There Is A Method to the Madness
This is a podcast where I will be discussing all aspects of physical fitness. I am an exercise physiologist and personal trainer and owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs for the last 25 years. My passion is health and fitness and I am excited to share my views, some stories, interviews and much more with you.
There Is A Method to the Madness
Strength Training Frequency: The Foundation of Results
Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most importantly, why things work. Hence the name. There is a method to the madness. Before I get to today's show, I want to thank Jonathan and Lynn Gildan of the Gildan Group at Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. 386-451-2412.
Speaker 1:Hello everybody, let's talk about some fitness this morning. Specifically, let's talk about some strength, some strength training. I was thinking this morning about frequency with strength training and just how important it is, not in the sense of more is better, but what a very, very important thing it is to talk about the baseline, to talk about the threshold. So that's what I am going to talk about today, all right. So let me back up just for a second and talk briefly about what the acute program variables are for strength training. Coup program variables are all of the different things that we need to put together to have a successful workout program, and frequency happens to be one of them. The American College of Sports Medicine and some other organizations uses the FITT acronym to help us with that, which is F-I-T-T, and they've added some letters which I will talk about. But the FIT acronym stands for frequency, intensity, time and type. So that helps us with the acute program variables to get an idea of how to structure any kind of exercise. And today, specifically, we are talking about strength training. So, as you see, frequency is the first one and I would say it's the most important, because if we don't meet the minimal there, we're not going to get any benefits and none of the others matter at all. The second letter is I intensity.
Speaker 1:Close you get to muscular failure or what is called volitional fatigue, which are both essentially the same thing. Failure means that literally during your set you can't move the load anymore. Volitional fatigue means that you can complete the rep you're on, but you will not be able to complete another rep afterwards. They're both basically the same thing. That's the true way to measure intensity in strength training, in other words, how hard Some people will use load as the intensity. For example, they might say that 75% of the one rep max is going to be the intensity that we use. So that would be the load and that's okay, but that doesn't really change the intensity by itself. Does it Like, let's say, 75% of a hundred pounds is 75. Well, you might be able to move that one time or 20 times, and obviously moving that same load 20 times versus one is more intense. So I don't agree when some people, some experts, say use load, because it's really not true.
Speaker 1:So intensity comes back to how close you get to hitting volitional fatigue or muscular failure. Time for strength training is going to be volume, which is going to be the amount of exercises, the amount of sets and the amount of repetitions. That would be all the volume, in other words the, how much, the frequency is how often, the intensity is how hard and the time or volume is how much. And then finally, the last T type stands for type, which means mode, which means what are you going to do to get there? So, in other words, are you going to use body weight exercises? Or I should say, should you use, or should you use selectorized machines? Should you use free weights? I mean the answer to that is you should really use all of it or you should use what you have accessible to you, all right, so that one's kind of like the easiest one. So we're talking about frequency, and without frequency the other ones don't matter, right? So let me talk to you about what the research says about frequency.
Speaker 1:Now, the experts which you know, I tend to follow, like the people that have done the studies, what we know about strength training. They talk about how many times per week each muscle group needs to be trained. That doesn't mean they're advocating for a split routine, which means that you are doing different muscle groups or different exercises per day, and then on another day doing different muscle groups or different exercises. No, they're not advocating that. Different muscle groups or different exercises no, they're not advocating that. What's kind of cool is they're like, we don't care. Like frequency is frequency.
Speaker 1:As far as split routine versus full body or doing all of your exercise or your strength exercise at one time is concerned, that's all a matter of the volume. That's like how many exercises are you doing really? A matter of the volume, that's like how many exercises are you doing really? And that's a whole, nother topic. But frequency doesn't get into that. What we do know is each major muscle group and there are 11 major muscle groups need to be trained two to three times per week. To be trained two to three times per week, end of story. Two to three times per week, with the mode or median being two times. So that means you can do two full body strength training sessions per week and you're doing what you need to do. Or you can train six days per week, splitting up your body, doing each major muscle group two times per week. It really doesn't matter. Like one isn't better than the other. I don't care what your influencers tell you. That is a matter of style and what you like to do.
Speaker 1:I own a gym and I also have a small home gym, so I have access to weight training and I like to weight train. So oftentimes I will split it up for time considerations. My workouts are my personal workouts are pretty brief, they are not long, so I will split it up Oftentimes, not because it's better, but because I have access to it and I am here anyway, and if I have a little break in the day where I'm not training a client or I'm not working on an email or I'm not making a podcast or I'm not doing any of the other duties I have, or even if I do, sometimes I'd rather just take 20 minutes and do a workout, do some strength training. So I will split it up, not because it's better. We need to understand that. But we also have to understand the main point of this podcast.
Speaker 1:If we don't hit the frequency of two times per week, each muscle group so let's just keep it simple. Stupid Two full body workouts per week we are not getting the benefits to get any better. Okay, I'm going to break it down for you what the research says. Here's what it says. Let's say you have a frequency of one time per week. You hit one workout per week. Research shows that's enough to maintain after you have built your fitness. You can maintain that for maybe a couple of months. You can hit it one time per week. You're not going to slide too far backwards in a couple months. That's great. That's what we know about a frequency of one time per week.
Speaker 1:A frequency of two times per week is going to grant you 95% of the benefits of three times per week. All right, we're talking full body workouts. We know that. Okay, two seems to be the real magic number. All right, three times per week. Now we're talking strength training. Three times per week gives you maximal benefit for most people, but only 5% better than two times per week, okay. So then you have to look at the point of diminishing returns and go well, if I'm really getting better, cause you are two times per week, you're getting better. Remember, one time per week is when you're not, you're just kind of maintaining, so you have to go. If I'm getting most of the benefits and I'm in a really important job and I've, you know, I got three kids and I got this it makes more sense for me that I go two times per week. Right, exactly, I'd say the majority of our clients come two times per week. Then what about the? I'd say the majority of our clients come two times per week. Then what about the person that says but I like going three times per week? That's fine too. Remember it is still beneficial and we do have some people come here three times per week. We have to remember that a lot of them are also doing some cardio, and cardio is different Cardio the threshold is at least three times per week for cardio, whole different animal.
Speaker 1:Like two times per week for cardio is not going to create the adaptations. It is for strength training, all right, two times per week for cardio is not. It's not. It's going to barely really even maintain you. So that's a whole different animal and that's for another day. But strength training, wise, two times per week is the threshold we need. Three times per week for, you know, some of our clients, for example, this is the exercise that they get and then they might play some pickleball, they might walk a little on their own. But this is it so for them, because they know themselves and they know they're not going to do it without an appointment.
Speaker 1:And there's no shame in that, because you know, asking for help is an absolute strength. It is not a weakness, it's really a weakness to think you got it on your own and then you don't do it Like. Isn't that a weakness? And if you have ever been on a team which I think all of us have, whether it be a team in sports, a team in business, a team in our job, a team in our family, don't we kind of like really get annoyed with that family member or teammate or office mate who, like, always says they got this, never asked for help, and then they don't do it, like they got this, never ask for help and then they don't do it. It's a weakness to not ask for help. I can't say that enough.
Speaker 1:So I don't want anybody to feel bad that they're asking for help, whether it be with a trainer for accountability, with a psychologist to help them with some of their mental health problems or issues, or a therapist. I mean God, I do all of it. I mean it's all good, right. I mean asking for help is a great thing, right. It makes you strong, it doesn't make you weak. So I just wanted to put that out there, because I hear that sometimes from people Shouldn't I do this on my own? I'm like why? I mean, are you going to, are you going to do all that you need to do? No, ok, so then your answer is no. I mean you know we all have areas where we're good and we need help. You know we're. We all have areas where we're the ones helping and we all have areas where you know we're being helped. I think so anyway. So Back to frequency.
Speaker 1:The real point is, if you're not doing two days a week of strength training, you almost are wasting your time. You need to figure out how to do it and then, of course, then we get into the other issues of intensity. Sure, all that, but none of that matters if you're not showing up. None of that matters if you are not getting it done Right, if you are not getting it done right. So, like here's an example it is Tuesday morning for me I don't know when you're listening to this, but I have a client every Tuesday morning at 645, seven o'clock basically, and they've been coming to me. They might be the longest ones on the schedule now. They might be the longest ones going right now. They go back well over 20 something years when I was in the flying. I know that they were coming then. That's when they started actually, so probably around 96. Jeez God, I've been doing this a long time. So, yeah, so they've been coming back that long.
Speaker 1:So early on he came by himself twice a week because he, you know, really needed to get back in shape. He was in dire straits. And then after a while he's you know, he's a fit, pretty strong guy. He needed some help. After a while he started bringing his spouse, and you know he likes to go to the gym. So what he decided for him was he was going to come to me one time a week to get an extra push, which he does for sure, and you know. So accountability, you know for him that one week, one time a week schedule is going to work really good for accountability. And you know the extra push and ask questions when he needed it, just to make sure he was staying on top of things. And then he was going to hit the gym at least one other time and he said preferably a third time. Now that works fine. You know why? Because he does it.
Speaker 1:Since I've known him he has gone to and now his spouse goes to a second gym. They move their second gym around quite a bit. Whatever who cares right goes to a second gym. They move their second gym around quite a bit. You know, whatever who cares right, I mean to me I look at most of the gyms as like equipment rental places, right, I mean, that's what we're using them for, and if they have nice equipment, then decent hours and price. I suppose I don't think he cares much about that. But you know, whatever he wants the equipment, but it works. So you know, when I say you got to work out two times per week, it's not, like you know, with your trainer. I mean that's great, some people are not going to do it like him on their own. But you just got to get it in two times per week, man, you just have to. I mean strength training is so important. I mean so important, I mean it is so critical.
Speaker 1:I have a friend who is deep into triathlon. She's really competitive and she's biking 50 something miles on her long day. She's running 11 to 13 miles on her long day. She's swimming three times per week, one of them in the ocean, and then running track and doing all these things. So her schedule is already full. Yet she does not skip her strength training two times per week. I think she does it on Mondays and Wednesdays. Does not skip because it is so important. She understands that this is the way to keep the skeleton strong, you know, to keep the muscles on the body, cause as we age we lose muscle and cardio does not maintain the muscle. If we do too much cardio it actually eats the muscle. I'm not saying I'm against cardio. I love cardio. I ran this morning. I ran most days, most mornings in the week, but I just try and train to keep up the muscle mass. It is so critical and she gets it. So she does it after a day's work. She makes sure that she goes to her facility and strength trains full body a couple of times per week. Does not miss even when she's tired. So we have to make it work. If we travel a lot, we've still got to do it.
Speaker 1:Because I'm going to leave you with this very startling fact we begin to atrophy after 96 hours. 96 hours, okay, Whisper a little. I learned that when I taught, because it makes people listen. 96 hours, that's four days. We begin to atrophy. That doesn't mean you take your 21 inch Cobra Python arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger, bring them all the way down to 13 inches after four days. No, but it does mean that we begin the process. So if we're atrophying after four days which is why one day a week is only enough to maintain, because we hit it again, we fight off the atrophy and then it starts the process again. So if we're not hitting a frequency of two days per week, we are starting to atrophy and we atrophy after 96 hours. We have to stay with it. So if we travel, if we get busy, we have to find a way to get in our necessary strength training. What is our necessary strength training? Again, the acute program variables make it very simple for us All the major muscle groups so your thighs, your torso, your arms, your shoulders, your core need to be trained every two to three days per week. Have to, or they're going to atrophy. How are you going to make that happen? Out of all the acute program variables, if we don't get the first one, the frequency, there is no way we're getting the other three.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to today's program. I ask you to please follow the show wherever you get your podcasts and please select automatic download, because that really helps the show. Now I want to thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, the area's premier garage door company. They have the best product. They have the best service. I personally vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. They are great people with a great company. If you have any garage door needs, please give them a shout at 386-222-3165.
