There Is A Method to the Madness
This is a podcast where I will be discussing all aspects of physical fitness. I am an exercise physiologist and personal trainer and owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs for the last 25 years. My passion is health and fitness and I am excited to share my views, some stories, interviews and much more with you.
There Is A Method to the Madness
Why Do These Particular Exercises Suck?
Why do some exercises feel like pure torture, while others are a breeze? Learn the secrets behind the grueling nature of leg extensions, squats, pull-ups, and chest presses in our latest episode of "There's a Method to the Madness." We break down how leg extensions engage your quadriceps in ways that produce that infamous burning sensation. You'll also understand why exercises might never feel easier, thanks to progressive overload, and how this is actually a sign of progress. Get ready to gain valuable insights into the mechanics behind these challenging workouts and appreciate the benefits they offer, even when they seem impossible.
We also tackle the complexities of squats and pull-ups, two fundamental exercises that many find exceptionally tough. Squats demand the engagement of the body's largest muscle groups, requiring impeccable form and increasing heart rates. Meanwhile, pull-ups challenge you to lift your entire body weight, testing your grip and overall strength, making them particularly difficult for beginners. Understand why bodyweight exercises often prove more demanding than machine-based ones, and why these exercises are key indicators of your fitness journey's progress. Tune in and discover why the struggle is a crucial part of your workout success story.
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Welcome to. There's a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell, I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I'm the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs and I've been in business since 1994. That is 30 years this year. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most importantly, why things work, or why may things not work Today. I think you're going to find the podcast interesting, as you do, hopefully, every time. I'm going to talk about why certain exercises just suck. All right, before I get to that, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gildan of the Gildan Group at Realty Pros. They are, and their team are, committed to providing the highest level of customer service and home selling and they have the sales and the reviews to back it up. Give them a shout. For any real estate needs 386-451-2412.
Speaker 1:All right, so if you hear any background noise today, like maybe a supersonic fan going off, I don't know how it's going to come across on the microphone, but it's very possible because, as usual in our building here, we're having an ac issue and, uh, it gets up to like 88 degrees in here when it is going on. We have an ac guy that is affiliated with the organization I rent from and he is simply phenomenal. Like he is here busting his butt, trying to do all he can to fix it temporarily until they come up with more of a permanent fix when they can get the parts that they need. So he has put in like a little mini floor unit and he figured a way to get the exhaust pipe going out. I mean, this guy worked his butt off today so I appreciate him. But in any event, I have that going on in the main gym area where people need it, because as I sit in here in my office, I don't think I need the AC as much as the hardworking people out there working out. So I have a nice cyclone fan trying to blow that cool air in here, so it doesn't reach 100 degrees as I do.
Speaker 1:This podcast. All right, more information than you probably asked for, but now you know why. You might hear some background noise. So why do some exercises just suck? You know to think of a few that commonly come up. We've got the old leg extension that has to be on our Mount Rushmore of exercise that suck. I think we have to throw in the great squat exercise as an exercise that just sucks, no matter how fit we get. Other notable ones that come up often for people would be a pull-up or any kind of pulling down exercise sucks. And then, of course, many women will say that chest press or pressing motions, especially horizontally, suck. All right, so let's talk about why they do, and when I say that I mean hopefully you know that they suck because they're hard and there's things that make them suck, but doing them of course, doesn't suck. I mean we need to do all of those exercises I just mentioned in some way shape or form, but like, why do some just burn more? Why are some just so hard for people? So let's talk about that.
Speaker 1:All right, let's start with the old leg extension. I think that might be number one on Mount Rushmore, of exercises that people just will say over and over and over Does this ever get easier? Why is this so hard? Why does this burn so bad? All right, so let me tackle all three of those questions that come up with the leg extension.
Speaker 1:Number one sure it can get easier if you go back to using the very same weight you used when you first began and you do the same reps when you first began. Hopefully it now is easy, right, but we don't want to do that. So, for example, let's say you are a mature trainee, meaning you've been training for a couple of years and you have built your leg extension up to like 130 pounds. That's a lot of weight and when you first started maybe you were using 50 pounds because that's where you were with your strength levels. So if you did 130 pounds and you did it 12 times at your peak and you go back and do the 50 pounds for 12 reps, like you did on your first day, well, yeah, that isn't going to suck, right? You're not going to get any of the responses that you got early on or you would now with the 130 pounds. Sadly, you won't get the adaptations either, meaning you won't get any of the changes that come with it. So the overall answer to question one is no. It's never going to get easy, because as you get stronger, as you get more fit, we're supposed to overload either the load or the reps to continue to make it hard. I mean, that's just the point. It's not supposed to get easier. You're supposed to have the same level of suckiness per se, but now it's suckiness at a much higher weight or higher rep, all right.
Speaker 1:Question two why is it so hard? I don't remember what order I asked these in. Let's just go with that one. Let's just go with that one, all right. So it's hard because the quadriceps are among the largest muscle groups in the body. The quadriceps are big, they're big, big, big. They're a very big muscle. There are four of them. Right, you've got the vastus medialis, the vastus intermedialis, the rectus femoris and the vastus lateralis. So you have four muscles there and they're long and they're also connected to the sartorius, which is the longest muscle in the body. So there's a lot of muscle tissue that you're using when you're doing a leg extension. So anytime you're using more muscle, the exercise is going to be harder, all right.
Speaker 1:Now, third question, again, whatever order, why does it burn so bad? Like that's the thing with the leg extension. That makes it uniquely harder than probably every other exercise. Because it's a large muscle group and, to answer the question, it is an isolation exercise, meaning there's no other muscle groups that assist. The hamstrings can't help, the glutes can't help, the calves can't help, it's pure quad. So it's isolating those muscles and it's isolating the largest muscles or among the largest muscles in the body.
Speaker 1:So when you're going through the movement, our body produces lactic acid as we continue to exercise anaerobically. That is, the byproduct of anaerobic metabolism is lactic acid. So as you continue to go through the set meaning the set is longer you're going to produce more and more and more lactic acid until you reach what we call momentary muscular failure. Then you can't move anymore and you're going to have the peak amount of lactic acid just before that happens. As a matter of fact, that is one of the limiters to anaerobic metabolism. So you're doing an isolation exercise where you're only using your quads, you're using among the largest muscle groups in the body and you're going to failure. That's going to equate to hard and burn. That's why it burns so bad.
Speaker 1:So, like, take another exercise like the biceps. Okay, so the biceps are done primarily with a curl or an isolation exercise, so they're going to burn too. If the set is long enough to where you start to reach anaerobic metabolism, meaning that you are long enough in the set, like, if you do a 10 second set, for example, a power set, you're not going to produce a lot of lactic acid. So if the set is longer than anything, you're going to produce lactic acid. But the biceps aren't very big compared to the quadriceps, so you might get some burn, but you're not going to nearly have the production of lactic acid that you are going to have when you do a leg extension. You're just not going to have as much. There's just not going to be as many millimoles of lactic acid in the muscles like you're going to have with a leg extension.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's move on to our other exercises on the Mount Rushmore of exercises that suck. All right, the squat. I listed the squat. I mean the squat can be a really really tough exercise.
Speaker 1:Now, for reasons other than isolation and burn and fatigue, the squat's going to be a really really tough exercise Because, again, you're using the largest muscle groups in the body. So now you're using the quads, as I already mentioned, you're using the hamstring muscles and you're using your gluteal muscles. So now you're using all three of the largest muscle groups in the body. And also characteristically with the squat is you're going through a long full range of motion if you're going down to 90 degrees. So you're going all the way down to 90 degrees, which is a pretty long, long way down right, and you're using your largest muscle groups. You're probably not going to have the kind of lactic acid burn that you're going to get in an isolation exercise like the leg extension, because the lactic acid is going to be dibbied up among different muscle groups so you're not going to feel the primary fatigue in one area, but your heart rate is is gonna get so much higher because we're using all three of the largest muscle groups in the body and we're moving dynamically, meaning up and down, so we're gonna get our heart rate up, especially if we're doing higher repetitions. And now take into consideration that you have to hold really good form with your spine to make sure everything is good. So that also makes it hard.
Speaker 1:But the number one reason why the squats suck per se is because of the largest muscle groups being used and the full range of motion being used. Doing higher reps. It simply accelerates your heart rate. For example, if you go to different styles of, say, conditioning where doing calisthenics to get the heart rate up, because there's not going to be any formal aerobic training, the air squat is going to be used traditionally, meaning a bodyweight squat without weight, to get the heart rate up. So it's a tool that is used for that. Now you add weight to it, the heart rate up. So it's a tool that is used for that. Now you add weight to it, you add a load and you add form into it. It makes the exercise really hard, like everything. Sure, you can make it easier, you can take load off, you cannot do as many reps, you cannot go down as low, but we all know where that's going to get us and that is not as far down the road as we want to be. So obviously, as some of the endurance athletes say, you just have to embrace the suck. It's going to suck, but it's good for me and I'm going to do it All right. So now here's another one Pull-ups.
Speaker 1:Why are they so hard? So pull-ups are hard because you are literally pulling your entire body weight, 100% of your body weight, up as repetition. So think about this If you walk into a gym and let's say you weigh 150 pounds whether you're male or female, I don't care, weigh 150 pounds you walk into a gym, a traditional big box gym, and you go back to the pull-down machine, can you put it on 150 pounds, your body weight, and do a rep? I mean, most people are going to say no, right. In other words, most people are going to say no, I can't put that pin on my body weight and do a rep. Well, that's what you're doing when you're doing a pull-up or a chin-up. You're pulling all of your weight, so you're pulling 100% of your weight up for load. That's not easy for most people. And then you have to add into the fact you have to actually grip the bar, which is also challenging because not everybody has super strong grip strength. I will say it's important to work on your grip strength, but a lot of people just don't have a lot of grip strength, so that makes it hard. So in the case of the pull-up, they suck because it's just math. You are pulling 100% of your weight up and for most people that is very, very tough. Most people cannot do a pull-up. It is a very hard exercise to do. That's why oftentimes I will play devil's advocate when people say well, you know, I'm going to have them.
Speaker 1:Start with body weight exercises. You know that's easier, safer. I'm thinking there's nothing easier about bodyweight exercises. Like, you're always using roughly 100% of your weight when you're doing a bodyweight exercise. So, for example, if you're doing a pull down at the gym, most people are using, especially when you start out, around 25 to 30% of their body weight. So you know that's not heavy in comparison to 100% right Now. In a squat too, now you're pushing all of your body weight up even without load. But if you go on a leg press and put it on, say, 50 pounds, well now you're only doing 25% of your body weight. So body weight exercises traditionally are not easier, right, and that's why I don't like it.
Speaker 1:When I hear you know physicians some, most of them know better now but will say to the parents oh, you know, the kids shouldn't do that because they should stick with body weight. I'm like body weight's hard, you know, I know what they mean. They should stick with lighter loads and things they can handle, of course, of course, but you got to say that you really can't say stick the body weight exercises. Like a young kid would be far better off to sit down in a chair with three pound dumbbells and do curls than they ever would, of course, to try a pull up, right, and that goes for all the exercises Like even a pushup itself. If you're doing a regular pushup you're doing 70% of your body weight. That's hard for most people. I mean, most people can't bench press 150 pounds, right? So if you have a person doing a push-up, that means that they've got to bench somewhere a little bit over 100 pounds by doing that, and that's not easy for most people. If you're doing a modified push-up, that's still 50% of the body weight. So I think I made my point. They're not as easy as they sound. Pull-up is one of the hardest exercises anybody can ever do. That's why I use them in the MaxFit Games. Our game's coming up in August. Every year we do a version of a pull-up because it's hard, because it really does test your level of strength, conditioning and fitness. All right, so that's three on the Mount Rushmore of exercises that suck.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk about the old chest press. Well, guys typically don't complain about it because guys love to work their chest. You know I make the joke all the time. I didn't. I didn't start it. Everybody knows if they follow gym, talk, whatever, everywhere that you know men are picked on a lot for only working their chest and their biceps and their calves. You know, it's kind of the running joke. It's like on a Monday you'll see a man on the bench press and then at the mirror with the curls and then maybe finishing off with some cats. So that's sort of the running joke, but there's a lot of truth to it. Like guys just I don't know growing up taught to bench press as kids, like it's almost like a, an ego thing. You know, you got to go to the top of the jungle be able to bench press. You know, hey, how much can you bench? I mean, people talk about it in school and grade school. So you know it is what it is.
Speaker 1:But it is also there's a lot of truth to it that men do a lot of pushing exercises. That's one reason. So men don't complain, because it's easier for them. It's an easier motion because they're more used to it. Now, a big reason why it's harder for women is because women only have 50% of the musculature in that region, right? So you don't really have the pec muscles that men have. I mean, it's obviously filled up with different kinds of tissue there and women are traditionally 50% weaker in the upper body than men and 30% weaker in the lower body. So when it comes to pushing motions, one, they don't do a lot because they don't have that same jungle call to do bench presses in their classes growing up. And two, they don't have the musculature, so it is going to be a harder exercise. The muscle tissue isn't there as much and they're simply not used to doing it as much and it's not a priority. So it is going to be a harder exercise, which is why a lot of times people will say I just hate that chest press back there, I don't want to do it, you know, because it's one of those it just feels defeating. But like all of them, it is great to do right. I mean, obviously this goes without saying. If people have injuries they have to stay away from certain things. But like all in all, the mountain rush, more of exercises that suck are so good for us in so many ways. But now I hope you have an understanding of why they might be hard and why they may be harder for some people more than others.
Speaker 1:Alright, so now let me thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach. They're the area's best garage door company. They are simply the best service, simply the best in their products and production, and we are fortunate to have Zach and Jeff Hawk, the owners, here locally. If you have any garage door needs, check them out. Great people, great, great, great people. You can reach them at overheaddoordaytonacom. Please remember to download these episodes. It helps us in our numbers. Please share them to your social media. Please text them to your friends like I text them to you. And until next time, be max fit, be max well.
