Exercise and Fitness: Insights From 48 Years In the Gym
We’re well into the first month of a new year. The gyms are still packed as everyone tries to make good on their resolutions and works to achieve the fitness goals they made and the beginning of a new year. Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned exercise veteran, there are always tips and tricks that help you get your body to the level of fitness you desire.
In this episode, Ed speaks about a few of his fitness achievements and some hard lessons he’s learned over the 48 years of regularly working out. He speaks about what to do if you’re just beginning, supplements that can help give you that extra boost, what to do and what not to do when weight lifting, why varying your exercises is so important, and how exercise can be the best medicine for the soul and mind.
Some Topics We Discussed:
Why is exercise important for health? (1:08)
For someone that is living a sedentary lifestyle, what is the best advice to get started in the gym? (8:35)
Can you get enough cardio exercise by doing high intensity weight training? (11:49)
What are some of the myths about exercise that need to be addressed? (16:43)
What are some supplements that help maximize their workouts? (19:49)
What’s Ed’s take on stretching before a workout? (30:43)
Key Takeaways From This Episode:
Sitting is the new smoking. (2:12)
Exercise has incredible antidepressant capabilities. (3:38)
You have to have an accountability system in place. (6:26)
You want to mix aerobic exercise with weight training, you do not want to completely do one over the other. (9:18)
Don’t rest too much between sets. Aim for less than 45 seconds. (18:52)
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CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Brian Strickland 00:40 Hi, friends, you're listening to the Holistic Navigator podcast. Welcome to 2019. As we look towards the New Year, many of us are setting health goals to achieve. And most often they're typically centered around weight loss and exercise. So we wanted to spend some time today and talk about why exercise is so vital to your health. Here in the studio with me as always, is your host, Ed Jones. And I know exercise has been a huge part of your life. Could you talk about why is activity so so vital for health? What is it the exercise does in our body? And why is it so important for us to do it to be healthy?
Ed Jones 01:20 And you are right. Thank you. Yeah, exercise has been a significant chunk of my life. Now, I must say that early on in my life, when I say early from the young kids stage till about 16. It was zero in my life, I ran from it because I was picked on I didn't like school, and all the things that come with that. But because of my somehow falling into the polar arena of holistic health, longevity, trying to figure out why people get diseases, it became clear to me early on that inactivity was going to probably doom most of us with our health. And this was way before people actually did exercise for anything other than maybe losing body fat or looking better. In fact, now there's a saying that sitting is the new smoking. And the reason that is now being quoted is because they can take blood levels of people who are sitters, which many Americans are I would guess 70%. And they can take their blood at one time of the day. And based on the fact that they sat in their couch and they watch TV, or other sitting positions and about four hours that blood work, blood work will look different than it would if they were just active. We're not even talking going to the gym, I'm talking just walking, and you know, doing the normal activities. So the blood is thicker, the antioxidants have lowered, the free radicals which damage us have increased. So it's a significant issue for people who care about their stamina, longevity and health. I do always say that you cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet. So that's the other part is you know, exercise is so important. But we have to have two components to this and the other parts. When you combine exercise with good eating, there is almost an incredible what the body is capable of doing. And that is staying well and not succumbing to disease.
Brian Strickland 03:31 Right. So it's not just to lose weight. But there's also a lot of factors that play into it beyond that correct?
Ed Jones 03:38 And yes, and mental factors. It is the greatest antidepressant on earth. And you know, I've lived a life with some ups and downs. And I've had some times of being somewhat depressed back when I was in my early 30s. And the last thing you want to do when you're in a dark hole is go to the gym and work out. But I will say for some reason I was born with a gene for discipline, and I just can make myself do things. Even though every cell in me screaming not to my despite back then I did fall into the pharmaceutical intervention at a point. I also did everything nutrient wise, but the only consistent activity or choices I made that really kept me afloat was an exercise and that was going to the gym and exercising pretty hard but not like killing myself. So it's medicine for the soul is medicine for the brain. It is what produces so many of the balancing factors within us. And you know, if you think about nature 99.8% of the time we've been on this earth as creatures, we've been very active because we had to search for food and travel distances to for water and then And whether it wasn't an option, the body is built to be active. So yes, number one medicine on earth is exercise.
Brian Strickland 05:09 Yeah, we live in such a culture of convenience. Now, I mean, everything is so easy to do, really, I mean, compared even to, you know, 40 or 50 years ago. You know, we don't have to work farms if we don't want to, we don't have to go out each morning and milk the cows and harvest the eggs. And so it's, it's easy to see why just the simple act of being active, as becomes so difficult for many people. So we're starting out in a new year for somebody who is going from zero to 100. So somebody that is living a sedentary lifestyle, who isn't active, who's wanting to begin a simple exercise regimen, what advice would you have for them?
Ed Jones 05:56 You know, and that's many people. And of course, it's so often at the turning of the year is when probably more of those commitments are made. Here's the formula recipe that I've really speak on very regularly. One thing that causes people with the best intentions to be in the gym for January and February, and then March, you're half the time you're there. And by April, you never come back, you have to have an a very accountable system of self accountability, not someone else. And I've come up with a program that mentally I think can help alleviate some of this because the thing is, once you start missing, and I always say this in the gym, the guys and other people say, you know, you're here at six days a week, and I said yeah, I'm afraid if I take two days off, I'll wake up and it'll be 10 years off, because it's common. And so what you do is first off, and we'll talk about this setting up the type of program. But it's really more important that you have consistency. And even regardless of what protocol program you choose, you have to be consistent. And that will be this. If you wake up tomorrow morning, and you've already set up your program. And you say to yourself, did I work out yesterday? And the answer is yes, then you have a full option to not work out that day. You can go if you want and it's perfect. It's great. It adds to the to the results somewhat. But if you wake up and you say I did not work out yesterday, you do not give yourself an option to not work out. It just simple black and white. It's not going to be an option, you will find a time and place that day. Unless you're in an emergency room, or some major thing happens to your life or you had a terrible temperature you will be in the gym. And it's not that hard. We're talking three days a week, one week and four days a week the next and when you don't have to go to the gym if you don't want to. I'm talking elevating pulse rate and doing something that makes blood flow. Now is that optimal? No, I don't think it's optimal. I'm into super fitness. Now super fitness to me, you don't have to be in for longevity and health. But it's something that has side benefits of looking better, feeling stronger, more stamina. And now that I'm turning the corner to be 62, all of the years of doing that is paying off because I can still function I can still do almost every single thing I ever could do. In fact, I can do it better.
Brian Strickland 08:35 So for somebody going to the gym for the first time or for the first time in a long time. Are there a certain set of exercises that you would recommend? Is that a mixture of cardio and weightlifting? Would it just be cardio? Is it walking? Is it running?
Ed Jones 08:52 You know, I'm a big huge believer in being open minded about almost every idea in life. I'm very comfortable with hearing how others do it. I digest things I like, to me life is like a smorgasbord. And I really go and taste and savor each and everything and then I'll make up my own mind. But if you want absolutes, bullet points from Ed Jones, you want to mix aerobic exercise with weight training, you do not want to completely do one over the other. Will you get results if you do one over the other? Yes, you will get some, but why not choose the very best for your life. And the reason I'm saying you have to mix these two. I've seen too many people who are endurance athletes only. When you do not train with weights, you're going to lose muscle mass after the age of between 35 and 40. You're gonna lose about one to 2% per year. That's significant. You know what you don't see that in 10 years but you do see it in 10 to 20 and once you start losing it, the skins flabby, the muscles jiggle, you don't have the strength, it doesn't help you with osteoporosis prevention. And so, on the other side of the coin, people who only lift weights and they do it with good intensity and arresting a lot in between, they're really not getting the cardiac benefits of raising HDL by elevating pulse rate to on me elevating pulse rate to 120. I attempt to do that anytime I'm in the aerobic mind set. So you want to mix this. How often do you mix it? As long as you have a fairly regular back and forth, some people do the both in the jam on the same day? I do. Some people will pick one day on aerobics and one day on strength training. The bullet point on strength training is this though, don't, in my opinion, make the mistake of what many people do, who are doing high reps. High reps, meaning when you do a benchpress say you take the bar and you're going to do a benchpress, you're want to keep that at about eight to 12 reps do not go above that, because then you're not stimulating the osteoblasts and osteoclasts in your bone, you're not building the muscle mass, you're not creating the strength of the tendons and ligaments, what you're doing is you're tightening up things, you might see an appearance of better definition, which is great. But you got to have this balance that the nature actually gave us. When we lived in the jungle, you had to do a lot of things that were short and fast and heavy and blank, blank blank in order to survive, we need to copy the primal nature of this nature universe that we lived in for so long.
Brian Strickland 11:49 I gotcha. So I have definitely heard the argument been made that for those that are doing high intensity, you know, consistent short rest period, heavy lifting. I've heard the argument made that that's actually enough that you're going to get the aerobic exercise and the cardio exercise that you need. From just doing that. Would you agree with that?
Ed Jones 12:13 You can make it work if you only rest 30 seconds between sets. So there's plenty of options for people who don't want to do strict aerobic, I don't do much aerobics, you don't need a whole lot you can be on it depends on your intensity, but you can actually do a great aerobic program and in eight to 10 minutes, if you're doing the high intensity which is which you have to read about I won't explain it now. But it's a short lived very intense type of protocol that gives you the ability to do what you need out of exercise. When you look when I look at people who are endurance athletes, only do yoga, only do this treadmill thing. I've watched them decline over the years, I've watched them age faster, they sag more, their skin's different, they get osteoporosis quicker, you can't expect it to be the miracle exercise, you just can't. What I do is I have a back and forth system of heavy weight training that does it in a manner where I'm not going to hurt myself because I've done it for so long. And if you're and you don't want to start with heavy weight training, you need to learn to do it properly. You know, there was a day when I truly believe personal trainers were just a luxury. And now I don't because many people, especially women, if they're uncomfortable with weight training, need someone who can watch them do this. Now again, the devils in the details with who you choose, you can you could find plenty of people who are muscle heads, which is what you don't want for you generally, sometimes they're great. But generally you want someone who's really in the overall fitness and understands the implications of of a middle aged or older person embracing this and uses safety. Along with believing that heavy weights are a part of the protocol. Not all personal trainers are adhering to the heavyweight kind of ideas that I do when I say heavy. If you can do 12 reps with something, you need to go up on weight. So if you can do 100 pound benchpress for 12 reps, it's time to go up because you really want to get it down to about eight to nine to 10. So once you get you add weight, you're back down to eight. Well work with that until you get to about 11 or 12 then you start adding more weight. That's what makes you look better. It makes you live with more stamina, I don't know it's gonna make you live longer, but you're gonna have less broken bones, you're gonna have less of the problems and once you lose or as called sarcopenia once you lose that muscle mass, the aging part. It's a lot more difficult to get it back than it is to keep it I mean I'm not here to brag at all, but my personal journey on this is you know, I'm almost 62 my body fat is about 10% I weigh about 174 pounds. I you know, I did jump rope and set a really kind of world record back about 15 years ago when before everyone jumped into this, but I did a one hour Chin up record that I did 295 chin ups in one hour. In the past four years, I have done a lot of challenges on a local level to see if people would like to try to win and beat me and we would give out gift cards. One of those was seeing how many times can you do a jump rope? The revolutions and I did 191 in 60 seconds, ended up no one beat me unless they did double unders which if you know what those are, it's is different than what I did. I did not do double unders so 191 in a minute. There I did think of a kind of a silly but simple challenge that I like to challenge myself. That's really what it comes down to. But I did a dead hang. What is a dead hang? It's where you just get on a chin up barn, you just grab it and you hang with your bodyweight. It doesn't sound like a long time I did three minutes and 30 seconds about two or three years ago, that one thing created more soreness than I've ever had in my entire life that lasted about three weeks. And then I also did 34 chin ups in two minutes a few years ago. And I can still pop out 24 to 25 chin ups on one hang on most good days, I am now doing about 90 push ups on one breath. I did it this morning in the gym. You can't do this unless you train with a certain intensity, of course. And again, you don't need to be on this level to want to live to live longer and be healthier. It's just something I enjoy doing.
Brian Strickland 16:43 So I think there there's a lot of myths surrounding some of the ideas about exercise as far as doing one thing is really all you need to do. Could you speak into that a little bit about why it's so important to have variation in your exercises? Yes, it
Ed Jones 16:57 It is important. And I will say Firstly, anything's better than nothing. So don't think oh, well, I can't do these ideas that add has there's just too much I don't know, no, no, everything's gonna help the brain chemistry. That is the first golden rule. So we if you are depressed, if you if you want to feel better, if you just want to take the stab, do whatever it takes just to elevate pulse rate slightly. And if that's walking around your block or doing something, it's great, but it won't get you to the level of optimal health, longevity and fitness. And not everyone wants that. Well, I say not everyone wants it. Yes, everyone does want that. Who doesn't want to have low body fat? look better? Have more life, life energy and stamina? Unless you got something wrong with you? Of course you want that? Are you willing to pay the price? Is that is the question. Now a lot of the what I consider a I would call it Ed's myths because you know many people who will who listen or would listen to me say this would not feel that I'm accurate. But the people who focus only on what they used to call long slow exercise, which is being on a treadmill for an hour, at a setting this very low, the pulse rate is only about 90, but they're burning all these calories. They say, well, that's only minimally effective is not doing the goals that we want. But it's easy. So again, it's a first step, but it's not where you want to end up being. Secondly, the guys and the women now who lift intensely heavy, pretty heavy weights don't have to be super, but intensely weightlifting. And has a long rest periods in between the sets and sets meaning of course, if you do your benchpress, that's a set. And then the reps in that set would tell how many you do. But if you get off that benchpress and you're going to sit or talk or be on your phone for anything more than 45 seconds, you're depleting some of the benefit of your fitness. Many people do a set and risk five minutes, it's going to do only one thing it's going to build strengthen the muscle some. But it's not going to build again your health, longevity, bone mass all that it won't really be accomplished with this kind of workout. Again, we have the devil is in the details of so much of our health. And it isn't that difficult. Like I always go back to the again the primal nature of our existence in this life. It was never one single thing. It was a complete mixture of fruits and vegetables and meats and an exercise and activities and blank blank blank. That's how the body adapts, and that's how it does it's best.
Brian Strickland 19:49 Obviously supplementation is an important part as well. People are very interested I think in pre workouts and amino acids and things to help Then find those results quicker or more effectively. So do you have any of those recommendations or things that you take personally that can help you hit those next levels?
Ed Jones 20:10 I absolutely because you can't hit these levels without supplementation. So yes, super supplementing. And that is, of course, a big part of this show is we talk about my journey into supplementation, what I've observed and what I really feel confident in recommending. But the big macro picture here without getting into the details, you know, you got to have protein, but I've completely turned the corner up, not too much. There was many decades of my life, I believe one gram of protein per pound of body weight is the goal and hopefully a little more, absolutely do not think that now because there's a certain substance called mtorr that your body creates that significantly raises the cancer rates, and other diseases when we have too much. What makes too much is too much protein, you need about a half a gram of protein per pound of body weight. That means if you weigh 200 pounds need about 100 grams a day, but one of those needs to be timed around your workout for recovery. That's not a supplement of course we're talking way can be a supplement, it can be food or supplement. I am a huge fan of using whey protein that's clean that does not have sucralose does not have all the chemical sweeteners and is sourced from the right ingredients. Let the buyer beware expecially in athletic supplements, this industry of ours a nutraceutical industry truly is one of the most ethical, clean, safe industries that has ever produced ingestibles on this earth. Do we have issues? Yes, we do. But guess what 90% of all the issues with every questionable supplement falls in her only two categories. One is sexual stimulants, and the other is athletics. And that's where in the athletic category you have to find people you trust. But back to protein you need, you need to put together your plan. I am a keto type of person. So I believe in hot fats, I do use MCT oil in my protein to burn body fat, and a few other things. But if I have to write the top three supplements as far as pills. Astaxanthin is King 10 milligrams a day will make you stronger, give you more stamina than almost any one thing I have ever seen. Secondly, magnesium, we are in a nation of terribly deficient magnesium levels in our bodies. What happens when you're deficient? 300 to 400 systems of the body rely on adequate magnesium. That's the heart this the liver is the brain is the memory is is the kidney out you can't name a body part that does not rely on it. What does that mean? If you're low in it 300 systems are not optimally functioning. If you want to be in the top shape of your life and do all the things that that the gift of life has given us. You need to be close to optimal and you can the magnesium is not optimal. Well, how are we going to do it? If you completely rearranged a perfect diet, you would get relatively close, but you're not going to be able to work for a living and you're gonna have to fix those all the time. You have to grow them yourself. blank, blank blank, you see how ridiculous it is. Magnesium is not that expensive. It's safe. Worst side effects a loose stool. So if you do magnesium, you do ask xantham I am a complete believer that inflammation is at the root of all of our diseases as we age. What the two things that knock that down is omega three fatty acids in high doses from clean sources. And curcumin, which is the herbs that tumeric or curcumin people call it different names. Again, it has to be let the buyer beware. Because you need to find the best places to get that that care about what they are selling, which is not normally the big box stores. You can find some things there Yes, but find other people you trust.
Brian Strickland 24:09 What kind of doses of omega threes are you talking about?
Ed Jones 24:12 Anyone who takes omega three and they're a full grown adult needs to write this number down 2000 milligrams of EPA DHA those are the two constituents of omega threes that improve the viscosity their blood, reduce inflammation, go to the brain help ADD, help prevent inflammation. When but this is the confusing part. Many brands especially the less quality brands will list on the front of the bottle 1000 milligrams. That's a hoax. Do not believe that as far as what I'm talking about what that means, on these brands. That's the size of the capsule that doesn't matter at all the The only thing that counts is what's in the capsule. And if you turn the bottle around is the only way you're going to know, by adding up EPA DHA there are brands, you can do three pills a day or two and get close to that some of the brands I've seen, you would need to do eight a day, which is ridiculous. And many times the fish are gonna barf on you because they are not processed and they're not pure, and heavy metals is something to significantly needs to be looked into. So you have to make sure you get brands that have been tested to not have mercury and nickel and arsenic, and all of that.
Brian Strickland 25:35 And even with a turmeric or curcumin, I mean, it's a turmeric alone, I believe and you can correct me if I'm wrong is one of the worst absorbed supplements out there. So finding the correct form or chemical structure to have it, you know, readily available and bioavailable is important as well, right?
Ed Jones 25:56 So important. I mean, the thing is tumeric or tumeric is poorly poorly absorbed. The way the reason the Indians. Number one the country of India has one of the lower rates of Alzheimer's is because actually, when they do an autopsy on Indian people, many of them have their brains are actually yellow. They're yellow from the herbs, turmeric and curry. And but the way that their body is absorbing it is different than ours. Why is that? It's because they cook all of their curry with fat, especially ghee. ghee is my favorite fat of all time, which is a clarified butter. And because I'm in a keto lifestyle, I believe in eating fat with every single meal, I carry packets of ghee with me in my jacket. And so I'll put it on a food. But we don't do that, as Americans generally if we have carry on a food is a spice. And then if you take it in a pill, where's the fat, there's not any. Now there are supplements now that actually have done the work for your body. And they will increase your absorption between 10 to 180 times the fact that product I'd take which I really love Sagar. It's 195 times more absorbable curcumin than it is in a straight tumeric form. So 195 times by Solgar, that's pretty dang good. So I'm I will take it the rest of my life in multiple pill dosing. Keep this in mind is one slight bullet point is don't always follow the recommendations on the bottle. These need to be individualized based on where you are in life, what you need and what your goals are. We're not talking about drugs that have significant side effects if increased, you need to find the real dose of what you need. And for me, that's about three of the curcumin a day.
Brian Strickland 27:48 Ed you mentioned earlier, something about super fitness, that might be a term that you've coined, but it's something that you practice on a daily basis. So could you define super fitness for me?
Ed Jones 28:01 Super fitness to me on a personal level, is if I can do if I perfect world if everything happened in a magical moment, and I had the ability to perform to the to the ultimate level of my life and I could do 50 pushups at that moment. To me getting within 10% of that is what I call super fitness. I don't know if you know many times we never quite reached the crest of our absolute potential. But if you're super fit, you're not going to be too far away from that because you're going to keep plugging away until you get close. How do you know you're close? Oh, you're gonna know. There is no doubt because you've got it it out to a point where you don't have anything left. And one day, I will find that like I will try something for weeks and months and many, many months and slowly improve and I'll have a breakthrough day It always happens. And that breakthrough day is really odd because it can be a day where I come in the gym. And maybe I didn't sleep well maybe I just don't feel my best. And sometimes that is the day where I reached the new pinnacle of my fitness. There's a gentleman named Frank Medrano. He he has the most amazing body weight workout that I've ever come across in all my life. So about three and a half years ago, I saw one of his videos. In fact, if you YouTube, the word Frank Medrano. And go to the video named train insane. You will be speechless. I will assure you that you have never seen another human do what he does. And he's 60 freakin years old now. He looks like he's 40 in this and what he has done is He has created this rotating workout I have two ebooks by him an intermediate and an advanced. And so the two days a week I do his workout, which is means that the other four days a week I do weight training. I will go on his ebook, I'll flip through to the new page. So every workout I do is different. And he has about eight in each ebook. It is revolutionized my fitness level. It has taken me from being super fed in in the avenue I was pursuing to a much wider picture of super fitness. I can do things now that I could never have dreamed of four years ago because of Frank Medrano. Here's another Ed Jones point that you rarely will hear anywhere. Let's see, how does this sound to you? Oh, we need to warm up and stretch before we work out, don't we? No, no, no. Every injury I've ever had in my life, which I've had about 12 has been from stretching before working out with weights. You don't do that. You warm up, I sit in a sauna, I just move around in a sauna for three minutes. And that said, when you stretch before you work out with weights, you're asking for trouble. And the reason you're asking is because you are loosening the joint capsule, because you're stretching it, it needs to stay tight. It needs to hold all of the the bones, the joints, the tendons, ligaments need to stay just like a brand new car, when you buy it opposed to a car that's got 200,000 miles, the looseness that comes that's what comes when you stretch in the mornings. So I'm saying don't ever do that again. Now I am saying warm up the muscle get blood flowing. You stretch after the workout? Not before.
Brian Strickland 31:53 Does that go for cardio as well?
Ed Jones 31:55 It depends on the person and whether it's susceptible to physical injuries from cardio cardio is far less risky for that. You can stretch if you're going to go run and be probably fine unless you already had significant knee or hip issues, but not with weight training. Yeah, to summarize again, one is mixture exercise between cardio and weights. To ask yourself the question every morning upon awakening, did I work out yesterday? If the answer is no, you know what you have to do. And number three is you can never exercise your way out of a bad diet. And lastly, is as we age, I'm completely convinced that we have to supplement supplement with the right nutritional products in order to achieve the results that we all dream and wish for. Well, that's it for this week's edition and thank you again for listening. Until next time, I'm Ed Jones. And remember, whenever a doctor cannot do good, he must be kept from doing harm. Thank you so much.
Brian Strickland 33:05 Thanks for listening to the holistic navigator podcast. For more information and previous episodes, visit theholisticnavigator.com