Weight Lifting Is a Waste of Time: So Is Cardio, and There’s a Better Way to Have the Body You Want Paperback – August 7, 2020

This book is very well written and the arguments are extremely compelling. There are many fitness books out there promoting different training modalities but it's rare to see a book with such an extreme and powerful breakthrough topic - as evidenced by the provocative title!!I am a 55-year-old lifelong competitive athlete trying to stay in shape, prevent injuries, and achieve exciting performance goals. I come from an endurance background so I've had to acclimate to strength training in my adult life over the course of many decades since my peak years as a professional triathlete competitor. It's been a struggle and I've been constantly trying to figure out a formula that works for me. My problem is I easily get sore and/or injured when pursuing the traditional approach to strength training of lifting heavy weights in the gym. Even the safe machines such as the leg press have caused me trouble with extreme post-workout soreness. I have learned good deadlift technique from experts but still get sore after workouts and this adversely affects my athletic performance and sport-specific workouts.I was acquainted with the alternative philosophy of Dr. Jaquish and was immediately highly intrigued. I acquired an X3 bar and was completely hooked upon my very first workout. The concept of being able to apply maximum force production with maximum resistance (the opposite of lifting a heavy bar!) made sense in writing, but when you try it you will realize how effective this is immediately. You get a tougher, more comprehensive workout in a shorter time period.Now on to the matter of cardio being a waste of time: As an endurance athlete with decades of experience, this concept could be off-putting...if it wasn't true! That's right, I am convinced that the traditional approach to cardio is deeply flawed and fraught with risk of overtraining and hormone dysfunction. When you are doing an effective strength training session, it happens that you are getting a fantastic cardio workout, along with all the other benefits of putting your muscles under resistance load and generating the comprehensive stimulation at both the maximum explosiveness and the muscle endurance/glycogen depletion made possible by the X3 Bar using super heavy resistance bands.If you are stuck in your ways and absolutely love spending an hour in the gym lifting heavy weights or working with machines, hey that's not a bad way to spend your time. Better than Netflix. If you are looking to optimize your workout time, achieve peak performance breakthroughs, and also reduce the risk of injury and breakdown (alert: This becomes way, way more important as you get older!), it's important to be open to new concepts and strategies. If you are a healthy skeptic who needs lots of convincing and likes to say, "show me the science," you will appreciate the level of detail and scientific rationale provided for every single concept presented. Hopefully this message will convince you that this book deserves five stars and can be life changing for you! Thanks for reading.

The book gives many studies concerning muscle building and variable resistance. For some reason, many of the studies compare weights to weights augmented with bands, but my guess is that many of the results transfer to standalone band workout. But as with anything, it is important to get the intuition behind why variable resistance works, and I think a reader gets the main idea after the first few chapters. Since mechanical leverage changes throughout a lifting motion, it makes sense that more work can be done if the stress changes with the leverage-more at power points in a movement and less in instances of weaker advantage. With weights, the force is uniform through the motion and therefore you are limited by the weakest part of the motion for a given exercise. Jaquish later presents exercises that vary in terms of power across a range of motion-perfect for bands like the X3 that the book recommends.The book is written with X3 equipment in mind and as a user, I remind readers that X3 is expensive. I suspect that a user could adopt the insights in the book to a cheaper homemade system, but I think you should use X3 if you can afford it. The benefits of X3 itself are perhaps not obvious from the book, but after having used it, it is worth the money, particularly if you amortize the cost over a long period of time (it is built like a tank). The bands are the highest quality, much thicker than the hospital type bands that I have used in the past. The Olympic bar is sturdy and has bearings at both ends where the bands attach-there is no wrist strain. Even the molded plastic base is well thought out as it is stronger than any wood I have seen, lighter, and has a groove underneath for the bands. I have done bands without a base and it is not fun-the bands gouge your feet even with shoes.The book doesn't mention one of the best things about X3. It is only good if you use it! It takes me 20 minutes (the book may suggest 15, but I am older) and it is rare to find something that works without spending hours a day doing it. I find I can just take it out of the closet (highly portable if you travel) and listen to 4 or 5 songs and I am done for the day, although you have to focus.I am 60, leaner, and stronger, and with lower blood sugar despite an average diet.