Some people train like a machine. Judd Lienhard trains like a system. His system doesn’t start with muscle groups or reps. It starts with the nervous system, a pyramid of stress and recovery mapped over the week with precision. But here’s where it gets interesting: for a man who trains like a sprinter, eats like a sceptic and speaks like a philosopher-coach hybrid, nothing is off limits, including sugar. In Lienhard’s world, Metallica becomes medicine, breath controls biology, and sugar can be a superfood, if timed right.

You manage your training in a really interesting way. Could run us through how you structure it?

So, I structure my training around central nervous system (CNS) loading, basically. And then to recover, I focus on parasympathetic-dominant things. Even during the session, I explore ways to have my parasympathetic system take over a bit between sets or during rest periods — to lengthen that session and keep the quality higher for longer. 

Because if we get amped up right away — adrenals flowing, cortisol high — our CNS is going to wear out a lot sooner than if we can kind of undulate that training session a little. So take music, for example — you walk into a gym, and it’s just blaring Metallica the whole time. That’s going to have a diminishing effect. 

You do get benefit from music, but if your adrenals stay high the whole time, you’re going to need more and more of that stimulus to get the same effect — like anything else, like caffeine. So, play the Metallica a minute before your set and during your set. Then shift to something more low-key. Focus on your breathing. 

That’s one way I regulate the parasympathetic system intra-workout. 

How does this look in action? 

Across the week — I moderate CNS load. I have a system I use. It’s not necessarily the best for everyone, but it’s kind of like a CNS pyramid. 

So normally I start with an upper body workout. Total body works fine too, but upper body is a moderate CNS load. Not light — but moderate. The next day is my sprint day. That sprint workout might last an hour and a half — but 80% of that time is not taxing on the CNS. There’s about a 10-minute period where it is — the full-speed sprints, the intensive jumps — that’s the real CNS tax. 

So: high CNS load, very short duration. By the end of that second day, my CNS is taking a beating — but it’s not fried. The next day is my leg workout. Now that’s high and long — high intensity and high duration — so the CNS load is serious. 

After those three days, my CNS is fried. I have a hard time catching a football. I can’t track objects. It’s not a bad thing — but it means I’ve hit my limit. Then I don’t just completely stop. The next day, I taper back down — I’ll do something more metabolically demanding. Like high-intensity interval sprints. 

People think that’s really taxing on your CNS — but it’s not as taxing as a full-speed 100-metre sprint. It’s metabolically taxing — not neurologically. Then the next two days, I do very low CNS-demanding things: hip mobility, easy bike cardio, hiking. 

So I’ve fried my CNS, but I give it three full days to recover before I start tapering back up again. I used to try the on-off method — one high-CNS day, one low. That works okay. But I’ve found that your CNS needs more than 24 hours to recover. 

If I tax it all the way — or even partway — it doesn’t make a huge difference, as long as I give myself three days of low-CNS work. And that easy cardio, the hip work — it still gives me benefit. It’s restorative. 

So I don’t really have an “off” day — but I’m not crushing myself all the time. And even the workouts where I do crush myself — I don’t crush myself the entire workout. I base all my training not around body parts, but around CNS. So it’s a little different. 

If someone isn’t familiar, how would you suggest they monitor the CNS demand, other than by how they feel? 

You’ve got to find a way to gauge your CNS too. Something simple — grip strength test, broad jump — something that gives you a quick idea of where your CNS is. 

You might feel fine, but if your grip strength is off by 20% — you’re not fine. I use grip strength. We’ve got a grip dynamometer — very accurate. If my grip strength is below 180, I’m taking a couple days off. Sometimes I feel good on those days — like, “Man, I feel strong.” But I’m not. 

How do you approach the nutrition, supplementation and broader lifestyle side of this? 

So there’s a lot of conflicting information about nutrition. I’m always very hesitant. There’s no science that’s completely proven — I’m sorry to say this — that one way is better than another. 

There are cultures around the world that eat completely differently — and yet both have great results in terms of longevity. There are certain Asian populations that eat very high carbohydrate — they live very long lives. And there are other populations that eat very low carbohydrate — and they live long too. 

But there are certain things we can pretty much all agree on, right? I don’t do particularly well on a very low-carb diet — in terms of performance — but I do feel really good when I’m not eating a ton of carbs.  

So I kind of have to gauge: Do I want to be really strong and fast right now? Or do I want to take a couple of weeks to think more clearly and just feel better? And I think maintaining a very high-carbohydrate diet and exercising intensely — in terms of inflammation — may not be the best for people. 

So there should be times when we eat fewer calories, fewer carbs, and don’t just jam protein down our throats. Accept that performance may decline slightly for a couple of weeks — but it’s going to pay dividends for inflammation, heart health, mood, things like that. 

It’s about balance. And if you’re the dude who’s always eating very low-carb and always restricting calories — you’ve got to accept that your performance is going to suffer. I’m sorry — it just is. 

Now I’m talking about healthy carbohydrates here — but if you upped your carb intake for a few weeks, your performance would go through the roof. And I try to hammer this home for athletes: Protein is important — to a point. And then it’s not important at all. 

Then it’s carbohydrates. And I don’t care if you’re talking about athletic performance or bodybuilding. We need a minimum amount of protein — what that is, is debatable. Most studies suggest somewhere around 1.4 to 1.7 grams per kilogram of body weight. That’s about 0.6 to 0.8 grams per pound. 

I personally go with 1 gram per pound of body weight — just to be safe — but I usually don’t even quite hit that. And I know that if I want to gain muscle and get stronger — adding more protein isn’t the answer. It’s carbohydrates. It really is. 

So do you attribute it to improvements in training with carbs? 

Carbs affect your nitrogen balance. They make you stronger. They let you train harder. And that training stimulus — plus the nitrogen balance — is what leads to muscle growth. Not shoving in more protein. 

We can only synthesise so many amino acids into muscle protein in one session. I don’t know the exact number, but it’s something like 95% of amino acids get used for something else — or just wasted — not for muscle building. 

So we should meet our minimum protein requirement. But if you want to perform? Carbohydrates, man. These kids eating 300 grams of protein — most of that’s just being converted through gluconeogenesis into carbs anyway. It’s just doing it in a really inefficient way. You’re not getting any fibre. No micronutrients. Just straight conversion. And it’s taxing on your system. 

And specific types of carbs?  

Sugar — real quick.I always hear these parents say sugar is bad for their kids. No, it’s not, man. Sugar’s probably bad for you — because you’ve abused it your whole life. 

Sugar is powerful. It can be used as a very powerful tool — for kids, if you don’t just shovel it down their throat every chance you get. And it can be a powerful tool for adult athletes too — if we use it for what it’s for. 

The body loves sugar. It’s just that we take in so much, it becomes toxic to us. So if we go moderate-carb, very low sugar for most of the day, and then pick a time where our glycogen is low — then we take in sugar — sugar becomes a superfood. 

It might be the most anabolic thing you can put in your body at that point. If your glycogen is depleted and someone says, “You want a gram of test or a pound of sugar?” Honestly — I’d probably take the sugar, man. 

But we’ve ruined it. We have to stop demonising sugar and start using it as a tool. It’s like any other medicine — medicine can heal or harm, depending on how it’s used. So think of sugar as medicine. Used in small doses — at crucial times. 

Yeah. There’s a reason bodybuilders use insulin and stuff, right? 

Exactly. Especially post-workout, or during long training sessions — sugar might be the best thing you can take in. As far as high-fructose corn syrup — I hate that argument. People fixate on the type of sugar. 

But it’s not the nature of high-fructose corn syrup. I’m sorry. It’s the fact that it’s so cheap — and we consume so much of it. If you consumed the same amount of raw, organic sugar — it would be just as bad for you. 

It’s about amount. Eat less sugar — across the board. Then, after a workout? That’s not “sugar”. That’s monosaccharides. You need something that doesn’t have to be processed by your liver. 

I mean, that’s basic stuff we should know about. We have to get dextrose or glucose in after a workout. Fructose or sucrose — that’s not the best option.