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
The KISS Principle: Simplifying Fitness for Real Results
Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am 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. Before I get started today, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. 886-451-2412. Good morning and good afternoon my fine fitness people.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about one of my 10 commandments today. If you come to the gym, you know that we have our 10ments on the board. Now We've been talking a lot about them, how these concepts are very important for getting into shape and they probably apply to a lot of things. Now people look at them and they ask so what does this mean and what does that mean? And I like that. I really like that. People are interested and want to break down because naturally, when you just list something, I mean you got to see how they apply to things. So today I'm going to talk about the KISS principle and how it relates to why I picked it as one of the very important foundational things for physical fitness. These are the things that I've seen over my last 31 years as a personal trainer and close to 40 as a gym rat. You know these are the things that are really, really important.
Speaker 1:So the KISS principle stands for keep it simple, stupid. Or keep it simple stupid, or if you're easily triggered and don't like that word, even though how like people tend to use it isn't meant to be a totally triggering word. I hope everybody knows that. Keep it simple, silly If you want to maybe say it to your young kids so they don't walk around calling people stupid. That's not good. We don't want to teach that at the gym, right? So keep it simple, silly, all right. So what does this mean and why is this so important to physical fitness? Well, I think everybody knows what it means, right? It means that we don't have to overcomplicate these things.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm going to give you a couple different stories here that relate inside and outside of the gym. In the 12-step programs they like to throw around a saying that says you can't be too dumb to get this program but you can be too smart. And you know, man, if that doesn't apply to fitness and all these other areas of life. You know, sometimes people the old yeah butters, you know the yeah, the yeah butters know everything you know, but then they're not doing what they're supposed to do. But they always come back with this reason why they're not, or what they heard, and they like to get in arguments and they like to contest things you tell them they should do. Like I remember um speaking at a group once and uh was talking about um keeping calories to a minimum. If you're trying to lose weight, that you need to have a caloric deficit. And one guy kept raising his hands and trying to kind of like bait me into a theoretical diet argument, like what are my theories and should we go veganism or should we go more paleo and meat based? And all this and I'm like this doesn't have anything to do with what I'm talking about. But you know, and this guy was not the epitome of fitness by any means, he just wanted to fight. You know there are just people out there that just like hear things and want to talk about it and not do anything good with it. What I really wanted to say to him but of course I was not at my own event or I would have was you know what. You can't be too dumb to understand what I'm saying, but you can be too smart and you know what. I don't think you're really either right now, but well, he could have, you know, went on the other end, but you know what I'm saying. So, in any event, this is how it really relates to fitness.
Speaker 1:So when I first was working in my professional life out of college, I was working as a youth counselor at it was a local treatment center. It's now called Stuart Marchman. Back then it was Stuart Treatment Center I got my first degree in psychology and I really thought that that was the direction I was going in and I did. I mean, I use my psych degree so much now and I've stayed connected to that because I really just think it's so critical in our society. I mean now even more. I mean it's just there's so many mental health problems out there, you know, including probably me, I am sure. But in any event, I was working out at Stewart Treatment Center and I remember I was pretty new and I was shadowing this guy and he had been in the working there for a while. He also had his bachelor's degree in psychology. So he was one of the counselors as I was and I was learning the ropes, and there was a guy, an adolescent.
Speaker 1:I worked in the residential adolescent program and there was a young adolescent, you know, probably 15 or 16 years of age and you know thought he knew everything and you know a lot of young addicts and alcoholics do. It just goes with the territory for some reason. It goes with teenage angst too. So it's not that uncommon and I'm not picking on the kid when I tell this story, because it is just very normal and very common. But you know, we need to practice tough love if we're trying to model people into the right direction. So I sat back and I think the other counselor's name was James, if I remember correctly. So the kid was pitching a fit and telling James how he knew everything and he didn't know anything and he didn't know what he was talking about and he was just like ridiculing them.
Speaker 1:And now, keep in mind, these kids were sentenced there so they had to be there. It was inpatient and it was mandatory, so they couldn't leave unless they got sent to jail. So, like you know, if they really acted out or acted up, then they didn't get rehab, they get sent to jail. And they didn't want that, of course. I mean, some did, I guess, I don't know, but most of them didn't. So they had to be there. They're locked up.
Speaker 1:So James was getting ready to leave and the kid was just really harassing him, you know, and telling him how he didn't know anything. And finally James looked over at him and he said you know, here's one thing I do know, though he goes, I'm getting ready to go out of this lock padded door and I'm going to hit the lock behind me and I'm going to go home and I'm going to eat a nice warm dinner and then I'm going to get my very comfortable bed, I'm going to go to sleep and you're going to shuffle your way back to your room and your paper slippers and you're going to go to bed in a hard bed and you're not going to be allowed to leave until you've completed your program. So if you're so smart, why are you here? And I know that sounds mean, but it really wasn't. It really was trying to make a point that, if you know so much, you know why are you here. And, by the way, I remember this particular adolescent and I know he graduated the program and I know he turned it around and he was a very nice kid who needed help and it was that kind of thing, that kind of treatment of him, tough love, that helped him. And I can remember when he graduated they had a graduation ceremony that he kind of thanked the tougher counselors for basically calling him out on his crap and at that point I was one of them. I learned to be that way because I learned that it worked and I learned it's what they needed. And I've learned that I can apply this to my job now. It absolutely applies to what we do now.
Speaker 1:Like right now, if you go on the internet, if you're on social media or whatever, there are so many people overcomplicating this physical fitness stuff. And look, I've got a degree, a master's degree, in exercise physiology. So I know there's science to it. I absolutely know there's a lot of science and I'm interested in the science. But the thing is, once you understand the science, then you understand the real core principles and once you understand that to get people to do what they need to do to get the benefits of this exercise isn't that complicated? And when you go on the internet now, you get people with just enough information.
Speaker 1:Like, typically they don't have really the degrees, certifications or licenses to be talking about what they're talking about. What they do is they might read a couple books of people that do, or they just parrot other people. That's what happens a lot of times. If you've paid attention to this show, you know I've talked about that Only 20% of fitness influencers in social media have any kind of credentials, and that's from self-surveys, so it's probably even lower than that. I mean, you would think that they'd fill it out and just say, oh yeah, I do, but 20%, so it's probably even lower than that.
Speaker 1:So, but there's such a thing now that we call in my world, we call bro science, and that's these guys who like really think they know it all and they're like the you know the big alpha males who are telling people they have to do all these 20 different things when they wake up in the morning to get in shape, you know, from ice baths to breathing exercises, to this amount of meditation and this amount of reading, and then the gym is really broken up into these complicated routines. And then of course, you know you've got to measure your macronutrients down to the, to the, you know, you know 10th degree. You got to really like fine tune everything and it's just not true. And of course they're selling something. They're selling themselves, they're trying to make it seem like they know so much, and then they get clicks and likes and then they can solicit sponsors and all this kind of thing and then they can get paid on the Internet, people can subscribe to their channels and all this good stuff. But it really really ruffles me because it's not true and I'm very passionate about health and fitness.
Speaker 1:Again, there's a science to it. I know the science well. I understand the science well. I love the science. I tested very well on the science. I know the science well. I understand the science well. I love the science. I tested very well on the science. I still write about the science. But the thing is is that once you understand the science, we experts should be able to take this and make programs for people that are pretty simple to follow.
Speaker 1:Because, as this one guy said the other day, michael Easter, who I really like and I've spoken to him before, said you know the three things. We absolutely know for sure that we can bring it back and say has led to greater longevity and quality of life are. We know we need to move. We know we need. These are his words and backed by research. He's a researcher. We know we need to move. We know we need to are his words and backed by research. He's a researcher. We know we need to move. We know we need to not eat like shit. His words don't get offended and we need to wash our hands. I mean, those are like the three things that all the different studies can go back to and go like the blue zones and all that. You know where, the, where they have those cultures of people that live until they're in their hundreds. You know the blue zones. So, and then other research studies show that, like, if you eat a moderately pretty clean diet in his case he said, don't eat like shit. So if we don't eat McDonald's every day and deli meats and processed foods, if we don't do all that, we do the best we can to eat pretty darn clean not perfect and if we try to move as much as we can, as much as we're able to, every day, and we wash our hands. I mean that one's kind of obvious right Because of bacteria. That's where that gets thrown into the study, but that's what we know. So how do we get people to do that? Well, we don't get them to do that by overcomplication of exercise. It just doesn't work.
Speaker 1:Periodization so he's a PhD in exercise physiology or physical therapy, one or the other. I know it's PhD in fitness or in physical therapy, one or the other, and he's one of the authors of periodization. In the United States Now we took periodization, which is a training program, from basically the Germans and the Russians. They were using it to kick our butts in the Olympics in the 50s and the 60s and 70s and some of our exercise scientists got smart and said what are they doing over there, like why are they more prepared? And they found out they were using periodization, which is basically just changing different forms of intensity and volume, so people weren't worn out all the time.
Speaker 1:Now it can be very complicated. Setting up blocks of training, like we like to call it, can be complicated. But here's the guy that I went over to see and hear lecture and take notes and all this good stuff here he was the man who wrote the book and hopefully I'll never forget. But he's lecturing and kept getting all these questions from these personal trainers like myself, all these ham and eggers sitting out there, you know, asking questions, and he was starting to get a little exasperated and finally he just said look, people, people, periodization is nothing but change. It's just changing the workouts around. Don't get like too into this. I mean, here's the guy himself telling the people who know a tenth of what he knows about it to chill out and quit making it so technical. You know I follow a lot of sports, I love sports. I love baseball, football, basketball and sports.
Speaker 1:In the last 20 years, in the last two decades, there has been such a shift to formal training. It's gotten so complicated. Different strength conditioning coaches and athletic trainers and physical therapists that work with the professional athletes and the collegiate athletes, who are more or less professional these days, have really latched on to what we call sport specificity and that's basically a principle that states that if you want to improve at the sport, you need to train as specific to the sport as you can. That's true, that is a true saying. But what they meant was if you want to run better, you have to run. If you want to be better at baseball, you got to play baseball.
Speaker 1:Well, strength coaches have taken it into. When these players strength train, they should try to replicate the movements in the gym. So no longer are they doing basic like strength and conditioning exercises that you know seem to have worked forever. They're now doing these, you know, loaded bats and loaded balls and these cords and all these different things that they're doing to try to strengthen, like pitchers, arms or whatever. So if you're a data chaser, which I am, you'd go oh, so this must be working. Uh, no, we have over 50 percent more people on the disabled list than we did 20 years ago. Now you can argue and say it's easier now because of guaranteed contracts, I guess.
Speaker 1:But at the same time, if we're like, really know what we're doing, why are more people getting hurt? And that was the whole idea to make these athletes faster, bigger, stronger and more resilient to injury. Yet they're not. I mean, you know, if you follow baseball, starting pitchers really don't get out of the fifth inning anymore. I mean, these arms are not like they used to be in the old days. You know these guys were thrown and thrown, and thrown and you're like, well, they got hurt? No, they didn't. I mean they just didn't.
Speaker 1:They pitched long careers and they didn't get hurt because there was more common sense involved. They would condition their bodies in the off season like they were supposed to and then they would rest. And then, when they during the season, they wouldn't, they weren't overloading all of their muscles with more formal strength training when they also had games and practices to do. It makes no sense. So it's just a great example how we have overcomplicated our way into professional sports and it's just not working. So we know more than ever. We know more about the diet, we know more about exercise, we know more about the brain.
Speaker 1:Yet obesity is the highest it's ever been. So it's not about how much we know, and my belief is it's like, even though there's a bunch of reasons why people aren't going to the gym as much as they should and a bunch of reasons why people don't eat clean and people overeat, I get it, there's a lot of reasons, but one reason is overcomplication, because people are going to get frustrated and quit. They're going to see somebody say oh, you've got to do this, you've got to go to the gym and spend 90 minutes in there and you've got to train these different muscle groups every day and you've got to do your cardio in zone two. You know, have you ever tried to explain zone two training to a senior citizen that just got their Apple watch? Oh, it's a lot of fun, let me tell you, because somewhere in their you know setup process they heard about their training zones and then, you know, they looked it up and they sort of got an inkling of zone two. That's the latest craze, by the way zone two training, which is a low to moderate zone. Anyway, I look at him, I'm like, dude, you have been walking four miles a day for the last 30 years and you're doing fine. And you need this thing to now tell you what to do For the last 30 years. And you're doing fine, and you need this thing to now tell you what to do. Of course they don't, by the way. It's just.
Speaker 1:The point is that it is maddening that we're like having, we're thinking we're having to do these things, and it just is very, very unnecessary. Let me tie it up for you. It's very, very simple, similar to what Michael Easter says we have to move, we have to do our cardio, absolutely. The studies on longevity VO2 max say that we have to go out and move vigorously If we want to be healthy. We should try to sustain it, meaning do it for you know, continuous minutes of at least 10. Work up to like 30 minutes. Pick something you like. You don't have to use your Apple Watch to check your heart rate. Just go out, get your heart rate up, breathe a little bit heavier and move. We have to do that during the week.
Speaker 1:I don't want to say exactly what I mean, I prefer every day, but we have to do it. Next thing we have to do is we have to strength train. We have to lift things, we need to move our body. I don't want to keep going because I can go on this topic forever, but let me give you a little more facts on this stuff.
Speaker 1:Formal exercise is pretty new to mankind. It basically came out of the industrial revolution, because people don't move and work anymore like they used to. So now we have to go to the gym and do different exercises that replicate what physical work used to do. All right. So we have to lift things, we have to push things. That's strength, that's resistance training. We just have to do it.
Speaker 1:And one of the commandments I have on my board is know what not to do, and I'm going to talk about that, not today, but basically what this means is that there is a lot of correct ways to do it and there is no perfect way. Go to the gym and strength train, do things that you know are safe, move your body and don't eat like shit. It really isn't that complicated. You can do it, we all can do it. You know what? Stay off of social media. Just follow your friends, hey, and follow me, okay. Thank you for listening to today's show. I ask you to please follow this show on wherever you get your podcasts and also please hit automatic downloads. It really helps me and it helps the show. Now I want to thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, the premier garage door company in Volusia County, with the best product with the best service. I can vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. They are great people. If you need any help with your garage doors, give them a shout 386-222-3165.
