JJ Virgin and a fitness expert argue that jumping, sprinting, and heavy squats protect aging bodies, not damage them. They challenge the idea that bad backs need to avoid extension, and say yoga is the single best practice for people over 50. For menopausal women, steady-state cardio may overtax recovery, so strength and HIIT work better for fat loss.
I was listening to a podcast and it was some guy saying, "Oh no, you shouldn't be doing any of that jumping because that's risky." And I'm like, "No, life is risky. We do these things in controlled environments so that life gets less risky." Yeah.
As fitness professionals, we don't tell people, "Do this day one." We start with very low impact things and we build up to— and again, when I say jump up on a box, that's a high end. We work up to that. This just happened today. I have a bad back ever since playing college basketball. And over the last 5 years or so, I just found myself not jumping, like not jumping over a log when I see it going for a walk with my kids. I'm like, I don't want to hurt my back. And then for the last year and a half, I've been prioritizing power movements. So today I was with my daughters, my younger daughter who's just a bound full energy. We're getting off this bus and she jumps off the last step and she just jumps. And I'm like, that's gonna hurt my back. I'm like, actually, no, I've been jumping for the last 6. I jumped and it was, it was a, it was such a good feeling for me because I would have avoided that a year ago. But because I've been training like this, I'm like, yes, I'm back, so to speak.
And that is exactly it. It's like the less you do, the less you can do.
Yes. Yes. Can I steal that? Yes, you can.
All right. And the more you do, The more you do. The more you do.
Who would have thought that jumping off the last step of a bus would have made some— I was so happy today. Like, it's stuck in my head.
So you walked by my gym, and one of the things that I did, you know, blowing out my knee and then my hip and everything else, I stopped running. And then I saw, did you see the meme going on the internet about how like, you know, people over the age of 30, like 5% of them will ever sprint again? And I'm thinking, oh no. Well, there was no backup for it, but I'm like going, But wait, I was looking at my own life thinking, I've sprinted once in the last couple years, and it was 'cause Bryce was playing soccer and they challenged the parents, and I proceeded to pull a hamstring.
But you won though.
We did, but we all were like trashed. So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna get a sprint treadmill because I can actually sprint on that treadmill, and I did it today. I hate it, it hurts. Yes. But you know, when you do hard things.
Yeah, I'm the same way. I squat once a week. I don't like squatting.
I hate squatting, but I do it too.
Yes. And as soon as I'm done, I'm like, that was— it's much more of a mental win. And I think all these other men my age, they're not squatting. They're not putting a barbell on their back. So again, I have that. But yes, there's this fallacy, I think, that fitness people, oh, they like to exercise. I don't. I do not like to exercise.
There you have it. Well, I mean, squatting, like, literally, I work myself into it. And, you know, having a knee replacement and a hip replacement, I'm like, I have to do this. And that is what I think of. Like, you have a bad back, you have to do those things because otherwise it's going to get worse.
Yes.
I was taught— this is so ridiculous too— like, here I was getting this biomechanics degree and we were taught, you know what, you should only do forward flexion, don't do extension if you have a back problem. And I'm like, well, wait a minute, maybe that would cause a back problem. I think that you're going to get worse. I was like, I think I'm going to do the opposite of what you're teaching us to do.
Again, pioneering the industry.
I was like, are you working with humans or are you just doing studies in a lab? What are you doing? Okay, so we've got the first part, which is really building muscle strength and power. And then what's your take on just cardio in general? Because this is the default mode for women, of course, as you know, is to do cardio.
Yeah.
And maybe a little Pilates or yoga. That's the default mode.
Yes, and I like all of them. I am in favor of moving your body and improving mobility, flexibility, so all of them.
Do you like yoga? No. I know, I was like—
but I have never— I don't think I've ever even done it, but I'm open to— yes, I keep thinking I'm gonna do this because I think it would help.
Honestly, the best thing that 50-plus-year-old people can do is yoga, and I started doing it a couple years ago 'cause I got yoga shamed. And I was like, all right, okay, so I'll do it if I made Tim come do it with me. And then he bailed out after a while. Now he's back again 'cause getting through his hip replacement, it's, and you would never do these things otherwise.
And see, that right there tells me I should do it.
Right, that's exactly it.
Yes, so I need to. Maybe I need to be shamed a little more to get me to the threshold. What was the question?
Okay, so the question is like in the cardio thing, is there a way to approach Cardio, because, you know, there's all these different types of HIIT protocols. There's Zone 2, there's like— and then there's all this conversation about women shouldn't do Zone 2, or maybe they should do Zone 2, or they need to do HIIT training but they have to do HIIT training this way. Like, and I think we're kind of starting to major in some minors out there, and then people don't do anything because they're confused.
Yes. Yeah, so I'm literally starting— I just printed off some articles this past week. I want to have a more informed opinion on this for the menopause transition and early post-menopause female. I don't have an opinion yet because I haven't done the reading yet. In general, in terms of improving body composition, all forms of aerobic activity are an amazing fat loss stimulus. They— it breaks down fat and it burns fat. One of the concerns that I so far haven't been able to, to just to validate in the research is this long-duration aerobic activity might not— it might overtax a woman going through menopause when her body is already not recovering well. So you're adding more and more stimulus when she has less and less of an ability to recover. Now, I'm not saying that's fact. I'm saying that those are the arguments that I'm hearing, and I'm trying to validate that right now.
Yeah, and I think we hear, you know, well, you figured it, because I think The cortisol exercise thing is always interesting because it's like, well, if you were going to talk about all the things that happen acutely during exercise, you'd never exercise because it looks like you're having a heart attack and dying. Yeah, that's true. It's like, yes, cortisol comes up and then it's going to come down lower. Yes, blood pressure comes up, but—
If cortisol does not rise, that's a problem.
You're not going to get anywhere. But I think when I look at more steady-state cardio, I always think, well, I'd love you to take some of that time and put it into resistance training. And I'd also love you to take some of that and put it into HIIT training. Have you seen research showing that HIIT training is more beneficial for visceral adipose tissue?
I have to look into that more.
I sense that, I've seen a little bit on that. So I think that might be the case. Like you look at, as we start to go through menopause and estrogen's dropping and now we can't contract as well, we lose power output and become more insulin resistant and more inflamed, which, you know, you're more inflamed, like contract muscles. Yes, yeah.
