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McMillian said he was diagnosed with asthma at birth and doctors advised his parents not to let him play sports like youth tackle football. “I started telling myself that I needed to train harder,” McMillian told Business Insider.<\/p>\n
McMillian recalled running up the stadium stairs six times before and after practice. Sometimes I would run to practice or home with my sports equipment. Although his asthma was not caused by sports, he noticed that with additional training, the wind didn’t blow as hard.<\/p>\n
McMillian is currently president and trainer at Tone House, a training facility focused on strength training and conditioning that has been deemed “New York City’s hardest workout” by Business Insider. He applies that same childhood mindset to the Tone House workouts he teaches.<\/p>\n\n\n
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\n McMillian, who teaches classes at Tone House, believes in focusing on your weaknesses. <\/p>\n
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“Your weaknesses are going to be exposed, and you always have to turn your weaknesses into strengths,” he says.<\/p>\n
McMillian believes that progressive overload, or slowly increasing weight, reps, and intensity, is the best way to build strength.<\/p>\n
“I always tell people, ‘If you don’t use your muscle, you lose it,’ especially since we lose muscle mass as we age,” he said. “You’re going to want to pick up your kids. You’re going to want to carry groceries. You’re going to want to hold your Louis Vuitton bag a little longer at events. You have to be strong for that.”<\/p>\n
McMillian shares some of her favorite easy moves to build muscle, whether you’re a complete beginner, pressed for time at the gym, or looking to speed up your progress.<\/p>\n
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\n Goblet squats target both the upper and lower body and are easy to tackle, even for complete beginners. <\/p>\n
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McMillian’s favorite move for beginners is the goblet squat, or squatting down while holding a heavy kettlebell or dumbbell.<\/p>\n
“When you squat, bringing your knees out, you’re working your lower body, glutes and hamstrings,” he says. At the same time, you’ll also strengthen your weight-bearing lats, triceps, forearms, and upper back.<\/p>\n
To make goblet squats more challenging, he said, you can elevate your heels and focus on strengthening your quadriceps. McMillian also said it’s easy to start with a light weight, say 10 pounds, and gradually increase the weight.<\/p>\n
Save time with compound exercises<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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\n McMillian loves performing sequential arm movements such as bent-over rows. <\/p>\n
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The most effective time-savers are compound exercises that target multiple parts of the body at once and “save time in the gym,” McMillian said.<\/p>\n
McMillian’s favorite is to transition from a squat to an overhead press, targeting both the upper and lower body.<\/p>\n
He also likes stringing together multiple consecutive movements. He chose to alternate between two rounds of 20 shoulder presses, 20 hammer curls, and 20 bent over rows to activate different parts of his upper body.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s intense, it\u2019s fiery, but it\u2019s something people can do with one dumbbell,\u201d he said. This also saves time in replacing equipment.<\/p>\n
It is also possible to customize it. For example, you can use a lighter weight to reduce reps and increase the number of rounds.<\/p>\n
play to the tempo<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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\n Dropping down slowly before coming back up explosively helps build control, McMillian said. <\/p>\n
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Explosive exercises, where you intentionally slow down your tempo and “explode” at the end of a movement, are also great for improving strength, McMillian says.<\/p>\n
He likes to slow down his back squats. Slowly lower it down for 5 seconds, pause for another 5 seconds at the bottom position, and then immediately push back up.<\/p>\n
“Doing things a little more slowly and in a controlled way gives you more power,” he says, noting that there’s more than one way to challenge yourself.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n