Timestamps: 01:45 Bret talks about Mechanical Tension 12:19 Bret gives some practical takeaways how to make use of mechanical tension 18:50 Bret shares his thoughts on periodisation for hypertrophy 29:40 Bret's personal take on deloads 37:11 Bret shares his thoughts on functional overreaching 42:44 Bret describes his thoughts on periodising for "resensitisation"-purposes due to signalling pathways and his issues with the term "Volume" 51:12 Bret speaks about personal experimentation and machine vs. free weights 1:01:08 Bret talks about anecdotal evidence that isn't supported by research
This is awesome Steve, you asked some really great questions! You have the highest quality bodybuilding podcast on the internet. Hopefully you bring Schoenfeld again soon. Also I think it's time for another Dr. Mike Q&A! :) Thanks Steve, cheers!
Hopefully we aren't hated as soon as we're getting more popular. "I was following them from the beginning...now they aren't cool anymore" - Coach Pascal
Revive Stronger is by far the most amazing TH-cam channel. How this doesn’t have millions of views is behind me, but I am sure it is a matter of time only. Beats Athlene X all day long. If you want the raw scientific ins and outs from all perspectives this is the bomb as these guys are the industry specialists; Brett Contreras,Brad Scoenfeld, Mike Isaetel to name a few.... oh and what a great host Steve hall, thanks guys.... Oh and if there is a Revive Stronger T-shirts want one for working out in..... is there a T-shirt Steve???????
Thanks a lot for the kind words Mark! Maybe it's because we're not throwing around with clickbaity titles, sexy solutions or anything...maybe we're doing a poor marketing job? I don't know...but we've got some new t-shirts in our webshop (visit our website ;)) - Coach Pascal
@@ReviveStronger Maybe you may have to do some video collabs with some of the better fitness youtubers to market yourselves more? For instance, I only found this channel when I was searching more for interviews with Menno. Although this channel has the effect of making many people unsubscribe from those "fitness bros" channels with their brosciences.
I always love hearing from Bret. One question I have for him is about the transfer from glute training to performance: squat, deadlift, sprinting, etc..
Cool. The first time I learned about him, I looked all over, like, why is he interested in the glutes? What's so important about glutes? And it's like, oh, people just want big glutes.
Just listening to another Contreras podcast where he does talks about glute strength in performance starting around 5 minutes th-cam.com/video/MfZqBXg3OHU/w-d-xo.htmlm7s
Dude, you are killing me with those quality podcasts, i've got full time job and family, have mercy, bring Mike Chang or Vshred or other useless youtuber so i can relax :) Awesome stuff!
Bret Contreras is a very knowledgeable man, he specializes in EMG studies and of course he is the "ASS MAN" when it comes to training. Excellent choice for an interview. DEUCES!
With this deload thing, this is so true, as a beginner i did deloads, cuz i read i should, probably didn't have to back then, then i stopped deloading and trained that for 2 years auto-regulating, so probably there where some elements of D, but not like planned, now im doing 2 sessions per day and OMG, after 2 weeks i cant wait for D :)
Internal focus is trying to cue specific muscles to do something to try and make sure the muscle you want to do the lifting is actually doing the lifting. When you hear people say "Feel the ____" that's internal. External cues are directed towards an object like the bar or body parts where you are issuing a command/direction to move. "Bend the bar behind you," Pull the bar off the ground," "Drive your hips through the lift," etc. By executing the external, due to biomechanics, the muscles get used.
8:00 I don't think the powerlifter is growing his muscles because of the "mind-muscle connection", but because he started doing isolation exercises with a higher volume. The idea that this is due to the "mind-muscle connection" is imo BroScience. An argument that genetic lucky birds and juicers can use to explain why they grow and the average person doesn't. "That's because I have a good mind-muscle connection and you don't ..." I have seen genetic freaks and juicers rummage about and they grew like cabbage. No "mind-muscle connection".
That's why they're elite. Can do whatever and still grow. There seems to be evidence though, that the mind-muscle connection seems to be superior though. How much, we still need to figure out - Pascal
Pt 1. Hey,Steve. Good video as always. Maybe you should have (Andy Galpin) on the podcast one of this days. Ok, I like ALL this guys we all have come to know and like Specially.... Schoenfeld who I've been following since 2000 in one way or another. Kreiger , Helms, Isratel just to name a few. But even this guys seem be conflicted or maybe overlooking some basic things that can be essential for ones training ,progress and efficiency. Genetics plays such a HUGE role on everything that i feel everyone should get a Fitness DNA test at some point. The earlier the better. Now days you can get it for a few hundred dollars or so. For trainers a DNA test can be a good tool. It can give you a good idea of what may work best for the trainee. You can save Time, Energy and it can be more Efficient than just guessing around.
Mel Toretto There isn't enough actionable information that can be garnered with a DNA test in order to make specific training programs viable. For medical diseases, there is a profession called a genetic counselor, it requires a Master's degree and focuses on interpreting genetic results. Phenotypic expression is based on so much more than DNA code, like epigenetic regulation with mechanism chromatin remodeling and histone acytlation in ADDITION to the complex regulatory mechanisms gene regulation and protein synthesis that we don't know shit about matching DNA to a workout. We barely understand blood chemistry. Even if there was predictive value between DNA tests and specific workouts there aren't enough qualified personal out there to safely interpret the results and turn it into something actionable. We barely have enough personal trainers to train people correctly with current principles and evidence-based fitness techniques, there is no universe where personal trainers or strength coaches are within their scope and field of practice at a client's genomic DNA and making an assessment on it, full stop. Unless they are an MD, interpreting blood chemistry is outside their scope and field.
Eli.. Good reply. But what i meant was NOT for the trainer to implement a DNA him self. Times have chance since i was a trainer in the early 90's. to pay for school. I specialize in Body biomechanics and took a cadaver dissection course. I don't promote any company of any type, But you can checkout (FitnessGenes) if your into fitness and DNA and all that good stuff.
Again, neither the individual nor a trainer is competent enough to intrepret DNA results unless they are a genetic counselor or equivalently trained medical professional or research, full stop. That's why there was this is issue with 23andMe and their DNA tests for BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 cancer mutations. It poses the questions of an individual's rights to information about their own body vs. the ethical considerations of giving people access to information that 1) they/science doesn't know enough about the DNA information to do anything actionable and 2) there is a cottage industry set up around DNA information preying on people's ignorance by saying they can interpret their DNA to unlock/optimize some latent potential that was missing, or prevent cancer or whatever when they have no business at all near someone's DNA code.
Are you serious? OH!!! I see the confusion. I meant to say... Give the client the option to get a DNA test and share the results or go through the results with the client. In my case every time one of my friends gets a DNA test we check it out together. Btw.. I don't have the time to train the public but i always take sometime to train friends and family.
Eugene Stoner; It's NOT my job to provide anyone with anything here. That;s NOT what i get paid for. All i can do is give you the information i have on any particular subject and tell anyone who cares that it works because of all the people in my circle that have try it. INCLUDING MY SELF btw, (We are talking DNA testing for a fitness blue print.) .I find it to be a GREAT tool for anyone interested in trying it out. But having said all that, people can do whatever they want. Maybe fallowing Rich Piana, RiP. or reading Flex Magazine would be more appealing to you. whatever floats your boat dude. Any fitness questions i would be happy to answer.
Pt 2. Good point about the Anatomy of the body. But they are things that apply to everyone. such as... Gravity, Resistance Curve, The Direction of fibers in the muscle, Alignment/ Direction of Movement and the (ALL or nothing principle of muscle contraction). This is where most Fucked it up. You CAN'T change the shape of a muscle. The quad does ONLY one thing and one thing only and that's to Bend the Knee.. The bicep does only one thing, Elbow flexion. The triceps does only one thing, Elbow extension. you CAN'T shape or work the Inner outer head or any of that nonsense. Now! if the job of the Quad is to bend the knee, you have to ask your self.. Is the Squat or the Hack squat or the smith machine a good exercise for the quads??? Is doing 5 different exercises for the bicep necessary??? I can't named them all here. but here are some exercises that WILL NOT give you a good bank for your buck as far as (Hypertrophy)... 1- Over head Presses of Any type. 2- chins and Dips 3- Squats with a barbell. 4- Incline Bench press. 5- Barbell bench. 6- Deadlift. 7- Upright rows. and this is just to name a few. This are just Circus acts. BTW.. If your a power lifter and your job is to Lift 800lbs on deadlifts that's something else.
Quadriceps also can contribute to hip flexion, biceps supinate the forearm and can contribute to shoulder flexion, triceps can contribute to shoulder extension and adduction. Also, there is evidence to suggest that regional hypertrophy does occur (see McMahon, Morse, Burden, Winwood & Onambélé, 2014; Schoenfeld et al., 2015; Wakahara et al., 2012). Furthermore, your list of exercises that will not give good "bang for your buck" are exactly the type of exercises an individual concerned with good "bang for buck" would do as they are time efficient (due to a large number of muscles contributing significantly to the movement) and easily loadable (so can easily be trained long term). Whereas, trying to replace these compound movements would require multiple isolation movements, a less efficient method. I would argue a part of the effectiveness of an exercise to elicit hypertrophy, or not, comes down to individual differences (there is a paper that shows some potential sex differences in muscle activation for the bench press, but I cannot remember what it is called) and form (e.g. Lehman, 2005). Therefore, your personal anecdotes are fine to apply to yourself, but not to the population at large References: Lehman, G. J. (2005). The influence of grip width and forearm pronation/supination on upper-body myoelectric activity during the flat bench press. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 19(3), 587-591. McMahon, G. E., Morse, C. I., Burden, A., Winwood, K., & Onambélé, G. L. (2014). Impact of range of motion during ecologically valid resistance training protocols on muscle size, subcutaneous fat, and strength. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 28(1), 245-255. Schoenfeld, B. J., Contreras, B., Tiryaki-Sonmez, G., Wilson, J. M., Kolber, M. J., & Peterson, M. D. (2015). Regional differences in muscle activation during hamstrings exercise. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 29(1), 159-164. Wakahara, T., Miyamoto, N., Sugisaki, N., Murata, K., Kanehisa, H., Kawakami, Y., ... & Yanai, T. (2012). Association between regional differences in muscle activation in one session of resistance exercise and in muscle hypertrophy after resistance training. European journal of applied physiology, 112(4), 1569-1576.
Timestamps:
01:45 Bret talks about Mechanical Tension
12:19 Bret gives some practical takeaways how to make use of mechanical tension
18:50 Bret shares his thoughts on periodisation for hypertrophy
29:40 Bret's personal take on deloads
37:11 Bret shares his thoughts on functional overreaching
42:44 Bret describes his thoughts on periodising for "resensitisation"-purposes due to signalling pathways and his issues with the term "Volume"
51:12 Bret speaks about personal experimentation and machine vs. free weights
1:01:08 Bret talks about anecdotal evidence that isn't supported by research
ppppppppplp
His wisdom is so great combination of pure logic, common sense and science. Not only dead numbers. Thank you!
Thank you for listening!
- Pascal
common sense and personal experience are KING
This is awesome Steve, you asked some really great questions! You have the highest quality bodybuilding podcast on the internet. Hopefully you bring Schoenfeld again soon. Also I think it's time for another Dr. Mike Q&A! :) Thanks Steve, cheers!
Cheers buddy, means a lot. And just wait until episode 114, you'll be in for a treat ;)
- Coach Pascal
Revive Stronger is like the underground indie band that other people in bands love.
Hopefully we aren't hated as soon as we're getting more popular. "I was following them from the beginning...now they aren't cool anymore"
- Coach Pascal
I really like it when Bret says - "that is such a good question" :D
Haha, Steve probably too^^
- Coach Pascal
These make drives to and from work so enjoyable.
Happy to hear that Brian!
- Coach Pascal
Bret was awesome as always. I like how down to earth he is too. He's just tryin' to educate!
I actually really like Bret and all he's doing!
- Coach Pascal (Revive Stronger Coach)
Oh my. You really keep on piling up the good stuff lately.
And way more to come! ;)
- Coach Pascal (Revive Stronger Coach)
Wow, this is GOLD! Good stuff my friend!
Thanks again for tuning in!
- Coach Pascal
Revive Stronger is by far the most amazing TH-cam channel. How this doesn’t have millions of views is behind me, but I am sure it is a matter of time only. Beats Athlene X all day long. If you want the raw scientific ins and outs from all perspectives this is the bomb as these guys are the industry specialists; Brett Contreras,Brad Scoenfeld, Mike Isaetel to name a few.... oh and what a great host Steve hall, thanks guys.... Oh and if there is a Revive Stronger T-shirts want one for working out in..... is there a T-shirt Steve???????
Thanks a lot for the kind words Mark!
Maybe it's because we're not throwing around with clickbaity titles, sexy solutions or anything...maybe we're doing a poor marketing job? I don't know...but we've got some new t-shirts in our webshop (visit our website ;))
- Coach Pascal
revivestronger.com/onlineshop/
@@ReviveStronger
Maybe you may have to do some video collabs with some of the better fitness youtubers to market yourselves more?
For instance, I only found this channel when I was searching more for interviews with Menno.
Although this channel has the effect of making many people unsubscribe from those "fitness bros" channels with their brosciences.
I always love hearing from Bret. One question I have for him is about the transfer from glute training to performance: squat, deadlift, sprinting, etc..
Interesting question but probably nothing we will address in our podcast :)
- Coach Pascal
Cool. The first time I learned about him, I looked all over, like, why is he interested in the glutes? What's so important about glutes? And it's like, oh, people just want big glutes.
Just listening to another Contreras podcast where he does talks about glute strength in performance starting around 5 minutes th-cam.com/video/MfZqBXg3OHU/w-d-xo.htmlm7s
Dude, you are killing me with those quality podcasts, i've got full time job and family, have mercy, bring Mike Chang or Vshred or other useless youtuber so i can relax :) Awesome stuff!
Hahaha, maybe that's something to consider^^
Steve this was amazing and thank you for doing it, Bret thank you I learned so much I love your thought process
So happy to hear Jeremy!
- Coach Pascal
Woooo!
Awesome as always Steve!
Thanks for listening Alex!
- Coach Pascal (Revive Stronger Coach)
This is really cool. Internal vs external activation
Happy to hear that Alex :)
Bret is awesome! I've learned a lot from him.
Thanks for tuning in!
- Pascal
Bret Contreras is a very knowledgeable man, he specializes in EMG studies and of course he is the "ASS MAN" when it comes to training. Excellent choice for an interview. DEUCES!
He is!
- Pascal
With this deload thing, this is so true, as a beginner i did deloads, cuz i read i should, probably didn't have to back then, then i stopped deloading and trained that for 2 years auto-regulating, so probably there where some elements of D, but not like planned, now im doing 2 sessions per day and OMG, after 2 weeks i cant wait for D :)
Yep, I'm always looking forward to my deloads!
- Coach Pascal
love Bret one of the few guys I listen too ...Im a pro here in nyc and there is alot of garbage here and online Brett is one of the best
Happy to hear that you've found him :)
- Pascal
Very interesting episode. Thanks for the podcast
Thanks for listening!
- Coach Pascal (Revive Stronger Coach)
fantastic as always
Cheers Ante!
- Coach Pascal (Revive Stronger Coach)
Great Video
Good Information
Thanks for listening!
- Pascal
Awesome podcast 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Thanks Husan ;)
- Pascal
Thanks Steve!!
Thanks Noah!
- Coach Pascal (Revive Stronger Coach)
Great podcast!
Cheers Joe!
- Coach Pascal
Us old guys are now benefitting from the new scientific trend in weight-trainiing. thanks guys.
Old guys, come on, you're not old Craig :)
- Pascal
This is good info!
Thanks a lot Keona!
- Pascal
As a natural lifter I track weight, reps, sets, joint comfort, pump, soreness, and over all sets per week
At 9:20 that whole "internal/external" focus thing he discussed....what did that mean?
internal - mind muscle connection
external - focusing on moving the weight
Internal focus is trying to cue specific muscles to do something to try and make sure the muscle you want to do the lifting is actually doing the lifting. When you hear people say "Feel the ____" that's internal. External cues are directed towards an object like the bar or body parts where you are issuing a command/direction to move. "Bend the bar behind you," Pull the bar off the ground," "Drive your hips through the lift," etc. By executing the external, due to biomechanics, the muscles get used.
Nothing more to add!
- Coach Pascal (Revive Stronger Coach)
Great. More glute guy pls!
Definitely will get him on again! :)
- Coach Pascal (Revive Stronger Coach)
two thumbs up.
Cheers Lloyd!
- Coach Pascal (Revive Stronger Coach)
Post trainig!! Had a week off last week, but I'm back!
Finally!
Last week I wasn't there as well though ;)
- Coach Pascal (Revive Stronger Coach)
8:00 I don't think the powerlifter is growing his muscles because of the "mind-muscle connection", but because he started doing isolation exercises with a higher volume.
The idea that this is due to the "mind-muscle connection" is imo BroScience. An argument that genetic lucky birds and juicers can use to explain why they grow and the average person doesn't. "That's because I have a good mind-muscle connection and you don't ..."
I have seen genetic freaks and juicers rummage about and they grew like cabbage. No "mind-muscle connection".
That's why they're elite. Can do whatever and still grow. There seems to be evidence though, that the mind-muscle connection seems to be superior though. How much, we still need to figure out
- Pascal
Pt 1. Hey,Steve. Good video as always. Maybe you should have (Andy Galpin) on the podcast one of this days. Ok, I like ALL this guys we all have come to know and like Specially.... Schoenfeld who I've been following since 2000 in one way or another. Kreiger , Helms, Isratel just to name a few. But even this guys seem be conflicted or maybe overlooking some basic things that can be essential for ones training ,progress and efficiency. Genetics plays such a HUGE role on everything that i feel everyone should get a Fitness DNA test at some point. The earlier the better. Now days you can get it for a few hundred dollars or so.
For trainers a DNA test can be a good tool. It can give you a good idea of what may work best for the trainee. You can save Time, Energy and it can be more Efficient than just guessing around.
Mel Toretto There isn't enough actionable information that can be garnered with a DNA test in order to make specific training programs viable. For medical diseases, there is a profession called a genetic counselor, it requires a Master's degree and focuses on interpreting genetic results. Phenotypic expression is based on so much more than DNA code, like epigenetic regulation with mechanism chromatin remodeling and histone acytlation in ADDITION to the complex regulatory mechanisms gene regulation and protein synthesis that we don't know shit about matching DNA to a workout. We barely understand blood chemistry. Even if there was predictive value between DNA tests and specific workouts there aren't enough qualified personal out there to safely interpret the results and turn it into something actionable. We barely have enough personal trainers to train people correctly with current principles and evidence-based fitness techniques, there is no universe where personal trainers or strength coaches are within their scope and field of practice at a client's genomic DNA and making an assessment on it, full stop. Unless they are an MD, interpreting blood chemistry is outside their scope and field.
Eli.. Good reply. But what i meant was NOT for the trainer to implement a DNA him self. Times have chance since i was a trainer in the early 90's. to pay for school. I specialize in Body biomechanics and took a cadaver dissection course. I don't promote any company of any type, But you can checkout (FitnessGenes) if your into fitness and DNA and all that good stuff.
Again, neither the individual nor a trainer is competent enough to intrepret DNA results unless they are a genetic counselor or equivalently trained medical professional or research, full stop. That's why there was this is issue with 23andMe and their DNA tests for BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 cancer mutations. It poses the questions of an individual's rights to information about their own body vs. the ethical considerations of giving people access to information that 1) they/science doesn't know enough about the DNA information to do anything actionable and 2) there is a cottage industry set up around DNA information preying on people's ignorance by saying they can interpret their DNA to unlock/optimize some latent potential that was missing, or prevent cancer or whatever when they have no business at all near someone's DNA code.
Are you serious? OH!!! I see the confusion. I meant to say... Give the client the option to get a DNA test and share the results or go through the results with the client. In my case every time one of my friends gets a DNA test we check it out together. Btw.. I don't have the time to train the public but i always take sometime to train friends and family.
Eugene Stoner; It's NOT my job to provide anyone with anything here. That;s NOT what i get paid for. All i can do is give you the information i have on any particular subject and tell anyone who cares that it works because of all the people in my circle that have try it. INCLUDING MY SELF btw, (We are talking DNA testing for a fitness blue print.) .I find it to be a GREAT tool for anyone interested in trying it out. But having said all that, people can do whatever they want. Maybe fallowing Rich Piana, RiP. or reading Flex Magazine would be more appealing to you. whatever floats your boat dude. Any fitness questions i would be happy to answer.
Bret trust too much on EMG response for muscle growth, and it's not always related...
Pt 2. Good point about the Anatomy of the body. But they are things that apply to everyone. such as... Gravity, Resistance Curve, The Direction of fibers in the muscle, Alignment/ Direction of Movement and the (ALL or nothing principle of muscle contraction). This is where most Fucked it up. You CAN'T change the shape of a muscle. The quad does ONLY one thing and one thing only and that's to Bend the Knee.. The bicep does only one thing, Elbow flexion. The triceps does only one thing, Elbow extension. you CAN'T shape or work the Inner outer head or any of that nonsense. Now! if the job of the Quad is to bend the knee, you have to ask your self.. Is the Squat or the Hack squat or the smith machine a good exercise for the quads??? Is doing 5 different exercises for the bicep necessary??? I can't named them all here. but here are some exercises that WILL NOT give you a good bank for your buck as far as (Hypertrophy)... 1- Over head Presses of Any type. 2- chins and Dips 3- Squats with a barbell. 4- Incline Bench press. 5- Barbell bench. 6- Deadlift. 7- Upright rows. and this is just to name a few. This are just Circus acts. BTW.. If your a power lifter and your job is to Lift 800lbs on deadlifts that's something else.
Eugene Stoner. Yeah! Your very Smart. keep up the good work budy.
Quadriceps also can contribute to hip flexion, biceps supinate the forearm and can contribute to shoulder flexion, triceps can contribute to shoulder extension and adduction. Also, there is evidence to suggest that regional hypertrophy does occur (see McMahon, Morse, Burden, Winwood & Onambélé, 2014; Schoenfeld et al., 2015; Wakahara et al., 2012).
Furthermore, your list of exercises that will not give good "bang for your buck" are exactly the type of exercises an individual concerned with good "bang for buck" would do as they are time efficient (due to a large number of muscles contributing significantly to the movement) and easily loadable (so can easily be trained long term). Whereas, trying to replace these compound movements would require multiple isolation movements, a less efficient method.
I would argue a part of the effectiveness of an exercise to elicit hypertrophy, or not, comes down to individual differences (there is a paper that shows some potential sex differences in muscle activation for the bench press, but I cannot remember what it is called) and form (e.g. Lehman, 2005). Therefore, your personal anecdotes are fine to apply to yourself, but not to the population at large
References:
Lehman, G. J. (2005). The influence of grip width and forearm pronation/supination on upper-body myoelectric activity during the flat bench press. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 19(3), 587-591.
McMahon, G. E., Morse, C. I., Burden, A., Winwood, K., & Onambélé, G. L. (2014). Impact of range of motion during ecologically valid resistance training protocols on muscle size, subcutaneous fat, and strength. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 28(1), 245-255.
Schoenfeld, B. J., Contreras, B., Tiryaki-Sonmez, G., Wilson, J. M., Kolber, M. J., & Peterson, M. D. (2015). Regional differences in muscle activation during hamstrings exercise. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 29(1), 159-164.
Wakahara, T., Miyamoto, N., Sugisaki, N., Murata, K., Kanehisa, H., Kawakami, Y., ... & Yanai, T. (2012). Association between regional differences in muscle activation in one session of resistance exercise and in muscle hypertrophy after resistance training. European journal of applied physiology, 112(4), 1569-1576.
Adrian J. Now your in my wheel house. but i"ll give you a detail educate reply from my personal literature in a few hours. i have a plane to catch.
So sad that his hair is falling. Should start taking MORE care.