Why Training 2x a Week Is All Men Need to Stay Fit for Life

If you could give me 45 minutes, twice a week, that's all you need to do.

You know, I hear this a lot now about this science-based training, but I actually don't know what science science they're talking about.

It's all very interesting, but if it doesn't work in practicality, what's it worth?

I don't have any pain joint pain.

So I know that your your opinion on real world results versus laboratory studies, but these days, let me just put something out there.

I'd like to see your response. These days, you know, people will talk a lot about, okay,

the studies or muscle biopsies show you train a muscle and stimulate hypertrophy, growth, and then muscle protein synthesis peaks, you know, 48 hours later, which means that you can hit the muscle again ideally three days later or two days later.

I tried that because I thought, hey, listen, I'm a scientist, I'll try it.

And I immediately started going backwards with my progress.

This was a few years ago, and went back to training each thing directly once per week.

And where there's indirect stuff, you know, arms getting hit once indirectly.

Because of a chest and back workout on a separate day.

Found I went right back to to progress again.

And so, you know, I'm a scientist.

Trained to do science.

So how do you think about something where in a laboratory, you can see something like protein synthesis peaks 48 hours later?

Therefore, train every 72 hours versus the real world phenomenon?

It's all very interesting, but if it doesn't work in practicality, what's it worth?

You know, I hear this a lot now about this science-based training, but I actually don't know what science they're talking about.

I mean, some meta studies, I think.

But how were those studies carried out?

With whom, and so on, and so on, I don't know.

I know the case of Vietor study where he put on 65 pounds of muscle verified in a month by training like less than about an hour a week, I think.

It was your whole body's to failure.

And yes, he was very underweight because he wasn't on anything.

So he was underweight, so he's building back muscle, but he wouldn't build it back without much stimulus.

So 65 pound of muscle, although it was muscle memory, let's say, had been that big before.

But he put it on in a month, and you compare that with Arnold.

That dieted down to 210, I think, to do this film, Stay Hungry.

Then it went back up to 230 for the Mr. Olympics Olympia, but that took him like three months.

So you can compare the two.

So when the people talk about these science-based studies and it shouldn't train to failure, it's better to keep reps in reserve.

I don't know which studies they're talking about.

I'm not saying they're not out there, but I'm not familiar with them.

I'm not familiar with how they carried out the studies.

But if it doesn't work in practicality, does it really matter?

It doesn't matter.

Well, often I've spent some time with these and you might not be surprised to learn that a lot of times it's.

You know, we got some college students.

They're doing leg extensions, you know, we're looking at, you know, biopsies of the quadriceps.

This kind of thing.

Rarely is it the kind of compound movements, multi-joint movements, sometimes, but but but not always.

Well, I look, my experience with the hit.

High intensity, low-ish volume training has been, I'll say it's not just about gaining muscle.

I mean, I'm now 50, I know you're almost 64.

Coming up.

Looking amazing.

We'll tell us more about longevity stuff in a in a bit.

But I have to say, part of it is also that if one trains the way that you're describing.

Each muscle once per week, focusing on intensity, not volume, and so forth, six weeks or so.

Then backing off for two weeks.

You also find that in your peer group, you're not the one always complaining about pain and you have energy for other things, which we'll get back to.

I mean, unless you're a competitive bodybuilder, most people, including myself, need energy to tend to life and want to be able to not be.

It's not the soreness, it's the constant aches and pains that come from overtraining.

I think that most people don't have to live with, but think they do.

It depends on your goals, yeah?

But I really believe the average person.

Yeah, that wants to get health benefits from bodybuilding, white training resistance.

Whatever you want to call it, right?

They have a guy that's 40 or 50 or 60, guy or a lady, whatever.

The idea is if you because you've lost muscle mass, slowly, since maybe 1% a year since you're 40, right?

And this is affecting your health, your metabolism, the ability to process sugar.

Many, many things, bone strength.

And the number one thing that I hear from people is, I don't really have time for that.

I have a business, I have a family.

I said, if you could give me 45 minutes, twice a week, that's all you need to do.

Okay, you need to eat properly and everything like that.

But that's all you need to do for the average person.

If you took eight to ten exercises that covered your whole body and you did it twice a week, that would be enough for the average person.

One for chest, one or two for back, one or two for legs.

Hey, if you want to do some bicep calls and some triceps, you can do it.

But you're doing pressing anyway.

So for the average person, that would actually be enough.

And it's not theory, because I've done it with people, like I'm saying in this gentleman that came along.

We put 45 minutes in, nearly an hour, three times a week, because I had him doing cardio as well.

Well, I guess how long the cardio was?

Six minutes.

Six minutes.

You have been pedal hard.

We're doing we're doing sprints, like on an air bike.

It's my favorite because it engages every muscle, push, pull, legs.

If you do a 20 second all out and you can see how you got on the side of the thing.

You can see how much watch you're generating.

So now you have a target to hit or exceed every time.

So do a minute, minute and a half warm up, whatever.

Feel warm, all out, balls out like the devil's chasing you for 20 seconds.

First one's tough.

It's okay.

Go down slowly for a minute.

Do the second one all out.

The second one's really tough, yeah.

The third one is, I've never met anybody that wants to do one after the third one, because literally you can't breathe.

And the benefits from that, again, I think it's a book called the One Minute Cardio.

It's a bit tricky because it's not really one minute.

It's a one minute of sprints, but a six minutes in total, and they compared that to 45 minutes of steady cardio on a treadmill or whatever it is.

And the results are more or less the same.

So what do you want to do?

Do you want to spend six minutes?

Do you want to spend 45 minutes?

Or rather do the six minutes.

I do a bit of long cardio as well myself because I like biking in the mountains and stuff.

But if you did that twice a week, along with some weight training, that would be amazing.

You change your life, literally with that in a good diet.

So the whole time thing excuse is it's not relevant.

I'm not listening.

You don't need a lot of time.

You look lean and strong?

Yeah, I'm lean, I'm strong, I don't push too much with a white.

And you've kept your height.

You know, a lot of people who don't train start to shrink.

I didn't keep my height.

Really?

I got taller.

Did you?

No, I, I posted a about a month ago, six weeks on my page, just teasing people.

Because I went to get some orthotics in my shoes, you know, to balance out.

And the guy's got the measuring thing, so I just stood on and he said, you're 183.

I've never been more than 180.

Metric system, folks.

Yeah, yeah, right?

It's like six foot, right?

I was 5, 10 and a half, 5, 11, maybe.

So did I physically grow bone?

That's what I thought, because I'm 6'1, I heard you're 5'10.

Walked in thinking maybe people usually lose a little bit of height unless they train real hard.

And they make sure to take care of themselves.

And then I walk in and yeah, you're about six feet.

Yeah, but the thing is, why?

Because I've been doing Pilates and functional training and reading resetting the shoulders back.

My posture is much better.

So I'm standing straighter, which gives me an extra inch of height.

So I've actually got taller, no, I haven't taken huge amounts of growth on when I suddenly grew when I was 60 years old.

Is just my posture and the way I stand.

There's less curvature shoulder there.

So you lose a bit of height because when you lift your pecs get bigger and you let.

Your shoulders rotate forward, you're trying to hunch forward.

You're sitting a little bit lower.

I didn't even know, I was like, measure myself.

Like, wow, that's just because I'm standing straighter.

And my shoulders are back.

The that cervical arch, it's it's straighter now.

What we call the text neck for the kids.

There's poor kids shoulders forward.

You know, boxers have it because they're always like forward with their shoulders.

So I've just got my posture really good.

I've done yoga for like seven years, I've done Pilates.

Do some functional training.

So it's all about getting this thing in the best shape.

I don't have any pain, joint pains.

I'd hit replacement like 14 months ago, which is great.