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Blaine McConnell played college football, a year of pro arena ball, then went to the CrossFit Games, and spent four years on the US bobsled team. He's 40, he's still setting personal records, and he now coaches athletes through the NFL Combine alongside a roster of people who just want to move like they did at 25.
Which makes him an unusual person to argue that almost everyone is doing too much.
That's the whole hour. Asked where people go wrong, his first answer is that they try to run every protocol, every modality and every biohack at once, and end up failing at most of them. Everything after that is a method for cutting the list down: one to two priorities per block, a high-low week that keeps them from stealing from each other, a talk test instead of a heart-rate monitor, three recovery tools out of everything he has access to, and two metrics.
He also brings the receipts from both ends of the spectrum — a Combine safety who went from 188 pounds and a 4.7 forty to 208 pounds and a 4.4 in ten weeks, and a 55-year-old who needed two years to run a single pain-free sprint. Same system. The only variable was capacity.
If your training week has four goals in it and none of them are moving, this is the one to sit with.
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
- The reason your program has stalled probably isn't the program. It's how many things you're asking your body to get good at simultaneously.
- A Combine safety put on 20 pounds and cut three tenths off his 40 in ten weeks. A 55-year-old client needed two years to run 60 yards pain-free. Same system, and the difference isn't effort.
- Sprinting and jumping will make your squat and your bench feel better, and the reason has nothing to do with your legs or your shoulders.
- He has access to hyperbaric chambers and won't use them. What he does instead takes three tools and he'll tell you exactly when he reaches for each one.
- He takes 20 grams of creatine on an ordinary day and 40 to 50 when he travels. The reason goes back to a career's worth of concussions.
CHAPTERS
00:00 — Intro
02:14 — The biggest mistake: trying to do everything at once
03:52 — From college football to the US bobsled team
05:38 — Training for athleticism, strength and physique at the same time
08:58 — The warm-up as the entry point to athletic training
13:57 — The adaptation curve: why it feels worse before it feels better
18:44 — The high-low week: 1–2 priorities and how to sequence the rest
24:36 — Two case studies: a Combine safety in 10 weeks, a 55-year-old in two years
27:42 — Matching nutrition to the training stimulus
30:06 — Why athleticism produces the physique people actually want
34:16 — The cardio zones, by talk test instead of heart rate
40:51 — The bike protocol: sprint adaptations without the ground impact
46:15 — Recovery: red light, contrast, and what he skips
51:42 — Supplements, methylene blue, and megadosing creatine
57:20 — Bloodwork, the thyroid he almost missed, and the two metrics he tracks
1:04:07 — Where to find Blaine
FIND BLAINE MCCONNELL
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blaine.mcconnell/?hl=en
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Blainemcconnell
This conversation is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Talk to a qualified physician before changing anything.
