#032 May Q&A Roundup

Welcome back to the 32nd edition of the Boats & Logs Lifting Club. I really appreciate you being here. We are the based fitness community that focuses on mastering the basics instead of getting lost in the details.

Today, we are back with our May Q&A. Thank you all for submitting your questions. I obviously can’t answer them all here, so I will try my best to answer the remaining ones on Instagram. So, check out my stories over the next few days to learn more.

I hope you enjoy this newsletter.

But before we start, here is a quick overview of what’s coming next. Are you interested in a topic I should cover in depth? Just send me a message, and I will consider adding it.

• June 9th: Form vs. Overload

• June 16th: Building your Home Gym

• June 23rd: Hydration Guide

• June 30th: Testosterone Guide

What workout and diet should I follow if I want to build muscle and reduce fat?

What you want to achieve is body recomposition: Building muscle while losing fat. To do that, you need at least some body fat to begin with (at least 15%).

You should then start training with a program you like - full body is probably a good point to start, but check out question 3 for more information on picking the right program. The reason you need to train is simple - you won’t build muscle without training.

Regarding your diet, you should be in a calorie deficit. It is impossible to lose fat without being in a calorie deficit. Because a calorie deficit means nothing else than your body needing more energy (calories) than you fuel it with through food. To compensate for the lack of energy, your body burns fat, which is nothing but stored energy.

And usually, we don’t build muscle in a calorie deficit because that requires additional energy (a calorie surplus). But if your body fat is high enough, your body can get enough energy from your fat to not only burn it but also build muscle.

Additionally, you need to have a proper protein intake. Without eating enough protein, it’s impossible to make gains. At least 0.7-1.0g of protein per lb of body weight is the range you want to be in.

But this obviously doesn’t work forever. Once you get a bit leaner and around 12% body fat, you won’t gain much muscle anymore by staying in a calorie deficit. At this point, it can make sense to start bulk and cut cycles.

To sum it up, working out + calorie deficit + high protein diet should allow you to do body recomposition.

Should I do Shoulder Press with the machine, dumbbells, or barbells to maximize hypertrophy?

Most people who have followed me for quite a while can probably guess the answer already. I believe that machines are superior to free-weight movements for maximizing hypertrophy. They are literally designed to hit one specific muscle (group).

And the same is true for the shoulder press. Remember, when we are trying to build muscle, we want to do controlled reps and mainly use the target muscle. With the free-weight shoulder press, the odds are higher that you are cheating or throwing the weight around. This is not really possible if you are using a machine. It forces you to do a controlled movement and focus on correctly moving the weight.

But that is only true if you have a quality machine. For me, a quality shoulder press machine can be determined through two components:

1) The machine allows me to train both shoulders individually/each side has its own weight (stack). This is so important because it avoids building imbalances. If both shoulders are sharing the same weight stack, the stronger shoulder likely takes over some of the work from the weaker

2) The movement needs to feel good. This one is quite subjective and only you can tell if the movement feels good to you. As machines are quite standardized, it could be that your anatomy and the machine don’t match well. In that case, it’s better to use a free-weight movement instead.

Comparing the dumbbell and barbell versions, I clearly prefer the dumbbell shoulder press.

First of all, it also has the benefit that both shoulders can be trained separately, which avoids imbalances. Secondly, the barbell shoulder press is often performed standing, while the dumbbell version is performed sitting with your back against the upright bench. Sitting with your back locked allows for less cheating compared to standing up and doing barbell shoulder press, where people often start to use leg/back drive for the last few reps.

So, my ranking is the following:
1. Quality Machine
2. Dumbbell
3. Barbell

And please don’t forget, shoulder injuries are especially hard to recover from, and many will never fully recover, so your priority should always be to stay injury-free. Of course, you can safely overload the muscle and train to failure, but avoid cheating, as this is a sign that you are moving a heavier weight than you should be, which increases the odds of getting injured significantly.

What is the best split?

The -in theory- optimal split combines the most efficient exercises with the perfect volume and intensity based on your individual needs. Depending on your genetics and experience in the gym, this could be literally everything and would need a lot of work assessing.

This obviously doesn’t help you yet, so let me continue on how to find a split that works for you:

1. Intensity: We want to train at a high intensity, which means training to failure. Failure is NOT the point where you can barely move the muscle. Failure is the point where you can’t complete another full rep without breaking form.

2. Volume: Around 10 sets per week per muscle is a good range to ensure enough volume to grow muscle. Going beyond 6 sets per workout per muscle doesn’t seem to provide additional muscle growth. Therefore, we want to train each muscle at least twice a week.

With these guidelines, there are some obvious splits you can follow:
- Full body (e.g. Full Body, Rest, Full Body, Rest, Full Body, Rest, Rest)
- Upper/Lower (e.g. Upper, Lower, Rest, Rest, Upper, Lower, Rest)
- Upper/Lower/FB (e.g. Upper, Lower, Rest, Rest, Full Body, Rest Rest)
- Push, Pull, Legs (e.g. Push, Pull, Legs, Rest, Push, Pull, Legs)

I’m personally not a big fan of Push, Pull, Legs due to the significantly higher time investment compared to the other splits but it has worked for many, many people to build muscle with PPL.

The most important point is that you pick a split that is fun to you and that you can follow consistently. Consistency is the key to making gains. You will probably make more gains following a 3x per week full-body split than training Push/Pull/Legs only consistently 4x per week (when you planned to do 5-6).

You should be able to use most splits you find on the internet. Just make sure you get around 10 sets per week and train each muscle at least twice a week.

If you don’t know where to start, check out the Boats & Logs Full Body or Upper/Lower program.

You need to understand that there is only a very small difference in terms of hypertrophy between picking a decent program and the optimal program - the same goes for exercise selection.

So, with that in mind, I will repeat again: Pick a program that is fun and fits into your life - you need to be consistent with it.

Muscle growth has stopped. How to overcome the plateau?

I have written an in-depth guide on self-coaching to overcome plateaus - you can check it out here.

First, you need to check if you are actually plateauing or if you are just past newbie gains, where it’s completely normal to stop progressing as fast as you did before.

To do this, you need to log your lifts. Are you getting stronger from week to week? Great, you are building muscle! You may not maximize your muscle growth, but you are still progressing. If you are not getting stronger, it is a sign that you are plateauing.

What most people now do is switch to a different workout program and exercises, and while this COULD be a good strategy, it shouldn’t be your first step.

At first, you need to ensure that you are feeding your body enough protein and calories to make progress. If your diet is not right, changing the program won’t help you overcome your plateau. And I think that’s the point where most people are plateauing - they are not caring enough about their diet.

If you checked that your diet is correct, there must be something wrong with how you train.

It could be your intensity, your volume, or both.

And we have discussed this before: Do 10 sets per muscle per week, train each muscle at least twice a week, and train until you reach failure.

If you are sure that you are doing all this and are eating well, there are three things you can do:

1. Increase calorie surplus/deficit and protein intake. Maybe your base assumption about your diet was wrong.

2. Change your workout program. Maybe you need to switch it up a bit and see how your body responds.

3. If you have done all the steps above and are not making progress, you are either a >1% outlier (I’m sure you are not), or you are still doing one of these things wrong. In that case, it would make sense to talk to a good personal trainer to help you.

Thank you for reading today's newsletter. I tried to answer as many of your questions as possible. If you have further questions, simply DM me on Instagram.

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Stay strong,
Boats & Logs

Disclaimer

This is not Legal, Medical, or Financial advice. Before starting any workout program, diet plan, or supplement protocol, please consult a medical professional. These are the opinions from an AI voice.