Mike Israetel

You're kind of in the wrong place. We get almost all the benefits from pushing either very heavy loads or lighter loads, but very close to muscular failure, which people have described as unpleasant. A burn in the muscle, a lot of pain, the weights slow down, so it takes a lot of psychological effort to keep going.

There is not really an equivalent of just getting on the bike and putting in the miles. Getting to a pace where zone two, you can breathe, you can talk a little bit still, that's not weight training. But precisely because weight training is so intensive,

There is not really an equivalent of just getting on the bike and putting in the miles. Getting to a pace where zone two, you can breathe, you can talk a little bit still, that's not weight training. But precisely because weight training is so intensive,

You need lots of recovery time between sessions, and you can do lots of disruption and damage in each session, and also the total yield and how much it changes your physiology is very high for each session, and actually per unit time. And that means if you're not working super hard per any one unit time, you're going to need a lot of work. That's endurance training.

You need lots of recovery time between sessions, and you can do lots of disruption and damage in each session, and also the total yield and how much it changes your physiology is very high for each session, and actually per unit time. And that means if you're not working super hard per any one unit time, you're going to need a lot of work. That's endurance training.

If you're working insanely hard per unit time, you won't need a lot of work, nor can you recover from that much work. Which is why the top end is 8 or 10 hours or something for even professional bodybuilders of time spent in the gym every week. But for people that just want the basic benefits, yeah, we're talking about an hour or two hours a week.

If you're working insanely hard per unit time, you won't need a lot of work, nor can you recover from that much work. Which is why the top end is 8 or 10 hours or something for even professional bodybuilders of time spent in the gym every week. But for people that just want the basic benefits, yeah, we're talking about an hour or two hours a week.

And that's really all you need if you're pushing sufficiently hard. That's both all you need and realistically, you can recover from more if you make time in your schedule and really prioritize recovery.

And that's really all you need if you're pushing sufficiently hard. That's both all you need and realistically, you can recover from more if you make time in your schedule and really prioritize recovery.

I would say there are two other things that can be put into that equation. One is the physical forces are just much higher in magnitude. You're going to be putting a lot of tension through your connective tissues and through your muscles when you're resistance training than you are when you're doing bicycle work, for example.

I would say there are two other things that can be put into that equation. One is the physical forces are just much higher in magnitude. You're going to be putting a lot of tension through your connective tissues and through your muscles when you're resistance training than you are when you're doing bicycle work, for example.

And so with high absolute forces, the proximate damage and disruption to the body is graded exponentially and not linearly. It's like if a wiffle ball flies past you, you might not even hear it. If a 50 caliber bullet flies past you, it's going to tear parts of you off and it's never even touched you. Very, very different amount of damage from much, much higher forces.

And so with high absolute forces, the proximate damage and disruption to the body is graded exponentially and not linearly. It's like if a wiffle ball flies past you, you might not even hear it. If a 50 caliber bullet flies past you, it's going to tear parts of you off and it's never even touched you. Very, very different amount of damage from much, much higher forces.

And the other one is some combination of neural and psychological drive. The kind of drive it requires to be good at endurance, at least the base building part, the aerobic base work that you do, is kind of being in a state of calm equanimity. You get your flow going, you get your music going, you get your breathing going, you look at the road ahead of you, and you can just crank.

And the other one is some combination of neural and psychological drive. The kind of drive it requires to be good at endurance, at least the base building part, the aerobic base work that you do, is kind of being in a state of calm equanimity. You get your flow going, you get your music going, you get your breathing going, you look at the road ahead of you, and you can just crank.

But in lifting, you have to turn up the juice to really feel the maximum situation. Another quick analogy offhand is if you are a trillionaire like I am, and you have a fleet of Cessna private aircraft at your beck and call. I never fly the same plane twice. I always crash the thing. You fly a Cessna, you can fly it for some time.

But in lifting, you have to turn up the juice to really feel the maximum situation. Another quick analogy offhand is if you are a trillionaire like I am, and you have a fleet of Cessna private aircraft at your beck and call. I never fly the same plane twice. I always crash the thing. You fly a Cessna, you can fly it for some time.

It requires a decent amount of maintenance, but decent amount of maintenance and it'll fly for a long time. It's just never getting up to velocities that are really crazy. You take an SR-71 Blackbird out for a spin at Mach 3, you have to do 10 times the number of maintenance hours per flight hour on that thing or something to that magnitude.

It requires a decent amount of maintenance, but decent amount of maintenance and it'll fly for a long time. It's just never getting up to velocities that are really crazy. You take an SR-71 Blackbird out for a spin at Mach 3, you have to do 10 times the number of maintenance hours per flight hour on that thing or something to that magnitude.

Because at Mach 3, what's happening to the plane is just running through subsequent brick walls. That's what the sound barrier is like. Three times faster than the sound barrier, you're just rattling that thing into dust. That's what you're trying to do to it.