The Power of Early Resistance Training | Judd Lienhard

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (0:00)
Welcome to The Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Show, where cutting-edge science meets innovation and practical application for everyone. Today, I sit down with Judd Lienhard. I have to tell you, Judd, who is a former Army Ranger and a expert in speed training and athleticism, he himself is a former lineman, that's right, collegiate lineman, and trains and has trained multiple athletes, including children. I have to say, to date, this is one of my favorite podcasts, here's why. I think in this conversation in longevity and wellness and muscle, we talk all about strength, hypertrophy, force, and power. I didn't know that we were missing critical components to athleticism and longevity that can be taught in childhood, like tone of the nervous system, like mobility and stability and ways that we move our bodies through flow and things that we can do, for example, protocols to do if you are sitting all day. This episode was so eye-opening, I would just encourage you to listen to this whole thing through. Now, please join me in conversation with Judd Lienhard.
Judd Lienhard, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you on and I want to tell you why. Number one, you live an athletic and an athletes lifestyle. I don't know exactly how I found you, but I'm always looking and so fascinated with this idea of, how do we train to our ultimate capacity and how do we prevent injury? And then finally, which is probably why I'm so selfishly excited to have you on is, I want to talk about children and children training, which you do better than anybody, so welcome to the show.

**Judd Lienhard** (2:03)
Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (2:05)
Now, I'm going to give you some statistics, which is not, these statistics are not going to be shocking to anyone, primarily not you. 75% of children and adolescents don't meet the baseline physical activity recommendations. And I was looking, I think it's 60 minutes, five days a week. Gross.

**Judd Lienhard** (2:23)
An hour, basically.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (2:24)
That's crazy. Think about it. Children and adolescents, this is the time where you are bonkers. You have so much energy. You know, if you're a parent, I'm a parent. I can't keep up with these kids.

**Judd Lienhard** (2:37)
It's mind boggling.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (2:39)
They don't even meet 60 minutes, five days a week. OK, I got more for you. The other thing is physical activity, and there's some data here. So this is Avery Fagenbaum, and he is obviously like the goat in the space when it comes to producing literature on youth and adolescence and athletics. He says that physical activity declined starting at the age of, do you know it? Well, you know it because you saw the prep sheet. Six years old.

**Judd Lienhard** (3:08)
That's insane. I thought that was kind of a tie. I was like, there's no way this can be right. I was actually shocked by that.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (3:15)
Shocked.

**Judd Lienhard** (3:15)
Yeah.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (3:16)
And, you know, you and I were chatting before the show started, that children and adolescents are so different when it comes to testing. We have a ton of data in middle-aged, later life, adults. We have very little, if not, I'm not aware of any muscle biopsies with healthy youth. Are you?

**Judd Lienhard** (3:35)
No, no.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (3:36)
So we basically.

**Judd Lienhard** (3:39)
You don't know what's going on in the inside of the muscle?

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (3:40)
We don't know. And then before we kick this off, one of the most important aspects, and, you know, if I were to think about, who is a population I'm most concerned about? It's our youth. You know, when people are in their 40s and 50s, I love you guys, but, you know, get yourself together. And you have the opportunity to get yourself together.

**Judd Lienhard** (3:59)
Yes.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (4:00)
But if we do not do deep and meaningful interventions for our youth, they don't have a chance.

**Judd Lienhard** (4:06)
Yes, I completely agree.
You know, a lot of years spent working with kids, and it's, you know, an emotionally and physically formative time. It's an obvious statement. And there's little things that we can do that will make a huge impact.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (4:22)
Why children? Why are you concerned and interested in training kids? And by the way, you know, if someone were to look at your Instagram, you work with athletes, you know, kind of like spans the gamut. But I do know that you are very interested in the youth and why.