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STEM-Talk

Episode 24: Doug McGuff talks about resistance training, myokines, strength and health

STEM-Talk

Dawn Kernagis and Ken Ford

Natural Sciences, Alternative Health, Science, Health & Fitness, Nutrition

4.7706 Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2016

⏱️ 95 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

One could say that Dr. Doug McGuff is one of the pioneers of BMX motocross bike racing in Texas. He built the state’s first race track, having gotten hooked on the sport as a teenager in the 1970s. The sport also triggered a deeper interest in fitness. As McGuff tried strengthen his core for bike racing, he discovered Arthur Jones’ Nautilus training technique and bartered janitorial services for a Nautilus gym membership. McGuff’s interest and aptitude for studying the body led him to pursue medicine at the University of Texas in San Antonio. He specialized in emergency medicine, was chief resident of emergency medicine at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, and a staff physician at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Hospital in Ohio. McGuff is currently an ER physician with Blue Ridge Emergency Physicians in Seneca, South Carolina. The other side of McGuff’s career is dedicated to fitness, or as he says—helping people never have to go to the ER. Realizing a lifetime dream, he opened up his own fitness facility in 1997 called Ultimate Exercise. The gym is dedicated to the type of high-intensity fitness training using the Super Slow protocol. In this episode of STEM-Talk, McGuff talks about why this type of exercise is better for the body, safer, and able to prevent age-related conditions such as sarcopenia. McGuff is the author of three books: “Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Training, Body-building and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week,” http://amzn.to/2fy7vKN (co-authored with John Little), “The Primal Prescription: Surviving the “Sick Care” Sinkhole,” http://amzn.to/2fLTBtl (co-authored with economist Robert Murphy), and “BMX Training: A Scientific Approach.” http://amzn.to/2fUhqPd

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to STEM Talk.

0:02.0

STEM Talk.

0:03.0

STEM Talk.

0:04.0

STEM Talk.

0:05.0

Welcome to STEM Talk, where we introduce you to fascinating people who passionately

0:10.0

inhabit the scientific and technical frontiers of our society.

0:14.0

Hi, I'm your host, Don Cornegas, and joining me today is Dr. Ken Ford, IHMC director and chairman of the double secret selection committee that

0:21.6

selects all of the guests to appear on STEM talk. Hello, Dawn. Great to be here to introduce our

0:26.7

discussion on high intensity exercise with none other than Dr. Doug McGuff. Yeah, it was definitely an

0:34.4

eye-opener hearing from him how brief, infrequent, high-intensity

0:37.8

exercise is relatively better for our overall health. This concept is counterintuitive when it

0:42.6

comes to the standard gym regimen of walking on a treadmill for 30 minutes and then lifting

0:46.3

a bunch of weights for about another hour. Absolutely. You know, Doug's approach is really

0:51.0

based on science, hence the clever name of his book, Body by Science.

0:55.9

In this interview, we also discussed myokines, among other things.

1:01.1

Myokines are cytokines, secreted by working muscle.

1:04.7

Myokines have both local actions within the muscle tissue itself, but also hormone-like effects that target distant organs.

1:14.5

Thus, they have an important role in the far-reaching effects and benefits of exercise.

1:20.2

Yeah, and I found it interesting to hear about how he transitioned as a BMX competitor

1:24.4

to an emergency medicine physician to a health and wellness expert too.

1:29.2

Before we get to today's interview, we have some housekeeping to take care of.

1:33.2

First, we really appreciate all of you who have subscribed to STEM Talk, and we are

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