42 Comparing and Contrasting Congruent Exercise Methodologies

The InForm Fitness Podcast

We are welcoming back our guest from Episode 20, Bill DeSimone. As you might remember Bill is a personal trainer himself and the author of the book, Congruent Exercise: How To Make Weight Training Easier On Your Joints.

The reason we have invited Bill back to join us is to discuss Episode 36 that was released a couple months ago featuring body-builder Doug Brignole. Doug too is an author and his book is titled Million Dollar Muscle: A Historical and Sociological Perspective of the Fitness Industry.

Today Bill, Adam, and Mike will be comparing and contrasting their different methodologies and philosophies regarding weight training with that of Doug Brignole.

Bill DeSimone - Congruent Exercise: How To Make Weight Training Easier On Your Joints http://bit.ly/CongruentExercise

Adam Zickerman - Power of 10: The Once-A-Week Slow Motion Fitness Revolutionhttp://bit.ly/ThePowerofTen

Doug Brignole - Million Dollar Muscle: A Historical and Sociological Perspective of the Fitness Industry http://bit.ly/MillionDollarMuscle

To find an Inform Fitness location nearest you visit www.InformFitness.com.

42 Comparing and Contrasting Congruent Exercise Methodologies Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

muscle, exercise, joint, compound movements, people, doug, lever, point, resistance, squat, abdominals, weight, moving, tricep, talking, bodybuilder, arm, podcast, stabilizing, movement

SPEAKERS

Tim Edwards, Mike, Doug Brignole, Adam, Bill DeSimone

Adam 00:05

I know it sounds like we're disagreeing with everything Doug has said on the last interview, you know, we agree 90% We're on the same page. I mean, the idea of paying attention to the biomechanics, protecting the joints, using a speed that safe trying to use little momentum as possible. Understanding that, you know, we're trying to get stronger. We're not trying to become a boxer or an athlete, you know, I mean, his idea his approach to general fitness and exercise. We're a lot closer in agreement than we are in disagreement, I would say.

Tim Edwards 00:43

Hello, and welcome to the inform fitness podcast with New York Times bestselling author, Adam Zickerman. I'm Tim Edwards with the inbound podcasting network and a client of inform fitness. Now here in Episode 42, we are welcoming back our guest from Episode 20. Bill De Simone. As you might remember, Bill is a personal trainer himself and the author of the book congruent exercise, how to make weight training easier on your joints. So the reason we invited Bill back to join us is to discuss episode 36. That was released a couple of months ago featuring bodybuilder Doug Brignole. Doug too is an author and his book is titled million dollar muscle, a historical and sociological perspective of the fitness industry. Today, Bill, Adam and Mike will be comparing and contrasting their different methodologies and philosophies regarding weight training with that of Doug's. Interestingly, though, over the past 41 episodes, Doug and Bill's episodes are our top two and most downloaded episodes of the inform fitness podcast, I have a feeling that this one just made surpass both of them.

Adam 01:51

Yeah, I'm glad I'm glad to be doing this episode right now, because it brings up a point about the whole idea of of our podcast in the first place, which is that I don't want our podcast to be one big advertisement for inform fitness and my business and our one way of thinking, I want to really educate, I want to bring up the points. And the things that in exercise that are important to talk about. And to try to figure out there are still a lot of questions exercise that we don't have answers to. So I like to bring in other opinions that aren't necessarily of my own. And when we had Doug Brignole, on the bodybuilder a couple weeks ago, a lot of people first of all was one of our most downloaded episodes, people love that episode. However, the people that know me and my philosophy and been listening to all the other episodes have said, you know, Adam, did you actually agree with everything Doug was saying, I mean, he seemed to have contradicted you and a couple of points there. What's with that, because again, people are perceiving this podcast is just one maybe one big advertisement for my philosophy. And we don't know everything. And there are big questions out there. And what I wanted to do now and I wanted to, I want to bring Bill DeSimone back, because he also did a biomechanics episode with me. And that was also one of the most downloaded episodes. So obviously, we're hitting a nerve on this subject. And I'm doing this not necessarily, to show that Doug was wrong, per se. But I'm doing this because I want to point out that everything we're doing, Bill, Doug, myself, we're trying to figure things out, we're still trying to figure things out, as we safely apply exercise to our clients and give them what they're looking for. So let's start with one of the subjects that Doug and I had talked about, which was this idea of compound movements versus isolation movements and the virtues of both. And so so why don't we start with that?

Doug Brignole 03:49

Yeah, as you said, a compound movement is a multi joint multi muscle movement that some people refer to as functional, which is absurd, because it suggests that something that isn't compound is dysfunctional. Right. But that would almost suggest that if you do isolation exercises, somehow your body isn't going to be able to coordinate all of its various muscle strains at the same time. It's absurd. I mean, yes, it's true that if you're doing Dead Hang cleans, you get skilled at doing Dead Hang cleans, right. So that doesn't necessarily mean that you can cross that over into something that doesn't look anything like a dead hang clean, just means you're learning the skill, you're going to coordinate all of the muscles that participate in that movement in a particular event. But the idea that, that it's a compound movement will then make you better able to use those participating muscles as as compared to isolation exercises, has no logic in whatsoever,

Adam 04:48

you know, you agree with that for the most part, right?

Bill DeSimone 04:51

You know, when he says compound movements, though I'm not sure if he's referring to the circus tricks people do. In the name of functional exercise, you know, combining a squat or,

Adam 05:05

I think what he's really talking about is just your real basic compound move his leg press chest press, I would say pull down, compared to leg extension, leg curl, hip, hip extension, bicep curl, bicep curl.

Bill DeSimone 05:23

I'm not really sure where he's going with that, because, like, what's the context for this? I mean, who is claiming that compound movements are you know better or making you more coordinated

Adam 05:35

his his whole point is compound movements are inefficient.

Bill DeSimone 05:38

If I compound movements we're talking about

Adam 05:40

he's basically saying function or compound moves are considered like functional movements, and that you need...