Just Get Started

• This is a guide on how to think about goal-oriented training. 

• This guide is not for memorization, but for constant reference. 

• JUST START TRAINING!

• Nothing will help you more than just starting. 

• Refer to this document when clarity is needed.

Training Philosophy 

1. Health and Wellbeing are your #1 Priority

• Fitness should improve mental, physical, and emotional health, longevity, and quality of life.

•  If these things are not true for you, Something needs to change. 

• It's essential to approach fitness with an understanding that its benefits extend far beyond mere physical appearance. 

• Exercise releases chemicals in the brain which improve mood and decrease anxiety and depression.

2. You need Sustainability

• Fitness is a lifestyle! Adopting a long-term approach that promotes consistent, healthy habits without leading to burnout or injury is key. (You should be able to exercise even when you are extremely busy)

• You Need Goals

• Establish achievable and realistic fitness goals and formulate  the steps it takes to get there. Realistic goals keep you motivated on your journey.

•  It is very hard to stay consistent when you aren’t working towards anything. 

• You must also understand that your goals will change over time, and that's ok!

3. Comparison is the thief of joy 

• Everyone is on their own fitness journey. Don't compare yourself to others, outdo yourself from last week.

• You will not look like your favorite influencer

• Different limb lengths, muscles insertions, and other genetic factors make everyone’s body look different

• You will look like the best version of yourself!

4. What gets measured gets managed

• If you want to gain or lose weight, you have to weigh yourself daily.

• If you want to clean up your diet, you have to plan your meals daily.

• If you want to see the muscle you build, you have to take progress pictures weekly.

• If you want to get stronger, you have to track your exercises and how much weight you lift daily.

• This is the most important advice for achieving your goals, read this section a second time to be clear.

5. Always stay a student

• Learning is endless when it comes to fitness. The moment you think you know everything is the moment you stop getting better.

• Get real and continuous feedback. Never be afraid to ask for advice from people more experienced than you.

Safety

1. Good form is a Non-negotiable

• You should always research form before trying a new exercise or as a reminder of proper technique.

• You should always control the weight on the way up and down, Slow and Controlled is how you prevent injury.

• You should always use full range of motion(ROM), this means going all the way up and all the way down on all of your lifts.

2. Use Proper Weights

• You should not be going too light or  too heavy with weights ; this is pretty difficult to gauge for beginners

• Use a weight where you will hit failure between 4 and 15 reps

• If you cannot control the weight on the way down it is likely you are using weights that are too heavy.

• Using a spotter is best practice with compound exercises.

3. Warm-Up 

• Research highlights warming up prevents injuries and boosts performance. A good warm-up has 3 parts.

• You should do some light cardio for 5-10 minutes or until you break a light sweat to increase body temperature.

• You should do dynamic stretches to improve mobility and range of motion

• You should do a pyramid warm up before compound exercises to increase blood flow to muscles to prepare for intense working sets.

4. Recovery

• Try your best to sleep at least 7 hours a night. 

Bonus tip: Don’t use electronics 30 minutes before bed, don’t eat 1 hour before bed, and sleep in a cold environment ~ 65 ℉/ 18.3 ℃. You will feel more well rested every day.

• Rest days are important but don’t use them as an excuse not to exercise, they should be scheduled just like training days.

• Listen to your body, aches and pains result from improper training, inadequate sleep, or poor nutrition. Ignoring pains in your body is a one way ticket to injury town.

• Muscle growth happens during rest; better rest leads to more growth.

5. Pain while exercising

• Pain while exercising is almost always a symptom of poor mobility or poor stability.

• Improve mobility by doing specific dynamic stretches for your target muscle and joints.

• Improve stability by doing specific exercises to improve the strength and coordination of stabilizing muscles.

Effort

1. You have to train HARD 

• How hard you need to train is one of the commonly misunderstood topics in lifting

• You have to challenge yourself every workout, every exercise, every set and every rep. 

• You have to be getting stronger every workout and every exercise. This means either adding more weight or reps or sets. This is called progressive overload and this should be done weekly. 

• You have to train close to failure (within 3 reps of failure/RPE 7), learn RPE for more information.

• You will not gain muscle if you don't train close to failure

• This means pushing through a set until you can't lift the weight with good form, regardless of how difficult or how fatiguing.

• Do not expect great results without great effort

2. You have to be Consistent

• Extraordinary results come from doing ordinary action over extraordinary amounts of time.

• Do the basics everyday.

• Daily dedication to the fundamentals is how all great fitness goals are achieved

Diet

Primarily consume whole, unprocessed foods 

Understand you can't outwork a bad diet

Drink at least 10 cups of water a day

1. Calories in & Calories out

• Losing fat and gaining muscle comes down to how many calories you eat a day.

• If you want to lose weight you have to eat less calories than you burn, this is called being in a calorie deficit.

  • Calories consumed < Calories burned = weight loss

• If you want to gain weight you have to eat more calories than you burn, this is called being in a calorie surplus.

  • Calories consumed > calories burned = weight gain

• If you want to maintain weight you have to eat the same amount of calories that you burn, this is called being at maintenance calories.

  • Calories consumed = calories burned = no change in weight

• It is impossible to not gain or lose weight if you understand these concepts.

• To get an estimate on how many calories you burn a day use this website

• When trying to lose or gain weight it is best to use a small calorie surplus or deficit of 300-500 calories

• Ex: If I want to gain weight and I burn 2500 calories a day I should eat between 2800-3000 calories a day

• Ex: If I want to lose weight and I burn 2500 calories a day I should eat between 2000-2200 calories a day

• Remember, What gets measured gets managed

2. Protein, Carbs and Fats

• Protein, carbs and fats are the macronutrients that make up all of the foods we eat.

• Protein is the most important macronutrient to track in your fitness journey

• Eating enough protein is how we make sure that most of the weight we lose is fat or most of the weight we gain is muscle

• Rule of Thumb: 

  • Men should have ~1 gram of protein per pound of body weight.

    • Ex: a 150 pound man should eat 150 grams of protein per day

• Women should have ~.9 grams of protein per pound of body weight regardless of trying to lose or gain weight.

  • Ex: a 120 pound woman should eat 108 grams of protein per day

• Carbs and fats make up the rest of a diet.

• Despite the common misconception,  carbs DO NOT MAKE YOU FAT, increase in body fat comes from a calorie surplus

• You should primarily get carbs from fruits and vegetables.

• You should primarily get fats from whole unprocessed sources like nuts and meat.

• Remember, What gets measured gets managed

3. Micronutrients

• Micronutrients are things like Vitamin A, B, C and D.

• Eating a diverse selection of fruits and vegetables will likely cover most of your micronutrient needs.

• If you are worried about your micronutrients you should take a multivitamin.

• If you are very worried you should get blood work done to know which vitamins you are deficient in.

4. Supplements

• Being consistent with training, diet, and sleep will have a far greater impact than any supplement

• Supplements are not necessary but are helpful

• The most used and research supplements are whey protein powder, creatine and pre workout (caffeine)

• Whey protein powder is protein from cow's milk, it is a easy and affordable option to hit your daily protein goals

• Bonus Tip: Mix protein powder with milk or plant based milk while trying to gain weight and mix protein powder with water when trying to lose weight.

• Pre workout’s main component is caffeine.

• Caffeine has been proven to increase power, reduce fatigue, and is helpful when used appropriately.

• If you train at night it is best not to use pre workout because caffeine disrupts your sleep

• The body develops a tolerance to caffeine, causing its benefits to diminish over time. To address this, it's recommended to take a one-week break from using pre-workout supplements every 2 months.

• Creatine monohydrate is a molecule found primarily in meat.

• Creatine monohydrate is the most researched sports 

supplement in the world, its safety and effectiveness have been proved many times.

• Creatine monohydrate increases strength and muscle size by increasing water retention in muscles.

• The benefits never diminished and 5 grams should be taken every day for sustained benefits.

• It can be mixed with 8 fluid ounces (one cup) of water or with your protein shake.

5. Alcohol

Research UNDENIABLY shows that alcohol slows both fat loss and muscle growth and disrupts sleep.

• Alcohol has calories; make sure you include them in your daily intake

• Alcohol is the least hunger satisfying energy source, and it magnifies appetite 

• This means you can drink a lot of not feel full which easily leads to overconsumption of calories

• Losing fat and gaining muscle is possible with alcohol, but it is more difficult 

• Research overwhelmingly shows that alcohol reduces muscle growth

• Alcohol causes dehydration, hangover, and disrupted sleep that will negatively affect training performance the next day

Bonus Tip: If you decide include alcohol in your diet you should : 

make sure to track calories from alcohol

make extra effort to avoid post drinking food binges

avoid high calorie drinks like cocktails and mixers 

stick to lower calorie options like vodka soda, hard seltzers and light beers

Hydrate and rest well the day after drinking

Training Variables

1. Volume

• Volume is how many working sets you do per week

• You should do 6-20 working sets per muscle per week

• You should stay on the higher end (12-20 working sets) for large muscle groups like shoulders, chest, quads, hamstrings, and glutes.

• You should stay on the lower end(6-10) for small muscle groups like biceps, forearms, and calves.

• More sets does not mean more muscle growth, at some point adding more volume will decrease muscle growth.

• This is why In every working set you need to work close to failure. Quality of sets matters more than the quantity of sets

• How many reps you do is not as important as how many sets you do 

• Your sets should almost always have between 4 and 15 reps

2. Frequency

• Frequency is how often you train a muscle in a week

• To best build muscle you should do each muscle at least 2 times per week

3. Exercise selection

• Compound exercises should be the base of every routine

• Compound exercises work several muscles at once, allowing you to accomplish more in less time

• Compound exercises release growth hormones in the body, supporting muscle growth and fat loss.

• Compound exercises allow you to easily progressively increase weight and intensity, leading to continuous gains.

• Compound exercises for the legs are squats and deadlifts

• Compound exercises for the back are pull ups and rows

• Compound exercises for the chest are bench press and incline bench press

• Compound exercises for the shoulder all the variations of shoulder press

• Compound exercises can be done with barbells, dumbbells, or machines

• Supplement your routine with isolation exercises and machines—they let you train near failure with less strain than compound exercises.

4. Rest between sets

• Rest between sets allow our muscles and body to recover to lift the most amount of weight possible

• After compound exercises you should rest for 3-5 minutes

• After isolation exercises you should rest for 1-3 minutes

5. Cardio

• Cardio is an essential component of every fitness journey.

• Cardio increases longevity by boosting heart and lung health.

• Despite the common misconception, CARDIO DOESN'T BURN FAT, being in a calorie deficit is what burns fat

• Cardio burns calories but isn't what causes fat loss.

• You can’t outwork a bad diet

• Do whatever cardio you enjoy

• Do cardio and weight training separately, either a few hours apart or on different days

Bonus tip: You shouldn’t do more than 30 minutes of high intensity cardio per day to maximize muscle growth

Summary

Thank you for reading this far into the Francisque Fundamental Training Guide! 

If you found this guide valuable click here for a 100% customized workout routine, shopping guide, meal prep guide, sleep optimization system, and eating out guide

1. Training Philosophy 

• Fitness is a lifestyle meant to promote your health. It is a marathon not a sprint.

• Make it enjoyable and sustainable so you can do it everyday for the rest of your life. 

• Embrace your unique fitness journey; compare yourself only to your past self, not others.

• You have to track your progress towards your goals. 

• What gets measured gets managed

• Track your weight

• Track your strength

• Track your meals

• Track your sleep

• THIS IS HOW YOU IMPROVE

• Keep learning; thinking you know it all prevents you from improving

2. Safety

• You should always use good form

•  Improve your form by researching and practicing technique

• Control the weights especially on the way down , and use full range of motion in your exercises.

• Don’t train too heavy or too light

• Use a weight where you will hit failure between 4 and 15 reps

• You need Scheduled rest days

• You need high quality sleep everyday

• Pain during exercise is a symptom of poor mobility, stability, or both

• Use targeted stretches to improve mobility and targeted exercises to improve stability

3. Effort

• Push yourself in every workout, exercise, set, and rep

• Gradually increase muscle demands by upping weights, sets, or reps week to week, this is progressive overload

• What gets measured gets managed

• Train close to failure, significant results demand significant effort

• Do the basics everyday

4. Diet

• Weight management depends on daily calorie intake

.

•  For weight loss, consume fewer calories than you burn (calorie deficit), 

• For weight gain, consume more calories than you burn (calorie surplus), 

• For maintaining weight,  consume the same calories as you burn (calorie maintenance)

• Use this website to find out how many calories you burn a day

• What gets measured gets managed

• Protein, carbs, and fats are the macronutrients in our diet with protein being crucial for fitness due to its impact on weight loss and muscle gain

•  A rule of thumb is men aim for ~1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, while women aim for ~0.9 grams of protein per pound of body weight.

• Consume lots of different fruits and vegetables for micronutrient intake

• Consistency in training, diet, and sleep have greater impact than supplements

• While not necessary, helpful supplements include whey protein, creatine, and pre-workout containing caffeine

• Whey protein aids in daily protein needs

• Creatine slightly increases muscle size and strength

• Pre workout (caffeine) increases strength and reduces fatigue

• Alcohol undeniably hinders both fat loss and muscle growth, disrupts sleep, and magnifies appetite, leading to calorie overconsumption

•  Alcohol's negative effects extend to dehydration and hangovers which impair training performance

• It's possible to include alcohol in your fitness journey, but it will make it more difficult

5. Training Variables

• Volume is the number of working sets completed per week

• Quality of volume outweighs quantity of volume, each set should be taken close to failure

• You should train each muscle at least 2 times per week

• Build your routine around compound exercises that target multiple muscles and use isolation exercises to supplement

• Rest for 3-5 minutes after compound exercises

• Rest for 1-3 minutes after isolation exercises

• What gets measured gets managed

• Include cardio in your routine to improve your health

• CARDIO DOESN'T BURN FAT

• YOU CAN’T OUTWORK A BAD DIET

• Do cardio and weight lifting separately