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Dr. Rimer: This is Dr. Ernie Rimer in the first-ever Megaphone Moment on The Scope. And today I want to say that if you want to get started, then make it simple, sustainable, and make sure that it facilitates an extraordinary life.

Mitch: You're listening to "Who Cares About Men's Health," where we aim to give you some information, inspiration, and a different interpretation of your health. I'm Producer Mitch. Scot, Troy and I are taking a little bit of a summer break. In the meantime, we've put together some "Best Of" episodes.

Today, we're talking strength training. Whether you see it in magazines or anywhere online, it seems that for men that the usual discussion of strength training involves pumping iron and pushing yourself harder until you get yoked. And I don't know about you, but I know I'm not that kind of guy.

So for most of my life, I just assumed strength training just wasn't for me. But through talking about it on the podcast over the past few years, I've learned that the typical gym bro approach to strength training is by no means the only approach. And just like with everything about your health, finding what works best for you is part of the journey.

Saying that knows a lot about strength training would be a bit of an understatement. With his Ph.D. in exercise and sports science and years working with elite professional and college athletes, it may have seemed like a little overkill to talk with the three of us about the basics of strength training all the way back on Episode 24, "The Secrets of Successful Strength Training."

Scot: So I did a little bit of research myself because I want to find out that if we're going to contend that strength training is good, maybe we should have some statistics or some numbers to indicate why one might want to do this.

Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans from the US Department of Health and Human Services says adults should do moderate to intense strength workouts targeting all muscle groups two days a week. Currently in the United States, though, only 30.2% of adults actually do those types of strength training. So that means 70% aren't getting their two times a week, whether that's body weight, or bands, or actual weights.

Some of the detriments of not strength training. After age 30, men start losing 3% to 5% lean muscle mass, which is not a good thing because that's the metabolic engine that helps you burn fat as well.

There was a men's health article that talked about research published in the "American Journal of Epidemiology" that found that strength training is just as important, if not more than, as aerobic training. It can add years to your life. The study discovered that the risk of early death from any disease decreased by 23%, and the risk of cancer-related death decreased by 31% with the strength-training program.

Troy: And they're talking about just the two times a week, I assume.

Scot: The two-times-a-week, just normal guy strength training, not Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Troy: And not an hour in the gym. Just a couple times.

Dr. Rimer: And I agree with that. I was trying to brush up on these topics too, and it appears that a moderate resistance-training program can reduce all-cause mortality. And there may actually be a quadratic function there, meaning that when you do less, you're all-cause mortality rates can increase, and when you do a lot more and with very high intensities, it can also increase all-cause mortality. So maybe there's a sweet spot with moderate resistance exercise training that people should try to hit.

Maybe another point we haven't touched on is this idea that resistance training can acutely improve executive function and processing time. So it truly could actually make you more productive in your work.

Oh, and there's this emerging idea called micro-dosing in sports performance practices. But in bone research and connective tissue research and in muscle research, there's this idea that if you do several short doses of resistance training as opposed to one longer session, it may actually be more beneficial for bone health, connective tissue health, and muscle development.

Mitch: Great. So I've heard about all the health benefits, and I want to start incorporating it into my life. But as a weightlifting newbie, I never really knew what exercises I should be doing. Luckily, Ernie made it simple, boiling it down to five exercises that you can do anywhere.

Dr. Rimer: I personally prefer multi-joint exercises, so exercises that will work multiple muscle groups that act upon different joints in the body, because you get more bang for your buck with those. And so that's what I like to go for first.

And if I were to give anyone in this room or someone off the street a basic exercise regimen, I would think something that is a little bit more athletic or acrobatic as your first exercise. Maybe that's a jumping onto a box or jumping down from a short box, or maybe it's just running up a small flight of stairs. You can be creative with that.

So exercise one would be something athletic and acrobatic so that you can be a little bit more of an athlete than you are in your daily life.

And then the next exercise would be a lower body strength exercise, so something like bodyweight squats or weighted squats or band squats, or lunges, or anything like that, step-ups. So just a lower body strength exercise.

The next exercise would be more of what we call posterior chain. But that's street lingo for the complex between your back muscles, your glutes, and your hamstrings, and your calves. They all work synergistically, so we want to work that posterior chain.

Troy: Posterior chain, what would you do for that?

Dr. Rimer: Well, if you were in the weight room, there are a lot more options. But if you were just thinking about doing something with your body weight, it might be something as simple as learning how to hinge at the hip to create a stretch through your hamstrings, your glutes, and your back, and then standing up. We call that exercise a good morning.

But the good morning exercise technique is also the same as something we call an RDL, often referred to as a Romanian deadlift. It puts those hamstrings on tension, and then you straighten out, and it actually creates some exercise for the posterior chain.

And then after that, it would be some kind of upper body pushing exercise, an exercise like push-ups, or bench press, or overhead press, anything where you're activating the anterior muscles, your chest muscles, your shoulder, your deltoids, your shoulders, your triceps, because now you're working a lot of muscle groups in one exercise.

And then the fifth exercise would be an upper-body pulling exercise. So you work the opposite muscles, the muscles in your upper back and your lats and your biceps and your forearms to be able to grab and pull.

Scot: So was that five?

Troy: That's five.

Scot: Five exercises twice a week.

Troy: And I'm listening to this and, again, I'm thinking, "Okay, I'm someone . . . I don't like to go to the gym. I don't like to invest that amount of time. I just don't go to the gym. It's not going to happen." But everything you said is stuff I could easily do at home. I could easily do this stuff with a resistance band for some of that stuff. You said the pull. Push-ups are easy. It sounds like the hip flexor stuff would be pretty straightforward to do with a resistance band, or even just some free weights, some dumbbells, something like that.

Dr. Rimer: If we're truly just trying to dip our toes in the water here, we're not ready to pay for gym memberships and things like that, and we want to do some things at home, yes, it could be that simple.

Now, not all bodyweight-resistant exercises are created equal. You can do something athletic if you have a staircase, you have a sturdy chair or a couch, or maybe your coffee table. I mean, my kids jump off the coffee table all the time, so why can't you? Just throwing that out there.

Troy: It's fair game.

Dr. Rimer: So that's pretty fair and that's easy. But with lower body strength exercises, your muscles will be able to help you do a bodyweight squat with both legs easier than you can do a lunge.

So if you want to start with a bodyweight squat, you could. But if you find that that's easy because those large muscles of the quadriceps and the glutes handle that easily, then do a lunge and that will challenge your muscles more. So not all bodyweight exercises are created equal.

Mitch: But what about reps? Sets? How frequently should I be doing these five moves.

Dr. Rimer: Honestly, I think a beginner should begin with something that they feel they could sustain and stick with for a prolonged period of time. So if we're just talking one set of each of those five exercises, even if it was just one time a week, and that's a step forward for you, then maybe start there.

We want to get you further than that, but it's about implementing a strategy and a system for yourself that you can be happy with and feel good about maintaining. So take a step forward. Eventually, we probably want to get to a point where you're doing two to three sets of each of those exercises two to three times a week.

Mitch: And of course, how heavy should I be lifting?

Dr. Rimer: If it's easy enough for you to perform, you don't have as much risk of hurting yourself if you have bad form. You have greater risk in hurting yourself in the gym or lifting weights if the weights are too heavy and you start to use bad technique. Then you could start to wear that body out.

But you don't have to be as concerned about poor posture and some of those things that we worry about in an intense training environment. You don't have to be as concerned with those things with bodyweight-type exercises.

Scot: How do you stay motivated? Because sometimes you get started and you just kind of . . .

Dr. Rimer: Well, I think there are different ways to get motivated. Sometimes it's to share your goals with others. Let your friends know, people you trust, your significant other know what you're trying to do, and ask them to hold you accountable.

Sometimes if you have the ability, find a partner. Find someone who's going to go through it with you. Those types of things can help you stay motivated if you don't have the intrinsic motivation within yourself to keep up with it.

Mitch: What would you suggest for someone who's trying to get into strength training, and they go online, and all they see are these big muscle bros? And they're telling you about supplements, and they're telling you about your macros, and they're telling you about hitting it hard and doing all these sets, and I'm not there. I've tried that. I feel miserable, I hurt, and it feels like it's a goal I could never ever achieve. I'm just not one of those guys.

Dr. Rimer: That's a major disconnect, right? And Scot, earlier you mentioned that one of the things that motivates you is improving. Well, when you're improving, what's that going to lead to? That's going to lead to trying to lift heavier weights, trying to do more work.

For me, the exercise regimen is about maintaining that physical fitness that I need to live that extraordinary life. So it facilitates these other things that I'm motivated in, in life.

And perhaps you can just take what they're saying and not look at what you see physically, but take their advice to implement it within yourself. But know that this is benefiting things for you that may not be just the physical fitness. How does physical fitness facilitate the other things you want to do in your daily living?

Mitch: As with any aspect of your health, getting into a routine and staying motivated can be an effort, and sometimes life can throw us a curveball. Whether it can be a change in job, a new kid, an injury, or something like a global pandemic, we can lose momentum and find it near impossible to keep up with our goals.

On Episode 54, "Getting Active Again," Scot and Troy spoke with Caleb about a major setback he experienced and how he was able to get back on the horse and find the motivation to be active again.

Caleb is a strength and conditioning coach who once played rugby professionally. Going to the gym and being active were seldom a struggle for him. But during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a situation beyond his control challenged his ability to keep up with it. It all started with a phone call he received while he was on his way to the gym.

Caleb: The general manager for the team that I was playing for called and he said, "Hey, look, so we as a club, we're actually going to go a different direction. We're not going to re-sign you, but you can . . . you're a free agent now. You're free to talk with whoever or field any emails or phone calls from any other club." And that was kind of the point where I was like, "Well, I wonder if this isn't just the right time to hang it up."

And it was funny because right after that, I was on the way . . . I was getting ready to go to the gym that day, had that conversation with him, and I thought about it for about eight seconds, and I just slid my shoes right back off and I slid right back into the couch. And then all of a sudden, now any accountability I had for getting back into the gym was completely gone.

And so from late June until early August, mid-August, I didn't do anything. And that was an active choice at that point. That was me just deciding I don't want to . . . I don't have anything to do here.

Scot: So Caleb, now you're looking at actually trying to make a change. There was a turning point now that's happened. What was that turning point that made you decide, "Maybe I need to start exercising again"?

Caleb: I mean, it's hard to call yourself a strength conditioning coach and then be neither strong nor conditioned. Finally, at a certain point, I was like, "I don't have to do it the way I was doing it." And that was kind of exciting a little bit. There's an opportunity for change here. There's an opportunity for growth. There's maybe an opportunity to do things differently than I've done them in the past and see if they can get me to where I want to go.

And at a certain point, I think I went and I played in a for-fun rugby tournament up in Pocatello or something a month ago.

Scot: Ah, ringer, nice. Yeah.

Caleb: Well, yeah, you can call it a ringer if he's able to cross the field once without passing out from asphyxiation. And so, yeah, that was an eye-opening moment, for sure. I was like, "Man, I am out of shape. This is who I am now. I've got to get this turned around."

So, yeah, I just finally came to that conclusion that, "Look, I know I need certain things in my life in order to make things happen." So I started arranging those things, finding a workout partner, finding a program that I wanted to do, finding a goal, finding a new methodology, whatever, removing certain barriers, adding in certain accountabilities, and really just get myself going.

Scot: Dr. Madsen likes to quote . . . Who was that actor that said, "Get out and sweat a little bit"?

Troy:The Matthew McConaughey rule. Yeah, he's not someone I often quote, but I did read an interview once where he said his goal is every day to do something that makes him sweat. So it's not about getting in the gym. Maybe it's just about working in the yard. Maybe you're digging something or you're climbing or you're running or you're hiking or biking or whatever it is, something that makes you sweat. And so that's his rule and that's his way he stays fit.

Caleb: Yeah, definitely. That's a great methodology because it really takes the pressure off, right? It's like, "I don't have to go home and change clothes. I don't have to put on a special set of shoes for this. I don't have to go to a special location. I don't have to drive anywhere necessarily special." If I just get out and take my kid to the park and he . . .

Scot:  And play Frisbee.

Caleb: Exactly.

Scot: Right? Or chase him around.

Caleb: Exactly. Go chase him around in the jungle gym, whatever, for a hot second. Now you're being a parent and you're being active. It really does take the pressure off.

Mitch: With this new approach to exercise and taking things a little easier. Caleb was able to get back to living the active life that he once enjoyed. Through his struggle and experience as a coach, he shared some strategies that he used to bounce back and find his motivation after a major health setback.

Scot: Hey, Caleb, let's break it down for somebody who is struggling. Your story was a story of struggle. It was a story of . . . you were very much engaged in your fitness and activity, and then the reasons went away and you had to kind of reevaluate. And a lot of people, myself included, have probably gone through that. And you had to find a new way forward.

So how can they get back into it? Give us some solid steps based on what you know as a trainer and what you've learned through your personal experience.

Caleb: Yeah, sure. Well, I guess, number one, I'd find a reason. So that's the big thing. What do you want to do? It can be tough too because sometimes people will say, "Well, I don't want to do anything. That's why I'm sitting here."

Scot: Yeah, right? "I want to Netflix. That's what I want to do."

Caleb: Yeah, exactly. So find something. Find a reason, find a goal, find a reason to get off that couch, find a reason to get outside, find a reason to do something.

And then once you've found that reason, I think step number two, and this is kind of an all-encompassing term here, is schedule. So find that time in your schedule, and then write it in there.

I'm not one for scheduling. In previous lives of mine, I've never really kept any kind of timeline of my day or anything. It was just kind of, "Well, when I finish one thing, I'll just get to the next one," and just went with it. But I specifically set aside two hours of my day, every single day, for fitness.

But then I guess along with that scheduling is that's keeping that commitment, finding ways to remove those barriers that would keep you from that schedule, finding accountability. So not only taking away things that are going to get you out of the gym, but also adding things that are going to get you into the gym, right?

And then number three, don't be afraid to reset a little bit. Reset the foundation, right? You're on a journey here. You've got to find your new . . . Or maybe you're finding it for the first time. You've got to find your level, your ability, your whatever.

For me, man, doing a couple of squats was enough to get me breathing pretty hard when I got back in for the first time. And so I knew I needed that body weight. I knew I wanted to reset that foundation and get myself back into it.

Again, in a kind of no-pressure situation, right? Once you start stacking plates on bars and doing all kinds of stuff, now you're competing with your old self, and you're ticked off because, "Well, I used to be able to do this and now I can't do it." So don't even do it, right? I just put it down, put the weights down, let me just move my body again, and let me just find a way to move.

And so that's what I would say. Find the goal, find the reason, and then up that level of focus so you can keep that commitment to that reason. And then find the best way to get to that reason, right?

For me, it was going back to body weight, right? For some people, it may be a national parks pass, somewhere they can hike. For somebody else, it may be a membership at a climbing gym. Whatever it is, find your reset button. Get back to what you want to do.

Troy: And Caleb, what you said about just being realistic about where you are, I think that's huge. Because I think sometimes we do feel like we've got to go out . . . "Okay, I've got to start exercising. It's got to be this heroic effort." You go to the gym that first day, and you just do tons of whatever, and you come home and you're just dead the next day.

In my mind, I just always feel like, "Make it realistic, make it sustainable, keep it consistent." And yeah, in doing that, just say, "This is where I am right now and this is what I'm going to do, and I'm going to be consistent with it and then reevaluate in a month."

Caleb: Yeah, I love that. Keeping it consistent is also so big. One day, I had this revelation. It was after a good workout, and I'd been very fickle. I'd been a week in the gym, a week out of the gym, two weeks back, half a week off. I had no routine. I had no plan.

And then I had a particularly good workout one day, and I finished that workout and I was like, "Man, imagine if I did this every day for one year. I feel good right now. What if I did this 300 times and check back in, in a year? That would be incredible." And so that is a huge piece of that puzzle.

Like you with your running, right, Troy? Having that consistency and that kind of stick-to-itiveness, right? Some days, it's going to be hard, but imagine what happens when you fight off enough of those days, and you string together enough days, that all of a sudden now we start to see some real fun.

But that's the thing. Everyone's fighting their own battle here, and there's always going to be reasons not to do something, like running or just physical fitness in general, right? It's like, "Why is this even a conversation? We know it's good. Everyone knows it's good for you. Why are we even talking about this? We shouldn't have a problem with this." But we do, right? Because there's always a reason to not do something.

And so it's important to focus on those reasons why you should, and why I want to, and why can I, right? It's such a huge thing, finding that positivity and focusing on that and allowing that to be the driving force behind your motivation, rather than it being, "Well, I don't want to get fat, so I should run." Those negative aspects of motivation are just as bad as having no motivation at all. So we want to find ways to get yourself there and be kind to yourself in the process.

Mitch: Finding positivity and the reasons why to motivate yourself to be active. I love that.

Now, for a lot of guys, when we think of exercise goals, we may immediately think bodybuilder. Whether it be action stars in movies or the cover of magazines geared towards men, when we think of peak physical performance these guys are huge. But is that really a reasonable standard to hold ourselves to? And what is it really like to take physical activity that far?

So in Episode 68, Troy and Scot talked to a bodybuilder. Rashago is a natural bodybuilder who competes in physique competitions. When he was younger, he would push his body to its absolute limits with both nutrition and strength training. But as he grew older and became a husband and father, he learned that bodybuilding is not necessarily the most sustainable fitness routine, especially when you have other things in your life that you care about.

Rashago: And a lot of people think that bodybuilding is a single man's sport, right? In a lot of ways it is because it's a pretty selfish sport, because not only are you in the gym two or three hours a day, but you're also having to watch everything you put in your mouth. You're having to make sure you have the appropriate amount of sleep. And so it doesn't really sound like a recipe for a family man.

Scot: Is that when you got smarter, is when you found yourself . . .? When you didn't have all that time in the world, you had to go, "Wow, how do I make this sustainable?" Is that when that happens?

Rashago: Yes, you have to, because as a young man, I would go to the gym three hours a day, sometimes more, and I was also stupid in regards to nutrition. When I first got into nutrition, I just figured eat less. And one of the things that our society likes to tout is fat is bad. And so I just eliminated all foods that had fat, and I had just protein and some carbohydrates.

I remember that first competition I did. I was so amazingly depleted. I normally walk around at about 190. The first competition I did, I came in at 160. I was ripped. I was completely ripped. You couldn't pinch an ounce of fat all over my body. But I felt terrible. My energy levels were completely gone.

And I remember after I finished that first competition . . . I actually did it with my little brother. He was a teenager at the time. Because I didn't know anything about nutrition and all I did was restrict calories . . . And I was doing things like two and three hours of cardio on top of two or three hours of lifting. It was just nuts. And so that following week after my competition, I put on 30 pounds in seven days.

Troy: In a week?

Rashago: In a week, 30 pounds. So I went from being completely ripped and as lean as I've ever been to looking like the Pillsbury Doughboy in one week.

Troy: Wow. And what does it do to you to have a body fat percent that low just physically? Do you think it did it's sustainable? Is it something we should aim for? Or how do you feel when you get down to that?

Rashago: So I found that there's certain . . . My body can maintain itself. When I say maintain itself, I can have good energy, I function sexually, and I work as an individual until around 8% body fat. So when I get to 8%, things start to change.

Troy: Everything just shuts down.

Rashago: Yeah. So from 8% to 5%, my energy starts to go down. My wife doesn't know who I am anymore. I have no libido whatsoever and I'm just . . . Everything is lethargic. I kind of look like that California surfer dude. I'm like, "Hey, what's up, dude? Yo. Hey, that cheeseburger looks really good, man." And so there's a complete change in that timeframe, and the body starts to look different, too.

Mitch: So after learning his lesson and getting smarter with his approach to exercise, what advice would he give everyday people and the people that he works with?

Rashago: So I always tell anyone I ever worked with, and it's true for all bodybuilders, is you've got to get really clear on what you want. A lot of people will go to the gym with this generalized, "I'm going to start working out. I'm going to start working out." And they go to the gym, and they meander around, lift some weights, get on a treadmill. They don't have a real plan, and they don't really know what they're doing. And so they waste a lot of time and a lot of effort and don't make that much in regards to improvement.

And so anyone I work with, I tell them to get really, really clear on what you want, get clear on a timeframe on when you want it, and then you need to get a good strategy to do that. And that's where I come in, or there are millions of resources online where you come up with a strategy.

The one thing that always holds true is you've got to do something drastically different than what you've been doing, because what you've been doing is giving you your current result. And so if you want a different result, you need to do something significantly different.

And so with all the people that I work with, I tell them, "If you want to lose weight, it starts with what you put in your mouth. You've got to be conscious with what you're eating." And for a lot of people, they don't have to do anything crazy. I always start with . . . I say, "Stop eating all the crap that you know you shouldn't be eating."

And number two right after that is, "Start identifying foods that you like to eat that are also good for you and replace those things." It's tough to just stop something, because if you just stop eating what you've always been eating, what do you eat? And so you have to have a plan for what you're going to eat, but that you also enjoy.

And so I'll often point out . . . A lot of guys I work with, they start smoking. They'll get a Traeger or something, because most of what you throw on a Traeger is fairly healthy. You can throw your smoked meats. You can smoke vegetables. You can do a lot of things like that. And just by doing that and getting rid of the soda pops and the sugar drinks, getting rid of those really obvious things, and just doing that by itself, your body will start to lose weight.

But then when you start going to the gym with a purpose . . . Cardiovascular work. I'll usually throw everyone on the treadmill for 30 minutes, or whatever type of cardio they like to do. So if they like to walk around their neighborhood, they like to do elliptical, they like to play basketball. Find something that you enjoy, because if you hate what you're doing, you're not going to do it. So you've got to find physical activity that you enjoy. And you've got to do something different than what you've been doing before.

So it's all about getting rid of bad habits and building new habits that are also enjoyable and sustainable.

Troy: For me, I get tons of cardio. I mean, that's the thing I get. I just don't get a whole lot of resistance training, a whole lot of weight training. I mean, I do kind of some stuff every day, but certainly nothing on par with what you're talking about, like 45 minutes, even three times a week.

So it sounds like just even doing that, if you can start to do just 45 minutes, three times a week, that's a good starting point. And then, like you said, maybe increase that to six. Just repeat that routine, chest, back, and legs, and you'll start to see results with that.

Rashago: Yeah, and I find that with weights, for people that are inexperienced with weights, it really just takes . . . They don't have experience, right? So they get in there and they don't feel comfortable in the gym. They've got all these meatheads that are around them that are intimidating, and they're like, "I don't feel comfortable here. I don't know what I'm doing."

And in the beginning, you also tend to be really weak. Almost every single person I've trained with, they double their strength in about one to two months. And it's not because they put on twice as much muscle. It's because there's a mind-muscle connection that has to be strengthened. And when that strengthens, you're able to utilize the muscle you do have. And so they see these tremendous strength gains in that first one to two months.

And what tends to happen is once they see that, they start to be like, "You know what? I feel comfortable here. I like this. I'm getting better." And it reinforces their habit and it makes them enjoy it. But a lot of times, half the battle is just getting there, getting comfortable doing it, and once you do it, you're like, "Okay, I got this."

Scot: Yep, looking around and going, "I don't care what anybody thinks," for the first couple of months. I mean, that is hard. I've been through that before.

Troy: That is. I know.

Scot: That's super, super challenging.

Troy: That's probably the hardest thing for me. I just am not a gym guy. I just don't. I mean, I'm a thin man and I see these dudes there, and I'm just like, "I don't fit in here. These are not my people."

Scot: I've got your next project, Rashago.

Rashago: There you go.

Scot: His name is Troy Madsen. I don't know if you've met him before.

Rashago: A time or two.

Scot: And maybe me too. I don't know. You got me really excited and stoked to kind of get back at it. Strength training has been part of my life off and on, but I've enjoyed it, so you've inspired me to get back in there. So I do appreciate that. Thank you, Rashago.

Troy: Yeah, thanks, Rashago. That was great.

Mitch: If you liked anything you heard on today's "Best Of" episode and want to hear more, be sure to check out our back catalog for topics about all aspects of health and wellness. And a list of episodes that were featured in today's episode can be found in the show notes.

And if you have any questions for our specialists or have a story to share, don't hesitate to message us via email at hello@thescoperadio.com.

Thanks for listening, and thanks for caring about men's health.