There's this idea in the fitness world that if you're not in the gym six days a week for multiple hours, you're not doing enough and you're leaving gains on the table. And I got a comment the other day from a guy who genuinely couldn't understand how someone could build muscle training for just 30 to 45 minutes. So, in this video, I'm going to show you exactly how I do it.
But first, if you're new to the channel and my content, I don't train 6 days a week. I don't take steroids. I don't do 20 sets per muscle per week.
And I definitely don't spend 2 hours in the gym each time working out. This channel exists to cut through the fitness industry noise and BS. And that's because I used to be super overwhelmed, not knowing what to do.
And now I help others avoid all those wasted years I went through. And my goal with every video is to help you get jacked in the simplest way possible and to understand that fitness isn't complicated. And over the years, I've literally tried everything.
So bro splits, upper, lower. I've done full body 3 days a week, pushpull leg 6 days a week. I've trained every day.
I've trained three days. I've tested all these different ways of training over the last 10 years. And the split that I found to be best for me is push, legs, pull, and that's going to be 3 days a week.
And a common question I get from a lot of people is something like, "Eric, aren't you going to miss out on gains only training a muscle once a week? The research is clear that two and maybe even three is better, right? " Here's what most people don't think about.
Just because your muscle might be recovered in 48 hours, it doesn't mean your connective tissue is. What about your tendons, your joints, and your nervous system? When you keep hitting the same movement patterns over and over each week, especially training hard and then doing tons of sets, you slowly accumulate total body and just systematic stress.
And that's what I see so many guys ignore until they're literally forced to back off because of nagging injuries. But with push legs pull 3 days a week. Each muscle gets several days to recover before it's hit directly again.
And before we go to warn the comments about this, this is going to be a hot take, but you guys have to understand that I truly don't care about what's considered optimal or what any exercise scientist says about this. I stopped consuming all YouTube fitness years ago and honestly don't even want to be associated with it. You guys have to understand that we've been studying muscle growth for 70 years and there still isn't a clear answer and we still have debates about this.
If you're covering all movement patterns each week with a few hard sets closer to failure, you're properly recovering and you're progressing your lifts. Everything else is just weeds. And maybe hitting a muscle two or three times versus one will give you more gains, but how much more?
Is it 1%? Is it 5%? How much actual work are you having to do for that small percentage?
That's the real question. And how much damage are you accumulating over time in the process? People constantly bring up and just talk about these studies with higher frequency, but what about long-term?
Like, is it actually sustainable? But enough explaining the philosophy. Let's actually get into the routine I'm following at 32 years old.
Before we get into the exercises, I want to actually show you the math so you understand where the 30 to 45 minutes actually comes from. I start all of my workouts out by warming up on the treadmill for about 5 to 10 minutes to get the blood flowing. And then right after I finish the treadmill, I'll grab a light band and I'll do about 5 minutes of band work.
Now, I'd say we're somewhere between like 12 to 15 minutes. And then moving from there, the first movement gets a couple of warm-up sets where I'm ramping up the weight. And then each movement after is going to get one warm-up set and one allout working set to failure.
So, let's say that takes about 60 to 90 seconds of actual lifting. I'm then going to rest about 2 minutes before going to the next movement. So, realistically, each exercise takes about 4 to 5 minutes total.
Those four to five exercises is going to put you around 6 to 20 minutes of actual lifting and rest. Add that to the 10 to 15 minute warm-up and you're looking at roughly like 30 to 45 minutes in the gym. So, now that we've done the math, let's actually talk about the exercises.
I start push days with the incline dumbbell press. And the reason I start with this movement is simple. It biases the upper chest, which most guys are underdeveloped in.
It also allows a deeper stretch than a barbell. And it just lets your shoulders move naturally instead of being locked into a fixed bar path. That movement alone is handling the majority of your chest stimulus.
plus front delts and then triceps indirectly. But I want to be clear, I don't just do the incline dumbbell press year round. I rotate in other press variations every few months to avoid overuse injuries.
And then after that first movement, I'm going to move to a pec deck or chest fly. And the reason I add this in is because it keeps tension on the chest through a full range of motion and allows me to take the pecs to true failure without worrying about balance or coordination. Then we move to cable lateral raises just for extra shoulder volume.
And I also look at these as like a safety net because pressing movements on their own are probably not going to be enough to fully develop your delts. And I enjoy doing the cables because they keep constant tension through the entire range instead of losing resistance at the bottom like dumbbells. But you don't just have to use cables.
Dumbbells work also. And then after the cable lateral raises, we're going to move into tricep push downs with a straight or vbar. And these are going to hit the lateral and the medial head effectively.
And then the next week or the following week, I like to rotate in overhead tricep extensions. Now let's look at this entire push day from a bird's eye view. The incline dumbbell press covers upper chest and a bit of front delts and triceps.
The pec deck or a fly variation is going to isolate the chest through full tension. Cable lateral raises are going to directly hit the side delts for width. And then the push down or the extensions bring more direct tricep volume.
So with this push workout, the chest is covered, your shoulders are covered, your triceps are covered. You don't need to throw in 10 more exercises and you don't need 15 sets for chest. And that's the part that so many people miss.
They assume just because they're doing more in the gym and all these exercises, it's going to equal more growth. But the way I look at it is if the muscle is already fully stimulated, adding more just increases more fatigue. And fatigue is not the same as growth.
So this is my full push day. It's around four to five movements about 30 to 45 minutes. Remember that I do one working set to failure.
And then I'm just going to repeat next week with a goal of adding weight or at least one rep to a set. And I want to make sure that I'm super clear with you guys before this video ends. You have to remember that this is what I do and what I enjoy.
If you want to do more sets or you want to follow a different split, then go for it. At the end of the day, I always say that you got to find what you enjoy that keeps you progressing and keeps you injuryfree. And in the next two videos, I'm going to be breaking down legs and then also the pull day this exact same way so you can see how the entire system fits together.
But if you want a step-by-step workout program that works no matter your starting point or your age or even your equipment level, click the link in the pin comment to learn more. I appreciate you guys watching. I'll talk to you'all on the next one.
Peace.
