. So these jokes write themselves. They do write themselves. So when people like spell things wrong or there's wrong sentences— anyway, I'm going to read out the questions. I'm going to see Ari cringe. I'm going to read out the questions word for word and we're going to answer the questions. But the first one is, uh, Ari, what's your intake in calisthenics?

My intake?

What's your intake? What's your intake?

So calisthenics are quite calorie dense. I try to limit how much I eat. So I speak English, I don't translate.

Yeah, so, um, for the non-English speakers, me and Cristiano, we know what this guy's trying to say. He's saying all jokes. What's your, your take on calisthenics? I can begin this one. So So my take on calisthenics is I've never done it. It's probably a very good base of exercise and movement to begin someone from. What I have noticed in people who do have a calisthenics background is they do and are able to progress way faster than people who don't because the variation of movement is far more complex than, let's say, just the, you know, up and down squat or a barbell press or a bench press. So if you're able to be good at calisthenics and you have a reasonable level of, I suppose, skill then it does make other movements that are simpler by definition that you just add load to a lot more simple. Cristiano?

Well, I think calisthenics depends what, what he means by calisthenics, because if you think about pull-ups or dips, probably not a good place to start beginner.

Yeah, it needs to be, um, obviously progressed or regressed accordingly. And I'll probably leave that one alone for you. Now, do you have—

no, look, it's not something that I've done much of, if at all. But if there are ways, exercises that can be regressed for someone who is a beginner, then I guess there is value in pursuing calisthenics-style movements for someone that doesn't have equipment available to them. And if you've just got a chin-up bar or a park around the corner from you, and you— that's a means by which you can begin your exercise journey, then there's definitely value in that.

Awesome. So next question: should I do cardio alongside strength training to build muscle? Hmm, do you want to kick this one off, Christian?

Uh, cardio to build strength and muscle depends what phase.

Should I do cardio alongside strength training to build muscle? Okay, interestingly worded.

In my personal opinion, there's a place for cardio, so it's a yes. Because more blood flow through muscle. So when you go back doing strength training, you know, more nutrients, and also help you deal better with stress. So I guess it's a yes.

Mine is— I like to talk about this concept around, you know, your north star of physical attributes is strength, because the stronger you are, it generally makes— well, it does, it makes everything, whether it's endurance, whether it's hypertrophy, whether it's coordination, it makes it easier once you're stronger. So my north star is strength, and depends on where you're at in the periodization block. And it's interesting, that's like, would you alongside strength training to build muscle? It's not a hard no, and it's definitely not a hard yes. It's where are we at? Is our hypertrophy happening more from that myofibrilla, or is it happening from the sarcoplasmic? Because if it's more from a sarcoplasmic style of hypertrophy, then I'd say yes, I would include more cardio. But if it's more that myofibrilla kind of low reps, and because you can have hypertrophy from low rep training, let's say that 3s, 4s, if we're doing it more like that, then I— if my goal is to get stronger, then again, what type of cardio am I doing? I'm not— definitely not going to be prioritizing cardio, and any cardio that takes away from my strength work that I'm not going to be doing. But if I'm doing general strength training to build muscle and I'm doing a sarcoplasmic kind of higher reps, 12, 12 reps and above, then cardio I think is completely fine, particularly because it's going to help that autonomic nervous system. Really, the answer, the hard answer, is it depends on what you're doing and also what phase of training you're in.

I'll say a couple things. I know Eugene Teo, shout out to the big man, did a post about this a couple months ago. He basically said if you have two identical twins, both identical, obviously, in their physical ability, muscle mass, size, and strength, and you have one that has better cardiovascular fitness than the other, the likelihood is if you're observing their training over time, the person with superior cardiovascular fitness is likely going to recover probably better in between sessions, and in doing so, likely able to train more frequently and more intensely. And then touching on what you said as well, what I'll typically say to clients is if cardio is something that they want to do and that they enjoy doing, let's look at working it in. However, if it cannibalizes your ability to output during your sessions, and it's not likely going to be the most conducive to your goal if the primary goal is hypertrophy and strength. So if you go for a run and you got legs the next day, it's obviously going to compromise you to some extent.

I don't feel like it's a fair comparison though, because it's like, if all things were equal and you just did this one thing better, you would be better. Of course, if all things were equal and you did— it's like saying if all things were equal and you were stronger, you'd be better. Of course, because that is the argument that strength coaches will make. It's like, if you have two athletes of the same skill and the other one's stronger, the stronger one's gonna win. Yeah, but if it goes into the 12th round and the other guy's more conditioned, then the guy with more conditioning is probably going to win because he's going to wear down the guy with more strength. So is that exactly a fair argument?

Definitely not, but it's— I think it's just helping people understand that there is some value in, in cardiovascular fitness and not totally disregarding the need, or at least the value, of having a solid base of aerobic fitness, even if the goal is still hypertrophy. Is it the biggest mover of the needle and the lowest hanging fruit? No, but it def— I'd say it has its place to some extent.

I would go one step further and say it's probably more the function of the autonomic nervous system. And the reason why you'd put and prioritize cardiovascular work for body composition is more to assist that autonomic— the assist heart rate variability and assist resting heart rate, because you're fitter, then your autonomic nervous system is going to be more responsive as well. So you have that component that also needs to be considered too. Moving on.

Agreed.

Yeah. All right, the next one: which muscle shape that's determined by genetics is the best for each muscles?

Something something muscles.

Sorry, we do get a lot of internationals. Muscles have muscles. English is their second language, just like you should be able to translate this one.

Yeah, Google Translate.

You're at Google Translate. So Let's try and— which muscle shape that's determined by genetics is the best for each muscle? I'm going to hazard a guess this person's asking what muscle shape— that's really hard to interpret.

It's the easiest to grow? Is that what he asked?

Well, how can we shape our muscles? Let's go with— I think he's asking a question about how do we shape our muscles? Is it determined by genetics? So let's go with that. You can obviously have influence on any muscle that grows, and like a bodybuilder is going to sculpt, so Are you going to have absolute control over exactly how the muscle is going to look? Probably not, but to a degree you do have a control of how your overall physique looks. So what that means is that if you want to have a wide— if you want to have a small waist and a really wide V-taper, then you're going to be training more lats and probably doing less things like working on the obliques and doing heaps and heaps of ab work. And you don't want to make your glutes too big because you want to create that optimal illusion of having a very small waist and very big shoulders. So you're gonna, you're gonna work on the body parts that are gonna create the visual aesthetics. Now, are there body parts that are gonna respond genetically more than others? Sure. But at the same time, you're not limited by that. More what I look at is some people are genetically more attributed to responding to high loads and frequency. Others are gonna be more responding to lower loads and higher volume. So you've got to kind of find out, and different muscle groups are going to respond differently. So for example, like your hamstrings, for example, are predominantly for most people a fast-twitch fiber type because of the way it functions. This is where if like hamstring hypertrophy specifically— I always train hamstring hypertrophy specifically in that 6 to 8 rep range, or even 4 to 6 rep range, because it responds better. Whereas if I'm doing things like say lower back, which is more a function of endurance, I'm going to do a lot more reps because of the function aspect of it and create hypertrophy. So you can create hypertrophy through low reps, you can create it through high reps. Actually, a lot of studies that show this. The number one thing that you need to keep in mind is proximity to failure, and you can get proximity to failure through, you know, 2 to 4 reps to 25 reps. It really depends on how you train. Cristiano, things to add to this?

I think he's asking about genetics too. Genetic plays a huge part in how you develop your physique, and muscle shape.

There's no question on that. People are predisposed to—

like, people that played sports in the past, and maybe after a while they retire, they go into bodybuilding, it's probably much easier for them to get a better physique, which isn't really genetics, it's having that background of sport. Or maybe it's a mix of both.

Yeah, it could be. But if they've got a background in sport, then yeah.

Yeah, I'll say that I think a lot of people can misconceive genetic limitations for, or misconceived, just lagging or mistrained body parts for genetic limitations. An example of that common one is if someone says they're genetically got small calves or their calves are stubborn. Now yes, calf size can be largely determined by genetics, but if you're doing, say, a leg session and you're training your calves all the time at the end of that session when neurologically you're far more fatigued, you're not putting your calves in the best position to ultimately get the most out of them. If, if it's calves that are of the utmost importance to you, train them first in your workout. There's no set rule saying that you have to train calves last because they're a smaller muscle group or an accessory. If they're most important, prioritize it.

Well, shout out to Hamming.

Shout out to the small calf. No, most people who have small calves train calves once a week. People have big calves train calves every second day. I— yeah, James told me I wasn't allowed to train calves anymore because they're too big. True story.

You got big calves.

Yeah, they're almost cows. Thank you. I don't think they're big enough because Serena says they're small.

You're right, one is bigger.

See, I need to train them more. James, if you're watching this, I need more calves. Quick message from our sponsors, us. If you're enjoying this podcast, make sure you hit subscribe on wherever you're listening to this podcast, be it Spotify or iTunes. And also go right ahead and check out melbournepersonaltrainers.com, hit the resource tab, and you can actually download the digital version of this completely free. This is our user manual. It's loaded with shopping lists, our questionnaires, our how to set goals, serving sizes, and a whole bunch of stuff. Really quick, easy reference guide that you can use. And of course, if you want to dive deeper into our world of nutrition, check out the Enterprise Diet book. It's on Amazon if you're international, right from Australia. And if you are within Australia, check out enterprisediet.com to order your copy today. All right, back to the podcast. Next question: thoughts on peptides, do they work for building muscle?

Cristiano, I don't know anything about peptides.

Okay, so there's a peptide There's only one real peptide that I know a bit about, and that's BPC-157. BPC-157, do you know what it stands for? It's body repair compound.

Body—

is that right?

Body something compound.

Body something compound.

I know people— I know James is screaming through the screen right now telling us what it is.

Yeah, yeah, it's something, something body repair. So basically, the way peptide works is, you know, peptides are not steroids. And a lot of people, when they hear about peptides, is like, you know, because you can inject peptides And you can have the oral tablet peptides as well. They're not steroids. First of all, you have a protein and then your protein has amino acids and there's peptides inside the amino acids that make up a chain. So what the peptides do is helps complete that chain to help facilitate the recovery. So this particular peptide, the PPC-157, helps facilitate recovery of damaged muscle tissue and tendon and ligament tissue. It can be quite beneficial for recovery. Now, are there peptides specifically that are going to help build muscle. I'm sure there is, and if there isn't, they're probably making some in the lab somewhere, but I can't speak on that because I'm not an expert in peptides. But the BPC-157, there's really two ways you could take it. You could take it orally or you could inject it. Now, what we know for sure, if you take it orally, it does have an affinity for the gut. So if you have any kind of gastrointestinal issues or food sensitivities or just things like your gut isn't— you've had a lot of issues, like with gut health in general. The BPC can help facilitate the healing of the gut lining and really help. The other thing is if you've had injuries, the injectable directly into site locally. So for example, if you've like torn your bicep, you would inject it directly into your bicep, into the injured site, can help facilitate the recovery. What I have personally found better than peptides is steroids. No, no, joking. I haven't done any steroids, but so I had to make that joke. What I found better than peptides is the RP. It's funny because people would be like, is he joking? Is he— no, I've been natural my whole life. PRP. So PRP is plasma-rich platelets. So PRP basically is where they extract your blood, they centrifuge it, and then they take the platelets and then they inject it straight back into the site. I've found that way more beneficial than peptides for injuries and recoveries. Are a lot of doctors who will do PRP. So if it's a recovery thing, if it's a muscle building issue— I know there's some, there's someone like probably you, someone like you is like, yo, I can tell you're not doing steroids, bro, because you're so small.

Hahaha, get out of my head.

Yeah, Ari, anything to add on this?

Um, relatively outside of my scope as well. If you're going to take something, do your due diligence.

Absolutely. And yeah, the PRP you can find from a sports doctor But yeah, before peptides, I personally see a doctor and see if you can get PRP because there's a lot of— I've personally found it way more beneficial. Next question: are compound exercises absolutely essential for hypertrophy?

Cristiano, absolutely essential?

No, but you mean I don't have to squat and deadlift?

Taron asked me to do this. If you want to beat back your deadlift And if you want big back, you bench.

If you want big back, you bench.

You mean if you want big back, you deadlift. Okay, with the Italian accent. Absolutely essential, probably not, but it's—

they help. Okay, Ari.

Oh, look, there's, there's going to be plenty of anecdotal cases campaigning for both, right? There are people, there are bodybuilders who are completely anti-deadlift and advocate against it, and then of course You've got people who advocate for the opposite. They definitely have their place, in my opinion, in terms of being able to, well, teach movement patterns and work with— on dynamic stability. But I think compound movements in isolation, no, but in conjunction with dumbbell and machine movements are just going to make sure you're covering all your bases in terms of being able to overload your muscle, being able to work your dynamic stabilizers, learn correct technique.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, look, from a, from an absolute perspective, you can build a great physique using isolation. You absolutely can. The question is, why would you want to do that? Do you want to be built for show or just for go, or just for go and for show? You want to be built for both, right? If you're not doing compound exercises, you're missing The best analogy— you love my analogies— the best analogy I have is if you just focus on isolation exercises, think of a chain that's unlinked. So you just got links of a chain on the table. Doesn't matter how big you make those links, you can make them bigger and bigger and bigger, it's never going to make a chain because you've got to link the chains. So think of your functional compound, like your deadlift, your squat, as creating a chain of thick links, whereas if you're just doing isolation work You're making the links of the chain bigger, but you're not turning into a chain. You want to do both because I think you, you probably want to be moving well right throughout life, and you are just by focusing on isolation. You will create dysfunction structurally and create deficiencies that will probably get you injured at some point if you do something that's outside of the scope of isolation.

Yeah, to add to that, get a coach, because if you're especially a beginner and you're looking to do heavy compound exercises and you're performing them without the good technique and without the correct education, then the risk to reward, the risk to reward ratio in the short term is probably not going to be worth it for you.

I'd even say, even if you're advanced and you're strong, you're probably strong enough to really injure yourself. So it's probably even more important for you if you're advanced to get a coach. Because if you're— I remember one guy, he was massive, he's very big, and he just didn't have the flexibility. Like, he couldn't rotated. I don't know, he wiped his ass because he couldn't rotate back. And that's a case of just heaps of isolation work, super tight in the chest, not bouncing out his back, and not being able to move his shoulder. External rotate, very poor external rotation. He's the type of guy that if he threw a ball, he's got a lot of muscle and he's got a lot of force behind it. If he threw a punch, he's the type of guy that would tear his bicep for sure because he doesn't have that range of motion, or tear his rotator cuff 100% because he's so strong, he's able to generate so much force he could tear his own muscle off the bone. Even not just for beginners, but definitely for advanced as well, for sure. Next question: best strategy and timeline to go from 19% body fat to 12% body fat considering weight is normal? This is definitely a question for the comp prep coach.

From 19% to 12%, okay, depends where you're starting. So if you've under eating or overeating, start with habits, routine, find out what's your true baseline there, maybe spend a little bit more time maintenance, and then, then diet down. Timeline, it really depends, it's really individual.

There's going to be so many variables here, obviously, without having, having seen this person, looking at what their body composition is. Obviously, if they're looking to get down from, say, 19 to 12%, there's obviously two ways in which we can reduce our body fat percentage, and that's by either gaining lean mass or losing fat. So how much body fat they have or how much or little muscle mass they have is going to have a massive— be a massive determinant of the time frame.

Yeah, 100%. Look, best case scenario, you're probably aiming for a 1% body fat loss a week. But at the same token, like, it doesn't necessarily mean you need to lose 1% body fat a week because often in recomposition— in recomposition cases, what I— again, you probably speak to this as well with a lot of stuff that you do, is you actually want to keep people's weight the same as they get leaner. So you're not actually getting them leaner by percentage, you're just increasing the muscle mass. So if I can do that for 3 months and just increase someone's muscle mass, they will get leaner without really focusing on body fat, if that makes sense. So sometimes the answer is not necessarily calorie deficit or fat loss phase, it's actually just build more muscle because you're too skinny. It depends on how you want to play the strategy, but I think weight is normal. It's hard to answer because what is— how tall are you and What do you mean by normal? Like, how lean are you? But yeah, I would focus on that and then get as big as you can muscle mass-wise, and then go into a deficit more aggressively, like what, what you did, which was like 4,000 calories. And then you start dieting from there because it makes things hell of a lot easier. Yep. Lucky last question: rank your top— this is from our friend Shane. Shane, Shane, who's a trainer here at Enterprise. Rank your top 5 energy drinks. Of course, Jocko Go is first, and why? Shane, if you're watching this, Jocko Go is first, second, third, fourth, and fifth. Not because we're sponsored by them, because we're not.

I don't even know 5 energy drinks.

I don't know 5 energy drinks, but I know someone who does. He's behind the camera and he's laughing right now. Yeah, my, mine is like Jocko. I'm gonna say like at the moment the flavor that I like the most is the pink missed. That'd be number 1. Number 2 would be— I've had a lot of watermelon, but I'll give watermelon number 2 because I've had so much of it. The 3rd one would be the lemonade at the moment.

Absolutely not.

4th— well, you can go when it's your turn. 4th one would be mango. And 5th one, probably the apple sour. And now, if you're watching this, our supplier and distributor, if you're watching this, we just gave you a hell of a shout out, so you can thank us later. Ari?

Let's see if I can remember 5. I've got to turn around, have a look.

You can tell I drink a lot of Jocko.

Pink Mist is probably top at the moment, to be fair. I'll go Mango, Watermelon, Apple's good, and oh no, the new Tropic Thunder is a ripper as well. However, shout out to White Monster, guilty pleasure, and got me through my uni days. That is nectar of the gods. And RJ is agreeing with me. Yeah, I'm good.

Cristiano?

I don't know many either. I need to drink spot. I'll go espresso. I like, um, the peach one. Is that a peach one?

There's no peach ones. I'm pretty sure you're talking about Tropic Thunder. Yeah, the red one.

There's a peach one.

No, there's no peach one.

It's got peach and—

oh no, it's pineapple and coconut.

It's—

nah, that's pineapple coconut. No, that's the iced tea. Iced tea.

Yeah, it's a lemonade.

Is that that one?

It's lemonade.

Okay, so they got iced tea.

It's not peach, it's lemonade.

Tastes like peach.

It doesn't taste like peach.

Anyway, tastes like urine is what it tastes like.

That's not— it tastes exactly awful.

Anyway, that one, and then I go mango and pineapple coconut. I haven't tried anything else.

Mango and pineapple? Yeah, I don't rate— you guys rate the pineapple coconut?

Like the cherry one?

There is no—

oh, the black cherry one.

It tastes like Dr Pepper.

It is disgusting, basically. Yeah, you like drinking toothpaste, do you?

It doesn't taste like toothpaste.

Yes, it does.

Yes, it does.

I'd say it tastes like medicine that grows on you. I'd actually— when I had it the first time, I was like, uh, and then I had it the second time, I'm like, yeah, and then I actually started drinking it as one of my preferred flavors. Yeah, but yeah, watermelon is, um, I want a White Monster now. It's after 1:37, so, uh, There's always tomorrow. Yeah, there's always— it's 1:37 somewhere. That concludes today's Q&A. If you have any questions for us, shoot us a— where do we want to shoot this one? An email? Yeah, shoot us an email. Maybe actually no, put it on our Instagram. Go to our Instagram @enterprisefitnessau, submit your questions there, and when we get it to our next round of podcasts, we'll answer them. Stay tuned to our Instagram as well. And my Instagram, it's @markottobre. Ari, where can people find you?

Via Messenger pigeon, via Instagram. No, that's Cristiano.

Cristiano can say on the website.

Yeah, on the website, melbournepersonaltrainers.com.au. And no, not au, I don't even have a website anymore. It's melbournepersonaltrainers.com. Ari, what is your Instagram handle?

You can find me on Instagram at coach.ario and here at Everprise.

And yeah, I've already said where you can find me. If you've enjoyed this podcast and if you think someone who may need some help with their training, nutrition, you want to put them on the right track, we'd be forever grateful if you sent them our podcast and helped us share the message of good training and good nutrition with as many people as possible so we can help as many people get towards their result and help us do more shows and spread the good word. So till next time, friends, train hard, eat well, and supplement smart. Are you frustrated with your diet, not knowing what to eat, when to eat? Macro split, whether you should do a meal plan. Well, I have the solution for you. It's called the Enterprise Diet. We have literally transformed tens of thousands of people's lives. These are the exact principles, systems, methods that we use in creating the head-turning results that we do time after time for over a decade here at Enterprise Fitness. You can check it out at enterprisediet.com. This took me 3 years to put together, and I'm very proud to share it with you all. It literally is like taking everything that I know in my— in here and just putting it on paper for you to download today. So check it out, enterprisediet.com, and grab your copy today.