Blair “Rick, do I have to train to failure?!” Rick “Yes, Blair, I’m afraid you do …”
Blair Wilson is the co-founder of MedX Precision Fitness (@Medxfitness), a fast growing strength training facility in Toronto, Canada. Prior to starting MedX Precision Fitness, Blair was a professional water skier and long time mentee to John Little. Blair has contributed to several influential studies on the mechanisms of fitness and weight loss – two of which have been published in international publications – and he is also a founding member of the Canadian Sarcopenia Foundation.
Check out the MedX Precision Fitness Bod Pod Service – HERE
In this episode, Blair and I focus mostly on his recent findings from data on himself and his own clients. Blair has noticed that many of his trained clients have noticed significant muscle gain following periods of extending rest from regular training. This is an ideal episode for you if you’re a trained individual who is looking to optimise muscle gain over the long-term or a business owner looking to do the same for your clients.
Eyes closed and focused during the Discover Strength, Nautilus Pull Over.
In this episode, we cover:
- How taking time off the gym can increase muscle gain in trained individuals
- How this finding can inform training programming over the long term
- Higher frequency vs lower frequency training
- Bod Pod vs DEXA vs electric sales – what makes the most sense?
- … and much more
All of the photos and videos on this post were taken at Discover Strength, Minneapolis, Minnesota, during the Resistance Exercise Conference in 2018. These were taken during the early morning workout on day 2. It was the hardest workout I had ever done (my photos coming soon). The Resistance Exercise Conference is an amazing experience. I had the time of my life. It is an opportunity to connect with like-minded high achievers in strength training, hear from the leading researchers and practitioners and learn a ton about strength training practice and business. Going forward, I am looking to attend every single year.
Blair on the Discover Strength, MedX Leg Press. I have no idea what he’s smiling about?!
Download How to Attract Great Personal Trainers PDF
Listen below:
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as”.
Would you like to hear more from Blair Wilson? Check out this episode where Blair talks about how he started MedX Precision Fitness, his business goals, and the HIT and nutrition protocols he uses on himself and his clients, and much more. Listen here or stream below:
This episode is brought to you by Hituni.com, providers of the best online courses in high intensity training that come highly recommended by Dr. Doug McGuff, Dr James Fisher and Luke Carlson. Course contributors include world-class exercise experts like Drew Baye, Ellington Darden and Skyler Tanner. If you want to become an excellent HIT Personal Trainer, create a great team of trainers, build a successful fitness business or significantly improve your knowledge of high intensity training, I highly recommend you use CW10 to get 10% off courses – HERE
This episode is also brought to you by Health IQ: A life insurance company that helps health conscious people like runners, cyclists, weight lifters, HIT participants and more, get a lower rate on their life insurance.
Go to healthiq.com/cwarrior to support the show and see if you qualify. If you take care of yourself, do smart strength training, eat well, and you’re life insurance company doesn’t seem like they care, there’s an answer for you: Health IQ actually gives savings to people who take care of themselves. About 56% of Health IQ customers save between 4-33% on their life insurance. Health IQ customers can save up to a third because physically active people have a 56% lower risk of heart disease, 20% lower risk of cancer and a 58% lower risk of diabetes compared to people who are inactive, but your life insurance company probably just doesn’t care, you care, and there are companies out there that care.
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Selected Links from the Episode
- Bod Pod
- Comparison of muscle hypertrophy following 6-month of continuous and periodic strength training
- MedX Chest Press
- Fat Caliper ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
- MedX exercise machines
- The Real Truth About Maximizing Muscle Gain with Dr James Steele
- DXA
- Dr Doug McGuff on Workout Volume and Frequency, Neck Training, Exercise Science, Entrepreneurship, Cryptocurrency, and Relationships
- Hydrostatic weighing
- Air displacement plethysmography
- SKulpt Scanner ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
People Mentioned
- John Little (Listen to my episodes with John here: Part 1 and Part 2)
- Dr James Fisher (Listen to my episodes with James here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5)
- Menno Henselmans (Listen to my episode with Menno here)
- Drew Baye (Listen to my episodes with Drew here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7)
- Dr Doug McGuff (Listen to my episodes with Doug here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4)
- Dr. James Steele (Listen to my episodes with James here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4)
- Dave Feldman
- Luke Carlson (Listen to my episodes with Luke here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4)
- Jim Flanagan (Listen to my episode with Jim here)
429 – A Deep Dive into Joint-Friendly Fitness with Bill DeSimone: A New Paradigm in Exercise Safety
413 – Cardiac Rehab & Cabin Gyms: An Intimate Look at Jon Allen’s Personal Training Business
412 – Dr. James Fisher Unveils Trainee Perceptions on Supervised Resistance Training
As you say Lawrence, it’s remarkable that such interesting insights are coming out of “a local gym ” 🙂
It seems, in layman’s terms, that maybe the body needs a long enough pause from near-term demand to permit a re-allocation of resources to building muscle. Beyond recovery to rejuvenation.
Train harder and smarter
Indeed it is! I love science but no harm in tinkering in the gym too!
Re your point on recovery, been informed by a researcher that acute
muscle damage = MPS and recovery but not hypertrophy (super compensation) as per Blair’s point during this, so looking to having said researcher on podcast! ????
Looking forward to that teased podcast Lawrence, will the actual timecourse of these recovery and supercompensation processes be discussed as well? I wonder if limiting muscle damage somehow will speed up this process.
Hey Julien, the podcast is booked, and I intend to ask everything in your comment and much more :D. It’s a fair few weeks away yet and another fews weeks to publish, but watch this space! 😀
Very interesting podcast ! It doesn’t surprise me that much that Blair is discovering these types of findings because i’ve found that more time between sessions seems to increase my muscle mass . I say seems to because i’ve only taken arm measurements to confirm this , better than nothing right !
Interesting! I might have to bite the bullet and experiment with longer occasional rest periods on myself.
I’m not quite sure what is so surprising about Blair’s findings with his clients. I mean, there’s obviously a lag between the training stimulus and tissue growth, right? Is he saying that the lag is longer than expected?
Yes in part, but he’s also saying that maybe we can get more gains by occasionally inserting 2-3 week breaks in our training. Since it might take longer for muscle to super compensate vs recover. However, I cannot tell you the last time I had as long as 2 weeks off training. It reminds me of what Mark Asanovich was telling me. He will do a program for 8-10 weeks (don’t quote me) and take a 2 week break before commencing a new program. Listen here https://highintensitybusiness.com/podcast/mark-asanovich-nfl-high-intensity-training/
A fascinating and interesting interview Lawrence. I couldn’t agree more with the concept that well before you have to start using a cane or a walker, start strength training!
It has the potential to add not only years to your life, but quality of life to your years and reduce the need for both medical intervention and also being placed into an aged care facility
Hear hear Malcolm! It’s exciting stuff. I love all these gym based findings 😀 Glad you enjoyed the podcast.