“You are the greatest expert concerning your body” ~ Dr Jurgen Giessing
Dr Jurgen Giessing (email – giessing[at]uni-landau.de) is a professor of sports science at the University of Koblenz-Landau. After graduating from the University of Marburg with a teaching degree and a doctor’s degree in pedagogy in 1997, Jurgen worked as a sports therapist and P.E. teacher and continued his research about muscle hypertrophy training which lead to his doctoral dissertation in sports science at the University of Tübingen in 2002.
Since 2007, Jurgen works at the University of Koblenz-Landau where he continues his research about muscle hypertrophy training and its health related effects. His book HIT, first published in 2006, became a best-seller in Germany. His new book High Intensity Training explains why staying in shape requires very little training time and that it is the quality rather than the quantity of training that makes the difference.
Jurgen has conducted several studies on High Intensity Training with sports students, seniors, type 2 diabetics, and identical twins. There has never been an injury-related drop out (no surprise there!)
Access exclusive content from Jurgen inside HIT Business Membership
A few caveats on this one:
- I believe I had miscalculated my calorie intake (fat is dense!). In this podcast, I report that my calorie intake is typically <2,000 calories a day, but it was likely at least 2-300 calories more and closer to 2,500 per day.
- I recorded this podcast a long time before my episode with Dr Doug McGuff on “bulking”, where Doug further reinforced Jurgen’s point about the problems chasing a calorie surplus on a daily basis. I have since stopped calorie counting and currently eat a high protein diet to satiety each day (typically 2 large meals per day).
In this episode, we cover:
- The origins of multiple set training
- The problems with research comparing number of exercise sets
- How to manage calorie and macro-nutrient intake for gain muscle
- … and much, much more
Download How to Attract Great Personal Trainers PDF
Enjoy!
- Listen to it on Apple Podcasts
- Stream by clicking here
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as”
This episode is brought to you by ARXFit.com, ARX are the most innovative, efficient and effective all-in-one exercise machines I have ever seen. I was really impressed with my ARX workout. The intensity and adaptive resistance were unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I love how the machine enables you to increase the negative load to fatigue target muscles more quickly and I love how the workouts are effortlessly quantified. The software tracks maximum force output, rate of work, total amount of work done and more in front of you on-screen, allowing you to compete with your pervious performance, to give you and your clients real-time motivation.
As well as being utilised by many HIT trainers to deliver highly effective and efficient workouts to their clients, ARX comes highly recommended by world-class trainers and brands including Bulletproof, Tony Robbins, and Ben Greenfield Fitness. To find out more about ARX and get $500 OFF install, please go to ARXFit.com and mention Corporate Warrior in the how did you hear about us field – Learn more HERE
Selected Links from the Episode
- Berger in retrospect: effect of varied weight training programmes on strength
- Single vs. multiple sets of resistance exercise for muscle hypertrophy: a meta-analysis
- Beware the Meta-Analysis: Is Multiple Set Training Really Better than Single Set Training for Muscle Hypertrophy?
- Drop-sets
- Rest-pause
- Body by Science: A Research Based Program for Strength Training, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week by Dr Doug McGuff and John R. Little ( Amazon US / Amazon UK )
- The Effects of Overfeeding on Body Composition: The Role of Macronutrient Composition – A Narrative Review
- mTOR
- Myokines
- Dr James Fisher – How to Reunite the HIT Community, Workout Routines, and Sun-bedding
- SuperSlow
- Resistance Training Volume Enhances Muscle Hypertrophy
- James Steele, PhD – The Problems With Measuring “Effort” In Resistance Training Science (#167)
- Clarity in Reporting Terminology and Definitions of Set End Points in Resistance Training
People Mentioned
- Dr Ted Naiman (Listen to my episodes with Ted here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3)
- Dr Richard Berger
- Skyler Tanner (Listen to my episodes with Skyler here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6)
- Dr. James Steele (Listen to my episodes with James here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5)
- Dr Doug McGuff (Listen to my episodes with Doug here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5)
- Dr James Fisher (Listen to my episodes with James here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5)
- Arthur Jones
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- James Krieger (Listen to the episode with James here)
- Dr Brad Schoenfeld (Listen to my episodes with Brad here: Part 1 and Part 2)
500 – What I’ve Learned After 11 Years of Interviewing World-Class HIT Experts and Fitness Entrepreneurs (Luke Carlson interviews Lawrence Neal)
499 – The Best HIT Protocol for Strength, Muscle Mass, and Hypertrophy (SuperSlow VS High-Volume HIT Debate with Dagoberto Vila and Dr. James Fisher)
498 – How to Fine-Tune Your HIT Workouts and Design A Great Client Experience (with Luke Carlson)
Great poscast. I have read almost all books by Dr. Giessing.
He and Mike Mentzer took me to HIT training.
Another german speaking scientist who would certainly be interesting is Marco Toigo from ETH in Zürich.
Will listen soon. Heard Mr. Giessing in 2015 Dresden and have his books. I agree with Tobias about Marco Toigo. Have his book too and heard him also in Dresden. Another one who says it as it is.
One great point I took from this: there may be reasons to train more frequently that don’t involve hypertrophy or strength. Chasing the minimum effective dose based only on hypertrophy considerations may be thinking too narrowly.
Approaching training with the primary focus being on maximal strength and hypertrophy really is a narrow view although most other benefits come along for the ride! I personally wonder though if adding in more frequent but lower intensity sessions could enhance the other positive adaptations and effects. Non HIT modalities have the potential to effect myokine release, BDNF, Co2 max and other CV adaptations, glycogen depletion, fat mobilisation, insulin sensitivity, reduce sarcopenia and plenty of others I can’t think of off of the top of my head. HIT is an amazing foundation but I personally believe that general physical activity is the key to improved comprehensive wellbeing, be that NEAT, LISS, HIIT or sports. Approaching any activity sensibly and safely is important, assessing the risk/reward ratio for both safety (acute/chronic injury risk) and the risk of “over training” which really is passing a threshold where the listed benefits above may begin to be undone. In addition enjoyment and time taken must be taken into account when summing up the cost/benefit of your chosen activity, for the general population this is probably their primary concern.
One thing that people also need to keep in mind is that more frequent training will also produce more wear & tear on the body . The key is to train just enough ( no more than twice within a seven to ten day period ) two allow adequate recovery and overcompensation to occur .
Hypertrophy is the assumed primary interest in much of the HIT discussion.
I keep listening for evidence based comment on the maximal strength and muscular endurance aspects of strength training.
I realise that some argue there is no such thing and it’s suggested that an individual’s strength to size ratio is pretty much set by genetics. But I can’t help wondering if there is something to learn from studies like Effects of different volume-equated resistance training loading strategies on muscular adaptations in well-trained men by Schoenfeld et al?
And, if there is something to learn, does Borge Fagerli’s effective rep concept offer a way to adapt these protocols towards the efficiency of a HIT protocol?
Lawrence, really interesting to hear about your recent reappraisal of your calorie intake. It’s sooo easy to get it wrong, I believe similar errors account for the vast majority of folk that “can’t lose weight on a calorie deficit” if you, an intelligent “health nerd” can make such a large error imagine how “Joe Highstreet” manages? Combine that with unrealistic ideas of energy requirements, unrealistic ideas energy expenditure from exercise and literally no idea of what to eat and it’s no wonder there is an obesity epidemic.
Great listen, and the collaborative efforts of Giessing, Steele and Fisher have brought valuable science to the HIT community.
I think it is important to consider that many of the studies discussed on one vs. multiple sets, which also includes the Carpinelli review (great read, highly recommended), is that they look at *strength* and not necessarily hypertrophy (granted, some of them do).
As Jeremy Loenneke and his group has shown, and also lately Dankel et al. working up to a 1RM provides one of the most effective ways to increase your 1RM (practice the test, principle of specific adaptation etc), but in a contralateral control condition only the volume arm with an additional 3 sets @ 70% of 1RM gained noticeable hypertrophy. So volume and TUT is needed to drive hypertrophy, and for some people – 60-90secs might be sufficient, but some may require more. Doing that final repetition to absolute, grinding failure, doesn’t really seem to be needed unless you are just doing 1 set – as the nervous system fatigue generated will prolong recovery.
https://insights.ovid.com/crossref?an=00005768-201709000-00022
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/mus.25488
Very interesting podcast ! One thing that i would definitely challenge is the notion that body parts necessarily require multiple exercises to work/develop them properly . With back as the example given when i started out training i performed two exercises , lat pulldowns & seated cable rows/bent barbell rows alternated occasionally . Later on i did perform three exercises for back but never more than that . I just find it odd/hilarious when i would see people and read bodybuilding routines in the muscle mags recommending 5-6 exercises and sometimes even more for back ! LOL ! For quite some time i’ve been utilizing only one exercise for my back which is negative supinated pull-ups , and they work my back thoroughly from top to bottom and totally fry my lats especially . I recall the first time i actually incorporated them some time ago and the searing contractions i had all over my back along with a crazy forearm & bicep pump ! My back never felt like this even when i performed 3 exercises . I don’t even think that isolating specific parts of the back is possible given the very close proximity of the musculature in the back and the interwoven nature of human musculature . As for the biceps & supination/pronation of the hand being specific functions of the bicep , it doesn’t seem to me that any one muscle is completely responsible for any specific function/movement given the reasons previously stated .
The unpublished twin study was interesting. I’m wondering if there was any questioning done about if the individuals that experienced the most improvements liked that type of training more than their counterpart that did not experience as much gain.
For example, with the person that gained more on HIT vs their twin, did the one that gained say that they liked that style of training and the other one day they did not like that style? And the same with the set where HVT produced more gains?
I know “liking” something is subjective but it could mean that maybe our feelings are telling us the best style of training to use based on our genetics.