Hello Gentlemen and welcome to Phase 3. I hope you are ready to put that push in because things are about to start getting hard.

I thought that this would be a perfect time to revisit the fact that, along with Kai Greene, we here at Team WB Fitness are concerned with bodybuilding and NOT weightlifting.

So I want to briefly discuss the difference between bodybuilding and weightlifting and, with the distinction made clearly, I want to talk to you guys about what exactly the weights in the gym are for as I have noticed, being back on the floor, that a lot of people are just flat out using them incorrectly – not in terms of form, we all know people are fucking that up – but in terms of why they have weight in their hands to begin with.

To start lets listen to Kai Greene who very eloquently gives a clear and basic description of the difference between bodybuilding and weightlifting.

Kai really is the man. Everything he says is so spot on and he really understands the science of bodybuilding as well as or probably better than anyone in the game today.

So that is it in a nutshell, the bodybuilder is concerned with the contraction and stretch of muscles under heavier and heavier strain to cause hypertrophic muscle gains for growth of size and density in the muscle. Most simply put, bodybuilders are interested in building their bodies. Weightlifters, on the other hand, are concerned with the weight they lift. How much weight can I move from point A to point B is the primary goal of the weightlifter and of no concern whatsoever to the bodybuilder.

Eddie Hall is, arguably, the greatest powerlifter to ever live and inarguably holds the current record for heaviest deadlift with a lift of 500KG/1,102 lbs.

I am personally in awe of Eddie’s ability to hit that lift, but his raw strength and physique is simply not what we are chasing. The lift that nearly KILLED Hall is simply not something I would ever strive for. I would much sooner lift a small fraction of that weight and aim at Frank

Team WB is all about chasing Zane rather than Hall though we have much love and respect for all of them. Except Mehdi, that guy is a tool.

Zane’s symmetry.

Now, we are not going to shit too hard on our weightlifter/powerlifter friends here at WB Fitness. I can absolutely see chasing the rush of a new PR, moving more and more weight. That just isn’t what we are about here. I have said it before and I will continue to repeat it over and over again, your 20RM is going to be far more impressive to me than your 1RM.

So if we are going to develop a complete physique and be bodybuilders we are going to need to understand the tools that we use. The primary tool we use is the weights. But how do we use them. When you are lifting your weights, where is your mind? If you are on this team and giving it 100% it is, as we have stressed time and time again, focused on the lifts. That said, maybe there needs to be a bit more specific thought. This idea came to me last week while doing concentration curls so I will be using them as examples, but make no mistake the same holds for all the different lifts.

First off, when you are lifting you need to think about the muscle and not the weight. Remember, the act of stretching and contracting the muscle is the whole game. The weight is only in your hands because you become stronger and just doing it without weight no longer allows for the strain on the muscle required.

So think about it, like Kai does in the above video, while you are lifting….streeeeetcchhhhh…..connnnntraccccct. The weight in your hand is totally fucking meaningless. It’s not even there. You are just stretching and contracting muscle. Moving weight from point A to point B is what the weightlifter does, not the bodybuilder. The bodybuilder focuses on the body, the weightlifter focuses on the weight.

So now that you are focusing on the muscles, remember that as you move the relevant part of

It’s Still Your Mother Fucking Set.

the body through the range of motion you are doing so to activate that muscle, to squeeze it, to contract it, to force it to grow. C.T. Fletcher, another absolutely amazing person, recommended yelling at your muscles. GROW MOTHER FUCKER GROW!

Yes, your strength will increase with your muscle development and yes that will require heavier and heavier weights and yes, I will not bullshit you, when heavy weights become light weight because you get stronger it is fucking cool. It just is. But the weight is not and never the goal. The weight is just a tool. The weight is there to make the work harder.

Now that we are here in the third phase you will start noticing massive amounts of change happening in your body. The next 21 days are going to be a real test of how much effort you are willing to put into this program. The March equinox is in 6 days. The third phase of this program is 21 days and the first day of spring 2020 is in 24 days. Guys, make this real. When I was designing this program I knew this phase was going to be the test. It is not the hardest phase for sure (that’s prob gonna be phase 8), but it is the one that really introduces you to just how much work we are going to be putting in this season and also the one that prepares you for how you want to look this spring.

Brass tax: when I was writing this program I knew that the people who went through phase three and gave it 100% for the diet, 100% for the workouts, 100% for the mindset are the people who would a) see this program all the way through and b) the people who would get the results they wanted. I will be one of those people — you should too.