220. You Can Never Go Wrong Getting Strong

April 14, 2026

A lot of workouts leave you exhausted, but the real question is whether they actually make you stronger.

Dr. Andrew Fix takes aim at one of the easiest traps in strength training: mistaking effort for progress. Feeling wiped out after a session can be satisfying, but that does not always mean your training is building useful strength. He makes the case for more intentional lifting by choosing loads that fit the reps, taking enough rest, and paying attention to whether you are truly challenging yourself.

The conversation also gets at a bigger idea about capacity. How different does life feel when your body is prepared for real physical demands? What shifts when being strong has less to do with appearance and more to do with resilience, confidence, and durability? It is a grounded reminder that strength training can shape far more than what happens in the gym.

Quotes

“You can never go wrong getting strong.”(01:40 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
“If they were training for strength, you need to be picking a rep range or a volume, like the weight that you’re using and the number of sets and reps that you’re doing that is actually challenging you.” (03:48 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
“I’m talking about lifting challenging weights, using rest time in between so that you can actually push yourself so that you’re getting a different stimulus to the tissue, to the nervous system.” (05:52 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
“Injuries occurring from a weight training perspective are so much lower than in many of the other things that we do in life.” (08:52 | Dr. Andrew Fix)
“If your goal is to get stronger, you’re not really giving your body, physiologically, the best opportunity to do that if your training and if your load is not challenging enough for you at that given point in time.” (10:06 | Dr. Andrew Fix)

Links

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29112055/