Your Body Becomes its Function

Is this “Forgotten” Principle the Key for True Physique Transformation?

Some (Slightly) Rambling Thoughts and Musings

     I suppose the slogan “your body becomes its function” isn’t exactly “forgotten,” but it is little known—oh, and it also makes for a catchy little subtitle.  It comes, supposedly, from the “Bulgarian system” of training.  I first read the pithy saying when I shelled over something like $50 for the “Big Beyond Belief” manual, a.k.a. “Serious Growth 3,” sometime in the early to mid ‘90s.  Written by Leo Costa Jr. and, believe it or not, Tom Platz, even though Platz had always trained in the exact opposite manner of every training principle the book touted, it was hugely marketed in all of the bodybuilding rags at that time.  If you were around, and training, back then, there’s very little chance that you don’t remember it.  Its subtitle was “the most effective muscle producing program ever!”  So, yeah, it was pretty damn hyped.

     I’ve been meaning to write an article on it specifically for something like a decade, but, for some odd reason, have never gotten around to doing it.  I touched upon it, however, in my essay “Big Beyond Belief, HIT, Phil Hernon, and Other Things from the ‘90s,” so, if you are interested in learning more about it, read that article.  I don’t really want to discuss it here, either, as much as I do like to reminisce, but I do want to discuss that Bulgarian slogan.  You see, the longer I train—going on 4 decades at this point—the more I believe it to be true.  I think, in fact, it’s even more true than whoever came up with it even realizes.  (Or “realized.”  Whoever first uttered it was probably some hulking, thickly-mustached, but long-dead Bulgarian strength coach.)

     I’ve trained in traditional Japanese Budo, and other martial arts, for even longer than I’ve been lifting, for more than 40 years now.  When I competed in powerlifting, or when, at various times, I’ve wanted to pack on a lot of muscle, I always backed off my martial arts training in order to gain as much strength (or muscle) as possible.  A lot of martial arts sessions greatly limited my gains in the gym.  But since Budo is my first love—my true love, to be perfectly honest—I always returned, at different points, to training it primarily, with weight training 2nd.  (This isn’t really the essay for it, but I think it has also helped my strength, power, and hypertrophy gains more than if I just focused on strength training year in and year out for all these decades.)  Anyway, because of training in various domains, I’ve noticed something over the years.  And it’s to that I want to discuss for the remainder of this piece.

     I’m not sure if I can promise that the remainder of this will be entirely cohesive.  But I’ll see what I can come up with.

     We often think—erroneously, I believe—that building muscle, gaining strength, losing bodyfat, and/or gaining or losing weight in general is simply a matter of how much attention you give to the varied dimensions of training—strength training workouts, hypertrophy workouts, cardio sessions, diet, or whatnot.  We also think it’s a matter of such things like “calories in/calories out” and how much time is spent on one facet of training over another.  In other words, if you want to gain muscle and lose bodyfat—the average goals of the average trainees in the average gyms—it’s a matter of balancing resistance training with cardio and eating a “good” diet.  But I would argue that the “type” of training that you do is way more important than we are usually aware.  It might in fact be the most important aspect.  Workouts that are “metabolic” are not necessarily interchangeable, even if they burn the same calories and roughly work the same muscles.

     Several years ago, after going through a very hard divorce and other personal problems, I decided I needed to do something different, training-wise, to get my mind off things and to just rejuvenate my mind and body, and my spirit, really.  I decided to start training at a local ITF TaeKwonDo club.  I selected the dojang (Korean equivalent of dojo) because it was the only place in the town I live that offered “authentic” martial arts.  Dojos throughout our country have become very watered down, and it’s hard to find a good one.  Also, I’ve known the grandmaster that runs it since I was a teenager in the ‘80s, and know him to be an authentically good person who cares about the art he teaches and could, really, care less about making money.  What I wasn’t prepared for was just how much kicking we would be doing, and I definitely wasn’t prepared for the changes my body undertook.  I lost more weight than I had expected, despite the fact that I wasn’t doing any more cardio than I had been doing and I wasn’t eating any less food.  But it’s as if my body said, “Okay, buddy, if you’re going to do this—high kicks multiple times each week, tons of stretching, plenty of isometric work for our legs—then we’ve got to get down to a body weight that can handle it.”  Or something like that.  I’ve kept up the training for the most part, and I’m still light.  My body found a new “set point.”

     In hindsight, I may have even started doing less cardiovascular training overall.  Before TKD, I was doing quite a bit of “metabolic” kettlebell training and hiking trails for several miles a day.  So, if that’s accurate—I believe it is—it means that I lost weight (both fat and some muscle) despite less total cardio output.

     My body adapted and then became its new function.

     This is the reason that I believe something such as yoga can be physically transformative.  Despite the fact that it is, usually, not much of a “calorie burner” nor does it “work” via resistance—though it certainly can; there are “hard” versions of it—it tends to cause weight loss, muscle tone, and often gives its practitioners a “lean” look.  The body adapts and becomes the size and the “type” of body needed in order to engage in all of the stretches and poses.

     I have noticed that certain movements in the weight room have this same ability.  When I worked as a personal trainer, I had clients, primarily females, who swore they looked leaner and “better” with the addition of chins and standing overhead presses.  I think you might be able to add static pulls, i.e. deadlifts, to that list, as well.  A program consisting of chins, overhead presses, and deadlifts gives the lifter more of a lean, long, “hard” look to their frame.  You get the opposite with other lifts.  For example, if you want to get “big as a house,” so much that your new nickname is Butterball, you’d do better on a heavy training diet of squats, barbell bench presses, and power cleans.

     I believe this is also the reason why some high-frequency programs are better at packing on mass than their lower-frequency counterparts.  I’ve trained guys who were desperate to put on muscle.  Most of them wanted to look like the massive bodybuilders that you see in the magazines—or used to see in the magazines; you know, when bodybuilding magazines were still a thing—so they followed the training plans of those bodybuilders.  One-muscle-group-per-day, lots of sets to get a massive pump, that kind of thing.  And, yet, they were dismayed that their workouts hadn’t yielded the results they wanted.  But when they switched over to a full-body, Bill Starr-style heavy/light/medium program that had them squatting, pulling, and pressing at each and every workout, all of the sudden—despite non-existent pumps—their weight gain issues were a thing of the past.

     To look at this from another angle, if you want to be skinny, take up marathon running.  Marathon runners’ bodies become the function of marathon running.  They don’t have much muscle and they actually have a fairly high percentage of body fat compared to their body weight.  That’s because that is what the body needs to become in order to do that sport.  Now, I don’t think if you’re reading my blog that describes you.  It’s just an example to get my point across.  Because if you’re reading my blog, the chances are, unless you just stumbled upon it today and didn’t know what the hell you were getting yourself into, that your goals are either more muscle, more strength, or a combination of both of those.  Your body becomes its function when you devote a lot of time to your lifting.  No, this doesn’t mean, and I’m not suggesting, that you take up ultra high-volume, high-frequency programs, though you certainly can if you want to try that route.  Sometimes, you have to get extreme, and throw moderation out the friggin’ window, to achieve the results you want.  If you just workout one hour a day, but you’re completely sedentary the other 23 hours, your body will not have much of a reason to change.  Your “function” in that case is sedentariness, so your physique is going to look like one who is completely sedentary.

     There are some folks who can grow muscle and look like competitive bodybuilders no matter what-the-heck they do for training.  It could be standard barbell work, it could be calisthenics, it could be Crossfit, it could be kettlebells—you get the point (hopefully)—the list could go on and on.  But chances are that you are not most people.  Most lifters, myself most certainly included, are not that way.  The kind of workout programs we take up are going to shape how we end up looking.  So, with that understanding, what are the lessons learned from this slightly rambling musing of mine?

     For one, if you want to get really big, you need to do a lot of work for your leg and back muscles.  Routines that focus on those muscle groups, done frequently enough to illicit gains, have been result-proven methods for going on a century now.  You need to squat heavy, do some heavy pulls—not just static pulls but the quick lifts, too—and, to top it off, do some heavy pressing movements.  Ideally, especially if you’re new to lifting, do a full-body program 3 days per week that includes all of those.  That kind of training works because your body has to put on weight in order to adapt to the training.  It’s the reason, as mentioned above, that less-frequent “pump” training often doesn’t work.  That kind of training is good after you’ve packed on the mass and are in need of “refinement.”  Before, not so much.

     Once you’ve built a good degree of muscle mass and want to be lean and jacked, you’ve got to add a metabolic component to your training.  Something such as my program “Metabolic Muscle-Building” would work well at this point.  Also, do more chins, overhead presses, and static pulls, as they have been “proven”—at least anecdotally so by yours truly—to create a lean, long, hard-looking physique.

     Take up something such as yoga or martial arts to further “refine” the lean look.  Not only will they—maybe much to your surprise—change the way your body looks, they will also be great aids in recovery and rehabilitating (and prehabilitating) your body.  Word of note: “martial arts” is such a broad term that, depending on what style you were to take up will greatly depend upon how it changes your body.  For example, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, and Tai Chi will produce entirely different physical outcomes.

     Your body adapts to activities rather quickly.  This is especially so as you get more advanced.  Because of this, add various (and new) activities to your regimen every few months.  For example, if you’ve never done it, trail-hiking is a different departure from other forms of steady state cardio.  Taking it up will change the look of your legs, improve posture, and aid in healing back issues—or help in preventing them in the first place.  That’s just an example.  Let’s say that you are going to lift weights year ‘round.  Every few months, add a new activity and remove the one you were doing.  You could trail hike for two months, then take up yoga for two months, then engage in sprinting for two months, and so on and so forth.  And, occasionally, eliminate the weight training from your routine and do two of the above suggestions, or something else you would like to do.  Taking off one month each year from your weight training and replacing it with, say, yoga and long hikes as your two (and only) activities will help you build even more muscle and strength when you return to the gym.

     I suppose I’ve rambled enough, and now all those thoughts that were jostling for attention have been calmed down.  When I write this sort of essay, once finished, I’ll probably wish I added a thing or two.  No problem.  If that’s the case, I’ll just write another sauntering creative trek further down the road.

     This is the kind of essay that usually prompts all sorts of questions or comments.  So, if you have any, ask away or comment to your heart’s delight in the comments section below.  You can always shoot me an email.  I usually get around to answering my emails once every few days.

     Until our next essay, just remember: your body will become its function.  The only question, then, is what function will you give it?