cover of episode Episode 394: Andrew Coates on Simplifying Strength Training and Cardio + Avoiding Overcomplication

Episode 394: Andrew Coates on Simplifying Strength Training and Cardio + Avoiding Overcomplication

2024/11/1
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Andrew Coates: 许多健身追踪方法并不准确,关注趋势而非精确数据更重要。定期称重并观察趋势,而非过度关注单次称重结果,更有意义。对于代谢健康的人来说,每天监测血糖毫无意义,关注卡路里摄入和消耗更重要。人们倾向于寻找复杂的健身方法,而忽略了最有效的:规律锻炼和控制卡路里摄入。最佳的锻炼方式取决于个人情况,包括时间、喜好和可及的资源。理想情况下,每周进行90-120分钟的心血管运动和多次力量训练。选择自己喜欢的运动方式至关重要,坚持才能看到效果。将运动与其他喜欢的活动结合起来,例如边阅读边骑自行车,可以提高坚持度。对于减肥来说,力量训练是最有效的方法。力量训练可以带来连锁反应,改善能量水平、情绪和整体生活方式。适量的有氧运动不会影响肌肉增长,除非运动量过大或饮食不当。减肥的关键在于卡路里摄入,而有氧运动可以辅助达到目标。过度运动可能导致收益递减,甚至造成身体损伤。过度剧烈运动可能导致横纹肌溶解症,严重者可能危及生命。长期过度运动会导致肌肉和结缔组织损伤,增加受伤风险。 Jen: 部分观点与Andrew Coates一致,例如认可力量训练的重要性以及避免过度训练的必要性。另外,Jen也分享了自己的经验,例如通过将阅读与有氧运动结合来提高运动的坚持度。

Deep Dive

Key Insights

Why is overuse of fitness tracking methods problematic?

Tracking methods often have inaccuracies and can distract from effective workout routines.

Why is daily glucose monitoring unnecessary for metabolically healthy individuals?

It's unnecessary for those with good metabolic health and doesn't impact overall health goals.

Why should resistance training be combined with cardiovascular exercise?

Combining both improves overall fitness and prevents the myth that cardio 'kills gains'.

Why is it important to find enjoyable forms of exercise?

Enjoyable exercise ensures consistency and long-term adherence to fitness routines.

Why is overexercising risky?

Overexercising can lead to muscle damage, rhabdomyolysis, and joint injuries.

Why is habit stacking beneficial for incorporating cardio?

Habit stacking makes cardio more enjoyable and easier to integrate into daily routines.

Why should fitness approaches be simplified?

Simplifying approaches reduces complexity and distractions, focusing on effective workouts.

Chapters
Andrew Coates discusses the inaccuracies and overuse of fitness tracking methods, emphasizing the importance of trend lines over exact metrics and debunking the myth of daily glucose monitoring for metabolically healthy individuals.
  • Body fat testing has a lot of error built into it.
  • Focus on trend lines rather than exact metrics.
  • Daily glucose monitoring is unnecessary for metabolically healthy individuals.

Shownotes Transcript

Translations:
中文

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits & Hustle. Crush it! Hey friends, you're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits & Hustle podcast, where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self. So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up.

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You are a very strong person. What would you say the top two things that you can like, can you talk about if someone comes for fat loss, what are the top two things that you would tell people to do that may be besides strength training? What would you say? I'd still say strength training is the most important thing. Okay. Damn. But you have, we've already talked about it. What do you think about all these people constantly about the overuse of tracking?

I think a lot of tracking stuff isn't necessarily going to be very accurate. So let's say you're doing body fat testing. There is a ton of error built into every type of body fat testing metric. Plus, I'm also not really particularly concerned with what is your exact body fat in a moment in time. I care more about where you're trending. It's like the scale.

People get really freaked out about the scale. It's actually very valuable information. Just don't weigh yourself once every three months. Weigh yourself on a very regular basis and just watch where it's going. You're going to get fluctuation, but look for the trend line. That's useful data, right? I think that's helpful. I think progress photos, same time of day, same lighting, same outfit compared over time. You can really see changes. Those things are actually quite useful. I like that kind of tracking. I don't personally use any like tracking devices. I think there's some really good ones. My friend Joel Jamison has something called Morpheus, which is

heart rate variability stuff and i mean i know joel i know his expertise i do believe it's the best product on the market there he was just on peter attia's podcast talking about it so he's got credibility in that space some of the other measures of heart rate variability which can see whether you're rested recovered and prepared i mean more things like

The glucose monitoring, the sleep tracking, all these tracking. Glucose monitoring daily is nonsense. It's complete nonsense. It's totally unnecessary. For a person who has generally active good metabolic health, the obsession with what's going on with your blood sugar on a transient daily basis, you're completely looking in the wrong direction.

Yes, do we want to make sure that you have good blood work over time? Sure. But if you're trying to alter your blood glucose regulation on a daily basis, that doesn't matter at all. What matters is calories in, calories out. People don't like to hear that. They don't like to hear that, no. So I think what happens is a lot of people are looking for complicated ways to feel like they're doing productive shit when it detracts from go get your ass in the gym, go lift weights, find a system and parameters that actually gets you to

eat the right amount of calories to your goals, get lots of protein in your diet, and stop complicating the process. I think people create a lot of friction, and I think that they do a lot of things that makes them feel like they're productive. That's distracting at best and interfering with doing useful things at worst. I agree.

Number one, exercise. Biggest bang for your buck, exercise. So I sometimes challenge questions because I know people look for the simple answer, but it completely depends on some of the circumstances. I could say, here, go to this resistance-based routine. The person doesn't have access to that particular routine or that space. Let's say they have access. So I think

again, depends on how many times a week can they go to the gym? What do they like, right? So if I say go workout four times a week, would I love to see most people under optimal circumstances go lift weights for four one-hour workouts a week? I'd love that. If we can get a person to probably about 90 to 120 minutes of cardiovascular activity a week, I'd love that. What pace? You can vary it. I think you mix in

a good volume, zone two is now very popular. It's very trendy. - That's what I'm just telling you, zone two, people are saying zone two. - That's the thing, right? That's what's being branded around now. It's really just low intensity, steady state cardio. Why does that matter? Well, you can, on one hand, it's not as time efficient as HIIT training.

But I mean, sometimes people have the time, but they don't have the recovery capacity. So if you have no time and a lot of recovery capacity, you go short bursts of high intensity stuff, interval based. You go hard, you rest, you go hard, you go rest. Maybe it's some sort of sprint interval on a treadmill. I like things like pushing sleds or kettlebell swings, metabolic type stuff when it comes to, it's still sort of resistance based. Or you can sit on a bike and you can go at different intervals on the bike. I like things like incline walking on treadmills. I like airbagging.

All of those things work really well. And one of the big components is for most people, we can tell them what's quote optimal, but if they don't like it, they won't do it. It doesn't work. So someone, the best answer is to find something that you at the very least understand

Hate the least. Hate the least, right? And if you can find something, you're like, here's a trick that I use. I don't like doing cardio. I find it boring. I'm distracted. I can't listen to a podcast. If I'm driving, cooking, I listen to podcasts. I love it. Like the habits I have. But what I figured out is I'll sit on a recumbent bike, the upright bikes, or I can walk on a treadmill. It works. And I read a book. I'm interested in it. And I feel very productive. There's a seduction of that.

But I'm reading a book I'm interested in. I'm doing cardio, which I actually feel very good. And I go and I vary my intensity. Sometimes I crank up the resistance a bit and I keep it steady for a slightly shorter duration. And sometimes I'll sit on a little bit longer, a slightly lower intensity. And I can feel my heart rates up, but I'm not like not out of breath. And I'm able to actually enjoy the book. And I actually have created this

habit that I like and look forward to. And because I like it and look forward to, I'm willing to do it. What is that? What's the habit of reading of the book while you're on the road? It's sitting and reading a book while I'm sitting on a bike. Right. So that is habit stacking, right? Like there's like you're compounding the habit so you actually will do the other thing. Yeah. I think that's a good point. So you're saying for weight loss, strength training is by far the best thing.

You're still saying that, correct? I still think fundamentally if I were forced to say to someone, I mean, this is a false dichotomy, but hey, you can only do this one thing. I would still say to them, lift weights.

And there's several things that are going to happen is you're getting someone from inactive to active. They are going to burn more calories than they were not doing anything. And what tends to happen is we start to see people like make better choices in their other lifestyle behaviors. When they lift weights, they have better energy. It's going to have a major effect on your energy. It's going to have a major effect on your mood. If your mood improves, you're probably going to be more motivated to get up and move on. It's a ripple effect. Totally.

Basically, exercise is a ripple effect. But you can get that same thing from cardio. Absolutely. Like for me personally, like I don't get myself, my endorphins are not as activated with strength training as they are with cardio. And cardio to me is that one catalyst that...

that will propel everything else for me. I can do weights after that. I can do all the things because my brain now has been activated. And I don't think most people should do strength training in isolation. I would really love, and I was the guy, you know, the guy who lifted weights. It's all about being bulky. I don't need cardio. I believe that. I genuinely subscribe to that. But it was something that was an identity-preserving belief.

And as I dug deeper and deeper into the science of strength conditioning, and as I got older, I'm realizing, no, I also need this conditioning component, this cardio component, and I feel better when I do it. And the old myth is that cardio will kill your gains. Nonsense. Unless you're doing extreme levels of cardio.

high volume or high intensity cardio in the absence of resistance training, in the absence of consuming enough protein and in calorie restriction. That's a really good point. I always, that's my concern because I love jogging on a treadmill for brain activation, for folk being for focus and for like kind of just like getting like kind of kick-starting my day.

That allows me to do all these other things that I would otherwise not want to do as much. Like I said, that's my trigger, my catalyst. But then I get concerned because of the fact that so much out there is about the fact that it's basically breaking down all your muscle mass and you're not getting the gains and you'll be flabby and you'll be skinny fat and all these things. So you're saying that that is not true and it's a myth. I think those are all like...

fear-based myths that permeate. There are so many of them. And again, I keep feeling like I'm repeating myself, but it's not the sexy answer. It's lift weights to preserve the muscle, eat enough protein so that way you're building, maintaining muscle mass, which I find helps get the calories in the range of what you need anyway, because calories are going to be the food that you eat

is going to be the major lever that manipulates fat loss. Cardio then buffers that. And it's the old adage, like you can't out-train a bad diet. Technically you can, just depends on how bad your diet is and how extreme your training is, right? I don't recommend that approach for most people. What about over-exercising? Can you have the opposite return? Like, can you actually have diminishing returns if you over-exercise? Absolutely. I mean, once you get into over-exercising, you're probably also dealing with some sort of psychological shit that like,

i'm not an expert in this stuff but like orthorexia right then just an obsession with right and i'm probably going to use use the wrong definition i tend to think of it more as this concept of an over obsession with like quote healthy living to the point it becomes unhealthy but over emphasis on exercising and it's more on the exercise size versus the dietary restriction size but

But yes, you can really overdo it. You can do so much both muscle damage to by overdoing our resistance rate. So this actually is a very important thing. A, if you in a very short, like let's say someone is brand new to exercising and

And they go jump in and they do five or six intense one hour, one and a half hour workouts a week from having done nothing. They're totally deconditioned into very high intensity, a lot of training to failure. You can tip out past a point where you do so much muscle damage that you could elevate a metabolic waste product of muscle damage called creatinine kinase, which is not to be mis-

confused with creatine, CK. And if your CK levels rise past a certain point, it can overwhelm your kidneys, which can cause, I mean, oversimplifying this, but it can cause organ failure, cascading organ failure. It's called rhabdomyolysis and you can end up in the hospital for it. And

And not to demonize CrossFit, but rhabdomyolysis was actually pretty rare outside of like serious car accidents until CrossFit came around. And then because sometimes people were jumping in too much too heavily, like I said, not to demonize them, but it became more common. And you're having people dealing with rhabdomyolysis. And now I think there's a better understanding of it because it's kind of like NAFLD, non-fatty.

like what is it, non-alcohol fatty liver disease, right? And Peter Atiyah talks about this in his book. It's like, that was not a thing until a recent generation. All of a sudden we're starting to see this show up and like now it's everywhere where you're seeing people who are in their 30s with significant liver damage who are not, it was not a result of alcohol. So it's kind of a more recent phenomenon because of the nature of the change of the world. So the acute risk of too much exercise could be something in extreme cases like rhabdomyolysis.

On a more ongoing basis, well, you're just not recovering. So you're potentially like just doing more muscle damage and connective tissue damage over time than you're actually feeding, resting. You're just overdoing it to the point where you can actually have macro trauma that becomes micro trauma of your joint tissue and you start having joint injuries. Yeah, I like that.

Okay, Andrew, I think we're good. Can you tell people where to find you besides Andrew Coates on Instagram? Yeah, Andrew Coates Fitness on Instagram. It's the hub. My website, www.andrewcoatesfitness.com. Any articles that I get published on anything, I will share through both of those.