TLDR: Weight Lifting is a Waste of Time … So is Cardio and There’s a Better Way to Have the Body You Want — This book is loaded with great information on the diet and exercise. I highly recommend you buy it!
Dr. John Jaquish and co-author Henry Alkire put in a ton of research to write this.
An oft hear complaint about Weight Lifting is a Waste of Time … is that it’s an advertisement for his X3 resistance band product line and his Fortagen supplements.
I would say, yeah, that’s about right. But with more useful exercise and nutrition advice than you’ll ever receive from a doctor or mainstream health literature or reports. It’s an ad backed by mountains of research and development to come up with an effective health system.
He didn’t create his products then come up with the research and studies to back it like most lazy, profit-or-die corporations do. He wanted to discover the diet and exercise for optimal human health and then build his products and recommendations around it. He did a great job.
I’m living proof. Since October 2020 the only exercise I have done is X3 resistance bands and walking. And, since March 2021 I have been on a strict carnivore diet as Dr. Jaquish recommends in his book. He wasn’t the only reason I started the diet, but his research sealed the deal.
At 50-years-old I’m leaner than I’ve been since my 20s. I feel great. And, I haven’t lost muscle because of Dr. J’s exercise bands and his protein intake suggestions.
Also, the thing I love about Dr. J, is that he walks the talk. He experiments on himself. He uses X3 exclusively. And he eats as he recommends. And he puts it all out there. It’s fantastic. And he looks great. Something is working.
Lifting is a Waste of Time … So is Cardio Book Summary
Dr. Jaquish, a biomedical engineer, goes deep! There are 251 citations of scientific papers in this book. Many of those are for meta-analyses, which are collections of multiple scientific studies on the same topic.
He did his homework for this book while asking the question, “what does science show us is most effective?”
He studied exercise and diet with no “dog in the hunt.” No preconceived bias. He wanted the most efficient way to build muscle and lose fat.
Variable Resistance is Superior to Weight Lifting
Heavy loading is the best for muscle strength and hypertrophy, but weightlifting is not the best way to heavy load.
“Lifting a weight light enough to accommodate the weak range means the mid and strong ranges aren’t being worked to anywhere near their full capacity.”
“Weightlifting ends up fatiguing the least amount of tissue possible based on the limitations of the weakest range of motion.”
So what about lighter weight with high repetition. No. It doesn’t build muscle.
The answer is variable resistance.
A Cornell study found that the variable resistance group experienced more strength gains than the weightlifting-only group.
Other studies showed adding elastic bands and weighted chains to traditional bench press increased gains.
A study of basketball players showed improved speed, strength, vertical jump, and lean mass over the control group by adding variable resistance once a week. Variable resistance activates more muscle tissue, so the test subject’s reflexes also improved.
Slow and Steady to Exhaustion
Dr. John suggests constant tension on the muscle with slow and steady movements, no lockout, and no slack in the bands. Go to exhaustion on the full range, then do partial reps to exhaustion. Full failure (he doesn’t like to call it that) is the goal, not reps.
4 Exercises 6 Days a Week
Dr. John’s protocol is 4 exercises one day and 4 different exercises the next day. It takes 10 minutes a day. Start with 4x week, then once you’re used to the protocol move to 6x a week.
The exercises are …
Push day:
- Chest press
- Tricep pushdown
- Overhead press
- Squat
Pull day:
- Deadlift
- Bicep curl
- Bent row
- Calf Raise
He says the recovery window for muscular tissue peaks around 24 hours after exercise and is slightly elevated after 36 hours. Since X3 alternates muscle groups every day, you get about a 48-hour recovery window.
Only do one set per exercise. If you’re doing it right that’s enough.
Long Cardio Sessions Suck
Cardio stimulates cortisol which is a natural stress hormone. Cortisol protects body fat. Doing hours of cardio tells the body to hold on to the fat as long as possible in case of a dire emergency. Also, it minimizes muscle because muscle requires more calories to function.
In a type 2 diabetes experiment, the strength training patients improved blood lipid profiles and glycemic control. The cardio exercise group saw no improvement in these areas.
In a quadricep biopsy comparing a distance runner and sprinter, the marathoner had significant cell damage, while the sprinter did not.
Build Muscle for Best Health
Lean muscle helps the entire body in a multitude of ways including helping to deliver nutrients to organs. And if you want to build muscle you have to go heavy.
Interesting note: slightly higher repetition set with slow and controlled movements to fatigue increased the testosterone the most over lower repetitions with faster more explosive movements.
Trigger Growth Hormone
Growth hormone helps you grow when you’re young. When you’re an adult it protects muscle mass and promotes body fat loss, plus helps repair tendons, ligaments, and skin.
To up-regulate growth hormone you need exercises that activate stabilization muscles. This stimulates the most amount of muscle tissue.
For example, squats increase growth hormone more than leg presses even if you’re leg pressing more weight. Why? Because with squats you’re moving your body through space. You have to keep it upright and stable throughout the range of motion. This requires many more muscles than legs only.
It’s a good thing if your muscles are shaking during an exercise. There’s a lot of stabilization going on.
High-intensity exercise helps you lose fat and build muscle. This is why long-distance runners have less muscle than sprinters.
Hypoxia is a myostatin down-regulator. Myostatin, created by the body, keeps you from growing muscle.
The way you get hypoxia is lower than normal oxygen in the arterial blood. One way to do this is cutting off blood to muscles with a tourniquet, but you can’t perform the exercises properly.
Dr. J suggests another way: constant tension. It has a similar effect to training at altitude including “increased fiber recruitment, acute elevations in anabolic hormones, alterations in myokines, production of reactive oxygen species, and/or cell swelling.”
It’s hard to get constant tension with standard weights because of the drop-off of joint torque and muscle activation. With bands don’t let them go slack at any point in the movement and don’t lockout.
Reluctant Entry Into Fitness Sector
Dr. Jaquish had a flourishing business, Osteostrong, and wasn’t looking to start a fitness business, but as a busy exec, he needed a piece of equipment that was portable and gave him a full-body workout in a short amount of time.
X3 is exactly that. It only takes 10 minutes a day, six days a week.
He also didn’t want to be the model, but he was the only believable choice. He started taking pics from day 1 of using the X3.
He started using his X3 Bar prototype at the age of 40. He went from 190 pounds at 20% body fat to 205 pounds at 11% body fat. In one year he gained 30 pounds of muscle and lost 16 pounds of body fat.
After two years, and DEXA scans confirm this, he gained 45 pounds of muscle and lost 20 pounds of body fat.
Optimal Nutrition
Dr. Jaquish figured out the exercise piece but he still needed to do deep research on nutrition. He discovered that there are only two essential macronutrients: fat and protein.
Carbohydrates are not essential.
He discovered to build and maintain the muscle you need to eat 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight every day.
He also discovered that the best bio-available protein is eggs, meat, and cheese.
Going full carnivore isn’t easy for most people so he suggests a progression.
- Start by eliminating processed carbs.
- Then, go keto by eating protein, fat, and low-carb fruits and vegetables.
- Then, finally, eliminate the rest of the carbs.
Big Discovery: Calorie Surplus Not Needed to Grow Muscle
You’ve seen bodybuilders pounding massive piles of food so they can make gains. This isn’t necessary. You need to consume the appropriate amount of high-quality protein.
In fact, you can be at a caloric deficit and trigger body fat loss while still growing muscle if you’re eating the proper amount of protein.
Dr. J found studies that debunked two myths about excess protein consumption:
- It does not pack on the fat. Instead, it triggers thermogenesis, which increases body temperature.
- It does not harm the kidneys. A 12-study meta-analysis found no relationship between protein consumption and kidney function.
So, make sure you’re getting at least 1 gram per pound of bodyweight, and don’t worry about over-consuming.
Good Fat Is Fabulous Food
Fat is the most satiating nutrient. But, unlike a lot of keto folks, Dr. J says you don’t need to go out of your way to consume it. He says steak and eggs have enough fat in them and don’t require supplementation.
And, unlike what the prevailing traditional nutritional “science” says, saturated animal fats are the best.
One caveat. Unlike the keto gurus, Dr. Jaquish doesn’t believe you can eat as much fat as you want. He says overconsumption will add body fat.
Nutritional Science Is Mostly Bullshit
Dr. J, like Paul Saladino MD in his book, The Carnivore Code, says that nutritional science methodology is broken. There are too many correlations from surveys (epidemiological studies) and not enough interventional studies with control groups and actual dietary intervention to trigger discoveries.
Why? Because interventional studies take too long, too expensive, and you can’t easily shape the outcome to support the preferred narrative (there’s a lot of money made selling processed food and pharmaceuticals).
In his research, Jaquish learned a lot of things that contradicted the ongoing nutritional narratives. For example …
- LDL-C is not bad cholesterol. It doesn’t increase mortality. In fact, LDLs go up when you fast for 48+ hours because your body is metabolizing its own body fat. “Saying LDLs are bad for you is like saying fat loss is bad for you.”
- There is zero evidence that increased fat consumption causes health issues.
- High cholesterol levels are actually correlated with a reduced risk of death.
- The Atkins Diet (low carb, high fat, and protein) triggered more weight loss and more favorable metabolic effects at 12 months than Zone, Ornish, or LEARN diets.
Calorie Restriction Versus Time-Restricted Eating
Studies show that restricting calories doesn’t work well. It is not a simple matter of thermodynamic arithmetic. There are a lot more things going on with the body’s systems to take into account.
Time-restricted eating works much better (i.e. intermittent fasting). With fasting, you get a metabolic reset, autophagy, and regeneration of the immune system. Basically, fasting gives your body time to repair itself. The body knows it can do this because it’s not receiving any food to digest. Whereas you can eat all day on a calorie-restricted diet, and the body never has time to reset. It’s always focused on digesting.
What Happens When You Fast?
At 12 hours the metabolic switch flips. This varies by individual, but at 12 hours the “body begins to break fatty acids down into ketone bodies which become a new blood-borne chemical energy vector replacing the glucose that your body is running out of. For some, it might take up to 72 hours for some individuals to transition completely into a ketogenic state.”
At 24 hours the body begins the process of autophagy. This is when old cells and cellular components get replaced. This includes the destruction of misfolded proteins, which are linked to Alzheimer’s and other diseases.
At 48 hours growth hormone levels peak by an average of five times baseline levels.
At 50 hours serum insulin, which starts dropping right as you begin to fast, hits its minimum level. Insulin slows testosterone production.
At 72 hours the body replaces all of its T-Cells. It regenerates a large part of the immune system and reverses immunosuppression. This is huge. Rebooting your immune system with 72+ hours of fasting is an amazing recent discovery.
Other Benefits of FastingMen increase testosterone production and improve insulin sensitivity, which helps metabolize body fat faster.
Dr. Jaquish theorizes why time restriction boosts testosterone while calorie restriction does not:
“The body is always trying to find homeostasis. A position of neutrality where all systems are balanced and functioning. With zero calories the body throws homeostasis out the window and begins preparing for the future. It increases the production of growth hormone (up to 2,000%) to maintain muscle mass while body fat is being metabolized for energy. So, you still have all you need to go hunting and kill an animal and eat again.”
“Low-calorie does initiate the homeostasis process – reduced but continuous calorie intake is potentially tenable for the body in a survival context. The body takes the cue. This is how it’s going to be like going forward. So the survival mechanism here is cortisol becoming up-regulated so you can keep as much body fat as possible and reduce the amount of muscle you have.”
Fasting also seems to train your body to build muscle and not store fat.
“You should not be eating when you need to think or exercise … we recommend exercising fasted to elicit the most efficient muscular and hormonal response.”
Dr. Jaquish says you can start with an 8-hour eating window to get used to fasting, but that the ultimate eating cycle is 23:1 or one meal a day (OMAD). Then, once a month add a 48-72 hour fast.
Note: There is some evidence that consuming less than 50 calories during fasting does not impact the benefits. And, in fact, you might be able to consume even more than 50 calories of fat and still get the benefits of fasting. Jaquish speculates that the benefits of fasting come with a lack of insulin response, and fat doesn’t trigger an insulin response.
Dr. J notes that he put fat in his coffee (bulletproof method – butter and/or MCT oil) as he adjusted to fasting. Now, he doesn’t consume any calories during his daily OMAD.
Dietary Quick Hits – Eat the Meat
- A Honolulu longevity study showed that your best chance to live to 100+ is higher levels of physical strength.
- John Harvey Kellogg made up the story about breakfast being the most important meal of the day to sell cereal. No evidence.
- Vegetarian diet associated with poorer health, including higher incidences of cancer, allergies, and mental health disorders.
- A study of 42 European countries found lower cardiovascular diseases and mortality among countries that consumed more fats and meats.
- Plant-based diets cause bone density loss.
- Kids that grow up with a vegan diet for the first six years of life lacked vitamin B12 and showed signs of permanent impaired cognitive function.
- India, which has a high population of vegetarians, has the highest prevalence of diabetes.
- Studies show soy consumption can cause erectile dysfunction.
- Plants and animals prefer you don’t eat them. To avoid this animals run away or fight. Plants poison you with oxalates and other toxins.
- It’s impossible to hit recommended daily protein consumption with a vegan or vegetarian diet. A 200-pound person would need to eat about 15 pounds of broccoli to get 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.
Debunking Fitness Myths
Muscle confusion theory is nonsense. Proponents claim switching workouts all the time makes the body adapt thus making it more resilient. What happens lower intensity because you’re always learning new movements. Plus, with a higher chance, you’re performing new movements wrong, you’re prone to injury.
Bored with the same old routine? Jaquish asks: “What are you trying to achieve? Is it excitement or muscle gain and fat loss?”
You don’t need to be a well-rounded athlete. Different activities have conflicting goals. Choose a lane.
The myth of the muscle fiber type. Don’t worry about your ratios of muscle fiber types (i.e. fast-twitch or slow-twitch). A Journal of Applied Physiology study discovered you can change the ratio of muscle fiber type with targeted exercises.
Range of motion. You don’t have to train at every range of motion. Training a muscle in its strongest range will increase the strength, force production capacity, and endurance of the entire muscle.
Forget about the anabolic window. No scientific merit to this claim. “Muscles don’t care about timing. They’ll grow under the right conditions no matter when you eat.”