Tony

Should you train to failure? Not always… but not never either? Let me explain For some reason there are only 2 camps on social media when it comes to answering this question: Either 1) You should take every set to absolute failure or you have no chance of muscle growth (No pain = No gain) Or 2) If you’re not training to failure, you’re a little tiny baby who doesn’t train hard But life isn’t black and white (aka the best option is usually somewhere in the middle) Using failure as a tool, not a strategy is usually your best bet Stopping with about 1-3 reps left in the tank is still pushing hard enough to see all the size gains that failure would bring you So a good way to do this, is to save going all the way to failure until just the last set of an exercise, while stopping just short (about 1-3 reps left in the tank) on the sets before that That way the extra fatigue that failure causes doesn’t spill over into the rest of your workout But you still get the added stimulus that failure creates IMPORTANT NOTE: Most people think they’re stopping 1–3 reps shy of failure… but they’re way off. In one study, researchers asked participants to pick a weight they believed was their 10-rep max on bench press. Then they had them actually take that weight to failure—and over half of them got 7 or more reps beyond what they thought was their max. So most people underestimate how close they are to failure (by a lot) But, this is another reason why occasionally training to failure isn’t just about intensity—it’s a great way to calibrate your effort. Because how can you know what 1–3 reps from failure feels like… if you’ve never been there? RESEARCH: PMID: 33555822 PMID: 27531969 #FitTok #GymTok #gym

Calorie deficit ≠ eat less food 🙅🏻‍♂️ Let me explain… When people try to set up a calorie deficit, they usually do 1 of 2 things: Either 1️⃣: They cut as many calories as they can Or 2️⃣: They just try to exercise more Which *can* put you in a deficit… But sounds like the least amount of fun (ever) But that isn’t even the best way to do it? Because a calorie deficit isn’t just if you can *exercise* more than you eat… It’s if your *entire life* burns more than you eat Here’s an example: 🚶🏼‍♀️If you add a 15-minute walk after each meal (3x per day) - and use a standing desk for half of your work day instead of just sitting: +400 calories burned through NEAT 🐣🥩 Then let’s take your low protein diet and make it a high protein diet: +100 calories burned through TEF 😴💤 After that, you focus on building some muscle, fixing your sleep, and managing your stress: Potentially up to +100-200 more calories per day over time by adjusting BMR And 💥BOOM💥 Without spending another minute in the gym, you just increased your metabolic rate by: +700-800 calories per day 🔥 Now, of course, all of these changes take TIME, and the actual calorie burn will vary greatly from person to person. This is just to paint you a picture of the parts of your life you might be missing when setting up a calorie deficit STUDIES USED: TEF: PMID: 4025189 NEAT: PMID: 15102614 BMR: PMID: 2243122 PMID: 7282608 #FitTok #gym #GymTok

Usually, candy is a treat 🍭 But when timed around your workout, it can be a tool? Using simple sugars during or around your workout is a pretty common practice in bodybuilding and powerlifting Because it can help you train harder, and longer, allowing you to put more stress on your body⚡️ Does this mean everyone that works out needs to be eating candy? No… Basing this off hundreds of clients I’ve worked with in the past, and countless professionals in the space, a small intraworkout carb source (20-30g of carbs) can be helpful in 2 situations: 1) If you train fasted (i.e. haven’t eaten a meal in the past 4-6 hours Or 2) Your workouts are higher intensity weight sessions and last longer than an hour Both situations where gas tends to run out before the workout is over🤘🏽 And yes, you can use something more natural like honey, maple syrup, fruit juice, or dates like a lot of people in the comments usually bring up But this is a great time you’re able to eat a treat satisfing some cravings (like with gummy bears, sour strips, etc.) where essentially 100% of what you’re eating will immediately be used as fuel during your workout You can eat your honey and get sticky, but don’t hate on someone with candy because it’s simply not *bad* for you in this setting👍🏼 #FitTok #GymTok #gym

How to fix “skinny-fat” Most people are trying to solve the wrong problem when it comes to “skinny-fat” Skinny-fat usually doesn’t come from having *too much* body fat… It comes from not having enough lean muscle underneath that fat to give your body any shape or definition So if you try to fix it by doing everything you can to lose more weight… e.g. More cardio, less food, etc. You’re only going to get further away from your gaol Instead, try focusing on building lean muscle to give your body shape By lifting heavy weights 3-5x per week (it won’t make you bulky, I promise lol) And instead of obsessing over eating less food, try eating MORE, of the right foods (especially when it comes to protein) Because you can’t build living in a calorie deficit I have a free calorie and protein calculator in my bio if you want to find out an accurate estimate for where you should probably be But remember, every human body is different So the exact solution for you might need some tweaks, but this should get you going in the right direction Side note so the comment section doesn’t get mad: This is not saying that there’s something wrong with this body composition. How someone looks isn’t good or bad, this video is just here to help people that want to change their physique when they are faced with this common problem. #skinnyfat #gym #workout #Fitness

Is the goverment trying to poison you? Or are you just overthinking it…? (it’s probably number 2) It’s a common trend: someone visits Europe, loses a few pounds, feels great, and posts a video blaming it on how “toxic” US food is. And that makes sense… if you don’t look at the data. Videos like the one I stitched push fear over facts. But when you actually look, the US ranks among the top globally for food quality and safety (I linked the research below). When you look at the data, the United States has some of the highest food quality and safety in the entire world (I linked the research below this caption) So why do we struggle with obesity more than anyone else? It’s simple… We’ve built a country where movement is optional, and overeating is effortless. Walkable cities, smaller portions, and better food culture aren’t some secret toxin-free cure. They’re just the standard in other countries. If you lost weight and feel less bloated after your trip to Europe, it’s probably because you walked 15,000-20,000 steps a day and ate more whole foods exploring the culture compared to sitting at your desk all day eating ultra-processed snacks like you do at home. I’m not saying synthetic food dyes are healthy, or that we should pour them on everything. I’m saying the reason we’re unhealthy as a country isn’t a conspiracy on how our government is “poisoning” us. 
It’s just not that complicated. #FitTok #gym #healt#healthyth RESEARCH: Comparison of food colour regulations in the EU and the US: a review of current provisions: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19440049.2016.1274431 Food Security Index: https://impact.economist.com/sustainability/project/food-security-index/

High rep vs. low rep… Who wins? It turns out you can build muscle with *any* rep range… 
But if these 3 things are locked in: 1. Progressive overload 2. Training close to failure (intensity) 3. How many total sets you do on each muscle group each week (volume) That’s why *only* doing very-high or very-low reps usually fails in the real world Because you end up burning out or breaking before you get enough quality sets But our body responds best to variety So I like to break it down like this: Heavy compound lifts (e.g. squat, deadlift, bench etc.): 3–6 reps (heavy weight) Secondary compounds (e.g. leg press, lat pulldown, DB press, etc.): 6–12 reps (moderate weight) Isolation/accessory work (eg. leg ex/curls, flys, bicep/tricep work, etc.): 12–20 reps (lighter weights) Just don’t forget, whatever rep range you choose, the weight you use should push you close to failure Side Note: No, lighter weights for higher reps don’t “tone” your muscle while heavier weights make them “bulky” How “tone” or “bulky” you look comes from how much body fat you have lying over how much muscle You can’t aestetically change a muscle outside of increasing or decreasing it’s size Great OG video stitched by @Tyler Research: PMID: 28834797 (Meta-analysis) PMID: 33433148 (Meta-analysis) PMID: 25853914 #gym #workout #Fitness #GymTok

Is “starvation mode” a real thing? Kind of… but not really The idea of starvation mode is when you eat too little for too long, that your body will adapt to the new, low intake, causing your body to hold onto fat and stop losing weight completely And there is some truth to that Your metabolism does adapt as you lose weight, just not to the extent that most people think Sometimes you need an extreme example to show this (like the one in the video) When people *think* that their metabolism’s broken from eating too little, it usually comes from one of two places: 1. They're eating more than they think they are Tracking calories is a skill, and most people suck at it. In a study following overweight individuals who were claiming to eat just 1,200 calories per day but still couldn’t lose weight, researchers found that on average the individuals were underreporting calories by close to 50% It’s easy to underestimate portions, miss hidden calories, and forget seemingly small things through the day So just because you “tracked” a certain amount of calories, doesn’t mean that’s what you ate in reality 2. They aren’t counting weekends or blowout meals Calories don’t “reset” at midnight Your body gains/loses weight from calorie intake over weeks, months, and years A lot of people will barely eat anything Monday-Thursday, then overeat by a massive amount on the weekends completely erasing any progress they made during the week Your metabolism adapts, yes. But not enough to defy the laws of thermodynamics. Sources: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctv9b2tqv https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment #gym #Fitness #workout

Every question you’ve ever had about creatine 👨🏻‍🏫 Will supplementing with creatine turn you into Sam Sulek Jr.? No No supplement can do that But it can definietly help For weight loss and toning, gaining muscle and getting stronger, brain health, and a whole lot more IMPORTANT NOTES FROM REEL: 1. Creatine monohydrate is the only form of creatine you need. If a company is selling you a different form (Creatine HCl, Kre-Alkalyn, etc.) and telling you that it’s better than monohydrate for any reason - THEY ARE LYING TO YOU TO CHARGE YOU MORE MONEY. No other form has ever outperformed creatine monohydrate in research, yet companies charge 3-10X more money for it. 2. Here’s a list of creatine gummies that failed 3rd party testing: (aka they contain little to no creatine inside) - Astro Labs - Beast Bites - Create - Con-Cret - Greabby - Njord - full report is in the studies and references section 3. Studies/references: Creatine + Depression: PMID: 22864465 PMID: 21831448 PMID: 17988366 Creatine + Cognition: PMID: 16416332 PMID: 1198588 PMID: 17185404 Creatine Gummy 3rd Party Test Results: https://nutraceuticalbusinessreview.com/testing-programme-identifies-creatine-gummy-failings #gym #Fitness #GymTok #FitTok

Do you actually… want to get sore after a workout? Yes, and no… Let me explain Despite everything we know about the human body, science still doesn’t fully understand where muscle soreness comes from? While it’s mostly linked to muscle damage from training, the one thing that reliably causes soreness… is doing something new or different from what you're used to. For example: It a bodybuilder who’s trained for 10 years does 10 sets of heavy squats, it will cause a LOT of damage, but they’ll barely get sore from it because their body is used to it. But if they go run 5 all-out sprints, they’re probably limping for days. Now flip it. A sprinter who’s used to sprinting could do 10 of those without any issue, but would be absolutely wrecked for days after 10 sets of squats. Same body. Different stimulus. Different soreness. But here’s the real question: does it matter? The answer is not really Because muscle growth doesn’t come from muscle soreness or muscle damage It comes from progressive overload Or just continually applying more tension to your muscle over time (increasing the weight you’re doing, the number of reps, etc.) But even though soreness isn’t *needed* to grow That doesn’t mean it’s useless either Personally, I think it’s a good proxy to assess if you’re working hard enough. The sweet spot is not always sore, but not never either. If you’re NEVER sore after a workout, you’re probably not working hard enough to make good progress anyway. But if you’re ALWAYS sore, you’re probably over trained or under recovered, and that will likely prevent you from making any progress. #gym #legday #workout #FitTok #GymTok #Fitness

Not quite how your metabolism works (thank god😅) The stitched video is funny, and technically not wrong… But it’s not accurate either Thinking of exercise as just something that burns calories that is a slipper slope (i.e. that you have to “earn” the food you eat with exercise) But lucky for us, that’s not how our bodies work If you had to exercise to burn off every calorie you put in your mouth, you’d be on the treadmill 24 hours a day Because even if you put WORK in at the gym, it still only accounts for the smallest portion of where you burn calories in a day So yes you can do it that way… But it’s a million times more productive to use exercise to help build the other pieces up, increasing your metabolic output as a whole Because lifting weights doesn’t burn as many calories as cardio does while you’re in the gym, but it does help you build your BMR (the biggest part of your metabolism, running 24 hours a day) You could also do things to increase the other parts like eating more protein, which burns 3-10X more calories being digested than carbs or fats do By moving more and increasing your NEAT, which can burn up to 2,000 EXTRA CALORIES PER DAY - by setting a higher step count goal, or standing instead of sitting at work Or you could do a lot of other things to build up your BMR up over time like managing your sleep and stress, and getting enough of the important micronutrients through food to make sure your body is running well Like one of my favorite quotes from Eric Robert’s on this app: You’re not a dog trying to earn a treat Work smarter, not harder 🤝🏼 Studies: NEAT burning up to +2,000 calories per day : PMID: 25905303 #FitTok #GymTok #gym

The supplement industry is kind of f***** Companies can make WILD claims with absolutely zero proof. And worse, is that no one’s even checking if what they say is in the bottle is actually there. There’s no FDA pre-approval, no mandatory testing, no clinical trials, nothing is required to prove safety or even accuracy before a company can legally sell their product to you. This is why studies like this have shown the MAJORITY of online supplements, are completely fake to begin with. And it’s not just underdosing, companies have had lawsuits filed against them for illegally putting literal perscription antidepressants into their fatburners to help curb appetite. (seriously… USPlabs got caught putting Prozac into OxyElite Pro in 2015) Your best move is to stick with brands that pay for third-party testing and publish their results. It’s the only real way to know what you’re putting in your body. Some solid ones I trust: - Legion Athletics - Optimum Nutrition - Bulk Supplements - NOW Sports - Thorne Research - Gorilla Mind - 1st Phorm - BPN - Kaged - RAW Nutrition There are 15,000+ supplement companies out there. If you’re not sure about a brand, just check their site or Google and look for seals like NSF, USP, Informed-Sport, or BSCG. Study Link from reel: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2807343 #supplements #creatine #FitTok #gym #workout