I've made it a goal to release a full length interview with an expert in a given field at least once a month for the rest of 2018 for those of you who enjoy that extra depth. I'll be releasing Part 2 of this interview in the next week or so and then after that Part 1 of a conversation I just finished up with Dr. Mike Israetel! Hope you enjoy!
Copying the time stamps in the comments so mobile users can click on them. 0:00 - Intro/disclaimers 1:42 - Interview begins 2:07 - Jorn's area of research and interests 5:59 - What is muscle protein synthesis? 10:12 - Is the point of resistance training to "tear the muscle down"? (Why does weight training work?) 17:08 - What is the BEST way to train to max out muscle protein synthesis (MPS)? (Reps, split, volume) 24:10 - Rest periods 25:29 - How frequently should you train to max out MPS? 36:03 - What is the role of progressive overload in terms of MPS? Is it required for growth? 44:18 - EMG/Muscle Activation Discussion & Answering?: "Does MPS correlate with hypertrophy?"
The Journey of Bodybuilding studies show curling in the squat rack mostly benefit people living in Australia where everyone in the southern hemisphere walks around on their hands
So. Much. Information. Gonna take a few watches to actually understand this video. You’re a king Jeff. Thank you for having people like Jorn on here, it’s incredible to see all the knowledge coming together
I think that means you're on a good path. Would you rather be partying and missing sleep, or recovering from hard training and acquiring knowledge? Instant gratification vs long term happiness. One of those paths leads to becoming a greater man.
I love your upload frequency now man, loving the videos keep it up!!! Could you maybe do one on mobility/flexibility training? And pre-warmup? Thank you so much! Good luck with your podcast :D
Great interview! It's funny how he mentions the minimalist folks who just want to get the 80% and who say that "it doesn't matter" and then there are the athletes who need to push the other 20%. He forgot about us nerds who are just interested in the science and the training.
Best part about this is how in depth they go on the statistical significance of studies and their limitations. Really exemplifies t he expertise necessary to perform a study that has practical value for the layman. Thank you guys so much for this!!
17:00. If you eat protein, you will naturally increase MPS. But body doesn't hold on to most of those proteins, so they don't get used to make muscle. Resistance training makes muscles temporarily more sensitive to amino acid uptake and encourages the body to keep more of those muscle proteins. Very nice. This is the key to body building right here. That window may shrink as athletes become more experienced which explains why they have to train more frequently to get that activation up again.
Jeff and Jorn, I may be a bit prone to hyperbole on occasions but this is by far the best video on the channel. There is just something so fascinating about a discussion of such a niche topic especially with one person conducting research in the field. This stuff not only gets me pumped for lifting but it makes me want to get involved in research. Perhaps it's just my taste but Jeff, please either have more videos like this with Jorn or other researchers. With the greatest respect to someone who is a practitioner, I prefer hearing from someone like Jorn compared to mountaindog.
I can't wait for part 2! This might be a strange question but did you ever play magic the gathering? The way you articulate yourself reminds me of European mtg pros.
This was a mind blowing, I had so many ideas.... Thank you Jeff and Jorn for all the info, I am really eager to see the second part.Why don't we start a campaign to find the maximum amount of volunteers and labs to make one big study on MPS? My clients and me would gladly take part in such study !
You can tell when a scientist is talking. Their sentences are full of "To be clear, the evidence on Topic X is not clear, but I wouldn't be surprised if...". Loved this Jeff. Was so interesting to listen to, and full of useful information. And even though Jorn is talking in a non-native language, he finds a way to explain very complex topics in a way that a lay person like me could understand and easily follow. Please keep this series up. Fantastic work.
I'm really happy to hear an expert in the field address things like study limitations and problems with absence of evidence. That sort of intellectual honesty is essential to a better understanding of anything a person studies, and we would all do well to incorperate that level humility in our daily lives. Also, metaanalysis studies are dope and I'm happy they were mentioned.
One of the most useful videos I’ve ever watched on fitness... not because it says anything new but it gives a different perspective to consider than anything I have seen. Even watching Dr Schoenfield on other channels, and all the respect he has - here is another researcher clapping back ... and we are here to soak it in and consider what we think about it and how it affects us and what we believe. Great job, Jeff!
Awesome! I always had a feeling that even though recovery is super important, constant activation no matter how small seems to do wonders. I make sure to flex hard everywhere a few times a day.
great interview, the chemistry is obvious, the questions play well with the interview, Jeff you are doing great , it is important how you mix and match weight lifting and proteinsynthesis. It was inevitable to go down that road too, keep on doing what you do , globally people crave for quality information.
remembering my post graduate class in medicine. all full of resurchs. differnt people can understand differnt things differently. have to see 2 to 3 times to understand maximum. good informative lecture. Waiting for part 2.
Here are my questions: What exactly is mechanically taking place in your body during MPS? Is MPS always taking place? How long does MPS take? How do we quantity how MPS takes place as opposed to breakdown? How much more does MPS have to exceed breakdown for hypertrophic results to be visible? If resistance training makes your muscles more sensitive to MPS, why do I stop growing after a while of using the same weights? What happens mechanically that stops MPS from exceeding muscle protein breakdown? Is it safe to say when I plateau that MPS and breakdown cancel each other out or is one always more than the other? What role does intermittent fasting play in MPS?
Dude, I didn't know you had a podcast. Awesome! Now I can listen to these longer videos at work. Between a full time job, graduate school, and what little "life" I have I can't get the time to watch these extended videos. Subscribed and review posted, keep up the great work!
Jeff Nippard thank you and JORN so much for this hour long video of pure knowledge. Dude I know how much you love this stuff and I'm so stoked someone actually has the patience and given gift of having the natural ability to take in informative information and break down the science of the body to terms that every bro can understand and better learn and appreciate how truly amazing the human body really is and all of the things its capable of. I fucking H💚RT you man!
Very good video! Jorn describes this very good and is a very opendminded scientist who also exactly knows what he does not know so he can constantly keep evolving, these scientists are rare these days.
Thanks for always having great content Jeff! When you ask about progressive overload and linear periodization you then ask about muscle confusion and it not being progressive overload... I was waiting for one of you to bring up concurrent periodization. For people who don't know about it: Concurrent periodization is programmed with the idea of muscle confusion (in a way) while maintaining your volume and intensity and can be done for a long period of time. So it is still a way for progressive overload because if you rotate your exercise for your specific weak points and keep cycling exercises throughout your program they will help improve a specific lift. To paint the picture think of a deadlift and with concurrent periodization you have one high volume day and one high intensity day than the next week you do a deadlift specific lift like block pulls or deficit pulls and so on...it will still help your main deadlift improve or you can utilize bands, chains, pause reps ect. and with any body part.
Also I liked his take on Progressive Overload. I always felt like Progressive Overload is more like a result of muscle growth rather than a means, as it's often refered to. Given that you train with the same reps, sets and intensity (enough to make the muscle grow), muscle growth occurs. As a result you'll be lifting heavier over time, as the muscle becomes bigger & stronger, resulting in overloading workouts (given that the same intensity is maintained). That is, if you allow the muscle recovery to fullfill (e.g. with nutrition and rest).
This. Everyone talks about line how you have to push for it, but if you're training to near failure and often, you will progress. Only if you count reps and sets and never consider how close to failure you are, you will grow, at whatever rate you do.
Frank Kirsch well I mean with a bit of common sense, this rest period would allow your muscle fibers to recover enough to preform at nearly the same extent as the beginning of the set. Which if done over say 5 sets, would allow for more total fiber recruitment; given that training at least near failure to each set is in place. Just my thoughts
Izft PvP Agreed. I personally take even like 3-4 minutes for heavy compounds so I can lift a lot more weight(*reps) per set, going 1 rep away from failure each set and to failure on the last, achieving about the same weight & reps each set this way. Feel like this hits the muscles harder. But would be interesting to see a video about the optimal rest period for growth.
Izft PvP why is it common sense that exactly 2 minutes allows you to do that? it could have been 1 or 3 or 4, like dont act like some all-knowing smartass
Oskar Klingest To be fair, I’m pretty sure the research is more definitive about less than 1 minute being worse than more than 1 minute, therefore the ‘more than 2 minutes’ spoken about here, rather than 2 minutes exactly
What an interview!! Always shocked how each one gets more interesting and better each time! Impressed to say the least always excellent content Jeff great job. Keep up the hard work!
Great point Jeff that intensity ie. training sufficiently close to failure, is overlooked when people prioritize the significance of total weekly volume.
Great video and my favourite type of content. Personally not much new in terms of information, but always interesting hearing similar points reaffirmed by different people in the more evidence based/scientific community. Looking forward to part 2!
Hey Jeff, I was wondering if you would be able to do a video on how to properly warm up as I have injured my rotator cuff from not knowing how to properly warm it up
Your rotator cuff is responsible for assisting in internally rotating your arm, externally rotating your arm, and providing stability at the shoulder joint. So basically do those things with a light weight and under control to start your workout. Easiest thing I like to do is stand at a 90 degree angle to a cable machine and hold the elbow at the hip and internally/externally rotate both arms with a light resistance. If you're still injured though you need to lay off upper body lifting.
Jeff I’ve recently traded training high volume 10 sets@6RM per body part 2x per week for increased frequency ie:Monday;3sets@6RM ,Wednesday 3sets@10RM and Friday;3sets@15RM per body part and I’m hurting like hell and noticing some extra gainz my diet remained constant through this change and I wondered how to explain the apparent drop in workload weighed against the extra gainz ? I appreciate the extra upload frequency and your channel is becoming one of the most watchable as you mature pal well done
Way to keep the discussion on topic, Jeff! Some interview-style videos I've seen have a collage of unrelated questions leading to a click-bait title that only is accurate for 5% of the video.
He's basically just explained the method of training that I've been using for years, I basically do a bro split 1 day on one day off doing all uper body push exercises one day, then pull uperbody another day then the remaining days are abs and legs. Each week I also adjust my exercises in some way from adding 5-10kg and lowering the reps by 2 ore I'll drop the weight 5-10kg and add 2 reps or I will completely replace exercises.As for food I takes a whey protein before a workout for the amminos and a blend such as bsn syntha 6 after a workout so that muscle recovery is extended for longer the blend gives a better bang for the buck because it stays in the system longer.
Such a valuable interview! Thanks for making the effort to produce all of this information. I really liked the part where Jorn argues that even bodybuilders who train intuitively increase weight, workload and volume over time. I believe this is not only happening with bodybuilders who don‘t track their workouts, but still grow, but also with most functional fitness and crossfit recreational athletes. This is not to say „do crossfit and you will get jacked“, but as to why people tend to do grow in spite of a more high-rep, short rest, high-intensive cardio programme. I see the same thing happening in me. I do crossfit twice a week (which can be seen as a random training stimulus) and one hypertrophy workout once a week where I rotate between 4 different workouts. So basically, you could argue that I am training just randomly and with muscle confusion. However, my tracking record of the hypertrophy workouts shows pretty much linear progression and this can also be seen on the scale and in the mirror. While hypertrophy is clearly not my main focus, but rather cardiovascular fitness and moving healthily, it is nice to see that it works. So many roads lead to Rome as we say in Germany as long as the main conditions for muscle growth are fulfilled.
Great video! Wanted to comment in particular on the ~39-44 minute mark where you mentioned the guy with the disease and the top bodybuilders getting hypertrophic gains seemingly without progressive overload. I wanted to provide my hypothetical explanation to the phenomenon. As Jorn pointed out with reference to the study with the wrapped band limiting bloodflow allowing hypertrophy provided failure/fatigue. So I postulate that for example after a month of training at a given weight on an exercise to failure, you build some muscle in that area. And so given the same exercise and same weight you simply need more force to fatigue the area to the same degree due to the fact that there's more muscular fibers there now. So I think one could argue that even if the load is the same but you're recruiting more muscle fibers to fatigue this could be a variation of "progressive overload". I would say in a hypothetical scenario if you could imagine someone doing preacher curls but their dominant bicep was always bigger. If we assume the load is always the same eventually the gains will plateau but presumably for the dominant hand first. And so eventually, (assuming the reps are controlled and isolated) if they don't increase the weight and continue doing preacher curls the dominant hand will no longer fatigue to the same degree (or at least not as soon in the set). We would assume if the reps aren't being cheated by unequal forces between arms, that the non dominant arm would eventually continue growing until it reached the same size as the dominant one. And so if we just use this as an analogy of the load vs the number of fibers contracted til failure, it seems reasonable that you don't need to increase the load for hypertrophy as long as you can continue to recruit and contract more muscle fibers to that point of fatigue that stimulates MPS. I also wonder, but admittedly haven't done any reading, academic of otherwise, regarding how nerve formation occurs in muscle growth and whether the amount of nerve fibers plays a role in fatigue and consequently MPS. Another thought I had was regarding the mechanism that failure/fatigue stimulates on the physiological level in terms of cytokines etc. Like how there's corpuscles that physically react to forces/pressure from stepping on a Lego that send nerve impulses for sensations of pain. Is there a similar mechanism on such a scale that fatigue/ mechanical stress causes on muscle cells to signal release of cytokines to implement muscular growth? Not sure if maybe this was answered somewhere else in a simple comprehensive matter so if that's the case and you could just link me to that, that would be great so you don't have to waste your time writing everything. Either way I appreciate the feedback. I know I'm kinda late to the party here but as a full time student, I only do the fitness thing as a hobby and I'm not studying anything fitness related so what's common knowledge to those in the field may be lacking for me. I'm a relatively new subscriber and so you'll have to forgive me if I don't go and watch all your older videos but everything I've seen thus far is high quality and I'm a big fan. I also definitely enjoy the lengthier more in depth science talks such as this one, keep up the great work I look forward to seeing more in the future.
At 27:00 Muscle protein synthesis occurs 72 hours after exercise. So best to train twice a week with at least 72 hours between sessions to make efficient use of your time in gym and gain muscle!!
