Weight Training and Joint Pain:
An Interview With Bill DeSimone
- Part 5 -

Aaron:

[laughs] Exactly. Correct exercise is one big chunk of the puzzle. What's your opinion on the role of correct diet, eating, and supplementation? Because I know in the last 40 or 50 years, there's been a whole wide spectrum of different ideas on that.

Bill:

I've had clients who've done well with every kind of diet: from vegetarian and Weight Watchers to Paleo and no carb. So, I really don't claim any particular position in what works best for the client. I mean the Paleo camp has their authorities and studies that they refer back to, but so does the vegetarian side.

So, for me personally, I don't try to attach like a moral or intellectual judgment on some food choice. I'm more interested in helping the person manage weight and, maybe, manage inflammation with some workable plan that they can stick with.

And again, whatever that looks like for the person. Some people seem to do well without carbs. Some people seem to do well without meat. That's really not a fight I really feel comfortable weighing into.

Aaron:

OK. There's a last thing, as we were talking about with that functional training aspect, many people are of the opinion that if they want to get in shape, they have to do boot camps or go work out five or seven days a week or just totally commit themselves. Is this a good mindset? Is it productive, short-term and long-term? What do you think?

Bill:

Well, I understand the visceral, gut feel of a hard workout. But, I don't buy that it's necessary that you want to die every time you work out. Referring back to the guy who came into the studio for the body fat check, to me the cost of getting in shape is the time and effort that you're putting into it, that you could have put into something else.

The cost of getting in shape isn’t risking injury or adding wear and tear of your joints. That's just “risking injury and adding wear and tear to your joints”. The higher risk doesn't mean the higher benefit. Once you get the benefits, you got them.

As far as whether it's the best way to train, the first question you've got to ask is, "Train for what?" If someone is training for a specific sport or a specific activity, you've got to practice that activity. Maybe you'll add a cardio component that's related to the pace of that activity, like an interval training program that's based on the sport. Then you add specific exercises, for areas that are likely to get injured in that activity. And then, general exercise for overall strength. But then let your body sort it out.

If you're practicing techniques, your body will sort out the strength.

Again, answer the question, "Train for what?" If somebody just wants to get in shape in the general sense, not necessarily in competitive shape, well then, I think the question really is, "How active are you outside of the gym?"

For someone who does manual labor five days a week, or someone who dances six days a week, one serious, careful workout a week in the gym might work best for them. On the other hand, I get clients in the studio here who are adults with normal life commitments as far as work, and school, and family, et cetera. I generally try to steer them to towards two regular workouts a week.

And in those workouts they're doing anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes of some kind of cardio, and maybe 10 to 15 minutes of weights using my stuff, and going in a high intensity direction, if not pure HIT. And then maybe finish with five minutes of stretching aimed at the hamstrings and the lower back. Again, "Train for what?" is really the key question.

Aaron:

Yeah. Just as long as you've got your goal in mind when you start training then you can work towards it.

Bill:

With so many of these Internet arguments and head-butting, no one's really asked what the real question is.

So for instance, the subtitle of "Congruent Exercise" is "How To Make Weight Training Easier on Your Joints." Well, if that's not somebody's interest, I don't expect them to like it or even to look into it.

The subtitle is key. If somebody doesn't want to risk the joints for the sake of getting in shape, or if somebody is already experiencing aches and pains, and is considering dropping it, or changing it, just to avoid aches and pains, that is who the material is for.

Again, "What are they training for?" It's pretty much the key question.

Aaron:

The key question, there. Well, all right, Bill. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.

Bill:

Well, thank you, Aaron.

Go check out Congruent Exercise at Amazon.com!

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