Latest / The You Project / #1666 Strength Training: Why, How, When, How Much, How Hard? - Harps (PT1)

Transcript

#1666 Strength Training: Why, How, When, How Much, How Hard? - Harps (PT1) · The You Project

0:00
Speaker 1: Good a team. I hope you bloody terrific. Well, welcome
0:03
Speaker 1: to another installment of the You Project. It's me so
0:09
Speaker 1: full disclosure. This has been a really interesting episode to
0:14
Speaker 1: put together and something that I probably know the most about,
0:23
Speaker 1: which is strength training, which is gym work, which is
0:27
Speaker 1: you know, the stuff that I spent the vast majority
0:29
Speaker 1: of my life doing, but also teaching and coaching you know,
0:33
Speaker 1: how to get strong, how to weight train, or how
0:35
Speaker 1: to strength train. More broadly, not all strength training has
0:39
Speaker 1: to involve weights or dumb bells or gettle bells or
0:42
Speaker 1: bar bells, of course, But and I'm going to say
0:46
Speaker 1: I have started and stopped this episode more times than
0:50
Speaker 1: I want to tell you. I don't know why. I
0:55
Speaker 1: don't know why. I think I think part of it
0:58
Speaker 1: is because I just I don't know how the fuctor
1:03
Speaker 1: fits forty five years of training and training others and
1:09
Speaker 1: education and working in gyms and owning gyms, and you know,
1:15
Speaker 1: being a fitness industry person and trying to trying to
1:21
Speaker 1: get clear about what it is that I want to
1:23
Speaker 1: tell you. You know, it's like it's almost like you've
1:28
Speaker 1: been on a five year trip and you've got to
1:30
Speaker 1: give somebody a five minute debrief on your five year trip,
1:36
Speaker 1: and you think, fuck, where do I start. I've been
1:38
Speaker 1: away five years and I've only got fight, and it's
1:40
Speaker 1: kind of for me. It's like forty five years in
1:43
Speaker 1: forty five minutes, give or take. So maybe I'll do
1:49
Speaker 1: another one. This is, by no means absolutely comprehensive. This
1:53
Speaker 1: is not the start and finish, and I guess, I
1:57
Speaker 1: guess it's really aimed more for people who don't know
2:01
Speaker 1: a lot about strength training, maybe people who know nothing
2:05
Speaker 1: or next to nothing. Maybe people who have got a
2:08
Speaker 1: bit of experience, or maybe some people who've been training
2:12
Speaker 1: for a while and you just want to hear my
2:14
Speaker 1: thoughts and ideas. This will not be advanced, but I
2:21
Speaker 1: will talk about some advanced I guess, or more complicated
2:28
Speaker 1: ideas and science, but I'll explain it in a way
2:30
Speaker 1: which is completely understandable. So the last few times I
2:35
Speaker 1: tried to do this, I just started banging on about
2:38
Speaker 1: you know, sets and reps and volume and frequency and
2:41
Speaker 1: workload and intensity, and then you know, when you talk,
2:46
Speaker 1: and you think I'm talking a lot, but I don't
2:48
Speaker 1: think I'm saying much. I felt like I was doing
2:51
Speaker 1: that and I felt like I was probably maybe talking
2:55
Speaker 1: over people's heads. So what I did was which I
3:01
Speaker 1: don't normally do. But I've just written a bunch of
3:04
Speaker 1: what I think of relevant questions in front of me,
3:09
Speaker 1: and so I'm going to Obviously I haven't written the answers,
3:12
Speaker 1: but I just I've written the things that I think
3:15
Speaker 1: I need to address, which might be the most valuable
3:19
Speaker 1: to you. And so question one on my list is
3:22
Speaker 1: why this topic. Well, despite what a lot of people think,
3:28
Speaker 1: strength training is probably more important for the people who
3:32
Speaker 1: typically don't go to the gym. I mean typically, and
3:36
Speaker 1: by that I mean people who are not particularly athletic
3:39
Speaker 1: or sporting, or young, or people who might not be
3:45
Speaker 1: in Inverted Comma's gym people. And so for me, the
3:49
Speaker 1: idea of getting people involved in lifting weights is really
3:55
Speaker 1: about health and wellness and function and the way that
3:59
Speaker 1: they age their health span, which we've spoken about many times.
4:04
Speaker 1: That is how well you can live and for how long.
4:08
Speaker 1: And of course some people will lift weights more because
4:12
Speaker 1: they want to change the way they look. It's an
4:14
Speaker 1: aesthetic thing, and there's nothing wrong with wanting fucking wide
4:19
Speaker 1: shoulders and a little waist or big arms or less
4:22
Speaker 1: body fat more, there's nothing. Of course, if I'm being honest,
4:26
Speaker 1: of course I don't want to look terrible. I don't
4:28
Speaker 1: think I look amazing, But I think for my age,
4:31
Speaker 1: I'm in okay shape. Do I want to be in
4:34
Speaker 1: okay shape or good shape because I've got an ego?
4:38
Speaker 1: If I'm being honest, yes I do. But is that
4:41
Speaker 1: my primary driver? No? My primary driver these days is
4:44
Speaker 1: that I'm okay operationally, I'm okay functionally. Can I get
4:48
Speaker 1: out of bed? Can I lift things? Can I? Can
4:51
Speaker 1: I go for a run around the block? Do I
4:52
Speaker 1: have that strength and my lower body and my lower
4:55
Speaker 1: back and my glutes and my quads, and you know,
4:59
Speaker 1: can I I pick things up in and out of
5:02
Speaker 1: the boot of the car, And can I do all
5:04
Speaker 1: that stuff? And more importantly, even can I train in
5:07
Speaker 1: the gym and left relatively heavyweights, which then extrapolates into
5:11
Speaker 1: all the benefits and advantages into my day to day life.
5:15
Speaker 1: So there's a thing that I've spoken about many times
5:18
Speaker 1: on this show many, I say many, maybe ten over
5:22
Speaker 1: nearly seventeen hundred episodes. And that's a thing called cycopenia.
5:26
Speaker 1: And cycopenia s A R COO pe Nia is just
5:33
Speaker 1: a fancy terminology for the physiological and inevitability of people
5:39
Speaker 1: losing muscle generally as they age. When we're talking about sycopenia,
5:46
Speaker 1: we're generally talking about older people. And yes, of course
5:49
Speaker 1: there is an inevitability and an unavoidability. I guess that
5:54
Speaker 1: you and I will lose muscle, But how much muscle
5:58
Speaker 1: we maintain as we are age is manipulatable. Even if
6:04
Speaker 1: you are listening to this and you are in your forties, fifties,
6:07
Speaker 1: sixties and beyond, and you don't lift weights, or you
6:11
Speaker 1: don't do something or some things to stay strong, then
6:17
Speaker 1: unless there's some medical reason, then more than likely you
6:22
Speaker 1: can build muscle strength and function. I've worked with many
6:26
Speaker 1: people into their eighties who have increased their functional strength,
6:30
Speaker 1: their lean muscle mass, and their ability to do life significantly,
6:37
Speaker 1: even starting in their really kind of ladder years. So
6:41
Speaker 1: bodies are very adaptable, and of course how adaptable they
6:44
Speaker 1: are and what our physiological potential is declines with age.
6:52
Speaker 1: But it doesn't mean that you at forty or fifty,
6:57
Speaker 1: or sixty or seventy need to be typical or generally
7:01
Speaker 1: representative of what most people are look, feel, function, health
7:06
Speaker 1: performance at that age, And so why do we need
7:12
Speaker 1: to lift weights? Primarily because it keeps us healthy and strong,
7:16
Speaker 1: you know, bone density, muscle mass function. And over the
7:21
Speaker 1: last decade or so, we've really come to understanding research
7:24
Speaker 1: and science that there are sociological, psychological, and cognitive benefits.
7:31
Speaker 1: So we know that lifting weights, lifting weights consistently improves
7:37
Speaker 1: cognitive function for a period of time. After that, we
7:42
Speaker 1: know that for most people, lifting weights produces a dopamine response.
7:47
Speaker 1: It makes us happy, It puts us potentially in a
7:51
Speaker 1: better place emotionally. Now I will. Of course, the asterisk
7:56
Speaker 1: next to this is that not everybody responds the exact
7:59
Speaker 1: same way, of course, just like everybody doesn't expot respond
8:03
Speaker 1: the exact same way to the same food or the
8:07
Speaker 1: same five k run, or the same job or the
8:11
Speaker 1: same environment. So there's a lot of variability around this,
8:15
Speaker 1: but generally speaking, lifting weights is a good thing, of course.
8:19
Speaker 1: So next question is what is bioage. Bioage is basically
8:23
Speaker 1: how old your body is from a functional point of view.
8:26
Speaker 1: Bioage is a little bit of a bro science term,
8:32
Speaker 1: but really what it means is, irrespective of your chronological age,
8:39
Speaker 1: how functional is your body and how does your level
8:45
Speaker 1: of function compare across the lifespan to somebody typically in
8:52
Speaker 1: a different age group. So, for example me, I just
8:54
Speaker 1: turned sixty one, and so if we did some testing
8:58
Speaker 1: on me, which is possible where we do a bunch
9:00
Speaker 1: of stuff strength and flexibility, range of movement, muscular endurance,
9:05
Speaker 1: aerobic endurance, and depends on the test, but we test
9:08
Speaker 1: a whole lot of physical stuff. We get some data,
9:13
Speaker 1: and then we put all of my data, all of
9:15
Speaker 1: my results, we compare them to a whole lot of
9:18
Speaker 1: other data. Tens hundreds, maybe thousands of results depend on
9:22
Speaker 1: which protocol we use, but we compare my results to
9:25
Speaker 1: lots and lots and lots of other results, which we call,
9:28
Speaker 1: like I said, normative data. And we find out that
9:32
Speaker 1: Kraig at sixty one has got the functional strength or
9:37
Speaker 1: the bioage of somebody who is fifteen years younger than him,
9:41
Speaker 1: or twenty years younger than him, or it might be.
9:44
Speaker 1: Sometimes we do a bioage test and fifty year old's
9:48
Speaker 1: got the biological age of a sixty five year old.
9:50
Speaker 1: You've probably seen these TV shows, but we could scrap
9:55
Speaker 1: the term biological age and just put how old old
10:00
Speaker 1: or young compared to your actual age? Is your body
10:03
Speaker 1: in terms of physical performance? And then the next question
10:07
Speaker 1: is which I mentioned the term, what is functional strength?
10:10
Speaker 1: So for me, that is what it is all about.
10:12
Speaker 1: Like how much you can bench press or deadlift or squat,
10:18
Speaker 1: they are indicators of strength, of course, of absolute strength.
10:23
Speaker 1: But what I'm most interested in, and I suggest most
10:27
Speaker 1: of you would be most interested in, is how functional
10:31
Speaker 1: or practical or useful is the strength that you have
10:36
Speaker 1: or the strength that you are building in day to
10:39
Speaker 1: day life. Hopefully the answer is really functional. So for example,
10:46
Speaker 1: let's say, for example, I can leg press eight hundred
10:49
Speaker 1: pounds for twenty reps, which I can't, but let's say
10:52
Speaker 1: it could. We might say, wow, Craig's got really really
10:57
Speaker 1: strong legs. That's amazing, and at leg pressing eight hundred
11:01
Speaker 1: pounds for twenty reps, Craig is really good. And then
11:05
Speaker 1: we go, now, how does that functional or how does
11:07
Speaker 1: that strength in the leg press translate to something like
11:11
Speaker 1: running fast or jumping high? And the answer, depending on
11:16
Speaker 1: the individual and the way that those reps are done,
11:18
Speaker 1: and a few other variables, the answer might be not
11:22
Speaker 1: very well at all. It doesn't translate. So strength in
11:27
Speaker 1: the gym is good, and there is generally a correlation
11:31
Speaker 1: between strength in the gym and functional strength. But when
11:37
Speaker 1: I am designing a program for somebody, I will design it,
11:42
Speaker 1: which is very rare these days. Please don't send me
11:44
Speaker 1: an email, but you know I've designed thousands of programs
11:47
Speaker 1: for thousands of people. But generally I am looking at
11:51
Speaker 1: what is the kind of strength that this person needs
11:54
Speaker 1: to be able to function close to optimally based on
12:00
Speaker 1: their potential in the real world. Or it might be
12:03
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be functional strength for life. It
12:05
Speaker 1: could also for those of you who are a bit
12:07
Speaker 1: more advanced, it could also be functional strength for a
12:10
Speaker 1: specific role or task. Let's say somebody's going on climbing
12:15
Speaker 1: a mountain, we might say, and they don't have strong legs.
12:18
Speaker 1: And let's say they're going to go to you know,
12:22
Speaker 1: they're going to do base camp, Everest or something, and
12:24
Speaker 1: they've got to do a whole lot of climbing or
12:25
Speaker 1: maybe go one above base camp, right, so they've got
12:28
Speaker 1: to well, they don't need massive quads, and they don't
12:31
Speaker 1: need to be able to squat a million pounds or
12:33
Speaker 1: leg press a million pounds, but they do need strong
12:36
Speaker 1: ass legs, so glutes, hamstrings, quads, calves. So what we
12:43
Speaker 1: might do in the gym with them is we might
12:45
Speaker 1: do squats and deadlifts and hack squads and leg press
12:49
Speaker 1: and all of these kind of knee extension type movements,
12:52
Speaker 1: but we do lots of reps. So we do a
12:55
Speaker 1: light ish to moderate ish weight and we do lots
12:58
Speaker 1: of reps. So we're building some strength, but more importantly
13:02
Speaker 1: and more appropriately for that task of base camp, we're
13:06
Speaker 1: building functional strength. We're building muscular endurance. Right, So the
13:11
Speaker 1: right kind of program for the right kind of need
13:14
Speaker 1: or goal or individual or individual I guess requirement. That's
13:20
Speaker 1: what functional strength is. And you know, if you're getting
13:24
Speaker 1: a program designed by somebody, we need to make sure
13:28
Speaker 1: that that strength that you are gaining, all strength gained
13:32
Speaker 1: generally is good generally, but we want to make sure
13:36
Speaker 1: that that works for us in life. And also, I
13:39
Speaker 1: guess I'm going to chuck in here, making sure that
13:42
Speaker 1: we are building total body strength, total body strength. Right. So,
13:48
Speaker 1: for example, what we see is a lot of people
13:50
Speaker 1: in gyms, and not just gyms, but a lot of
13:52
Speaker 1: training environments where they are training their upper back. You've
13:55
Speaker 1: seen dudes and girls with really big strong backs. Upper
14:00
Speaker 1: backs lats we call them lats rhomboids, and you know
14:04
Speaker 1: that kind of V shape, and some of them never
14:08
Speaker 1: train their lower back. Some of them rarely train their
14:11
Speaker 1: lower back. And so what we do is we have
14:14
Speaker 1: an upper back that this is bro science what I'm
14:17
Speaker 1: about to share. But their upper back is are nine
14:19
Speaker 1: out of ten in terms of strength, but they're lower
14:21
Speaker 1: back that rarely gets trained. That is the kind of
14:25
Speaker 1: the gap or the conduit between you know, the glutes,
14:28
Speaker 1: the lower body and the upper back traps rhomboids region
14:34
Speaker 1: doesn't get trained. So now we might have the lower
14:37
Speaker 1: back that's three out of ten strength, the upper back
14:39
Speaker 1: that's nine out of ten ten strength. It's a little
14:41
Speaker 1: bit of bro science here, but you'll understand it. And
14:44
Speaker 1: so not only are we not training the lower back,
14:46
Speaker 1: but now we're creating a real potential problem, and that
14:49
Speaker 1: is we've got this upper back that's disproportionately stronger than
14:52
Speaker 1: the lower back. So guess what we're going to fuck,
14:55
Speaker 1: Guess what we're going to get injured? Well, the lower back.
14:59
Speaker 1: So we need all of our body to be trained
15:03
Speaker 1: in a sensible way so that we're building total strength,
15:06
Speaker 1: so that where we don't have muscular imbalances. And there
15:10
Speaker 1: are so many people who train in a way which
15:13
Speaker 1: is actually over time, almost guaranteed to injure them because
15:20
Speaker 1: they neglect certain muscle groups and lower body one percent
15:25
Speaker 1: absolutely and lower back are the most neglected areas in
15:31
Speaker 1: the gym because some people are primarily, if not only,
15:37
Speaker 1: concerned with esthetics, so all round workout. My next question
15:44
Speaker 1: is do I need a gym? No, you don't need
15:48
Speaker 1: a gym. I like gyms because not because I'm an
15:52
Speaker 1: ex gym owner, but I like gyms because, especially these days.
15:56
Speaker 1: Now before you tell yourself I'm not a gym person,
15:59
Speaker 1: just hit the pores. But on that, you don't have
16:01
Speaker 1: to be a gym person. You don't need to be
16:03
Speaker 1: a gym junkie. You don't need to love going to
16:06
Speaker 1: the gym. But so, for example, the little gym that
16:10
Speaker 1: I go to, I'll give them a shout out Snap Fitness.
16:14
Speaker 1: I'm not affiliated professionally with them. I pay for my
16:18
Speaker 1: gym membership like everybody else. But what I like about
16:22
Speaker 1: having And interestingly, the gym I train at used to
16:26
Speaker 1: be one of my gyms. It used to be a Harper's.
16:28
Speaker 1: How interesting is that it's now a SNAP and I
16:31
Speaker 1: pay to go there, which I happily do. But what
16:34
Speaker 1: I like about that is one, if I'm a member,
16:37
Speaker 1: a full member, I can go to any Snap gym
16:40
Speaker 1: in Australia or around the world. They're in different countries.
16:44
Speaker 1: They're also in the States and the UK, I think Canada,
16:47
Speaker 1: not sure all but which countries, but they're in a
16:50
Speaker 1: bunch of other countries, and there's hundreds and hundreds, maybe
16:53
Speaker 1: more than a thousand around the world. The bottom line
16:55
Speaker 1: is I can use my same card at any Snap gym.
16:57
Speaker 1: Walk in the door. Now, when I go to the gym,
17:01
Speaker 1: what the main thing for me is that I have
17:04
Speaker 1: got I would think in most gyms, the one I
17:07
Speaker 1: go to anyway, and it's not over the top, it's
17:09
Speaker 1: a regular gym, but there's probably about a million bucks
17:11
Speaker 1: worth of equipment. So I walk in the door and
17:15
Speaker 1: for whatever it is, ten, twelve, fifteen bucks a week,
17:17
Speaker 1: whatever you're going to pay for your twenty four hour
17:19
Speaker 1: gym membership, you've now got access to a million dollars
17:22
Speaker 1: of equipment. You don't need to buy more equipment, you
17:24
Speaker 1: don't need to maintain the equipment, you don't need to
17:27
Speaker 1: clean it. You don't need to unpack it and pack.
17:29
Speaker 1: You just need to walk in the door, do your
17:31
Speaker 1: shit and fuck off. Right. What I love also is
17:34
Speaker 1: now this depends a little bit, but you know, for me,
17:38
Speaker 1: it's a more motivating environment. I literally have a gym
17:41
Speaker 1: at my house outside. I have an undercover but it's
17:45
Speaker 1: in my front yard like a little area. I used
17:49
Speaker 1: to call it the Zenden when it was a Zenden.
17:51
Speaker 1: It's now the zen gym, and I use it maybe
17:54
Speaker 1: once a week, maybe no times a week. It's got
17:57
Speaker 1: everything in it that I need, and I will often
18:02
Speaker 1: train there, but at least ninety five percent of the
18:05
Speaker 1: time I do my training at the gym. And the
18:07
Speaker 1: reason that I do that is one I meet my
18:08
Speaker 1: training partner there at some for me more motivating environment
18:11
Speaker 1: and so on. Now, some of you will be listening
18:16
Speaker 1: to this a few and I understand this, and you'll
18:20
Speaker 1: be thinking, I'm not a gym person. Fuck gym's. I
18:22
Speaker 1: don't want to go to a gym. So I want
18:24
Speaker 1: to say a few things about that. One, you don't
18:26
Speaker 1: have to go to a gym. You don't need to.
18:28
Speaker 1: You can buy dumbells kettlebells, bar bells, balls, bands, whatever
18:32
Speaker 1: you want, put din your garage, put ding your spare room.
18:35
Speaker 1: You can train at home. You can do that. The
18:38
Speaker 1: next thing I want to say about that is most
18:40
Speaker 1: people don't do that. Most people who intend to train
18:44
Speaker 1: well at home and really transform their body and be
18:48
Speaker 1: consistent and train progressively and get great results. In my experience,
18:53
Speaker 1: most people don't do it. They don't do it despite
18:57
Speaker 1: the fact that they want to and they have the intention.
19:00
Speaker 1: The reality of the experience is that pretty soon this
19:04
Speaker 1: ain't fun, this is boring, and I've got other shit on,
19:07
Speaker 1: and then they look up and it's been six months
19:09
Speaker 1: since they've done one of those workouts at home. I'm
19:12
Speaker 1: not saying you can't do it. I'm saying for many
19:15
Speaker 1: people it's not a great strategy. For some it probably is,
19:19
Speaker 1: but for many it's not. And I think with these things,
19:23
Speaker 1: we just need to be really, really practical and honest
19:27
Speaker 1: with ourselves about about, you know, looking reflecting upon our
19:35
Speaker 1: history with food and exercise and health behaviors and changing
19:40
Speaker 1: habits and this again, as I always say, it's not
19:44
Speaker 1: self loathing, it's just self awareness, like do you truly
19:50
Speaker 1: truly in your heart of hearts, think that if you
19:52
Speaker 1: go and spend five hundred bucks or a thousand bucks
19:54
Speaker 1: on some gym equipment, that that's going to be you
19:57
Speaker 1: for the next five, ten, fifteen, twenty years, that you
20:01
Speaker 1: are going to train consistently and progressively, that you are
20:05
Speaker 1: going to do something something remotely like optimize your genetic
20:09
Speaker 1: potential training in the spare room of the garage or
20:11
Speaker 1: the back brand or whatever it is. And I think
20:14
Speaker 1: for most of us, not all, And again I'm just
20:16
Speaker 1: generalizing here because for me, I understand the nuance and
20:21
Speaker 1: the variability and the multitude of different issues psychological, emotional, physiological,
20:29
Speaker 1: practical surrounding this stuff. We think it's just a physical
20:34
Speaker 1: process lifting weights or building strength. It's not. It's almost
20:39
Speaker 1: like the physical part is just the easy bit. The
20:42
Speaker 1: hardest part of all physical transformation is getting our mind
20:47
Speaker 1: in the right place for us to make the right
20:49
Speaker 1: decisions and consistently do the right things and build new
20:52
Speaker 1: habits and behaviors and operating systems that align with our
20:57
Speaker 1: physical goals, and to keep doing that over period of time,
21:01
Speaker 1: a long period of time, so this now becomes your
21:04
Speaker 1: new normal operating system. Everyone starts nearly everybody that I know,
21:11
Speaker 1: not everyone, but nearly everyone that I know has started
21:14
Speaker 1: something and then given up, including me at various times
21:17
Speaker 1: in my life. And so we need to be really
21:21
Speaker 1: self aware, vulnerable, humble, honest and say, if I do,
21:27
Speaker 1: if I go and buy myself a bunch of shit
21:29
Speaker 1: and I put it in the spare room or wherever
21:31
Speaker 1: it is, am I really genuinely likely to change my body,
21:36
Speaker 1: build muscle, build strength and maintain that over the long term.
21:41
Speaker 1: Now you might be the unicorn that does that. If
21:43
Speaker 1: that's you, giddy up, well done. But if that's not you,
21:47
Speaker 1: then I really suggest that you find it doesn't need
21:51
Speaker 1: to be a commercial gym. It could be that you
21:53
Speaker 1: train with a friend and you do something together three
21:56
Speaker 1: times a week. It could be at the yacht club.
21:58
Speaker 1: It could be at the footy, but could be some
22:01
Speaker 1: other training, could be at the dojo, it could be
22:04
Speaker 1: some other training environment where you're doing your strength stuff.
22:06
Speaker 1: But I think that you know, all of this advice
22:10
Speaker 1: about how to lift weights, how often, how much, and
22:13
Speaker 1: program design, all of that, all of the technical and
22:17
Speaker 1: scientific and physiological advice is redundant if we just fucking
22:22
Speaker 1: give up. And so that's why you know, start something
22:27
Speaker 1: that you will keep doing. And for me, I think
22:31
Speaker 1: gyms are perfect for that. Not because I per se
22:34
Speaker 1: love gyms, but I just I know that people mucht
22:37
Speaker 1: typically get much better results. My next question is what
22:41
Speaker 1: should my focus be in the first four to eight weeks. Now, well,
22:48
Speaker 1: that depends on your starting point. That depends where you're at.
22:52
Speaker 1: But let's I'm just going to assume that you are somewhere. No,
22:58
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm going to give a couple of pieces
23:00
Speaker 1: of advice. First one is for someone who is close
23:04
Speaker 1: to beginner, novice, unfit, unstrong, it's not a word, but
23:10
Speaker 1: it is now so in the first four to eight weeks,
23:14
Speaker 1: if you are close to the complete beginner end of
23:17
Speaker 1: the scale, your focus should be, in my opinion, your honor.
23:23
Speaker 1: Your focus should be consistency, creating a practical operating system
23:32
Speaker 1: that you will keep doing. So training thirteen times in
23:36
Speaker 1: the first week ain't a great plan. Let's start on
23:41
Speaker 1: something that is realistic and maintainable and maybe over time
23:45
Speaker 1: we'll keep doing it, or we might even build on it.
23:48
Speaker 1: So we want to be practical and realistic. We want
23:52
Speaker 1: to start to understand the way that our body interacts
23:56
Speaker 1: with and responds to the different movements and exercises. We
24:01
Speaker 1: want to build what I call body awareness. What am
24:04
Speaker 1: I doing? What am I meant to be feeling? What
24:06
Speaker 1: does this work? How do I do it? Do I
24:09
Speaker 1: have my knees bent or straight? Do I stand? Do
24:12
Speaker 1: I sit? Do I have my elbows in by my side?
24:14
Speaker 1: Do I have my palms up supernated or my palms down?
24:18
Speaker 1: Do I do this overhand or underhand? What are all
24:21
Speaker 1: of the specific specifics of this movement? So we're trying
24:25
Speaker 1: to learn how to train. We're trying to learn how
24:29
Speaker 1: to be safe. We're trying to program and condition our
24:34
Speaker 1: body to this new stimulus that we're putting it in
24:37
Speaker 1: the middle of. We're not trying to see how strong
24:41
Speaker 1: we are. We are building a base. We are building
24:46
Speaker 1: a relationship with strength training. We are improving our understanding,
24:51
Speaker 1: we are improving our body awareness. We are trying new things.
24:56
Speaker 1: We are figuring out what is good and what is
24:58
Speaker 1: not good for our body. There are things that I
25:01
Speaker 1: can't do safely. I can't squat heavy safely, so I don't.
25:10
Speaker 1: I can leg press relatively heavy and safely, so I
25:14
Speaker 1: do so. Depending on where you're starting at you are
25:18
Speaker 1: spending the first four to eight weeks really just introducing
25:23
Speaker 1: your body to a new stimulus and building from there.
25:26
Speaker 1: If you are someone who is already underway, you already
25:30
Speaker 1: have a bit of strength, a bit of awareness, a
25:32
Speaker 1: bit of momentum. Then I would say, and after this
25:36
Speaker 1: you kind of want to kick yourself in the pants
25:40
Speaker 1: a little bit. You want to reignite the fire a
25:42
Speaker 1: little bit. I would think about maybe just changing what
25:47
Speaker 1: you do, or doing what you normally do, but in
25:50
Speaker 1: a different way. I mean, there are so many people
25:54
Speaker 1: that essentially do the same workout the same way in
26:00
Speaker 1: the same gym, on the same equipment time and time
26:02
Speaker 1: and time again, and then wonder why their body is
26:08
Speaker 1: not changing or adapting or progressing or improving. And remember
26:13
Speaker 1: the role, you know, apart from building strength and having
26:15
Speaker 1: fun and maybe meeting your friends at the gym and
26:17
Speaker 1: all of that, having a bit of socialization, which I
26:19
Speaker 1: think is great when you can make that happen. The
26:23
Speaker 1: other thing that we're trying to do in the gym
26:25
Speaker 1: is we're just trying to do something to our body
26:28
Speaker 1: which will cause our body to adapt to that something
26:32
Speaker 1: that we do. So lifting weights or doing strength training,
26:39
Speaker 1: doing a chin up, doing a push up, doing a
26:41
Speaker 1: dumbbell curl, doing a leg extension, doing a hack squad, whatever,
26:44
Speaker 1: all of those are forms of stress on the muscle.
26:47
Speaker 1: And when you build strength or when you grow muscle,
26:50
Speaker 1: we call that hypertrophy, or when you build muscular endurance,
26:55
Speaker 1: or you build speed or power, all of those things
26:59
Speaker 1: are adaptations to the thing that you did to your muscle.
27:04
Speaker 1: And so for those of you who have been training
27:06
Speaker 1: for a while, we can incorporate another question I've got here,
27:09
Speaker 1: which is what is maintenance and what is progressive training?
27:12
Speaker 1: This is that so maintenance training is essentially you do
27:16
Speaker 1: in a form of the same thing the same way
27:19
Speaker 1: and then kind of expecting things to change. How come
27:22
Speaker 1: I'm not getting stronger or faster, or leaner or fitter,
27:25
Speaker 1: or more muscular or aerobic endurance, or more speed or
27:28
Speaker 1: more flexibility or a quicker reaction time, or any of
27:32
Speaker 1: these what we would call fitness indicators or fitness variables.
27:37
Speaker 1: And the reason is for many people, the reason that
27:40
Speaker 1: they're not progressing is because they're not training in a
27:42
Speaker 1: way which will make their body or force their body
27:46
Speaker 1: to adapt and progress and improve performance. So if you are,
27:52
Speaker 1: for example, you are someone who's been training for a
27:56
Speaker 1: while and your goal is to get better. Whatever that
28:00
Speaker 1: means for you, what does what does that mean? Getting better? Well,
28:04
Speaker 1: that might be getting that might be running ten k's
28:07
Speaker 1: in a quicker time. It might be bench pressing more.
28:10
Speaker 1: It might be it might be improving your dead hang,
28:14
Speaker 1: so hanging from a chinup bar, just hanging, just body
28:16
Speaker 1: weight hanging. It might be to improve your hangtime from
28:20
Speaker 1: ten seconds to thirty seconds. That's progression. It might be
28:25
Speaker 1: being able to do a one arm row with a
28:27
Speaker 1: ten kilo dumbbell or a twenty kilo dumbbell when you
28:30
Speaker 1: started on a five or a seven and a half.
28:32
Speaker 1: It might be that you now have a bit more
28:34
Speaker 1: muscle and a bit less fat. It might be that
28:36
Speaker 1: you now have a lower resting heart rate or lower
28:38
Speaker 1: blood pressure. It might be that you now have better
28:41
Speaker 1: posture because you've you've stretched and made the muscles on
28:46
Speaker 1: your front that's your peck muscles more flexible, and the
28:49
Speaker 1: muscles at the back, your homboids and traps and lats,
28:52
Speaker 1: you've made them stronger. So now you've got better naturally
28:56
Speaker 1: just walking around, better posture. That's progression, that's adaptation, that's growth,
29:01
Speaker 1: that's improvement. So if you are saying to me, I'm
29:06
Speaker 1: going to the gym, harps, and I'm going to improve, well,
29:11
Speaker 1: then you need to do things that are associated with improvement,
29:16
Speaker 1: that will facilitate, that will preempt, that will cause adaptation.
29:22
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you right now, the vast majority of
29:25
Speaker 1: people in gyms anyway, and many other training environments by
29:30
Speaker 1: the way, but let's talk about gyms for the moment.
29:33
Speaker 1: Most people are not training in a way which is
29:36
Speaker 1: even close to optimizing their genetic potential. And it's not
29:43
Speaker 1: they're not training in a way which is forcing progression
29:46
Speaker 1: and improvement. They're essentially in a holding pattern like they're training,
29:51
Speaker 1: or they're exercising, or they're lifting, which is good, which
29:54
Speaker 1: is good, But what they're essentially doing is keeping what
29:57
Speaker 1: they've got. So let's say their flexibility is a five,
30:01
Speaker 1: their strength is a five, their aerobic fitness is a five,
30:04
Speaker 1: their muscular endurances are five, all the fitness markers are
30:07
Speaker 1: a five. And then any year they come back and
30:11
Speaker 1: everything's still a five. Well, that's not terrible, but it
30:14
Speaker 1: means they haven't improved, they haven't gone backwards. But they
30:17
Speaker 1: haven't improved. And if you said to those five out
30:19
Speaker 1: of ten people right now, and we took them five
30:21
Speaker 1: out of ten based on their potential, not compared to
30:25
Speaker 1: any standard or any other person, but just on that
30:28
Speaker 1: person's potential. If I could go into the gym now
30:32
Speaker 1: and interview twenty random strangers and they didn't know me,
30:35
Speaker 1: and I didn't know them, any gym in Melbourne or
30:37
Speaker 1: any gym in any city anywhere, and I said, hey,
30:40
Speaker 1: can I ask you a quick question, is your goal
30:42
Speaker 1: in the next year to kind of stay where you
30:45
Speaker 1: are physically or to improve? Probably twenty would say I
30:49
Speaker 1: want to improve. Very few people say I don't want
30:53
Speaker 1: to improve. Very few people say where I'm at right
30:57
Speaker 1: now is where I want to be. But nonetheless, most
31:00
Speaker 1: people train in a way which is going to keep
31:02
Speaker 1: them trapped in that groundhog Danus of physiology, So maintenance
31:09
Speaker 1: versus progression. You want to be training progressively unless you're
31:13
Speaker 1: already where you want to be. So that's the answer
31:16
Speaker 1: to the question, what is maintenance and what is maintenance training?
31:19
Speaker 1: And what is progressive training? My next question that I
31:22
Speaker 1: get asked, I'm realizing this ain't going to be forty
31:25
Speaker 1: five minutes, so I might break it into two bits.
31:28
Speaker 1: The next question I get asked is what do I
31:31
Speaker 1: do now? None of what I'm about to share with
31:34
Speaker 1: you is advice for you. It's just that people seem
31:37
Speaker 1: to be interested in what I do personally. So I'm
31:42
Speaker 1: going to give you a snapshot into my and I'll
31:45
Speaker 1: speak a bit more broadly than just strength, but all
31:48
Speaker 1: of it to give you an insight. Again, not a recommendation,
31:50
Speaker 1: not a prescription, but a lot of people my age
31:55
Speaker 1: are not in particularly good shape. A lot of people
31:58
Speaker 1: want to be in good shape, and a lot of
32:00
Speaker 1: people are curious about, well, what is possible, and what
32:03
Speaker 1: is possible is often a lot more than you think.
32:07
Speaker 1: All right, So my strength protocol is just that I
32:10
Speaker 1: go to the gym every day and I don't follow
32:16
Speaker 1: a set. Okay, Monday I do chest and back, Tuesday,
32:20
Speaker 1: I do you know, lower back and legs. Wednesday I
32:24
Speaker 1: do shoulders and arms. Thursday I have off and then
32:28
Speaker 1: I get then I repeat from day one through. I
32:31
Speaker 1: don't do that. I train somewhat instinctively, but also an
32:34
Speaker 1: exercise scientist, and so I understand training, and I've been
32:37
Speaker 1: training forever. I've pretty much always got some kind of
32:42
Speaker 1: limitation or injury. Right now, I've got a torn rotator cuff,
32:45
Speaker 1: which is some muscles around the shoulder where the humor
32:49
Speaker 1: is the head of the humorous the big armbone goes
32:51
Speaker 1: into the shoulder humoral joint. You don't need to know
32:55
Speaker 1: all that. Bottom line is, technically speaking, left shoulders a
32:58
Speaker 1: bit fucked. So what I do is if I get
33:00
Speaker 1: to science, he let me know. So what I do
33:03
Speaker 1: is I go into the gym and I go what
33:04
Speaker 1: can I do? What can I do? I'm doing specific
33:07
Speaker 1: rehab work at the moment to fix my shoulder, or
33:10
Speaker 1: to fix it as much as I can, but I
33:13
Speaker 1: train around it. So there's some things that in the
33:16
Speaker 1: gym that I would do that would make my shoulder worse.
33:18
Speaker 1: I don't do them. There's some things that I can
33:21
Speaker 1: do that hurt a little but don't make the actual
33:24
Speaker 1: injury worse. And there's some things that I can do
33:26
Speaker 1: that are next pain free other than just the pain
33:30
Speaker 1: that comes with doing the movement hard. And so I
33:34
Speaker 1: do waits every day. I do about an hour every day.
33:39
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm in the gym for an hour and a quarter,
33:41
Speaker 1: sometimes an hour and a half. If I'm being fully transparent,
33:49
Speaker 1: quite a bit of that time is talking, helping other people,
33:53
Speaker 1: talking to my training partner, talking to his kids, training
33:56
Speaker 1: a few people that I kind of help out a
33:58
Speaker 1: bit here and there. Johnny who got blown up and
34:02
Speaker 1: was told he'd never walk. I work with him two
34:04
Speaker 1: three times a week. Love, he's guts, beautiful human being,
34:09
Speaker 1: and so in that, you know, i might be in
34:12
Speaker 1: the gym for an hour and a quarter, but I'm
34:14
Speaker 1: only actually lifting stuff for truly twenty to thirty minutes,
34:20
Speaker 1: Like when I'm actually lifting a weight might be twenty
34:23
Speaker 1: to thirty minutes. I would generally, now, if I go
34:27
Speaker 1: to the gym on my own, which is rare, I'm
34:30
Speaker 1: in and out in forty five minutes because I'm just
34:33
Speaker 1: doing my thing. Let's just go It's a normal day
34:36
Speaker 1: and it's just me, right, So yeah, I would go
34:39
Speaker 1: in and I generally do more compound movements. What is
34:44
Speaker 1: a compound movement? Let's ask that as a question. Compound
34:47
Speaker 1: movement is a movement that is using two or more joints,
34:51
Speaker 1: or two or more joints are involved, and then multiple
34:53
Speaker 1: muscle groups. So, for example, let's just do something that
34:57
Speaker 1: we all know a bise curl where you've got your
35:01
Speaker 1: palm up and you just bring a weight up towards
35:04
Speaker 1: your chin and then you lower the weight back down
35:06
Speaker 1: towards your hip. That's what we would call an isolation
35:09
Speaker 1: movement because it's just one joint involved, which is the
35:14
Speaker 1: elbow joint. And what we're doing is we're bending the elbow.
35:18
Speaker 1: That's called elbow flexion. And when we put a weight
35:21
Speaker 1: in the hand, whether that's a dumbbell, barber, whatever it is,
35:24
Speaker 1: you know, a band, a cable, row, anything, and we're
35:29
Speaker 1: doing elbow flexion that is bringing the palm up to
35:32
Speaker 1: the chin region. We call that elbow flexion underload. All
35:37
Speaker 1: of those are various kinds of curls. So barbell curl,
35:41
Speaker 1: z bar curl, cable curl, dumbbell curl, hammer curl, preacher curl,
35:46
Speaker 1: all curls, and you've all I'm using this because everyone
35:49
Speaker 1: knows nearly everyone knows what a curl is, but all
35:52
Speaker 1: curls are essentially the exact same or very similar movement,
35:55
Speaker 1: which is elbow flexion underload. So that's a single joint movement. Now,
35:59
Speaker 1: let's do some thing like a bench press. Now, maybe
36:03
Speaker 1: you have never bench pressed, but I think most people
36:05
Speaker 1: know what it looks like. So a bench press is
36:08
Speaker 1: a multi joint exercise, So you're using shoulder joint and
36:14
Speaker 1: elbow joint, and you're also using other joints as stabilizers.
36:18
Speaker 1: But in terms of what's actually moving significantly through the movement,
36:23
Speaker 1: that is shoulders and elbow and also like for example,
36:27
Speaker 1: back just quickly to the curl, we're using primarily biceps,
36:31
Speaker 1: and we're also moving we're also using a muscle called brachialis,
36:34
Speaker 1: which is under the bicep, and then brachio radialis, which
36:38
Speaker 1: is kind of forum and crosses over the elbow joint.
36:41
Speaker 1: But you know, all of these are what we call
36:43
Speaker 1: elbow flexa muscles, right, But it's really very much an
36:47
Speaker 1: isolation movement. But then when we look at something like
36:53
Speaker 1: the bench press, we are working the whole chest, and
36:56
Speaker 1: we're working our shoulders, and we're working our triceps that's
37:00
Speaker 1: around the back from the biceps. And any time we're
37:03
Speaker 1: doing a pushing movement, we are doing we are using
37:08
Speaker 1: our triceps. Anytime we're doing a pushing movement, we're doing
37:11
Speaker 1: what's called elbow extension. Now, if you put your hand
37:15
Speaker 1: on your chest right now, you are in elbow flexion.
37:19
Speaker 1: If you put your palm on your chest right now,
37:21
Speaker 1: you're in elbow flexion. Now if you put your palm
37:25
Speaker 1: out straight in front of you with a straight arm,
37:27
Speaker 1: you've just done elbow extension. And what allowed you to
37:32
Speaker 1: do elbow extension is primarily your triceps, which sit on
37:36
Speaker 1: the back of the arm. So most of the work
37:38
Speaker 1: that I do is compound movements, so deadlifts, leg press,
37:48
Speaker 1: sholder press, upright rows, push ups, chins, seated row and
37:59
Speaker 1: the like, you know, but I also do some isolation stuff.
38:02
Speaker 1: So my strength protocol is every day. It doesn't need
38:05
Speaker 1: to be every day, by the way, I just enjoy it.
38:07
Speaker 1: Some days are harder, some days are easier. If I
38:11
Speaker 1: go into the gym and I'm a little bit flat
38:15
Speaker 1: or tired, or my energy is not great and it's
38:17
Speaker 1: genuinely not great, it's not me just being a pussy,
38:22
Speaker 1: then I will back off. I will have a somewhat
38:25
Speaker 1: easier day. There are sometimes where I go to the
38:28
Speaker 1: gym and I realize I'm real sore or real tired,
38:31
Speaker 1: and I'll just train a few people and I'll talk
38:33
Speaker 1: to people and I'll go home. That's not very often.
38:35
Speaker 1: That's maybe three days a year, and there's probably another
38:38
Speaker 1: two or three days a year where I might not
38:40
Speaker 1: get to the gym because I'm flying somewhere. I'm traveling.
38:43
Speaker 1: It's like practically impossible to get to a gym. But
38:49
Speaker 1: I would say there are no more than ten days
38:51
Speaker 1: a year, probably no more than five that I do
38:57
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing in terms of strength stuff, even if that
39:01
Speaker 1: means that I do five sets of push ups in
39:04
Speaker 1: my hotel room. All right, So that's my kind of
39:06
Speaker 1: strength protocol. And just FYI, I run three days a
39:10
Speaker 1: week or four days a week. It's short, at sharp,
39:13
Speaker 1: and I run generally two to three k's. I run
39:16
Speaker 1: out the front door. I run like Phoebe Buffet from Friends.
39:20
Speaker 1: If you don't know who that is, just do a
39:23
Speaker 1: search on Phoebe Buffet running. You'll see a little bit
39:27
Speaker 1: more technique than that. And I do that because short, hard,
39:31
Speaker 1: sharp is all you need to be getting real cardiovascular benefits.
39:36
Speaker 1: I don't want to do long I can actually run
39:38
Speaker 1: quite well, but I don't want to do long, steady
39:42
Speaker 1: state runs. I don't want to be doing ten k runs.
39:44
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with them, but I don't want to
39:46
Speaker 1: be doing them, because as soon as I start to
39:49
Speaker 1: do twenty thirty forty fifty ks of running a week,
39:52
Speaker 1: I lose lots of muscle. So for me to get
39:54
Speaker 1: muscle and hold onto it is a work. So I
39:59
Speaker 1: don't want to undo that. So I do strength stuff
40:02
Speaker 1: as I described, and also cardio stuff which is not
40:05
Speaker 1: endurance based, short, hard, sharp, so I get the cardiovascular benefit,
40:10
Speaker 1: but I hold onto the muscle. All right, I've kind
40:14
Speaker 1: of answered the next question, but I'll quickly touch on it.
40:16
Speaker 1: So what are the benefits of strength training in no
40:20
Speaker 1: particular order of importance? Bone density, which is really important
40:23
Speaker 1: as we age people. If you get say two twin
40:26
Speaker 1: sisters that are sixty, and everything else is identical, you know, lifestyle, food, even,
40:34
Speaker 1: you know job, incidental activity, occupational activity, obviously genetics, DNA.
40:41
Speaker 1: But one of them lifts weights consistently and one doesn't,
40:44
Speaker 1: then you'll find the sister who lifts weights has got
40:46
Speaker 1: a much higher bone density. If everything else is all
40:51
Speaker 1: things being equal, generally you're going to see one with
40:53
Speaker 1: much higher bone density, which higher bone density and higher
40:58
Speaker 1: body strength equates too longer hell span and longer lifespan.
41:01
Speaker 1: And also if one of them perish the thought. But
41:04
Speaker 1: one of them falls over, one of them is way
41:06
Speaker 1: more likely to break a hip or break some kind
41:08
Speaker 1: of bone than the other, so bone deadseity. We're talking
41:10
Speaker 1: about the benefits of strength training lean mass, so we
41:14
Speaker 1: know when we have more muscle. Now we're not talking
41:16
Speaker 1: about being a body builder, a massive and jack, but
41:18
Speaker 1: when we have more muscle, muscle is metabolically active. What
41:22
Speaker 1: that means is that muscle uses more energy than fat,
41:26
Speaker 1: So body muscle muscle on the body. Lean mass uses
41:29
Speaker 1: more energy. So the bottom line is that the more
41:32
Speaker 1: muscle you have, within reason, it helps you stay lean.
41:36
Speaker 1: Because let's say we've got again, let's go back to
41:39
Speaker 1: these sisters. Let's say these six sisters weigh both of
41:42
Speaker 1: them weigh sixty kilos. One's got a lot of muscle
41:46
Speaker 1: for her age and weight, and the others got more
41:49
Speaker 1: fat and less muscle. Well, the sixty kilo twin that's
41:54
Speaker 1: got more muscle will actually be able to eat more
41:57
Speaker 1: food because having more muscle require more energy in brackets calories,
42:03
Speaker 1: and so she has the shares the pleasure of being
42:07
Speaker 1: able to eat more food than her sister who's got
42:09
Speaker 1: less mass. Without that game, so being strong having muscle
42:16
Speaker 1: also has a metabolic advantage. So other benefits of strength
42:22
Speaker 1: training of course, balance sporting, performance, cognition, as I said before,
42:28
Speaker 1: quality of life in general, and just I guess on
42:32
Speaker 1: a really practical level, for older people like my mum
42:35
Speaker 1: and dad, being stronger allows them to more effectively do
42:40
Speaker 1: what we call activities of daily living ADLs and yeah,
42:49
Speaker 1: and who doesn't want to be able to be functional
42:51
Speaker 1: and operational when you're old? So activities of daily living,
42:54
Speaker 1: you know, getting in and out of air, in and
42:55
Speaker 1: out of the car, being able to step up onto
42:58
Speaker 1: a low step and get something out of a covered
43:00
Speaker 1: being able to make beds, being able to carry things
43:03
Speaker 1: to the washing machine or maybe carrying something out to
43:06
Speaker 1: the car or doing housework. So just you know, being
43:11
Speaker 1: in your seventies and eighties and being comparatively or relatively
43:17
Speaker 1: strong for your chronological age sets you up well for
43:22
Speaker 1: your latter years. I get a team. I'm just going
43:25
Speaker 1: to interrupt myself. Look at me interrupting me. This went
43:29
Speaker 1: way longer than I thought it would, but not really
43:33
Speaker 1: surprising because it's me anyway. So ended up being somewhere
43:38
Speaker 1: around about now and a quarter of me just bloody
43:40
Speaker 1: banging on in my office by myself, the extended monologue version.
43:45
Speaker 1: So I'm going to call this the end of part
43:47
Speaker 1: one for now. I'll be back tomorrow to complete the conversation.
43:52
Speaker 1: See then,