Welcome to 1-3-1 Fridays, my weekly newsletter, where I reveal evidence-based strategies to get lean, strong, and create optimal health.

You'll receive one personal health insight, three actionable tips, and one concrete action step. Let's dive in.

Here's what's new this week:

• ​Your doctor is treating the wrong problem | Dr. Rachel Stricker (Podcast)
• ​Your doctor is treating the wrong problem | Dr. Rachel Stricker​​
  (YouTube) 

What's in store for today:

• A fat loss method that can get you lean fast... but does come with certain constraints.
• What are muscle fibers, and why are they important for muscle building?
• The difference between resistance training and real strength training.

Every Saturday, I end my day with 20k+ steps.

Most days, I average 8-10k steps.

My daily average over the past year has been around 9,100 steps.

But my Saturdays consistently are 20k+ steps.

Every Saturday morning, I go play soccer for 2+ hours with folks here in the Greenville area.

A year ago, I was gasping for breath by the middle of each match.

These days, I'm usually the last guy still sprinting and running hard.

Even with a crowd of guys 10-15 years younger than me, being older doesn't mean you need to be slower.

Sure, I'm not as explosively fast as I was 15 years ago.

But it doesn't mean I can't play my best and have a solid level of fitness to support this.

One thing I hear often when playing each week is about how often injuries and pains come up after playing.

My friends who play soccer and are also above 30 and 40 share how tough soccer is now with older bodies.

I agree it's not as easy.

But they also share that they haven't worked out in a while, are 40 pounds overweight, and that their knees hurt.

I've taken my fair share of hits over the past year, with kicks to my shins, people stepping on me, and a few knee collisions.

I’m sure that if I didn’t lift weights each week and focus on my cardio, I’d be complaining like these other guys.

Bulletproofing your body as you age is a prerequisite to lifelong health.

It doesn't matter whether you play sports or just want to run around with your kids.

The healthier and stronger you are, the better your defenses will be. Every day you neglect your health, you weaken and age. So, take care of yourself to face daily challenges more effectively.

Falling down while carrying groceries. Banging your knee. Hitting your arm.

You don't need to be clusmy to experience these things.

But protecting your body from potential bang-ups is a worthy investment.

Unfortunately, most of us don’t focus on preventative medicine, like exercise and nutrition, until problems arise.

So as an experiment, pretend that you need to take action now.

If you don’t take care of your health, your impact on your family, career, and community will shrink. Over time, it may even disappear.

Pretend that this week is your last week, and it has to be the best week you've ever lived.

How would you show up then?

Lesson: Health is the result of daily compounded actions over time.

Here's Your 1-3-1 Friday:

1.) The leangains method

Back in 2008, a Swedish nutritionist named Martin Berkhan coined the term 'leangains'.

He began promoting this method as an optimal fat loss method using the now well known intermittent fasting protocol 16:8.

This is when you fast for 16 hours and then have an 8-hour eating window,

The fitness industry caught wind of this protocol, and the rest is history.

But Martin's protocol has some credibility.

Here are the main components of this method:

• Fast for 16 hours
• Eat within 8 hour 'feed' window
• Skip breakfast
• Train and lift heavy weights 3-4x a week

There's several benefits to using this method:

• Reduced hunger (after your body adapts to fasting)
• Less meal planning
• Simpler nutrition structure

I've personally used this method when I was dropping 30 pounds and getting down to 5-6% body fat.

It worked well for me.

But there's a few ​drawbacks​ too:

• Fasting doesn't substitute for a caloric deficit. You still need to be in a calorie deficit to lose body fat.
• Women may need to be careful with this method. Fasting has been proven to impact the female sex hormones and could potentially lead to period cycle loss.
• Quality of food still matters. So does how you eat (eating speed).

So the Leangains method isn't a bad system.

Keep in mind the benefits and drawbacks.

Test it out for yourself if you're curious.

2.) What are muscle fibers

According to Science Direct, here's a quick breakdown on muscle fibers:

Here's what they meant:

• Muscle fibers are split up into different types.
• These types are named Type I and Type II fibers.
• Type II fibers react more to resistance training or muscle building. They usually increase in size.
• Type I fibers have some response, but not as much as Type I, since they're more endurance-type fibers.

All muscle fibers respond to resistance training.

But certain ones respond more than others.

The key to muscle building is that muscle protein synthesis must exceed muscle protein breakdown.

If it's not, then you don't build new muscle.

If so, you do.

Once, do you make sure your MPS is greater than MPB?

Lift weights + get enough protein + recover (sleep & stress) = MPS

Building muscle doesn't happen in the gym.

It happens after you create the stimulus in the gym to break down muscle fibers and then kick off MPS on your end.

How well you respond to your training depends on how well you prepare for MPS afterward.

One person can lift weights 3 times a week and build more muscle than someone who works out in the gym 5-6 times.

The key reason is their focus on muscle protein synthesis (MPS).

That includes:

• Nutrition
• Sleep
• Stress
• Movement

It doesn't need to be hard. But you do need to check your boxes.

Otherwise, you won't get the most bang out of your workouts.

3.) The definition of 'real' strength training

Strength training is a term thrown around often these days.

'You need to strength train!' Or 'strength train more often', you'll hear them say.

But in the strength and conditioning world, strength is in a different realm.

Here's how strength is measured by reps (my simple definition):

• Strength/power: 1-5 reps
• Hypertrophy: 6-12 reps
• Endurance: 12+ reps

When it comes to real strength, the number of reps you'll do per set is actually much closer to 0 than to 10.

Powerlifting is a well-known sport.

Athletes who train in this sport lift as heavy as possible for as few reps as possible.

Most people aren't doing strength training; they're doing resistance training.

But somewhere along the way, the terms became interchangeable.

It's not a big deal; I've done this myself for years and still do sometimes when I forget.

For the average beginner, resistance or strength training is all the same.

Just get in the gym, lift heavy weights, pick them up, and put them down.

Repeat for 6 months, and you won't recognize your body.

Consistency will always defeat perfect terminology and methods.

​​Physiopedia​ expands on my notes above with some extra details on sets and rest as you break down each type of training:

• Strength: Weight greater than 85% of 1 rep max, 2-6 sets, and less than 6 reps each with a 2-5-minute rest in between sets.
• Power: 80-90% of 1 rep max weight, 3-5 sets, 1-2 reps, with a 2-5 minute rest break.
• Hypertrophy: 67-85% of 1 rep max weight, 3-6 sets, 6-12 reps, 30-90 second rest period.
• Muscular Endurance: Less than 67% of one rep max, 2-3 sets, greater than 12 reps, less than 30-second rest periods.

But for those of you who like the nuances, real strength training begins when you start to lift heavy.

Heavier than you realized you could even lift.

The human body is an incredible biological organism.

It will adapt to whatever conditions you place upon it.

The mind will do the same, too.

Your body and mind are a workshop. How you use this workshop is up to you.

Most of us go to our graves never scratching the surface of what we're really capable of.

Don't let that be you.

1 Action Step

Lift heavy weights this week. Repeat for the rest of this year.

One Quote To Finish Your Week Strong

Been journaling more.

Observing my thoughts has been helpful.

It's hard to see beneath the waves of thoughts until you slow down.

Not the easiest thing, as I keep learning.

As promised, get leaner on plants in under 5 minutes.

Till next week,

References

• ​https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/chapter/edited-volume/abs/pii/B9780323625395000151#preview-section-cited-by