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Why we lift? Because it's fun.
Why we lift HEAVY? Because we need to.
We live in one of the best cities in this country. The nickname America’s Finest City didn’t come about on accident.
Most importantly, it barely rains but also… BEACHES. We have the volleyball and the golfing and the Spikeball and the hiking. We have the surfing and the jet skiing and the paddle boarding and the kayaking and the sailing and whatever that hydro jet pack thing is. And of all the things just listed, golfing is the only one you need a shirt for.
We also have one of the densest populations of fitness training facilities in the country. On Garnet alone we have big box gyms, yoga and dance studios, Barre and Pilates, boxing and kickboxing, Crossfit and high intensity interval training studios. More importantly though, we have the people to fill those studios and small businesses.
Everyone wants to look a certain type of way. Whether it’s lean and toned or strong and athletic, whichever workout you choose will help get you there. Some will happen faster, some will be safer but all will move you towards your goal.
But I digress, this is about why we lift heavy at The Movement Warehouse (and without getting too scientific, why lifting heavy doesn’t mean getting bulky or risking your previous low back injury)
Lifting heavy builds muscle. Cardio burns muscle (and fat but we can talk about that later). Muscle is dense and heavy but looks really good. Lack of muscle can look good too but won’t have much definition.
Think a sprinter’s body vs. a marathoner’s, one is built for explosive power, the other is built for endurance. Both have very low body fat but one might turn more heads at the beach.
A marathoner doesn’t need to squat 225lbs because muscle will weight them down, a sprinter on the other hand, does to increase the amount of power those leg muscles can generate.
If you want to build a butt, you lift heavy (6-8 rep max: the maximum amount you can lift with good form for 6-8 reps) some days and you lift for high volume others. If you want to build a more defined chest, you hit a heavy bench some days and you rep out with dumbbells to failure others.
You don’t do hundreds of lightweight squats or 1000 push ups. This will get you stronger and depending on where you’re starting may help you look much, much better but there will be a definite limit to your gains.
We want to build muscle and we want to build muscle everywhere. We program leg’s 2x/week and upper 2x/week because working a muscle group to complete exhaustion will build that body part. Then we let them recover enough (48 hours) to safely do it all over again.
Bulky? Whenever I’ve heard anyone talk about getting bulky, they’re usually talking about traps (the muscles around your neck and shoulders that scare the s*** out of most women).
While traps are important for silently informing someone “I have no idea what you’re talking about” or looking over to your girlfriend’s and communicating “why is this guy still talking to me?” If you’re not a football player, they’re not that useful and are achieved with hundreds of high weight, high volume complex exercises that we do not do here.
Look around… don’t we all have necks?
Lift heavy. Stay safe. Laugh. Take your shirt off. And let’s do it all over again tomorrow.