Heart to Heart with Hads

Ep. 37 | Training Splits & Muscle Growth Secrets

• Hadlea Shaw

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Speaker 1:

Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of Heart to Heart with Hads. I'm trying to adjust my mic right now, so it's probably sounding a little odd. I don't know if I'm close enough. Anyways, let's get into the episode.

Speaker 1:

Today I had someone send me some things they wanted me to cover on the podcast and so I'm just going to kind of start filtering through what people want to hear, because I feel like that is the most beneficial. So today I kind of wanted to cover, on training splits, how to make a training split. You know rest days, all of that good stuff. So I think the first part is recognizing, like, what kind of goals do you have for yourself? So a lot of the times people are like oh, I just want to lose body fat and I just want to gain muscle. Okay, well, be more specific. Like, what specific parts of your body are you looking to gain muscle? Now, a lot of the times when people first come to you, it's like okay, everywhere. Like you're under muscle literally everywhere, and so that's where we go into. You know more of a training split that focuses on full body muscle. So typically for females, honestly, I recommend no more than a four day training split. I don't like five days, especially if you're someone that knows how to train with proper intensity. Not everyone, when they're starting out, knows exactly how to train with proper intensity, and that's a whole other rabbit hole. So we can talk about that.

Speaker 1:

If you're training and you're just going through the motions, you're not feeling that mind-muscle connection within all the movements that you're trying to do Say, you're doing shoulder press and you're completely just like using your neck, like your lower back's completely arched, you're not really focusing on the muscle that's being used then you know that's an indicator that your intensity, your form may be off. You're not really focusing on the muscles that are supposed to be used. And another thing with that is if you're not actually, you know, progressively overloading in the gym, continuously getting stronger each and every time that you go into the gym whether that's it doesn't always have to be increasing your weight or your reps, it can just be improving your form, slowing down the tempo those are things that are good indicators that you are progressing, and so these are things that are really important when it comes down to you know your overall training intensity, your form, your execution, all of that. But then also too, just like your, your rate um, like your rate of perceived I don't know RP. Yeah, rate of perceived exertion, so how much you think you're actually, you know, like your actual output in the set itself and your training itself.

Speaker 1:

And so a lot of the times whenever I say you do get a training program, it'll say either RIR so this means reps and reserve. So say like you're doing a squat and it says RIR 8. So you want to make sure that you're essentially giving 80% and say you have. That means you have probably two more reps left in the tank. Same for RP, um, rp 10.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that didn't make sense. No reps in reserve, so say two RIR, that means you would be getting. That's okay. I'm totally not making sense. I just said a RIR, so a RPE. Say a RPE, so rate of perceived exertion. Rpe, say ARPE, so rate of perceived exertion. That means you would have two like you're failing. And then you would like you would still have two reps left in the tank essentially, so you're not going completely till failure like 10 RPE, and then when you're talking RIR, reps in reserve, that would mean you have two reps in reserve. So it's kind of like inverse of it. You can really go either way with that. So it's kind of like inverse of it. You can really go either way with that. Now I don't think you should be doing reps in RIR 0 or RPE 10 on every single lift. That's just not sustainable and you're not going to be able to recover from that. Take it from me Training until failure on every single set just usually doesn't work for some people, for most people, especially us females who don't have the genetic anomalies we're not genetic anomaly like freaks as males are, and we don't have those hormones to properly recover.

Speaker 1:

Unless you are someone who is advanced, like on hormone replacement or something of that sort, which most of the you that are listening are probably not all of you probably are not. I'm not, but I just wanted to put that out there. Preface that because I do dabble in bodybuilding. I don't dabble that was such a weird word. I am do competitive bodybuilding but I've never taken um I like and of our performance enhancing, things like that. So, that being said, I have no experience on that, but for, like I was saying, most females cannot afford to train like that. Literally no one probably can. But most people, most females especially, don't really know how to train till that full failure and it takes a long time to actually learn that. At first I didn't know how to train like that and now I do, and I don't get to do that because I push myself way too hard.

Speaker 1:

Another thing, too, that I really love about the style of training that I do is I don't do like three sets of 15 for everything. I do a lot of top set back offset so that way I can progressively overload better. I think it's hard to whenever you're doing, say, you're doing shoulder press and you're doing three sets of 15. Well, you're going to be tired by that third set if you're doing, you know, all heavyweight all the way until failure. So that's kind of why I do love the top set back offset style of training. Obviously every person is different. Not everybody needs to do that. It kind of just depends on you like how many days you're in the gym, yada, yada, yada. Now, as far as coming up with a training split, personally, like I was saying, I do like a four day training split for females, especially three or four. Don't like more than that. Like I said, said especially someone who knows how to properly train.

Speaker 1:

As far as like being consistent and you know a lot of people are struggling. A lot of people struggle with like, okay, I don't think I'll be able to stay consistent if I don't go every single day. And that's kind of when you have to take a step back and realize, like your muscle doesn't grow inside the gym yes, yes, it does. You have to put, apply that pressure and, you know, put on, put strain on it, but you recover outside of the gym. And if you're, if you don't have proper recovery, please take it from me If you don't have proper recovery, you will feel like absolute dog shiz and your muscles won't grow and it's like, oh, but I want to go, go and just walk. Okay, go and walk, you can still size up the scene and still be there and you won't get off.

Speaker 1:

You know, essentially off track, what I like to do a full lower day, a full upper day, a rest day, and then I'll do like posterior day, take another rest day. So essentially, I go Monday, tuesday, rest Wednesday, train Thursday, rest Friday, train Saturday, rest Sunday. So I only have two back-to-back days. All the other days I have a rest day in between and I feel like this really works for me and my style of training, my recovery, how well I'm able to recover, and for whatever reason it's saying it's trying to connect, reconnect and why just work? Good, there's experiencing connection issues but recording is still in progress. Okay, just let me make sure that I'm still on my freaking hot spot, because that I'm still on my freaking hotspot, because, yeah, I'm still on it, I'm not connected to the wi-fi, everything is fine, everything is good. So why is it saying that? Anyways, we'll get back to it?

Speaker 1:

Um, I was saying for the four-day split and this really I I kind of do have a glute emphasis because obviously that's a big focus. Okay, I'm reconnected. That's a big focus for me is growing my glutes and my hamstring tines, like that's important for you know the bikini division that I am in. So that's what I strive to do. Now, not everyone's goals are that. So it's really just going to be person, dependent on what your goals are, like what areas you're trying to grow.

Speaker 1:

For me, shoulders and glutes and hamstrings. So I prioritize a lot of hinging movements. I know my first day I do. I don't even know because I've taken two weeks off of training. See, that's what I'm saying. Rest is so much more important, especially if you're someone that's that deals with, you know, issues not recovering well. Rest is a lot more important. What was I saying? Oh my gosh, it's towards the end of the day. I hate that I do these towards the end of the day because then my brain gets all freaking scrambled and when I talk I have my face like up on the screen so I can. I'm literally watching myself right now talking, and so that kind of intimidates me. Okay, we're going back to my training.

Speaker 1:

I, my first day, I do some sort of like a squat and a hinge and a thrust, and I hit all parts of my legs that day. So quad, glutes, hamstrings. And then the next day a full upper day, upper upper day geez, I cannot talk. And then on the upper day I do a mix up back and shoulders and a little bit of arms, and don't do a lot of arms just because, like, that's not important to me. That's why that's where it goes back to like focusing on what you want to really prioritize and grow, doing a lot of decompound movements, squat, lunges, pressing all of these are going to just stack me on these basics forever and ever, and ever and ever. It's going to really get you the growth that you desire, so highly recommend doing that.

Speaker 1:

As far as coming up with your own splay, really should just do whatever is sustainable and what works for you. For a lot of people it's three days, for a lot of people it's four and I don't like to go anywhere over that just giving our body enough time to recoup and relax and rejuvenate. As far as what was I gonna say like exercises, and then, like I was saying, my Thursday lift is like posterior chain, so posterior, meaning the back half of your body. So I do some, I do back and I do hamstrings and glutes that day and then on Saturday, more like a anterior, so shoulders, quads, like front side, and then I try and sprinkle in abs in there twice a week but, as far as you know know, sticking with it. If you feel like, like I said, if you feel like you're struggling with um, I'm getting a call, so we're gonna have to pause. Okay, we are back. I am full of distractions today and totally apologize, but I had to take that phone call.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, going back to the training, another question that I got was you know what best tips to grow your glutes? And I just want to preface that my butt is like primarily fat. There's muscle to it but there's not a lot of muscle to it, and I've really really worked on doing this and it's taken me a while to be able to actually put on some tissue. So just know that takes time and that takes food as well. A lot of the times people get into the gym and they think they want to lose body fat and gain muscle at the same time. While you can do that, it's better to do it more in like a phase type of thing. Um, just get in there and train. Obviously you're going to build muscle if you're training unless you're severely under eating. And just make sure you're you know prioritizing your gains by eating enough carbs, protein and carbs. You need carbs to fuel the glycogen stores and actually put on the tissue. Um, so make sure that you're doing that.

Speaker 1:

And that goes back to like the glute growth thing too is make sure that you're you know training your glutes. Um, squatting, thrusting, lunging, hinging, getting in those sorts of movements that you are able to grow your glutes and hitting them at least twice a week. Um, I know I do a squat, a lunge and a hinge probably all three days that I do train those, those that body part also. Just stay consistent with it, the more that you get stronger with it. And I don't think people realize, unless you're just a genetic freak this takes years, like I've been with my coach for almost three years now and I feel like I'm just now starting to get that development in my lower and upper glutes and I would say it took me probably a year to you know, fully, learn how to train correctly.

Speaker 1:

So keep that in mind as you are progressing along in your fitness journey and real in discovering you know what works best for you. So it just takes time and it just takes consistency. So just stick with it. Things are not going to click all at once. Um, just enjoy the process.

Speaker 1:

I think that's the most fun and rewarding part of it, I think, is when I was first starting. You know, especially you know you see so much stuff on Instagram. You compare. Don't want to get me down in that rabbit hole but your day one is probably someone's day 800. So don't compare it. You know you're on your own path and they were once exactly where you were. They literally were. Even if it was a different time frame than you, it doesn't matter, you're on your own time frame journey and I thought someone was calling me again, but it was an airplane.

Speaker 1:

Um, but yeah, I think that's all I have to say on the training and the topic. It's really hard to kind of carry out an episode when it's just me. Let me see what else I have to say on what kind of questions I got asked that would maybe tie into that. Questions I got asked that would maybe tie into that. Um, okay, I got a question on high impact workouts. So if this means like hit uh, not a fan of building muscle hit is cardiovascular and hit can be a tool that can be used for fat loss, but alongside strength training is what I would say and hit as in probably not longer than 15 minutes 10 to 15, 15 minutes of high intensity interval training. So you could do this like on the bike. I have done, you know, bike rounds whenever I was trying to lose body fat. I'll do a mix of HIIT and LIS, and so LIS is more lower intensity, steady state cardio, and this I'll just do on the treadmill, keeping my heart rate under 130 beats per minute, incline walking, really chill, steady, you'll break a good sweat.

Speaker 1:

But other than that, that's kind of my take on that as far as, like, I don't know what you mean by high impact. I would say high impact as in I mean just a lot of compound type movements like deadlifts and things like that. Maybe that's what you're meaning. I do utilize that in all of my training. I do a form of deadlift, I do Romanian deadlifts, stiff leg deadlift, just to help kind of build those glutes and hamstrings up, squatting, like I said, said I do squatting, so high impact? Let me just look at what, what, what does high impact workouts mean? Just so that I can kind of high. Let's see high impact workout. Oh, that involved forceful landing or jumping putting significant stress on joints and bones. It says, I don't know. High impact workout says it can be burpee, jump, rope, lunge, mountain climbers, squat, jump, so kind of like high intensity training.

Speaker 1:

I guess you could say it says running and jumping, activities that cause greater impact on your joints and your feet. Um, so I guess running and CrossFit are good examples that. It says my, what are my thoughts on that? As far as I guess I should know this terminology. Why don't I know it? It's totally fine, I'm. I'm just gonna recognize my, my weaknesses right here, which is now I know. So CrossFit, I think it has a. It's a good foundational of, like you know you do strength training, but it's also like plyometric as well and also a lot of like stability.

Speaker 1:

I just think it's way too much, especially on your, your spine, your joints, all of it. I mean, if you like it, you do you. But I just don't think it's something that's going to be sustainable. And if your goal is to put on muscle, I don't think that's it for you. But if you just want to get in some exercise, whatever, go for it. You like that style of training, do it. Just, it's not for me and I don't think it's necessarily conducive to putting on muscle. I guess you could say like that's not the best form to do so.

Speaker 1:

Now, as far as running, if you love to run, you do so. But just know that if you're wanting to keep and maintain and build muscle, you're going to have to eat enough food to support and fuel both running and training. But know too that like you're going to atrophy a little bit if you are running alongside training. So especially if you're running a lot now I'm not like if you run um a little like long distances, that's when you'd be more susceptible to it. But if you're running, you know, two, three miles a day, you're still strength training like you'll be fine as long as you're eating enough and still recovering properly. So that's kind of my, that's my I guess you could say input on those high impact exercises. But, yeah, I do think cardio is good. We should all definitely utilize it, but there's just different ways of going about doing it.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, I wanted to make this episode pretty short and sweet and just kind of answer those couple of questions and just give some insight on more of the training. And, yeah, if you guys ever have any questions, ever need coaching and diving more deep into these things, don't hesitate to reach out to me. I love doing these more informational Q&A style of podcast episodes. I try to make them short because a lot of people don't want to listen for so long, especially if it's just one person talking. So, yeah, leave a review, share it with someone and keep being a badass. All right, see, you guys. Have a fantastic day and weekend whenever you're listening. All right, bye.