[ENG] ☕ Il Caffe' Dell' Alchimista- Coffee with the Alchemist ⚗️ Bill DeSimone Trainer, Author

🧪 Today in our Lab 🥼 we are going to have a coffee ☕ with Bill DeSimone.

Bill DeSimone, a renowned personal trainer and accomplished author. His unique perspective has challenged conventional wisdom, opening new doors to a healthier and more efficient approach to fitness.
Bill DeSimone has spent several years applying biomechanics to weight training instruction, in order to minimize the risk of both crippling and cumulative injury.
Bill’s personal interest started with the muscle magazines of the 1970s, which led to Mike Mentzer and the High Intensity approach. He describes his training as “HIT influenced, not pure HIT”, because of other resources and activities.
In addition to the personal training, staff training, and presentations, Bill consults with individual trainees worldwide.

We will talk about: #resistancetraining #congruentexercise #momentarmexercise #biomechanics #bodybyscience #arthurjones

Some of the topics we'll discuss:
-Meaning of Congruent exercise
-Why your back is your back, at work as well at the gym
-Full range of motion
-How Functional Exercise was born and the reason why the name is meaninless (at least outside marketing)
-Conditioning Exercise
-Whole body Vibration
-How to feel the burning muscle in 1 min, safely 30-30-30
-Which book we do both have
-Breathing during exercise and Valsalva
-Workout Routine
-Mike Mentzer
-Why color pictures are distracting

FOCUS ppt https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/u81czzs5dpnxe9rzch6mq/fOCUS-APRIL-23.pdf?rlkey=436n327zajgtatsb7chu0enmo&dl=0

*note: episode recorded in 2020*

Episode Sponsored by ThinkFit https://thinkfit.app/ "Live Intentionally - Combine Productivity with Wellness for a Balanced, Meaningful Life."

Hit LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to support this channel! 😌

Bill Books Congruent Exercise: How To Make Weight Training Easier On Your Joints http://www.amazon.it/dp/1467930415/ref=nosim?tag=thealchemi0f1-21
Joint-Friendly Fitness Home Gym Edition: The Optimal Home Gym Exercise Program (English Edition) Formato Kindle http://www.amazon.it/dp/B0BP8CSWLT/ref=nosim?tag=thealchemi0f1-21
Congruent Exercise: How To Make Weight Training Easier On Your Joints by Bill DeSimone http://www.amazon.it/dp/B01F9QAVEO/ref=nosim?tag=thealchemi0f1-21
Joint-Friendly Fitness: Your Guide to the Optimal Exercise Program http://www.amazon.it/dp/SUPFHW18N7YY/ref=nosim?tag=thealchemi0f1-21 Moment Arm Exercise: 20th Anniversary Edition (English Edition) http://www.amazon.it/dp/B0BXQ6LLWV/ref=nosim?tag=thealchemi0f1-21
Other books:
Body By Science Book (ENG) http://www.amazon.it/dp/0071597174/ref=nosim?tag=thealchemi0f1-21
The New High Intensity Training: The Best Muscle-Building System You've Never Tried http://www.amazon.it/dp/1594860009/ref=nosim?tag=thealchemi0f1-21
The Body Fat Breakthrough: Tap the Muscle-Building Power of Negative Training and Lose Up to 30 Pounds in 30 Days http://www.amazon.it/dp/1623361036/ref=nosim?tag=thealchemi0f1-21

Links http://congruentexercise.blogspot.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@optimalex
Designing The Best HIT Workout Program For Safety & Results (Bill DeSimone's Joint-Friendly Fitness) Joint Friendly Fitness | Bill DeSimone | Full Length HD
How an injury led to Bill DeSimone becoming the b

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to another episode in English withthe Alchemist. Today we are going to
dive deep into biomechanics, weight training, oh intensity resistance training with a renown
personal trainer and accomplish author. Butnot only his unique perspective has challenged conventional

(00:23):
wisdom, opening new doors to ahealthier and more efficient approach of fitness.
We are talking about Built Desimon.Build DeSimone spent several years applying by a
mechanics to weight training in order tominimize the risk of both crippling and commulative
injury. With his talk, heprovides an overview of his approach. We

(00:49):
are going to review his latest book, Joined Friendly Exercise, and check in
with him about his previous brooks CongruentAcis Sise and moment harm Exercise. This
episode, recorded in twenty twenty,has got all the show notes updated with

(01:10):
the most updated links to the workof Build Simon. Now the coffee is
quite ready, so let's jump intoit. I mean into the podcast,
of course, not into the coffee. Enjoy Bill. I want you today

(01:34):
well yourself, yeah, fine,thank you. I really loved your last
presentation on a focus from a recconference. We will talk a little bit
more during this interview. But firstI would like to start with your first
works. I think they were thefirst two books you wrote, Momentum Exercise

(01:59):
and Congruent Exercise. I am correct, yes, but saying the first two
books makes it sound like there's dozens. Those are the only two. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Moment arm wasfirst around two thousand and three or

(02:21):
so, and then Congruent was aroundtwenty twenty twelve, and the next one
will be coming out soon this year. So I don't like to give myself
eight or nine years between between effortsbecause of good work required time. Yeah,

(02:46):
yeah, I really, I reallyloved the Congrevement exercise. Well thanks,
yep, let's gone, well,thank you. But you know,
I don't want to just rewrite otherpeople's stuff. So a long time ago,

(03:12):
someone told me the way you makemoney on the internet is not to
wait until it's one hundred percent good, or eighty percent good, or even
fifty percent good. If it's justtwenty percent good, just put it out.
Someone will buy it, and justkeep putting stuff out. And I
thought about that, and I decidedthat's not what I wanted to do.

(03:35):
I'd rather put something out so whensomebody sees my name. They know,
there's some some some thought or somesomething, some unique effort behind it,
not just hacking out, you know, rephrasing Arthur Jones for the young teenth

(03:55):
time. Yeah, yeah, Ifull in line, we do and I
am the same uh more or lessthe same same style. But is your
next book at the Joint the FriendlyFitness Project? Correct? Correct, Yeah,
we will talk a little bit,and yeah, the the the book

(04:16):
will just be Joined Friendly Fitness.The the word project refers to the internship,
the book, or any of theother material I put out and even
including the training I I do.So, so the project is really just

(04:40):
a way of describing the overall workso that there's a there's a theme.
So so for instance, you probablywon't see me doing anything on diet or
on you know, motivational skills becauseit's not related to Joint Friendly. You

(05:00):
might see, you know, you'lldefinitely see work from me having to do
with weight training and Join Friendly andmaybe cardio, maybe stretching and Joined Friendly.
But that's kind of the that's thetheme I want to be associated with
of exercise instruction that's not going tohave an unintended consequence perfect that that that's

(05:26):
the point, that's the good pointtoday in particular. But I really love
the way the sketches. Who isdrawing all the things in the in the
joint friendly fitness, and that's that'sthat's pretty much me cool cool. I
really love the green red all thepositions. Well, yes, yes,

(05:50):
started for for all the people.Okay, in Italian and we are congruent
is translating congruent the means that.But but maybe it's just to be on
the same page. What's your definitionof congruent? What? What doesn't mean
exactly right? Hit congruent exercise?Okay, Well I stumbled onto the word
when I was doing moment arm exerciseand literally, in I guess in mathematics,

(06:16):
it means coinciding exactly when superimposed,so specifically a curve. So for
instance, you know, if youhave if you have, if you have
this kind of curve and another curvejust happens to be bigger, but when
you bring them together, it's thesame curve that would be congruent. So

(06:44):
in moment arm, I was usingit somewhat literally to describe a muscle toward
curve and the curve that the resistancemade during during the exercise. In the
congruent exercise, I was using alittle bit more of as a metaphor.
I was using safe joint postures fromanatomy and biomechanics and applying that to exercise,

(07:11):
so that how you did an exercisematched the safe joint postures from anatomy
and biomechanics. So that was alittle more of a metaphorical congruent as opposed
to a literal congruent. Possibly alittle too fancy for most people who want
to lift weights. Yeah, yes, just look sounds scientific about It is

(07:33):
scientific because, as you mentioned,it's based on matching curves, so matching
also and looking at the biomechanics,which is really important, and in the
moment and in the exercise in particular, looking at the for example, and
I think on your yes, youwant to add something, well, let

(07:56):
me let me just make a pointhere the metaphor aside. People might be
aware of protecting their back at workor just in daily living, of not
putting their joints in a vulnerable position, But then they walk into a gym

(08:18):
and they grab a kettlebell, orthey go on an exercise machine, or
they grab a bar bell, andthey and they think that they don't think
there's any relationship. So the sameperson who protects their back at work will
then go deadlift with a rounded lowerback, or swing a kettlebell between their

(08:39):
legs and round their lower back.It's the same back. The same rules
should apply whether you're in a gym, or you're in a workplace, or
you're an orthopedic surgeon. So youknow, congruent might be a little a
little little pressuous, or I mightspeak to a certain audience, but that's

(09:05):
really what it means. It meansnot treating your body. Definitely, just
because you walked in a gym andyou're calling an exercise, yes, talking
about today, this this this topicwhich is really really wide. I have
a few questions after reading a congruentexercise, and also because I receive a
lot of questions from my my clientsand my my colleagues, can you please

(09:31):
define the full range of motion?And and then we go a little bit
deeper between what is name mobility andand what is flexibility. So there are
these terms are often confused and mixedtogether. But starting with the full range
of motion, well, you knowthat that's a phrase that that to my

(09:58):
to my experience, I first cameacross that phrase in the Arthur Jones Nautilus
influenced writing in the seventies, andin context, that phrase was never in
the bodybuilding magazines of the seventies,and I think the the the norm at

(10:24):
the time and weight training. Sowhen Jones came along with I don't think
he actually used the phrase full rangeof motion, but that was what came
out of it. So if you'reused to moving a bicep just in here,
and now you move the bicep whereyou load the bicep in a longer

(10:48):
range, it probably is an improvement. The problem was that got interpreted as
if a little bit longer of arange is good than a very extreme range
is going to be better, andthat's where you're run into problems. So
many people outside of the Hit influenceother than me, have explained what is

(11:16):
so sloppy about the phrase full rangeof motion. For instance, there's a
passive range of motion around the joint. There's the full range of motion of
freewight exercise, there's a full rangeof motion of a machine exercise. There's
an active range of motion around thejoint. So in the context of short

(11:39):
pumping movements, that bodybuilders did fullrange of motion meant something. But the
further it gets out of that context, the more inexact it becomes, until
it becomes an extreme range of motion, which is definitely problematic. And the
reason why an extreme range of motionis problematic is that you end up loading

(12:07):
vulnerable positions of the joints, whichis what caused those unintended consequence of exercise,
mainly injury or chronic conditions being madeworse exactly, And what what is
the limits or the relationship between thisexcess of range of motion during exercise and

(12:28):
what is called overstretching, or isany any any any relationship, universal relationship,
or I mean, is one dangerousfor the other? Well, it's
very tough to talk in generalities comparedto talking about specific exercise. Okay,

(12:48):
but in general, if you havea so for for instance, if you're
used to moving your bicep in thisrange of motion and now you're going to
stretch, that's an entirely different scenariothan if you're now going to try to
take an extreme range of motion,straighten the elbow, bring your on back

(13:13):
behind you. If you try toload that second position, you're basically loading
where the joint comes together, you'reno longer stretching the muscle to get more
work out of the muscle. You'reattacking the joint. Now, look,
it's easier to just to say morerange of motion is better and just interpret

(13:35):
it randomly for every joint, forevery exercise. It's certainly easier. It's
just it's just not helpful. It'sjust not a good strategy. The real
answer, which is what I've triedto do in these books, is to
look at the individual joint, seewhere the vulnerable positions are, and then

(13:58):
change the exercise instruction to avoid loadingthe vulnerable positions. When we talk about
functional exercise, because nowadays we haveeverything functional from nutrition to exercise to everything
is functional todays nowadays. So becauseyou also talk about functional exercise in your

(14:26):
course on a hit tuning platform,is define what what what doesn't mean?
When? When this term was born, in which context and now how it
is used. Well, that that'swhy I wrote that unique course because it's
it's functional training has become like thephrase full range of motion, and that

(14:50):
it means whatever the speaker says,it means mhm. So when I was
when I was started as a personaltrainer in nineteen eighty three. The physical
therapists that I worked there, theyused functional training to describe their goal in

(15:13):
exercise for patients, So they didn'tnecessarily want their patients to get better at
doing exercises. They wanted them toget to function better outside the gym.
So they were more concerned with stabilizingthe joint, coordinating the muscles and the
joints so that the person could goabout their day activities of daily living and

(15:37):
not reinjure themselves compared to what wewere trying to do, which was to
make everybody into Mike Mentzer or Casey. But now, almost forty years later,
functional training is just a catch allphrase that it means so many different
things. It almost means nothing.But now, the reason why we labeled

(16:02):
the name that course for hit UNIthat way was even though it's a it's
a it's a meaningless phrase, mainstreamaudiences have come to expect it, and
they're at least familiar with the phrase, the fact that it almost is meaningless
is almost lost on them. Sothe reason why we we titled the course

(16:26):
to hit Uni Functional Training and hitor or whatever it exactly was, was
so that when a new client comesand maybe they're not as enmeshed in the
Nautilus machines or the the the highintensity world as a lot of the providers

(16:52):
are. So if a new clientcame to present yourself in a and they
would say, just as a screeningquestion, oh do you do functional training?
Instead of saying no and going intoa lecture as to why the phrase
means nothing and turning the client off, you simply say yes, with being

(17:17):
able to explain how you're going toapply it. I've never understood the HIT
fascination with lecturing potential customers, soI think the mainstream of possible clients is

(17:37):
far more familiar with the phrase functionaltraining than they are with high intensity training
or cams or any of the buzzwordsthat came out of HIT. The idea
behind that course was here's what youcan find that's useful, and here's how

(18:00):
you would apply it, still inthe framework of say a thirty minute workout
two or three times a week.But in reality, when you do congruent
exercise, you do exercise in theright way. You are doing the functionally
to what you are going to doin your life. So I mean the
concept is still is valid anyway youdo something to be functional in the real

(18:23):
world. This is the concept.Well, I don't know if I would
go that far. No, okay, So for instance, if you do
if you do congruent exercise, thepoint of congruent exercise was how to exercise
and not again, not bring onunintended consequences to your joints. It was

(18:48):
about exercising safely. Now to thedegree that what you get from that exercise
helps you in the non exercise world, great, But it wasn't specifically designed.
Can ruin exercise is design for whatyou do in actual workout. I'm

(19:11):
not going to claim that if youtrain, if you move the weight slowly
and you follow my ranges of motion, that's going to make you a better
runner or more agile on the basketballcourt. And I think the implication of
functional training is that you're going tospecifically do things to get better at other

(19:32):
things. Whether that works or notis a different question. But my stuff
is specifically aimed towards what you doin exercise and not have the unintended consequence.
Whatever benefits you get from that,great. But if you want to
get but if you have a specificweakness or if you want to get better

(19:56):
at something outside of the gym,that's where what I would consider functional training
would come in. So, forinstance, what I said in the course
was you start with the basic halfhour controlled exercise based routine and then but

(20:18):
then at a certain point, especiallyif you overemphasize intensity and failure, at
a certain point, the form breaksdown for the sake of getting the additional
rep or adding the additional pound.The reality of it is, most skeletons
are gonna fairly quickly come up uponthe amount of weight that they can handle

(20:40):
safely. So now the question is, okay, what else do you do
with it? Excuse me? Ifthat individual in front of you has aspirations
other than the workout in the gym, that's where you pull select things from
functional training in for instance, ifthey're going to do a sport that has
a has a rhythm different from whatyou're doing in the gym. So for

(21:06):
instance, if you're gonna know,if somebody wants to run a five K,
that's a different conditioning than what youknow whole body exercise based exercise delivers.
If somebody wants to play basketball orvolleyball, where they're going to have
to jump repeatedly. Practicing to jumpsafely is different than what than doing a

(21:33):
slow leg press, So they mightbe complementary congruent exercise and functional training if
you need the functional training. Soif if the congruent exercise gives somebody what
they need, then fine, there'sno reason to go past that. If
if somebody has a shoulder problem,a back problem or not, it's not

(21:56):
a problem yet, it's just it'sjust a discomfort, it's just weakness,
well then maybe you pull in somespecific core stabilization exercises. So my point
being though, that sort of likethe original novelist protocol, which was,
look how efficient we made weight training, so you have time to practice more,

(22:19):
the practice being the functional aspect ofit. That I think is the
right context with this stuff. Idon't think anyone should be a be all
end all agree. Yeah, good, good, good overview, I think
is a good point of view.Yeah. I think you mentioned when you
mentioned now to this point of vieweight is anything related with for example,

(22:42):
for instance, if if I wantto play basketball, I already jump a
lot during my practice, so whyI need to jump again during my exercise
of practices? That's it's that's thecontext. Well that's a good point.
Yeah, yeah, you know.Now, for instance, so let's say

(23:04):
right now you can't practice with ateam. Yeah, okay, Well then
maybe I would incorporate skipping rope orsome kind of jumps in the workout,
just so your body so the firsttime you do it in the sport in
competition isn't the first time your bodydid it. However, I would not

(23:26):
use that. I would not usethat type of activity for conditioning. Yeah.
So once the person practices a fewjumps and once you get it,
stop because if you train that tofailure, that's going to lead that that
is going to lead to a problem. This episode is browth by think Fits

(23:49):
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fit, you will get more meaningfulthings done. You would reduce interruptions,

(24:11):
you will know how to manage interruptions. You will physically move more with a
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and get things done. But youhave fit points in reward. Go today

(24:37):
to think fit dot app and try. You will be surprised. So you
know, once someone gets the hangof an agility drill or skipping rope or
applyometric jump, once a person getsit star uh. So this way the

(25:02):
body remembers the last thing the bodydid was how to do it safely,
and not that you keep going backto it, and now fatigue makes technique
technique flaws creep in, and nowyou're just practicing bad technique. So I
think there is a way there.There is a way to do this stuff

(25:23):
without getting too overboard with it,which, as with anything else, is
really where the problem is. Whatgoing into to some personal questions, I
I got I got your you're areyou using the whole body vibration in your
practice? And then we use thisvibration I have here a whole body vibration

(25:47):
machine. But just of so,what do you think? What are your
thoughts? Have you ever integrated thiskind of stuff in your practice? Now?
Formally no, I think there issomething to it in the terms of
stabilization. So for instance, ifyou're on a when you stand or squat

(26:11):
on a vibration plate, if yourbody doesn't stabilize the joints, you're basically
gonna well, you know, industrialvibration is a negative, right, they
try to minimize industrial vibration. Idon't think the whole body vibration for exercise

(26:33):
is quite as extreme. So thepoint of it, though, is for
your body to stabilize the joints asit's experiencing vibration. So there probably is
a use for it. So forinstance, I don't mind doing my weight
training workout and then doing a separateyoga or separate separate exercises for the postural

(27:00):
muscles mhm. But you could certainlysubstitute the whole body vibration for that that
piece of the workout, okay,because I think ultimately that's that's where I
think it's working at, is inthe body practicing stabilizing the posture. In

(27:22):
that case, it's it's against themechanical vibration. When you do yoga or
or plates, you're you're putting yourbody in a sort of an all you're
practicing holding an awkward position. Sosimilar different mechanisms, but similar goals.

(27:44):
Clear clear and talking about awkward precition, because another thing I from France and
family and so is a you needto feel the burn in your muscles to
to have an effective or workout.So this is something I try to explain
that this is so is it rightto tell them if you do the exercise

(28:10):
not in a congruent way, orof course you're feeling something like the maybe
the burn that someone is is itrefecting? As Okay, my muscle is
working, I'm doing something. Howhow you you? You will? You

(28:30):
will manage? This kind of questionso interesting because sensation is very compelling.
So if a person's muscle burns andthey're not used to experiencing that before,
it's very convincing. However, it'snot necessarily accurate. You can make the

(28:52):
muscle burn, not because the exerciseis challenging the strength or the conditioning of
the muscle. You might just notbe giving it a break. And the
lack of gas, it builds upso quickly that you kind of artificially bring
it on. So that's also likecramping. You know, if you do

(29:15):
a concentration curl, or if youdo some kind of like leg extension and
you focus on the end positions,you can feel the muscle cramp. And
with fifty years of Muscle magazine mythbehind it. The person says, oh,
wow, that's really effective. Well, it may be that effective training

(29:42):
burns and makes you sore and createsa cramp. That may be, but
just burning, getting sore and havinga cramp doesn't mean it's effective exercise.
It doesn't work both ways. So, you know, the reality of it
is some people can't reach Some peopleare you know, they want to be

(30:03):
part of a larger something, andif they're locked into this idea that oh
the burn I have to burn,I have to want to vomit, I
have to I have to be gasping. Yeah, sometimes you just can't reach
them. But what I try todo is coach them in the way I
want them to do the exercise andthen bring on the burn or then let

(30:27):
the pump happen. You know,they may have to be more patient because
it's going to be the end ofa set of ten or fifteen repetitions,
or for instance, what I've beendoing a lot lately is ten repetitions in
one minute, so five and thirtyseconds, which is a bit slower than

(30:52):
people a bit slower than people naturallywant to go. So if you take
someone who isn't super slow influenced.For instance, and they do ten repetitions,
they're probably going to do about tenreps in thirty seconds. They're probably
going to try to just pump themout if you slow them down so that

(31:15):
they do ten reps in a minute, and then they lower the weight and
try to hold it halfway for anotherthirty seconds. Well, now they're gonna
burn and the muscles are gonna pump, but it's going to be done safely,
so they have to be patient.They have to wait to get to
that minute, and then they getthe sensation as opposed to getting sensation in

(31:37):
the first twenty seconds because they're justfrantically, you know, fluttering their wings.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, perfect, Yes,
Yes, were fully in line,and in particular you mentioned that, okay,
this burn may be made because oflactic acid. Then they weigh it's
performat. The most dangerous way isto put the leambs in a natural position

(32:02):
during the exercise, so they areit's not the burner by muscle, but
by tenons, by impinchment, bysomething else that degrees. That's right.
They confuse the sensation of the musclebeing worked thoroughly with discomfort and the joint

(32:22):
and and and that's the problem withrelying on sensation. Okay, So now,
as as a trainer dealing with clients, what I might do at the
end of this set. I mightdo something to make sure the muscle burns
if that person is so motivated,but that's after having after having made them

(32:46):
work safely. Then I would throwin the concentration curl or the manual resistance
or some Then I would throw insome technique to muscle make the muscle burn,
because it is so compelling, Butthe bulk of the work that first
minute is done safely and congruently,and then the burn is just the dessert.

(33:15):
Unless I saw you doing a lotof thirty thirty thirty, which is
for me, it's a pain justwatching at you doing this, so is
I don't do that a lot though. You know, you know what happens
when you put something on video,you put something in print, it's there

(33:36):
forever, and it implies the personproviding that information is doing it forever,
and really it's that's just a snapshotin time. You know. You mentioned
McGuff and the Big five, andI'm a little older than that, so
I relate to Darden's material. Butthe problem is against once these guys commit

(34:00):
something to print or video, theirown thinking might have changed in the interim,
maybe subtly or maybe dramatically, butyou go back to that same printed
piece of material and it doesn't change, and you think that's the way it
is and the way it only is, and in reality, it's it's a

(34:22):
it's a process. You know,it's not a it's not a you know.
You know this, uh, thisis from the nineteen thirties. You
know, how to become a muscularhe man. And there's a certain you
know some there are a few linesin here that are pretty good, and
there's a lot of stuff in herethat you wouldn't really want to do.

(34:44):
But if somebody got this into someone, you know, if someone was enamored
of this in the thirties, they'rethinking for the next eighty years, this
is how to do it. Andagain there's some gems in here. But
you know, things change change overtime, things change as your physique ages,
as your joints age. You know, when you look at my stuff

(35:07):
for anybody else's stuff, keep inmind that that's a a way they were
doing it at the time or anexperiment they were doing at the times,
not necessarily an ongoing thing. Forinstance, Well, Darden did write about

(35:30):
thirty thirty thirty. In subsequent writingshe talked about some drawbacks that came up
as he was doing it, andso he modified it a bit. But
of course it's very tough to becurrent with everything nowadays. Yeah, there's
too much stuff out there. You'reright, Yeah, but in general your

(35:51):
work is based on something that ismore I mean biomechanics, muscle, not
on me and not einging and sofrequently I mean over time, So you
work it very much. Yeah,then of course the thirty thirty thirty may
be a tool in the toolbox forI don't know, certain goals objective or

(36:14):
to vary variations. I don't know. Yeah, of course, just asked
a few questions before closing. Iwant like to you know a little bit
the importance of breathing during exercise inyour practice, because I tell you to
tell you why, because a lotof trainers nowadays, Okay, see you

(36:34):
breathe in during this eccentric and breadout, conetic, so and so forth.
In other another books I've read,Okay, now, breathe naturally as
you, but the important is toavoid about salvo or something like that.
So what is your your approach oryou're thinking about breathing right, Okay,

(36:55):
So conventional Wade was to say,in hell the start of the rep exhale
as you left, and then inheale as you lower the weight. Problem
with that is that's fine at thefirst repetition, but as you get deeper

(37:19):
into the set, you naturally wantto breathe faster. So what I might
do is I might start that way, but then I just remind people just
to keep breathing and if they haveto kind of pant, you know,
just the fact of breathing is what'simportant, not the timing of it,

(37:42):
because otherwise what happens is, let'ssay you have a nice rhythm of five
repetitions in thirty seconds, and nowsince you have to breathe heavier, you
speed up the repetitions. Well,now you've kind of lost a little bit
of control of the set. SoI'd rather, you know, I might
tell someone to start that way,but then I just remind them to keep

(38:06):
breathing as they're doing it. Now, the valsalva thing where you choke off
the air very natural thing for peopleto do because I think what's happening there
is that you know, on theon the backside of your body, you
have the spine for support, butyou don't have a spine in the front.

(38:30):
So what people are doing unconsciously isby choking off the air, you
create an air column in the frontto be have some stability in the front
of your torso. And maybe ifit's a life or death situation, that's
a good strategy. I think mostof us aren't training people through life and

(38:51):
death situations, so I think it'sprobably better to keep breathing rather than to
choke it off. I think,you know, once you start playing with
choking the air off, you startgetting involved with with blood pressure complications.
And if you're dealing with young athletes, it's probably not significant. But if
you're dealing with an older population,now you're you're, you know again,

(39:16):
getting back to unintended consequences. Youknow, the more the more vulnerable the
person is other health concerns. Now, now you're again, Now you're you're
you're, you're you're poking the you'repoking the bear. You're you're you're flirting

(39:37):
with a problem that doesn't not reallynecessary so the fact that the breathing is
important, not the timing perfect perfectand in term of general rules for exercising
in terms of order and the sequence, so starting with big ones be muscled.
So do you have any preference?Is just well, you know,

(40:02):
I generally and I don't. Thismay be nostalgia, but I generally tend
to My default is Ellington Garden's oldwork whole body workout, legs, torso,
arms, abdominals, smaller muscles asa general default. However, at

(40:28):
a certain point the the you know, like the whatever you do first,
you're going to do better on justfrom fatigue, either that or the workout
is going to get start to getstretched out, because while maybe you could,
maybe you could use thirty seconds restfor between the first three or four
exercises, but then just from fatigueyou either need to go to a minute

(40:52):
or two minutes rest or that setis going to suffer. Or if you're
gonna keep the same rest period becauseyou want to be done in thirty minutes,
you're just not gonna be able toput the same muscular effort into the
back half of the workout. SoI would generally start with that whole body

(41:14):
routine. But then I might rotate, so that instead of going legs,
torso, arms, small, abominal'sneck, rotator, cough, etc.
Maybe I would go torso, legs, arms, and then another day go

(41:35):
arms, legs, torso, justbecause again you want to give If you
have a half hour to work out, whatever you do first is going to
do better than what you do asecondary. Now, again, if you

(41:55):
you know, I was reading someold Mike Menser stuff, and he writes
about early in his like in theseventy five seventy six area, when he
was getting into high intensity training,that he would rest as long as he
needed to give the same effort,and as a result, his whole body

(42:21):
workouts would last an hour and ahalf. That's a bit different than trying
to get it all done in ahalf hour. If you're trying to get
it done in a half hour wrestling, as long as you can to give
the same effort, you're going toget three or four exercises done, depending
on the client. That might notbe a good solution. So in that

(42:44):
case, what I would would dois I would rotate, you know,
except the fact that the back halfof the workout may not be as good
performance wise, but then rotate theback half of the workout so you get
that fresh some days. But that'sdifferent than anything goes now. One thing

(43:04):
I've learned from working with interns whoare in college twenty twenty one, twenty
two years old, who don't havefifty years of sixty years of reading muscle
magazines and thinking about this stuff isthey don't really know how to put a
routine together. And these are peoplemajoring and exercise. When I asked them,

(43:30):
so what do you do when yougo to a gym as well?
I do a little cardio, Ido a little mobility, I do some
of the weights. I said,but what's the you know, what's the
framework? And they don't really youknow, they don't really have one because
so much of the media is justrandom assembling of exercises and activity with no

(43:52):
priority, with no filter. Inmy time, the seventies, you know,
that's when Nautiluss was getting prominent,and Garden's work and well well,
and even the muscle magazines at thetime, you had routines. You know,
this is what you did for yourshoulders, this is what you're so

(44:15):
the idea of building a workout tosomeone like me, you know, absorbing
all that stuff. That's second naturedesigning a workout. The issue is getting
the person to motivate it, topush hard and stuff. But that is
you know, as Nautiluss has gottenless prominent, and as the muscle magazines

(44:37):
have gone away, that seems tobe a casualty that the workouts are a
little bit aimless. They're just kindof throwing exercises at people because they saw
it recently online somewhere. So sobottom line at is again I would default

(44:57):
to a whole body workout, bigmuscles to little muscles, but at some
point I would start to change theorder so that you can hit different things
when you're fresh. And again that'sassuming you don't want to work out to
get too drawn out. If youdon't mind resting long enough to put the

(45:21):
same effort out there, then youmay never have to change the routine.
You will just rest long enough soyou could give that same effort. Mm
hmm yeah yeah. And this case, I I apply this this this approach
in this case is very useful tokeep trace in terms of I don't know
if you use any any journalingo oranything that because as you mentioned earlier,

(45:45):
the performance will change quite a lotdepending on the So so if you start
with legs first and then you startwith the chest another time, you will
see the numbers will change. Ifyou don't keep trace of the sequence of
the workout, you you you justyou look at the numbers. So how

(46:06):
wow, I did this kilogram ofpounds the last time, and and then
my performance decreasing. It's not it'snot a matter of decreasing the performance,
he said. The fatigue, systemicfatigue is all this this stuff. Yeah,
just to know where to find youand the joint Friendly fitness project status
and timeline. Well, the let'ssee the So each exercise in the book

(46:35):
is going to have four pictures abad start, an optimal start, well
excuse me, an extreme start,an optimal start, an optimal finish,
an extreme finish. So what Ishowed the focus slides, those were the
optimal. I actually, you knowwhat, I showed the optimal and then

(46:59):
I showed the extreme separately. Butin the book they're gonna they're gonna be
on a two page spread. Sowhen you look at an exercise, you'll
see an extreme start, an optimalstart, optimal finish, extreme finish with
with information underneath, So those arethose photos are all taken and now they're

(47:20):
being formatted for for publication. Uh. And then the other the other thing
is the the newsletter I put out, which with the with the hiatus,
I've been able to put out weeklyso uh. And that's really the rhythm
I want to be in because that'sgoing to be the main way I stay

(47:45):
visible, rather than rather than socialmedia for instance. You know. So,
so it becomes kind of a trickhow much content to put in one
newsletter, because I don't want itto be so onerous that people don't read
it. On the other hand,you don't want it to be fluff either.

(48:07):
You want to have something worth opening, worth reading. But I think
I have the I have a rhythmnow of of what topics to include and
just about how much to put in. So generally it will be an excerpt
from Joint Friendly Fitness, and thenthere'll be like a rotating topic, and

(48:29):
then for fun I go into themuscle media sometimes like some some old,
yeah, old articles. Right,I've got a whole bunch of a whole
bunch of ads from the backs ofcomic books in the seventies and eighties advertising
different muscle stuff with some of thestories behind that, which is that's fun.

(48:50):
I mean, that's not that's notparticularly useful, it's just fun.
And then the the other thing I'llrotate in there will just be either either
random excerpts from something else, oryou know, whatever I feel like writing
about. I think last time Iwrote a bit about working out at home,
which didn't really fit into any ofthose categories, but I felt like
doing it. So this way,you know, social media has its pros

(49:15):
and cons, a lot of cons. I think the weekly email is a
good way to communicate with people whoare interested rather than you know, rather
than just scattering stuff on social mediathat gets gets, you know, overlooked

(49:37):
in the next five minutes because somethingelse came along. You know. This
way, people sign up for it, they get it once a week.
If they want to save it readit later, they can if they if
they want to read it right then. And this way it looks more like
a body of work rather than,like I said, just random social media
posts. So no, I fullyagree. Yeah, I am just I

(50:00):
would put the link out where tofind this news letter in the show notes
left after, and I really lovedthe newsletter. I really love they did
this advertising all the old fashioned one. And the other point is the black
and white pictures in your book.So it is a good good choice,
you know. That's that's that's veryinteresting. That's very interesting. In so

(50:25):
number one, color pictures are toodistracting. You start looking at the skin
tone of the person, you lookat the clothes, you look at the
backgrounds. It doesn't really you know, they may look the color pictures might
look more natural, but I don'tknow that they convey the information you want

(50:46):
to convey as well. So that'snumber one. But number two. Part
of this is nostalgia because when Istarted reading the muscle magazines in the mid
seventies early seventies, they were blackand white. Yeah, and and so
they made for a very dramatic photo, right, just like you know film
noir or black and white movies.You know, it's not natural by any

(51:10):
stretch of the imagination, but itcan be very dramatic. You know,
one thing about those pictures too,I'm very careful about showing where the joints
are. And I've seen more thanmy share of muscle media where the subject
was wearing baggy clothes or they blendedin the background, there was no point
to it. And again, togive credit where it's due, Darden had

(51:35):
a book out a few years ago. One minute, So this book,
this book of Ellington Gardens a fewyears ago. Wait, wait, wait
a minute. Okay, yeah,yeah, but but you know, I

(52:04):
thought the layout of the exercise pictures, yeah, was spectacular because and I'm
not doing this exactly right, Imean, he he, You know,
they bleed one picture off the pageand one a small picture, so I'm

(52:24):
not I'm not copying it exactly,but I just think this is such a
clean presentation. You know, thesubject is focused, but the backgrounds are
kind of faded so that you're notdistracted by the clutter in the background.
I just think this is such awell, just such great communication in this

(52:47):
book that I pretty much I mentallyrefer to it all the time whenever i'm
designing something, you know, designingsomething of my own. I'm not a
professional designer. Yeah. So thebook, the newsletter, the internship,
those are those are the main things, right, you know, stuff like

(53:09):
conferences or seminars or even even interviews, that's really not up to me.
That's up to people putting it on. So I try to accommodate that when
it comes up, but that's notsomething I aggressively try to pursue. I'm
probably never You're probably never gonna seeme pop up or be in a banner

(53:34):
ran somewhere, and if you do, I'm not doing it someone else,
you know, clear, clear,Yeah, yeah, No, I just
want to reach you because of youruspiens, because I'm following the intensity podcasting.
Now I've seen more than one time. You're a presentation at the twenty
one convention so is and I'm sure, I'm sure that ninety eight percent of

(54:01):
Italian audience. I think they don'tknow your name or your anything you do.
So I hope this will will spreadthe world among the Italian audience,
just people interested to learn a littlebit more. Oh, it's very nice,
appreciate it. So we are atthe end of the our interview.

(54:22):
I really thank you for your timeand anything. Just let's keep in touch.
I'm really appreciate, thank you verymuch and sorry, but you are
you doing any other presentation with afocus or rec or in the next future,
not not any you know, nothingplanned at the moment. But I

(54:50):
think you know, since March I'vedone I did Cassandra Albs podcast. I
did focus. We're doing this.I have something else, one other thing
scheduled at the moment. So Ithink as as people look for more distractions,

(55:20):
you know, to the degree Ican, I try to accommodate it.
So okay, perfect, perfect,So I leave you to your day.
Here we are at the end ofthe hours day, our day.
So thank you so so much.Anything, just let me know you're very
welcome. You know what, Iwill email you the PDF of the focus

(55:43):
yeah presentation, and there's the linksor whatever it will be in that perfect
Feel free to use that perfect verygood enjoy. Thank you very much.
You're welcome. Did you like thisepisode? If so, simply subscribe comes
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(56:07):
and remember sharing and scrying even forthe coffee even better the next time.
See you soon.