Sam Sulek Workout and Diet Advice Ranked (BEST TO WORST!)
Sam Sulek offers a lot of tips and advice when it comes to both training and nutrition, but is it worth listening to if you want to build muscle? In this video, I am going to break down some of the advice he gives and rank it based on how it applies to those watching. With these rankings, you’ll be
[Video clip] Lying Face Pulls. [End clip] Oh, Sam, not my Face Pulls. What’s up guys, Jeff Cavaliere, athleanx. com. What you see behind me is a bunch of different training and nutrition advice from none other than Sam Sulek that today I’m going to review.
Now, if you don’t know who Sam is, he’s kind of taken the internet by storm. And not just that, some have even called him the next Arnold of bodybuilding. Well, today— Jesse: What a compliment. By the way, Jeff, this list was pretty freaking sweet. Jeff: Hey, listen, Sam, I love you and everything, but I got to do the video.
Jesse: All right, that’s fine. I’m gonna get a freaky looking pump. Jeff: Like I was saying today I’m going to talk about what Sam thinks and say what — Oh, geez. Jesse: Excuse me, excuse me. Who are calling the next Arnold of bodybuilding?
I’m still Arnold. Jeff: Are you done playing? Jesse: What are you talking about? Jeff: Can I, can I do the video, please? Jesse: Sure.
Hasta la vista, baby. Jeff: Let’s just get into the video. But before we do, I think it’s important to talk about my ranking system. Because applying worst to any individual is not the way I like to roll. In other words, I like to keep things positive.
But what I will do is break down the things that I think that Sam is doing that may only be good for Sam. Because even with the assistance I think he’s taking right now, it does set up a scenario where it may not work for everyone who’s following him. Look, just because you attend a basketball camp run by Michael Jordan doesn’t mean you’re going to be playing like Michael Jordan. I’m going to do the legwork for you here and tell you the things that work only for Sam in red, or the things that would work for only advanced level bodybuilders in blue. And of course, the things that would work for everybody and those are going to be in green.
So with that said, let’s hear what Sam has to say. [Video clip] As long as he hit every muscle group about twice a week, I’d say that’s pretty much the ballpark you want to do. You know, no point overcomplicating it. It’s like if you go hard, you’ll get the same results from doing push pull legs or Arnold split. I think people I think it gets a little weird if you’re going full body.
I’m not inclined to want to do a full body workout, apart from maybe just for general athleticism and staying active. In a bodybuilding context, you know, I want to go in here and just thrash specific muscles on a specific day. [End clip] And while Sam may not prefer a total body training split for building his body, I certainly can vouch for the effectiveness of total body training. Especially in the realm of athletics, which is different than the angle that Sam is looking at strictly from bodybuilding. Because if you know how to choose your exercises and focus more on the compound lifts, you’re going to get the benefits of muscle growth, albeit maybe with a little less of the isolation work that Sam prefers.
And as far as having to train every muscle group twice per week, I’m not really fully on board with that either. Because you can take an old-fashioned Bro split with one muscle group a day and still get the volume in, because you can train the muscle on another training day in an auxiliary way. So if I hit my triceps on Monday, I can come back on chest day, do some bench press, and certainly train my triceps. But overall, knowing that intensity is the main driver of the results that Sam’s looking for, I have to rule this one. Good for everyone and break out the green on this first piece of advice.
[Video clip] You know, it’s not like I don’t like being in the gym, but I want to make my workout as efficient as possible. So, there’s no need to be in here for more than like 15 sets for a single muscle group, that’s for sure. [End clip] And I will say that I think Sam’s pretty spot on here as well. Though. If you are doing a one-off workout every now and then with higher than 15 sets, or especially when you apply it to a muscle group that has multiple heads that benefit from hitting them from different angles, you’re not going to turn into a whining little puddle of rhabdomyolysis.
But on the whole, I do find it refreshing when a bodybuilder recommends fewer sets rather than more, although I do think his number might be a little bit high. B because rather than having 15 sets per session and then training twice a week, I’d rather see it be 15 sets total for that muscle group in that training week. As a matter of fact, you don’t have to worry about losing gains because we’ve shown here on this channel that even one to two incredibly high intensity sets can still be enough to produce significant muscle gains. But that being said, I like the spirit of where he’s going here. Less is more, and for that, everyone can benefit.
So once again, on this piece of advice, we go with the green marker. [Video clip] I’m not going to do the same weight again for the next set. We’ll probably take the 25 off. Maybe I’ll take the 45 off. Right.
I m sufficiently warm, I want to start heavy and work my way down as I get weaker, if you follow my logic. [End clip] I follow your logic, Sam. And what you’re talking about most likely is something called Reverse Pyramids, whereas you perform your first set with your heaviest weight and your lowest reps, you then start to fatigue. So your subsequent sets are going to have to have lighter weight, but you’re going to compensate by increasing the reps that you do. And we’ve all seen Sam grind out rep after rep after rep, and even partial rep after partial rep, which we’ll get to, as he works his way through those subsequent sets.
Now, I will say I’m not going to give this one in every one designation, because I think this is more appropriate for the more advanced lifter. Why? Because the beginner doesn’t necessarily arrive to the gym or reach a state of readiness as fast as somebody who has more experience. You might find that attacking that first set with your heaviest weight doesn’t really give you a chance to find that mind muscle connection you need to get the most out of that set. Sometimes the beginners have to kind of warm their way up, even beyond their warmup through their first one or two working sets, before it really starts to groove and click.
If that’s you, then definitely you’re not going to want to do this. You’re going to want to start with the lighter weight and work your way up to the heaviest. But again, pretty good advice, just not good for every single person and for that it’s going to get good for the advanced. [Video clip] I make this analogy all the time. The high school football kid who goes into the gym and just tries to go fucking bananas on biceps, he s probably going to build a bigger set of arms than the kind of dorky kid doing low intensity.
Even though that kid may be doing his reps perfectly with perfect form, perfect execution, you know. Intensity is going to outweigh effectiveness. But, well, you know, what I’m trying to say there. So make sure you have the intensity down and then improve the effectiveness over time, or vice versa. It’s, uh, each of those things are kind of playing off of each other.
But for the most part, you’re never going to go wrong going hard on a set, I can say that with 100% belief. [End clip] I believe you too. And where we really share the same belief is really in the fact that if you want to see results, at some point, you’re going to have to combine efficiency and effectiveness on a movement with the ability to drive intensity in