Mike Israetel

Whatever, your ninth grade, fucking max out. Don't do that when you're an adult. It's profoundly stupid, especially if you're in your 40s and 50s and 60s and like you don't want a torn pec. You drive a truck for a living. Your pec is required for that sort of thing. After that easing in period, you're now competent at the movements. You feel yourself competent as a member of general gym culture.

You don't feel lost. A big part of a problem of getting people to go to gyms and actually stick with it is there's this understanding that people have, which is itself relatable, but inaccurate, that the gym is for people that know things. It's their place. It's for that jacked guy. It's not for me. The thing is that Jack guy, to paraphrase another comedian, like he's been in the gym enough.

You don't feel lost. A big part of a problem of getting people to go to gyms and actually stick with it is there's this understanding that people have, which is itself relatable, but inaccurate, that the gym is for people that know things. It's their place. It's for that jacked guy. It's not for me. The thing is that Jack guy, to paraphrase another comedian, like he's been in the gym enough.

You should take a few days off. You're big. You did it, buddy. The people who really need to be in the gym are the ones who aren't in the gym. So the gym is an infinitely welcoming place. Almost all the Jack people are super nice in real life. And they're not judging you. They're just staring off into space. They're ultra selfish. They don't care about you.

You should take a few days off. You're big. You did it, buddy. The people who really need to be in the gym are the ones who aren't in the gym. So the gym is an infinitely welcoming place. Almost all the Jack people are super nice in real life. And they're not judging you. They're just staring off into space. They're ultra selfish. They don't care about you.

And if you don't know what you're doing, you can always ask them. And it almost certainly will give you free advice until you're blue in the face. So after a few weeks of being in the gym with a trainer, you're like, this is my place. I belong here. And I'm starting to push a little hard. And then over time, you just increase the load on the bar a little bit.

And if you don't know what you're doing, you can always ask them. And it almost certainly will give you free advice until you're blue in the face. So after a few weeks of being in the gym with a trainer, you're like, this is my place. I belong here. And I'm starting to push a little hard. And then over time, you just increase the load on the bar a little bit.

And if you're no longer getting sore or really tired and sore and tired in such a way that you need until next Thursday to get sore and tired, you start increasing the number of working sets that you're doing. Because working sets wise up until this point was just one working set, really, if you think about it. In the first week or two, zero working sets.

And if you're no longer getting sore or really tired and sore and tired in such a way that you need until next Thursday to get sore and tired, you start increasing the number of working sets that you're doing. Because working sets wise up until this point was just one working set, really, if you think about it. In the first week or two, zero working sets.

They're all practice sets because you're so untrained. They're work sets for you, but they're not to anyone else that's watching. A few weeks in, one work set. A few weeks after, two work sets. And so on and so on and so on, until you're doing anywhere between three and six working sets per exercise.

They're all practice sets because you're so untrained. They're work sets for you, but they're not to anyone else that's watching. A few weeks in, one work set. A few weeks after, two work sets. And so on and so on and so on, until you're doing anywhere between three and six working sets per exercise.

There's another twist here for the person that wants to save a lot of time and actually get some cardiovascular benefits as well. You take exercises... that are responsible for training muscles that can be paired with other exercises, which train muscles that are totally or mostly unrelated.

There's another twist here for the person that wants to save a lot of time and actually get some cardiovascular benefits as well. You take exercises... that are responsible for training muscles that can be paired with other exercises, which train muscles that are totally or mostly unrelated.

If I do a seated dumbbell shoulder press, I rack those dumbbells, I can walk over and do some goblet squats, And essentially, there's almost no muscle overlap. Or I can do some deadlifts and there's just no muscle overlap whatsoever. And so I could do some seated dumbbell shoulder presses, put it down, nice hard set, good job, two sets left.

If I do a seated dumbbell shoulder press, I rack those dumbbells, I can walk over and do some goblet squats, And essentially, there's almost no muscle overlap. Or I can do some deadlifts and there's just no muscle overlap whatsoever. And so I could do some seated dumbbell shoulder presses, put it down, nice hard set, good job, two sets left.

And I could sit for the average of one or two minutes and scroll on my phone. But if you're really time conscious and you want extra cardiovascular benefit, what you can do is as soon as you've finished with one group of muscles, you take five or 10 seconds, shake it out, breathe it out, hit the next working set for that paired exercise.

And I could sit for the average of one or two minutes and scroll on my phone. But if you're really time conscious and you want extra cardiovascular benefit, what you can do is as soon as you've finished with one group of muscles, you take five or 10 seconds, shake it out, breathe it out, hit the next working set for that paired exercise.

While you're doing that exercise, the muscles for the first exercise are actually recovering locally. And so when you're done with that exercise, five or 10 seconds later, it's set two for the first exercise.

While you're doing that exercise, the muscles for the first exercise are actually recovering locally. And so when you're done with that exercise, five or 10 seconds later, it's set two for the first exercise.

So you pair these unrelated work sets together, unrelated exercise, such that when you've done four sets of one exercise, let's say a close grip bench press that trains the pushing muscles of your body. If you've paired that with a row or a lat pulldown,