Ep5: That's Not Revolutionary
In this episode, we're diving deep into the buzzword "revolutionary" and how it's often misused in the world of bodybuilding and fitness. We explore the history of exercises, the role of supplements, and why the quest for something "new" might be a wild goose chase. So, is anything in bodybuilding truly revolutionary? Let's find out!
Key Topics:
- The "Revolutionary" Trap: Why the term "revolutionary" is often misleading and how it's overused in the fitness community.
- Old is Gold: A look back at the golden era of bodybuilding and why some of the best exercises are decades old. Shoutout to Vince Gironda!
- The Bench Press Twist: How a simple change in palm orientation can make a world of difference in your workout.
- Pushups Are Back: Why this classic exercise is making headlines again and how it can benefit you.
- The Real Game-Changers: The role of motivation and goal planning in achieving your fitness dreams.
Key Takeaways:
- Don't fall for the "revolutionary" hype. Master the basics and build from there.
- Old-school techniques still have a place in modern fitness regimes.
- Motivation and goal planning are the real MVPs in your fitness journey.
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Transcript
Hey there, podcast family.
Marc:Welcome back to another exciting episode.
Marc:Episode five is about to rock your world.
Marc:But before we dive in, I just want to take a moment to say a massive thank you
Marc:for tuning in and supporting the show.
Marc:Guess what?
Marc:I've been digging deep into the archives and I'm thrilled to bring
Marc:back some of our classic episodes.
Marc:Why?
Marc:Because timeless wisdom never goes out of style.
Marc:My friends, I genuinely believe these episodes are still super relevant.
Marc:And I hope you find them not just entertaining, but also incredibly
Marc:useful in your own journey.
Marc:So without further ado, let's get this show on the road.
Marc:Stay tuned, and as always, keep lifting, keep learning, and keep being awesome.
Marc:I.
Marc:Title of this podcast is That's Not Revolutionary, and the reason I bring this
Marc:up is I see this all the time in forums.
Marc:Somebody will post a new exercise and there will be a bunch of people
Marc:that will jump on it saying, oh my gosh, you've invented something new.
Marc:Oh, gee, I, I've never seen this before, or, somebody will attempt to
Marc:bring up an exercise of the past that might have been forgotten, and it
Marc:will be poo-pooed and dismissed simply because, well, that's not revolutionary.
Marc:We know what, seriously, can that word even be used next to bodybuilding
Marc:without laughing hysterically?
Marc:I mean, what in bodybuilding today?
Marc:It's truly revolutionary.
Marc:And think about it for a moment, for the sake of argument, let's just agree
Marc:that creatine was the last revolutionary thing to hit the bodybuilding market.
Marc:It's well documented over 300 peer reviewed research studies.
Marc:If you don't count, you know, if you don't wanna count supplements, then
Marc:I don't think anything recently would classify, and that was some time ago.
Marc:Now, if we don't even, again, if you don't even wanna think about supplements,
Marc:there isn't really anything revolutionary.
Marc:And how to build muscle.
Marc:People have been building muscle since before the 1930s.
Marc:Now there's different equipment.
Marc:We've definitely learned things along the way, but it's still not
Marc:what I consider to be revolutionary.
Marc:What you could learn in the fifties and the sixties and the seventies were all
Marc:things that people are utilizing today just in different manners of communicating
Marc:that same information, better words, better books, um, You know, they've just
Marc:learned different things along the way.
Marc:In fact, the only thing you can say is revolutionary, or
Marc:that's continuing to advance.
Marc:You could argue would be medical science.
Marc:We are learning things about our body, uh, all the time.
Marc:That's happening all the time.
Marc:Not necessarily applied to bodybuilding, but it, we are learning things
Marc:about our bodies, how they function, different nutrients, uh, supplements.
Marc:Not really revolutionary.
Marc:Per se, different supplements, uh, different twists on a supplement,
Marc:bringing back, uh, old school stuff, but it's not really revolutionary or new.
Marc:Now this podcast isn't meant to depress you because if nothing has
Marc:really been truly revolutionary not hit, not high volume, not super sets,
Marc:not one set to failure, not body weight exercises, not rest pause, not
Marc:instinctive training, not tri sets, bi sets and giant sets or drop sets.
Marc:You get my point.
Marc:It's all good stuff.
Marc:And what I see a lot happening today are people basically, Taking an old school
Marc:movement that maybe was forgotten from the Vince Gironda 1950 days and slapping
Marc:their name on it as if it was their own.
Marc:Well, it's not now, you know, I try to give credit where credit is due.
Marc:I do talk about the past a lot, only because there's a lot of good information.
Marc:That was designed and they learned in the past, it's forgotten today.
Marc:Perfect curls, body drag curls.
Marc:Have you ever heard of those?
Marc:That's where you keep the bi, the, the barbell really close to you.
Marc:You're almost like it's one inch away and you're dragging it up.
Marc:You're keeping your elbows tightly locked back, and it's really a peak contraction.
Marc:It's an awesome bicep exercise.
Marc:It is awesome.
Marc:But you would think that somebody designed that or came up with that variation.
Marc:In the nineties or the two thousands?
Marc:No, my friends that was a Vince Gironda move from 1950 and it
Marc:is awesome and it works all.
Marc:My point is, is we've forgotten a lot about the past and bringing
Marc:some of that back is a good thing, but there's nothing revolutionary.
Marc:How about turning your, how about if you're doing a set of dumbbell
Marc:incline bench press or flat.
Marc:But I like to do this particular move on the incline, and instead of having your
Marc:palms facing outwards, you have them facing towards you like in a W the entire
Marc:time your hands are facing each other.
Marc:So normal bench, normal dumbbell bench press.
Marc:You see people.
Marc:And their hands are facing out.
Marc:Their palms are facing outward.
Marc:That's what you normally see.
Marc:Well, what if you do the same move but your palms are facing inwards?
Marc:Well, the theory was, and I believe the theory to be true, is it
Marc:puts more stress on your pectoral muscles and less on your shoulders.
Marc:Now, I've personally felt this, okay, we know that feeling is not scientific
Marc:proof, but when I started to do.
Marc:A dumbbell bench pressed in this manner.
Marc:I did notice an improvement in my pectoral region and a lot less stress
Marc:on my shoulders, a k a rotator cuff or any impingement in that area simply
Marc:because of the way that I was changing my palms and the focus of where the
Marc:weight resistance was being done.
Marc:Now, was that a new movement?
Marc:Did Marc David invent that?
Marc:No.
Marc:Marc David did not.
Marc:He just found a lot of old Vince Gironda stuff and you know, it was a
Marc:little hard to read 'cause a lot of the older stuff wasn't as organized
Marc:as well, but I found it there.
Marc:So is bodybuilding revolutionary that just people are looking
Marc:for something new all the time?
Marc:As I was searching, uh, bodybuilding.com forms yesterday.
Marc:There were people who were posting certain diets or they were talking
Marc:about so-and-so's book, and the next comment was, eh, you know,
Marc:not a lot of new information there.
Marc:It's the same stuff I've always heard.
Marc:It's not really revolutionary.
Marc:What?
Marc:There's gonna be a revolutionary new diet that you're gonna be able to follow.
Marc:Somehow we're gonna find out that eating bananas in the morning
Marc:are going to build more muscle.
Marc:I mean, seriously, this isn't meant to be a bad thing, it's just.
Marc:If you know all this information, bodybuilding is not a 25,000 page book.
Marc:Now, it might be with all the different fitness experts putting
Marc:their spin on things, including myself.
Marc:It's not exclude me then it might be that big, but truly
Marc:bodybuilding's about 200 pages.
Marc:It isn't that long.
Marc:It's how to eat and it's how to train.
Marc:And there's lots of different ways that you can stimulate muscle growth.
Marc:In fact, I don't think anybody could realistically argue that we know
Marc:for a fact how muscle is built.
Marc:Specifically, we know that we overload muscles.
Marc:We know that there's maybe micro tears.
Marc:We know that stimulation and challenging your body to grow and pushing yourself.
Marc:Sometimes training to failure and maybe not always, always training to failure.
Marc:Doing some heavy, you know, rep work, uh, higher rep.
Marc:All kinds of different ways to train that are gonna garnish
Marc:you the gains that you want.
Marc:But there isn't one single program that, well, if you use this, dammit,
Marc:science has proven that is how you grow.
Marc:Every single person is gonna use this program here, and you
Marc:are gonna gain slabs of muscle.
Marc:No, not true.
Marc:That's why almost every program out there, if you use it for some period of time
Marc:and you haven't before, we'll get you gains because it's simply new and it's
Marc:a new stimulation, but revolutionary.
Marc:Well, there's not really a lot of revolutionary stuff.
Marc:You see a lot of the repeats, a lot of repeated stuff, and that's perfectly fine.
Marc:People put different spins on it.
Marc:Uh, I tend to be a lot less scientific in my podcasts and my writing.
Marc:There's a reason for that.
Marc:Uh, I'm not interested in really reading that much science into any of this stuff.
Marc:I like some of it, but.
Marc:Mostly I just want to know what works, how to do it, get new ideas,
Marc:uh, bring things up from the past to think about it, but not look for
Marc:revolutionary new training programs.
Marc:I know the pushup is making a big comeback.
Marc:Yes, I.
Marc:Yes, the pushup is making a big comeback.
Marc:It's being featured in New York Time articles.
Marc:I've seen websites dedicated on progressive programs on
Marc:how to start doing pushups.
Marc:I, myself, am guilty of that.
Marc:I'm starting to do pushups three times a week, and I've noticed an improvement
Marc:in my chest and my shoulder region.
Marc:Why I, you know, I forgot about 'em.
Marc:I don't do 'em.
Marc:I just was bench pressing away and that was happy.
Marc:That was a happy place for me.
Marc:I wasn't doing a lot of.
Marc:Of pushups, but is the pushup revolutionary?
Marc:No.
Marc:Is the one arm pushup new?
Marc:No.
Marc:Is a pushup and clapping in front of you new?
Marc:No.
Marc:How about behind your back?
Marc:Maybe it's only one guy.
Marc:I knew how to do that and, uh, he did some jail time, so I don't know
Marc:if that has anything to do with it.
Marc:But, but the point is, don't look for revolutionary stuff in bodybuilding
Marc:and don't let that discourage you when, ah, I've seen this information before.
Marc:Because if you know all this stuff, if you know all this stuff, then
Marc:you should be able to get any gains you want and make any changes to
Marc:your diet and nutrition at any time.
Marc:But we know that's not always the case because the hardest thing about this
Marc:stinking sport is motivation and the need to change all the time, not every day,
Marc:but continually adapt and have a new goal.
Marc:Let's say you do something for six months, you're gung ho for
Marc:six months, you get to your goal.
Marc:Or you gain stomp after that six months.
Marc:Now what?
Marc:That's where a newbie changes into intermediate to advanced.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Now what you've gotta figure out a new goal, a new diet
Marc:plan, a new training routine.
Marc:It is a big deal, and you gotta do that for years if you want to
Marc:keep making changes and progress.
Marc:That's why goal planning and motivation are the two vaporware
Marc:things with this industry.
Marc:And not really.
Marc:They, they are talked about in bodybuilding circles, at least by the
Marc:professionals they're talked about all the time, but goal planning and motivation.
Marc:You just can't write somebody a program for that.
Marc:I can show you any crap training program that I pulled outta the
Marc:fifties and slap my name on, which does, by the way, happen a lot.
Marc:Or you could write a bodybuilding book and talk about eating six
Marc:times a day, but everybody's talked about that now, so it's not new.
Marc:It's still pertinent, but it's not new.
Marc:So what do you do?
Marc:Goals and motivation.
Marc:Now that might be actually revolutionary, but even that is not revolutionary.
Marc:That's just damn difficult to do.
Marc:So next time you go to a forum or you see an article, don't worry about looking for
Marc:something that's revolutionary or new.
Marc:You're not gonna find a new twist on the diet.
Marc:That's gonna be, you know, no one's ever heard of this before.
Marc:At some point there could be new things, but you know what?
Marc:Even in the world today, What is new?
Marc:It's doing something you've always done in a different way.
Marc:What's different about podcasting?
Marc:Isn't this the same as speaking in a room full of people?
Marc:Technically I'm just using technology to now broadcast over the internet,
Marc:so I'm even bypassing radio and basically doing my own radio show.
Marc:Is podcasting revolutionary?
Marc:I, you know, I don't think so.
Marc:It's just different.
Marc:It's different.
Marc:It allows me to do something that people were able to do years
Marc:ago, but in a different manner.
Marc:Speak in a room, but now it's a virtual room full of people.
Marc:Now I love doing it and it's fun to do, but that's what I need you to
Marc:understand about bodybuilding and fitness.
Marc:Stop looking for the revolutionary things.
Marc:Start learning the basics and the fundamentals and some advanced techniques.
Marc:If you are younger than 35.
Marc:I'm 35, so I kind of remember a lot of the older old school bodybuilders,
Marc:although I really wasn't a Vince Gironda fan in my twenties and, and early teens.
Marc:I didn't know who he was.
Marc:There was no internet.
Marc:Uh, the, the mainstream magazines like Muscle and Muscle and Fitness didn't
Marc:talk about guys like Vince Gironda.
Marc:So I never grew up with that.
Marc:But the information is out there, and that is my point.
Marc:It will be new to you.
Marc:And it just might be somewhat revolutionary to
Marc:you if you've not seen it.
Marc:So don't forget about a lot of the old school bodybuilders who have
Marc:created the path for what you have now.
Marc:And remember that a lot of the people jumping on the bandwagon today are taking
Marc:those ideas and they might look new to you like, wow, he developed this diet.
Marc:Probably not if you do a little research, probably not, but that's okay because.
Marc:Just like those are several TV shows.
Marc:You have to gravitate towards what you like and what you know.
Marc:So don't worry about revolutionary stuff.
Marc:Just start learning as much as you possibly can.
Marc:Take an interest in your health.
Marc:And once you start knowing all this, and it starts to be very
Marc:repetitive to you, that's when you start to realize, Hey, I have enough
Marc:information to do anything I want.
Marc:So really, what is my problem?
Marc:Probably around the goals and motivation.
Marc:That would my be my guess without knowing your exact situation.
Marc:Now, if you have any questions for this podcast, you know where to send them.
Marc:It's Marc, m a r c.
Marc:That's Marc with a C at.
