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You Can-t Be Lean, Strong AND Natural!

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Rating: 4.5; Vote: 2

Have you ever been told that it is impossible to be lean, strong and natural at the same time? In other words, you can be two of these things but you can-t be all three. In this video, I-m going to show you whether it is achievable. Whether you can have ripped, low levels of body fat while still being very very strong and natural the entire time. This starts with a common misconception out there that states that being lean and being strong don-t go well together. I just don-t agree. Look no further than Jesse. This is a young man who has perpetually carried low levels of body fat, has maximized his deadlift to more than 3 times his own bodyweight and has never taken a PED his entire life. Now, there are some benefits to increasing your levels of body fat when you want to achieve your strength gains faster. This is because along with the body fat often comes more lean muscle tissue. The simple act of consuming calories in a surplus gives our body enough energy substrate to be able to more easily build muscle. That said, if the desire is ultimately to cut down to a level of body fat that is capable of revealing abs or simply to be more ripped, then the strength increases are almost always sacrificed on the way back down. Wouldn-t it be better if you could achieve both high levels of strength and not have to lose your leanness in the process? You can, you just have to be willing to put in a little more time to do so. In the case of Jesse, he has been on this journey for 5 years. To some this may seem like a long amount of time. When you look at it in the scope of a lifetime of lifting, this is actually very very short. To be able to not only achieve the strength levels that he has achieved (in some circles - elite level powerlifting strength) and not have to sacrifice the leanness that he himself values and in his words -makes him feel much healthier and better about himself-, seems like the better way to go. This is all individual however. Any time we discuss aesthetic goals or preferences it truly is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe having Arnold level body fat isn-t something that you ever aspired to and in fact prefer the look of a much higher teen or low 20-s body fat percentage. If the fact that Arnold isn-t natural blocks you from even assessing his physique fairly, take any natural lean person that is well muscled but not maximally muscled and ask yourself whether you prefer that type of body or one that is much less lean. Again, there is no right answer here. It is truly determined by both what you aesthetically prefer your body look like and also, most importantly, whether you value the discipline of what is required to get yourself there enough to want to achieve it. This is a big issue for many that often times is the stumbling block to leanness and the factor that drives them to being -ok- with higher levels of body fat. They will often argue that it is the healthier way to be and that it is much better for those that lift weights to do so in a much fluffier state. Maybe it is, for them. Maybe it-s just a way to feel better about an inability to achieve both at the same time again, with a little extra time investment along the way. The key is finding out what means the most to you. If the answer is, you value your abs above everything else - you may never even want to pursue impressive strength gains since they likely won-t serve you unless you are a competitive powerlifter or a professional athlete. If your strength is the only thing that matters to you, attempting to maintain abs is just going to leave you frustrated when you can-t max out and be the strongest in your class. If you want to have not just a little of everything, but a lot of both, then it absolutely is possible as long as you are willing to put in the time. When you-re ready to follow a plan that will help you to not only build an impressively ripped and strong athletic body but be able to do so in a systematic step by step way, you can find the plan for you at athleanx. com via the link below
Date: 2022-04-22

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Comments and reviews: 10

redhawkmillenium
Cbum said it himself - can't be afraid of putting on a little chub in the name of gains. Jessie's gains are impressive, but it took 5 years. If you could get those gains in 2 1/2 years instead, isn't that worth something? I think there's an argument for training in a considerable caloric surplus, or bulk, to maximize your strength and hypertrophy gains. And for some people, it's the putting on weight part that's hard, losing weight and cutting calories is nothing. And it takes longer to build muscle than it does to lose fat. I'm fine with sitting in something like a 15-20% body fat range - nothing even close to the powerlifting fatboys shown in the video - if it gets me to benching 225 lbs for reps or squatting 315 for reps faster. And I'm naturally lean, so I feel like it won't be hard for me to cut the weight if I ever decide I want to be leaner.
reply

K.
Now I'm 56 years old & getting real lean is nearly impossible.
I worked out 4-5 times a week, had my shakes & took really care, what went into my body.
BUT
the strength & power, I have now. is a shadow, of what I once had.
So the results are definitely unsatisfying!
For 1 & half year I really tried hard to built more muscles & get lean.
Sweat, pain & deprevation.
I once was a Bodybuilder, so I work out for nearly 30 years. (yeah, with roids, but I quit taken roids more than 10 years ago.
and I was still in good shape. (Certainly no monster)
BUT since I became 53?
The hell - I can see how my body gets worse every day. although working out!
Any serious ideas to fix this -age- problem - without taking roids again?
Thanx & cheers
reply

Ashley
Hi Jeff- you talked before about how a lighter guy will have an easier time than a heavier guy with movements like pull-ups, but here you suggest that increasing body fat may be the path to maximum strength. Can you explain how to consolidate these two notions? I just don-t understand why higher body mass would help with a squat but not a pull up (I assume it has something to do with the fact that bodyweight provides the resistance in a pull up, but don-t you also have to move your bodyweight with a squat)
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Ryan
I have a weakness in my right leg, I noticed that when I go down a staircase my right leg kind of gives out at about the moment that my knee and end of my toes become vertically aligned as I am lowering my left leg down to the next step. Is this a quadricep failure in my right leg? Is it one particular head of the quad that is causing that failure or all four? Is there an exercise other than squats, lunges, or leg extensions that I can do to fix this?
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Synergy
It's all subjective anyway. What 'strong' is to someone will be average to another, just like body fat content where one is considered 'lean' and another 'fat'. You could bench 315 for a few sets and have 10% BF. 315 is nothing to someone like Larry Wheels, and 10% is fat compared to someone who is competing and needs 5%. But then again to the average gym goer that is a lot of weight and 10% is remarkable to someone battling weight issues.
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Jawahar
Listen. I'm 53 and am lean strong and natural. I dead lift 100 kg, with a body weight of 68 kg. And I have a regular day job to do. It's been 10 years, and I have a less than 32 inch waistline. My only weakness is a little bit of alcohol- The only thing is you need to go to physical practically every single day, you have to stay at it. That's it. And a bit careful of what you eat. Nothing else is required
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Giang
I have stayed at 12% fat for around 2 years. Completely natural, I ate my favorite food everyday. But I noticed that my body seems to not happy with that low fat percentage. Feeling hungry most of the time and often got common cold. So I decided to increase to 14%. Feeling good now - Can I still stay at 12% and maintain good health? What did I miss at the first place?
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Numb
Hello Dear -ATHLEAN-X, Jeff Cavaliere, in you videos i did not see gravity boots, nothing about it, is this sport equipment bad or good, why you dont use it? no mention about it at all time. Or maybe i missed something? can you please tell something about it? is it good for abs?
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Noah
i have a question for you jeff. do you need a lot of protein to keep muscle mass or only when you-re trying to gain muscle? i have a metabolic disorder which won-t allow my body to break down protein properly. if so, how can i keep muscle mass without consuming too much protein?
reply

Ace
It also depends on if you start with low bodyfat. If you are geneticaly a lean it is possible. If you are are having a slow metabolism and are genetically unlucky to build fat very easy it is very hard to become and stay lean. Being strong on top is impossible/near inposaible.
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