Podcast 25

The Science of Why Strength Changes Everything

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SHOW NOTES

Brian and Amy explore the scientific research that shows that strength training is the ultimate exercise for combatting the aging process, getting into the best shape of your life, and how those principles are applied to every workout session at the Exercise Coach.

• Over the past few months, Brian has been working on the Strength Changes Everything Scientific Support Paper. It has hundreds of scientific resources and is designed to help people dive deeper into the science of strength training.
• Sarcopenia, the age related loss of strength and muscle, can be prevented and reversed. An effective intervention must target fast-twitch muscle fibers, as sarcopenia selectively affects those cells. Decades of research have led to methods that are motivating and effective for people at all fitness levels.
• Brian co-wrote the support paper with Dr. James Fisher, Matt Essex, and Jeremy Bourgeois.
• The paper is structured by introducing readers to sarcopenia and its impact on muscle loss in aging, and on society at large.
• When we perform science-based strength training, it changes every system of the body for the better. It also fundamentally changes what is required to get fit and healthy in less time.
• This paper is for anyone that wants to feel inspired and motivated by what is possible with strength training. If you’ve experienced the effects of aging, this paper will show you that you are not disqualified from being in the best shape of your life.
• The research continues to show that strength training is the best way to combat the aging process. This foundation will help coaches take their conviction and confidence for what they do to the next level.
• The paper is scientific but still approachable for the average person. It is the encapsulation of years of scientific research that will help you understand the philosophy of strength training and how the Exercise Coach puts it into practice.

Science -based strength training makes it possible to get in the best shape of your life at any age and do so safely. And that’s what we lay out and argue in the scientific support.

Welcome to the strength changes, everything podcast with the exercise coach, CEO and co -founder Brian Sagan and me exercise coach franchisee, Amy Hudson, where we provide up -to -date information on living a healthy lifestyle. So today on the podcast, we’re actually going to chat with Brian about an exciting project he’s been working on lately, and he’s going to introduce that to us and share a little bit about what that is. So Brian, I hear you’ve been working on something behind the scenes. I’d love for you to tell us all about it.

I’d be happy to yeah we’ve been working on what we call the strength changes everything scientific support paper. And so, this is a slightly more technical paper we’ll talk a little bit more about and has hundreds of scientific resources and is designed just to help people. dive a little deeper into the science that undergirds the philosophy that we talk about here at the Strength Changes Everything podcast. And I thought I’d get started by just sharing a summary of one of the sections of the paper. I’ll just read it just to give you an idea of what we’re really driving at in the paper.

Sounds good?

Great.

Yes, sounds great.

All right. So here’s a summary of the final section of the paper. The technology enabled fitness delivery system of the exercise coach powered by exerbotics is based on the science, which calls attention to sarcopenia, the age related loss of strength and muscle. This phenomenon, and its associated is a usual but not normal part of the modern life cycle that can be prevented and reversed. An effective intervention must target and stimulate the remodeling of fast twitch muscle fibers as sarcopenia selectively impacts these cells.

Decades of research and practice have elucidated the principles which undergird a rational approach to optimizing exercise for safety, effectiveness, and efficiency. Fortunately, these findings encourage practical and approachable methods that are motivating and effective for people of all ages and fitness levels.

And these methods have been pioneered by and are practiced daily at The Exercise Coach. Awesome. I know I’m inspired. So, so tell us, so this is a scientific support paper. It’s put together with what you just shared in mind and that, that philosophy that undergirds everything.

Who are the authors of this paper? I co -wrote the scientific support paper with James Fisher, who is a PhD researcher from the UK. He heads a research department at Solent University and really is one of the world’s foremost experts on the topic of string training and health. And then also a team member, Matt Essex, who has a master’s degree in exercise physiology and extensive experience in exercise physiology research as well. And then Jeremy Bourgeois, who is a doctor of physical therapy also contributed to the paper. And so really these three professionals are just experts in the area of strain management,

and more specifically, science -based or high -intensity strength training and its impact on healthy living. And the way the paper is structured is we really start out introducing people, the readers, to the topic of sarcopenia, just the impact of muscle loss on aging and on society. And then there’s these two large sections of the paper that are our answer. The first one called Strength Changes Everything. And just like we do on this podcast, We we talk about how and demonstrate that the science shows that when we improve strength, and when we perform science based strength change training, it changes every system of the body for the better. And we we lay that out.

And so we talked about how strength changes every system of the body for the better. And then we move on to how strength changes the requirements to get the most out of exercise. It fundamentally changes what’s required. to get fit, get healthy and do so in in less time and safely. And we look at really all of the the considerations for a science based approach to strength training, like the volume of training or how much training you do, what type of load is required, what type of resistance is required for your muscles to actually grow stronger, and for you to experience systemic benefits from strength training and all kinds of other considerations, equipment, range of motion, how often you should exercise, the importance of recovery, the impact of supervision. And then we summarize it by sharing how we’ve taken all of this science, so the science

of sarcopenia and the science that shows that strength changes every system of the body for the better and the the considerations of science -based strength training and how we’ve combined these and applied these in our approach at the exercise coach and we talk about how we’ve done so to give people access to what we think is really the pinnacle application of the science of strength training so that they can get the results that matter most to them as safely and as effectively and as efficiently as possible. And the scientific support paper is now available for free for download at our website. There’s a URL that our listeners can visit to find it. It’s exercisecoach .

com forward slash scientific support. exercisecoach . com forward slash scientific support. That’s it. Okay. So Brian, who do you hope reads this paper?

What type of audience did you have in mind when you were putting this together?

Great question. I think there’s a few. First of all, just anybody who wants to be inspired and motivated by what is possible with strength training, people that have experienced the effects of the aging process. They’re not in as good a shape as they once were. They want to get healthy. They want to get fit.

They want to get stronger, but they’re busy and they’re looking for a new approach, something that can get them the results that they’re looking for in much less time than they thought possible. This paper really explains scientifically why it is true. that you don’t need to be discouraged or feel like you’re disqualified from being in the best shape of your life, regardless of your age, your current condition, your previous exercise experience. any physical limitations, you might have strength training, science based strength training makes it possible to get in the best shape of your life at any age, and do so safely.

And that’s what we lay out and argue in the scientific support paper. Yes. And as we know, we’ve talked about sarcopenia before being an age related loss of muscle. And that process starts in your 30s. If you’re an adult over 30, 30 or over who would like to get, who would like to prevent that loss of muscle in your body in less time.

Anybody who is an adult over 30 should read this paper just to understand what’s going on in your body and how you can combat that aging process. What about coaches in studios, Brian, would you love them to read this and what would you like to see happen with studios with coaches too? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, for myself, just doing the work of writing this paper, doing this research and taking a fresh look at the science that is available after many years of supporting and promoting and defending this philosophy. It’s inspiring to me because the research just continues to grow and it just becomes more and more clear that that strength training really is the ultimate exercise to combat the aging process to get in the best shape of your life as efficiently as possible.

And so I think for coaches, especially coaches at exercise coach studios across the country, the scientific support paper will just take their conviction to the next level. Take their understanding to a deeper level and their conviction and their confidence and their passion for what we do and the unique value we create for people every day at the exercise coach just to a whole nother level. Yes, we as teams often meet and discuss various elements of the science behind what we do and every time we remind ourselves. about the ways that strength is changing everything with our real life clients or study the science behind the approach, we get energized. And it’s hard for us to hide that enthusiasm when we’re working with our clients.

And so your coaches are very excited about what is going on. And when you’re a client working out at a studio, because of the way it’s changing everything about you and about your health for the better.

Excellent. Anything else you’d like to share about this paper or Closing thoughts you’d like to leave us with about this. Sure. It is a scientific style paper. and it’s around 20 pages and has multiple pages of hundreds of scientific references. But I don’t want people to be intimidated by that.

It’s something that you can just read in bites. It’s divided up into a ton of subsections. And so you can just look at the table of contents and find something that’s interesting to you and read one page at a time here and there, and I think benefit from it. The goal is really to motivate people. We become confident and inspired about things that we’re learning. And so there’s just a ton to learn in here.

And really this is an encapsulation of decades and decades of scientific research and our experience applying that research. We tried to distill it down to the most succinct possible paper and still do an effective job presenting what scientific research says. So just don’t be discouraged. Pick it up, you know, read a couple pages here and there that are interesting to you. And then from there, go visit an exercise coach and you can, you know, put it into practice and learn, you know, from firsthand experience, how it is that we actually apply the philosophy of strength changes, everything in the science of strength changes, everything. The Exercise Coach, powered by Exerbotics Technology.

We offer a couple free sessions at Exercise Coach studios around the country. We have 120 locations open around the country, staffed by passionate and kind and knowledgeable people that would love to meet with you and give you a couple free sessions to try it out. Wonderful.

Brian, we really appreciate the collaborative effort in writing this and putting this out into the world. Can you remind our listeners one more time of that URL where they can go and find it?

That’s exercisecoach . com forward slash scientific support. Well, thank you so much, Brian. We will see you next week on the podcast. And remember, strength changes everything.