Train to Gain Energy & Avoid Brain Fog | Pavel Tsatsouline & Dr. Andrew Huberman
00:00:00.000 | A lot of people who would like to train more for strength, train more often for strength,
00:00:08.440 | do strength and endurance work, the challenge sometimes isn't just scheduling it, it's that
00:00:14.300 | we feel depleted and tired afterward.
00:00:17.200 | Have you observed this and is there a way to use strength training or other forms of
00:00:21.480 | training to improve cognitive function?
00:00:24.080 | Because I, you know, again, as you pointed out, only compromises, not solutions.
00:00:28.800 | But I do see a world in which one could use their physical training to give them a, for
00:00:33.600 | lack of a better word, a boost into the day.
00:00:35.920 | So you're getting stronger, you're developing your health, and you're also able to then
00:00:40.520 | lean into your day with more focus and intention.
00:00:42.960 | That would be the ultimate scenario.
00:00:44.480 | Okay.
00:00:45.480 | Yeah.
00:00:46.480 | Well, there's obviously, we're looking at a zero-sum game.
00:00:48.240 | So there's, you only have so much, you know, your resources are limited.
00:00:52.800 | One thing that will absolutely help is fragmentation.
00:00:56.800 | It's been proven that dividing up a given workload into smaller chunks allows you, doesn't
00:01:02.600 | matter what it is, whether it's endurance training or strength training or some cognitive
00:01:06.160 | work, you're able to, you're able to do more.
00:01:09.520 | And that's one thing that to consider.
00:01:11.920 | The other is, obviously, the feedback.
00:01:17.260 | You know, you have to listen to your body, pretty much.
00:01:20.360 | Soviets stressed very much that you have to take the cybernetic approach.
00:01:23.600 | You have to have the feedback.
00:01:24.600 | No matter what the training plan says, Arkadii Vorobiev says, you have to listen to, you
00:01:29.920 | have to listen to that feedback.
00:01:32.320 | And freshness in the Soviet system of strength training, and not just in weightlifting, freshness
00:01:36.320 | was paramount.
00:01:38.200 | It's even better.
00:01:39.200 | Let's talk about how track athletes in the Soviet Union trained for strength.
00:01:42.760 | And that's more, that will be even more applicable to a lot of the listeners, because they definitely
00:01:47.760 | didn't spend two and a half hours in the, you know, in the gym.
00:01:50.760 | So Professor Vladimir Dyachkov, he was a head coach, and he was one of the first to implement
00:01:57.380 | heavy lifting for the, for the track after, right after the Soviets decided, hey, look
00:02:02.200 | at these Americans, you know, lifting heavy weights, Bruce Randall and Paul Anderson and
00:02:06.120 | Canadian Doug Hebron.
00:02:08.960 | So these lifters, he has absolutely, he says, always do low reps.
00:02:14.100 | So they would never do more than three, four reps, even with the lightest weight, even
00:02:17.720 | with a warm-up weight.
00:02:19.640 | They spent a lot of time doing just singles and doubles, and it was absolutely essential
00:02:24.860 | that they stayed fresh.
00:02:26.280 | And part of it was just the, how they felt.
00:02:29.240 | Part of it is the performance, how well they jumped and so on, and how they felt after.
00:02:33.340 | So they found if you're really obsessive about it, you have that tonic effect that lasts
00:02:38.320 | at least until the next day.
00:02:40.640 | And the tonic effect is both for your strength, for your power, but also for, you know, your
00:02:46.680 | cognitive functions as well.
00:02:48.600 | But it's also very, very interesting that, here's an idea, do a bench press before the
00:02:54.460 | next day before you're competing in a jump, or do a heavy squat the day before you're
00:03:00.120 | competing as a thrower.
00:03:01.660 | So it's, again, it's very interesting how the opposite part of the body stimulating
00:03:05.560 | that was very, very helpful, very interesting phenomena.
00:03:09.560 | So they found if the strength work is familiar and non-exhaustive, it absolutely facilitates
00:03:16.340 | whatever is that you do afterwards.
00:03:18.920 | And restricting, this is where the difference, this is where track athletes were very different
00:03:25.520 | from a lot of other people.
00:03:27.520 | They tried to restrict their volume as much as possible of strength training, in part
00:03:32.000 | because, well, they had to do other things, and because they had to stay fresh.
00:03:36.860 | So if you look at the volume, if you look at, generally speaking, how many repetitions
00:03:41.740 | that you want to perform per exercise, per training session, and, again, these are purely
00:03:49.140 | empirical numbers.
00:03:50.220 | They come from Soviet weightlifting, but they were also applied in track.
00:03:55.100 | So the minimal volume is 10 to 20 repetitions total, so minimal.
00:04:01.460 | And optimal is 20 to 30, maximal, it becomes 30 to 50 in that window.
00:04:08.660 | So when you're looking at 20 to 30 reps, maybe on the lower end right there, you're going
00:04:13.440 | to build strength.
00:04:15.620 | And if you also are going to not go to failure and rest sufficiently between sets, unless
00:04:22.940 | you're greasing the groove, you need to look at at least five minutes, pretty much.
00:04:25.940 | And that's both for neural and biochemical reasons, but more is really better.
00:04:30.540 | Unfortunately, really, a lot of it just comes down to listening to your body and just using
00:04:35.580 | your judgment.
00:04:36.580 | I don't know if I had any better-- I wish I had any better answer here.
00:04:39.260 | I think it's a terrific answer.
00:04:40.620 | I like to leave the gym with some gas in the tank, because, well, I get paid to think and
00:04:46.980 | to speak, as it were, not to lift, but--
00:04:50.340 | And many great thinkers in the strength world, starting from Liedermann back 100 years ago
00:04:57.500 | to Soviet weightlifting authorities like, you know, Rodionov and Roman, and later on
00:05:05.420 | somebody like even Steve Justa was a very colorful individual, just brilliant, brilliant
00:05:11.740 | strength athlete, a farmer from Nebraska, who just came up with some fantastic protocols.
00:05:18.160 | But he would say that you've got to finish stronger than when you started.
00:05:22.180 | And that theme is very much permeates professional or high-level strength training, where this
00:05:29.100 | mentality of a workout or try to get smoked or pumped or throw up in the bucket, they
00:05:34.780 | would look at you as that's insane.
00:05:37.060 | One of the reasons that also Soviets restricted the number of reps in the squad, because you
00:05:42.060 | do sets of 10 in the squad, you're going to definitely put on some mass, no question about
00:05:45.420 | it.
00:05:46.540 | But one of the reasons they restricted that, very few people did sets of 10 except for
00:05:51.140 | heavyweights who had a hard time bulking, and even more, is like, okay, that's too much
00:05:56.420 | cardiorespiratory stress.
00:05:59.140 | And even though Soviet weightlifters did some general physical training like cross-country
00:06:03.420 | running or playing soccer, but they're not trying to get their cardio on the lifting
00:06:08.540 | platform.
00:06:09.540 | That has just made no sense whatsoever.
00:06:11.340 | So restricting the reps will go a very long way, increasing the rest periods to at least
00:06:16.860 | five minutes would go a very long way, and restricting the number of exercises.
00:06:21.500 | Because people don't realize that you're using different muscle groups, but still using the
00:06:24.500 | same brain.
00:06:25.500 | You're still using the same adrenals.
00:06:27.860 | And all that stuff really adds up.
00:06:30.060 | So I would say two, during one practice, one training practice, maybe two, maybe three
00:06:36.380 | exercises max lifts.
00:06:38.460 | And nothing wrong with doing just one.
00:06:40.500 | And yeah, if you want to, you know, do your curls and whatever calves later, that's fine.
00:06:45.600 | But you can tack it on in the end, or you can do it totally separate.
00:06:48.980 | Those things don't really zap you.
00:06:51.020 | You can just come in on a separate day and just do your, enjoy your calf burn.
00:06:54.500 | Love it.
00:06:55.500 | Thanks for watching.