Fitness expert: Get 40 minutes of exercise gains in just 20 minutes! - Børge Fagerli
Mar 23, 2024
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Discover how fitness expert Børge Fagerli shares the secret to achieving exercise gains in just 20 minutes, the essential factors for successful training, debunking myths about getting bulky from lifting weights, and optimizing workout volume and intensity for sustainable muscle growth.
Focus on appropriate rep ranges for muscle growth, starting with hard sets and adequate rest between sets.
Balance training intensity with rest for optimal progress, emphasizing rest days and muscle group frequency.
Consider training consistency over variety and understand individual recovery for sustainable muscle growth.
Deep dives
Effort and Rep Ranges: Building Muscle Effectively
To effectively build muscle, it is important to focus on applying effort and using appropriate rep ranges during workouts. Starting with one hard set and spending 2-3 minutes between sets can optimize muscle stimulation. Training in the 5-10 rep range rather than higher ranges helps minimize perceived effort versus actual muscle stimulus. Gradually increasing loads and transitioning to lower rep ranges over time can lead to noticeable muscle gains.
Rest and Recovery: Crucial Elements of Training
Resting adequately between sets and workouts is essential for effective training. While many push for short rest periods, aiming for 2-3 minutes between sets optimizes muscle growth. Additionally, having days of rest or light activity between workouts helps prevent excessive fatigue and supports recovery. Balancing rest and training intensity is key to long-term progress.
Training Frequency and Volume: Finding the Right Balance
Training each muscle group every 3-5 days, or twice a week on average, is ideal for most individuals. Higher training frequencies can be considered with submaximal training to avoid failure. Ensuring proper rest, gradually increasing loads, and optimizing training volumes per muscle group can lead to consistent progress in strength and muscle development.
Training Splits and Muscle Confusion
One popular approach discussed in the podcast is varying training splits, such as upper body and lower body splits, or push-pull-legs routines to effectively train different muscle groups. The concept of muscle confusion, popularized by some fitness programs, suggests that changing exercises frequently can enhance muscle growth. However, the speaker emphasizes the importance of exercise consistency versus variety, highlighting that complex technical exercises may necessitate relearning with each change, while stable isolation movements offer more flexibility in variation.
Volume and Myo Reps in Training Methodologies
The podcast delves into the debate surrounding training volume, intensity, and methodologies advocated by various fitness influencers. The discussion includes the concept of effective reps and the use of techniques such as Myo reps to efficiently stimulate muscle growth with fewer sets. Addressing the sustainability of training approaches, the speaker emphasizes the need for long-term perspectives in designing training programs to ensure consistent progress and avoid excessive fatigue. The importance of individual recovery ability and understanding proximity to failure are highlighted as crucial factors in determining optimal volume and intensity.
In this episode, I’m speaking with Børge Fagerli, creator of an innovative and highly efficient resistance training method called Myo-Reps, which is a way to create 80% of the results in a fraction of the time.
Børge has spent over 25 years as a fitness coach and is known for his evidence-based approaches to nutrition, training, mindset, and lifestyle optimization. We became friends about 10 years ago (through a funny story you’ll hear in the podcast) and we went on to have many years of fruitful discussions and debates on a variety of health topics, and worked together to produce content on the interface of nutrition and circadian rhythm. He’s a great expert on fitness and body composition, and I think you’ll gain a lot of insights from his thoughts on training.
In this podcast, Børge and I discuss:
His background as an engineer and bodybuilder and his research-backed reasons for focusing on fundamentals instead of getting caught up in wellness hype
The 3 most essential factors you need to know to be successful in your exercise training…this is appropriate for ALL fitness levels!
The number of exercise reps you should perform to see (and feel!) your body change and why this rep range is essential for women
Why too many repetitions of one exercise might be the WRONG approach for most people
The definitive answer to one of the most discussed questions in all of training: Will I get too big and bulky from lifting weights??
Why training that feels too hard or intense might actually be keeping you from achieving your goals
If “muscle confusion,” i.e., training your muscles with different exercises every time you work out, is a legitimate concept or pseudoscience
Myo-Reps, Børge’s strategy for achieving 40 minutes of exercise in just 20 minutes!
The #1 mindset tip you can implement today to keep you strong and fit as you age
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