Training to Failure, The Inaccuracies of Body Composition & Protein Timing w/James Krieger

The majority of people will not train at the rep range necessary to reach positive failure. How does this affect the results you get in the gym? Why is total volume is more important than frequency? What is wrong with the way diabetes doctors handle insulin sensitivity and nutrition? On this episode, I’m joined by the founder of Weightology, James Krieger, who shares on these topics.

 

The conclusions in science are always tentative, and some of it is just based on the data that’s available at the time. -James Krieger

 

Three Takeaways

• The more often a muscle is hit, the more it’s going to grow efficiently.
• Body composition is an inaccurate test because when they measure “fat-free mass”, they measure everything that’s not fat-- including body water.
• Waist circumference will tell you more about how much fat you’re losing than anything else.

 

At the start of the show, James talked about new research in training volumes and hypertrophy. “If you’re using moderate to light weights, you pretty much have to reach close-to-failure because otherwise you just don’t have motor unit recruitment.” Next, we discussed why you shouldn’t do body fat measurements, and why training fasted will set you up for injury and bad workouts. Towards the end, we talked about diabetes and how doctors are confused about insulin sensitivity and nutrition.

We also discussed:

• Protein timing, muscle growth and how people are misinformed
• Why it’s possible to cheat the body fat test
• Why you don’t burn much fat during a workout

 

The amazing thing about the human body is just how biodynamic and self-regulating it is, and this applies to our training. When you train with a lot of volume, you adapt very rapidly to it. When you tax all the energy systems repeatedly, you’ll subject a fiber to change. The whole point is training to failure. Ultimately if you do this and keep variables like diet and insulin in check, you will see results.

 

Guest Bio

James Krieger is the founder of Weightology.  He has a Master's degree in Nutrition from the University of Florida and a second Master's degree in Exercise Science from Washington State University.  He is the former research director for a corporate weight management program that treated over 400 people per year, with an average weight loss of 40 pounds in 3 months. Go to https://weightology.net/ for more info.