53. Dr. John Jaquish - Inventor of the X3, Author of “Weight Lifting is a Waste of Time”
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Dr. Jaquish is here to revolutionize the fitness industry whether you like it or not.
Dr. John Jaquish is the author of the new book “Weight Lifting is a Waste of Time: So is Cardio, and there’s a better way to have the body you want”. He is the Inventor of the X3 Bar at home fitness trainer. A biomechanical engineer by trade, Dr. Jaquish’s first invention focused on Osteogenic loading, and has since seen wide scale global adoption and praise for helping individuals suffering from conditions like osteoporosis build back bone density.
In today’s episode we discuss why “weight training” as it’s always been done is a waste of time. Why static weight is an ineffective means for stimulating muscle growth. The concept and application of Variable Resistance. The importance of understanding strength throughout range of motion. The misconception you have to break down muscle to grow. The importance of getting a hormonal response. What he believes the industry has gotten wrong about fat loss. The importance of protein for muscle gain and why he’s a proponent of the Carnivore Diet.
Mentioned In the Show:
X3 Bar at Jaquish Biomedical: https://www.jaquishbiomedical.com/x3-bar/
Book - “Weight Lifting Is a Waste of Time: So Is Cardio, and There’s a Better Way to Have the Body You Want”: https://www.amazon.com/Weight-Lifting-Waste-Time-Cardio/dp/154450893X
Follow Dr. Jaquish:
Instagram: @drjaquish
website: https://www.doctorj.com
Show Transcription:
Ken Gunter
Dr. Jay, welcome to the show.
John Jaquish
Thanks for having me.
Ken Gunter
Yeah, you know what I know this is gonna be a good one, just based on the pre conversation. And I know it won't be controversial at all in any way.
Not at all.
Ken Gunter
You know, maybe a great place to start is giving a little background about yourself, right? Because I think a lot of the folks that we have come on, they're either strength and conditioning coaches, or they work exclusively with elite athletes. But I think you actually bring a different perspective to the table that is worth calling out.
John Jaquish
I come from the medical device industry people ask me How long have you in the fitness industry? And I'm like, I've never been in fitness industry. I wouldn't want to be in the industry is a fucking embarrassment. But yeah, like I it's not where I come from, like I developed a bone density device, my first invention to increase bone density, and it works better than any drug ever trial. and develop that about 13 years ago and brought into a medical, the medical market and find these osteo strong locations. Tony Robbins is a partner of the business.
Ken Gunter
Not a bad guy to be involved with.
John Jaquish
No, no, he's a great promoter gets people really excited. Yeah, yes. Yeah, get people really excited. But you know, everybody knows who Tony is. That's true. Well, yeah. It's, he's he's great, great guy to work with. But I will tell you, like, he in person is exactly the same guy who is on stage. He's not playing a character. He is that real guy? So he actually just hands right in your face, and he'll like yell something, then. And he'll like, ask you a question. Like, you know, what the hell were you thinking? And he expects an answer.
Ken Gunter
Yeah. Well, okay. You know, I'll find out if I'm allowed to use this. But my father in law just met with Tony Robbins. And he was over at Tony's house, and they were having a business conversation. And all of a sudden, as the story goes, Tony's like one, check out the man cave. They're like, Yeah, sure. And he like hits this button, a portal opens. Yes, he jumps down the slide and just disappears and lets out like this massive, like, just I don't know. Just Yeah, what's the word? animalistic scream?
Yeah. And they're
Ken Gunter
just like, what the hell just happened? And I'm just like, that's exactly
John Jaquish
bowling alley. And, yeah, that his main cave is like it's not. Okay, so you bought a torium? Like, a bowling alley. And coincidentally, that's where my medical devices are found. Ah, that's where the osteostrong devices are in his house. And this is in Palm Beach. Awesome.
Ken Gunter
Yeah. Well, and I was like, You know what, that's exactly what I want from a Tony Robbins interaction. Yeah. That's exactly what I hoped for. Alright, so So getting back to the point, so totally understand come from the biomedical industry. And you create this device. And and if I'm gonna use this term correctly, is it? What's the type of loading osteo
John Jaquish
osteogenic loading I created to
Ken Gunter
generally describe
John Jaquish
what it is. That's the name of my first book.
Ken Gunter
Yeah. And that's, that's about improving bone density. Correct? Correct. So is that what led you to end up kind of discovering what ultimately created the x three or a kind of like, how did you make the jump from working in the biomedical field to creating this device that despite your views on the fitness industry, has become a bit of a game changer and a bit of a lightning rod?
John Jaquish
There was the research from the, from the osteo, strong devices. They gave me the idea, like I looked at it, and it was like, Okay, well, I have data that shows that people are seven times stronger, and the impact ready range of motion. Meaning where you go to trip and fall, how you protect yourself. Yeah, that range of motion is super powerful. We don't leverage any of that in any type of conventional strength training.
Yeah.
John Jaquish
And so I'm looking at this and I'm like,
wow, you know, this.
John Jaquish
This data I'm looking at. I The more I look at it, the more I realized that weightlifting is a waste of time, which is why I titled The book God. No, I didn't say resistance training. I said, weightlifting, also. I, you know, don't mind kicking somebody in the nuts with a message that they're not gonna like, because just because they're, you know, believing in convention doesn't mean they're right.
Ken Gunter
Yeah. Well, I think you I think you also said cardio is a waste of time. And I didn't need any documentation. I just wholeheartedly believe that and adopted it. So I was excited about that.
John Jaquish
Oh, I can give you all the dogs 100 studies.
Ken Gunter
Yeah, well, no. And I would love to dive into that as well. I'm totally but yeah, but yeah, so I you know, I was telling you before we start I did read your book, I really enjoyed it, there was a couple of specific topics that I just thought were so interesting. Some of which flies in the face, I think, to your point of like the traditional approach to training. Some of it. As I read through, I was like, Oh, you know what, that aligns with some of the things I've heard some other folks in the industry who I do think are really smart. it aligns with some of the same concepts that they've kind of been trying to preach and kind of getting out of this dogma of traditional strength training. You know, so, so maybe a great place to start. You know, why is weightlifting as you say, a waste of time.
John Jaquish
Because we have seven fold different capacity, from the weaker range to the impact range. Like once you know that once you know, you can handle far more force in one position versus another, well, then you also know you can exhaust the muscle to a much greater degree. You know, I call that extreme because there was one study that showed people that three times the gain through triple the amount of strength versus the control group, and variable resistance, but the variable resistance in that study was kind of bullshit. It was an x at the bottom and 1.2x at the top, it's like, No, no, it should be like magnitudes greater at the top, maybe not 7x. But I do have some proprietary mathematics going on there where I really identified over some repetitions, like what what this would be. Yeah. And I'm refining that was mathematics all the time. But it's, it's that and that's why I had to make special made banding the latex is very different than a regular latex band. So the power curve is not linear at all. And nor should it be like it should be nonlinear. Why should look like this?
Ken Gunter
Would you mind for people listening, would you mind expanding on what is variable resistance.
John Jaquish
So it's when the resistance changes as you move. And the reason you want that is because you're stronger in certain positions, and you're weaker in certain positions. And if you can adjust for that, so that it's the same level of difficulty throughout. Yeah, then you're engaging more muscle tissue. Most people, not most people, all people who lift conventional weights, they pick the weight that they can handle in their weakest position, right, which means in the stronger positions, they're not firing very much muscle at all, it's easy. It's like when you do a push up the top is easy, the bottom is hard. Now in the middle, it's kind of in the middle. So you want to wait the changes so that you are truly engaging the maximum amount of muscle, which means lighter at the bottom, kind of normal weight, maybe two thirds of the way in, and then a sky high weight at the top. So when I do a chest press, right hold about 100 pounds at the bottom, which is nothing 300 pounds in the middle, which is a lot and then 550 pounds. At the top, I even have a load cell video, which is putting some ads but I have not made a post out of it yet. Where you see just a massive difference in the amount of force. And as soon as I started training and fatiguing like this and also I fatigue and diminishing range as part of the protocol, where first you fatigue the stronger part of the movement. Then the middle part of the movement, and then the bottom part. So the last repetition might only be one inch, but you fatigued the muscle to the point where you just can't move anymore. Like you can't move at all, even the 100 pounds at the bottom. You can Yeah. So far more profound fatigue. And of course, we know this about all adaptation, all adaptation, the greater the stimulus and one chance the stimulus, the greater the change in the body. You know, like a very powerful abrasion on the hand creates callus. But if you have a light abrasion over a longer period of time you get a blister. Hmm. So like the fact that we do multiple sets of weightlifting is like a crystal clear example of why the stimulus is weak. Because if it were a strong stimulus, we would never need more than one set. How many sets do you do in the sunlight to get a tan?
Question,
right?
Ken Gunter
Yeah, well, I asked my wife Uh, yeah, no,
John Jaquish
I hear you. Well, and that's one of the things I want to do is one response
Ken Gunter
so is that with you know, with your like workout protocol when you're doing the x three are you really doing one rep. I'm sorry, I'm saying at one set per like muscle group or per exercise.
Yeah. Oh, wow.
Ken Gunter
Yeah, because I saw and again speaking to a camera if I said this when we were on the air now but a neighbor of mine uses the ex three swears by it. Lost a ton of weight came over. Look like a different person, I was like, What the hell happened to Brett? What's up? And he's like, Yeah, he's like, do I do it all I do it in my bedroom, I use this one machine, I knock it out. He's like, I've been eating well, so I lost weight. He's like, I'm now eating shitty. So I've lost, I look a little less good. But like, I still feel fantastic. And I don't have a need for anything else. And I was like, Wow, that's really interesting. And I was wondering, how is he accomplishing, you know, getting in such a great workout in such a short amount of time? And it sounds like, what you're saying is, if you fully exhaust the muscle, and you work in all parts of the muscle range, or the range of motion rather to exhaustion, there's not a need for multiple sets. Is that? Am I understanding that correctly?
John Jaquish
multiple sets will actually set you back. Is it over stimulus? Yeah, too much damage those inroads in your recovery ability. Hmm, you don't want to do that.
Ken Gunter
Okay. So when we talk about working through range of motion, because this is something that I really enjoyed in your book, understanding that you're only as strong as you are in your your weakest range of motion, right. So like, I love the example that you give of the benchpress. If you can't get the bench off your chest where your weakest, it doesn't matter how strong you are in the middle in the top, right. And what I enjoyed too, is, you know, the understanding of, well, if that's true, if your weakest at the bottom, and you're strong enough to get out of that, once you get to the middle and top, you're actually not exerting as much force, as you probably could. And so that kind of made me absolutely,
John Jaquish
yeah, your gains on the table. Like, you don't take him with you. Like, it's, and I also say, like, I understand the sport of the benchpress. So like, I I hang out with the bell brothers. Everyone's wrong, Chris and Mark, but I'm like, you know, heresy to those guys. Because they lift weights, right? They're also riddled with injury. Yeah. And I'm like, Dude, what's the point? Is it to be as big and as strong as possible?
Like, you know, I
John Jaquish
said, you know, Chris, like, you made a movie called bigger, stronger, faster, shouldn't call it bigger, stronger, faster and injured. We can really get bigger, stronger, faster and feel great. Like, I have the full body pain that I did when I was like, 18 years old. Like, yeah, sure. I mean, you're one swelling on my neck isn't as great as I like it to be or, you know, some little thing like that. But I have no joint pain whatsoever. Yeah, no, I was lifting for 20 years. But I never lifted heavy enough to screw up joints because I understood what what happened. So I played rugby and undergrad, and then I and then I did it for some protein for a couple years, and it was just like, yeah, as I was lifting, I'm like, I'm just hurting myself here, like, so I gotta, I gotta lower the weight. And then you can't get away from heavy if you're trying to grow muscle. Like there is no escaping heavy. So I know there's all kinds of companies selling products that are like, oh, lift lighter, just slower, like yeah, bullshit. That's not that's not a thing. So um, I was just like, wow, is this as good as it gets, cuz I look terrible. And put on a little bit of body fat Anyway, when I turned 40 I was 190 pounds. And 16% body fat that is far from impressive. I mean, yeah, sure, like people knew I worked out. But you know, I wasn't like a fat slob. But, uh, you know, it was like, not nothing special
Ken Gunter
now, where you want to be?
John Jaquish
No, Hell no, not at all. And I just thought, like, you know, and why is it that some people grow? And some people don't? Why is it that and I just, it was already research scientists only developed what I developed, you know, for osteo strong. And then I just wasn't obsessed with it. But it was always in the back of my mind. And then as soon as that research came out, I did it through the University of East London. So I was in London for a while and watching this, this research and the the MDS, some of the MDS are subjects in the study.
Ken Gunter
Okay.
John Jaquish
And they were like, this is like, what are the forces, like in a gym environment? Because most of the people I've never worked out before, you know how interesting. They're osteoporotic or osteopenic. And so I'm like, you know, I don't know, actually hard data on this, but I'll find it. And so as soon as I looked up the hard data, most non athletic people use 1.3 times their body weight through their lower extremities. Almost strength trained for more than two years. They use 1.53. Now, when I know, outliers, but outliers don't matter in medicine. So when when looking at that it was like, were you Using seven fold the amount of force with these people who have never exercised before. So there were there were women doing 6789 times their body weight through their hip joints for this, and it voluntarily creating that force through their hip joints in the impact ready positions only. Now, it makes sense because gymnast absorbed 10 times their body weight, and they have the highest bone density of anybody. And highest level of strength. And I'm looking at this and I'm going weightlifting doesn't make sense. Like, we need something that goes from this kind of loading back down there, we still need a range of motion, we still need to activate the entire musculature, we still need to sarcoplasmic effect to maximize the blood flow in the muscle. And then later on, I figured out we're gonna get massive hypoxic effects also. Which is just that adjust your Myostatin levels and changes your genetic ability to hold muscle. Right? That was that was a huge discovery, and it works perfectly with X ray, you can't do it with a way. Because most of the time you're barely engaged. So you're engaged in a position where you're hurting yourself the most?
Ken Gunter
Yeah, maybe you could maybe you could. For people listening, maybe you could define two things. So and I know you said a brief example of impact ready, but can you give another maybe like, frame of reference as to like, what that looks like maybe in the upper body, like framing or like when you say impact or like what that is,
John Jaquish
I'm tripping fall? Yeah, that's yourself with 120 degree angle between upper and lower arm in the back of your hand in line with your clavicle. So like, good. That's how you catch yourself. So like, I'm, I can absorb force here, or I can create force here that has incredible levels. Yeah, we're 20 degree angle, and we never lock out. So it's constant tension. We never rested the bottom.
Ken Gunter
Oh, with me with the x three. Yeah. Ah, interesting. I mean, that makes sense.
John Jaquish
constant tension, because that's how you create the hypoxic effect. So bloods flowing into the muscle but can't leave. So you're spending, you know, your, your, your ATP, glycogen and creatine phosphate, very little, not a lot and even gets in when the muscles constantly contracted. So if you use the fuel is there and you create a massive deficit, but for a period of time, and this is what helped me figure out what the axis of Myostatin regulation was, it's the heart. Like, no one's ever written that down. I'm like, the first guy like put that I put that in my book. But there's so much evidence like, with, with like blood flow, restriction, tourniquet work.
Ken Gunter
Yeah, I've heard a little bit about that, do
John Jaquish
that. And when you do that, you'll increase the size of your packs where you're not constricting any blood that's going into the packs. How's that possible? Then, you know, then this sort of Myostatin observation was made, it's like, okay, like, you have to make the human heart blinded to your musculature, whenever you're exercising, you can't do that with a weight. And the problem with the tourniquet is you get neural inhibition, there's a reason why a tourniquet training, you know, you use like 1/5, the amount of weight you'd normally use, so you don't get any of the testosterone receptor sites to stimulus. Like I said, there's no getting away from heavy, you got to go heavy. And so, you know, ultimately, what what I what I worked on was a better way to go heavier than you ever could with more reps than you could ever handle. And then, and then a greater level of fatigue, and hence, you get a hypoxic effect. You get a sarcoplasmic effect and a myofibril effect from fatiguing the stronger range. Really? Nobody does. Yeah, can't get a maximum of all three. roads to growth.
Ken Gunter
Yeah. And can you talk about the benefit of working out all ranges of motion? So like, let's say we're doing a curl, right? And I believe if I'm understanding this correctly, the weakest point in the range of motion is right, when you go to you know, your arms extending, you go to lift that weight, is that correct?
John Jaquish
Well, with a curl, you have a lever arm, hmm. And like, like if you when you're crawling something, it's heaviest when that lever arm is at its longest, which is when you're kind of halfway. Right? And it's also when you get to the top, you're actually not using your bicep hardly at all. Because that same lever arm is not really it's more weighted on the bone. So the weights going down the radius and owner and being held in place by the deltoid.
Ken Gunter
Now,
John Jaquish
don't do like, I mean, this is outside of x three, do a drag curl, you know, pull the bar and let it just rub, you know, like, from your torso, you know, all the way down to your sort of beltline. And then you're really engaging the bicep and you're not having the biomechanical inefficiencies. Now, with X ray, it's better, obviously, wasn't better, I wonder designed, it wouldn't have invented.
Ken Gunter
And that's, that's something that, you know, like I just worked out this morning after listening to your book, and it made me reconsider the way I was doing all my reps. So as an example, right, doing just, you know, I don't have the x three. I do like using bands in the gym when I can. And I understand you know, you have an opinion on how the efficacy of that, but it made me think like, Look, when like, to your point, when I'm doing a curl, like there becomes a point where, yes, I'm doing the exercises, it's traditionally done, but like, is it actually getting me closer to the adaption that I actually want, right to your point, like, it's a lever, and at some point, like that weight gets transferred, in the biceps not actually working? And I was like, Huh, I was like, where else is showing up in all the places where I work out? Which I thought was really interesting. So understanding, maybe curl isn't the best exercise to think about the way we traditionally lift weights, right? If the most work is being done in the weakest range of motion? What is it the actual, this might be a stupid question, but I'll ask it. What is the actual benefit of working the muscle in the stronger ranges of motion? Like, is it is it working a different muscle? Is it making the muscle actually contract harder, and therefore you get better growth and hormonal response? Like what's happening there?
John Jaquish
The answer was the last thing. So. Okay, response. Also from the muscle protein synthesis. sample, we talk about muscle protein synthesis and sports performance all the time. But you know, only like two thirds of the people can stimulate any of that at all right? That was like the why. Yeah, why is that? Because they're not able to get to a level of fatigue that is meaningful in any way to actually grow muscles. So the best thing you're ever going to do is get sarcoplasmic growth, which is just storing more ATP, glycogen, creatine phosphate the fuels, they store more fuel in the cell. But this is a person who like the first two weeks they left, they gained like five pounds of muscle, and then nothing ever happens again, which is, you know, a lot of them and like, I often talk about, like, people just defend weightlifting. Like it's their religion, you know, like talking to a vegan, and it's just like, okay, like, right, it's just crazy shit. And then you're unwilling to willful, willful ignorance to anything else that's happening so nicely, why are you defending an industry that I'll be generous and call it a 99%? failure rate? Look at people who go to the gym? Yeah, it looked like fucking shit. Almost all of them, whatever it is other 90 depending on how you are judging. It's 99% or 99.9%. You're like, who's really fit 1000 people one out of 10,000 people? I mean, why is it that everybody has a supplement deal that has visible ABS on Instagram?
Yeah.
Ken Gunter
A lot of snake oil out there for sure.
John Jaquish
Well, that's not my point. My point is, it's fucking rare to get it looks really impressive. So why defend an industry like that? Also, one out of six males over the age of 18 in the United States have used or are currently using anabolic steroids.
How many? one out of six?
Ken Gunter
one out of six.
John Jaquish
I cited that study in the book,
Ken Gunter
males over the age of 18.
John Jaquish
That's right. one out of six has used or is using. Hmm, I mean, I suppose that's, you know, the fat guy who like tried, like, you know, a cycle of testosterone and you know, just ate pizza and like, didn't lift. But that includes Zach, it just sounds so high.
Ken Gunter
I mean, I'll check out this just sounds really high. That sounds very high to me. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'll link to a link to everything.
John Jaquish
So it's just like so. Obviously, font sizing drugs are not the answer. Because almost everybody who's using performance enhancing drugs looks like shit, too. So what's the real answer? Yeah, like their training program is ineffective. That's the answer. Right? Like what they're doing is obviously not doing anything. You can go into a gym and yeah, yeah, I know Venice Beach. There's some big guys in there. Other than that, one fucking jam and maybe one gym in Ohio. You walk in any other gym. It's just a bunch of guys with baby arms and double chin. That's all there is just everyone's just totally fucking average. Like, why are we listening the same fucking garbage that turned us into nothing over whatever 10 years of lifting for like, the average person ultimately ends up quitting? Then y'all put that on the back cover of the book. And a lot of people read it and they're like, dude, you're right. Like I worked out for years, I didn't really see much out of it. And the biggest genetic difference here, there's only been one person, one person since the dawn of fucking time, who's been banned from professional sports, because they had an unnatural level that their body created of testosterone. One person said that, yeah, there's a woman from from Africa, saying she had like, I don't know, 2000 nanograms per deciliter, normally. And then like, we can't even let you participate. It's so unfair. I don't know what you look like she probably one pretty. But that's only having one to the genetic difference between strength athlete or person with a very developed physique. versus not. And I'm not talking about human size, there's a factor with human size. Like, you know, birth weight is a big driver, how you know how big you are, but that also means how tall you are, you know it like I don't know what the birth weight of half Thor was, you know, the dude who is in? Oh, yeah, I
Ken Gunter
know Thor.
John Jaquish
Yeah. Yeah, very strong guy, like, strongest man in the world kind of person. I don't know where his birth weight was. But I'm guessing it was high.
Ken Gunter
And I think that's probably a safe bet.
John Jaquish
Bigger people have a high birth weight. Yeah, but that's not really what we're talking about. We're talking about development. So the biggest genetic factor is where your tendons insert in the distance. So like our pectorals attach in our sternum, and like 99% of the population, it's underneath the beginning of the bicep. And so the action of the vectorial is pulling the humerus towards the midline of the body. But some people, and these are the people who turn into strength athletes, these are the these are the outliers, anomalies. They have a tendon insertion that's further down the humerus and have that similar type of geometry throughout their body. And they engage more musculature when they lift. Interesting, very rare, but it happens. Yeah, this is the last chapter of the book we're talking about, like, what really is the difference in how I see it? That's where I cited the steroids study. It's not drugs. Like there's people who are taking drugs, obviously, one in six of like, what is that one, six is 23% of the population is it has been or is using anabolic drugs. but less than 1% are actually fit. So is it the drugs? No, clearly not. There's another thing. And so this very small percentage of people, no one really knows, like, what the prevalence of this tendon mutation is. But those are the people that end up being strong drugs or not, they're going to be fucking strong, no matter what they do. Right. And so that's really the genetic difference. However, remember what I said about lever ours? lever arm?
Ken Gunter
How do you how do you what,
John Jaquish
how do you defeat a lever arm?
Ken Gunter
I don't know. Don't put me on the spot, man. Come on.
John Jaquish
No, you use the word variable resistance.
Ken Gunter
Ah, yeah, you know the answer, son. answer,
John Jaquish
right. When you place the massive variance on that lever arm, it becomes meaningless. Now everybody gets the same workout that the, you know, fittest NFL guy has, and it doesn't matter anymore.
Ken Gunter
And that's and that's why the bands that make up the x three are so critical because to your point when you were talking about the benchpress and Okay, maybe it's it's 100 pounds at your weakest 300 the middle 500 or maybe it was more at the top, but it's that it's that band giving the progressive resistance as you kind of move through that range of motions, right?
John Jaquish
That's right. So so the genetics of tendon insertion are meaningless for everyone's on the playing field. Everybody can grow just like I love using NFL players. So I work with 15 of them. Okay. And more or more NBA players but NBA players are really seen as strength athletes even though they are very strong. They're all you know, look, you know, jack they look like tall. So like somebody sees an NFL players like in great shape and You know, the ones that are using x three? They're like, yeah, it takes all the disadvantages out of lifting. Well, and
Ken Gunter
go ahead. No, and that's what I want to ask you to, um, you know, one of my big questions was, who is the x three? Right for? Right? And I know, I've seen like Tom Brady uses it. There's, there's a couple other guys who I've seen on your Instagram or just in their own Instagrams, you know, so that's one of my questions is, you know, is this for the person that's just concerned with general fitness wants to look good? And you already kind of said as much is their application here for the elite athlete as well? And maybe if the answer's yes, like, could you Could you expand on why? Because it does fly in the face of tradition of Hey, look, we need to go through these specific blocks, we need to go hypertrophy strength, power, speed, realization. You know, where does the x three kind of fit in there?
John Jaquish
That's a great question. I've never been asked that question before.
It's the first thing we'll also
John Jaquish
when it comes to high performance to elite athletes. It's it's not it gets a little foggy, because the average guy, yeah, he's like a lawyer, let's say lawyer or plumber or whatever. Just Yep. Busy professional. It's like, they want to be lean, look good. They want their wife to you know, look at them when they take your shirt off. And, you know, be excited, right?
Ken Gunter
Like a good naked man. That's the end of the day, man. That's why
John Jaquish
I'm like, you're a superhero.
Ken Gunter
outfit. You nailed it. That's it.
John Jaquish
Yeah. I get out of my car. And you know, like little kids or run up to me and be like, are you Thor? And I'm like, yeah. It's great. It feels great. That's what most guys want. However, when we're talking about elite athletes, they're not paid to look good. They are paid to perform. Yeah. Now. I tell all these guys and this is how I don't get into fights with the strength coaches. In fact, the Miami Heat endorsed x three in this book on the back. I don't know. Yeah,
I do
Ken Gunter
not know. But I do. Yeah, I have the audio book.
John Jaquish
Okay. It doesn't come with a cover. Right. So yeah. endorse it, because it's like you're keeping our guys injury free. And they're getting stronger. And so, you know, it's a huge win for them. But this is how I don't like it. Because everyone says to me, how the hell are you not fighting with the strength coaches? Because they have strategies and opinions that they've been studying for 20 years? Now? They don't change? Yeah. Yeah. Well, when you tell them, they need to keep doing everything they've been doing, with the exception of the heavy weightlifting. And I say heavy weight lifting because they're like, Oh, we don't do any heavy weight lifting. And why? Because once you sign your contract with a professional team, they tell you, you can't get injured. Oh, yeah. Otherwise you lose your contract. And the strength coaches know that so getting hurt in the gym is not a thing. So I the idea I read somewhere some internet clown was talking about how like NFL players do one rep max is all the time? Absolutely not. Yeah, we're gonna go through that risk. For what? ruining their like $20 million contract. So they can claim on Instagram that they bench salon. Like that's not what they're paying for. Nobody gives a shit with a bench.
Ken Gunter
Certainly now. Yeah, this is a strength and conditioning coaches and going to put their career on the line. So that no has the you know, the O line with the biggest one rep. Max. Yeah, they're trying to make them stronger, healthier. Yeah, you know, I guess. Well, and, you know, using bands to create variable resistance isn't new. And I think you've been mentioned as much in your book. And I believe you're probably referencing like, Westside barbell, right, though those guys
John Jaquish
waited bars all the time.
Ken Gunter
Yeah, and so today, I was like, You know what, I haven't done this in a while. Let me throw some bands on the bench. The first thing I had to do was dial the weight way back. That's number one. But number two, it was like man, like it just progressively gets so much more difficult to get to lock out. And I'm glad that you made that distinction that like, Hey, don't lock out. Don't come back completely to rest keep the muscle under tension, because that's something that I missed. But yeah, it just, it seems like intuitively trying even though I don't have the x three, but trying to replicate it with what I have yet. To some extent. It's like man, like there's a notable notable difference. Going through an exercise in this way. So yeah, just just curious as to like how maybe those elite athletes were implementing it is it just during part of their training all of their training in season But also, if you don't have an answer right now, that's not a problem either.
John Jaquish
No, I do, it's a little different. But what I tell him is the skill type drills you guys do, don't ever change. Like, X ray is not going to make an NBA player shoot a basketball any better. It might make him more stable while shoots. So his performance may go up. But he still got through the shock drills, he still got to do the foot drills still got to have the agility actually won't give you any of that stuff. So you have to do that stuff. If you're going to be a professional athlete you need because performance is a mixture of raw power. And then like whatever the agility is for the training, so somebody who's a professional rower isn't going to do footwork. Right, like like an NBA player. Well, so it's very specific. And that's very tedious. But that's the job. So as I'm talking we
Ken Gunter
Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. There was one question that I have. And again, this, this made me kind of take a step back and think about my own approach. Can you talk a little bit about the importance of tempo and the role that plays and actually bringing a muscle to exhaustion? Because that's something that I thought was really interesting.
John Jaquish
Yeah. So a lot of people don't like my answer for that. But you know, my answers are scientific. It's just, I tell these guys, especially the NFL guys, like, oh, man, that's
hard. You know, I
go, look,
John Jaquish
I'm not, you know, here to like, give you the answer you want also, this is not my opinion. Like I'm basing this on published research. Now some subject to talk about, like, especially nutrition, have conflicting research. So we can get it out a little bit later. But yeah, I
Ken Gunter
don't know how much time you have. But I would love that I if you have to run in 10. We can we can hold off. But I would love to ask.
This is fun.
Ken Gunter
Okay. Got it.
Yeah, like the,
John Jaquish
I'm telling them like,
yeah, I mean, I
John Jaquish
want you to go slow. And I say Think about this, if you're going to draw a straight line on a piece of paper, it's easy to draw a straight line fast, do it slow, a lot harder, a lot more musculature has to fire to do it slow and controlled. And again, the goal is just to exhaust the maximum amount of muscle tissue. If you're going to do that, two seconds, up two seconds. Now you just want to thrash around the thing and like, you know, go fast, like you're not going to stimulate that that much. There's a lot of momentum involved and you're just not firing the most amount of muscle. So you can do that. Like I tell people don't get wrapped up in the reps get wrapped up in shutting the muscle down. Maximum fatigue reps don't mean much. I mean, there are there are ways of quantifying what you're doing. So the tempo is two seconds up, two seconds down. Some people go three seconds up, three seconds down. Mostly I just put an option in there because people like to mess with stuff. Uh, you know, everybody wants to have their own, like, take on their exercise program. I fucking hate that. Like, you know, somebody buys I got like a Harley Davidson motorcycle, and they just can't wait to take it apart and like, put some other shit on it. Yeah. And then you work on it for six months, and then you're like, it actually looks worse. Right? It's like I put it I put it together. I mean, they've been building motorcycles long time, they make them good looking. Just buy it. Right. Right. Hey, I'm not a huge fan of this. This company. I prefer Lamborghini, which is why I drive a Lamborghini. But you know, Ferrari. If you mess with their car, if you like put another exhaust system on or something like that, and an aftermarket thing, they won't touch it. Like, why did warranty? They want you even if you want to go in and do you like other service like no, he ruined it. I love that.
Ken Gunter
Yeah, yeah. So, uh, someone just gave me a great quote, I'm gonna ruin it. But uh, what what was it it? a giraffe? is a
fuck was
Ken Gunter
it? Anyways, a draft is like a sum of women, when men try to create a horse or something. It's like, they end up just trying to like they get their hands in and they're like, Oh, well actually, like the long legs, you know, and actually like spots and, and by the end of it when you tried to add all these things to something that actually you know what I mean, there was already a good framework to begin with, it ends up being a monstrosity. And the dresser dresser great. My kids have dressed. So yeah, don't go Hey, don't dress too much. But well, you know, and one of the things too, that this has kind of made me think about is, you know, where all the places in my reps are in my sets or whatever it is, right? Because I you know, I don't train in this way and I've quite frankly just been introduced to it. But I'm like, man, oh, you know, where am I work at? Am I cheating on a rep? You know, where am I using the momentum and where am I actually just for the sake of completing and Mentally being like, able to do more weight am I actually taking away from from the game that I could be getting by doing it correctly? And so thinking about the focus being taking the muscle to exhaustion was like, Okay, well, that's something that's interesting. And it kind of got me excited, because it's like, man, maybe there's opportunity for more gain that I've been leaving on the table.
John Jaquish
And that's what the NFL players Tell me, because they're all at their peak by the time they get into the league. And they tell me all the time, I get messages every day, like, wow, like, this is actually changing. And I never thought I could get more powerful than I was. Yeah.
Ken Gunter
Yeah, well, there's that. But then also, you know, I've seen people do drop sets, right, the drop set, like, you know, hey, just keep keep pulling weight off the bar and keep going. What I was really interested in to see your approach of, you know, I don't know exactly the term but kinda like progressive exhaustion throughout the range of motion.
Yeah, can
Ken Gunter
you can you talk about that a little bit, because I think even for people who are really into fitness and strength training, like, that's a very alternative approach to, you know, trying to achieve that end.
John Jaquish
So, when we when the diminishing range, that's Yeah, that's what I call it like, okay, when I'm doing repetitions with chest press, I'm hitting 550 pounds at the top, like, and then I can't get there. Then I do the 300 pound repetitions, and then the last repetitions are like 100 pounds. And I can barely move like, I can't even move 100 pounds. That's how exhausted I am. That's far more exhausted than weights will ever take you. How many
Ken Gunter
times a week are you working out? Like say upper body? Or do you do full body when you do it? We do. Okay, yeah,
John Jaquish
I mean, it was like, we could have tossed a coin of upper lower push ball, I think body works a little bit better with push ball. But you know, somebody like somebody who's trying to look good for photoshoots, they might do like, the muscles they want pronounced on one day, and you know, sort of like, the muscles, they don't really that aren't necessarily pronounced like you don't get a pump in your quads. Or if you do you look weird. You know, right. So you want to pump in your deltoids and your traps, and then your packs and your triceps. So that's what's gonna make you look like, look like the champion. So you can you can kind of split it, you know, in an aesthetic way, or you can split it in the push pull away, but I just tell everybody do push pull.
Ken Gunter
Yeah. And are you still like for push? Are you doing push twice a week, three times a week? Like I'm curious in every
John Jaquish
week, and there's two workouts. So you know, so three, you hit the muscle three times a week. Okay. And then see studies that show the muscle protein synthesis concludes in 36 hours. Hmm. Now,
Ken Gunter
what is the implication of that helped me help my dumb brain
Cummings. Okay,
John Jaquish
now Contrary to popular belief, like muscle damage actually means you grow less. Not more. Hmm. Because the protein synthesis has to attenuate the damage. Damage brings you back to where you were when you started? Huh? damage is not it's not like you tear the muscle and it grows back bigger. That's an oversimplification. oversimplification is another word for wrong. Hmm. So. And there's great research that shows the least amount of damage, the maximum amount of growth. So these are all why like we do one set, we go to fatigue Absolutely. One time. And then you know, anything else is damage. Why would you want damage? If you know, it's, you know, it's not gonna grow you at all?
Ken Gunter
Interesting. So I live in the world
John Jaquish
wrapping from a study in there.
Ken Gunter
Now, please. Yeah, go ahead.
John Jaquish
Yeah, yeah. About about, like, when somebody starts working out, they receive a lot of damage in the store, like when they've never worked out before. Yep. Yeah. Like, I remember when pecs was so sore. When I was like, 14, I first got my gym membership. And my dad would just take like, three fingers and just, you know, stab me right there. And I'd be like, Ah, you know, because it was so sore. But then you know, if you live for a couple weeks, it's like,
Ken Gunter
yeah, that you don't get that anymore anymore.
John Jaquish
Well, okay, buddy got used to it. Now. Now you're starting with and this is part of the reason why muscle confusion theory has also been disproven. There's even a position statement with the acsm they're like, don't do that. Just take the same exact workout, you know, month after month, year after year, if you want the maximum amount of growth because I've tested the two and mixing it up. You know, don't don't do the people asked me the stupidest questions online like well, what Do to mix it up so it doesn't get boring. I'm like, I don't know to get bored brushing your teeth. You ever used a toilet brush instead? Just to mix it up? Just to be fun. Just add some spice to your workout, you fucking idiot. No, just do it right? Like, go. Well,
Ken Gunter
now you've got me thinking about people brushing their teeth to the oil brush.
John Jaquish
I don't I don't have much of bedside manner.
Ken Gunter
No. I can't I can't imagine. So, okay, well, you throw me off here. One of the things that I did want to ask you about too, is a my boy, do we want to dive into diet yet? Well, actually, actually, I remember my question was, what? So? You know, I live in the world of oversimplification, right. And so I did kind of subscribe to this belief, like, yeah, you break the muscle down, it grows back, heels, grows back stronger, whatever. And you're now
John Jaquish
I was like, when I first heard that. I'm like, that makes absolutely no sense. Because that's an injury. Yeah. You know, like, I'm scientifically It doesn't make sense. But I didn't. I didn't question it. Because I didn't rob me. We don't really cover adaptation in like, biomedical engineering. You know, schooling. Yeah, it was cool. It's like, How many? How many classes you ask any MD? How many classes Did you have on adaptation? And they're like,
adaptation of what?
John Jaquish
Like, you know, like suntan callus muscle. But I'm, like, never really went over it. Yeah. That might be part of the reason why your MD doesn't know anything about exercise science, unless he or she is a practitioner of such,
Ken Gunter
right. Yeah, so so what is actually happening then, because he talked about it a little bit. If you can help piece it all back together, I imagine it has to do with the hormonal response and what's making the muscle grow than if it's not what we've misunderstood, as breaking it down and building it back up.
John Jaquish
So the heavier you go, especially if you're using like a high level of variance, they have you go in those in those impact ready range of motion. So when I hit that 550, in my chest press, it's like, all the receptor sites in the muscle are just wide open, like we want to saucer. So it's not a matter of how much testosterone you have. It's how much testosterone is the muscle asking for? Like, you can't force testosterone into a receptor site, the receptor site has willing. So that's how you get the maximum amount used. That's, I mean, that's like so much in the body. Like, like, if you if you eat and you don't work out, you know, like, you're probably gonna Yeah, you eat like, like, you're working. I
don't like you're gonna get fat.
John Jaquish
So guys are like, I'm gonna take two weeks off, and I'm like, Oh, my God, I got so fat when I took two weeks off, right? Because you ate the same way. Yeah, that's, you know, you I'm sure you have friends who've done that.
Ken Gunter
You're talking to a guy who just had a 12 rolls of sushi and banana bread for lunch? Not always, but I ate that. And I was like, God dammit, I'm talking to Dr. Jay Today. Why did I do that? So I'm ashamed up. All right, here's another question for you really quickly, because then I do want to move to diet. Because you know, unlike you, and the way it is, like you very controversial approach to diet nutrition. What does your warm up look like? When you when you hit the extreme? Because I know, you know, like, I believe it's in your book and online says I look you get a great workout done in 10 minutes. So are you warming up prior to that 10 minutes is the warm up part of that or I mean, how does that work? Because often you know a warm a balloon might take someone 15 to 20 minutes.
John Jaquish
I do like some one legged kind of balanced squats just to make sure like I don't feel a vertebrae like out of place or something like that. You know, don't feel any injuries. But I mean I'm talking like 30 seconds of warm up.
Ken Gunter
So it's just it hasn't been hasn't inhibited your you know your own muscular growth. It hasn't caused injury.
John Jaquish
Interesting, the first the first few repetitions remember we go high reps because the weight so I don't want somebody who can handle that, that 550 pound ban to be using it and you know, doing it like for you know, reps is not gonna do much for them. But if they let go, and that that bar catapults towards their chest, they're gonna be hurt. Now, if I get hit with 550 pounds, I'm like, wow,
you know what, I
John Jaquish
just do it again. So I'm just a couple motherfucker. Cause I can handle that way. Right? Right. So right So like I like, so we adjusted the repetitions to higher. And also, another benefit of that is they really get a lot of diminishing range. So they get what,
Ken Gunter
how many reps? Yeah. How many reps? Are we talking?
John Jaquish
minimum 15, maximum 40, slow lateral issues? Oh, yeah, much higher repetition, because you're using more weight anyway. Like I said, we're going heavier, the amount of reps is irrelevant. If we're still going heavier than when we're doing like an eight Rep. You know, weightlifting said, like, I go way heavier, like, what can I do with 550 pounds? On a bar? avoid it, that's what I can do. I would never get under that. Like, I'm 40 years old. Like, I've never had another bar, like that. So um,
Ken Gunter
do you? Do you have any data regarding folks who train on the x three, and then dubh step back into the traditional weight room? And you know, is there a measurable difference in terms of like strength gain? And because what I you know, what I would be really interested to see, I know there's at Cornell, basketball science, Cornell basketball and wrestling and talking about using variable resistance for so many trains.
John Jaquish
Yes, that study?
Ken Gunter
Yeah, yeah. So, you know, do you have any study? There are data that kind of supports like, hey, by training on the x three, even do these really high repetition ranges when you do go back into the weight room, right? Because there are people who, you know, their power lifters or maybe that's their sport, even though it's not ideal. That's the desired outcome.
John Jaquish
Yeah. And in Yeah, right. And I acknowledge that there are strength sports. And you so when you're a power lifter, the benchpress is a skill as well, it is, as it is raw performance, you have to be able to balance the bar. So like some somebody, oh, there's always some clown that wants to run some scientific, you know, whatever. And they don't know what the fuck is going on. And so I, you know, they'll be like, well, I went back to the benchpress. And, you know, I can barely control it. Yeah, right. Like, if you're a golfer, you got to keep swinging a golf club, in your sport is the sport of the benchpress. You have to keep practicing that movement. Yeah. So like, if you're going to be powerlifter, and you want to see gains accelerate with X ray, you still got to do your lifts. Like now, maybe not 10 sets of them. But you got to keep in practice that skill. Now, you what you were doing was like a machine? benchpress? I mean, I don't even know, I don't want to say that. But you know, I'm saying last right there. Right, like a hammer strength thing. We just put the plates on it and you know, kind of swings upward, which is awful, or whatever. Yeah, I don't, I don't know anybody Hammer Strength, but I got some shit to say. So. But anyway, you can go in, like way out, do what you would normally do on a Hammer Strength chest press. Because you're not bouncing anything, we would go right back into the bench press or the squat, or the deadlift and powerlifting move in you. You haven't been practicing that skill. You're going to be a little rusty for maybe a week or two, then you'll beat your previous numbers. Because you have more power. Yeah, so you've got to train the skill. Right in like, they're there. They're NFL players that, you know, they see me and they're like, dude, you're in better shape than me. And you're like, twice my age. What year? And they're like, how come you're not in the NFL? Because I got in this shape. Like, the last couple years. I'm over 40. Like,
Ken Gunter
so. So a lot of your own personal strength based gains, and you know, body composition stuff has actually happened in your 40s. So this isn't just this isn't just this isn't just maintenance of work you've been putting in since you know you were a teenager
in
John Jaquish
drinking those before and after pictures. Like, I looked like nothing special. Like people got like I said people could tell. I probably lifted you know, I had a bigger neck, I guess.
And
John Jaquish
that was in that was 16% body fat or? No, I think it was 19%.
Yeah,
John Jaquish
I like rain. I lost 16 pounds of body fat, can't we? Yeah,
Ken Gunter
we just did actually, I think it just went live today. Now people know how fast I record these. We just we just launched an episode all about body fat percentage and body fat. And that was that was a lot of fun. So I definitely do want to get your take on diet. Actually, you don't make me
John Jaquish
choose different outcomes for sure when it comes to body fat.
Ken Gunter
Yeah, well, and you know, maybe we can we can start by focusing on the protein. teenis because I know you know, even your book, your literature, anything that you put out, you say, hey, look, the extra is fantastic. But you also need to fuel the right way. You know, what do people need to be conscious of when they start thinking about nutrition to support the work that they're putting in on an apparatus, like the x three?
John Jaquish
Only one thing is just quality protein. Yeah, I mean, you're you, there's four studies that are all referenced in the book that show you can gain muscle mass at a caloric deficit, if you haven't the right amount of protein. So you can be getting leaner and bigger at the same time. So all that's a myth. bulking cutting bullshit, don't need to do do it, no need to do it like that. And carbohydrates aren't even a macronutrient anymore. Well, that's
Ken Gunter
when you said that
John Jaquish
note No need whatsoever in the human body. Now, I can't apply carbohydrates synchronized with a workout for replenishment, muscle glycogen. And you combine that with stretching protocol after your workout. And maybe you've you also put a vasodilator in there, like epimedium hydromax. Or if you really want to do a ride by Agra. You push a lot of blood in the muscle and when you stretch it, you can actually create the splitting of muscle cells hyperplasia. There's a lot of research on this and Professor Jose Antonio, who's like the top protein research guy, he's also the top hyperplasia research guy, by the way, get him on your podcast. Yeah, man,
Ken Gunter
I just I just wrote his name down. That sounds really interesting. And the
John Jaquish
world should listen to him way more than they do. Yeah, so
Ken Gunter
so protein and does it does it fall in line with kind of the generally accepted protein recommendations? I know a lot of you know, a lot of folks talk about like the one gram per pound of body weight.
John Jaquish
Yeah, does, like people paid attention to that. But yeah, like I get it. I see posts all the time, like somebody will be giving somebody else advice. That's where you see the stupidest comments on the internet.
Ken Gunter
You know, the internet, the internet comments and message boards or aren't signed
John Jaquish
in Venice and anything having to do with Coronavirus? anything. Just Yeah.
Crap.
John Jaquish
That is so stupid. But yeah, it's like, people still say, well, you got to eat your calories. If you're gonna put on mass. No, you got to your calories, you're gonna put on fat. So, yeah, keep eating the carbs. You just want to store it as fat? Why is it that carbohydrates occur in nature? Only before the cold season? Why is that? Why do we ship vegetables all over the world? Why
Ken Gunter
is that true? They only they only grow before the cold season. This is my, my, my ag my agriculture. Knowledge is pitiful. So people are gonna write me about how bananas grow you.
John Jaquish
I mean, like, you're not going to get you're not going to get grains. Anytime, like harvest season is always in the fall, right? So you have like, a couple of weeks or a couple months. Now also, we genetically engineer fruits and vegetables to last longer now. Yeah, that's true. What before they were, you know, when, like, let's say you and I were in a tribe, and we knew where the peach tree was, we would go and gorge ourselves on peaches and get fat for the winner. And then, you know, like a bear gives itself type two diabetes every year uses type two diabetes to get as fat as possible. So we can sleep the whole winter. Because you can live off your own body fat, like you can go for months, right? We all know that even humans can do that. Yeah, live off the body fat, you gotta have a high level good. You better be a fan of the fact first, before you try and fill the winter without food. Right.
So
John Jaquish
but you can it's been done before that we already know the answer to this question. So yeah, theory. So you you you can do that. And then also the more adipose tissue you have, you can protect yourself from a cold, like lean people die in extreme cold, whereas people with more adipose tissue are more likely to survive. So but that's why carbohydrates show up when they show up because they're there to make you fat. And if you don't want to be fat, don't eat them. And yeah, exception of like, the hyperplasia protocol that I talked about. Also, if you're like a distance runner, like Zack Bader is just broke the 100 100 mile run right? Record. Oh, wow. Yeah, ran 100
Ken Gunter
I wasn't aware. Yeah, this
John Jaquish
world record.
He's
John Jaquish
vibrates unless he's in the process of a run. Oh, interesting. Well, and
Ken Gunter
since you brought it up, uh, you know, actually, you said that you do use carbs as part of that protocol. But maybe I should assume that is correct. Okay. But you you stick to a carnivore diet, correct?
That's right.
Ken Gunter
How long you've been doing that?
John Jaquish
Well, pure strict. Four years. Four years.
Ken Gunter
Yeah. And are you? Are you and I know you get asked us all the time. But are you tracking? You know what I mean? What's, what's the word? I'm looking
John Jaquish
I do a lot of work.
Ken Gunter
Yeah. Are you doing blood work? are you tracking things over time?
John Jaquish
Yeah, my cholesterol is a little high. But we know now that cholesterol doesn't matter. The people with a higher LDL, low density lipoprotein live longest real low density lipoprotein was called bad cholesterol, up until like, a couple years ago. So all the research that supported taking statin drugs, it's all been disproven. So you're taking certain drugs, okay, I had this ex girlfriend who was so mad at me when I said this. And she's like, well, but my family has died. And I'm like, okay, like, irrelevant. They probably died of a lot of things.
Not
John Jaquish
that though. Because that is associated with longer life, not shorter life. So
Ken Gunter
I'll have to read up on that. Yeah, but I agree often. You know, I could not be less of a qualified medical opinion. But so often, right, those things go hand in hand with so many other complications or so many chronic
John Jaquish
disease. How do you feel when you eat like two pounds of steak and you know, 10 scrambled eggs? Or even fired out of a cannon? You feel great. Do you really?
I do?
Yeah. See? I
Ken Gunter
I love I love eggs. I like steak. I'm a I'm a cheeseburger, man. More than anything, I actually eat really healthy. I don't know. I don't know why on this, this particular podcast, I'm acting like I eat terrible all the time. But, um, yeah, I don't know. It's like, you know, I do enjoy eating vegetables. I feel like I feel better when I do. But so I'm so interested in the fact that you've, you've done the carnivore diet for so long. To your point you feel shot out of a cannon? And after four years, you know your numbers, it sounds like there's nothing to be concerned about.
Nothing?
Ken Gunter
Is wood? Is the carnivore diet? Is that something that? You know, is it's for the right type of person, it makes sense? Or is this something that more broadly, and I don't mean to put you in the corner, we're gonna start giving nutrition advice. But is this something that like the human body more broadly, you know, is equipped to deal with like it? What does the research say? Absolutely.
John Jaquish
Like, I really don't care for when somebody says, Are you on a keto diet, because there's really no such thing as a keto diet. In fact, the process of ketogenesis begins with the absence of first carbohydrates, but more strongly the absence of any insulin whatsoever. You get it, you get an insulin event from drinking water. So like, like even like, like you want, you want the highest form of ketosis, dry fast. no water, no food. Your body won't rip through body fat. By the way, I'm doing that today. I haven't had water since last night.
Ken Gunter
Really? So how long are you doing that for? Is that like that? 18 hour window? Is it shorter when it's dry?
John Jaquish
Like it when it depends when I'm going to do my there's one supplement I take out for dogen which is a it's actually vegan friendly, because it's made out of bacteria. But uh, yeah. Because if that's not an animal, right, like bacteria is just not so. So it's meeting friendly and people like guy I said, it's vegan friendly, and people like insulted me, like the carnivores will include Oh, doing a broad for beans. You know, it's just like, Dude, it's not a contest. I actually want to help these people. Like rather they're actually healthy with their, you know, ineffective eating disorder. I see beginners, just like anorexia and bulimia. anorexics and bulimics think they're healthy too. By the way.
Ken Gunter
I will say I will say this and I did it because my well I've told the story in an earlier episode, but my dad was sick, he had all sorts of chronic health issues and you know, in attempt to get him to make a change, and hopefully I thought would help. I did try to go on a vegan diet and I will say When I did that, I actually was surprised that I felt really good. Which is interesting. So, so I'm open to it. I'm also open to the concept that a carnivore diet could make sense as well. Because like, what I do generally, is I eat meat, I try to eat a lot of vegetables, and I eat, you know, grains, right? And I try and eat better carbs and worse, and I stay away from packaged food. So I'm open to all of it. Right? And so that's why I'm
John Jaquish
like, what you're doing is gonna get you a large percentage of where the biggest problem we have is food that comes from like a chemical factory. Hmm. You know? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I prefer somebody eat sugar than drink a Diet Coke. Yeah. You know, because the sucralose is like gross fungus in your intestines. Like I like there's people who like, oh, I've actually done this, I took a diet coke out of a woman's hand and gave her like a lecture. And I dropped her right in the trash. And she started crying and said, I thank you so much. Like I really, really convinced her. I'm doing this because I care. Like, you look like a mom. Like she's watching kids. And I talk about, like, all the things that the sucralose is gonna do to you. And I'm like, just don't go backwards. Like, yeah, more or less for you. Right, right. Water, like you're drinking water. And she's like, great, like, pisses me off, like how toxic this crap is. And, you know, meanwhile, instead of talking about this, we're talking about like a vaccine.
Ken Gunter
Now,
John Jaquish
where we could actually just fix this problem by being leaner and stronger.
Ken Gunter
Yeah, I feel like that's, that's the way everything is. It's like, we want to slap a bandaid on everything. And I'm not seeing any way. Yeah, it's like an ounce of prevention is, you know, whatever that saying, yeah. I'm with you there. So, man, this has been really interesting. So I know you're also the fasting if we don't mind, before we wrap up? What is the purpose of doing the dry fast? Is that just something that you do periodically? Is it something that you do when you're preparing for a specific event? Or what's what's the thought behind doing that for you?
John Jaquish
It's kind of a new experiment.
Okay, here
we go.
John Jaquish
I like it. One of the heart, one of the hard things to explain is fasting.
Like, yeah,
John Jaquish
I can say you need to give your intestines a rest. They're not supposed to be working at all times. In while people can hear that they're like, wow, do we really know that? No, we really don't know we see very positive effects from giving them a rest. But you know, that's not good enough for most people. I need a look always where it's like, it's like the, if you look at the variable resistance research, which is like chapter two. And if you just read that one chapter, you will realize that x three is the, you know, it's the Holy Grail. It's the Excalibur, it's everything everybody's been looking for and just didn't know could ever exist. And it's because all of the studies in the category are like, variable resistance is fucking awesome. And, and there's even one study in there. This is the higher amount of variance the more the muscular game. It's like, it's like, I paid somebody to write it, except it was written before I even started this thing. Yeah, like, it was awesome. Like if people bothered to read that, which is why like my haters, I don't think they can actually read most of the messages, I get a lot of misspellings. Like, they're definitely the bodybuilding.com people there doubt. Oh, yeah, just just insane. Lack of intelligence. Why is it the maximum the most, the most amount of fitness data? fitness content is on Instagram, and on YouTube pictures and video? serum? Is?
Ken Gunter
Yeah, well. Yeah. And I think what's tough too, is it's, it's difficult to parse through what's accurate, because so much of the research is conflicting as an example,
John Jaquish
or bias, right? paid for by Kraft and Nabisco. And why because crafting Nabisco know that vegans don't eat kale, the cookies and cake.
Ken Gunter
Right? Well, okay, so they're not very well maybe that very well may be fair. Right? But like I talked to you very convincing, and clearly, I think something that I do enjoy about your work is like you were your body of work around, you know what I mean? Like, you can you represent what you've built and you can see like, look like the person who created this has seen tremendous results. But then you can talk to someone else who is vegan, and they can Roll out 10 studies that are equally as convincing. So I've given up on trying to decide who's right. But what I'm really interested in is like, it works for you. I'm interested in like, why it works for you. You know, and then kind of letting people to your point, like if they're willing to put in the work and read, make, hopefully an educated decision for themself. Because I've done 52 of these podcasts now, and I'm still like, what the hell do I even think now that I've talked to people?
John Jaquish
We probably have more information that's confusing.
Ken Gunter
That Yeah, I think there's a bit of that, too. I think there's a bit that too. But let me this has been awesome. I've had a lot of fun. I appreciate you taking the time. And I think, like I said, like one I'm gonna I want to try the next three. I'm gonna see if I can borrow from my neighbor, for sure. Maybe even pick one up for myself. But yeah, I just I just enjoyed the book. And almost more than anything, just making me pause and think about, Okay, wait, all the stuff I've been doing in the gym. Like, I'm all about efficiency. I'm all about trying to optimize my time. And I'm like, man, how much of what I'm doing is is inefficient. You know, how And to your point, like, Am I doing way more sets than needed? If I took a different approach?
John Jaquish
Likewise, the answer is yes. But yeah. why people do multiple sets of weights is because the stimulus is just bad, huh? Like in that that kind of shows you like, you don't need multiple sets of any other stimulus in nature with the exception of weights. So maybe we're doing it wrong. Yeah.
Yeah.
Ken Gunter
Now, man, I love it. So a thank you. Oh, for people who want to follow along? Where can I direct them? I know you have a number of sites and you're on Instagram, what where's the best
John Jaquish
place? So I created a landing page also. So you don't have to learn how to spell my last name is just Dr. J, calm do CTR, the letter J. calm. Perfect.
Ken Gunter
Perfect. And that's the best place and then I'm going to link to some of the other sites is Dr. J have that is that where people can find some of the research? You do want to do some of the reading as well?
John Jaquish
Yeah, well, they can find the book there. They can find a page where I put little like, little clips, little captions about health or carbohydrates or, you know, like, other fake news that I just blow up and then I put I put the I put the, you know, the APA academic references there. So they can they can look up the study if they want to. And yeah, sign some people do and you know, they usually, regular people don't know how to read a study anyway. So yeah, it's like, Okay, well, they'll they'll, they'll say your conclusion of this is wrong. And I'm like, it's a direct quote. Huh? Whoa, you just don't know how to read. Okay,
Ken Gunter
yeah, well, and I probably a fall in the category of knuckleheads who wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of a lot of that stuff anyways. So
John Jaquish
the problem with it is like a lot of jargon and abbreviations. So like, bother look all that stuff up. You get it? Like this. physical tests are kind of hard, like, you know, when you go on the average person, say, give me the difference between the Spearman rho test and an analysis of variance, they won't know the answer. So when calculating the p value variable, and this is like, I'm kind of like I do peer review for some other medical journals, and, like, I'll be able to figure out if they use the wrong statistical tests based on what they're trying to do. That's a mistake researchers make. Right so I know if reasonably average person. Yeah, research. making that mistake. Like the average person is not gonna know that's going on. Yeah,
yeah. All right.
Ken Gunter
Well, I'll give I'll give myself a little bit of slack there. But Dr. J, man, thank you this. This was awesome. And we'll have to have you back in the future.
John Jaquish
Awesome.