Move It Monday: Variable Resistance Training with Dr. John Jaquish

Scientist, inventor, and Wall Street Journal best selling author Dr. John Jaquish joined AM Extra to talk about variable resistance training, a method to build muscle faster than conventional lifting while preventing injury in your joints.

Full Transcript

Emily: All right. It’s Move it Monday. I know it doesn’t feel like it, but spring is here.

Travis: Yeah. Are you sure? Can we confirm?

Emily: It is. It will be here very soon if it’s not already. And you know the nice weather, the t-shirts, and tanks are going to be here before you know it. So if you’re Lincoln, it’s time to shake off the winter hibernation.

Travis: Yes.

Emily: Speaking for myself here, but maybe you’re not a typical fan of the typical gym experience. Maybe try variable resistance training.

Travis: Yeah. So you might be wondering what in the world is variable resistance training?

Emily: I am wondering.

Travis: Yeah. Well, luckily we have an expert, you don’t need to hear it from me, to explain exactly what this is and the benefits it has to your health. So joining us now is bestselling author and scientist, Dr. John Jaquish, thank you so much for taking the time this morning.

Dr. John Jaquish: Thanks for having me. I’m excited.

Travis: Yeah. Well, we’re excited to have you on. So, what is variable resistance training?

Emily: Yeah, I’ve never heard of it.

Travis:: I feel like you think of resistance bands, but I don’t know anything else outside of that.

Dr. John Jaquish: You’re close. Variable resistance is the resistance that’s changing as you move. So for example, when I go to bench press, I hold maybe a hundred pounds here, 300 pounds, and 550 pounds. And that is the curve of my biomechanics. Like we can go to a much higher level of fatigue with more weight, also with a greater level of safety, if we use variable resistance.

Dr. John Jaquish: Variable resistance is something that should have been obvious, like 75 years ago. But it just wasn’t. If you look at the research, it’s like, why didn’t you think of this? But it’s the absolute superior way of training. And there’s a reason why most people, haven’t even asked you this before, but most people, the two of you know, who go to the gym regularly, don’t look any different over time. Most people don’t respond to regular weights. Usually, only the genetic outliers do.

And it has to do with where their tendons insert. Like the origin of my pectoralis here, but it’s inserted over here. Some people have a mutation where it’s inserted over here and they have a more extended lever arm so that they can get access to more of the musculature. But when you train with variable resistance, everybody has that same advantage, like the genetically born pro athlete.

Emily: Interesting.

Travis: Yeah, it is.

Emily: Okay. So, what does a variable resistance training workout look like? I’m guessing it’s not just going to the gym, clinking the weight into whatever weight level you want, and then doing the machine?

Dr. John Jaquish: No, it actually, it could, like Travis said, it could have to do with bands. The problem with bands is when you wrap a band around yourself and you go to do a pushup, this is happening with your wrist. This could break your wrist. So if it’s heavy enough, it’s going to hurt you. And so band training, it’s tried to take off a lot of times.

It’s never really because the band by itself is not good. When you have a bar that the band hooks to, and then that wraps around yourself and you’re doing that movement, that makes all the difference in the world. Now the same thing applies to the ankles and the feet. You could break an ankle by trying to step on a band and do like a deadlift type movement. But if you have a steel plate protecting your ankles, and so that torsion doesn’t go into the ankle joint, then you can deliver so much more force to the target muscles without any injury risk.

Travis: Interesting.

Emily: Interesting.

Travis: Yeah. So, when you are programming these types of workouts, is there a specific age group that this is more beneficial for and how difficult can it be?

Dr. John Jaquish: All ages. There are people in their nineties that respond to this.

Travis: That’s great. That’s great.

Dr. John Jaquish: Yeah. I wrote a book about it. It’s called “Weightlifting is a Waste of Time”, a very controversial title. I didn’t write the title being like, hey, this is good.

Travis: Probably a large portion of the training community that you have probably bothered with that title. I would imagine.

Emily: I was going to say, they’re going to see that, and go, what? Yeah.

Dr. John Jaquish: Well, it’s a shame that people have a religious devotion to a workout program or an attrition program. You should probably be open to learning.

Travis: Sure.

Dr. John Jaquish: But, we’re regressing as a society, so I’m not sure if that’s happening all that much. It’s happening enough.

Emily: So how often can you do this kind of workout? Because the problem that I run into sometimes is I get into that weekend warrior mode where I’m like, okay, I didn’t do much this week, and Saturday I’m going to go-

Travis: Just going to crush it.

Emily: Run on a bunch of miles and do all these things. And then Sunday I can like barely get out of bed. So how often do you do this so that you don’t fatigue, and that you can keep progressing?

Dr. John Jaquish: So the more advanced approach would be, it’s a 10-minute workout per day because you can only handle so much of this. It’s very intense. So you do one set per body part and you cannot do a second. So, that keeps the workout time short. I suggest if your weekend includes maybe a brunch with some, you know…

Travis: Little Bloody Mary or…

Emily: How did you know?

Dr. John Jaquish: Yeah.

Travis: We’re pretty easy to pin down.

Dr. John Jaquish: Yeah. And I think that’s what Emily’s talking about, but not to pick on you, Emily.

Emily: It’s okay.

Dr. John Jaquish: You did kind of volunteer.

Emily: If you’ve watched this show for any amount of time, that was yep. That was pretty spot on.

Dr. John Jaquish: Okay. So right. And so it’s 10 minutes, six days a week.

Emily: Okay.

Dr. John Jaquish: I get it in on the weekends because like on Saturday, and Sunday I just wake up and do it and it’s over and then I can do whatever I want.

Emily: I could do 10 minutes.

Travis: Move on with your day. I think that’s great. Well, I wish we had more time, but Dr. John Jaquish, really appreciate your time this morning, I think it’s fascinating. Thank you for explaining variable resistance training. I think there’s a lot to learn and unpack there. So I appreciate your time this morning.

Dr. John Jaquish: Thanks

Travis: Thanks, Emily.

Travis: All right. Appreciate it. And if you want to pick up his bestselling book, " Weight Lifting Is a Waste of Time: So Is Cardio, and There’s a Better Way to Have the Body You Want" you can pick it up on Amazon or wherever you like to get your books.

Emily: That title got my attention.

Travis: Yeah, no doubt about it.

Emily: All right. I’m buying that.

Travis: Yeah. Catches your eye for sure.