Jim Keen (email – Jim [at] arxfit.com) is the Director of Fun at ARX (Facebook, Instagram). He’s been SuperSlow certified since 2013, and transitioned from a career as a trumpet player in pit orchestras for Broadway tours to a career training people in accordance with High Intensity Training principles.
As an “outsider” to the field, and having trained people with a wide variety of gravity-based tools like Nautilus, MedX, SuperSlow Systems, barbells, etc, and more modern tools, he has a unique perspective on strength training and how it can be developed into a more highly-valued and ubiquitous element of health and fitness in the twenty-first century.
In this podcast, Jim and I discuss his incredible physical transformation, his key habits for optimising health, and how to use ARX for best results, and much, much more.
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Show Notes
Click the link below to listen from the exact time stamp on Overcast:
- How did Jim become a professional trumpet player? [2:25]
- What skills have transferred from musician to fitness executive? [4:55]
- Jim Keen’s incredible physical transformation [10:12]
- How to optimise sleep hygiene [18:55]
- Jim’s fat loss coaching business [21:55]
- Jim’s highest ROI good health habits [22:40]
- Alex Fergus’s great testimonial for the efficacy of the Big-5 [28:35]
- How did Jim get into high intensity training? [30:35]
- James Fisher PhD’s ARX review [40:25]
- Jim’s thoughts on training frequency and recovery on ARX [46:10]
Selected Links from the Episode
- Resistance Exercise Conference
- Weight Loss, Lifestyle, & ARX Fit with Jim Keen – Podcast #170
- ARXFit (mention “High Intensity Business” for $500 OFF install)
- How to Improve Your Sleep With Morning Sunlight
- Alex Fergus – How To Beat World Class Athletes With 15-Minutes Training Per Week
- Manchester United
- Less is more: How slowing down improved health and produced a Real FIT champ
- Paleo f(x)
- Body By Science High Intensity Training Review: My 9 Month Experiment
- 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
- The New High Intensity Training: The Best Muscle-Building System You’ve Never Tried by Dr Ellington Darden
- ArthurJonesExercise.com
- Baye.com
- CityWide SuperSlow
- Bulletproof
- Check out James Fisher’s ARX review and learn how to grow your HIT business in the HIT Business Membership
- S Plus Studio
- Thom Tombs and Craig Hubert – The Resistance Exercise Conference 2019 (#202)
- Gluteator
- The Time-Saver’s Workout: A Revolutionary New Fitness Plan that Dispels Myths and Optimizes Results by John Little
- DEXA
People Mentioned
- Dr. Justin Marchegiani
- Alex Fergus (Listen to my podcast with Alex here)
- Ben Greenfield (Listen to my podcast with Ben here)
- Arthur Jones
- Drew Baye (Listen to my episodes with Drew here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7)
- Mike Mentzer
- Dr Doug McGuff (Listen to my episodes with Doug here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5)
- Keith Morton
- Denise Morton
- Theresa Snyder
- Mark Alexander (Listen to my episodes with Mark here: Part 1 and Part 2)
- Mike Pullano (Listen to my episodes with Mike here: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3)
- Jason DeBruler
- Luke Carlson (Listen to my podcasts with Luke here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6)
- Dr James Fisher (Listen to my episodes with James here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and Part 7)
- Randall Lightbown
- Thom Tombs (Listen to my episode with Thom here)
- Craig Hubert (Listen to my episodes with Craig here: Part 1 and Part 2)
- John Little (Listen to my episodes with John here: Part 1 and Part 2)
Great one, guys!
Jim, awesome to hear from another trumpet player!
I like the thought process on the hypertrophy v. strength with the ARX. That helps in thinking about what my long term training goals are, and it helps clarify some of the different conversations – Brad Schoenfeld’s higher volume v. the once per week or less in Body by Science, and everything in between. I love knowing, as well, that if I hit a very busy season in life, I can cut volume and frequency (I’m currently on twice per week) to once every 7 – 10 days and not lose muscle mass.
It’s funny to be on the edges of talking about a two times per week protocol as “high volume” compared to the ARX once per week…
Thanks Matt. Glad you got a lot out of this one.
Think you made a great point about scheduling twice a week workouts Lawrence.
For me personally if I workout more than once every five days I feel like my workout isn’t as intense as normal. AlsoI feel achy and tired the next few days. Which makes me think it’s overtraining for me but accept its likely to be highly individual variable.
Great point Matt!
This reminds me of a moment at REC 2019, when Dr Doug McGuff and I were looking at hundreds of post-its stuck to the walls. They were put there by attendees to suggest round table topics. Many asked questions of “optimal” frequency, volume, exercise routine, etc, etc. Doug just pointed to each one and said “doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter”. Hahahahah
The more I get into this, the more I believe that it probably doesn’t matter when you’re doing this stuff over a lifetime, and so it comes down to personal preference for all variables. I’m like you. Once every 5 days seems good, but lately I’ve been going once every 8-11 days, and see no change.
Great interview Lawrence, Jim is quite a character and I can see he would have a great stage presence at conferences.
I was extremely interested in the sleep aspect, while it’s often mentioned, Jim covered the subject in a way that made perfect sense and has had me questioning my less than desirable habits in the evenings.
As one gets older sleeping can become an issue, so a good night of quality sleep is worth gold in so many ways.
Thanks Malcolm. Glad you enjoyed it. He is a riot!
Yes likewise, I am much more vigilant about improving sleep quality. I will typically get outside as early as possible and get those rays into the eyes and on my flesh for 10-15min. I also try not to eat later then 6pm and wear blue blockers if I’m watching a TV show or reading a lit kindle after 7pm.
Great podcast gents! Jim seems genuine, humble, polite, and wise beyond his years. Many great takeaways from this talk
Cheers Scott =)
I remain very curious about ARX. I thought I might get a chance to try it last year, but the two local training studios that were going to offer ARX failed to launch. Maybe some day this will come to my town…
The story about getting stronger, but adding no muscle with infrequent training is intriguing. It makes me wonder if something unusual is happening in a physiological sense. Perhaps the use of very brief, very high intensity contractions, coupled with very long periods of rest, is good for inducing a shift in fast twitch fibers from type IIa (fast oxidative) to type IIX (fast glycolic)? Whether or not such a shift is desirable might well depend on the kind of activities you hope to perform. I also wonder if strength acquired without an accompanying increase in muscle size ends up being more specific to the movement being trained? Perhaps this is good subject for the academic guys to comment on.
The comments about sleep were also interesting. This is something I’ve been trying to work on lately. Always been a night owl, which might not be ideal for health.
On the general subject of motorized exercise resistance: have you ever heard anything about a line of machines by eGym. This is a German company that seems to selling conventional looking strength machines that utilize some kind of motor driven resistance, instead of weight plates. But based on the videos I’ve found on line, the subjects don’t seem to be struggling that much against the resistance (which is usually not the case with ARX videos). So I’m not sure if it they are doing something similar to ARX.
Not sure how the strength acquired has much to do with the movement. why would you think this? Which movements specifically do you think may be less effective, if that’s what you mean?
I have not heard of eGym. Based on your brief commentary, it doesn’t sound like they are inspired by high intensity training. There are a number of motorised resistance machines coming to market though and will be interested to see how the landscape evolves over time. It seems that there is room in the market for different machines and various price points.