Fast Fitness & Better Movement with JJ Virgin – Encore Presentation
15 Dec 2025 · 21 min
Encore podcast episode by JJ Virgin focused on 'fast fitness' and better movement. JJ outlines four tenets of movement (move more, burst/HIIT training, resistance training, restorative/flexibility), emphasizes intensity over duration, and gives practical parameters: burst intervals (30–60s with active recovery twice as long), aim for 4–8 total minutes of bursts per session, burst-style training ~3 days/week, resistance work hitting body parts 2–3×/week with 8–12 reps to build muscle, and daily movement goals (~6,000+ steps). She also covers hydration (4–8 oz every 15 minutes during short sessions), post-workout nutrition (protein+carbs within an hour), sleep (8–10 hours for adrenal recovery), and recommends starting slowly for people with adrenal exhaustion. The episode contains multiple sponsor/read ad segments (Earth Breeze, Wayfair, Monarch, Buffalo Trace) and a listener Q&A segment.
Questions this episode answers
About 6,000 or more steps per day.
30 to 60 seconds all-out, with active recovery twice as long.
4 to 8 total minutes of bursts.
About three days per week.
Each body part 2 to 3 times per week.
Chapters
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Think Nature is like this, but actually it's like this. That's why Columbia engineers everything we make make for anything nature can throw at you. Columbia engineered for whatever. The following is an encore presentation of fast fitness and better movement with JJ Virgin.
Hey, it's JJ Virgin. And welcome to the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show where I give you simple science based solutions to help you look, feel and think better. And today actually, it's really about how to move better. We are going to be talking fast fitness. I'm going to be busting some of those miss and showing you how you can get fit in just minutes a day. Now let's get started. So I have four tenets of exercise or four tenets of movement that I put into place for everything. And one of them is that we need to move more. But what I always tell people is that moving more is just what we should be doing every single day. That it actually doesn't count as exercise because in order for something to count as exercise, you should get hot and sweaty and it should hurt a bit. And here's the deal. You really want to focus here on intensity. I remember when I was first starting out in this whole world early, early on, years ago as a personal trainer, it was all about, you know, going long, slow distance and easy so you could burn more fat. That is actually the exact opposite of what you want to do to get the best results. You want to focus on intensity over duration. And again, I just want to remind you that I am, I have a worksheet that I'm dealing with here. So if you would like to get this worksheet, just go to messenger on my Facebook official page and put in the code burst419 and you will get this worksheet so that you can get the notes so you'll know exactly what you should be doing in your workout routines. Now, of course you should move more. But again, I don't want you to think of this as exercise. This is just what we should be doing all day long. And that means the simplest way to ensure that you're moving more. There's two tricks. First trick is a tracking device. And these are just fantastic. I mean, like years ago it was one of those little, it was one of those little simple pedometers. And now we have much more interesting tracking devices to tell us what we're doing. But what we really want to know is how much are you moving? How much are you moving? So that's the first thing is you want to make sure that you're moving more and tracking what you measure you can manage. And most importantly, you can improve. And ideally, you're really moving for like an hour plus a day. That's really what we want to think of. That equates to like 6,000 or more steps per day. Here's another one. And I wish I had this one to show you. Get a dog. Because nothing can get you out and moving like a dog. I mean, they just guilt you out with those eyes. So get a dog. That will help you move more. And it's very calming too to take.
Your little dog out for a walk.
It's one of the things I wrote my gratitude journal this morning. Like, what am I grateful for? The dog. Love that dog. All right, now the next thing, endurance training. And I did see and I do want to do a shout out, you know, if you did the Boston Marathon, like, you know, I applaud you. But here's the deal with endurance training and I'm sorry, it's just science here, so don't shoot the messenger, okay? Science can actually, or endurance training can actually make you age faster. It can burn up muscle mass and make you hungrier. It can increase your appetite. So I don't know about you, but none of these things are things that like I'm going to go work out to achieve. Like I don't want to age faster. I certainly don't want to lose muscle. I call that our metabolic SP banks. And last thing I want to do is be hungrier. Now the other thing too, a couple other neg negatives on the endurance training is the number one reason I hear from people why they don't work out is they don't have time. So one of the most timely things you can do is have to go do a bunch of endurance training. But it also lowers your immune system. So there's not a lot of really good things it does for you. What I really like is for people to move more throughout the day. Just easy, easy bike ride, you know, a little toodle down at the beach, eas, walk, walk with the dog, all of that and then go and hit it hard. Like right after this I'm going to go out to the gym with my fiance and hit it hard. And so when you're working out, hot, sweaty, it should heard about high intensity interval training. Hit it hard, but just move more all throughout the day. So I'm kind of working into what I do want you to do and that is you like the metabolic Spanx. I'm recording this podcast while I'm doing a Facebook live. So I'm seeing these responses which love by the way. Guys, I love all the stuff I'm seeing and I guess metabolic Spanx hit a nerve, but think about it, when you put muscle on it holds everything in tighter and boost your metabolism. We'll be talking about resistance training in a bit, but I want to hit high intensity interval training first. So the deal with high intensity interval training, the benefits of that, or what's called burst training is better stress management. It actually teaches your sympathetic nervous system how to handle stress and better it increases your post exercise metabolic rate because your body has to recover from it. You know when you're just out walking, easy, it's just controlled falling. But when you go burst all out and recover and burst all out and recover, you create oxygen debt that your body has to work hard to recover afterwards. And it builds up, it creates a buildup of lactic acid that increases, triggers the release of growth hormone. Now here's the deal with it. The other part that's so great about high intensity interval training or burst training is that you can do it anywhere and it's fast. So if you try to go, I don't have time to work out, you know what, you can do a couple one minute bursts and it will make a big difference for you. So let me walk you through how to do high intensity interval training or burst training. My favorite way to do this is with a little machine called the Exciser. And I know we're, I've got my team watching right now. If you can put a picture of the Exciser up, that would be super cool. It's a burst training machine. But basically burst training is where you go all out for a small interval, 30 to 60 seconds, all out as hard as possible and then you recover actively for twice as long. All out recover actively. So example of this would be Wendy just was talking about running and being an avid athlete. So Wendy would do this and this is actually the better way to train for marathons and stuff. And Wendy give me thumbs up if you agree. Here is go out and burst for 30 to 60 seconds, then walk it off for a minute or two, burst for 30 to 60 seconds, Then walk it off for a minute or 2. So just go back and forth to accumulate 4 to 8 total minutes of bursts. And here's the deal, if it gets easier, which it will, that's your training effect. You go harder. So it never really gets easier because you keep getting stronger. So how can you do burst training? Well, walk and sprint. Walk and sprint. You can go One of my favorites is to when I'm traveling, I do this at the hotels. I will run up the stairs or take two flights at a time. Take two stairs at a time and then recover back down. I'll go up the stairs and I'll recover back down. You can do jumping jacks, you can do burpees, you can do high knee lifts. So anything where you go all out. Big full body movements, too, not just your arms. Okay. It needs to be big full body movements for 30 to 60 seconds and then recover for twice as long. I actually have a fast fitness program where I walk you through how to burst and I give you all my different favorite ways to burst. Okay, so next. Next. So again, that's in there if you're going. I need more in my fast fitness program. I have all of this in there. Okay, Next thing. Resistance training. And I love resistance training. I actually, way back when, okay, it's my birthday and I'm a totally date myself, but I used to work out in my high school. And I'm going to answer. I see people who are watching this on Facebook Live. This is my podcast. That's my JJ Virgin lifestyle show over on itunes. I've been taping these live on Facebook Live. I'm getting a lot of questions. Thank you guys so much for the questions. I'll be answering these, these after I get through the podcast portion and then I also put some of these onto the podcast. So totally appreciate those questions. I actually, I actually, when I was in high school, I used to work out weight train with the football team, me and football team. And I went to high school, by the way, in the hood down in Richmond, California, and I worked out with the football team. So it was pretty, pretty fun. But that's where I started. And then I went off to college and I started getting very into teaching aerobics and doing and personal training. And that's where I really started doing resistance training. And I used to work out down at Goldsteam in Venice. I used to actually take my clients down there for field trips. And so the deal with resistance training is, you know, again, we talk about how your body's not a bank account and it's a chemistry lab. And I, when I talk about food, I say, you know, it's not calories in, calories out. Well, with exercise, it's the same. You really want to look at what is this exercise telling your body to do? Is it telling your body to burn fat or store it, break down muscle or build it up? And that's why it's so key. Endurance training breaks down muscle. It makes your better body better at burning sugar, not fat. Resistance training and highness interval training are super important for teaching your body how to burn up sugar during the exercise and use fat for fuel after exercise. Super important. And resistance training helps your body become more sensitive to insulin. So you're better at burning fat all day long. And it boosts your basal metabolic rate. More muscle, your body has to work hard to keep it on. It's something called muscle protein resynthesis. So your body has to work harder to keep the muscle on. Plus it looks better. You know, people talk about spot reducing. It's really not spot reducing. It's toning those areas to hold everything in tighter. And then of course, it's also super good for your bones. I hear people say, oh, you've got, you know, we're at risk for osteoporosis. You should walk. I'm like, no, you should lift weights, you should do squats, you should lift weights over your head. Those are the things that are going to help your bone density. And then of course, and again, I talked about metabolic Spanx. You know, it helps everything look better. I was actually able to kind of give myself more of a shape by doing weight training. All right. And again, I also have, I've divided the body. I'm going to teach you a little bit about this. I divide the body into four different parts. Upper body pushing, these are things like push ups, chest press, overhead press, dips, upper body. And those are things that use the chest, the shoulders, the upper back muscles and then. And the triceps. Upper body pulling are things like bent over rows, pull ups, pull downs, upright rows, things that use your shoulders, that use your lats, that use your biceps. Then there's hips and thighs, things like lunges and squats and plies and step ups, things that use your glutes and your quads primarily. And then there's power core things that use your back stabilizing muscles and your abdominals. And I divided the body into four different parts. Now, I've been seeing some questions about rest and recovery. I like to rotate all of these things. I recommend burst style training for three days a week and then resistance training. You want to hit each of those body parts at least twice a week, two to three times a week. And what I have people do is work each body part two to three times a week, at least a day of recovery in between. And you work multiple sets of an exercise and, and you work 8 to 12 repetitions is the best range to build muscle. Now, I have laid out a program, I will tell you where I put in beginning, intermediate, advanced programs. Whether you want to be. You are going to do this at home or at the gym, and then laid out all of these different exercises for you and how to put them into a grid to work it and then also how to track it, because I know you're hearing this going, wait, so I do have that. That is my fast fitness program. And finally, the fourth part of fitness is. And if you're doing like hot yoga, hard yoga, the really difficult, strenuous yoga, I put that into the resistance training part of a workout. And then there's restorative yoga, flexibility, the things that are easier, those are really there to help you lower your stress hormones. Right? Which is super critical, too. And that can help your overall exercise results. Because, you know, a key component to getting fit, we focus so much on intensity and the stimulus. And this is really important, of course, how hard you work. It's the quality, not the quantity. But equally or if not more important is recovery. So you don't want to push yourself every single day all out. You know, what I'll do is maybe one day I'll do burst training with leg training, and the next day I'll do upper body pushing and pulling. So I'm always rotating things around and giving myself a rest. And then, you know, one day I might just do an easy walk. And someone asked if you could do this with a hip replacement. Yes, you can. I actually have a knee replacement. And again, if you've got any kind of orthopedic issues, I think the best thing that you should do is first go work with a physical therapist or a really good personal trainer, one that's certified by the NSCA or the NASM or acsm. That's where I'm certified. And get a program laid out for you, maybe have them check in once a month. I love working with a trainer in that way where you're having them work out, check in with you once a month and see how you're doing. So that's how I would recommend that and get the program really dialed for you. But, you know, I've been able to work around just about anything. I tore my ACL when I was 17, so I've done a lot of workarounds. All right, now I see a lot of questions coming in. And before we get to your questions, oh, one other thing that I want to just dial in here. Is that a question we get asked all the Time is what about what to eat? You want to be drinking water throughout your exercise, but remember, we're talking short exercise sessions, you know, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, because we're focusing on intensity, not duration. So be drinking 4 to 8 ounces of water every 15 minutes. But you really want to focus on having some protein and carbs within the hour after working out. Protein is going to help with muscle. Protein, resynthesis and the carbohydrates will help refuel your muscle stores of energy of glycogen so you'll have more energy for the next workout. I actually get fiber low and fat low at that recovery meal. I really focus on having protein and having the carbs. So a perfect example would be my paleo inspired shake with branched chain amino acids. Perfect as a post recovery shake with some unsweetened rice milk and then maybe some greens in there. So you're getting some carbs. You can throw a little bit of fruit in there. Don't go too crazy on it. Some carbs and some protein, but you don't have the too much fiber or fat to just kind of slow it on down. All right, now after the break, I'll be answering a listener's question, so stay with me. Welcome back. This is the time where I answer a listener's question. And today's question came for our Facebook Live and it was Sonia. And Sonia asked asks, can I do burst training if I have adrenal exhaustion? And the minute I saw that question, I was like, this is one that I have to answer right away because I have a very different opinion on this. And I actually think that one of the great things that you can do to start Help. Help.
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Healing your adrenal exhaustion is to start doing burst training. What? That might sound crazy. Let me explain. So burst training actually can teach your sympathetic nervous system how to handle stress and recover. Think about it, Yusuke. Get stressed, you recover. You get stressed, you recover. And so that is one of the things that you're trying to do as you're healing your adrenals. Of course, key things to help heal your adrenals. Number one, sleep. Sleep, sleep, sleep. Get not just eight to nine hours, but you might need to go eight to ten hours of sleep every night. So good sleep is key. We've got a great new product, Stress Balance, that can help here tremendously. That's another one. But I love beyond using some of the stress techniques I talk about in the miracle mindset, like tapping. I love using burst training, but again, start out easy. The nice thing with all of this exercise is we meet you where you are. I meet you where you are. You're going to start out easy and go all out for where you are and just start out with a couple bursts a couple times a week. You know, you might decide that you're going to do four 30 second bursts three times a week to start. And then you build up to six and then you build up to eight and then you up you up the intensity and then pretty soon you're going to start to go, wow, I am feeling more energetic. I'm feeling better. So I wouldn't say back off. I'd say lean into it and start to teach your adrenals how to. How to start to recover and repair. All right, now, I love this part of the show. Gratitude Gratitude, another key way to help heal your adrenals. Gratitude is key here. So one of the things that we do is I jump on itunes and I look at all the reviews. By the way, the whole team reads these reviews. This is how we get our like, you know, grade for the week. So we really super appreciate it. The couple things that, like, we so appreciate are when you share these and you share Facebook lives and you leave reviews, it just makes our. It makes our week, not just our day. So I'm gonna give you one from Catherine Morgan. Brilliant lifestyle techniques, five star review. I listen to your podcast several times a week. Okay. Sometimes daily. My mom is from Sisters, Oregon, who worked with you years ago. Jj. Wow, I wonder who that is. So I've known of you for years and in the last few months I found your podcast through Chalene Johnson. Your podcast is so helpful in my life. I look forward to listening to you and have been applying so much of it in my life. Katherine Powell Morgan, thank you. I so appreciate that and I so appreciate all of you. And remember, we answer questions that we get from Facebook Live. So what I do is we have super cool guests on the show once a week and then I do a podcast on my own once a week. But I don't. I get a little lonely on my own. So what I do is I pop on to my Facebook official page at JJ Virgin Official. Look for the little blue arrow. And it's not a blue arrow, it's a blue check mark. And I record these live because it's a lot more fun. So I'd love you to come join in the fun and then you can leave your questions that we can put on here as well. And again, thank you so much for tuning in. I so appreciate you. Alrighty, till next week. Bye Bye. Foreign.
Hello listeners. This is Anne Bogle, author, blogger, and creator of the podcast what Should I Read next? Since 2016, I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week, I tag all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't, and what they've been reading lately. And I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course, recommending books that meet the moment, whether they are looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything. You'll learn something about yourself as a reader, and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read, with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what Should I Read Next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and Visit our website whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com to find out more.
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