Our Most Frequently Asked Question

“Are you sure I only need to train 2x/week?”

This is, by far, the most common question we receive when someone starts training. And as much as anyone, I understand the skepticism. It goes against everything we’re told through our social media algorithms, and it runs counter to the “more is better” mindset.

But that’s exactly the point. More isn’t better. Better is better. It’s easy to exercise for hours and not see tangible results if you aren’t clued in to the X’s and O’s of training. And setting aside multiple hours per week for exercise just isn’t sustainable over the long term for >90% of adults out there.

The aim of this post – and our system – is simple: being busy doesn’t mean you’re making progress. Don’t confuse motion with meaning.

What do I mean by that? When I was first introduced to strength training in my teens, EVERY workout lasted a minimum of 60-75 minutes. And the general program looked like this:

Day 1: Chest Day (because all bros bench on Monday)

Day 2: Shoulders

Day 3: Back

Day 4: Arms

Day 5: Legs

Is there anything inherently wrong with this approach? No. But I call it the “Frankenstein approach.” Different body parts, different days of the week, hoping it all comes together. Dad humor aside, it works…if you want to be a bodybuilder.

If someone has the time/energy/interest in training for bodybuilding shows, more power to them. But the science of training has really progressed in the last 20-25 years, and we now know that this type of training is one of the least efficient ways to manage your time and get strong.

Our approach is – quite literally – the opposite. We coach full-body exercises, multiple days per week. When someone signs up with us, they’re not just paying for workouts, but for our approach and training system. We show people how they can be more efficient with their time, and how different it feels to teach your brain and body how to move in real life (chin-ups vs. bicep curls, or squats vs. leg extensions).

But to understand the benefits of our approach, the drawbacks of bodybuilding splits – aka Frankensteins – need to be highlighted.

First, the reason bodybuilders train different body parts on different days is to maximize volume at the expense of time. In other words, what makes muscles grow is the increased number of sets and reps. The more time you can spend on your workouts – and less time on other things in life – the more muscle you’ll build, at least in theory. This approach works if you’re a college aged adult and have very few responsibilities, but for those with kids and/or a demanding job, time is always crunched. I certainly don’t have time for 2 hour workouts 4-5x/week, and I work in a gym!

Next, and this sounds counterintuitive, bodybuilders often chase building muscle at the expense of getting stronger and better movement. The goal of most bodybuilding programs is something called sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. This phenomenon leads to increased muscle size – the desired look by bodybuilders – but not necessarily an increase in strength.

Now, can bigger muscles make someone stronger? Sometimes. But there are MANY more qualities that make up strength: myofibrillar hypertrophy, neurological connections, movement efficiency, as well as the concepts of irradiation and total body tension. When you prioritize building strength – by the exercise selection, set and rep count, and intentional efforts – you gain strength much faster than by actually building muscle. To use myself as an example, I certainly don’t look like your prototypical meathead, but by deadlifting 3x my bodyweight I can definitely outlift most of them.

So if we’re not training different body parts every day, how do we train at The Movement Lab? Let’s take the hip hinge as an example. Someone could do hamstring curls, back extensions, rows, and hip extensions to get a training effect. But at our gym, we’d rather just deadlift. You’ll train all the same muscles, but by condensing four exercises into one, you’ll save a lot more time.

(And just to acknowledge the elephant in the room, yes, poorly-executed deadlifts can be scary. But we’d argue that for 90% of the people out there, a well-coached, perfectly performed deadlift is safer than a burpee.)

To make our time in the gym even more efficient, the next step is to pair your deadlifts with a push-up variation. In the bro-culture, push-ups are usually dismissed in favor of the pec deck, tricep extensions, and dips found in your local Globo gym. But in our gym, push-up variations are an important part of learning how to create tension, building upper body strength, and proper trunk control. So with a deadlift and push-up superset, we’ve trimmed seven exercises down to two, while both have a higher level of carryover to real life. As an added bonus, both can be performed at a higher intensity than in a traditional bodybuilding routine because they don’t have competing demands on our body like grip strength or spinal compression.

The other benefit of our approach is that training is specific. Our brains remember movements, not muscles. In other words, what you do in the gym impacts your movement outside of it. Much like a computer, our brain runs a program whenever we move to manage our center of gravity and coordinate the facilitation of specific muscles. It’s the reason why someone’s gait can be so distinctive.

The same holds true when we exercise. When we squat or lift something heavy in the gym, it’s practice for real life. So putting aside the bicep curls and calf raises in favor of a goblet squat and a Turkish get-up (two other favorites in our gym), it offers much more carryover to daily life and improves the quality of someone’s movement outside the gym.

If you’re looking to improve your movement and get stronger than you ever thought you could, but without looking like a puffed up bodybuilder, our program is for you. After all, our reviews echo this sentiment. Or if you’re a current client and want us to help other people discover the difference, you can leave us a review here.