It’s a brand new start to a brand new week. For most people who take the weekends off to rest and relax with their friends and family the start of a new week also brings a start to a new workout week. Mondays for example are usually known throughout the bodybuilding community as “International Chest Day” because it seems as if every single fitness enthusiast (especially men) are all lined up waiting to use the bench press or are taking turns using the cables to do their cable crossovers. The typical chest routine I always see people doing will start with a flat barbell bench press, followed by an incline dumbbell press and then finishing off with some type of flying movement using either the cables or the famous pec dec machine (which by the way I never use when training chest). The typical rep range that most people will feel comfortable with during their workout is usually/always 8-15 reps (no more or no less). Oh and I notice that generally most/all people tend to always start with lighter weights on every single exercise and gradually pyramid/increase their weights up for each ascending set. So there you have it. That’s weight training in a nut shell:

Step 1) Follow a generic workout routine that you find online or in some fitness magazine.

Step 2) ALWAYS stay within the recommended rep range.

Step 3) Make sure to increase your weight on each ascending set, no matter what.

Everyone is doing it this way right? So it must be the correct/only way to train right? Maybe. But maybe there’s another way. A way that doesn’t use a one-size-fits all mentality. A way that makes us think outside the box when it comes to designing our own workout programs. I know it sounds crazy. I know it seems insane. But stay with me here for a minute, I think I might be onto something here.

My apologies if my tone comes off a little bit sarcastic, this was not my intention. Okay – I can’t lie, this was completely my intention. I’m just tired of hearing and seeing people following the same generic workout routines and/or diet plans every single day and expecting to achieve different or new results. I mean this truly is the definition of insanity is it not?

When I first started to train with weights I remember I wanted to look exactly like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnie was a huge movie star in the 80’s & 90’s and I idolize him while growing up. So I found everything I could on how he trained and what he ate when he was winning all those Mr. Olympia’s back in the 1970’s. I bought his Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding and read it from front to back in less then a week (pretty impressive for a fourteen year old kid, especially when the book itself was well over 800 pages in length). I remember following Schwarzenegger’s exact workout routine and diet plan to the tee. I ate, slept and breathed bodybuilding for an entire year. Almost every single moment revolved around my training. I would even skip classes in Highschool to go and train at the local community centre gym. I became so obsessed with transforming my physique that nothing else mattered.

The final result after a year of intense and physical training? Well I definitely put on some size and definition but I looked absolutely nothing like Arnold did. I didn’t understand. What did I do wrong? I listened to everything he told me to do. I followed his rep ranges, I incorporated his drop sets, I completed his supersets and yet I still didn’t have his 21 inch biceps. Did I fail Arnold or did he fail me?

Rather then become frustrated with my lack of results or the fact that I wasn’t going to win a Mr. Olympia title anytime soon I became more interested and fascinated with how the human body operates and why some people have a hard time building muscle and/or losing body fat while others could do it with ease. I researched almost every single performance enhancing supplement that would come out onto the market so that I could fully understand how it worked and what it did. I learned about the different types of macronutrients and how to incorporate them properly into my diet plan to help me achieve my fitness goals. Working out was no longer considered a hobby to me. I wanted to understand the science behind building muscle and losing fat. I wanted to be able to separate fact from fiction. And eventually I did.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of my latest blog – “Follow the Leader or Become the Leader?” that will be up on our website next week as I expose the dark side of the fitness industry. The side that’s full of liars and scammers who are just out to make a quick buck on your hard earned money and pry on your lack of knowledge on how to build muscle efficiently and burn fat effectively. Oh, and I’ll even share a few tips on how you can start to transform your own physique for the better without having to break the bank or by following a crazy complex celebrity workout program that makes absolutely no sense or has no merit when it comes to your own health and fitness.

Yours in Good Health,

Nick Cosgrove