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
Use It Or Lose It!
What if the key to staying fit as you age isn’t hidden in your genes, but right in your daily routine? Join me, Rob Maxwell, as we unravel the principle of "use it or lose it" in fitness. We delve into the often-overlooked truth that it's decreased physical activity, not just genetics, that plays a significant role in weight gain as the years go by. Through the lens of sarcopenia, we explore how a decline in muscle mass slows down metabolism and how consistent exercise can counteract this. Whether your goal is to remain healthy or excel in athletic endeavors, a balanced and consistent exercise routine could be your most powerful ally.
Consistency is the unsung hero of long-term fitness success, akin to holding onto a $100 bill—much easier to keep than to regain once lost. We'll discuss the power of steadiness in your fitness journey, stressing the importance of maintaining what you have rather than fighting to recover it. The secret lies in continuously holding onto your fitness goals and efforts, ensuring ongoing progress and success. Let this episode inspire you to prioritize health alongside work, focusing on quality over quantity in your exercise regimen, and embracing the journey with dedication and perseverance.
Welcome to there is 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. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most importantly, why things work. Hence the name. There is a method to the madness.
Speaker 1:Today I'm going to wrap up our fitness principles by talking about the principle of retrogression. Before I get to that, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group at Realty Pros. They're committed to providing the highest level of customer sales in home selling. Give them a shout so you can figure out what your home is worth. 386-451-2412. All right, so let's pick up on the principle of retrogression, which means if you don't use it, you're gonna lose it. That is a real biggie. All of the principles are big. As I've said, I often call the principle of progressive overload the most important, and it really really is important. But they're all so important and anybody designing exercise routines or following exercise routines should really understand all of the principles. The acute program variables are important. Those are the things like the sets and the reps and your exercise selection and the load you pick and the rest times and the tempo. All of those things are important, but what do they really mean if we don't understand the principles? In other words, it's the principles behind all of these things that really dictate all of those things. So we it or lose it.
Speaker 1:Everybody blames genetics. They blame so many different things when it comes to gaining weight over the years, and look, there's a lot of variables. I completely understand that. I'm empathetic to it, but one of the biggest culprits of why people gain weight over the years is because they start moving less and eating more. Today, I'm really focusing on the moving less part, because that is the principle of retrogression. I hear it all the time. I'll hear things like oh well, you know, that young guy is so strong because he's young. Okay, that's part of it, but that young guy or gal is so strong because they're doing it. Because they're doing it, that young guy or gal could easily be strong as an old guy or old gal if they would have continued to do it for all of those years leading up to becoming old. It's plain as simple.
Speaker 1:One of the biggest reasons why our metabolism drops over the years isn't because of age. Old age doesn't just creep in and go. I'm going to take away everything that is good. That is not what happens. The biggest reason why our metabolism slows down as we age is because we lose muscle mass. Down as we age is because we lose muscle mass and in fact, the number one driver of loss of muscle mass happens to be called sarcopenia. That's just age-related muscle mass loss. We either use it or we lose it. Lose it Now.
Speaker 1:The studies confirm over and over and over that if you continue to exercise, and in this case, strength train, the amount of muscle mass you will lose through the years is negligible. It's very, very low. That's just a fact. Will you lose some? Yes, we are going to lose some because our testosterone levels for males and females decrease as we age and we will lose some muscle. But the amount we lose will be marginal if we continue to exercise all of the years leading up to older age. Exercise all of the years leading up to older age. This is the cycle we see all the time in the fitness profession. People will come in and look we're glad they're here, we're glad that they're deciding. It's time to get things back to at least manageable or better, whatever you want to call it, but they're back to kind of right the ship, and that is a great thing and the beauty of it is, once you start working out again, you can absolutely start to put the muscle back on and start to get the strength back and start to improve your cardio. All of that can happen, yes, but it's even better if you didn't let it go to begin with. Of course, we see that all the time.
Speaker 1:One of the questions on my assessment is do you have a regular exercise program? Most people say it's spotty. They say here or there, and they usually add I used to, or I used to play sports or I used to do this, I used to do that. I get it. Life catches up and a long time ago, you know generations ago, it wasn't really in vogue to exercise. Now it's not. That's not really true.
Speaker 1:You have physicians recommending and prescribing exercise. It's not just for the jocks anymore, it's not just for the bodybuilders anymore, it's not just for the people that want the gorgeous bikinis on the beach anymore. No, it is for everybody, because they know now the health benefits of regular exercise. So we know that, but it still gets kind of forgotten about with most people. Once they enter the workforce, that is what happens. There's a saying that I like that says there is no wealth without health, and that is so true. So if only people can realize when they start getting into their work they still need to prioritize regular exercise programming.
Speaker 1:I think one of the problems and I don't want to like totally go off from this principle here, but it's often why we have to talk about this principle, because it's a reason why people quit and then have to come back to it is the fact that many people think they have to do so much more than they have to do. They have to follow these really long, intense, grueling exercise programs, and you know that's just really not true. The studies have shown that 30 minutes of cardio five times a week is a great program, with two to three days a week of strength training sprinkled in there Quality strength training, like we teach here, where we're really focusing on intensity, we're focused on form, we're focused on doing things right, we're focused on going right to where you need to be. It doesn't have to take very long at all and, as a matter of fact, with strength training, oftentimes more is not only better but more is worse, because you can overtrain when you do too much volume. So we're trying to take all the excuses away. We're trying to get people to understand that it doesn't take as much as they think. But it's still a hard sell at times.
Speaker 1:But once people get to a point and they start having problems, you know, maybe they have back pain, maybe they have shoulder pain, maybe they have knee pain, maybe they have gotten overweight, maybe their posture's gone bad, maybe they don't have any endurance to do the things they want to do. All of that could have been prevented with a good, regular exercise program. Like when we talk about the injuries and the pain, proper strength training doesn't cause those things. It eliminates it. It prevents it from happening. To begin with, proper strength training keeps your joints strong, your lower back strong, your core strong. Proper strength training fixes the muscular imbalances you might have. That might lead to posture problems and pain. So really it's the thing, it's the way you want to go to try to prevent those things.
Speaker 1:But look, if you haven't, then we have to understand that the law of retrogression has gone against us. That is absolutely causing some of the problem, that we simply quit doing what we used to do and now we have some problems. Ok, so here is some pretty scary data for you on this. We begin to atrophy after 96 hours. 96 hours, that's four days. That's when the atrophy begins. Does that mean like, if you look like Arnold Schwarzenegger on a Monday, by Saturday you weigh 120 pounds soaking wet? Of course not, but atrophy does begin at that point. So it really starts to happen pretty darn quick and we always try to get that into people's heads that, look, you know, of course taking a week off is not a big deal. Of course going on vacation is not a big deal. No, none of those things are big deals. To understand the principle, to understand that if we've taken more than four or five days from our last strength training workout, we are going to begin to atrophy and that can be eliminated by just doing a little bit of strength training wherever you go, we often give people exercises they can do in their hotel room. It doesn't say you have to do your complete program when you're traveling. No, but you should do something because the atrophy does start to come on quick Now when I travel. That's not a concern and it's not a concern just because of that.
Speaker 1:I like to work out. I've said this before, I believe, on this podcast. But when people say you're on vacation, why would you want to work out? I guess they don't understand. I enjoy working out. Working out is great. Working out is like going to get a cup of coffee it puts me in a good mood. I love going to different gyms and checking out the gyms and working out.
Speaker 1:If I'm outside, I like working out in nature I'll do some cardio on the trails and then I'll do some squats on the trails and some push-ups and maybe some dips. If there's a nice wall I'm just thinking where I go often and there's this nice wall that you can do dips off of. We do lunges across this wooden bridge have to be in the traditional sense by any means. It's just resistance training. Find something to resist. That's what it is. Oftentimes. We can use our body because we can resist our own body weight. So it doesn't have to be super formal, but we do need to do it. In my case, I just like to do it because it happens quick.
Speaker 1:Now, after 14 days, our VO2 max begins to atrophy, so we start to lose cardio just after 14 days. So if you're injured like a runner, often unfortunately they don't have to. Running doesn't cause injuries, but oftentimes runners are a little bit obsessed about their mileage and keep pounding it on. But when they get overuse, injuries and can't run and they don't run for three months a lot of atrophy has begun. Well, not only begun, it has set in, because what we don't use we will lose, and they have to get all of that VO2 max back up with training. So it's really best not to get injured, so we will lose it very, very quick.
Speaker 1:One of my clients was in a bicycle accident just the past few days in the mountains on a mountain bike and they're okay, but they have some broken ribs and some other things going on and they saw the doctor in the ER and the doctor pointed out and said how fit they were because they worked out. So the doctor told them look, you're able to sustain a lot of what happened because of your workout routine, and they were going to admit her into ICU if she couldn't get her breath rate up to a certain point. But her lungs were so strong she was able to. So they said no, you're okay, we just got to fix these ribs to the best of our abilities and make sure that your pain is under control and you're allowed to leave and the doctor was talking about because they took care of themselves.
Speaker 1:I wish we could all understand that, and I love getting text messages like that because it proves to people what I've been trying to say. You know, exercise is strong medicine and I'm sorry, but there is no excuse for not doing it. If you don't do it, you're going to lose the benefits. It is that simple. The principle of retrogression will hit you over the head and then you're simply going to be sorry.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying you can't get things back. You can. But you know what? It is so much easier to keep something than it is to try to get it back. It is so much easier to hold on to that $100 bill that you have in your pocket than it is to try to go get it once it's blown in the wind. Right, just think of it that way. Just hold on to what you're doing with a nice, consistent program, no matter where you are, so you don't lose it All right. Now let me thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, the area's premier garage door company, owned by Jeff and Zach Hawk. They have the best product and the best customer service. Give them a shout at overheaddoordaytonacom. Until next time, be max fit and be max well.
