Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth
2596: Five Ways to Build Muscle Without Adding Weight to the Bar & More (Listener Live Coaching)
Wed, 14 May 2025
In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin coach four Pump Heads via Zoom. Mind Pump Fit Tip: 5 ways to progressively overload the body without adding weight to the bar. (2:00) Can sodium curb your carb cravings? (24:55) Arrival fallacy. (27:08) Salt water vs chlorine. (31:54) ADHD medications and the impact of the modeling of the brain. (37:02) Mind Pump Group Coaching is back! (52:49) The euphoric feeling from Ned. (54:25) #ListenerLive question #1 – What is the best way to eat to get a bigger chest and shoulders and more of an upper body for function and fashion? (56:13) #ListenerLive question #2 – Is there something that you would suggest for someone who has limited weights to progressively overload? (1:13:59) #ListenerLive question #3 – What are your recommended best practices when training youth athletes? (1:20:54) #ListenerLive question #4 – Should I continue to strength train 4-5 days a week if my sleep is poor? (1:29:59) Related Links/Products Mentioned Ask a question to Mind Pump, live! Email: [email protected] Mind Pump Group Coaching Visit NED for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Code MINDPUMP at checkout for 20% off ** May Special: MAPS 15 Performance or RGB Bundle 50% off! ** Code MAY50 at checkout ** Why Your Tempo Matters When You Workout! – Mind Pump TV Mind Pump #1535: Should You Squat Below Parallel? Mind Pump #1282: The #1 Key to Consistently Building Muscle & Strength (Avoid Plateaus!) Mind Pump #1050: Mark Manson- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mind Pump #912: How to Change Your Mental State with Music Visit Brain.fm for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners. ** Get 30 days of free access to science-backed music. ** Get your free Sample Pack with any “drink mix” purchase! Also, try the new LMNT Sparkling — a bold, 16-ounce can of sparkling electrolyte water: Visit DrinkLMNT.com/MindPump Ask Mind Pump What is EMDR? – Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Benjamin Bikman (@benbikmanphd) Instagram Mark Manson (@IAmMarkManson) X/Twitter Jordan B. Peterson (@JordanBPeterson) X/Twitter
Chapter 1: What are 5 ways to build muscle without adding weight to the bar?
It's such a good conversation because I think that there's so many people that assume that progressive overload just means adding weight to the bar. Right. And yes, there's a case to be made for that. And I think... I think we all utilize that.
But in my training career, I can think of many other ways that I would progressively overload the bar or overload the body without adding weight to the bar. Yes. And I can think of many cases where that was the more appropriate way to overload the body than to just add weight to the bar.
With eliminating a lot of the risk involved because you get to a certain point where it's like you're – You're looking at a substantial amount of weight that's, you know, you're only getting so much benefit and the risks are really high.
Listen, this is super important to understand because if you do this right, you do a good job and you're consistent and this becomes a lifestyle, you're going to be hit in the face with this at some point because you can't keep adding weight to the bar. At some point, the risk versus reward becomes... Well, too risky, right?
Like you're squatting a lot of weight, adding 20 pounds to the bar now dramatically increases your risk of injury. And the gains you get from that extra 20 pounds aren't really going to be that substantial. Where do you go? So this is a problem, or should I say this is an avenue you want to go down right out the gates.
Now for trainers and coaches, this is crucial because if you're the trainer that just adds weight to the bar, you're not going to be a very good trainer. You have to figure out how to overload the muscles or how to tap into this without adding weight to the bar. And like you said, Adam, I think the ways that we're going to cover in many cases is more appropriate, is better, more effective.
A hundred percent. I was trying to think when you first wrote this, like, you know, if I actually had to like do like a pie chart of all my clients and I said like all these different ways, And, and obviously weight, adding weight to the bar as one of these ways to overload the body. I don't even know if it takes up, uh, the majority.
I think, I think more than half the time, if not more, I utilize other tools just because we, the average person that we, we dealt with was middle-aged overweight, uh, pretty new to weightlifting.
Pretty inexperienced.
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Chapter 2: How can slowing down reps help with muscle growth?
Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'll tell people right now.
do four second negatives on all your lifts and you're going to have to go lighter yeah period well that what the i used to do the same thing with my client that you just described and i think this is a good skill for everybody to learn to do uh because i don't know if you go to enough gyms with different machines and weights and and have days where you have good rest not so good rest and train you're going to find that many times in your life you're going to choose a weight
that ends up feeling lighter than what you probably could have done. And like having that skill to be able to slow down, to just slow down. So that's how I train today. Like I don't even really, like I don't find myself yesterday was the first time I trained in a while, like almost 30 days. So I know I'm weak. So I know I'm much weaker than what I was when I was riding the swing of things.
And I'm not, and I'm getting ready to do lap pull down and I'm not going like, God, am I hit?
am i at 180 right now or am i at 120 just pick a weight and then make it hard and then i make it hard it doesn't even matter what i pick and so i just i in fact i don't even remember what it was i just slid it in and i knew better than i slid it in my pr you know what i'm saying but i just picked a light weight that i know that isn't isn't going to hurt me and then as i was doing i was like oh that was really easy and so the last like five reps i just i squeezed i paused grip it harder yeah
You can set yourself up, you know, and really work on the mechanics of the whole thing and intensify that process. There's all kinds you can do.
That's right. The weight on the bar only matters because of the tension it provides. And you can increase the tension by simply slowing the reps down. And so now you've progressively overloaded your body or the target muscle without having to add weight to the bar. The next one is to increase the range of motion. This one's a big one, especially for certain exercises like squats.
Like a lot of people... have challenges doing a really deep squat uh so if you always squat down to parallel and you find yourself like ready to add 10 pounds to the bar try squatting one or two inches lower that's all just an inch or two don't go crazy with the depth because maybe you can't control that much go a little lower and watch what happens i remember as a kid
when this really was evident to me. As a kid, we learned as early trainers that the safe way to bench press, and I can't believe they taught this. It's such a, they don't teach this anymore.
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Chapter 3: Why is increasing range of motion important for strength and muscle gains?
But my squats are always an issue for me. And with my squats, when I get past a certain weight for myself, I know I start playing in the territory of injury or aches and pains. And it's just because mobility for me is not always, it's typically not like this big focus. I'd have to do lots of mobility work to really get to this point, but I don't. And so I get stronger and I start to notice issues.
So one way I've gotten around that is rather than adding weight is I pause at the bottom of a squat. So I'm feeling really strong today. Rather than going up to 375 on my squat, I'll keep it at 315 and I'll hold the bottom for five seconds.
And it's as if I added weight to the hardest part of the movement. And that's where we're summoning the troops. We're staying there to try and get more effective and efficient at actually recruiting muscle fibers. And so just even back to your bench pressing visual, it's like getting that depth and then holding that at the bottom part of the lift and really squeezing and owning recruiting.
So that way you have the strength. Now you can build upon that so much more effectively.
what's it so does that does this also uh overlap with the research in regards to like isometrics and the gaining the extra 20 to 30 30 in both directions yeah so you take someone like you for example who may not be able to get astrograph squat but you can get a little deeper than parallel and then you also pause down there are you getting some of the benefits north and south 30 more so than you would just just coming right back up that's right so that's a huge value in this
off right there right so let's say you're somebody like you and that the squat applies but apply this to any movement right you can't you can't fully get that in range so you pause at those in ranges and you're at least getting some of the benefits north and south of that or now for muscle building well two things first off uh you could pause the rep anywhere you could pause it at the top squeeze you could pause it at the bottom hold it has to be under tension so don't pause the rep at the end ranges would probably be the most beneficial though right the stretch for muscle
Right. So for muscle gains, it's the stretch. But that doesn't mean avoid, you know, and, you know, the end range of motion, the fully contracted position, because that's beneficial as well. Nonetheless, always have tension is what I'm trying to say, because what you don't want to do, for example, with the bench press is bring the bar down your chest and let it sit on your chest.
That's not what we're talking about.
You want to pause it, but hold and support the weight while you're doing it. This one's one of my favorite ones. This is one of the ones I do on a regular basis. When I'm in a set and I feel stronger than the rep range that I thought I was going to hit, I just start pausing. And I'll pause in the stretch typically. And it's amazing. It's really amazing.
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Chapter 4: What are the benefits of pausing reps during workouts?
Yeah.
Next up is, and this is like bodybuilders or experts at this, is just intrinsic tension.
Yeah.
This is just, and this I can do really well. I know Adam could do this really, really well. Justin can do this really well. Like this comes with experience. But you could give me a weight that is 90% lighter than what I would normally do. And I could make that weight through tension feel heavy. You could give me, I mean, I could overhead press for reps, let's say 135 pounds.
Could I make 50 pounds feel just as hard for 10 reps?
I could.
I could with tension and the speed of the rep and squeezing the bar and feeling where I need to feel it. Bodybuilders are experts at this. You can watch a pro bodybuilder who's got more muscle on their body than anybody you've ever seen, who's obviously could lift a lot of weight.
And for the inexperienced lifter, if you've ever seen a pro bodybuilder lift, I guarantee you this has happened to you because this happens to me. The first time I saw a pro bodybuilder workout, I was a teenage boy. And I remember being like, he's not as strong as I, well, he's not strong at all. He's barely lifting any weight.
Not understanding that what they were doing was making those reps count so much because they know how to create tension. So that right there is an increased effort.
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Chapter 5: How does moving faster with the same weight impact strength training?
So you could... sub-categorize some of these into other categories to stretch it beyond just five ways. Because there's more than five ways of pressing a load of bodies.
It's funny you brought up the long lever. I remember seeing bodybuilders do laterals with a barbell. And I remember thinking how dumb they were, now realizing just how smart they were. Yeah, yeah. Because with the barbell, you got to keep your hand level and be steady. I was doing side bends with that, too. I used to do those, bro.
We used to do the lateral raises with the straight bar.
Yeah, with the barbell curl bone or whatever. Yeah, dude. Oh, my God, that's so funny. Anyway, I got to bring up something very interesting that I've observed, and I didn't realize... that I've observed this until we just had Dr. Ben, what was the last name, Doug?
Bickman.
Bickman on the show. So that'll air later. But he was talking about how they're going to do this study, and he reminded me of something. So we partnered with Element. This is electrolyte powder, high in sodium, 1,000 milligrams per can or per dose. And I noticed that, and I noticed this with clients back in the day too and myself,
High salt or sodium, no calorie, either foods or beverages are great ways to curb hunger.
Yeah.
Great ways. Bodybuilders know this. Bodybuilders would love to snack.
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Chapter 6: What is intrinsic tension and how do bodybuilders use it?
The dill pickle thing is actually a really good hack that we've never really talked about on this podcast because you're also getting, I mean, you're also crunching on something. Yeah, you're crunching on something. It's pretty good size and it's like super low calorie. Like it's hardly any calories, high in sodium. Yeah. Yeah, so it keeps your mouth busy.
It's got a lot of surface, so it's not like... So, yeah, I think that's such a hack for somebody who... Pickles were a diet food back in the day, like a real popular one. It should be. It's a smart... And you add in the fact if someone's low-calorie, they're probably low-sodium too, and so probably good for them staying hydrated like that too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's interesting that we don't hear or see more. It talked about more often because in the community, that was like a well-known thing that you, you ate dill pickles all the time.
We should look to bodybuilders more for some of these hacks. I love it, bro.
I love that. I feel like I'm like full circle.
Yeah, it is full circle.
You know what I'm saying? I feel like we're getting a, it's a comeback for us.
Anyway, I got to bring up a top. We were talking about progressive overload. It reminded me about a fallacy. I didn't know there was a name to it. It's called the arrival fallacy. So this is the fallacy that when you arrive at your destination, you arrive at your goal, that you're going to be so happy and satisfied. Right. Like, I remember when we had Mark Manson on the podcast years ago.
Yeah, he was depressed because he hit that bestseller. Yeah, he's the author of Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. That's an old podcast episode. We interviewed him. I remember him saying the most depressed he ever was was after accomplishing this massive goal of him.
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Chapter 7: Can sodium help curb carb cravings and hunger?
You'll never be as good as them.
However, it comes with, especially in the most popular faith in Western societies, which is Christianity, it comes with ultimate grace at the same time because you'll always fail. You're always going to fail. And nobody likes to fail, but you're getting grace along the way and you're aiming for something that you'll never accomplish. So it gives you this ultimate sense of purpose.
Really interesting. It's a system that we have. that is geared towards progress, and that system breaks down and dissolves when you arrive. So there was a quote I heard. It was, woe to the man who accomplishes his dreams only to realize he dreamed the wrong thing. Oh, boy. Oh, boy. That's a terrible place to be. You know what I mean?
No, no. Such a good point. I'm going to bring it back to the salt because you brought salt up and it just triggered something that I wanted to talk to you guys about. So I'm changing my pool of salt water right now. Oh, you're swimming pool.
Yeah.
I'm about to.
So you were saying off air, easy conversion for you.
Yeah. Yeah. Luckily it is. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn't. Uh, my pool guy said that we have the setup to make it pretty easy and it was very, very inexpensive.
So why is it just because chlorine's messing with your skin?
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Chapter 8: What are the effects of chlorine absorption from swimming pools on the body?
Yeah, but it just sounds funny. You say, like, I'm going to fly all the way over. There's, like, a float and some water. Don't you think that's cool? I'm like, well, I'll just throw some salt in the bath.
Dude, my aunt said she went in there, and she's like, if you're not careful, you can't get your feet back down to the sand to walk back. She's like, you'll float, and then you'll be stuck. Yeah, dude, because you float so high on the water.
Well, I know how it is with those deprivation tanks, right? Oh, yeah. That's a weird feeling.
That's a good example of what it feels like.
Oh, God. Look at the difference. 34% in the Dead Sea. Great Salt Lake is 5% to 27% depending on the season. So you're not even getting close. Okay. Yeah, that's going to be fair enough.
What Justin said is it would probably trump all that. If you go in a float tank, I bet you that's more powerful than any of them. We've all done that.
Did you guys do that? Yeah, and you're like super buoyant on that.
I thought that was so fun. You couldn't sink to the bottom if you tried. So that's how buoyant you are on that.
Super cool. I had a friend. I'll change subject. I had a friend I was talking to yesterday who was a little concerned because there are their friend is gonna put their younger kid on ADHD medication. And I'm diagnosed with ADHD, so we were talking about this. And they're like, what do you think about kids being on these? And I'm not a doctor, so this is just my personal opinion.
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Chapter 9: What are the concerns about ADHD medications and their impact on the developing brain?
So we now have two groups that we're going to be running. So fat loss and muscle gain.
We have to bring up that stat, though. Was it like the average was like two inches around the waist?
Yeah, the average person in our last group, which was a combination, they went through a reverse diet, then a cut, and they're not done yet. So that was like two-thirds of the way through. Average person lost two and a half inches around their waist. Already. Pretty awesome. And that's mostly through the reverse diet. Yeah, yeah.
No, it's been exciting.
So this is mindpumpgroupcoaching.com is where you can go sign up. But it's only 50 people for each. After that, we're done. But we'll run another group later on for maybe another goal.
I thought I saw, Doug, did you scroll down? Oh, yeah. Do we have net as a commercial today?
Oh, I got to tell you guys with Ned, man, I got to tell you, I haven't used cannabis in so long, right? But Ned has really become a great way for me to get that kind of euphoric feeling that I'm looking for.
I can add to that.
or in a social setting in some ways um and do you think you feel more of it because you're not smoking and so you have and it's also cleaner it's not like i'm high i'm not like that but i get this nice calm euphoric feeling this is the one they call de-stress it's so i like all of them but i so so i typically will use the just the regular ned
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