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
Confronting Fitness Challenges with Truth and Insight
Discover the surprising truth about fitness psychology and why your mindset might be the missing piece in achieving your health goals. Have you ever wondered why, despite knowing the physical benefits of exercise, sticking to a routine remains a challenge? This episode offers an eye-opening exploration into how psychological barriers, not just physical ones, prevent us from making lasting changes. Through a mix of personal anecdotes and expert insights, we tackle the common misconceptions surrounding fitness and highlight the vital role of authenticity and passion when sharing fitness information. It's not just about the sets and reps; it's about the thoughts and decisions that shape our actions.
Embrace the power of truth in coaching and learn how honesty can lead to lasting lifestyle changes. We discuss the fine line between coaching and training, emphasizing the importance of understanding psychology to create meaningful, positive habits. Hear why mature, honest communication is essential for both personal growth and professional success. Whether it's addressing eating habits or the dedication required in the competitive world of publishing, confronting hard truths can be the key to achieving your goals. Join us in this candid conversation about the role of honesty in self-improvement and the path to genuine success.
Welcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...
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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. We're on our 30th year anniversary. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most importantly, why things work. Hence, there is a method to the madness.
Speaker 1:Today, I'm going to talk to you about the truth, the truth that is going to make you fit. I'm sure I got you ready and anticipating. Before I get to that, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gildan of the Gildan Group at Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service and home sales. Why don't you give them a shout? Let's figure out what your home is worth. 386-451-2412.
Speaker 1:All right, so are you ready for the truth? Well, here is the truth. Just because you don't like something, it doesn't make it less true. Now, I could close there and wrap it up, but you know we really can't do that. I got to explain that a little bit more. You know I go back and forth, as you probably know, if you listen to the podcast often which I'm assuming you do, which I shouldn't make assumptions like that. So let's pretend you don't. So what I'm going to say here is that I go back and forth.
Speaker 1:I'll do like a real heavily physiology based podcast, meaning talking about the method to the madness of why certain rep ranges are picked, or you know, talk about hypertrophy and hyperplasia and creatine phosphate and adenosine triphosphate and adenosine diphosphate. You know all that nice physiology stuff. And those were just fresh on the brain because I was talking to one of my remote clients about those three things yesterday the adenosine triphosphate, diphosphate and phosphocreatine. Anyway, yeah, all that stuff is like really cool and interesting and I think when we learn more about what exactly happens in the body, we understand exercise and strength training a lot more. Absolutely has its place, but you know what? So does the philosophy of it, so does the psychology of it.
Speaker 1:And I noticed like when I check how certain podcasts are doing and role models of mine that do like you know real big time podcasts, you know they always say don't do that, because sometimes it's just luck which podcasts are doing well, and sometimes like there's a reason behind it. But the bottom line is they advise not to do that, because when you do, you start tailoring your message towards it and then you become less authentic. So I don't want to do that. I don't think that's good. Like I do believe I really know a lot about health and fitness and I think, more importantly than that, I love it Like it's it's my passion and I do it myself and I think it's cool and I believe it changes your life and I believe it makes you happier, fit, healthier, longevity, quality of life, all those things. So I 100% believe in it. So I don't think I need to cater to what people want to hear, because the right people will hear the right things at the right times.
Speaker 1:But I bring this up because sometimes, when I get into the psychological stuff like today's going to be about like, it's about like attitude and you know why we do things versus what we should do the ratings aren't as high. But it's like I never got that. I'm like I, you know, help me out here, you know listeners, maybe you know, think about it. It's like help me out here, you know, listeners, maybe you know, think about it. It's like why is that Like? Why do so many people want to be told exactly what to do, only to not do it? Like, isn't that funny? Like we can talk about. You know the physiology of things all the time, but if somebody's not going to do something, what difference does it make? You know? And I remember like one of the opening quotes in the sports psychology textbook I used to teach out of sports psychology class and the opening quote literally was to exercise or not. Exercise is a psychological decision. It's like, hmm, that's very true. So like we can know a lot about exercise. We can know that it builds bone density. We know that it burns calories. We know that it burns fat. We know that it strengthens the heart. We know it improves the pulmonary system. We know it improves circulation. We know it adds hypertrophy, some muscle mass. We know it speeds up the metabolism. We know it adds hypertrophy, some muscle mass. We know it speeds up the metabolism. We know it improves ADLs and balance. I mean, we know these things and everybody, for the most part, knows these things. I'll tell the story. I've told this many times, but if you've heard it, then fast forward. If you haven't, I think it's pretty interesting.
Speaker 1:I used to take students and go out into the hallway where I taught when I was teaching in college and I would never pick somebody who I thought was going to feel awkward, like they were being picked on because their weight or their how their fitness appeared. Because I would do that. Number one and number two, that doesn't mean anything. You can't judge a book by its cover, by any means. I would pick people, though that I thought you know well. Number one were they eating or drinking junk food? I mean, that was the first thing I looked for, and then I wanted to make sure they looked like they could take a joke pretty good, you know. So I'd go out and get one of them. I wouldn't tell them what I was doing.
Speaker 1:I say, hey, do a little, uh, you know, experiment in my sports psychology class. You know, can you come on in here? And you know, bring in your, your snack. And they're like, yeah sure, you know. And we'd come in and I'd park them up in front of the room and I'd either stand by him or I'd go sit at my desk or whatever, and I'd say, all right, so what's your name? Bill, okay?
Speaker 1:So, bill, let me ask you this Do you know that Coca-Cola you're drinking right now and that bag of Doritos is bad for you? And you know I never had one say no, they go. Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, I know that it's not good, it's junk food, and they laugh and giggle when I go, but you eat and drink it anyway. Yeah, yep, yep. I say, okay, you're done, yeah, yep, yep. So, okay, you're done, Bye-bye, see you, thank you, bye-bye, you know. And then, and then I would say no, no, no, you know, hang out for a second if you want to hear, and I would just explain how, like, people know these things, you know, but they do it anyway. So you know why? I don't know. That's the million dollar question, right? I mean, you know, if the if the how matters or not, then if the why matters enough, the how is not going to matter nearly as much. So we have to get to the whys, right? So I don't know.
Speaker 1:It's interesting that psychology is number one with getting people to change their lifestyles or starting a new positive habit, yet it's the thing people don't like to talk about. Who knows? But I opened this was saying, just because you don't like it, it doesn't make it less true, right? So that's part of this. That's what this main message is is that the people who really, first off, know what they're talking about are going to tell you the truth and secondly, the people that are going to tell you the truth care more about telling the truth. So those are huge wins right there.
Speaker 1:The people who are going to lie to you. You know either you know purposefully or they don't know better, or to lie to you. You know. Either you know purposefully or they don't know better, or they're manipulating you Like they don't care about what is good for you. They only care about either selling a product or, in their warped belief system, you won't like them anymore if you tell them the truth. But just because you don't like the truth, it doesn't make it less true and in fitness I see it all the time.
Speaker 1:Not everybody likes to be told the truth. Some people do likes to be told the truth. Some people do, but some people just will respond with the truth very negatively, like they could get defensive, and that doesn't do you any good. Like like, let's say, you're coaching somebody, and I oftentimes like to use the term coach over trainer, because a coach is more of a educator. They're experienced, they have the knowledge, but they're trying to help you get somewhere and they're using many different tactics to do it. Where a trainer like I, love animals, so this is no disrespect to them at all. I mean, if you know me, you know I love animals, probably more than people, but that's for another day.
Speaker 1:You know, but when you're training a seal so to say, right, it's, it's flat out stimulus response, like that's what we call, like operant conditioning or operant training. So stimulus response, that's training, meaning like you either use positive reinforcement, rewards, so if the seal, you know, does something stupid, you know like I don't believe they should be doing these things, but you know jumping up, or you know grabbing a balloon, or grabbing a ball that's thrown up to catch it right. Well, they catch the ball, they get a fish right. So that's operant conditioning, that's positive reinforcement. So you're conditioning the seal to react in a certain way. Or if they miss the ball, they don't get the piece of fish. So that's technically not to get in the weeds here, but that's technically not punishment. So punishment would be directing a physical harm or emotional harm. And God, I hope they don't do that, but sadly they probably do Again for another time. That would actually be called negative reinforcement. What they do is they just don't give the positive reinforcement. So that's negative reinforcement.
Speaker 1:Now, does that work with people. I mean, yeah, but it doesn't last. You can do that with kids, right. You can be like, okay, so, and you do have to do some of it. It's just an immature tactic on both parts, right, I mean, the kids are immature, so you have to use it. But it's an immature tactic because it doesn't get to the big picture. But you can say, all right, so if you keep, you know, back talking to me, you're not going to have your phone for an hour. It's like all right, I mean, and does that work? I mean, sure, for a while, right, and they're going to realize, man, mommy or daddy really means it. And I just, you know, backtalked again and I lost my phone for an hour or whatever. You know, I mean, in my day we didn't have phones and all that I guess it would be sent to my room was a common one or whatever. So that's like negative reinforcement versus punishment. You're taking stimulus away. So does it work? Sure, but only works so far.
Speaker 1:You know, eventually you got to get to coaching, you got to get to hey. This is why I don't want you to do this, because I care this. You know, I'm trying to protect you from this. Like you know, you come back, talk me and I get it. It's not the end of the world, but I'm trying to protect you from this. Like you know, you come back, talk me and I get it. It's not the end of the world, but I'm afraid if you do this to a teacher, you're going to get in trouble or they're going to you know, not like you, they're not going to respect you as a student and there could be consequence to that. Or you could say it to a stranger on a train that you don't know and they might hit you. You know, whatever you, whatever you know, you can explain why we do things and again, there has to be a maturity level to get there. I get it.
Speaker 1:But when people come for, like, working out, when they come to a trainer, I mean most of the times they're adults and if they're not, they're teenagers who you can reason with. And if you, if you keep it too simple, training them, you're not going to get very far. If you get to coaching them and talking to them and reasoning with them, educating them, hopefully you're going to get what you want and what they want. What they want is to get better and what you want is for them to get better. So you get a win-win that you can't get if you stick to very basic training.
Speaker 1:Okay so, but getting back to just because you don't like it doesn't make it less true. So a good coach, good coaching, is going to tell you the truth. I mean, if they don't, they're not a good coach, they're not a good parent, they're not a good teacher. They're just telling you what you want to hear, because either they're selling you something or they, in their warped mind and I say warp because I think everybody, everybody I know anyway, including myself has a level of people pleasing in them. But I think we know or you know, hopefully we learn that people pleasing doesn't really gain us respect and it really doesn't help anybody.
Speaker 1:So, like the other day, I'll give you like a little silly example. I was going to snap a picture of a client at a race, real quick, you know. They finished a race and the first thing they said was you know, right after they took it, is there a booger? You know and know if you people please them. I mean, I know it's a silly example, but you might go. Oh no, no, you're good. You're good, you know, because you think, for some strange reason, like they're going to be embarrassed. I mean, why would they be embarrassed? They like we all kind of get those things after runs and it's like you know well, I mean it's common.
Speaker 1:But like people, please, are just taking this example to the extreme, like, oh, I can't tell them they'll be embarrassed. You know you're not doing them any favors. Then you post it because you know that's what we do, right. And then they're like, oh, my god, why do you post that? You know so, like you're not doing anybody any good when you think you're just telling people what you think they want to hear. Like they don't want to hear, they don't have one. They want to hear they don't have one because they don't have one, right? So you know, we have to understand that there's a lot of things out there that we have to grasp and if we want to get better, as they say, the truth hurts.
Speaker 1:I mean, you might not like the fact that the way we lose weight is calories in versus calories out. I mean, that's all there is to it. It is that simple. And the people that are the most successful with losing weight and keeping weight off formulate a budget a food budget, a caloric budget, and they stick to it. Plain and simple. Nobody can get away with doing anything they want to do. Can some people get away with more? Yup. Can some people get away with less? Yes, but we all have a caloric budget that if we go over we're going to gain weight. If we go below it we're going to lose weight. If we eat at it, we will maintain our weight. It is that simple. Like, oh, rob, but what about the fat loss drugs? They're making you eat less because they're suppressing your appetite. I mean. So what? I mean, that's what they're doing. So people are eating less food. That's what they're doing. All of it is going to come back to that.
Speaker 1:Not everybody likes that truth. Some people are like, well, it can't be true so, and so eats whatever they want. You know, maybe I just need to exercise more? Yeah, maybe you do, but most likely you need to eat less. But not everybody likes the truth because they don't want to do it. But it doesn't make it less true. And the whole point of this psychological advice I'm giving you is is accept the truth of whatever it is like, whatever your sticking point is, whether it be you're having trouble maintaining your weight because you just don't like what the truth is, you know, accept it and then figure out what you're going to do to make it somewhat better. Right, I mean, some people would rather believe that carbs are the enemy. You know it's like oh, you know, that's not true. It's not all about calories. I can eat as much protein as I want and, you know, fat, I just can't eat carbs. That's not true. It all comes back to calories.
Speaker 1:The reason why people overeat carbs is because carbs are easiest to overeat. You know we had a funny laugh, haha. You know, in the training sessions at 7 am this morning. You know there's a few people that work out Everybody's in you know good body composition shape in that group. So we all kind of joke around a little bit and we're talking about oh man, I could eat soft pretzels till the cows come home. You know, oh, I could eat, you know, pizza till the cows come home. And that was me, by the way. Another person it was soft pretzels, another person it was cupcakes. So it's like, okay, nobody said oh man, I can eat steak till the cows come home. Oh man, I could eat loaded cheese till the cows. No man, carbs are easy to eat, so we overeat them. They're not evil, they're just easy to eat.
Speaker 1:If we overeat anything, we're going to gain weight. So we have to accept certain laws and certain truths. You know, some people are like man, I hate hurting at the gym. Meaning, you know, believe me, I don't believe in pushing people to injury, right, when I say hurt, I mean of course, no, but no pain, no gain, isn't really true. No, no, I don't mean that. But to grow muscles, the muscles are going to burn. You're gonna. If you're doing squats hard, your heart rate is going to be in your throat. Things are going to feel heavy. In other words, some parts of it are going to suck. Right, there's this guy that always says embrace the suck. I mean, there's truth to it. You're not going to get better without levels of discomfort.
Speaker 1:If you want to run faster and you don't run faster, hello, you want it to come easy. I mean that's super entitled, right. I mean that just is well, so-and-so runs. All the time it's like okay, whatever, like what's holding you back? Well, I don't want to run harder, then don't, but don't. Then wonder why you're not getting faster if that's important to you. And, by the way. I'm just pulling different examples out of my butt that come up Like you know, please, when you listen to this, if you really think it's about you, you know, remember you, the earth does not revolve around you. Okay, there's many, many, many, many, many people I've talked to on a daily basis, hundreds. So these are just examples that come up often with many, many people.
Speaker 1:So, whatever the situation is, there are truths to it and I have found in my own experience and I've done okay. I've done okay in the business world. I've done okay in the fitness world. I've done okay in the professional world. I've done okay for a lot of reasons. I've got a lot of help through the years. I never believe in self-made men, so to say. I think that takes a village. So I'm by no means bragging. But I do know a little bit about getting successful. Successful and I've always had to accept the truth of whatever it is. Just I don't like it. All right, it doesn't matter if I don't like it.
Speaker 1:You know I don't get defensive when people are trying to help me. I, why would I? That means I don't trust them. Like why would I go like? Why would they say well, you know, I don't think them Like, why would I go? Like, why would they say well, you know, I don't think you're doing this. Oh, yes, I am. I mean, what is that all about? Like, if somebody is getting defensive? What I mean, if you're getting defensive with somebody trying to help you, you pick the wrong teacher and the wrong coach, right, I mean you've got a problem. And it's probably not them. Because why are you getting defensive when people are just trying to help you? Right Again, younger people, students. I mean this isn't for them. I mean kids are going to get defensive, they get embarrassed, they get the you know whatever.
Speaker 1:But, like as adults, you know sometimes the truth hurts, man. I mean you know you can talk to your coach or whatever about, like, your struggles with weight gain and they look at you and, go bro, you're eating too much. What I mean? No, I'm not, you are. How can you say that so definitively Because you're gaining weight. I mean I'm sorry, but, but there isn't another way. I mean, unless you know, there's this medical condition where you're retaining all this water. I mean sure, but you know that's not what people are talking about.
Speaker 1:So you know, we get better by accepting the truth. I mean the most success I've had when it comes to stuff like that is to have a relationship where it's just can be real honest and I'll say to a person who I am helping try to lose weight. And I'll say to them you know, you're overeating, man. I mean, I know you think you're not, but well, yeah, you're right, man I am and I don't know how to like break this habit. Okay, there you go. Like that's the kind of dialogue that's going to help somebody. You know, because it's not a judgment call, you know, I mean people can gain weight, lose weight. I mean that's not the end, all be all. It's not a judgment call. Like I doubt any good health coach is going to look at somebody and go, oh yeah, well, that's disgusting that you can't reel this in. I mean I don't know anybody that would do that. So it it just makes no sense not to accept the truth, except for the fact that it hurts and you're trying to protect something but you're not trying to get better, cause the only way we get better at anything is accept the truth on things.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know, the truth of the matter is that you know, if I'm making my third book, which I am. You know, if I'm making my third book, which I am and I want it to say do well, I have to do a lot of work. And I have to ask myself, you know, am I willing to do that kind of work, not so much in writing it, but promoting it and then paying for that kind of thing? Because in today's book world, I mean, it's all about you know, who you know and how they're going to promote it. You know, do I want to do that work or not? I mean, I don't know. There's no other truth to it, though. It's not like oh so-and-so, you know, I'm just not lucky. You know they got lucky and you know my book's not doing it. It's as simple as the fact that. You know, am I willing to do the work to make it do better than I want it to, or better than the last one, or am I not? I don't know. I mean, at this point, answering that question, I don't know. I'm writing it, I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1:A lot of times I write the books for my clients, for myself. You know, if I wanted to do really good, I'm going to have to put in a lot of work. I want it to do really good. I'm going to have to put in a lot of work. I'm going to have to schedule a lot of book signings. I'm going to have to, like, go around and talk to all these local shops and ask them to put the books out, do a promotion. You know, I'm going to have to call up all my friends and the different rotary groups and go speak.
Speaker 1:Do I want to do all that? I don't know. I don't know. Don't know if it's worth the effort to me. See, but I can accept that and I think anytime we can accept the truth, you know, even when we don't like it. We're on the verge of getting better and there is no better garage door company in the state of Florida than Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, owned by Jeff and Zach Hawk, who are the best of individuals that I know Great people, great company, great doors, great service. Give them a shout out over at door.
