 What's the perfect number of exercises that you should do in a workout watch this our next caller is Angela from New York? Angela what's going on? Hi, how are you guys good? We're great. All right But thank you so much for having me on I really appreciate it So my question for you guys is see if you could possibly explain The ideal number of exercises per workout. I just finished the aesthetic which I loved But I was a little surprised at how many work out how many exercises were in each full body Which I get it obviously you're doing, you know, everybody part you're hitting but you know, you see so many things online Focus on the basic exercises get stronger at them So I was just looking for a little bit of more input on that. Yeah, is this your first program your antivars? Yeah, what now what did you do before this like how long were you consistent with your workouts? Before following maps aesthetic, what did those look like like how many days a week were you working out before? So I've worked out five or six days a week for probably ten years maybe I've worked with a trainer. I've done, you know, fitness competition. I'm actually certified as a trainer So I typically just do on my own programming, but I do I've done splits I typically do a few full body days a week But usually I would say like the cast stuff the shrug things like that on the smaller body parts I wasn't always including in my workout. Okay. Yeah. Now, how were your results with aesthetic? Did were you pleased with how your body responded and how you felt? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Yeah, and I wanted to ask those questions because sometimes people who follow like maps aesthetic for example They go for the program with more volume and it's not really the right program for them But being that you worked out you've been working out for so long Consistently you competed it sounds like you said you're certified. So you know what you're doing and it worked for you I think that that's there your answers kind of right there, you know, because the answer to this question is really hard It really depends on who I'm talking to and it depends on their performance and the results that they get You know maps aesthetic includes three full body workouts that have a lot of volume But that's only three workouts in the week The other two workouts are these focus sessions that last like 20 minutes So really if you look at the total amount of volume, it's not crazy in comparison to other types of splits Now as far as total exercises in a workout again, that really does depend, you know I know people say oh don't work out more than 45 minutes or an hour or whatever That's that's totally not true It really does depend on the person and you really have to base it off of How you feel and how it's working for you and if it worked well for you and you got good results I think you're on the right track. Well, that's part of why the first question I asked was if you'd ran any other maps programs and a probably a better question is what Sal said Which is asking you what your experience was and Normally, I would tell a client don't start on maps aesthetic It's one of our highest volume programs And so we wrote them in the with the idea of people following Anabolic performance and then aesthetic so you know taking them almost nine months to actually get to that type of volume So they work up to it, but Like Sal said you've been training for you're an exception to the rule where if you were a client of mine So yeah, we could go into aesthetic first now I don't think it would have hurt you though to go Anabolic performance and then aesthetic either I think that Still has tremendous value even for an experienced person like you but you're a case where it would still be okay Whereas if you were a brand new person, you just started lifting and you jumped right into aesthetic I'd be telling you oh, well, that's that's a terrible program That's too much for someone like you because you haven't been training, but that's not you so it's okay The other thing is aesthetic can be long workouts They can take some people almost 90 minutes to get through it. Nothing is wrong We just actually had a question similar to this, but the issue with them was time They just it's a long time to be in the gym And so there's there's nothing wrong with you taking a few of those it for example You've talked about the shrugs and calves maybe some of the smaller muscle groups nothing wrong with you moving those over to focus days Which are only 20 minutes long and extending the the focus days to more like 45 minutes to an hour And so you have an an even you know our workout or so for every day of the week versus these Higher longer, you know higher volume longer workouts Monday Wednesday Friday, and then the off the other days focus days are only 2030 nothing says that you can't take some of the exercises from the foundational days and move them to focus days Yeah, Angela, you know here's something to maybe pay attention to and you're perfect person to talk to you about this because you've been training for so long So you're per you're you're likely very in touch with how your body feels and performs I know I'm doing too much in a workout if I start to notice that my pump is my ability to get a pump it starts to fade and also if it starts to feel like An endurance workout versus a strength workout like if I if I'm you know Two-thirds of the way through the workout, and I'm like oh my god I have you know four more exercises, and I got to like Mentally get through it, and it's gonna be grueling and it's more like I'm you know Just kind of toughing it out then I know this may be a little bit too much And the other one is how you feel after the workout if I feel like I need to lay down afterwards Or take a long break because I'm wasted. I probably did too much if I feel good after my workout Like I should I what I aim for is when I'm done I feel more energized than I did going into the workout then I know it was enough So I give that advice to someone like you because you're you're better You're you're better suited to judge those things really hard when somebody's a beginner like you say that to someone who starts And they're like well I kind of feel like I'm grueling I'm you know toughing through the workout from the beginning or what do you mean energized You know I'm tired all the way through and then who knows but for someone like you I'd say look for those things And if you do notice that oh man, I don't feel so great You know about two-thirds of the way through the workout or afterwards. I feel like I need to lay down Just try this cut one set off of each exercise start like that So you're not cutting exercises. You're just cutting volume Overall and then see how you feel you might be surprised you might find that cutting the volume might actually get you better Well not to mention one of the first things that you'll see if you are if you are doing too much volume is a plateau and Again another reason why Sal probably asked you that how are your results and if you would have responded? Oh, they were okay, or I didn't really see any strength gains if that was your response Then we probably would suggest you probably need to cut back a little bit But if you felt great and you saw great results from it whether that be body composition or and or changing Strength or strength going up. You're probably right where you should be Yeah, and you made a good point on The focus is because I will like you said they would take me anywhere from 75 to 90 minutes on the full body But the focus I'm still doing at least an hour when I'm there So I'm probably maybe doing a little bit too much volume there But when I ended so the last set obviously was the super that's the last three weeks And I didn't go too much later But I definitely didn't go heavier for those obviously because I'm super setting them So then I kind of felt like okay. Well, my squad's not going up my dad was not going up So, you know, should I back off and try and increase, you know, basically just the volume Those basic exercises, that's that's new information right there, right? So okay now now that now the answer changes a little bit So focus days are only supposed to be 20 20 30 minutes tops So if you're spending an hour in the gym and you're doing all those foundational days of you know 90-minute workouts, you probably are doing a little too much Yeah, and my recommendation would be follow the focus days as they're written And if you're gonna add anything to the focus days take them from the foundational days It sounds like to me you're follow you're doing everything the program saying plus you're adding more on those focus days The goal the idea is this you want to do the optimal amount of volume Not the amount of volume that you can tolerate maximally It sounds like you're going to the limit and going as far as your body will allow you to go You're only gonna get results slower as a result of that You're not gonna hit your full potential and of course you're always you're probably teetering If not bouncing back and forth between overtraining and not overtraining Considering your background. That's probably your tendency and also I mean, I don't know you did you know focus sessions for an hour Sounds like you're adding a bunch of stuff. Try following the program as it's laid out Trust the programming and and see what happens. I I would bet you that you're probably gonna see better results Okay, thank you. That sounds good. And then last question is what would you recommend I do next? Strong map map strong will be good. Do you have access to that by the way? No, all right, we're gonna send that to you so and one one little add to that Okay, if Based off of how you feel when you finish aesthetic would be the difference if I directed you towards strong or anabolic So I may push you back towards anabolic or even performance to be honest Because those programs have a little less volume So if at the end of this workout, maybe you give me feedback as a client You say, oh, I don't my you know joints are hurting a little bit or my deadlifting squad have been stuck on a plateau for a while I might not go to strong I actually might pull you back a little bit on the volume and go towards anabolic or performance But if you feel great and you love aesthetic, it's all great results feeling good from it. No issues Then I would go to strong next Okay, yeah, I mean I definitely feel good. I this morning I test I just went and did like five exercises and I went up like 10 pounds on On everything. Yeah, that's great first first Like five to seven reps not much, but I just wanted to see if I could do a little bit more So, I mean, I feel good. My body feels good. I definitely do feel better and more energized when I complete the workout Um, and I know you guys have millions of callers who call and say well, I'm not gonna back off and that's kind of where I So But I appreciate that. Thank you very much. No problem. Awesome. Yeah Yeah, you know the other thing too is uh, when you're when you're like this advanced Um, and this you know, you enjoy working out so much You can sometimes uh fool yourself a little bit so you could be like, oh, I went up in 10 pounds on my squat But they went up in 10 pounds from the last couple workouts, which over train them overall They're not up. Yeah, they just took a little break. You saw themselves go up. Oh, I'm on the right track now You know, these are things that really pay attention to because if you're a fitness fanatic and I'm speaking from experience You I do this too. I tend to push my body to what it can handle Almost always. I mean, I would say 90 of the time If you're experienced you're advanced or you've been consistently lifting for years You probably have a tendency to overdo it if you're brand new never really trained You're probably afraid to do too much so you don't do very much And so it's almost always the the opposite is true But what I love about these live calls Is here we are talking to her we all give some tips and answers and it was literally after we all went round robin answering Then we find out more information comes out magically Yeah, then all of a sudden you say and you're doing hour-long focus sessions Listen, we wrote those focus sessions to be single joint movements, you know cables bands They're somewhat recuperative Yes, they're not designed to hammer the body and if she's telling me she's doing an hour She's getting after it and that and if there's any if she's plateauing at all or there's any issues at all There it is is she's doing 90 minute workouts on foundational days And then she's coming back to the gym and doing another hour And I bet the exercise selection isn't the best stuff because you get somebody like this And I've had a lot of clients like this to get really into it and this becomes a bit of an obsession And it's fun and they're getting results But honestly at the end of the day, what's your goal? Like where do you go from here? Right, and I always have to like reiterate that because we're at such a high volume right now You know it to me It's it's always about like you know kind of bringing them back so that way We can work our way back up and keep you know this this sort of Fluctuating approach, you know what this reminds me of it's like this is so common Right, you get a client and you're like do you have any areas of pain on your body? Oh, no, I feel good But you know you have to go through from the head down to the feet Step by step to get the real answer. Your neck doesn't hurt. What about your shoulder? Oh, yeah, my elbow bothered. Oh, yeah. Yeah, but nothing to ask a lot of questions Right because I literally asked her what her workouts were like And she told us what I failed to do was to go through each piece and ask her more specifically Because then you start to get the real answers Thankfully she gave us a little bit more information at the end which allowed us to change your answer And to be honest now that we have all that information If she was my client and she she put all her trust in me to allow her to to to guide her I would probably actually make her go to anabola. Totally. That's what I mean Not only for it's probably the discipline of it. Yes, probably better for a body But also so I can show her like watch this We're only gonna train three days a week on your off days You're gonna do these little rubber band easy exercises follow it to a tee And I'm not even worried right now. What you're seeing strength This is what I think your body needs then let me take you to strong or let me take you to another program And then watch your body respond Knowing now what I know from what it is because she's definitely somebody who probably leans on doing too much volume Hey, if you enjoyed that clip you can find the full episode here or you can find other clips over here And be sure to subscribe