00:00:00The number one thing that I hear from people is,
00:00:02I don't really have time for that.
00:00:03I have a business, I have a family.
00:00:05If you could give me 45 minutes twice a week,
00:00:09that's all you need to do.
00:00:10I hear this a lot now about this science-based training,
00:00:14but I actually don't know what science they're talking about.
00:00:16If it doesn't work in practicality, what's it worth?
00:00:18If you took eight to 10 exercises
00:00:20that covered your whole body and you did it twice a week,
00:00:22that would be enough for the average person.
00:00:24You change your life.
00:00:28- So I know that your opinion on real-world results
00:00:30versus laboratory studies, but these days,
00:00:33let me just put something out there.
00:00:34I'd like to see your response.
00:00:35People will talk a lot about, okay,
00:00:37the studies or muscle biopsies show you train a muscle
00:00:40and stimulate hypertrophy, growth,
00:00:44and then muscle protein synthesis peaks 48 hours later,
00:00:49which means that you can hit the muscle again,
00:00:50ideally three days later or two days later.
00:00:53I tried that 'cause I thought, hey, listen,
00:00:54I'm a scientist, I'll try it.
00:00:56And I immediately started going backwards
00:00:57with my progress, this was a few years ago,
00:01:00and went back to training each thing directly once per week.
00:01:04I went right back to progress again.
00:01:07And so, you know, I'm a scientist trained to do science.
00:01:10So how do you think about something
00:01:12where in a laboratory you can see something
00:01:14like protein synthesis peaks 48 hours later,
00:01:16so therefore train every 72 hours
00:01:18versus the real-world phenomenon?
00:01:21- This is all very interesting,
00:01:22but if it doesn't work in practicality, what's it worth?
00:01:25You know, I hear this a lot now about this
00:01:28science-based training,
00:01:29but I actually don't know what science they're talking about.
00:01:33I mean, some meta studies, I think,
00:01:36but how were those studies carried out?
00:01:39With whom, and so on and so on.
00:01:41I don't know which studies they're talking about.
00:01:43I'm not saying they're not out there,
00:01:44but I'm not familiar with them.
00:01:45I'm not familiar with how they carried out the studies.
00:01:49But if it doesn't work in practicality,
00:01:50does it really matter?
00:01:52- I've spent some time with these,
00:01:53and you might not be surprised to learn
00:01:55that a lot of times it's,
00:01:56you know, we got some college students,
00:01:57they're doing leg extensions.
00:01:59Rarely is it the kind of compound movements,
00:02:02multi-joint movements, sometimes, but not always.
00:02:06Look, my experience with the HIIT,
00:02:08high-intensity, lowish-volume training has been,
00:02:11I'll say it's not just about gaining muscle.
00:02:14I mean, I'm now 50.
00:02:15I know you're almost 64.
00:02:17- Yep, coming up. - Looking amazing.
00:02:19I have to say part of it is also that
00:02:21if one trains the way that you're describing
00:02:23each muscle once per week,
00:02:25focusing on intensity, not volume, and so forth,
00:02:29six weeks or so, then backing off for two weeks,
00:02:31you also find that in your peer group,
00:02:34you're not the one always complaining about pain,
00:02:36and you have energy for other things,
00:02:38which we'll get back to.
00:02:39I mean, unless you're a competitive bodybuilder,
00:02:41most people, including myself,
00:02:43need energy to tend to life and want to be able to not be,
00:02:47it's not the soreness, it's the constant aches and pains
00:02:50that come from overtraining, I think,
00:02:52that most people don't have to live with but think they do.
00:02:56- It depends on your goals, yeah?
00:02:57But I really believe the average person, yeah,
00:03:01that wants to get health benefits
00:03:03from bodybuilding, weight training, resistance,
00:03:05whatever you want to call it, right?
00:03:07Because you've lost muscle mass
00:03:08slowly since maybe 1% a year, since you're 40, right?
00:03:12And this is affecting your health, your metabolism,
00:03:15your ability to process sugar, many, many things, yeah?
00:03:19Bone strength, and the number one thing
00:03:22that I hear from people is,
00:03:24"I don't really have time for that.
00:03:25"I have a business, I have a family."
00:03:27I said, "If you could give me 45 minutes, twice a week,
00:03:32"that's all you need to do."
00:03:35Okay, you need to eat properly and everything like that,
00:03:38but that's all you need to do for the average person.
00:03:40If you took eight to 10 exercises
00:03:41that covered your whole body and you did it twice a week,
00:03:44that would be enough for the average person.
00:03:47One for chest, one or two for back, one or two for legs.
00:03:51Hey, if you want to do some bicep curls and some triceps,
00:03:55you can do it, but you're doing pressing anyway.
00:03:57So for the average person, that would actually be enough.
00:04:00And it's not theory because I've done it with people
00:04:02like I'm saying this gentleman that came along.
00:04:05We put 45 minutes in, nearly an hour, three times a week,
00:04:09'cause I had him doing cardio as well.
00:04:11Well, guess how long the cardio was?
00:04:13Six minutes, six minutes.
00:04:16You have to pedal hard.
00:04:17We're doing sprints, like on an air bike.
00:04:22It's my favorite because it engages every muscle,
00:04:24push, pull, legs.
00:04:26If you do a 20-second all out,
00:04:27and you can see how you got on the side of the thing,
00:04:30can see how much watch you're generating.
00:04:31So now you have a target to hit or exceed every time.
00:04:35So do a minute, minute and a half warm up, whatever.
00:04:39Feel warm, all out, balls out,
00:04:41like the devil's chasing you for 20 seconds.
00:04:44First one's tough, but it's okay.
00:04:46Go down slowly for a minute, do the second one all out.
00:04:50The second one's really tough.
00:04:52The third one is, I've never met anybody
00:04:56that wants to do one after the third one
00:04:58because literally you can't breathe.
00:05:00Again, I think there's a book called "The One Minute Cardio."
00:05:04It's a bit tricky 'cause it's not really one minute.
00:05:07It's one minute of sprints, but it's six minutes in total.
00:05:11And they compared that to 45 minutes of steady cardio
00:05:14on a treadmill or whatever it is.
00:05:16And the results are more or less the same.
00:05:18So what do you wanna do?
00:05:19You wanna spend six minutes or you wanna spend 45 minutes?
00:05:22Or rather do the six minutes.
00:05:23I do a bit of long cardio as well myself
00:05:25'cause I like biking in the mountains and stuff.
00:05:28But if you did that twice a week,
00:05:30along with some weight training, that would be amazing.
00:05:33You change your life literally with that and a good diet.
00:05:36So the whole time thing excuses, it's not relevant.
00:05:41I'm not listening.
00:05:41You don't need a lot of time.
00:05:43- What I love about you is that you've done things
00:05:45at the ultra elite level within bodybuilding.
00:05:49But the advice that you're giving right now
00:05:50is very practical for the everyday person.
00:05:52And I'm not a psychologist,
00:05:53but I'm gonna venture a hypothesis here,
00:05:55which is that some of that has to do with the fact
00:05:57that you grew up blue collar background from Birmingham,
00:06:00working full time while building out
00:06:02your bodybuilding career.
00:06:03You didn't come to it with a briefcase full of cash
00:06:06and have the opportunity to just say,
00:06:08well, how much training can you do?
00:06:10Well, let's figure it out.
00:06:11Like you had to be very practical.
00:06:12And my guess is that you had to be very practical
00:06:14about recovery and nutrition as well.
00:06:17You probably, I'm guessing there was a point in your life
00:06:19where you couldn't afford grass-fed meat
00:06:22shipped in from south of France and this guy.
00:06:25I'm not saying you do that now.
00:06:25- Let me tell you a story, man.
00:06:26When I was a British champion,
00:06:30that was a big thing back then, British champion, right?
00:06:333,000 people in the audience packed out.
00:06:36We had buses coming from our gym, all this stuff, air horns.
00:06:41This great accolade, I'm British champion now.
00:06:43And I went home, I got no car.
00:06:47I'm living in a council estate.
00:06:51It's like projects, you know, council estate.
00:06:54I got no carpet in my bedroom.
00:06:56I don't even have a proper bed, I just got a mattress.
00:06:58I got a TV that barely works and I got a trophy.
00:07:02I'm like, wow, look, I'm British champion,
00:07:06but nobody gives a really like, you know, I do.
00:07:08And the people that's in the bodybuilding community,
00:07:10but this hasn't translated into anything yet,
00:07:13it took me about five years of really like, you know,
00:07:18a hundred percent dedication for me to turn pro.
00:07:23And the ironic thing is, I guess,
00:07:26like when you're starting and you've got nothing,
00:07:28nobody's very interested and nobody wants to help you.
00:07:31When you start, when you become successes,
00:07:33then successful, people want to help you
00:07:35'cause they want to help themselves, which is fair enough.
00:07:37It's a transaction, but until then, no.
00:07:42So I got my first car when I was 25.
00:07:47All my friends were driving 18, 19.
00:07:50But the funny thing is,
00:07:51I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything.
00:07:53I knew I was on this mission.
00:07:55And this in itself was so powerful.
00:07:58Like nobody else had this mission that I was doing,
00:08:02which was to change my life basically.
00:08:04And bodybuilding was the vehicle.
00:08:07So all the guys that I was training with,
00:08:09they were like just watching videos
00:08:11and listen to other guys in the gym.
00:08:13I was reading Mike Mensa, I was reading Arthur Jones.
00:08:16I was trying to figure it out for myself,
00:08:18which means you need a very independent kind of personality.
00:08:26And the fact that I've got all this,
00:08:28every single workout from 1983 to 1997,
00:08:32written down, all the diets,
00:08:34later on when I'm using anabolics,
00:08:35what I'm using and how long and all this stuff.
00:08:38So I could analyze it, see what's working
00:08:41and what's not working.
00:08:43A lot of guys were like shooting in the dark,
00:08:46hoping they're gonna hit something, but they don't.
00:08:49And I didn't have time to waste.
00:08:52This was a mission.
00:08:54I didn't have skills.
00:08:55I didn't have a family, all this stuff.
00:08:57So bodybuilding was my road to change my life.
00:09:02Where it was going at first, I didn't know,
00:09:04but I knew it was going somewhere.
00:09:05I knew I could be very good at it.
00:09:06- You look lean and strong.
00:09:07- Yeah, I'm lean, I'm strong.
00:09:09I don't push too much with the weights.
00:09:11- And you kept your height.
00:09:13A lot of people who don't train start to shrink.
00:09:15- I didn't keep my height.
00:09:16- Really?
00:09:17- I got taller.
00:09:18Went to get some orthotics in my shoes to balance out.
00:09:23And the guy's got the measuring thing.
00:09:26So I just stood on it and said, "You're 183."
00:09:29Like 180, I've never been more than 180 before.
00:09:31- Metric system, folks.
00:09:32- Yeah, yeah, right?
00:09:34It's like six foot, five, 10 and a half, 5'11", maybe.
00:09:38So did I physically grow bone?
00:09:41No.
00:09:41- That's what I thought, 'cause I'm 6'1",
00:09:42I heard you're 5'10", walked in thinking,
00:09:45people usually lose a little bit of height
00:09:47unless they train real hard
00:09:48and they make sure to take very care of themselves.
00:09:50And then I walk in and yeah, you're about six feet.
00:09:53- Yeah, but the thing is, why?
00:09:55Because I've been doing Pilates and functional training
00:10:00and resetting the shoulders back.
00:10:03My posture is much better.
00:10:06So I'm standing straighter,
00:10:07which gives me an extra inch of height.
00:10:10So I've just got my posture really good.
00:10:12I've done yoga for like seven years.
00:10:15I've done Pilates, do some functional training.
00:10:18So it's all about getting this thing in the best shape.
00:10:21I don't have any joint pains.
00:10:22I had hip replacement like 14 months ago, which is great.
00:10:26And I train for what I need.
00:10:28What do I need right now?
00:10:29I need some good cardio, but not excessive.
00:10:32So I do some sprints and some bikes outside.
00:10:35I do a little weight training in order to maintain,
00:10:37not trying to build nothing, just trying to maintain.
00:10:39- What's the split people are going to want to know?
00:10:40- I don't even have a split man.
00:10:42I go in, I generally do some upper body once a week
00:10:45and some lower body once a week.
00:10:46- Some pushing, pulling.
00:10:48- Yeah, I do, you know, things that I can do.
00:10:50With chest and shoulders is very light
00:10:53because of the pushing.
00:10:55So I do some dumbbell press.
00:10:57I do some, what's it called, Bulgarian squats with light weights
00:11:02so I can do one side at a time,
00:11:04but like heavy leg presses and things like that.
00:11:06Why?
00:11:07Why would I do it?
00:11:09It's because potentially risking an injury
00:11:13and yeah, you can like press a ton of weight,
00:11:16but you can't touch your toes.
00:11:19What's the point, you know?
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