The Best Workout Programs For Any Goal (Muscle, Strength, Fat Loss & Performance) | Mind Pump #2915

All right. Here at Mind Pump, one of the most common questions we get is, "Which program should I follow next? Is there a better program to follow next for my specific goal?" So, here's what we did. We broke down the MAPS programs and put them together by goal. What are the best combos of two programs for each common goal? Muscle gain, fat loss, strength. What if you're a beginner? What about athletic performance? We put them together. We're going to talk about them today. These are the best workout combos for you. Let's get to it. >> This is how we do workout partners. >> That's Yes. >> I feel like this is uh overdue. This is probably the number one question. >> Yeah. One of the number one questions that we get is >> uh what program to do next? Or somebody who's never done a program and is like here's my goal. What should what next program or series of programs should I follow? And so what's cool is this kind of lays the the plan out for somebody uh for the next six months or for the next three months if you already have one of these. >> That's right. And it and it does make a difference like um you know cuz people will say well what's what's the difference? What if I just follow one program after another? What if they're both uh muscle building? What if they're both athletic performance? Is is that the best combination for my goal? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It really depends on how the programs uh stack together and how they address each other's strengths and weaknesses. So and most MAPS programs are about 3 months long. Some of them are shorter, some of them are shorter, maybe 5 weeks or 6 weeks long. Uh but nonetheless um this is how we design our programs is for them to be able to be followed one after another uh to produce uh great results with minimal plateaus of course minimal risk of injury uh but [snorts] at the end of the day to maximize the goals a person's looking for. >> What uh avatar do you want to start with first? >> You know let's start with muscle gain. That's a real common one. Yeah. Yeah. And more popular. >> Yeah. And we'll say it's advanced muscle gain. Uh, and I say that because um this is somebody if you're listening and you're like, I just want to build muscle for whatever reason, either because you want to look a particular way or because let's say you're trying to boost your metabolic rate. Um, and you have good experience in the gym, you've been working out for a little while, so you're not a total beginner, you're not a beginner, you've been doing it for a little while, like what are what what what are the two programs I could follow uh to give me phenomenal results? Um, let's say over a six-month period. >> Yeah. And what are what do I think of the things that you're taking into consideration when you think of the two programs? Like one, it it's so it's not a starter type program because they have some sort of experience. So you want to get them into what we would consider one of our best, you know, muscle building metabolic uh programs. Um and then and then also considering because we're pairing programs like the progressive overload, the scaling of that and what that looks like over the course of two programs. And so those are the kind of the considerations, right? >> Yes. Yes. So to start with um it would be MAPS anabolic. So MAPS anabolic is a great overall muscle and strength building program. It's also a great switch up from whatever you're doing now. So often times we have callers call in who have been working out who have some experience whose goal is to build muscle. Uh I'd say probably eight out of 10 times this is the program. Uh we point them in the direction. >> Yeah. I think a lot of times too people are familiar with split type programs and this this introduces them to total body workouts uh and also that first phase is really shocking and and very effective for people to experience. So I think that's why you know people really like see the benefit of anabolic right away. I'd say this is why to your point um I'd say well over more more than half I think probably 75 80% of people that are interested in building muscle >> uh tend to gravitate towards a split and have never really ran a full body routine or don't normally do [snorts] that and so they get hit with a couple things. one, if they're doing some sort of an upper lower split or a traditional bodybuilder split where it's one body part a day, you know, they're training four to six days uh in the week and they're splitting at the body part. Transition that person to a 3-day week full body type routine is such a curveball. The hardest thing is convincing that person that's what they need, >> right? But once they do that, the increased frequency on like the big lifts, the strength gains that they see from that a lot of times too, less days in the gym because this person is trying to gain and build muscle uh or build a metabolism. Uh huge benefits from this and one of my favorite things to introduce somebody to. >> Yeah. So maps anabolic would be the start. The follow-up would be MAPS aesthetic. Uh now aesthetic is >> also a full body strength training routine. Uh but the volume is higher. You are now progressively overloading your body. So 3 months of maps met anabolic. If you're feeding yourself right, getting good sleep, and you're ready to take it to the next level, then you follow that up with MAPS aesthetic, which is also a full body routine. But MAPS aesthetic, you can spend more time in the gym because of the focus sessions. Y >> where you could target a body part that is lagging and add extra work on those body parts on those days off in between. >> I think that's where it makes sense too now when you're building muscle to also emphasize parts of your body, you know, where you really want to, you know, show off that definition. And I think, you know, this is a great followup to that after you build that huge base of strength and muscle and now we can kind of sculpt it a bit. >> The the biggest mistake that I've seen with our customers that have followed MAPS aesthetic was not following anabolic first. >> Um, and I'm it's so good jump right into it. >> Yeah. It's so good that we're we're doing this like in pairs and explaining why I'll do this is because the amount of volume in in aesthetic is really high >> and I would never want to take a client and this is your first program is go into aesthetic uh right away. I'd much rather build them up from anabolic. I think they they'll see far more benefits from that. And so this really truly is the ideal progression. Now, if you've been listening to the podcast for 10 years, then you've heard us talk about the original three was anabolic performance and aesthetic. And so, we would talk about how you're supposed to progress your way up to that much volume. But, we haven't talked a lot about those three programs in in a row in a long time. And that was like for general health and strength, right? When you think of like the ideal pathway for if I was training somebody for a bodybuilding show, even my I would follow anabolic first and then progress them into aesthetic to reap the most uh benefits from all you know building the muscle. >> Totally. Uh next we'll say strength. So uh this is for somebody who they like building muscle but they really want to get strong. Um they want to be able to lift as much weight as possible. The starting program is also going to be MAPSolic for this because anabolic is this great both strength building and muscle building program. And then you're going to progress to our powerlift program, MAPS powerlift. Uh this one two combo. Uh this is PR city. This is PR city. You're going to hit PRs in your bench press, your squat, and your deadlift. First off, you're probably going to hit PRs in anabolic. >> Then you move to powerlift, and the PRs are really going to get crazy. And it's just this perfect followup from uh anabolic. >> Well, I love this is the simplicity of it and the the hyperfocus of just pure strength output. And so, yeah, you're going to get that, you know, good base like from anabolic in the beginning, but yeah, you're really simplifying and focusing all that on these big compound lifts that are going to get you real strong. >> Well, this is the the pathway uh I would prepare someone too who's even wanting to maybe even dabble in the powerlifting world and start and get >> That's right. You're going to compete in a strength. >> Yeah. You're interested in competing in that. Even if you're not, this is the pathway. But like even somebody who's wanting to take it to the next level and actually go compete, I still would want to lay the foundation with anabolic first, then progress them into powerlift and it's such a great segue uh from that program. It anabolic does such a good job of laying that foundation and then the skill practice and performance of just the main lifts in powerlift like the combo of them together is like a great six months. >> Totally. Then we have fat loss. And I we broke this up into women and men. And and mainly because programming wise uh women tend to want to develop different areas of the body uh from uh men. And so that's really the main uh difference here. Um and with fat loss, the goal is to keep muscle. Yeah. Okay. The the number one goal with your strength training program is to not lose muscle when you're in a calorie deficit. And so we'll start with women. Now with women, I started them out with powerlift. Why women don't train this way? >> They often don't train like powerlifters. They're trying to to lose body fat. And MAPS powerlift is going to keep them strong and do a damn good job of maintaining muscle. >> Well, and one of the best ways to build them metabolically would be to get really good compound. That's the metric that I get. And this is why this is so great. I love this combo too of setting them up for the next program where we can get more and more refined and sculpting and like that. It's like let's build an incredible metabolism and a strong base. And then where we go from there opens the door for so many different things. >> Which takes us to Muscle Mommy, which is a very popular MAPS program for women. MAPS muscle mommy, traditional muscle building program, but there's more of an emphasis on building the glutes, building the delts, lower body, just kind of that focus that women are looking for. And areas that they don't want to lose muscle when they get leaner. Like if you ask a woman, hey, when you get leaner, what areas you really want to keep the muscle on the most? Uh, a lot of them would say, I'll sacrifice muscle here and there to get leaner, but I want my butt and my legs to keep that muscle. And Muscle Mommy's volume is geared towards that. So, we're >> Yeah. What I love about these recommendations is like somebody that probably hasn't listened to us enough, uh, would assume immediately we' we'd be like, "Maps hit or or Cardio," uh, when in fact the muscle preserving element of this is so important in building up that metabolism. So these are great. >> Well, and I would say muscle bombing was the first program that we really started to organ reorganize and change the the order of the exercises >> to fit uh a a specific, you know, female demographic, right? like uh we took into consideration the feedback from all the people that have gone through MAPS programs and a vast majority of women that that talked about you know building and sculpting their body focus points were like the backside was the hamstrings, the glutes, the shoulders. >> Uh and so you know even though you know exercises affect men and women the same way as far as building muscle on their body, >> this the sexes tend to have different goals. Men tend to want chest and quads and that way our women cared more about glutes and shoulders and so we redesigned the way the the programming is laid out and so laying a solid foundation with powerlift then transitioning them into this more sculpting like program. Um such a great combo right here. >> Now for men now for fat loss for men the beginning program could be one of two. Uh, but I'm going to take into consideration that you're a guy interested in fat loss. Um, and let's say you're over the age of 40, okay, we have a program that's perfect, which is called MAPS 40 plus, and that would be the starting program for fat loss for men in that age demographic. If you're younger, you could start with MAPS anabolic. Um, now what's the difference between 40 plus and maps anabolic? Not much. Not much. The difference really is exercise selection. Yep. >> When we took certain exercises and made uh for lack of a better term, safer or less risk risk a little bit. >> Yeah. So, so instead of a traditional squat, it's a box squat. Very similar, same movement pattern, same thing. The difference is with the box squat, you're breaking up the negative portion of the rep from the positive, breaking up that momentum, easier on the joints. Uh we're trading out straight bar deadlift for things like a trap bar deadlift. Still a hip hinging movement, just less risk for the low back. So again, if you're a dude that's, you know, over the age of 40, the program you start with with for fat loss, MAP's 40 plus. If you're a younger guy, you're okay with the other lifts, start with maps anabolic. >> There wasn't The other consideration that I think we did in 40 that's a little unique to in comparison to anabolic was the lifestyle recommendations. That's right. >> You know, you and and the reason why I think your advice is great is because when you're young, you tend to get away with a lot uh not the greatest night of sleep, you can recover a lot. >> Yeah. Stre stress doesn't seem to affect you the same way as it is or you just have less stress. >> Yeah. Or you just have less of it, right? Uh that's a better way to say it. You probably have less uh you know or less high levels of it in comparison to probably the the 40-year-old who's got the family, the maybe the career or business and kids and all the things, right? And so in 40 plus uh we put a lot of effort and emphasis around lifestyle to help balance that out and mitigate that. And so I think that makes that such a which I can't tell you how many times I trained somebody 40 plus that the first thing that and let's take example of a guy trying to lose weight that understood working out lifting weights and had a pretty good idea of diet but really struggled with losing weight. Many times it was the lifestyle changes >> that we had to address first before their body would shift. And so that part I think is uh when it comes to fat loss for men. I think the the nice part about the 40 plus that's unique to being 40 plus versus anabolic. I think if I had a 20 to 30 year old uh person that wanted to do fat loss, I think anabolic is probably where I'd start them. 40 plus with other other considerations. >> It's just geared toward towards that demographic much better. Yes, >> totally. And then the follow-up program, Mass Powerlift, very similar to the fat loss for women. powerlift is so focused on strength. Strength is a great metric to uh focus on and pay attention to when you're in a cut. Okay, the mirror isn't so great because the mirror can lie to you, but if you can maintain strength or even get stronger in certain key lifts while you're in a calorie deficit, you are preserving muscle. Uh and that's why it's such a good metric and that's why I like powerlift for fat loss both for men and women. So, that would be the program that you would end. >> I love I love this here. The one thing that is is common sometimes though is to not see gains because you're cutting for fat loss. And so I think the one thing that I would communicate to somebody is that listen, if you could maintain lifts through a cut and doing power lift, you're killing it. >> You're killing it. And that and that's really the goal there. Now you you occasionally see somebody and this typically is in the more novice lifter who hasn't maybe uh gotten proficient at >> or maybe they're new at the exercises themselves. And so yes, it might be still novel to them. And so you see them sometimes gain even in the deficit. Uh which that is just literally them getting better at the movement, which is awesome. >> Um and amazing, but I always like to set the expectations of listen, our goal is to just keep as much of your strength that you've built in, you know, maps anabolic or 40 plus through powerlift. If we've done that, we've done a hell of a job. And if we've seen any increases, we're absolutely killing it. >> By the way, we have a buy one get one free right now. Okay? You buy one at a normal price, you get another one for free. So go to mapsbogo.com if you are interested. Totally. Next, we have beginners. So you're a total beginner or it's been a long time since you've done any exercise. We have a we have the perfect combo uh for you. And we actually have the perfect starter program called MAP starter for beginners. That program is designed specifically for someone who's being introduced to strength training. It is easily the most commonly advised program I have for friends and family who are getting into strength training. Whether, hey, I want to start strength training. I've heard of the benefits. What should I do? I' I've never done it before. Starter starter starter every single time. It's dumbbells, a physio ball. It trains stability. It's traditional strength training. You're going to get stronger. You're going to build muscle. Um, it's the perfect program to start with. >> You just understand how to hold these positions with your body. Really anchor yourself down. And that's why, you know, the stability ball is really great to to be able to add in there to train that um and to have that kind of control. So, you can you can build upon that so much easier and more effectively when you have really good body control and strength in position. Uh which then will set you up for for loading a lot more weight down the line. I remember when we wrote this program, um, you know, I if if we would have wrote it in probably the the correct order of like how we used it as coaches and trainers, this would have been the first program that we wrote. >> Of course. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. We retroactively we did it. >> Yeah. I mean, obviously, uh, we know it's not the sexiest for selling and stuff like that, but the reality is when we look back at like the clients that we train, um, most most all my clients started like Map started. when I think about the things that we built in that um I rarely got somebody who was already you know I've been lifting for the last three years consistently helping you yeah let me hire you I normally got somebody who was very deconditioned either have never strength trained or they haven't in years and they're getting back at it and and so really the first few months of training looked like identical to what MAP started looks like the other thing I would add to this category even though we didn't do this as a specific person but I think this is I think we'd all agree we would recommend the stretch do is post pregnancy even. So, so even though we're talking about beginners right now, I would say >> I'm so glad you said that. Postpartum, you train yourself like a beginner. I don't care how much working out you did beforehand because of the time off, because of the changing body, you treat yourself like a total beginner when you get back into strength training. That's going to give you the best results, hands down. >> Yeah, this is just top of mind for me. I feel like we've been we've got a lot of callers in in the last month or two that are u you know, know they're pregnant or coming out of pregnancy or they've been out of pregnancy for like 6 months wondering when they're going to be back to their normal self. And I feel like we keep having the same conversation of like give it at least a year or two to even expect to to be like that. And I and it makes me remember when when Katrina had Max how I continually had to talk her out of like you're not ready for maps black, you know, saying this is not the right program for you. We could totally get away with doing starter and we could totally get away with doing these programs that seem easy to you but you are still not back to your normal self. And so I can't stress that enough even though we're talking about beginners right now that even the most advanced uh lifter, female lifter that's post pregnancy, this is the pathway. >> You're a beginner at that point. Uh and then the program to follow it up with is Maps Anywhere. And Maps Anywhere teaches uh of all of our programs, it's one of the best for body awareness. Yeah. >> So you are utilizing some weights here and there and some bands. Uh but some of it is tension based and a lot of it is body weight based. and bodyweight-based movements uh have a lot of value for somebody who's getting into strength training. It's much better to start that way then move them uh to the more traditional strength training programs and it's a perfect program to progress to from map starter for somebody who's a beginner. [snorts] >> Then we have athletic performance. Uh this is fun. I love this. Now >> we have a program that is specifically designed for athletic performance, but I do think uh starting with map symmetry would be perfect before we move to maps performance. >> Oh, I agree. It it again to your point of like the order of when we wrote these >> I probably would have started with symmetry and then into performance because it addresses a lot of >> uh you know those discrepancies left to right and um you know it's a cool thing to add in where you know everybody has sort of like mobility and and like range of motion issues that like we can attack that with just going through the program um and going through these unilateral movements. >> Totally. Well, I when you talk about sports, I mean all sports are done like unilateral stuff, right? And so it makes sense that and also the compon the isometric component don't sleep on that either for laying the foundation for an athlete too. So the the athlete to be able to uh contract the entire body like that and do isometrics. So the fact that we started that program with isometrics >> really what I did with the high school athletes immediately was the same thing >> right isometrics. Then we move into unilateral then we see how we express that towards the end of it. It just for the athlete, it makes a lot of sense that that would that would be the first thing that you did and then you move into a more specific performance. >> And then mass performance is the follow-up and mass performance is very athletic- minded. It is designed for the athlete. So it would look like this. Symmetry, then performance, and you're ready to go. And then finally, we have the people who are restricted with time and typically also restricted uh just with space or gym access. Now, this episode is brought to you by one of our sponsors, Viori. So, Viori makes athleisure wear. Super comfortable. It lasts a long time, high quality, but they also make uh evening wear. I' I've got myself button-down shirts from them and slacks. They're comfortable. I can actually work out in the slacks. I don't, but they look amazing. You know, Vori, Vori is topof the line. And by the way, we have one of the biggest discounts you'll find of Vori Clothing anywhere on the internet because we've been with Vori for so long. So if you like Vori, you want a huge discount, go to voricclo.com/mindpump. That's v u r i sorry v u o r i.com/mindpump. Again, that link will get you 20% off. And so we have the perfect program for this, which is maps 15. Maps 15. There's two ways you could do it, by the way. You could do it either a with uh your your your traditional strength training equipment or you could do it with very minimal strength training equipment. The program is actually designed to be able to follow either way. The follow-up to that maps anywhere. This is a great follow-up one, two for somebody who's like, I don't got too much time. I'm really busy or this is new to me. I'm getting into it and I don't want to make a bunch of time. I want to get into it. This is a great combo. You know, I know we geared this towards timerestricted because of course it applies to that and is ideal for obviously someone like that. That's why we wrote it. But I I do want to highlight the I mean this program has done so well and we've gotten so it's gotten so much feedback >> for results. Yeah. It's been like incredible >> and I and I think there's there's a reason that the there's a couple reasons, but one of the main reasons is we we obviously have a bi a bit of a bias because of who you listen to the podcast. So we attract more people that are into health and fitness. Like if you're into listening to a fitness podcast, you're more than the average for the most part. I mean, some people stumble upon us or get recommended to us, but most people like if you're listening for hours knowledge base is probably pretty >> Yeah. And you're interested, you want to learn more and you want and and we so we tend to skew towards people that like to work out or enjoy working out more than average. >> And I think what I we found in our audience is that a less is more for a lot of people. Yeah. >> And a lot of people have a lot of other things on their plate other than just and they have fallen into the same trap that I think all of us have expressed even ourselves at one point in our lives where you know uh you literally scaling back sometimes ends up giving you better results and I think a lot of people test that. So even though this is geared towards time restricted I'd even encourage the person >> you could call this the stressed uh combo. This is for people have a lot of >> turns out most people are overworked and stressed out. >> Yeah. A lot of life stress. [laughter] If you got if you got a lot of kids, you run a business, you work long hours, you like you have >> this is the combo. You check any of those boxes. >> Yeah. You you have a job that doesn't get it's off time schedule all the time. Like I mean there's a lot of things that fall in this category and and you typically like to go to the gym four to six days a week. I challenge you to try and do the max shift this protocol right here. >> So good for you >> because we've gotten so much great feedback. >> Totally. And then you follow up with anywhere, which wears very minimal equipment, also saves time, is a perfect followup. And so what we did is here's what we did. So these are recommendations that we have, but here's what here's what we did for you. >> If you go to mapsboggo.com, you can buy any one of those programs and get any other one for free. So you can actually make whatever combo you want. These are the recommendations we have, but if you have different goals, you have whatever, you could buy one, get one free, uh, it's 157. 157 which would normally get you one program will get you two. So you any your choice any one that we mentioned plus any other one. It's mapsbogo.com. It's buy one get one free. Go there right now. It's 157 is the price. You buy one you get the other one totally for free. Go check it out. You can also find us on Instagram. It's my pup media. [music]