November 7, 2018

Falsehoods of Fitness Introduction

This is the introduction to our new Falsehoods of Fitness video series. It was originally aired live on Facebook. Expect to see more episodes on this channel soon!

Full Transcript

So what we’re gonna talk about today, and I’m gonna go a little slow and wait for some people to tune in. But we’re gonna launch a new series called the Falsehoods of Fitness. So this new series is gonna encompass all the comments that I see about my research or just generally in the company with X3.

Why We’re Starting This Series

We get some crazy comments like, “What about, you know, muscle confusion?” or something like that? Or, “The workouts are the same all the time, don’t you want to mix it up?”

There’s a lot of really, really unfortunately false things that are principles of fitness seemingly that just won’t go away. And so we’re gonna go subject by subject, in no particular order, and we’re going to determine… I’m gonna review what’s been seen in the academic research as far as some of these principles. And I’ve touched on some of them so many times. It’d be better to just have a video to refer to where I’m quoting the actual clinical data.

You know, like for example there’s 40 years of research showing that cardio will help you protect your body fat. As in, keep as much as possible. So, you know, not really the way to go, if being lean is what you wanna do. If you wanna be a great runner, different story. So we’ll take like two questions while we let some people tune in.

Henry, are there any questions anybody’s asked so far? Okay. Just go ahead and type any question while we’re live. And of course, after we finish I’d like to talk about some of the things that we’re gonna hit in the series. Leave suggestions of, you know, what about X? What about isolating a body part? Isolating a piece of a muscle, that’s another great one. So, we can make sure, and I don’t know if this series is gonna go like 10 different videos. It might go 20, 30, 50, I don’t know. There’s a lot of goofy stuff out there that just keeps coming back. So why don’t I go ahead–

  • [Dr. John Jaquish] Okay, we got a question.

  • Question, yeah.

  • [Dr. John Jaquish] How do you know when to move up in bands? Is there a certain number of reps you should try to hit?

  • Okay, question: how do you know when to move up in bands? Is there a certain number to hit? Yes, because we’re using variable resistance this is an X3 specific question. I also want you to know that this series is not just gonna be about X3, it’s gonna be falsehoods of fitness, as in applied to all types of fitness. So this will be shareable to anybody you know who cares about exercise. But this question is specifically for X3.

X3: Moving Up in Bands

When you move up in bands, you wanna stay in the rep range of 15 to 40 repetitions. Now some would say that seems high. Except remember in the stronger range of motion, when you’re out here, when you’re going to fatigue out here and then you diminish your range of motion then you go to fatigue here, then you go to fatigue here. It’s a much more intense stimulus and you’re using more weight than you may have ever used, with more repetitions than you’d normally ever use.

Once you get past 40 repetitions, that’s the time to move to the next band. So, I hear some people go, well I really need a band in between the two bands. I don’t think you do. Because a lot of people who are following that particular direction are just making huge gains—getting all the way through one band and then going to a next one. So, okay, I am going to continue.

  • [Henry] We have another question.

  • Another question, yes.

  • [Henry] For the advanced program, does it typically take around 20 minutes to do the workout?

  • So I’ll repeat the question just so you guys can hear it. For the advanced programming, does it take 20 minutes to do the workout?

  • [Henry] Yes.

X3: How Long Should the Advanced Program Workout Take?

  • Hmm, no, it should still take around 10 minutes. Ultimately you’re doing around four sets per workout. Remember just stick to the one. Some people really like doing two sets per workout for the exercise, I still do one.

I did experiment with two for a little bit, but I went back to one. You just go to a deeper level of exhaustion. Also, when you know you’ve gotta get the job done with one set, you’re gonna behave a little differently. You’re going to go to absolute fatigue in all ranges of motion simultaneously, something you cannot do with a weight. Therefore, the depth of exhaustion.

You’re trying to show the central nervous system a deficit of tissue. Like, we don’t have enough muscle here, we need more. So the more intense the stimulus in the shorter period of time, not the longer period, the shorter period of time, shows the central nervous system that clearly more power is needed here. And that is the clearer signal.

So advanced programming involves some holds to really make sure you’re going to fatigue at whatever peak you’re at. So like in a bicep curl here, I’m holding, and then I can’t hold there anymore, and then I have a shorter rep and I’m holding there, I do a few of those. And then, you know, the last rep is a very, very low range of repetition and a weaker range of motion and then going to fatigue there.

So making sure you’re really just asking yourself, am I really going to fatigue here? And those holds will tell you, yeah you are. So very, very clear signals.

So, we’ll save the rest of the questions that are piling up to the end. And I’m just gonna go on some of the subjects that we’re gonna talk about for the Falsehoods of Fitness series. I’m just gonna recap for the people who tuned in later.

We’re going over some of the things that we’ve seen in the questions, where someone will look at variable resistance and what we’re talking about, the principles that are applied in X3 and say, “Well, what about progressive resistance?” for example. That is a result, that is not a strategy.

Topics for Future Episodes for Falsehoods of Fitness

So we’re gonna look at things, and I just have a brief list here of some of the questions that we get which are questions nobody should be asking:

  • If-it-fits-your-macros type of nutrition.
  • Portion control or caloric restriction—depending on if you read women’s magazines or men’s magazines, women’s magazines typically call it portion control, caloric restriction if you read typically like a more athletic, bodybuilding style magazine.
  • Portions of your muscle, can you train your upper pecks?
  • Progressive resistance, that’s a favorite, especially with CrossFit people.
  • We have cardio. Is fasted cardio better than non-fasted cardio?
  • What do I wanna do to lose the most amount of body fat?
  • Direct work for abdominals. Dr. Jaquish why don’t you do any direct work for abdominals?
  • Muscle confusion theory, another favorite that I get from seemingly some smart people. Yet they ask that question.
  • Bands, can bands make you big? I heard bands can’t make you big.

So those are just some of the examples of what we’re gonna go over. And I want these to be short, maybe five minute videos where I’ll go over the best study in the category ‘cause you don’t wanna hear me rattle on about 10 different studies.

I’m just gonna go over the best study in each one of those areas and really nail what it is that’s key. What’s the key takeaway to all of those things? And are they true or are they not true?

And I can tell you if they’re on the list of falsehoods, not true. And I will give you that research. So, welcome to the series. They’re all gonna go on YouTube in order and they’re all be on the x3bar.com website. And they’ll be very searchable and so everybody can find those.

Like I said, five, 10 minute videos all on one subject. So ease of find, I think everybody will enjoy.

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