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The Last Diet Podcast 🎙️
The Last Diet Podcast is for people who want to rebuild a strong, athletic body that supports their life — not consumes it.
We talk training, nutrition, structure, and identity for people in their 30s–50s who’ve been fit before and want a clear, sustainable way to perform well again in work, family, and life.
No extremes. No gimmicks. Just standards, structure, and long-term performance.
Welcome to The Last Diet podcast, the last podcast you'll ever need to create the last diet you ever need. I'm your host, Mike Finnegan. Let's dive in. YouTube team, how the heck are we? Welcome back to another episode.
Speaker 1:Thanks, guys, first of all, for everyone that has been listening recently. It is officially our most downloaded month of all time, which is mad. Nearly 300 downloads for the month of February, and we're still going at the moment. I know we had Aidan's podcast on Monday or Tuesday as well, and that's really hit well with a lot of you. So hopefully you enjoy that.
Speaker 1:But I also had some really, really good guests joined on over the last month as well, which is which is blowing the whole thing up. So hopefully that everyone that's listening new is continuing to listen and you're getting something from us. I'm really, really starting to hit on some of the topics that you like that you like recently, guys, because I've got lot of feedback about it and I love it. And I want to talk more and more about stuff that you care about. So as always, don't be afraid to reach out to me on Instagram or whatever.
Speaker 1:Because if you give me feedback, I can create more podcasts and content and bring in more guests that are more aligned to what you actually want, what you need in this whole thing as well. So, yeah, feel free to chat. And, again, so much for everyone listening so far. So guys, just quickly before we get into this episode, which is going to be, as you probably can tell from the title of the episode, the best exercises for muscle growth. It was a very, very popular topic.
Speaker 1:I put it up in my stories last week and it got a majority vote. And I was surprised actually because there was a lot of good topics in there. But a lot of people actually wanted to learn about this. And I love it because I think so often it's overlooked, especially when it comes to people that are trying to lose weight. But it's such a huge part of it, especially for the overall health and physique.
Speaker 1:So we're going to get into that in a second. Just quickly before we start, guys, you might have seen in my stories. I'm going to be running a free webinar next March. So the March 11, I think is the official date. I haven't fully booked that in yet.
Speaker 1:Keep an eye on my keep an eye on my Instagram. Right. But I'm going to be running the webinar and I'm going to be basing it around what I call the structure advantage. Right? So it's like a simple system for training nutrition in a busy life.
Speaker 1:So what I wanted to do basically was create a webinar that would help people that are potentially just out of routine at the moment, out of structure with their health fitness. And the only thing they know is extremes, and they can't do extremes because of their life. So if you're in a position at the moment where you maybe used to be fit, you used to find it easy, but you're really, really struggling at the moment, you don't know where to start. I'm gonna break it down very, very simply, and I'm gonna help you within the session itself create your own structure and training plan and nutritional plan that will suit you, that you can take away and use after the session. So it's gonna be very, very practical.
Speaker 1:Okay? If you want to book one of the free spots, and it's free, reach out to me in Instagram with the word webinar, and I will put your name down. I'll send you all the details with it. I'm going to be capping it, guys, just because I don't want I wanted to be small but intimate so we can get some feedback from people on the day and stuff. But we probably will have enough spots for maybe 30 or 40 people.
Speaker 1:So if you're someone that wants to join, let me know before I fully announce it on my Instagram. You'll get first refusal coming off of my my podcast. Okay. So let's get stuck into this, guys. Right?
Speaker 1:What are the best exercises for muscle growth? Right? A couple of things we're gonna go through, right? At the very end, guys, because I don't want to kind of dance around this because there is obviously context to everything we talk about here. Okay?
Speaker 1:So there's no one single best exercise for anything. Okay. But I will at the end, just to be concise at the end, I'm going to break down what exercises I would recommend and what types of exercise I would recommend. Okay. So we're going to break down the the four main movements and exercises that I would recommend if you're trying to build muscle.
Speaker 1:Okay? But before we get to that, the question you're always gonna have to ask yourself, right? And the driver behind this is like, why do you actually wanna build muscle? Why is it important to build muscle? I won't spend too long in this because if you're listening to this, you probably already know the benefits.
Speaker 1:But quickly, right? There are so many benefits outside of what people actually think. So yes, aesthetically, it looks amazing when you build muscle because you look athletic, you look fit. Most people that lose weight, and especially if there's a lot of weight, they look frail, fragile, and they look gaunt. So by building muscle, you're negating that.
Speaker 1:You're looking athletic and lean. Okay, so that's what we want from our physique, So that's one obviously big benefit. But the other ones that aren't really talked about are performance and health. And when I say performance, I don't just mean on the sports field. Now, that's hugely important as well.
Speaker 1:If you have functional muscle, within reason, you're going to be performing better in a pitch, whatever your goal actually is. It may not even be pitch. It could be other sports as well. Muscle, it's very rare that having some extra muscle is a bad thing when it comes to performance. But it's not just performance on the field.
Speaker 1:It's also performance in everyday life. If you have more muscle in your body, then you're going to be finding everything easier. You're going to find daily tasks easier, gardening, carrying shopping. For anything you need to do, extra muscle is going to be a benefit, especially the amount of muscle you can realistically build without becoming a pro bodybuilder and take the stories. And this is something that a lot of people really, really, really misinterpret.
Speaker 1:They think if they lift the weight, they'll become a lead bodybuilder. And Aiden touched on this on Tuesday. It's the equivalent of going into a Formula One car and thinking you're going to become a Formula One champion or going into a sports car thinking you're you're going to become a Formula One champion. It just doesn't happen. In order to build a substantial amount of muscle, it takes a lot of time, a lot of years, a lot of work.
Speaker 1:And even at that, our genetics do limit us to this model. So for the majority of people, any muscle you build will be really, really nice. It'll look well, but it'll also function really well. And especially for health, okay? I talk about performance, but long term health as well.
Speaker 1:It's linked to injury prevention if you have more muscle strength as you get older, which is really important. It's also linked to avoidance of diseases such as osteoporosis, which is basically bone wastage. So all these things are really, really important as we get it later. Sometimes we don't think about them because we're so in and out, but it is important. So it's like there's no reason not to build muscle.
Speaker 1:Okay. So now let's get into the crux of it, guys. Right? So the first thing you should always think about when you talk about building muscle is asking the right questions, right? So instead of asking, like, what's the best exercise?
Speaker 1:You should be thinking about like, what's the best training program or block of training you should be working on? Because there's no one perfect exercise, there's no one perfect session. When it comes to building muscle, it always comes down to the accumulative work you're doing over time in a progressive manner. So basically, that's a programme. When you get a gym programme or a programme of a personal trainer, that's what we're looking to do.
Speaker 1:It's not about the individual session, it's about the accumulation of work you do over time. Right? So that's really, really important. So like a training programme, you should be able to identify this. It shouldn't be A good training programme doesn't change exercises every session.
Speaker 1:It doesn't change exercises week to week. A good training programme basically gives you exercises that you can get good at, that you can progressively get stronger at over time, and ones that actually fit your preferences and body structure and injury history. So some exercises won't suit some people because they might have bad knees or a bad back, But there's always alternatives. Some exercises might fit because you just might like them and they feel good because whatever way you're built, like some people have longer legs, some people have longer arms and torso, whatever. So you were all built a little bit differently.
Speaker 1:So some exercises will fit better for some people. And the way I always look at this is you'll know when you do it because after a while when you get pretty good at it, you should you feel it on the working muscles if you're doing it right. Okay. So that's what a good program should have. If you're getting a program that is constantly changing exercises or if you're getting a program that doesn't take into account you as a person, it's just generic exercises.
Speaker 1:That's why finding one online is not going to work for you. You have to understand what's going to actually fit for you and your specific needs, okay? So that's what a really good training programme looks like. So you can see, like, I didn't mention what's the best exercise because the best exercise is gonna be different for everyone. Now, to be fair, there's lot of crossover.
Speaker 1:Like I said, at the end, I'm going to go through what I believe to be the best in terms of generally the best. But it has to fit into your life. And the workouts you do also have to fit into the business of your life as well. Like so many people look for this optimal program. But there is no optimal program for everyone.
Speaker 1:There's an optimal program for you. So, ideally, if I said to you, okay, can you dedicate your life to doing five sessions, six sessions a week, two day sessions, we could create the most optimal program and you could become an incredible, incredible bodybuilder if you wanted to. During COVID, I was spending most of my time training on really optimizing everything. But the second COVID lifted, I couldn't do it. I had other things I didn't want to do either.
Speaker 1:It's like, it's not worth it. It's like the results you get are not worth the trade off. So we always have to look at what is optimal for you in your life. Like how many sessions can you realistically commit to a week and not just one week for months and months and months? This is where we have to look at the long term picture.
Speaker 1:This is about consistency. It's not about how many sessions you can get in the next month because that's not going to When it comes to most of growth, you're not going to get a lot of results from that. You have to it just has to do something you commit to as a hobby almost for months on end. Okay? So just something to consider when when you're thinking about programming.
Speaker 1:Right? Optimal for you and optimal for someone else is totally different. Okay? So it's always about what you can fit into your life. So here are the principles basically now of what we're actually looking to do when it comes to training program, right?
Speaker 1:So once we find the exercises, as I say, that suits you, so exercise selection has to be built around you, then we have to start thinking about loading it progressively. So the way we build muscle is we start on a given weight, so our body can lift a certain amount of weight, right? And the idea is over weeks and months, we will, with good form, get stronger at doing that exercise. So this is why program jumping and exercise jumping is really, really bad. Because think about it, you learn, let's just say you've got a program and you're learning a new exercise, and it takes you maybe few sessions before you start to feel, oh, yeah, I've actually got this down now, the movement feels smooth.
Speaker 1:And then you decide, Okay, time to change it up. Confuse the body. It's what saying. People confuse the body. But you've spent so long just trying to get used to it.
Speaker 1:Now the idea is actually to get stronger at it. But if you keep changing exercises up the whole time, you're going to spend all your time learning the exercise and no time actually getting better at the exercise. And the way our body grows muscle is by progressively getting stronger at gym exercises. So if you think about any fitness characters that we build, it's basically like a stress response. So our body responds to any stimulus that we give us.
Speaker 1:So our body always thinks we're in danger. So if we're, for example, running through your example, if you're running long distances, your body basically thinks you're getting chased by a tiger from an evolutionary time, basically. And in order to survive, our body is like, I need to adapt to this stimulus because he obviously needs it. So I'm going get fitter and fitter and fitter, which is why get fitter when we start running. But the same thing with muscle building.
Speaker 1:If we're constantly doing gym work and stressing the muscle, our body is like, oh, we need to get better at this because he obviously needs it or she needs it. But again, it's a defense response from our body. So we have to give the stimulus. But if you're constantly changing exercises up the whole time, your body isn't going to get the stimulus it needs because you're constantly just learning the exercise, you're not actually getting better at it. So we need to be progressively getting stronger or adding reps over time.
Speaker 1:Now it doesn't have to be session to session. At the start, you might find yourself you'd get strong pretty quickly at the start for most people, but after you get to a certain level, will slow down. So instead of thinking about you need to always add weight every week, it might be every few weeks or every training block even. Or it might need me adding weight. It might be just adding reps.
Speaker 1:You might be getting more reps the same way. Or you might even just feel like your movement is better, it's stronger, smoother. So it might necessarily always come down to putting weight in the barrier. Okay. But the idea is that we are getting better.
Speaker 1:We're getting progressively better. So I would say minimum, you shouldn't be changing exercises for at least six to eight weeks. And even when you are changing them, which is what I do for my clients, I will program for them and I eventually change them, but it will be like tweaks as opposed to like auto changes. It will just to keep fresh, but also just to hit muscles from different angles. So that's the whole idea.
Speaker 1:So just to read about this now, guys. The idea here is that we get a program that suits us in terms of exercises that we can progressively get stronger at. But the most important thing is if we don't have this thing, forget about it. You can stay consistent at it. So this is where we have to be realistic as well, optimal versus reality.
Speaker 1:So for most people that are listening to this and most people that come to me, you've got other priorities. You don't want to live in the gym. You don't want to be in any bodybuilder. Right? So we have to understand how to work this into your life.
Speaker 1:So for example, if you're someone who can only commit to maybe three to four sessions a week and them sessions, let's say, ranging between forty and fifty minutes, that's fantastic. And that is absolutely enough. For most people, I would say that's where you should be looking to start. Build it up to basically four sessions. Start with two if you have to and build it to four.
Speaker 1:That's where we should be optimist in for most people's lifestyle, right? If you're doing that, the majority of your exercises should be compound lifts because of the fact that we have less time. We can't be just messing around with isolation exercises because we just don't have the time and it's not going to be as productive if we were to do compound. So what a compound exercise basically is, is that we're working two joints at once. So for example, if you were doing a squat, you'd be working from the hip joint and the knee joint as well, because your knees will be bending and your hips will be bending, meaning that we're working multiple muscle groups at once.
Speaker 1:So instead of just isolating, for example, a bicep curl is an isolation exercise because it only works the elbow joint. So you're only working the biceps. Okay? But we'll say if you're doing a pull up, it's a compound exercise because you're working the shoulder joint and the elbow joint. So you're working your back muscles, but you're also working your bicep muscles as well.
Speaker 1:So you're getting a better bang for your buck from a time efficiency point of view. And it's just an overall better strategy, especially if you're time poor and you're starting basically fresh. Isolation stuff is fine, but I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time on it. I would say 80% of your exercises should be compound and then maybe 20% should be isolation. And if you haven't done whole pile of time for only two sessions, I would say probably 100% should be compound.
Speaker 1:The split you're using should be very, very simple. So when I say split, I mean like the training days you're having. So for example, you could do a split where you might do one day you might do legs, another day you might do upper body, and then another day you might do legs and upper body. So that could be a four day split. Or you might do it where one day you'll do like chest and triceps, another day you'll do back and biceps, and then another day you might do quads and hamstrings, whatever.
Speaker 1:So you can split it up. But again, making the split very simple is really important because you don't want to overcomplicate things and you don't want to be constantly, you know, working the same muscles and not working other muscles. You want to be doing every muscle group. So it's important to split it up. And like I said, most important thing is consistency over novelty.
Speaker 1:See, here's just last point in that before I finish up. When we start the gym, we get sore. Right? It's like I did legs last week for the first time in a while after soccer, and I hadn't done leg training in a while, and my legs were in bits for days because it's novel, right? And when we get sore, we're kind of like, Oh, I worked hard there.
Speaker 1:We like that feeling sometimes because it just tells us we've done something. But we shouldn't be chasing novelty because soreness isn't an indicator of muscle growth. It can be a factor, but it's not the only indicator, right? So if you are constantly changing exercise, you probably will be getting like maybe sore, but you won't actually be getting stronger. So the number one driver is, are you getting stronger at a certain exercise?
Speaker 1:So don't be chasing novelty. Novelty is basically something that's different than it's it feels good and I get sore after it, But that doesn't necessarily mean you're going to progress. So if you're constantly changing, then like I said, you're not going to actually progress. So yeah, so just like I know I've often told the story, guys, but when I was in Australia, we traveled Asia and I was the first time in my life I was properly out of structure and routine where I had no gym routine, I had no eating routine. And it was the was the worst shape I've ever gotten.
Speaker 1:Like, I wasn't training, I wasn't playing football, I wasn't eating well. So I put on a lot of weight and I lost a lot of muscle. And it was one of the toughest periods I've been through in terms of like my identity and feeling like I was a fit person, especially as it kind of links a lot to my job, my whole job. But I remember back then I was doing like random sessions in certain places. We might we might find a small gym with a few random sessions, but like.
Speaker 1:It never like it never did anything for me. Like I never worked. It was never going to work. So I still lost loads of muscle and I still didn't actually like keep any of the shape I actually had. And I put on a to weight.
Speaker 1:So this is why when I came back to Australia, then it literally took me a few months. But once I got back into structure routine and I created a new gym program and stuck to it with structure, results started to come back and come back and come back. And the most of them back relatively quickly as well because I had the structure. But it's so important that structure is the number one thing you build with this. Because like I said, you can find a really good program online, but if you don't do it, you're not going to actually get any results.
Speaker 1:So structuring it into your life is so, so important. So like if I was to travel Asia again or if I was doing like that again, I would now know how to better structure my training into that and how I'd actually do it. So I've learned from it, but I had to go through that pain in order to get there. So if you're someone at the moment who is maybe you had a child or maybe you stopped playing sport because you got a new job or you moved job or you started, I don't know, like an apprenticeship. I had a client sign up to actually recently and that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 1:He was reactive and he was in all good shape and he felt good. And then he started his apprenticeship and his lifestyle totally changed and he struggled and then he put on some weight and that's what he wants to get structure back. But if that's you right now and you're not feeling great physically, don't beat yourself up. It happens as well. The key thing for you now is not to do what you were doing before in your different life, if you wanna call that.
Speaker 1:It's about figuring out how to create structure now within your new life. And often, this stuff is very, very simple. And the webinar I'm doing in March is exactly what this is going to be about breaking that down, how to simplify the structure of this for your life so that you get best of all worlds. You don't overwhelm yourself. You still have your other priorities, but you find a fitness lifestyle that suits you, brings out the best in you, but also gets you results.
Speaker 1:So that's the key now, figuring out that structure for your life where you are right now. And trust me, guys, it's not as complicated as you think it is. I talked about a lot of stuff today, but it's very, very simple and it's actually structured and put it put it put it to play. And I was I was just mentioning one of my clients on the story, Stakey, who's been with me a month, but that's all we did. He's got a really hectic life, very little time.
Speaker 1:But we're doing like very, very sharp, sharp sessions, small bit of running, and we're staying on top of nutrition within his life. And he's already down eight pounds. He's already building muscle, feeling stronger, feeling more energetic. And it's only been a month. It's like structure is king, especially as you get older and life becomes more hectic.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's finish this up, guys. Right. So I did promise you that at the end, would talk you through what the best exercises were that I thought. So I break this down right into four categories, right? So the first one is push movements and that like vertical and horizontal.
Speaker 1:So think of a vertical push movement is like a shoulder press. So you're either using a barbell or using a dumbbell. Okay, but you should be working in that in that plane of motion. Okay, so anything you're pushing overhead. Okay, horizontal then would be like if you were lying down pushing like a bench press.
Speaker 1:So that's a horizontal push. So you're not pushing overhead, you're pushing basically in front of you, if that makes sense. So again, bench press, chest press, chest machines, like any push and movement, press ups is a push and movement. So they work the chest and they work the arms, whereas the vertical overhead movements works the shoulders and the triceps as well. Same with pull then, right?
Speaker 1:So you have pull would be a vertical and horizontal. So vertical would be like a pull up. So anything you're pulling downwards and then a horizontal would be like a bent over row. So anything that you're, again, you're pulling from Like pulling towards your body, we call it that in a horizontal plane. So that's the second one.
Speaker 1:The third one that is a hinge movement. So there's two types of leg movements as well. There's more, but just to simplify it. A hinge movement is like a deadlift or like an RDL or many deadlifts or like a hip thrust. Okay.
Speaker 1:So basically, a hinge movement is where we're just predominantly moving through the hip hinge. Okay, so if you can think about your hip hinging from that position, basically. So that would be a hinge movement. And then the other movement will be like a squat movement. So a squat movement would be like doing leg presses or lunges or goblet squats.
Speaker 1:So the difference between a hinge and a squat is a hinge you're predominantly moving just through the hips, so you're hinging from hip, whereas with a squat you're going through the hip but you're also going through the knee. So if you think about a squat, bend your knees fully, but you also you also claps the hips as well. Okay, so that's that's the difference with them. With them exercises, you're hitting like basically everything you're hitting your hamstrings, you're hitting your glutes, you're hitting your quads. And even to some extent, hitting like your like your back, lower back muscles as well.
Speaker 1:So you're like erectors. So that's really good for your stability and just overall health as well. So that's all I focus on this. So if you look at your program and see, are you doing a push overhead? Are you doing a push horizontally?
Speaker 1:Are you doing a pull overhead or pull horizontally? Are you doing some form of a hip hinge? And are you doing some form of a squat? That's it. If you're hitting all of them, that's the best.
Speaker 1:They're the best exercises. Like I said, mostly focusing on the compound exercises. So all the ones I mentioned are compound exercises. And then you can sprinkle in a few isolation exercises as well if you wanted to. So bicep curls, tricep pushdowns, calf raises, leg extensions where you're just working like your quad muscles, leg curls where you're just working your hamstring muscles.
Speaker 1:So some of them things can be sprinkled in, but again, very time dependent. I wouldn't be doing a whole pile of them if you haven't a whole pile of time. You shouldn't be spending fifty minutes in the gym doing them. That's where it really hurt my soul when I see people there in the gym and they're, they're only there for maybe five minutes to spend a lot of time before and they spend other time just doing some isolation exercises and not even doing weight that actually that actually test them. And that's the last thing I'll leave with guys.
Speaker 1:I didn't actually talk about that too much. With every exercise you do, if you're not pushing it close to failure, then it's pointless. Okay, it generally is pointless. So if you're doing an exercise and you're just going through motions and you're like, oh, my program says 10 reps, so I'll just put this weight on, I'll do 10 reps and I'll stop. It burns a little bit.
Speaker 1:That's not good enough. In order for you to progress, the exercise has to be taken close to failure. What's close to failure? Close to failure basically means that you should have no more than three reps is maximum, but you should be probably pushing closer to one or two, especially if you're a beginner, just so you know what that feels like. Reps left in the tank, meaning that if I said to you, good to hear, how many more reps have you left genuinely before you could not do anymore?
Speaker 1:Your body would not allow you. You would say one or two and you're really on to that. It's easier to do that in some exercise. So like you're doing a pull up or something. It's like you can't do it.
Speaker 1:I'm done. I can't do anymore. But some exercises like you're doing like a leg curler, leg extension, can just go through the motions and you're not actually pushing it. So make sure because your body won't adapt if you don't give it something to adapt to. So it has to be hard.
Speaker 1:So that's the idea. Okay, progressively overload, but we have to push in each exercise close to failure. Okay. I'm gonna shut that down there. Hopefully, the episode has helped.
Speaker 1:Very practical one today compared to other ones. But as always, if have any questions about any of this stuff, let me know. I mean, Aidan are gonna delve into this in our next podcast in a little bit more depth in terms of the the exercise strategy you can use and why it's important to long term muscle retention and gain as well. Guys, have a fantastic week. Chat soon.
Speaker 1:Thanks for tuning in to the latest episode of The Last Diet podcast. If you want to inquire about how you can join The Last Diet lifestyle and find out more about our coaching, then the show notes below has a link to coaching inquiries. Just fill that out, and we'll be in contact as soon as possible. See you in the next one.