3 dumb mistakes robbing smart men of muscle

 Hey omorfe,

There’s a Grecian and a Plebeian way of building muscle. As you can probably guess, the Grecian way is the right way. And I’ve talked about it in the previous messages.

However I didn’t touch the Plebeian, aka the dumb, dumb, dumb way of building (or, more accurately, not building) muscle. Today I wanna share three mistakes decent men make that rob them of the gains they deserve.

So let’s start:

Dumb Mistake Numero Ena — Overlapping Exercises

Overlapping happens when you perform many exercises for the same muscle in a training session. This is a mistake because your muscles can benefit from a certain number of sets.

If you do more than needed?

Best case scenario, you waste time. Slightly-worse case scenario, you lose muscle mass. Worst case scenario, you injure yourself since your joints didn’t have time to recover.

Unfortunately many Feetnes Eggsperts and dumb magazines use overlapping in their programs. And sure, it’s OK if you’re chemically enhanced or you’ve never trained anyone in the real world.

But for the rest of us?

Perform lots of exercises for the same muscle is grossly overrated.

Lunging along…

Dumb Mistake Numero Dio — Picking exercises that don’t work for you

What I’m talking about is finding exercises for y-o-u. You need to take into account your height, past injuries, limb length, training experience, and yes, your personal preferences.

This way you’ll not just feel an exercise (mind-muscle connection is another important aspect of muscle growth but that’s another email for another time) and minimize injuries, aches, and pains, but you’ll also enjoy your training even more.

Because, let’s face it:

If you always need to motivate yourself before doing a collection of exercises (aka a workout) isn’t this a sign that the exercises are not right for you? No wonder most men struggle with motivation…

Finally…

Dumb Mistake Numero Tria — Being force-fed a coach’s biases

If you hire a Crossfit coach, he’ll have you follow a Crossfit program.

Hm…

If you hire a powerlifting coach, he’ll have you follow a powerlifting program.

Hmm…

If you hire a bodyweight coach, he’ll have you follow a bodyweight program.

Hmmm…

And you know what?

The same will happen if you hire any coach who proudly proclaims that they specialize in X – they’ll always force-feed you their training bias.

You see, all they have is a hammer. So, everything looks like a nail to them. What this means is that they’ll always try to force their system to you.

And that’s dumb

What they should do instead is to decide which system can help you achieve your goals.

When I’m creating a training and diet plan for a client, I don’t think “Oh they need to do snatches because it’s a cool exercise. And they need to follow the keto diet because it’s all the rage.”

No.

What I think is “Based on what we know, how can I create a system that will match their current lifestyle and abilities, while also moving them closer to their goals?“ This is the right thinking process. And it has helped many men throughout the years.

And sure – I’m also biased (I’m a hooman after all.)

But I have the luxury of being biased after helping lots of men the last decade. I think I’ve earned that right.

Anyway, that’s all for today.

If you wanna discover the Grecian way of building muscle and improving your body, I suggest grabbing my book. It has the simple system I use with my own clients, along with a few principles I don’t see shared in other Fitness books:

Your Greek buddy,

Fotis Chatzinicolaou