Humbled At The Jersey Shore

For any athlete who trains like an animal, it has to be frustrating to go to a place like the Jersey Shore during the summer and see guys who are completely and totally jacked up.

Here are some things I heard from my athletes this week after they spent the weekend at "The Shore"

• "How do these guys get this big?"
• "Not only are they huge, but they are also completely shredded."
• "I don't understand why they are so much bigger than us. There is no way they train as hard as we do."

And my personal favorite....

• "I was humbled at the Jersey Shore this weekend."

I completely understand their frustration.

We train hard, we move huge weight, we sprint, we jump rope, we eat right, we do things the average person could never even think of doing without ending up seriously injured.

Why are we not as big as those guys?

Why do we feel like a giant mess when we stand next to them at a beach?

Fortunately, there is an answer.

When it comes to muscle size, there are four major things to be considered.

1. Genetics
2. Nutrition
3. Training Style
4. Recovery

I will focus on training style today, as that is where I believe I have the most influence over the athletes I work with.

(I am sure many of you would like me to focus on something like supplementation, specifically illegal supplementation, as the means to why these guys are so much bigger.

I really don't want to do that, as I can't say for sure that every jacked up guy at the Jersey Shore is on "juice." In addition, even if you do take steroids, you still have to work hard in order to pack on big muscles.)

Effect of Training Style on Muscle Growth (Hypertrophy):
Hypertrophy can simply be defined as increasing muscle size.

Depending on how you train, there are actually two types of hypertrophy.

• Myofibrillar Hypertrophy
• Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy

Myofibrillar Hypertrophy:


Myofibrillar Hypertrophy provides muscle growth via the increase in the number of contractile proteins in the myofibrils.

This type of hypertrophy is obtained by LIFTING HEAVY WEIGHTS, normally in the range above 80% of your one repetition max.

Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy:

Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy provides muscle growth by increasing the volume of the non-contractile muscle cell fluid in the muscle called sarcoplasm.

This type of hypertrophy is obtained by LIFTING MODERATE WEIGHTS IN HIGH VOLUMES, normally in the range above 12 repetitions.

What Does This Mean in English?


To keep this as simple as possible....

If you train with lighter loads at higher reps (sarcoplasmic), you will get bigger than if you trained with higher loads at less reps (myofibrillar).

Unfortunately, you will not get as strong using these lighter loads.

What does this have to do with the guys at the Jersey Shore being Bigger than Advanced Training Athletes?


At Advanced Training, our programs are designed around performance enhancement.

While we do incorporate some light load / high volume movements, we center our training sessions around power (heavy loads at low reps), explosion (light loads performed explosively at low reps), and injury prevention (mobility / stabilization drills).

The Sad Truth


Training the way we do, we will never be as jacked as the guys at Tiki Bar or D'Jais.

On the flip side, there is a really good chance we will outperform them on any field, court, or rink.
In addition, we have a fighting chance of staying healthy in the process.

(How many jacked up guys at Seaside have had or will need surgery on their shoulders or knees?)

We have had a handful of these "Jersey Shore" guys come train with us.

None of them have lasted more than two months.

I don't blame them.

What would you rather do, barbell curls or chaos reverse overhead lunges?

If you are the type of guy who prefers barbell curls, I prefer that you don't train with us anyway.

We need the space in the squat rack.