33 – Mark Sisson on High Intensity Strength Training, Sprinting, Legumes, and How to Build a Mega Brand

Health and fitness expert, and former elite endurance athlete, Mark Sisson (@Mark_Sisson) is the bestselling author of The Primal Blueprint and one of the leading voices of the Evolutionary Health Movement. His blog, MarksDailyApple.com (over 1m visits per month), has paved the way for Primal enthusiasts to challenge conventional wisdom’s diet and exercise principles and take personal responsibility for their health and well-being. Mark’s efforts to promote primal living extend to a line of nutritional supplements, a book publishing company, a Primal Kitchen line with healthy functional foods, and a burgeoning Primal Kitchen fast casual restaurant chain.

Mark is a former elite endurance athlete, with a 2:18 marathon and a 4th place Hawaii Ironman finish. His new book Primal Endurance applies the primal eating and lifestyle principles to the challenge of endurance training—helping athletes overcome the common conditions of burnout and carbohydrate dependency.

I’ve been a big Mark Sisson fan for a long time. I was looking forward to having Mark on the podcast for a long while, and he did not let me down. This one is packed with health, fitness, lifestyle and business strategies and tactics. We cover:

• How Mark builds muscle quickly.
• Exactly how sprints combined with a moderate/high-fat diet and low-level aerobic activity cut you up.
• Mark’s thoughts on legumes, sour cream and white rice.
• How to eliminate the infamous “muffin-top”.
• Mark’s life and business productivity hacks.
• And much more!

 

Download How to Attract Great Personal Trainers PDF

 

• Listen to it on iTunes.
• Stream by clicking here.
• Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as”.

Want to hear another podcast with another strength training and nutrition expert and successful serial entrepreneur? – Listen to this podcast with Keith Norris. In this episode, he shows you how to manage time for maximum output, shares his thoughts on moonlighting versus “taking the plunge”, and the importance of offline local marketing for a service-based business (stream below or right-click here to download):

 

This episode is sponsored by Hituni.com, the best online courses in high intensity strength training. I recently completed their personal trainer course to increase my knowledge and become certified in HIT. HITuni offer DIY courses to help you get better results from your training and personal training courses to help you start and grow your HIT Business. Visit HITuni.com and use the code “HIB10” to get 10% OFF.

Show Notes

• The moment when Mark realised that his high carb diet and exercise regimen was killing him [5:37]
• Mark’s thoughts on high intensity strength training (SSTF)? [11:05]
• What does Mark do to trigger maximum muscular hypertrophy? [14:30]
• The benefits of Mark’s high-repetition, light-resistance training [21:15]
• How does sprinting support muscle growth and help with fat loss? [26:09]
• How does low-level aerobic activity burn body fat? [29:28]
• Does Mark do high intensity strength training? [35:23]
• Mark’s thoughts on sour cream [39:15]
• Mark’s thoughts on legumes [44:00]
• How many grams of carbs are required for fat loss or maintenance? [46:50]
• How many calories does Mark consume per day? [51:35]
• Mark’s thoughts on white rice? [52:57]
• The real cause of the muffin-top (and it’s not necessarily body fat) [54:53]
• What were the force multipliers that made the blog and Mark’s business what it is today? [58:14]
• How did Mark earn money during his time as a competitive athlete? [1:01:20]
• What are Mark’s biggest productivity hacks and habits? [1:04:20]
• What productivity tools/software does Mark rely on? [1:10:40]
• The first 90-minutes of Mark’s day [1:12:20]
• Mark’s advice for new entrepreneurs [1:14:55]
• What has Mark changed his mind about in the last year in both health and fitness and business? [1:17:38]
• At which point in the day and for how long in one block of time is Mark most productive? [1:21:12]
• In the last 10 years when has Mark felt the most successful? [1:22:15]
• What is Mark not good at? [1:23:15]
• What does Mark feel to be true that no one agrees with him on? [1:23:55]

Selected Links from the Episode

• The Primal Blueprint: Reprogram your genes for effortless weight loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy by Mark Sisson (Amazon US / Amazon UK)
• Primal Endurance: Escape Chronic Cardio and Carbohydrate Dependency and Become a Fat Burning Beast! by Mark Sisson (Amazon US / Amazon UK)
• Body by Science: A Research Based Program to Get the Results You Want in 12 Minutes a Week by Dr Doug McGuff and John R. Little (Amazon US / Amazon UK)
• The 4-Hour Body: An uncommon guide to rapid fat-loss, incredible sex and becoming superhuman by Tim Ferriss (Amazon US / Amazon UK)
• Creatine Powder (Amazon US / Amazon UK)
• Ultimate Frisbee
• The Slow Carb Diet
• Why We Get Fat: And What to Do about It by Gary Taubes (Amazon US / Amazon UK)
• Focal Upright Furniture
• My current standing desk (put this on a normal desk) (Amazon US / Amazon UK)
• LA Times
• Wall Street Journal
• Gibbon Slacklines (Amazon US / Amazon UK)
• Retail Fund
• Primalblueprint.com

People Mentioned

• My interview with Dr Doug McGuff Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
• Tim Ferriss
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Gary Taubes
• Dave Asprey