Bonus Episode: Dr. Feigenbaum Talks Novice Training, Weight Class Decisions, Training Frequency, and More!

0:00Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum:Hey, it's Jordan from Barbell Medicine. Now this episode preview is from exclusive content that regularly goes out to our Barbell Medicine Plus subscribers. In addition to exclusive content, Barbell Medicine Plus subscribers get early access to episodes and products, ad-free listening, discounts on products and services, and the ability to ask Dr. Baraki and I questions, all for about the cost of a cup of coffee each month. And in case you were wondering, the first month is free. To join, head over to barbellmedicine.com slash plus and sign up to be a Barbell Medicine Plus member today. That's barbellmedicine.com slash plus.

0:32Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum:All right. Thanks for your consideration. On to the show. All right. What's up, everybody? It is Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum. We are doing an Instagram live. It's like, you know, whatever, 2019. We're doing it again, maybe even longer than that. So yeah, what I do here is I answer your questions At least I try to Ideally about health, fitness, exercise, something like that And this will later be posted for the Barbell Medicine Plus subscribers But yeah, for the next 35-40 minutes Yeah, I'm with you One sec, I gotta grab a drink here We just finished the workout and I am thirsty One sec Alright, got the drink Little A &W This is not sponsored by ANW, but I wish it would.

1:18Like if you are ANW representative and you just want to send me some free stuff, I'll plug you guys. I'll do it. But yeah, ask me a question about health, fitness, training, something like that, and we'll get it popping. What's up, everybody? Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. M underscore Minisus. What's up, man? Been following you for eight years. Thank you for all the gains and the best physical shape of my life so far. That's awesome. Yeah, I realized that I've been doing this for a while. Every time somebody's like, oh, how long have you been doing online coaching or telemed or barbell medicine? And I'm like, oh, my gosh.

1:56Yeah, we're since 2012. So 13 years for that. And I've been coaching since 2008. So I guess I'm getting older. All right, SD7212, would you still recommend the starting strength program for a 50-year-old male? No. And no hate comms to starting strength. We're talking about a particular program, starting strength, novice, linear progression. It's fine, but there are a number of issues that I have with that program. It's hyper-specialized because it's only four exercises, right? Four or five exercises. The rep scheme is very narrow, hyper-specialized. Just doing fives does not get you the entire complement of physical adaptations across the rep range.

2:40You'd want exposure to not only more exercises but more rep ranges. You'd also want conditioning that's programmed in there, and you'd also want some semblance of auto-regulation rather than just add five pounds each time. And, you know, all of that could be forgiven, and I could just be like completely out to lunch on this. if the program worked super well, better than other stuff out there to reliably get people to this high level of strength if somebody desired that. But it doesn't. So again, I'm waiting for all the world beaters to show up out of starting strength. You know, if there's one novice program that people who are in a barbell training have ran, it's probably that one or five through one.

3:16And I'm like, where are the champions? You know, it's just a program. And so again, if somebody gets into barbell training through that or five through one, great. Love to have you. you're lifting weights, that's great. This idea though, that like, I have to stick with this program because I've been sort of inculcated into the starting strength, you know, world. I don't know that I feel that great about that. So I, for our beginner prescription would be a great option. There are other free programs out there, um, that are, I would view to work for a larger swath of the population and work better, uh, for them too.

3:48But you know, as long as people are lifting weights, I'm cool with it. I just don't, that would not be my go-to recommendation. So. All right, Jen, what's up, buddy? Hi, Jordan. In competitive powerlifting, how do you know what body weight is optimal for an athlete? You don't hate to say that, but you don't. I mean, it's pretty complicated if you think about it, because going up a weight class, right, gaining body weight, most people will get stronger due to not only additional lean body mass, not having to cut for me, more energy available to train. All of those things would generally support gaining more strength.

4:25But you might run into a buzzsaw of like a world beater in the next weight class up. And so whether or not you're more competitive depends on who's competing at the meets that you go to, what level you compete at or whatever. And so, yeah, at the highest levels, there's kind of a lot of, you know, guesswork and then also trial and error. My general thing is for people who are competing at the highest level, you need to figure out, like, if I go up a weight class, what are my who am I going to be going up against? And what sort of increase in total would I need to see to be more competitive than I am now at the lower weight class?

5:02And then you weigh that against the hassle of staying at a lower weight class and like, what do you want to get out of powerlifting? If the goal of powerlifting is just to lift as much weight as possible, you don't really care how you finish. Well, you know, the answer is easy. But if you actually want to be competitive, you got to weigh, you know, who your competition is and where do you go from there. For people who are not competing at the highest level, I don't think you should worry about the weight class because who cares? Yeah, it's just Powerlifting at that point becomes like a documentation Of how strong you actually are Under an agreed upon set of rules and standards Which is why we actually hold the meets And it's not just mail in your best attempts That you've ever done at the gym It's different People have different gym PRs versus meet PRs And there's a reason for that Alright What's up everybody?

5:46Howdy Thoughts on six times a week SBD a week for experienced powerlifters not really the program i would run but that doesn't actually tell me enough about the program to weigh in on it so for example let's say you had a person who was squatting benching and deadlifting each twice a week right on different days maybe their upper lower days whatever it is they and then each of those those days that they squatted right they're squatting twice a week they did three sets and you compare that to a person who's squatting six days a week but only squatting one set. Well, the training load is about the same, just the frequency is different.

6:23And when this has been directly investigated, the training outcomes are roughly the same. So I think that training frequency is mainly useful for accommodating an individual schedule so that they can get the most amount of training load in the amount of time that they have. So, you know, people want more sessions that are shorter in length, great. If people want fewer sessions that are longer in length, also great. I think that's the main role for frequency. And then outside of that, accommodating somebody's schedule, the more frequency you have, you can increase the volume, which generally speaking, if you can tolerate it, likely to improve results.

6:59But yeah, six times a week, not really something that I've done outside of med school and residency sort of time constraints where I only could train for like 30, 40 minutes a day, in which case I just needed to like do exercises frequently, one or two sets, and then move on to the next one. That worked okay. It's not my preferred way to train, but you know, it might be somebody else's cup of tea. So, or a cup of A &W root beer. All right. This podcast is brought to you by ButcherBox.

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9:42Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum:That's code BBM50off at Factormeals.com. Again, BBM50off at Factormeals.com. See the website for more details. This podcast is brought to you by Quince. End of summer is when I start thinking about what I actually want in my closet for the next few months. You know, not a full overhaul, just swapping out the stuff that's worn out and filling in some gaps. And that's what keeps bringing me back to Quince. They do everyday staples really well. Their organic cotton tees are soft and hold up wash after wash. Their cashmere sweaters are legitimately good for the price point. And they transition straight into fall.

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10:46Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum:And Quince goes way beyond just clothing. They've got premium bedding, bath essentials, cookware, travel gear. It's one of those brands where you buy one thing and end up recommending it to everyone. Both Lee and I have their sheets and they're great. So upgrade your everyday. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com slash BBM. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too. That's quince.com slash BBM. Okay. Good to see everybody here. Do a course vlog. I actually did do one. This is funny. There's so much people on the internet.

11:22kind of fun. I did, I did like a little golf vlog with my dad. Uh, and I don't know how many holes I actually filmed, but it was like just showing what me playing one of my favorite courses in San Diego. It's called journey at Pechanga. Love that course. And I got probably 70 % positive feedback. Maybe, maybe I'm, I'm a little revisionist history. Maybe it was 80 % positive feedback, but there were people were like, Oh, now you, what are you just now a rich guy? Would you show golf lifestyle stuff? And I'm like, I don't know, man. I thought you guys would be interested. It's like Jordan plays sports.

11:53He does more than deadlift and squat and bench press, but maybe I'll do another course vlog when I get my handicap back down. How about that? Rolls-Royce and Jay, can you describe when mechanistic data becomes relevant in a clinical population? At what point do observations at a cellular level become clinical behavioral issues? I'm not really sure what the last sentence means, but just so everybody kind of knows what we're talking about like mechanistic data, stuff that happens like a Petri dish or stuff that happens like, oh, at the cellular level, here's what you see. Here's the relationship.

12:26But there's no actual like outcome data, meaning like, oh, this particular training intervention or supplement increases muscle protein synthesis, for example. Great. People interested in growing muscle, preserving muscle, avoiding sarcopenia, all of these different folks would be pumped about the opportunity for this intervention to make more muscle mass, grow more muscle mass. However, You actually need to show that whatever the intervention is, training, nutrition, supplement, whatever, actually, you know, no shit increases muscle size, which is the outcome. And so I think that mechanistic data is mostly hypothesis generating for like, okay, we look, we have a reason to believe that this particular intervention or series of interventions does X, but now we got to test that.

13:11So it's basically, you know, we're standing on the shoulders. Researchers are standing on the shoulders of other researchers to like do the actual clinically relevant research. Outside of that, mechanistic data becomes useful when it is an area where there's not a lot of scientific evidence, meaning like you have to make some sort of clinical decision to use a medication, to do a particular intervention or whatever. And all you have are proxy markers, you know, mechanisms and such. And it's hypothetical, but you feel better about making those decisions kind of intelligently. It's mostly treating our anxiety as physicians.

13:50But those are, I think, the major roles of mechanistic data. But, yeah, would not over rely on them if there are outcome data. I would by far outcomes far more important than mechanisms if you happen to have both. All right. What would be some signs that the current program has run its course? Yeah, I mean, I think in general, if a program is generating results that are demonstrable and, you know, you can't. So that means you can either measure them. You know, you see your your estimated one rep max is going up. You're getting stronger. You're gaining muscle mass. You're gaining cardiorepertory fitness by some sort of metric every three to four weeks, something like that.

14:33Be reasonable sort of time frame there. And you like what you're doing. and you're motivated to keep showing up, it'd be hard for me to say, you should change that unless you're like, I got a one rep max test. I got a powerlifting meet. And so at that point, you might have to get more specifically prepared for that test. But otherwise, if training is going great, but as measured by results and you're enjoying it and motivated to keep doing it, carry on. But yeah, if you start to plateau and stagnate based on any sort of, you know, fitness adaptations that you're actually training for, whether it's strength, hypertrophy, cardiomyopathy, fitness, or you're getting a little, you know, psychologically burnt out.

15:12Probably time for a change. Ryan Benson, dang, it's been a long time since you've gone live. Yeah, I know, man. I mean, you and I have been working together for like 11 years now. I think this is my first Instagram live in at least a year. So maybe I'll keep doing these if people like them. We'll see. Yeah, if you were just joining this Instagram live, answering questions. So ask me anything, ideally related to health, fitness, nutrition, something like that. All right. David Rodriguez, 168. What are your sodium recommendations for pre, during, post-exercise, and general daily intake? I don't think people need to micromanage their sodium or salt intake.

15:54Most people in the United States, over 90 % of adults, consume way too much sodium. And most of that's not coming from the salt shaker. Shout out to OutKast. Shake it like a salt shaker. Shake it like a Polaroid pitcher. Shake it. Dang it. I don't know. I'm getting trapped in my own reference here. Anyway, most of the sodium that people consume comes from how many calories they're eating and the level of processing of their typical dietary pattern. And so if you wanted to reduce sodium intake, it wouldn't be like, hey, stop using so much salt. It's more so, hey, we probably need to correct for the total amount of calories that you're consuming and the level of processing in your typical dietary pattern.

16:29I don't think that most people who are training even relatively hard need to supplement with sodium. I think particularly if somebody's eating like a minimally processed diet, unprocessed diet, their sodium level intake outside of very, very large athletes with a high calorie intake are going to be fine. I would recommend typically under 2 ,300, under 2 ,400 milligrams of sodium per day. If you're eating a minimally processed diet or mostly unprocessed food diet, you can add salt to food. But I just think most people do not need to use an electrolyte supplement. Most people do not need to take an additional sodium.

17:06Obviously, if you're training a ton, two a days, very long sessions, you know, that are three hours, four hours, whatever, it becomes challenging to replace the losses in not only fluid but also electrolytes from your session because you're training so much. It does not apply to people training, you know, an hour and a half or an hour, three times a week. That's not the same person. So, yeah, my recommendation, generally speaking, don't use an electrolyte supplement. Don't eat a highly processed food diet. Eat the right amount of calories. Don't worry about sodium intake pre, during, or post-exercise unless you're training a ton, more than 10 hours a week, you know, more than that.

17:44And some of the sessions are very long, in which case you'll probably need to eat something in the middle of the session, and it's going to have sodium in it. And I think that's generally good enough. If you are a really high-level endurance athlete, you can make a case for some sweat testing just to see, in addition to monitoring your weight before and after each session, to see how good your hydration strategies are to maintain weight during the activity, which is an important sort of correlate for performance. Losing more than like one and a half or 2 % of body weight during activity does tend to reduce performance.

18:13And so you'd want your pre-workout and intro workout sort of hydration, food consumption, et cetera, to be enough to maintain your body weight.

18:25Dr. Jordan Feigenbaum:All right, that is a wrap on this free sample of our bonus content that regularly goes out to our Barbell Medicine Plus subscribers. Again, to join, head over to barbellmedicine.com slash plus and sign up to be a Barbell Medicine Plus member today. That's barbellmedicine.com slash plus. Thank you so much for listening. We'll catch you guys next time.