There’s something full-of-potential exciting about working out in a sparsely-populated, dilapidated weight-lifting gym… left to your own devices ritualistically stacking and lifting giant melted iron ore plates without any adult supervision.
Or with adult supervision… being lectured from a matter-of-fact, no-nonsense lifting coach on the intricacies of proper form. Watch these proper-lifting form DVD tutorials: StartingStrength on the “Big-4″ exercises. Notice the age, body shape, and sex variance of all participating.
Enter another contender for unconventional lifestyle changes for extreme results (juxtapose to a previous post on caloric restriction). MartinBerkhan, leangains.com blogger, and proponent of Big-4 lifting exercises — bench press, deadlift, squat, and chinups:
Facebook comment: My little sister saw your picture while I was reading one of your articles and was like “omg he looks like a character from dragon ball z” lol highest compliments from a little girl
MartinBerkhan recommends the (above-linked) StartingStrength to learn proper lifting form. He says all of his progress came from the mentioned Big-4 compound exercises and everything else is just modern-day “f*ckarounditis” (meaning kettlebells, swiss balls, “bosu balls”, and even bicep curls are just gimmicks/fads that won’t get you much of anywhere as a beginner). They’re simply distractions for beginners who need to be spending more time with the Big-4 barbell exercises.
“F*ckarounditis” explained in his 25 symptoms list:
“Fuckarounditis is a behavioral disorder characterized by a mediocre physique and complete lack of progress, despite significant amounts of time spent in the gym.
Fuckarounditis most commonly manifests itself as an intense preoccupation with crunches, curls, cable movements, belts, gloves, balance boards, Swiss Balls and Tyler Durden. Fear of squats and deadlifts is another distinguishing trait. Physical exertion is either completely lacking or misapplied (towards questionable or unproductive training practices).
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The Illusion of ComplexityThe Internet provides a rich soil for fuckarounditis to grow and take hold of the unsuspecting observer. Too much information, shit, clutter, woo-woo, noise, bullshit, loony toon theories, too many quacks, morons and people with good intentions giving you bad advice and uninformed answers. Ah yes, the information age.
Some of it is bullshit wrapped up in a fancy paper with scientific terms, elaborate detail, promising cutting edge strategies based on the latest research. This makes it easier to swallow for intellectuals and those seeking a quick fix; two different groups, both equally susceptible to bullshittery and easy prey for scam artists.
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Isn’t it the same with nutrition? Do we have diet-related fuckarounditis? Sure enough, there’s diet-related fuckarounditis; people who live in the fear of insulin faeries, avoid carbs like the plague for a few days and then binge the hell out of a few boxes of cereal, and never manage to get lean, for example.
However, in contrast to training-related fuckarounditis, rates of diet-related fuckarounditis have remained fairly stable. The lipophobes have merely been replaced by carbophobes. On the whole, I might even venture to say that people have been getting a bit smarter with regards to nutrition. Not so with training practices, unfortunately.
I See Weak People
This is no laughing matter. I’ve had clients that spent 10-15 years working out with little or nothing to show for it and some made very basic mistakes that could have been fixed at an early stage.”By “decent training routine”, I mean “not doing blatantly stupid shit” (training 5-6 days/week, 20-25 sets for chest and arms, etc.).
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From the symptoms list:
1. You don’t keep track.
How much can you bench, squat and deadlift? How many chin-ups? You need to be able to answer those questions right now. Don’t let me hear “I THINK I can” or “I’m not sure but…”. You need to know how much weight you can maximally lift in one set when you’re fresh.
Whether it’s a set of 1, 4 ,6 or 8 reps doesn’t matter. You need to have concrete reference points in order to evaluate your progress. Keep track of them in a training log. Not “in your head”, write it down. The single act of writing it down is more important than you think, whether you keep those data points in a notebook, on your computer or on Post-It notes like me.
With tracking comes the motivation to train, the results and everything else. I can’t even imagine where people get their motivation from if they don’t keep track and just choose weights at random based on whatever feels good that day.
2. Don’t fall for “muscle confusion” bullshit. The only ones confused are the people who keep talking about such nonsense.
4. You’re doing too much shit. Be a minimalist, like me. http://is.gd/RPXZpW I snapped this yesterday and stay in this condition all year round. I built my physique with these movements primarily: squats, deadlifts, bench presses, chin-ups, triceps extensions and calf raises. These have remained staples throughout the years. I have flirted with other movements, but these were brief periods.”
“5. You think more about supplements than squats.”
“8. You spend more than 5 minutes on abs.
You can’t spot reduce [link] and you’ll get plenty of ab work with squats, deadlifts, chin-ups and overhead presses. Let me see someone at 5-6% body fat deadlift 2.5-3 x body weight for reps with with weak abs and underdeveloped abs. It ain’t happening.
“9. Is this you? http://i.imgur.com/avIzc.png
“12. You want that Tyler Durden look. http://is.gd/lXE4aS The Tyler Durden look, brought to you by squats, deadlifts, bench, chin-ups and a good diet. When this client told me that he was “closing in on his goal” of achieving a physique similar to that of Brad Pitt, AKA Tyler Durden in “Fight Club”, I told him to gain some fat, start smoking, get into a fight, and stop training his arms and shoulders. (The implication of that being that he had already surpassed his goal.)
Here’s a viral-video demonstrating “f*ckarounditis” mentality spreading over the years:
Now ponder this bonus parable from the website linked in the video:
“There was once a king who was put in a terrible situation. All of the citizens in his kingdom got their water from a different well than the one from which he drank. The well of his subjects became tainted and as a result of them drinking from that well, all of his once-loyal followers went mad. Because everyone in the kingdom had gone crazy, they all looked at each other as if they were still normal and that the King was actually the one that had gone crazy.
Even though he tried everything in his power to help his people, his subjects would spend every day attempting to convince the King he was crazy and try different “remedies” to cure his madness. When the King could not longer face the treatments and couldn’t bear to be so different from everyone else, he decided to give in and drink from their tainted well. When he did, he became just like them and the country, although all crazy, was happy again.”
I’m just amazed by the results of MartinBerkan’s clients (they look even fitter than MartinBerkhan himself). And look at all the people in the background infected with ”f*ckarounditis” marveling too:
Holy shit, I almost choked on my Brussels sprouts watching his back during those pull ups. …
And more client results on MartinBerkhan’s blog: http://www.leangains.com/search/label/Client%20results and reddit r/fitness
Here is the Leangains quick guide for those who don’t have time to read the blog. And official guide, reddit r/leangains, more active r/fitness, and the SA Forums megathread for community support:
- Fast for 16 hours, eat for 8 (roughly. Fasting for 14 or 18 hours will not kill you)
- Lift heavy stuff using the Big 4 compound movements (deadlifts, squats, bench press, chinups)
- Martin prefers to lift 3x a week. He also likes Reverse Pyramid Training (aka RPT).
- For beginners Martin does recommend Starting Strength.
- High protein every day (say 3g per kg bodyweight). On workout days high carb low fat, on non-workout days low carbs moderate fat.
- Should I Eat Before Working Out? Martin prefers to workout fasted, except for ingesting BCAAs before working out. He also recommends putting the majority of calories in the post workout window. At the same time, if you need to eat before working out … then eat! Try to keep the carbs post workout, but again … if you need carbs before you workout, then get some.
So Martin practices fasting/not-eating for 16hrs (14hrs if female) everyday. Fasting can indeed increase growth hormone 2000% in men and 1200% in women. Read more on Wikipedia on growth hormone’s functions and line 126 of GoodCalories, BadCalories. Here is a UC Berkeley lecture on what happens when you fast: Insulin goes down, glucagon hormone goes up. It should improve insulin sensitivity. I also recommend this more technical blogpost [2] from my favorite health blog Silverhydra. Just like The Big-4 workout cures “f*ckarounditis,” fasting cures snacking, grazing, and high frequency meal preparations. The fasting is what will also cause much of the fat loss avoiding the ‘big bulk’ look… MartinBerkhan hovers around 5% bodyfat year round on it. Just don’t go over 16 hrs of fasting to avoid muscle catabolism breakdown to turn into glucose, and avoid extended high intensity exercises while fasting — stick with one of the Big-4 for the day:
Q: Hey guys, got a question about fasting length. I’m currently IF’ing IntermittentFasting by doing two 24 hour fasts per week (two days with complete fasting) My question is, could I do both fasts consecutively and do one large 48 hour fast? What is the longest amount of time that it is safe to fast before LBM LeanBodyMass loss/metabolic downregulation?
A: Safest? Well, consider that de novo gluconeogenesis escalates beyond 16 hrs. 16 hrs is the tipping point – your glucose demands after this point is met primarily (more than 50%) by conversion of stored amino acids into blood glucose. Liver will support the brunt of glucose needs before that point. Theoretically, proteolysis will occur to the greatest extent 24-48 hrs into the fast. Of course, there are numerous confounders here to take into account (i.e a casein heavy meal before the fast will delay proteolysis further).
Metabolic downregulation? Up to 72 hrs according to most studies.
Fasted LISS Low IntensitySteadyStateCardio and meal timing is a non-issue. Fasted HIIT HighIntensityIntervalTraining
and meal timing is a different animal though, and that’s where you might run into trouble if you wait several hours until feeding. Escalating gluconeogeneis (amino acids => glycogen) coupled with increased cortisol doesn’t make for a good combo in the fasted state. [...]
Personally, I am a fan of intermittent fasting but beware of increased focus and more ‘acerbic’ demeanor if you do it, due to increased adrenaline, and if you find your stress levels becoming unmanageable or work schedule too physically demanding then only fast intermittently — say on low-stress, low-activity, high-sleep weekends. I like to fast on coffee and prefer this brand of coffee laced with chromium. You could get the same effect by just swirling cinnamon in regular black coffee or maybe black coffee alone will work. Drinking plain green tea (I like Rishi sencha green) has less caffeine and calming L-Theanine (yet more adrenaline stimulanting EGCG) — I actually like to scoop a teaspoon of green tea into my coffee and mix them — and oolong tee is also stimulating. Stored glucose and fat will be mobilized for ATP energy and ward off any hunger and you should be brimming with energy. Food will disgust you while on these morning breakfast-skipping fasts and you’ll definitely know when you’re hungry come afternoon time… especially if you workout fasted in this state. If you do workout fasted or just want a pre-workout drink Martin recommends 10g BCAAs BrachedChainAminoAcids which are rich in essential amino acid Leucine for maximum protein synthesis [2] [3] and muscle catabolism prevention during workouts, and Leucine may even prevent age-related muscle wasting sarcopenia (starts at age 25 so look out). I like his recommendation of “Watermelon Madness” flavor BCAAs. Taste like candy-water watermelon Jolly Ranchers — it’s nectar in the mouth 
and there’s something in it that gives you an energizing, anabolic “pump” feeling (perhaps mitochondrial biogenesis from Leucine or just B6 vitamin). Gives you energy to do a real life version of the bonus round car smash in Street Fighter. BCAAs may help with post workout delayed onset muscle soreness [2]. You could probably get a less expensive, just as tasty BCAA on trueprotein.com and google around for a coupon. No BCAAs on rest days. Berkhan enjoys Rob Zombie’s Superbeast during workouts.
I do like his simple Big-4 barbell lifting workouts (practiced 3 times/week or less)… each workout “split” on separate days. I advocate his “reverse pyramid training” : do 6 “reps” (total lifting weight is determined on how well you can keep StartingStrength form for 6 reps) and on the second “set” lower the total weight 10% and do 7 reps (6+1) with 5 minutes of rest between every set. If you do a third set (don’t do a third set for deadlifts) lower it 10% again and do 8 reps (7+1). Increase total weight of first set by 2.5% when you can do 8 reps on first set with good form (and have surpassed the initial standard 6). How to split for different days: benchpress and chinups sets, rest one day, squat sets one day, rest one day, overhead press sets, rest one day, and specifically only practice the deadlift sets every 10 days (minimum deadlift rest days according to MartinBerkhan: 10-12 days which he concluded from his goto lifting book Beyond Brawn and personal experience). When performing the deadlift half-drop the weight on the ground on the way down to spare any potential down-force back-strain (a controlled falling on the deadlift’s ‘eccentric contraction’). Separate deadlift at least 3 days away from any squats sets. It is probably dangerous to do these specific exercises with dumb bells because form will be difficult with all of the spatial-area available and dumb bells will seesaw to-and-fro causing imbalance while lifting (especially when graduating to higher total weight). These Big-4 require a straight “bar path” and adding “poundage” (total weight) in very gradual increments is easiest with barbells. (Update: I have found this SA thread on compound dumb bell movements). I recommend joining a gym or going to your local Craiglist and searching ‘weights’ for a good barbell deal — I got a 45lbs bar, a bar rack, 315lbs in plates, a plate rack, and adjustable bench for $65 and he even threw in a pair of dumb bells. I did have to haul them with a truck an hour away but it is much less expensive than buying the weights new (which would cost $1 per pound). Barbell lifting with proper form is one workout you’ll definitely feel in the morning and correct form will isolate muscles in proper balance sparing joint straining. Machines cannot offer equal resistance to all muscle groups and may cause muscle strength imbalances or just not generate enough muscle hypertrophy in general. From StartingStrength ebook:
The problem, of course, is that machine-based training did not work as it was advertised. It was almost impossible to gain muscular bodyweight doing a circuit. People who were trying to do so would train faithfully for months without gaining any significant muscular weight at all. When they went to barbell training, a miraculous thing would happen: they would immediately gain — within a week — more weight than they had gained in the entire time they had fought with the 12- station circuit.
The reason that isolated body-part training on machines doesn’t work is the same reason that barbells work so well, better than any other tools we can use to gain strength. The human body functions as a complete system — it works that way, and it likes to be trained that way. It doesn’t like to be separated into its constituent components and then have those components exercised separately, since the strength obtained from training will not be utilized in this way.
The general pattern of strength acquisition must be the same as that in which the strength will be used. The nervous system controls the muscles, and the relationship between them is referred to as “neuromuscular.” When strength is acquired in ways that do not correspond to the patterns in which it is intended to actually be used, the neuromuscular aspects of training have not been considered. Neuromuscular specificity is an unfortunate reality, and exercise programs must respect this principle the same way they respect the Law of Gravity.
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Machines, on the other hand, force the body to move the weight according to the design of the machine. This places some rather serious limitations on the ability of the exercise to meet the specific needs of the athlete. For instance, there is no way for a human being to utilize the quadriceps muscles in isolation from the hamstrings in any movement part that exists independent of a machine designed for this purpose. No natural movement can be performed that does this. Quadriceps and hamstrings always function together, at the same time, to balance the forces on either side of the knee. Since they always work together, why should they be exercised separately? Because somebody invented a machine that lets us?
It takes hours to isolate every muscle with all the machines required for all the reps, and it’s impossible to choose the correct total weight for every individual machine for muscle balance. An entire day’s barbell workouts take only 2 or 3 sets with 5 minutes rest periods. And you’ll feel it more:
MartinBerkhan: Does anyone else feel like you’re hooked up to a morphine drip post-workout? It’s a nice feeling. Everything will be OK, man. [...]
That would be the endogenous morphine (endorphines). These barbell exercises are full body workouts despite how simple they are and look. You’ll be breathing up a storm with your belly hanging out like a giant bullfrog after just one set of deadlifts 
Review of StartingStrength on Amazon:
The Squat mainly targets the legs, the butt, lower back, and the abs.
Bench press – the chest, shoulders, and triceps.
Press – shoulders, triceps, traps
Deadlift – upper back, lower back, legs, traps, abs.
Power clean – the power clean is a variation of the olympic clean. It starts as a deadlift, but utilizes speed and it is pulled up and racked on the deltoids. This is the king of all movements, it works out almost everything.
Just a warning: it may be best to seek real-life coaching advice for more advanced and rapid techniques like the power clean (taught in StartingStrength):
Do you ever employ Olympic lifts (snatch, clean & jerk) for clients and if not, why?
MartinBerkhan: No, never, unless they’re Olympic lifters or have a good deal of experience with the lifts. While productive, these lifts require skill and practice. Given that I do most of my work online, it would be irresponsible to include them in people’s templates. Most people can bench, squat and deadlift with good form, but they can’t snatch and clean.
So you can substitute cleans with shoulder-width chinups (work biceps, triceps, arms, shoulders, abs) and overhead press (back, shoulders, and shrug at top for deltoids) making it Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press, Chinups, Overhead Press. If you can’t chinup workup to it with lat pulldown at a gym or jump up with chinup position and lower yourself as slow as you can. Once you can reach certain lifting goals [for men see #10, women] then you’ve truly earned the right to add your ‘accessory’ exercises. But if you’re still eager after your day’s work of one of the Big-4, just add an accessory workout directly after. The magic of simplicity and doing less gives consistency, allows you to chart your progress, and prevents any burnout (overtraining will cause cortisol to go up and testosterone to go down). Slow and steady will have you looking forward to the work out ahead and you won’t dread it as routine (unless you have not gotten enough sleep, in which case treat it as a rest day). You will focus more on form for one of the Big 4 since you’re only doing it once a week and this will prevent risk of injury. I like to watch a form video from StartingStrength right before and keep the pointers fresh in mind.
Sometimes people ask me things in between sets.“Nice arms, man. How do you get that veiny look – do you go for the pump to really bring those cuts out? And what’s the lowdown on preacher curls with a straight bar vs the EZ-bar?”
“I don’t curl”
“Yeah right, c’mon…”
I then give them The Look. The Look let’s them know I am dead serious and that the conversation is over.*
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The take away message here is twofold.
Part of it is a homage to abbreviated training routines, which I feel deserve more attention. You can go a long way just focusing on pressing, squatting, deadlifting and chinning. Throw in some calf and ab work if it makes you feel better.
Another part of it is encouraging change. If your training routine isn’t working for you, ditch it and maybe start at the other end of the spectrum of whatever the hell you were doing before. You have nothing to lose.
*Ok, I made that up. I don’t really give people The Look. The rest of it is true though.
MartinBerkhan is actually an avid gamer enjoying Starcraft2, BreakingBad enthusiast, rage comic enthusiast, and fantastic writer for being bilingual (Swedish and English), so give him a donation in the link on his site if you learn new things from his site. Or maybe buy his ebook whenever he decides to release one (he’s been talking about it for 3 years). I believe this is the unofficial release of it [PDF] from years ago and may require updating.
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If you have trouble with day-to-day recovery or are losing strength you can consume a whey protein powder blended drink, otherwise large “PWO” post workout meals are fine [PDF] [2]. Here is what MartinBerkhan’s diet is comprised of if you’re curious: [1] [2] [3]. And he does seem to certain types of whole food protein before bed [2]. And he supports eating large meals. You can ‘Subscribe’ to his facebook profile or ‘Like’ Leangains where people post pictures of their large meals and he in turn posts pictures of himself turning Lacoste shirts into Under Armour shirts and various health and fitness articles.
I’ve also found myself blendtecing mustard greens post workout for these brassinosteroids after following MartinBerkhan’s twitter updates:
Lift weights, eat mustard, build muscles? – ScienceDaily Sep. 29 http://bit.ly/prLIja Will be interesting to see if this pans out in humans.
Lift Weights, Eat Mustard, Build Muscles? <<Apparently there are naturally occurring steroids in mustard greens that work like anabolic steroids. Who knew? (ScienceDaily)
The research found that the stimulatory effect of homobrassinolide (a type of brassinosteroid found in plants such as mustards) on protein synthesis in muscle cells led to increases in lean body mass, muscle mass and physical performance.
Interestingly, it shows no stimulatory activity on the androgen receptor, but still manages to exhibit low androgenic properties. …
Just gotta tame the pepperspray mustard green flavor with some blueberries is all. Edit: After reading my Contemporary Nutrition textbook these plant hormones may just end up being denatured by protease stomach enzymes and rendered into basic protein and rendering the steroid hormone biologically so I’ll probably just stick to my Big-4 blendtec greens (kale, broccoli, collards, brussel sprouts) w/ half a lemon blended put on ice.
But, hey, this is just my advice…. “you can do whatever the f*ck you wanna do!”
Beware of “bro-science”
Edit: the only thing that impresses me more than Big-4 are these Dragon Ball Z Super Saiyan Gym F*ckarounditis routines. Makes me wonder if in the future groups of people will be doing this instead of bosu balls after genetic engineering is mastered. Something to work up to.
