The Tim Ferriss Show - #198: Charles Poliquin - His Favorite Mass-Building Program, His Nighttime Routine For Better Sleep, and Much More

Starting point is 00:00:00 At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Can I ask you a personal question? Now would have seen an appropriate time. What if I did the opposite? I'm a cybernetic organism living tissue over metal endoskeleton. The Tim Ferriss Show. This episode is brought to you by AG1, the daily foundational nutritional supplement that supports whole body health. I do get asked a lot what I would take if I could only take

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Starting point is 00:03:19 Charles Poliquin back for another round. And in this episode, he is answering your favorite questions, those questions that were upvoted the most by you guys. Charles, you can find him on Twitter and elsewhere at Strength Sensei, and strengthsensei.com. He is one of the best-known strength coaches in the world. He has trained elite athletes from 20-plus sports, including Olympic gold medalists, NFL All pros, NHL all-stars, Stanley cup champions, IFBB bodybuilding champs. His client list is long. It includes

Starting point is 00:03:51 long jump gold medalist, Dwight Phillips, NHL MVP, Chris Pronger, and MLB batting champion, Edgar Martinez, among many others, and the lady who won the first gold in Olympic wrestling for the U.S. So the list continues to grow. And as we creep towards episode number 200, what? How did that happen? His first appearance on the podcast is still one of the top 15 most listened to episodes. So you should definitely check that out. It is controversial and very, very fun and very, very dense. And he is constantly requested by you guys for a round two. So here you have it. In this episode, we cover a lot. He goes deep on several topics, including his favorite mass building program of all time, recommendations for older lifters,

Starting point is 00:04:39 latest thoughts on hormones, insulin. Of course, insulin is a subset of hormones, and diet. How to differentiate, oh, I can't handle the syllables today. How to differentiate a terrible trainer from a good one, and the good from the best of the best. His nighttime routine for improving sleep. Oh my goodness gracious, I need more sleep. Why most people screw up abdominal training, ketosisosis and muscle gain, and much, much more. So I'm going to go drink more coffee, and I hope you enjoy round two with Charles Poliquin. Hi, welcome to the Tim Ferriss Show. Our first question is from Kevin James.

Starting point is 00:05:23 He's asking for recommendations for older lifters, 40 plus, but with a lot of years of experience. He's asking what's the sets, what's the reps, what's best for this. He also points out there's not very much advice for experienced lifters. And he's also wondering, is it all downhill from here? Well, let's look at it this way. All systems in your body, human body will age. Your hair gets gray, your eyesight drops, your hearing drops over the years. So everything drops and your muscle strength and muscle mass will also drop.

Starting point is 00:05:59 But what's an acceptable rate of drop? The best way to measure that is actually go look at the World Masters Championships in weightlifting. And what you typically see is that the world record holders in their youth, when they competed in seniors or the Olympic Games or World Senior Championships, whatever they can do, let's say at age 34, they lose about 1% point per year. So let's say if the guy did 200 kilos at his best at the Olympics in the snatch, 20 years later, he'll do about 160 kilos. And that's how you see the guys kept on training really hard. So some people advance the fact that it could be 1% per year after the age of 26,

Starting point is 00:06:50 but a lot of it has to do with training methodology. So you have to have realistic goals of what's good for your age group. The best place to find that information is actually Brooks Kubik as a book, a series of book called Dinosaur Training Secrets. In volume two, which is called All Strong Are You, which you can find on Amazon, he outlines lift specific norms and age specific norms. So let's say you're 60 years old and you want to know what's a good back squat. When you're 60, you go there into your age and the lift and you'll to know what's a good back squat when you're 60, you go there, enter your age and the lift, and you'll be able to see what's good for you.

Starting point is 00:07:28 I think having realistic goals will appease your mind. You're not going to do at 70 what you did when you competed at the Olympics, obviously. So that's what I would do for you. But you will, as far as training recommendations, as far as sets and reps because of declining hormone levels your ability to recover from workouts is somewhat impaired if you are on a hormonal replacement therapy and you have testosterone therapy GH therapy

Starting point is 00:07:58 thyroid therapy and so on you will lose some but not as fast as one of your colleagues who has not had their hormones replaced. The next question is from Yasser Nadim. He stipulates, you said that one must be lean enough to earn carbs 10% or less. How can one test their individual insulin sensitivity and determine if they are lean enough to make good use of carbs or not. Well, the point is that if you're fat, you don't need to do any blood work to find out that you need carbs. So for a male, your body fat should be less than 10%. Less than 10% would mean that when you stand up, we can see your abdominals and you can see the linear elbows. Therefore, you could see every row of abs. Most people think that they have abs, they can see one. That's not abs. You could do blood work. The best blood marker to see if you deserve your

Starting point is 00:08:56 carbohydrates is actually the HB1EC. You could run that test for $14 to $40. It's always covered by insurance. There's many more sophisticated tests, but this one would be good enough. You want to have your Hb1c below 4.8. If it is below 4.8, you sure can afford carbohydrates. Now, you may want to eat carbs when you're 26%, but don't complain. Your body composition is not improving. If I put you on a deserted island and all I give you is protein and fats and fiber being, if you want a carb, you're not going to die. There's no such thing as an essential carbohydrate.

Starting point is 00:09:38 So I think for most people, just sheer laziness that makes them purge on carbs. If you don't deserve them and you want to get lean, then you got to stay away until you get lean, but it shouldn't take you that long. Question number three comes from Joe Mulhern. He asks, what's your best routine for mass? I'm confused about the best way to spend time between strength work sets, which feels like it adds up a lot of wasted time. I get this question every day. Tim asked me to talk about it. We've seen at least 10 times on Tim's Facebook page, about 25 times when people ask me questions. And the last time I posted on that, what I've done for the Tim Ferriss listeners is that I've looked back at what I've done in the last 38 years and found the best approach for that.

Starting point is 00:10:33 So in this, it's a book, it's an e-book, and I go over everything, all the types of splits you can do because not everybody can commit the most time to it. I mean, obviously, the fastest way to gain mass is to spend a lot of time on it, but it's only good to a certain point. We have what we call the law of diminishing returns. So I tell you which exercise to do, how to eat, what type of supplements. And I've actually filmed every exercise, so there's no guessing.

Starting point is 00:11:04 And I've taken pictures and the h exercise is actually filmed from two different angles so it should be very clear for you to get that i've never ever sold my programs like that online so i'm going to make it available on my site for two weeks and then take it down if you're interested check it out it includes 12 weeks of routines auto-personality workouts, and you can advise everything you need. To get the book, go to strengthsensei.com slash mass. So to answer your question, in a nutshell, your muscles will grow faster

Starting point is 00:11:38 if you spend usually two to three weeks working on training volume. Usually your reps will be higher than eight. You could be up as much as 50 for the quadriceps. And then you go two to three weeks on low reps because after a while, the amount of weight you can actually use for higher reps is what dictates how much muscle mass you're going to gain. So if you're weak for reps,

Starting point is 00:12:04 it's going to limit how strong and massive you're going to gain. So if you're weak for reps, it's going to limit how strong a mass that you'll get. So from experience, I mean, I've had a lot of sports where people need to increase muscle mass, whether it's rugby or hockey or American football. And I found over the last 38 years that the alternation of volume versus, which we call accumulation phases versus intensification phases is probably the most productive way to gain mass and if you go to

Starting point is 00:12:32 my website strengthset.com i got all sorts of examples of mass building routines next question comes feather bear and please i apologize if i don't have the right pronunciation i only speak three languages so i don't always know how it's pronounced. He says, in the last podcast, he mentioned gotchicola doing a good job against stretch marks. What dosage do you use? Usually, if it's a good standardized extract like the one made by Gaia, G-A-I-A, you would take six capsules of 500 milligrams in divided dosage, so two tattles three times a day, and it works wonders.

Starting point is 00:13:09 The next question is from Bryce Lee. What injuries did you personally have to deal with in your career of maximizing swole atrophy, and how do you deal with them? It seems that no matter how careful we are, we inevitably run into injuries if we pursue our pre-trophy and PRs for the own sake as we age. The best way to avoid injury is actually rotation in the exercises. My friend Matt Benning, who has two world records in the squat, has had zero injuries.

Starting point is 00:13:40 But if you look at his methodology, he has a lot of variation. He doesn't overuse exercises. So if you go to my website, strengthinit.com, I actually talk about overuse injuries. The biggest cause of injury is to stick to favorite exercise ad nauseum. I just did a tour with Matt and Ed Collins, a multiple-time world champion in powerlifting. He set over 72 world records. He's had a few injuries compared to Matt. And at lunch, he was discussing that if he were to start his life over,

Starting point is 00:14:17 he would have varied his exercise selection more often. Because it's like anything else. If you don't change the pattern overload of the given exercise, your cartilage is always exposed to the same amount of stress. Proper warm-up, I think, is the most essential way to prevent injuries. Avoiding static stretching before lifting prevents injuries. Getting regular soft tissue work prevents injuries but one thing that dr robert rakowski points out is that we live in a more and more polluted era and he finds and all my lifting coaches colleagues who are over the age of 50 is people are getting injured more often and more severely than before. And one of the things that Robert Rakowski points out is toxic overload, pesticides, heavy metals, and so on. So if you pay attention

Starting point is 00:15:18 to eliminate all sorts of toxins and do things like chelation therapy, you diminish your toxic load, which should help you prevent injuries. So there's a biochemistry to it, but there's also the biomechanics of it. The question is from Jason Bartlett. He says, like YouTube fitness experts or so-called experts, unrealistic workouts and expectations set by hand-to-hand people, that kind of sets up for unrealistic expectation and goals. He says, how do we combat misinformation?

Starting point is 00:15:49 I agree with you. There's a lot of people on the internet that have no place being there, but there's no such thing as a board to look at the quality of what's on YouTube. However, I think what you have to look more to is that as the person add results with themselves and are they good at training other people so if i want to have an intelligent discussion uh with uh strength training experts i know we're fine because they've produced athletes multiple times in a repetitive fashion.

Starting point is 00:16:28 So, for example, Josh Bryant has very good books on weight training. And the information he publishes actually works. He's the lightest man to ever bench press 600 pounds. Guys like Paul Carter can give you good information at Kohn. But to go on the internet for reliable sources of information can be rather confusing. What I think is a shortcut to do that is to take seminars with those guys. Because there's a lot of stuff you can't put in a book or that, for example, with technique in a squat or the deadlift, you can't learn that through a book or by watching videos. What you think you're doing and what you're actually doing are two different

Starting point is 00:17:12 things. So what I would do if I were you, instead of wasting your time on the internet watching stupid stuff that doesn't do anything, I would look at those guys and hire them for consults because, you know, there's a saying, if you're too cheap to pay for information, you'll fall by the wayside. And most of the stuff that is there for free is actually worth nothing because a lot of people are trying to make a place under the sun and they'll say stupid stuff just to be different,

Starting point is 00:17:48 but it doesn't mean that's any good. Like Tim says, you know, you could put your underwear over your pants, but is it better or is it more fun? It's more fun for people to laugh at you, but it's certainly not more comfortable or better. different and and better are not synonyms and it's better to use someone who's had time tried training methods then there's a peer-reviewed peer-reviewed crowd never produced anybody and only wait till it's published in science with 60 papers i wouldn't trust those guys either because they don't have any clinical experience it It's like basically consulting a virgin sex

Starting point is 00:18:29 therapist. The next question is, Marco Cuiacha asks, what differentiates between a good personal trainer for a great PT? Where should someone start if they want to become a PT? What are common mistakes PT make? What official certificates should a PT have to start teaching strength? What initial strength courses should an ex-brand PT take? Thank you. Well, your ability to produce results is what distinguishes you in the field. So, for example, Nick Mitchell and Ultimate Performance, they have established a brand by producing results.

Starting point is 00:19:07 So if you go to any UP around the world, whether it's in Marvia, Spain, or if you're going to Manchester, UK, there's a wall full of success stories. And those success stories are always within about 12 weeks. So the best way to learn, in my opinion, is to offer to do free internship with a well-producing gym, like Shredded in Australia or Wolfgate in Prague. So seek out who has constant good results and offer to intern under them for free because you have no experience. And then they will teach you the system and they will point you the right books. I mean, your question is very long to answer, but official certifications, in my opinion, don't mean much. I've seen people with lots of different certifications and it's still your ability

Starting point is 00:20:06 to produce results that makes a difference. And you have to learn how to do a training system. So if you told me, I want to be a great strength coach, I would say go learn with Ben Prentice in Connecticut. He's produced years over years of NHL players, NFL players, major league baseball players because you can't acquire the stuff just in classes and just by books. You have to get somewhat, I would say, in the trenches. And those guys that I strongly recommend are people who spent a fortune in education, and they will actually save you time. So if you go intern, let's say, a month for free at a UP, provided they accept you because they'll ask you to see some colors before you show up,

Starting point is 00:20:57 you would learn far more than taking thousands of hours of certification courses. In the near future, I will produce videos for Idea, which is the largest certification company in the world. And those will be good to get your theory down. But if you listen to those videos, you'll have a good idea of what reps you should do sets so that you're prepared once you go into the field to maximize your results. But what makes a great PT versus a good PT is simply the ability to produce results. But you need to learn the systems from a world-class mentor. The next question comes from Daniel Matthias Kazimierczuk, difficult Irish name. Which supplements do you currently use for improving sleep personally

Starting point is 00:21:47 i'm a big fan of magnesium threonate i take six capsules at bedtime mixed with two grams of theanine th a and i any i will post a page to where to get these ingredients on the website the next question comes from marcus beamer there are many things you might regret but what's the to get these ingredients on the website. The next question comes from Marcus Beamer. There are many things you might regret, but what's the thing that comes to mind most often? Well, what would I change if I could do it again? I wish the four-hour week would have been published when I started my career.

Starting point is 00:22:23 People tell me often you are very lucky. I got very lucky by working 20 hours a day for years on end. So when you work that many hours, and that doesn't include training, so for years, for about eight months out of the year, I would only sleep three hours a night. I would say that's my biggest mistake. I said yes too often, and I should have been concerned more with the quality of the athletes I trained.

Starting point is 00:22:51 The problem was is that when I would get hired, I would get the whole national team. Once I established credibility, being consistent with results, when I would negotiate with national team, I would tell national team, these are the guys I'll pick. These are the guys I will train. So it would have saved me time on writing programs, administrating programs, monitoring programs, teaching technique. But you need to have a reputation before. So I spent a lot of time doing that.

Starting point is 00:23:23 What I've learned over the last few years is that you get known by the jobs you turn down, not the jobs you accept. A few months ago, Ellen Maroulis won the gold in Olympic wrestling for women. First time in America did so. For weeks, I've been asked to do seminars, write books, take on more national team athletes, train foreign teams. And I said no to all one of these requests. Why? Because I'm really geared up. I don't do the four-hour work week, but I like to do the four and a half hour work day. And one thing I do regularly is I take a week off a month to rest, to read, and I take three

Starting point is 00:24:01 months vacation a year. Probably having a child was probably the best thing for me to learn other prioritized things. So I really started to cut back on the amount of work once I had my daughter. But the biggest mistake I've ever done was to work far too much. Now you've got guys like Guy Vaynerchuk who will say you need to hustle. You do, but you should still favor quality over quantity. And if you want to understand the concept better, astronomy suggests you read the one thing and to read the four-hour work week.

Starting point is 00:24:36 It's just a mental outlook to what you do. The next question is from Jonathan Anderson. Thanks to Charles, I'm now big into omega-3s to keep me out of remission. Dr. Barry Sears says, 3-2-1 EPA to DHA. I'm taking that ratio at a greater expense. Is it worth it? Should everyone go on it? Well, Dr. Gagnon, unfortunately, passed away a few years ago, was probably one of the smartest guys in that topic. What we know is that it's actually better to vary the types of fish oil. There's an axiom you should respect, is that the more you're dealing with inflammation, the RDEPA ratio to DHA should be. So a lot of brands will sell you a six to one ratio.

Starting point is 00:25:21 That will bring down inflammation better than the three to one ratio, actually. If you're concerned with brain, so let's say if you have ADD, ADHD, borderline personality, all the studies on brain disorders show that a high DHA omega-3 product is better. So usually you want an 8 DHA to EPA to 1 EPA ratio. But there's no magical official. And the other thing we know a lot from research, it's better to take products like Omega-3 Avail from Designs for Health who has also mixed in D1 D3, sorry, K1 and k2 into the product because those actually increase absorption you don't need as much large quantity and of course you supplement this

Starting point is 00:26:12 important fat soluble vitamins the next question is from rowdy leap and he asked me you're not a big fan of foam rolling isn't foam rolling a massage thing my beef against foam rolling is that it would be trying to build a bridge one pebble at a time it takes far too long so this is a thing as a principle of training economy I mean Tim's big on that, whether you eat a four-hour body or any of his books. It's like you have to have maximum return at least amount of time. So people waste a tremendous amount of time foam rolling. The amount of time they waste on foam rolling could be trying to get flexible, could be done in a good 20-minute active release session or Rolfing technique or the Voila method. There's a lot of stuff out there that exists to get rid of adhesions and improve range of motion.

Starting point is 00:27:15 And let's say if you have a good active release practitioner and you're foam rolling because you have a tight shoulder, if the guy does a good job, and let's say you're the worst case scenario, you're about as flexible as a crowbar. Within five treatments, you'll have 100% range of motion. And if you're a complete certified idiot, you will still maintain those gains for six weeks. So that's six months, I'm sorry. So in my opinion, to go see a very good soft tissue practitioner and invest the time and money into that will save you all these countless hours of foam rolling because you will have the results and you'll be more permanent if you see a soft tissue therapist. Next question comes from

Starting point is 00:28:01 Clay Stenman asking me, do you have a lifting plan for body transformation? Even to sell, I'm sure a lot of people would like to buy it. Well, like I said, I've done a mass program. And the thing with the mass program is that people get so obsessed with fat loss that they should actually be focusing on mass and strength. Because if you increase your muscle mass, you become more insulin sensitive. Therefore, fat loss is accelerated. So when people come in, and if you look at the research, one of the fastest ways to lose fat is actually bodybuilding programs.

Starting point is 00:28:37 I mean, they did a study on obese teenagers, and one group did one hour of cardio, one group did one hour of weight training and the mid group did half weight training half cardio. And it turns out that the group that did cardio got fatter and the group that lifted weights for an hour got not only leaner but also gained some muscle mass. And the group that did the intermediate program had a mixture of the two extreme groups. So in my opinion, for body composition, actually focusing on increasing muscle mass works far better than trying to focus on fat loss. The next question is from Lior Parry.

Starting point is 00:29:16 He says, considering the magnitude of the supplement industry, how do we know which supplements are more effective or at all? How do we know if they even work? Well, you could go on PubMed and Google a supplement, and then you'll find a researcher that backs it up or tells you it doesn't work. A lot of times, supplement companies make what I call extended claims. There's a good website called ergolog.com. There's subversity.com. There's subversity.com.

Starting point is 00:29:45 There's examine.com. And those websites will tell you the real deal. Of course, there's a strong commercial bias. Do supplements work? Yes. But one of the major things that dictates the quality of supplements is outer mate. So if you buy a supplement in Canada, which has very strong regulatory laws on supplement making, you'll get a good product because the trouble you can get in

Starting point is 00:30:14 if you produce a crap supplement is far too extensive. And the government does all the testing for you before you get approved over there. So that's one of the reasons why I use ATP Labs. It's made in Canada, and because it's made in Canada, I know the quality is very high. For example, Norway is very strong on protecting their own supplement industry, but because of the high quality of Kenyan supplements, you can actually ship Kenyan-made supplements into Norway, and they pass customs, but it's not through for supplements all over the world. The UK is probably the country where they make the worst supplements.

Starting point is 00:30:50 They do have strong legislation, but it's never been applied. And they estimate that if the UK were to put that law into action, 80% of supplement companies in the UK would be closing their doors. So depending on where you live, you may have access to high-quality supplements or not. If you're going to buy supplements, I strongly recommend you buy them from a health practitioner because health practitioner brands have far more severe self-imposed restriction on quality control. I wouldn't trust most of the stuff you see on the internet because of that. Next question comes from Gabe Rivera.

Starting point is 00:31:30 He says, when squatting, high bar or low bar? Heel, lifting shoes or flats? Training with or without a belt? A lot of knees to drift forward or ass to drift back? These topics are not agreed upon universally. Please explain why. The goal being maximal strength and hypertrophy. Well, Gabe, this is the reality all the forms of squats you talked about are good the only thing i'm not

Starting point is 00:31:51 big on is squatting with a belt i think you should allow your your core to develop at the same rate as you develop your hip and knee extensors because let's say if you like to do slalom skiing if you always train with a belt and you ski without a belt your core muscles are not matching your leg strength so you could get into trouble if you're a wrestler you're not going to be allowed to wear that belt when you go to the mat so the trunk muscles should evolve at the same rate as um as a hip and knee extensors. On my website, I've got plenty of different ways you could squat. I've actually filmed over 188 forms of good squats. So there's a lot to choose from.

Starting point is 00:32:36 And going back to what I said early on about Ed Cohn, he also thinks that you should have various squats more often to stay injury-free like mad vending the next question is from sam sinclair he says charles heavy set set guy 240 pounds trying to reduce fat loves lifting but training five days a week can't shift it mostly paleo okay post 8 p.m wine and crap food is a battle i don't expect miracles but one tip from a master. Namaste. Well, Sam, let me break it to you. All lean you are comes from the choices you make. So if you're 80% good and 20% terrible, well, don't expect to have 100% results. What I would suggest you do,

Starting point is 00:33:19 there's one tip I give you, is only take on one habit per week. So for example, chewing. Lean people chew their foods 45 times, fat people chew their foods 15 times. So you could get one of those counters that bouncers use to control how many people that went to the bar and just do this. Start on a Saturday because you won't have any excuses. Chew your food and every time you take a chew clicker and see what happens and you will find that you rush to swallowing your food. So the low cost tip for fat loss is actually chewing your food. And even if you're trying to gain muscle mass, it's true too. Most people inhale their foods. Another thing you have to pay attention to, so it's a bonus tip,

Starting point is 00:34:07 is do you actually eat in front of the screen? Are you on Facebook while you eat? Are you answering emails? So mindful eating is another way to lose fat. And then most people who are not doing mindful eating and sit in front of the screen consume far too many calories. There's a very good study from France where they looked at female college students the first year

Starting point is 00:34:28 and their dietary intake versus eating mindfully or versus eating in front of let's say something like Facebook. And the people who were watching screens while eating

Starting point is 00:34:41 on average gained seven kilos in the first semester of school so paint that you know and you know most people eat alone so eating in company of other people helps uh being mindful what you're eating and not rushing through a meal is probably the best tip i can give you on that the next question comes from Dean Laster. How does he fit workouts of individuals with different needs, body types, stages in life? How does he encourage positive building habits to accelerate one's progression? What are three to five best practices he recommends

Starting point is 00:35:19 for someone to adopt for staying fit for life? Well, that's a lot of questions, Dean, but let me answer them one at a time. I adapt training programs based on goals first. So what do you want? And based on what you want, I give you an estimate on how fast you can do it. So, you know, people will show up and say, I want to lose 55 pounds. But I went in two weeks for my nephew's bar mitzvah.

Starting point is 00:35:47 Hey, I don't have holes in my hands and my feet. I can't do miracles. So I always put that back into reality. I want to bench press 400. How much can you bench press? 95 pounds. Well, let's take the next seven years to get there. So to increase strength, for example,

Starting point is 00:36:05 if you are gifted within seven years, you could triple your strength. If you're not gifted, you can multiply your strength by 500%. Very few people do that because they don't know how to train. But if you go see a great lifting coach, like let's say John Brose,

Starting point is 00:36:23 he'll triple your strength in seven years because now he knows how to do it. And I'll tell you right now, he doesn't use peer-reviewed scientific papers to decide how to train. So this is the things experience versus reading the research. Once I know your goals, then I make everybody do the Braverman test, which is a way to see which neurotransmitters you are gifted at producing and which one you're not at. And based on your neurotransmitter makeup, I will make you train heavy, a lot of variation, no variation. And I teach that in my advanced program design classes. It takes three days to learn this. But neurotransmitter profile is key into deciding what you need to do. How do I encourage building positive habits?

Starting point is 00:37:19 Well, the most important thing is that you have to look at progression, not perfection. So what do you do for an habit? One, well, you know, if you have to look at progression not perfection so what do you do for an habit one well you know if you have an appointment with a dentist and you know you're going to be charged if you don't show up you don't give 24 hours notice you don't miss your dentist appointment but people are not treating their body properly so the most important habit is to actually have regular training hours. According to some research in Slovakia,

Starting point is 00:37:48 some people do better doing early morning workouts or evening workouts because depending on the time, they make the androgens throughout the day. So a good clinical setting, I mean, tip I could give you is sex drive. If you wake up under a teepee every morning, you need to take a handstand, take a piss, you probably make your androgens very early, so you should train in the morning. Some people have a greater sex drive in the afternoon than they should train in the afternoon.

Starting point is 00:38:17 So optimizing that makes a difference. Also, recording everything you do. Tim Ferriss talks about his two-weeks experiments and all that stuff. That's great to do because if you don't live consciously, you don't know what really works. And then by having accurate journals of what you do, you'll be able to figure out what's best for you. Next question is from Peter Lam or Lama.

Starting point is 00:38:43 Is there a way to combine strength training and long cardio sessions? I've got two goals for three months. Run a half a marathon in less than two hours and increase my bench press from 70 kilos, three sets of eight to 90 kilos, three sets of eight. I weigh 90 kilos and I'm 46. Well, Peter, there's an Hungarian proverb. If you only got one ass, you can't sit on two horses. To go for three sets of eight to 70 kilos up to 90 kilos is a realistic goal. But if you do train for a half marathon at the same time, it's going to take three to four times the time it takes. So what I suggest, you pick one goal and work on it. And then once you've accomplished that goal, move on to the next goal. It's like in the movie,

Starting point is 00:39:29 The Last Samurai, too many minds. You really have to concentrate on one goal at a time. There's a famous Norwegian weightlifter who's an exercise physiology professor who was top ranked at the Olympic Games in weightlifting. and he trained for the marathon for a year and then claimed a pretty decent weight. But he could do a pretty decent weight because what people don't understand is that, yes, larger muscles lift heavier weights, but the main reason why you're strong on a pound-for-pound basis

Starting point is 00:40:01 is actually that you develop the ability to recruit high-threshold motor units. So the key lesson from that, build your strength first and then work on your endurance. Next question, Jeff Garza. There's a contingency of people online claiming Europeans and protocols lack scientific basis. How do you respond to these people? Thanks. All right. Clinicians are always ahead of the curve. So, for example, in February 2008, in the Journal of Applied Sports Science Research, they published a paper, Cluster Training, a Novel Approach to Develop Maximal Strength. So, remember the date, February 2008. I first did cluster training when I was 14 years old. I learned it from my coach who learned it in 1968. When the article was published, I tried to go back and find where

Starting point is 00:40:54 it came from. And apparently, it was used in 1948. Some records of it, of guys who prepared for the 48 World Championships were using cluster training. So if you look at it, of guys who prepared for the 48 World Championships who were using cluster training. So if you look at it, you have 60 years between guys figuring out it's a great training method versus 2008. How many Olympics is that? If you only count Summer Olympics, you divide by four, that's 15 Olympics. If you add the Winter Games, you multiply by two, we're up to 30 Olympics. I've had plenty of my Olympians that when I start to coach for the Moscow Olympics,

Starting point is 00:41:33 we've been doing cluster training. So if I waited for the research, so from 1980 to 2008, we're looking at 28 years. 28 years divided by 7 is 4 times 2, right? So I would have wasted 14 Olympic Games waiting for research to happen. You look at, for example, Arnold Schwarzenegger's training. I'm pretty sure that he didn't use peer-reviewed studies to develop his physique. One of the things he's credited with is point of flexion training. So he figured out that if you overload different points in the biomechanical curve, you create more hypertrophy.

Starting point is 00:42:11 Now research can demonstrate that it's great. One of the things I've been advocating since 1982 was to lower weight slowly to create more strength and hypertrophy. And I was recommending often to do five seconds lowering. The first study to be published to confirm that was published in 2016 by Pera and his colleagues. Again, I would have wasted so many Olympic cycles not doing it. I've been advocating to change positions in leg curls since I started

Starting point is 00:42:44 strength coaching in 78 and the paper that shows that turning your foot outward recruits more bicep femoris and if you turn your foot inward you recruit more the medial hamstrings was published a few months ago so again those haters can say whatever you want but there's such a thing called observation. And then you look at anybody that's any good, they will tell you also how not to train. He said, what's the best way to train? Because whether I talk to John Meadows or Dave Tate or Ed Cohn, they will say, I've tried this, it didn't work. So, you know, these people are obsessed with results, and they've tried many things to get there,

Starting point is 00:43:28 and then they, after a while, they figure out what works and what doesn't. So, I don't really care when they say, and then the thing, too, is that a lot of people say, oh, there's no research on that. For example, leucine. I recommend much higher doses of leucine than my colleagues, and

Starting point is 00:43:43 then I've been attacked. There's no papers. And yes, there's papers, but they're in French. And actually, those two French papers use real training programs. A lot of these studies on supplements, the program that the subjects do is not even a workout. It's more like a warm-up. But the two French studies I like on using leucine, people do 20 sets per body part and measure different doses of leucine and the highest dose had the greatest

Starting point is 00:44:10 results and they tested out at 30 grams. So the point is, often there is research when they claim there's no research, you just don't know how to look for it. For example, Shishandra has 88 synonyms. So if you just Google, go and search under Shishandra, 88 synonyms. So if you just Google, go and search under Shishandra,

Starting point is 00:44:26 you'll find X amount of studies. But if you go through every synonym, you'll find more studies. Holy Basil has hundreds of synonyms. And you could search for Holy Basil in research, but if you look under Tulsi, the Sanskrit name, you'll find countless numbers of papers. So those people who make those claims that I'm not scientific, they only have one thing in common. They've never produced results. And haters will always hate. And I guess it's frustrating to them that I've got great results and they don't have any.

Starting point is 00:44:57 So they pick on that. But all the training I do is based on science. And this is a thing also that's common sense. I don't need to study with double blind at a full speed front kick with a pair of construction boots with steel toes will damage your testicles. If you want to be part of the possibly placebo group, go ahead. But, you know, there's such a thing as common sense. So that's why you never see me engage in disputes with those guys

Starting point is 00:45:32 because one of the things my father taught me is you have to play fair, and those guys are nitwits, so I don't engage in debate with them. The next question comes from Preston Parrish. I once heard him say, if you're in strength training and can't get a female client to do 12 pull-ups in 12 weeks, then you're not very good and you should quit.

Starting point is 00:45:54 Training plans to get women to do 12 pull-ups. Best exercise to help with 12 pull-ups. Very simple answer, Preston. Just go on YouTube and search under chin-up performance. I give you numerous tips on how to improve chin-up performance. A lot of the reasons why people can't do chin-ups is they don't know what to recruit. In my upcoming membership site, I will actually give actual programs to do that. And I have to demonstrate the exercise. So the podcast is not the best way to

Starting point is 00:46:22 learn that, but the information will be available on my membership site. The next question is from Morgan Brown. If you only had to pick one important factor between sleep, food, and exercise, which would you pick and or how would you prioritize them? Well, Morgan, that's like asking me for optimal health, should I prioritize my liver or my heart or my brain or my adrenals or my kidney? All of those are important. If you don't have a brain, well, forget it. If you don't have a heart, forget it. If you don't have a liver, you're not going to live very long. So you can't

Starting point is 00:46:57 prioritize so much. Let's say if we look at prisoners at Club Fed, they can sleep as much as they want is this sleep restful probably not because maybe your roommate wants to kill you the food food is prison foods it's not the greatest but they do have plenty of opportunity to exercise and they have weight rooms so in that case you could argue people can get a good physique and if you look at the book of J.L. Armstrong by Josh Bryant, some pretty good physiques were built behind bars. But then again, you say to the guys, we'll make you safe, and then we'll give you paleo foods. Well, these guys will grow a lot.

Starting point is 00:47:37 I'm not sure taxpayers would agree with that thing. But you can't prioritize them. You can't say, I'm just going to sleep to muscle growth, or I'm just going to exercise to muscle growth, say i'm just going to sleep to muscle growth i'm just going to exercise to muscle growth i'm just going to eat to muscle growth you need all three next question is from ryan riley cryotherapy seems to be an interesting topic because of extreme nature what are your thoughts on trying it just for the experience meaning i don't have any good reason to go but it intrigues me what benefits comes from it from the average person a few years ago actually in 2001 it was very fashionable for pro teams were sold on buying

Starting point is 00:48:14 cryo suits so the guy would train put the cryo suit on cost 150 grand and they claimed it was good for recovery so this strength coach from our rugby team said, hey, should I invest into that? I said, well, based on the quality of your weight room, I would take the 150 grand, buy yourself some real dumbbells and some real equipment. That is more important than the cryotherapy suit. And he says, why?

Starting point is 00:48:38 I said, well, first things come first. So if you get a choice between cryotherapy and a good weight room, get a good weight room. He said, okay, let's say if I've got a good weight room, would you buy the cryotherapy suit? I said, no, because unless you want to train yourself to be a Navy SEAL and withstand extreme temperatures, if you use cryotherapy post-exercise, it will increase cortisol and it will actually slow down your progress.

Starting point is 00:49:08 He said, do you have any papers on that? I said, no. But I said, buy one and tell me how it worked. And then it turns out that I would keep getting the same call. And all those cryotherapy suits that I wore in 2001, they're all in storage in sports clubs. They don't work. It slows down its recovery. Some people argue that you could use carotid therapy short-term

Starting point is 00:49:34 to increase healing of tissue. Colleagues of mine have said, yeah, it's a good thing because you get reactive hyperania, so you increase blood flow to the body parts. But to be fair, I don't have enough practical experience or I've read enough research on it to validate its use. But I can tell you one thing, it does not increase recovery post-workout. It actually slows it down. Next question is from Andres Carso B.

Starting point is 00:50:05 Yoyo. Top things you've learned in the last two years. In the last two years, I've reinforced the importance of measuring your transmitters for improving program selection. So some people are driven by variation.

Starting point is 00:50:21 Some people do better with manipulating workloads. Some people do better by keeping the program more constant, have less variation. So keeping that in mind, when I train people, I use that. I've been doing that since 2001 on a regular basis, but I'm more and more convinced because I've taught the system to students.

Starting point is 00:50:50 The reason why I count as being one of the most important thing I've learned in the last two years is that many of my students, once I started to create that class, started doing that and they were all, 100% of record reported that they had much faster results when they once they've applied that system so that would be number one number two it's more like how vital sleep is i've always known it to be important in the last two years there's more and more research and for example if someone wants to increase their testosterone naturally the single most important factor is actually sleep and we sleep far too less with also very poor quality because people read them on messages before bed and look at screens so avoiding screen time is very important for sleep quality.

Starting point is 00:51:47 And then the next question is that, what does he know that's not well known amongst the scientific world? It goes back to point one. I know well how to use neurotransmitters to maximize training response. However, in the math book I wrote, I used a 70% rule. So, you know, from the last 38 years I've made it so that it will maximize training progress regardless of your

Starting point is 00:52:11 because I'm not psychic and I'm not going to write you an individualized program so people wanted a program that would work for most of the population and that's what I did but a lot of it has to do with what's the optimal amount. If I don't know who you are, what's the best variation?

Starting point is 00:52:30 What's the best I could do for the last 38 years? Jonathan Hyde asks, for someone who's wanting to start coaching in the strength and conditioning world, would you recommend something other than CSCS? What search would open up the most doors? Again, it has to do with who did you learn under. Go see a strength coach that has produced a lot of athletes just simply over the years.

Starting point is 00:52:56 No cert will do that for you. And expect to work for free. Ben Prentice was telling me that people come to his office and say, I want to train pro athletes. But the guy has zero experience. So his classic answer is, don't we all? So you have to apprentice. And if there's involved counting reps, if you went to work for me and you said, I'm very keen, I would first assess how much do you know? I would assume, I would expect you, sorry, to know your basic mechanics, you know, know your basic physiology, know all the loading parameters. That's the homework you need to do on yourself, by yourself before you show up. And probably the first thing you would do is just

Starting point is 00:53:39 count reps. And then I would teach you to select load. Why is Ben Prentice the best strength coach in America? Because one of the things I taught him was application of strength program design. I only let him start writing programs after two years. So it's like wax on, wax off. You got to do your basics before you want to be a strength coach. And there's no cert that will do that for you. Devin Sprankill says, what are your thoughts on intermittent fasting for trying to gain lean muscle? In my opinion, it's a waste of time. Some people claim fantastic gains from doing that, but I've never seen any evidence of that.

Starting point is 00:54:26 If you look at the research, both brain and muscle performance are negatively affected by intermittent fasting. So I'm not keen on that. There's not a single animal in the world that will voluntarily fast. And if you look at anybody big, really big and really strong, one thing I have to tell you,

Starting point is 00:54:44 they don't fast. And you don't grow muscle overnight. It's consistency of effort that matters. One of my earlier mentors was Bill Starr and he will tell you, and I fully agree with him, but he told me that luckily I was 17 years old, was that the biggest thing to gain strength and size is consistency and that is particularly true for eating food now on the internet people claim all sorts of things about intermittent fasting but I've never seen any visual proof of that and that never meant anybody said hey I'm an intermittent fasting type of guy. And here are my results.

Starting point is 00:55:30 So in my opinion, it's a waste of time. Shane Quinnell, what is the most effective, efficient way to increase strength in a squat and deadlift when hitting a plateau? My website is full of information on how to break those plateaus and that thing. So you would have to go to strengthcenter.com. But in a nutshell, you have to vary your loading parameters. But the biggest mistake I've seen people leaving plateaus is because they've been doing one type of squat and one type of deadlift since Jimmy Carter was president. Variation of overload in the strength curve is probably the most neglected factor in overcoming a plateau. So you could overload the bottom of the strength curve by, let's say, pausing the squat,

Starting point is 00:56:14 or you could use chains to match the strength curve, or you could use bands, you could do explosive work. It doesn't matter, but Probably the best program to improve your squat is the program you've never done. Again, I will reinforce, don't be cheap. Open up your wallet and hire somebody who's good at improving your squat. Again, books will do something, reading on the internet will do something. But I would say, for example, your squat is terrible.

Starting point is 00:56:42 Go to the Las Vegas, book an appointment with John Brose. He'll look at you. He'll say, okay, your squat is terrible. Go to Las Vegas, book an appointment with John Brose. He'll look at you. He'll say, okay, your squat is terrible because of this and that. He'll write you a program. The amount of time you're going to waste on that trying to find a solution will be offset by investing money. Your deadlift sucks.

Starting point is 00:56:59 Find Ed Cohn. Go see him. There's a lot of good coaches out there. Your bench press is terrible, go see Josh Bryant. He's the expert at improving your bench press. But face-to-face consultation is the surefire way to improve a lift. The next question is from Kieran Dawn. What has he been a proponent of in the past that he no longer believes? Perhaps the scientific study updates.

Starting point is 00:57:26 Actually, probably what I've changed over the years is that I used to use very short cycles, like two weeks. And then a colleague of mine convinced me to go to three-week cycles. And from experience, I may do only five-day cycles. So I realized that, you know, basically strength training is like learning a foreign language. So you need to change the stimulus. If you repeat the same words over and over again in the same order, you're not going to get strong. A good example I can give you is let's say if you're learning English and I show you in writing, did he really say it? You have no idea because there's no intonation of the meaning of the sentence. But if I say, did he really say it? It implies, is it him or not?

Starting point is 00:58:16 Or did he really say it? You get the drift. So depending where I put the emphasis on the words, the meaning of the sentence is really different. It's the same with strength training. As time went by, I realized that you need to put the emphasis on something different. And one of the things that I find works for everybody is much shorter training cycles. I don't like to go more than two weeks or four workouts being repeated.

Starting point is 00:58:47 The next question is from Jason Coning. What new insights did he gain training women's wrestlers Helen Arulis and Elena Pierskova for the Olympic Games in Rio? Well, thanks for the question, Jason. Two years ago, I announced on Facebook I was going to start working with wrestlers. And it was amazing the amount of hate posts I got, which would say something like, you don't know anything about wrestling. What are you going to make them do? Train biceps.

Starting point is 00:59:16 Aiders are going to be aiders. So I used that as a good motivation to show that I could train wrestlers. And Helen Maroulis came in first, on with a goal first American wrestler to do so In history and she beat a girl that only lost twice in 20 years or 16 years but Chen lost a single fight in 12 years and Helen as you can see the videos on YouTube mangled her she over She overpowered her. And then when I was looking for the flight online, I kept getting text messages or WhatsApp messages from my students telling me congratulations and they would go to stage means like in Sweden all they talked about was how she

Starting point is 00:59:57 dominated everybody with strength. So it was the first one of the best public display I've ever had about people could relate the effect of strength training on Ellen's win. And Ellen didn't do so bad. She came in fifth. And since then, I get asked every day to work with more wrestlers of different countries. But what did I learn? When I first started working for the two athletes, I asked the national team, what are your norms for strength training? And there was none.

Starting point is 01:00:31 So I've done norms for strength training for sports all my life so it's okay let's look at that and again i didn't have any double blind studies but i figured out if you get strong at chin-ups that should help you with takedown snapping the neck uh reversals and so on because the lats and the elbow flexors are prime movers in those movements. So I've only trained for the world championships, Helen, for three times, six weeks. And when she started with me in January, she could do zero chin-ups and she did two supernative chin-ups with 27 kilos five days before she left for the world championships, which she won. For Rio, I trained there six weeks around Christmas, six weeks in the spring. So the total of strength training was about 12 weeks in preparation for Rio. And she managed to do two pull-ups on the rings with the 30 kilos

Starting point is 01:01:28 the day before she flew out to Rio. And she went up a goal, and every credit's strength has been one of the major factors why she won. It's not the only factor. I mean, this woman doesn't have mindset. She has soul set. She's very driven, very smart. She learned Japanese so she could understand what the coach was telling her opponent between stops, right?

Starting point is 01:01:51 So the thing is that what I learned is that there's some basic lifts that do transfer to wrestling. The most important ones are squats and deadlifts and chins. So if you drive those lifts up, providing everything is equal, you should have a transfer into the wrestling mat. Number two is that I was amazed at the misconceptions that are still surrounding wrestling. So people would laugh at her because she lifted weights. But once you win the world championships, and lifting weights is very close to competition. People say you shouldn't do that, you're going to be too heavy, you have to cut weight. But I've got a few tricks up my sleeve on how we got strong

Starting point is 01:02:34 and not put on any weight. And then for the world championships, if I started for the Olympic Games, she decided to keep training up to the competition, which in wrestling is avoided like the plague. But once she won the world championships, you would see on Instagram all her competitors taking videos of themselves training, but the methods they were using were horrendous. It was quite funny.

Starting point is 01:02:57 I mean, it was a cure for depression to look at those DVDs and videos. And, for example, when she beat the Swedish girl, you know, again in Sweden, they said, you know, she's far superior by strength. So the insights are one, squat, deadlift and shins increments will improve transfer on the mat. Number two, you need this value in training close to the competition. And number three, based on the response I'm getting, now people are valuing how much strength training can do for combative sports. Next question is from Ryan the Sink. What's his process in learning new languages? Again, I think it's exposure. So everywhere I go, I make it a habit to learn at least how to say hello, goodbye, thank you, no problem.

Starting point is 01:03:54 And I learn basic sentences because if you go to a restaurant, they'll ask you, do you want bottled water? Do you want tap water? Do you want the water with bubbles? No bubbles. Would you like coffee? So if I go, let's say to Slovakia, I'll go on Bing Translator, write down these sentences, have a local person teach me the correct pronunciation. And let's say if I'm riding a cab,

Starting point is 01:04:28 I'll look at ads and try to guess what they are. So I'll write them down, go back, go on Bing Translate, write down what the ad said, and then pick it up. But the more languages you learn, the easier it is. And I was in Prague with the owners of Wolfgate and having dinner. And one of the tricks that helps you with learning languages, I pay attention when my friends are speaking, and I try to slow down internally the conversation. And then, so now I say, okay, this word must mean this. So I remember the guy was ordering a drink.

Starting point is 01:04:56 I said, that must be orange juice. And I was surprised I picked up because the word was not at all similar to what we have in our language. So learning languages is like strength training as well. I mean, it's repeated exposure. So I found that the Pimsleur method is probably the best method to learn. Hiring somebody to teach you, and again, don't be cheap. Sometimes people do it for free.

Starting point is 01:05:23 They'll do it as a trade but in my field how many times do I say stick your chest out put your elbows under the bar lift your chin so all these key sentences I write them down being transit them verify with a local if it's it be sometimes being translate doesn't do a good job that It's rare, but they do a pretty good job most of the time. And I say teach me those sentences. And because I keep repeating them throughout the workout, they sink in. But now I know the word, the verb strengthen. I know back.

Starting point is 01:05:56 I know a bunch of words. And another thing I do is I try to read the menu and understand what it means. And I was in Montenegro last summer, and they had sometimes the English and Serbian menu. So I learned quickly how to say chicken, beef, and whatever. Then I went on the coast and had the choice between Russian and Serbian and Cyrillic. But I've taken Russian before, so I knew how to read Cyrillic. And then so I would read the Serbian and Cyrillic. But I've taken Russian before, so I knew how to read Cyrillic.

Starting point is 01:06:25 And then so I would read the Serbian menu. And I knew how to order ribeye and all that stuff because I had familiarized myself in the capital, Podgorica, with the menu. And even my hosts were surprised how quickly I could pick up stuff. So it's just a matter of having an open mind and be keen. I mean, I like learning foreign languages. I used to have many employees, and they wouldn't even bother to say thank you and please.

Starting point is 01:06:54 I think that's quite rude. The least you could do is let them say thank you and welcome when you go to a foreign country. The next question is from Kyle Kulinan. What's your favorite book? I probably would say The One Thing is my favorite book because it teaches you what to focus on and what's most important. A night changer for me was The Four-Hour Workweek.

Starting point is 01:07:20 I'm not doing that to kiss Tim's ass, but I think the concepts in the book are very important to master. The next question is from Joshua Batali Bazi. What is Charles Polikron's one thing? The one thing is to finish my membership site. I've been working on it for the last three years. It took me far longer than what I thought. I've learned quite a bit during that process.

Starting point is 01:07:42 It's not as simple as people think, but I'm very proud of being able to open it in January. The thing with the membership website is that there's a lot of confusion on the market. I can't teach seminars 365 days a year, so I kind of listened to my friend John Berardi. I decided to make guidelines of what I'm willing to do and what I'm not willing to do. I'm willing to educate a lot of people, but I can't travel so much. And then my information is valuable, so I created a membership site. And I've had quite a few colleagues look at it.

Starting point is 01:08:16 And the interesting comment I've had is I have too much information. So for example, we filmed 188 forms of squat. I was going to leave all the squats there. They told me, no, just show five new ones a month because people get overwhelmed and they stop going. And my goal is to make it the best website for strength, training, and nutrition on the web. I'm very confident in doing so. And the people who have seen the content are blown away because there's things that I will teach in there through videos that you can only get in my classes. I mean, it's really hard to write about these things. A lot

Starting point is 01:08:51 of times it's demonstration is key in learning. Next question is from Chaz Christian and Sonali. What is your crowning achievement? I'm not sure if you're asking me, what is it that I'm most proud of? What I'm most proud of has not occurred yet. I do something. I don't think it's the end of the world. Like, you know, last summer I had two athletes win medals at the Olympic, one in triple jump, one in wrestling. That's great.

Starting point is 01:09:17 But eight minutes later, I'm looking at my next goal. So I don't believe in crowning achievements. A crowning achievement is what people talk about when you're dead. I intend to be on this planet for far longer, so I don't have a crowning achievement. Everything I do is part of a pathway. Otherwise, your life is not worth living. So that is all. Thank you for listening. On my website,'ll have strengthsensei.com slash tim ferris slash resources for the addresses where to buy some of the products or books i've mentioned and for you if you are interested in buying the ultimate mass program it will be strength

Starting point is 01:09:58 sensei slash tim ferris slash mass and you'll be able to have access to it thank you for listening and best of luck in all your training endeavors. Thank you. Hey guys, this is Tim again. Just a few more things before you take off. Number one, this is five bullet Friday. Do you want to get a short email from me? Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little

Starting point is 01:10:25 morsel of fun before the weekend? And Five Bullet Friday is a very short email where I share the coolest things I've found or that I've been pondering over the week. That could include favorite new albums that I've discovered. It could include gizmos and gadgets and all sorts of weird shit that I've somehow dug up in the world of the esoteric as I do. It could include favorite articles that I've read and that I've shared with my close friends, for instance. And it's very short. It's just a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend. So if you want to receive that, check it out. Just go to 4hourworkweek.com. That's 4hourworkweek.com all spelled out and just drop in your email and you will get the very next one. And if you sign up, I hope you enjoy it.

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The Tim Ferriss Show - #198: Charles Poliquin - His Favorite Mass-Building Program, His Nighttime Routine For Better Sleep, and Much More

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The Tim Ferriss Show - #198: Charles Poliquin - His Favorite Mass-Building Program, His Nighttime Routine For Better Sleep, and Much More

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