75: REWIND / Doug Brignole Part 1

The InForm Fitness Podcast

Welcome to the InForm Fitness Podcast series REWIND, a listen back to the classic interviews we’ve had with the high intensity gurus & master trainers… names like Martin Gibala, Bill DeSimone, Simon Shawcross, Jay Vincent, Ryan Hall & Doug McGuff.

This is the 1st of 3 parts with Doug Brignole. On his website Doug describes himself as “Bodybuilder on the outside & science nerd on the inside.” His competitive career spans over 40 years & he has won numerous bodybuilding titles. His most recent book—“The Physics of Fitness”—is endorsed by nine PhD professors!!! Here in part 1, Doug & Adam talk about Compound vs isolation & natural movements.

For more info about Doug Brignole:

www.dougbrignole.com/

www.greatestphysiques.com/doug-brignole/

For Doug Brignole’s books, visit Amazon:

www.amazon.com/Books-Doug-Brignole/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ADoug+Brignole

As always, your feedback and suggestions are always welcome.

Adam Zickerman – Power of 10: The Once-A-Week Slow Motion Fitness Revolution:

http://bit.ly/ThePowerofTen

We would love to hear from you with your questions, comments & show ideas…

Our email address is [e-mail]

75: REWIND / Doug Brignole Part 1 Transcript

Arlene 0:01
The Inform fitness podcast with Adam Zickerman is a presentation of inform fitness studios specializing in safe, efficient, personal high intensity strength training, in each episode Adam discusses the latest findings in the areas of exercise nutrition and recovery, the three pillars of his New York Times best selling book, The Power of 10. He aims to debunk the popular misconceptions and urban myths that are so prevalent in the fields of health and fitness. And with the opinions of leading experts and scientists, you'll hear scientific based up to the minute information on a variety of subjects. We cover the exercise protocols and techniques of Adoms 20 minute once a week workout, as well as sleep recovery, nutrition, the role of genetics in the response to exercise, and much more.

Adam 0:50
Hi everyone, Adam here welcome to an inform fitness podcast rewind,it's a listen back to our past interviews with some of our great high intensity gurus, master trainers, doctors PhDs names like Martin Gibala from McMaster University biomechanics expert, Bill De Simone, genetics expert Ryan Hall, Dr. Doug McGuff, author of body by science, and for this rewind, today, we have Doug Brignole. On his website, Doug describes himself as a bodybuilder on the outside, and a science nerd on the inside. His competitive career spans over 40 years and he has won numerous bodybuilding titles. His most recent book, the physics of fitness, is endorsed by nine PhD professors, and is a must read if you're going to dig deep into the science and physics of strength training. So here in part one, Doug and I are going to talk about compound movements versus isolation movements. Always a controversial subject. We don't always agree on everything. But it's a great discussion. Enjoy. So glad to have you with us.

Doug Brignole 2:02
Thank you. It's great to be here.

Adam 2:03
It's a real honor to talk to somebody with your experience and expertise in this field. So Doug is a bodybuilder right Doug?

Doug Brignole 2:14
Yes, I say that, although that's sort of like a small piece of what I do. Because a lot of bodybuilders that don't do what I do.

Adam 2:21
So what makes doug so unique is that doug is an intellectual bodybuilder, I guess you can call it and he hasn't really fallen prey to all the cultural and mythological aspects of bodybuilding that have existed for, I don't know, 50 years, 60 years, seventy years and beyond

Doug Brignole 2:40
100 years, actually. Yeah,

Adam 2:42
there you go. What I like about your doug is as a bodybuilder, you debunk a lot of the myths that people have had about bodybuilding. Like, for example, we're gonna get into a lot of things about this. But like, for example, you say, which is unusual for the bodybuilding community, you say that varying exercises for the same body part is really not essential for muscle growth. So many popular exercises in bodybuilding are just downright dangerous, and at the very least inefficient. He talks about why it's impossible that to isolate your lower abs, for example, and the myths go on and on that you talk about, that we've been talking about, too. So it's nice, but but no one listens to me really sometimes because, you know, I'm not big and muscular and what

Doug Brignole 3:26
you're not a titleholder ends up getting more attention than a PhD.

Adam 3:29
This is why I like talking to guys like you because you are not following the culture and still you've been a competitive and very successful bodybuilder. So can you just give us a little brief synopsis of your bodybuilding history and some of your accomplishments not just the bodybuilding, but also, as simply as possible? Talk about your career as well.

Doug Brignole 3:51
All right, well, I started weight training when I was 14, because I was very skinny. And I just wanted to gain some muscle and I was fortunate enough to be living about five blocks away from a gym that was owned by 5 time Mr. Universe winner, Bill Pearl. And I went there, I had no money essentially, and we struck a deal and I would go into every Saturday and scrub the showers and do janitorial work in exchange for membership. And I started competing within a year 16 years old was my first contest. By the time I was 19. I won teenage California and teenage America. At 22. I won Mr. California at 26. I won my division of Mr. American Mr. Universe, and I continue to competing on and off until I was 56, which is a 40 year span of competitions longer than most people for sure who've been in that sport. So along the way of all these years of competing, I was very analytical about you know what it is that constitutes a good exercise or a bad exercise. There has to be mechanical components. And whatever those mechanical components are, that could be deemed Good or bad, would naturally be consistent across the board. If incomplete range of motion is bad in one exercise, it'd be better than all of them, for example, and benchpress is one example of that, right? When you finish a bench press, your hands are far away from the center of your body. So if that's an incomplete range of motion anywhere else, why wouldn't it be there? So a lot of the things that I was realizing were very profound, and have names, technical names, and I would later discover them as I would go to cadaver dissections, and read University textbooks and, and then just sort of ponder sort of the correlation between the physics, the anatomy, the sociology, the brainwashing that has, you know, been happening through all these years that have led people to believe that certain things are just to be not questioned, like compound movements, and people will say, Oh, you need a foundation in the powerless to bodybuild? Well, there's just no logic in that, really, I mean, a ...