This YOU after Benching?

Summary

This video script emphasizes the importance of improving work capacity in strength training to maximize long-term gains. It identifies the problem of feeling excessively fatigued after bench pressing and suggests seven key changes to a workout routine, including supersets, high-rep sets, drop sets, rest-pause sets, and full-body workouts. The script also recommends integrating cardio at the end of workouts to enhance overall conditioning and work capacity, leading to better performance and muscle growth.

Takeaways

• 🏋️‍♂️ Work capacity is crucial for long-term fitness gains and should not be overlooked in favor of size and strength alone.
• 💪 Feeling excessively fatigued after a set, especially on the bench press, can be a sign of poor work capacity and may limit your progress over time.
• 🕒 Lowered rest times between sets can help improve work capacity by challenging conditioning and reducing fatigue.
• 🔁 Supersets can be an effective way to increase work capacity by performing two exercises back-to-back with minimal rest, thus reducing overall rest time.
• 🏋️‍♀️ High rep ranges (15-20 reps) for isolation exercises can stimulate muscle growth and endurance, contributing to better work capacity.
• 📉 Drop sets and rest-pause sets are techniques that can be used to increase the volume of work done in a single set, enhancing work capacity.
• 🔄 Effective reps, especially the last five reps before failure, are critical for muscle growth and should be prioritized in training.
• 🏃‍♂️ Incorporating cardio at the end of workouts can improve overall fitness, including work capacity, by increasing endurance and stamina.
• 📈 Tracking workout progress, including cardio, is essential for monitoring improvements in work capacity and overall fitness.
• 🚫 Avoid skipping exercises or cheating on rest times to ensure that you are consistently challenging your work capacity and making progress.

Q & A

What is the main issue discussed in the video script regarding weightlifting?

The main issue discussed is the problem of poor work capacity in weightlifters, which can lead to fatigue after bench pressing and hinder long-term gains.

How does the script define 'work capacity' in the context of fitness?

Work capacity is defined as the amount of productive work one can accomplish in a certain time and how quickly it can be done, which is crucial for fitness and strength gains.

What is the recommended rest time for maximizing size and strength in lifting?

The recommended rest time for maximizing size and strength is typically 3 to 5 minutes.

Why are higher reps per set suggested in the script?

Higher reps per set are suggested to challenge conditioning more and shift towards muscular endurance, which helps in improving work capacity.

What are 'super sets' and how do they improve work capacity?

Super sets are a training technique where two exercises are performed back-to-back with minimal rest in between, effectively reducing rest times and improving work capacity.

What is the purpose of doing 'top set, back off sets' in a workout routine?

The purpose is to combine heavy work with higher rep work, allowing for muscle growth stimulation while also improving work capacity and challenging cardio fatigue and muscle burn.

What are 'effective reps' and why are they important in training?

Effective reps are the last five reps before reaching failure, which are considered the most important for stimulating muscle growth due to the increased effort required.

How do 'drop sets' work and what is their benefit?

Drop sets involve reducing the weight by 10 to 20 lbs after reaching failure and continuing the exercise to stimulate muscle growth with minimal rest, thus improving work capacity.

What is the concept of 'rest pause sets' and how do they affect muscle growth?

Rest pause sets involve taking a 15-second rest break without changing the weight after reaching failure, aiming to achieve as many reps as possible. They result in close to the same muscle growth as drop sets by providing enough effective reps.

Why is it beneficial to train many muscle groups in one day according to the script?

Training many muscle groups in one day is beneficial for work capacity as it forces the body to adapt to more work within a session, provided the muscles are trained at least twice a week.

What is the recommendation for cardio at the end of workouts and why is it important?

The recommendation is to do 20 minutes of steady-state cardio on a machine or light jogging to improve pace maintenance and distance traveled in less time, which helps in enhancing work capacity.

Outlines

00:00

💪 Enhancing Work Capacity in Lifting

The speaker emphasizes the importance of work capacity in maximizing long-term fitness gains. They point out that feeling excessively fatigued after a set, such as bench press, is a sign of poor work capacity. The speaker suggests that improving work capacity can lead to better performance and more gains over time. They introduce seven key changes to boost work capacity without compromising size and strength gains. These include reducing rest times, increasing reps per set, and targeting more muscle groups per session. The speaker also introduces the concept of supersets to improve work capacity by reducing rest times and allowing for more efficient workouts.

05:01

🏋️‍♂️ Advanced Techniques for Boosting Work Capacity

The speaker delves into advanced training techniques to improve work capacity, such as high-rep sets for isolation exercises, top set back-off sets, and effective reps. They explain that training past the typical 5-12 rep range can enhance work capacity and stimulate muscle growth. The use of drop sets and rest-pause sets is recommended to maximize the number of effective reps and reduce rest times, which can lead to increased cardio fatigue and muscle burn. The speaker also suggests incorporating full-body workouts or additional muscle group targeting to improve overall work capacity. They conclude with the recommendation to add steady-state cardio at the end of workouts to further enhance work capacity and provide a comprehensive approach to fitness training.

10:01

📢 Conclusion and Call to Action

In the final paragraph, the speaker wraps up the video by encouraging viewers to implement the discussed techniques to improve their work capacity. They suggest starting with supersets or high-rep sets in isolation exercises and adding cardio at the end of workouts. The speaker also promotes further engagement with their content, offering additional advice and support through a community Discord or a subscription service. They emphasize the importance of tracking workouts and progress to optimize training and achieve better results.

Keywords

💡Natural Potential

Natural potential refers to the innate capabilities or limits of an individual's physical or mental abilities. In the context of the video, it is about the maximum level of strength or muscle size one can achieve without external enhancements. The script discusses how poor work capacity can limit one's natural potential in weightlifting, as it affects the ability to perform high-intensity workouts consistently.

💡Work Capacity

Work capacity is defined as the amount of productive work an individual can accomplish within a certain timeframe and the speed at which it can be done. The video emphasizes the importance of work capacity in fitness, particularly in weightlifting, as it directly impacts one's ability to handle more volume and intensity in training, which in turn affects muscle growth and strength gains.

💡Bench Pressing

Bench pressing is a weightlifting exercise that targets the chest, shoulders, and triceps. The script uses the example of bench pressing to illustrate the point that feeling excessively fatigued after the exercise can be a sign of poor work capacity, which can limit one's ability to progress in lifting heavier weights and performing more repetitions.

💡Rest Periods

Rest periods are the intervals taken between sets during a workout to allow for recovery of the muscles. The video mentions that traditional rest periods of 3 to 5 minutes are recommended for maximizing size and strength but may not be optimal for improving work capacity. Shorter rest periods are suggested to challenge conditioning and increase work capacity.

💡Repetitions (Reps)

Repetitions, or 'reps', are the number of times an exercise is performed in one set. The script discusses the impact of different rep ranges on work capacity, suggesting that higher reps (15-20) can be beneficial for improving muscular endurance and work capacity without significantly compromising on strength and muscle growth.

💡Super Sets

Super sets involve performing two exercises back-to-back with minimal rest in between. The video explains that super sets can help improve work capacity by reducing rest times, allowing for more work to be done in a shorter period. An example given is doing bicep curls followed immediately by tricep extensions with only a 1-minute rest in between.

💡Isolation Exercises

Isolation exercises are those that target a single muscle group, as opposed to compound exercises that work multiple muscle groups simultaneously. The script recommends starting with isolation exercises when implementing new training techniques like super sets to minimize the risk of injury and to better gauge one's ability to handle the increased work capacity demands.

💡Effective Reps

Effective reps are the last few repetitions in a set, typically the most challenging and stimulating for muscle growth. The video script highlights the importance of these reps in training to failure, suggesting that while they can lead to more fatigue, they are crucial for maximizing the stimulus for muscle growth.

💡Drop Sets

Drop sets are a training technique where the weight is reduced after completing a set to failure, allowing for additional repetitions. The script describes drop sets as a way to increase work capacity by reducing rest times and continuing the set with lighter weights, which can lead to increased muscle fatigue and cardiovascular stress.

💡Cardio

Cardio, short for cardiovascular exercise, is any physical activity that raises heart rate and improves heart and lung fitness. The video suggests ending workouts with cardio to improve work capacity, as it challenges the heart and lungs and helps build the ability to sustain effort over time, which is beneficial for overall fitness and recovery.

Highlights

Natural potential is hard capped in the long run due to work capacity limitations.

Feeling excessively tired after bench pressing can indicate poor work capacity.

Work capacity is the amount of productive work done in a certain time and speed.

Gassing out every set can worsen work capacity and hinder long-term fitness gains.

Seven key changes can be made to a program to boost work capacity without extra time.

Lowered rest times can improve work capacity by challenging conditioning.

Higher reps per set can increase muscular endurance and work capacity.

More muscle groups targeted per session can increase work volume and capacity.

Super sets can improve work capacity by reducing rest times between exercises.

Isolation exercises are recommended for beginners to start with super sets.

High rep ranges (15-20) can be used for isolation lifts to improve work capacity.

Top set, back off sets allow for heavy work followed by higher rep work.

Effective reps are the last five reps before failure, which are most stimulative to muscle growth.

Drop sets reduce rest times by immediately reducing weight and repeating the exercise.

Rest-pause sets involve a short rest and the same weight for additional reps.

Training multiple muscle groups in one day can benefit work capacity on certain splits.

Cardio at the end of workouts can improve work capacity and pace maintenance.

Transcripts

in the long run your natural potential

will be hard capped okay so how did I

get to this conclusion so yeah you're

benching right first set you finish the

set at 10 reps and then you're gas out

as hell rest 4 minutes and then the next

set is seven reps you would assume damn

bro I must have been trading really hard

I'm 100% Going to maximize growth you

would be right but the problem is not

that you didn't train at the high enough

intensity the problem is that you

shouldn't feel this tired after bench

pressing even at failure if you're at

the point that you're this tired from

benching and all you're doing is lifting

it's only going to get worse over the

months you're set become heavier right

so they become more fatiguing that means

you'll have to take longer and longer

rest periods you'll be able to handle

less volume over time and there will

eventually be times you even end up

cutting workout short because you're too

exhausted of course that is going to

affect your long-term gains and you are

still ignoring it so what's the specific

problem your work capacity sucks work

capacity is simply how much productive

work you can get done in a certain time

and how fast you can do it so of course

gassing out every set would worsen your

work capacity we all Overlook it because

we're so hyperfixated on size and

strength that we get this fundamental

part of Fitness that can actually help

us get even more size and strength gains

in the long run so you don't have to sit

there making worse progress than you

actually could be I managed to boost the

[ __ ] out of my work capacity now I can

do pretty much all of my compounds to

Absolute failure while not being

completely gassed out many of the other

grades have also done the same to

further max out their potential and I'll

show you how to do exactly this in this

video I will cover seven key changes you

can make to your program which will

boost your work capacity won't take any

extra time and potentially make your

workouts go by faster don't be lazy bro

there's only benefits to you let's do

this

[Music]

[ __ ] starting with the basics of

improving work capacity and lifting so

what we want are lowered rest times

because this will challenge our

conditioning more outside of just

muscular fatigue typical rest times

consist of 3 to 5 minutes that's what's

recommended to maximize size and

strength which it does at the cost of

work capacity higher reps per set still

to failure or close to it this will

challenge our conditioning more as the

weight goes down and we are lifting for

a longer at a time I think you have

probably felt the difference usually you

feel more muscle burn on higher reps

because now you are shifting towards

muscular endurance still maximizing

growth though as long as you don't shoot

above like 30 reps what also helps this

higher volume per session because that

forces us to adapt to tolerate more work

within a session though this does have

the consequence of [ __ ] with our

recovery session to session so there's

another way of doing this more muscle

groups targeted per session this

automatically forces us to have more

sets and more exercises in a session

except you won't have as many recovery

issues in session since you're training

mostly different muscle groups a good

example is a full body workout versus a

push workout you're still going to be

getting a lot out of each set but a full

body day has a lot more work in it so we

want to implement these changes with as

little of effect on size and strength

gains as possible as well as taking up

the least amount of time as possible if

you are completely new to changes like

these and are already guessing out then

I'd recommend starting with only

isolation exercises and seeing how it

goes and then building up from there so

first up super sets you're able to do

two exercises in a time it takes to do

one very helpful for doing [ __ ] quickly

what this achieves is cutting down rest

times to improve work capacity basically

it's just doing two exercises back to

back with very little rest time in

between 1 minute the point is so the

exercises themselves serve as part of

the rest time for each other if you do

bicep curls and then immediately switch

to tricep extensions your biceps are

still given a period of rest even while

you're doing the tricep extensions and

vice versa these can also be used to

Target the same muscles at different

angles but I don't recommend that so how

do we implement this into our training

first you have to be hitting a few

prerequisites targeting opposite or

unrelated muscle groups within a session

so like biceps and triceps because they

do the opposite actions or mid dels and

triceps because their actions rarely if

ever overlap lastly you have to make

sure the two exercises you want to

superet and don't pose risks because of

how fatiguing they are like squats and

deadlifts that's about it here's a quick

diagram that you will also be able to

download in the description of this

video that shows all the exercises you

can superet that meet this criteria as

long as you follow these guidelines the

effects on your muscle growth and

strength gains will be very minimal for

the effect of boosting work capacity

which is why this is at the top so

here's an example of me using super sets

on the sample workout you can super set

these exercises and these exercises so

once I get to pull-ups in the workout

I'll go to a bench near a pull-up bar

get my dumbbells for a seated dumbbell

overhead press and then I'll do a set of

pull-ups rest 1 minute do a set of

dumbbell overhead press rest and then

repeat until I finish three sets for

both that's basically it so doing

pull-ups will be the resting period for

my overhead press and doing overhead

press will be my resting period for my

Pull-Ups so what to expect when doing

this you are definitely going to be more

gas than usual and this is going to be

pretty hard to do if your work capacity

currently sucks so you just have to suck

it up it wasn't going to be easy in

order to stimulate muscle growth you

have to feel the pain of stimulating

muscle growth so now you have to feel

the pain of stimulating getting better

work capacity only other issue is

getting accused of being an equipment

hog so make sure you superet exercises

that require very minimal pieces of

equipment like dumbbells or easy bars

Etc next up

[Music]

you're probably used to doing reps

between the 5 to 12 range 10 to 12 reps

is decent for improving work capacity

but the real money is found past like 15

reps taking a failure you don't have to

do 15 plus rep squats what I propose is

doing this for your isolation lifts

where you don't have to worry nearly as

much about technique so use the 15 to 20

rep range for these for every other

exercise you can do what I call Top set

back off sets so your first set known as

your top set will be heavier in the 5 to

8 rep range or below then every set

after that will be a higher rep range

like 10 to 15 or 15 to 20 this one sure

you're still getting that heavy work but

also this higher rep work this has other

benefits outside of work capacity so

what to expect when doing this you're

going to experience a lot more cardio

fatigue as well as muscle burn during

your sets so you just got to keep

pushing past that in order to reach

failure and get the same amount of

growth this will improve as time goes on

as well and make you mentally tougher so

win- win to understand the next two

changes you can make you should know

about what are known as effective reps

basically the point of training the

failure is that as you get closer to

failure the Reps you do are more

stimulative to muscle growth this does

have a limit and also results in more

fatigue but generally the last five reps

are considered the most important reps

the effective reps so every say you're

doing is mainly to reach those last five

reps next

[Music]

up so drop sets this allows you to do

one exercise in essentially just one set

this is another form of cutting down

rest times basically instead of taking

your typical rest times you just reduce

the weight by around 10 to 20 lb and

then do the exercise over again to

failure for the amount of sets you are

already going to do the goal is to try

to achieve around the same amount of

reps every single set but that's not

always possible you may do only half the

Reps or even double the Reps for example

if I was doing say leg extensions with

200 lb after finishing the first step I

would drop to 180 lb and do it again

then I would drop to 160 lb and do it

again instead of just three sets with

200 lb with 3 minutes of rest in between

will this result in the same muscle

growth yes as long as you train close

enough to failure even if the Reps drop

off you're still getting enough

effective reps I would recommend you

only do this style of training with

isolation lifts or machine lifts as well

to minimize injury risk so what to

expect just like with High Reps you are

going to experience a lot of cardio

fatigue and muscle burn to an even

crazier degree than high sets it's like

if it was on steroids next up rest paw

sets this allows you to do one extracise

in around a third of a time it would

normally take this is yet another form

of cutting down rest times this is very

similar to drop sets except instead of

taking no rest time in dropping the

weight you take a 15-second rest break

and leave the weight the same the goal

is to try to get as many reps as

possible per set usually the rest will

drop off in some pattern like so will

this result in the same muscle growth

very close to it just like with drop

sets you will still be getting enough

effective reps I would recommend you

only do this style of training with

isolation lifts or machine lifts as well

to minimize injury risk so what to

expect a bit more muscle bur and cardio

fatigue though to a lesser degree this

time given that your reps drop off so

fast next

[Music]

up training many muscle groups in one

day this isn't something you can really

do if your split doesn't allow for it

but it's good to know so basically with

splits like upper lower full body or any

split that's around 3 to four times a

week will be beneficial to work capacity

as long as they also hit the muscles at

least two times a week this is another

reason why I preach so much for

beginners to do these splits you can

also just Target extra muscles on

unrelated days like in your push pull

leg split you can add a tricep exercise

to your pull day and a Capal exercise to

your push day or something if you want

to improve your work capacity you're

going to have to put that extra effort

in don't skip exercises don't cheat rest

times Etc

lastly doing cardio at the end of your

workouts yes I know this sucks to do

nobody wants to do cardio at the end of

your workouts especially if it's for

like longer than 20 minutes if you are

one of those committed people however

what I recommend is starting out with 20

minutes of steady state cardio on some

form of machine like the stair Master

treadmill Assa bike roow machine or even

just taking a light jog home your goal

should be to better maintain your pace

travel more distance and be able to do

that in less time progress can also be

recorded here like how I hope you are

recording your workouts more on that

later you can also increase the time you

do your cardio up to even an hour but I

know not everybody has time for that

instead of steady stay cardio you could

also do sports or strongman drills which

I recommend looking into stuff like

farmer carries Yol walks Sprints Etc and

that's basically it these are a lot of

things to implement so if you're

interested in this [ __ ] then I would

recommend starting with implementing

either super sets or High Reps into your

isolation exercises as well as the

cardio at the end of your workouts over

time as this gets easier look to

implement these things into more

fatiguing exercises like compounds and

progress the cardio you do as well

you'll feel fresher you'll be able to

handle more volume and eventually you'll

be able to do a set of bench presses

without gassing out at all and from

there you can start making some faster

progress than before and be one step

closer to Reaching Your Potential if you

benefited from hearing this no problem

man I'm glad to be helping you out if

you want more from me like being able to

talk to me directly subscribe to my only

fans I mean only bars link is in the

description if you don't like the sound

of that though that's all right man you

can always join the free community

Discord if you want further advice I

would recommend looking into my video on

how to track your workouts so you can

also track your cardio as well I got you

with this video right here subscribe