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
Control the Controllables: Understanding Your Body's Natural Limits
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 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.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's talk about some more of the 10 commandments in regards to fitness. It is Saturday morning when you're listening to this, and the second commandment I'm going to talk about today is control the controllables. Or let's think about it in regards to genetics. What do we have control over and what do we not have control over? The famous Stoic philosopher, marcus Aurelius said it's insane to tie your well-being to things outside of your control. So, as I've said before many times, I've been doing this personal training gig a very long time. I've seen thousands of clients over the years and I can tell you that one thing that really gets in the way of people sticking to their physical fitness program is not understanding what is in their control and what is not in their control. People get really kind of frustrated when they start kind of backsliding or not getting to where they thought they were going to get because basically it wasn't in the cards for them to get there. So sometimes people see genetics as a negative topic, but it's really not. It's understanding what we can do, what we can achieve and what's very unlikely for us to achieve. But nowhere in this belief system or fact does it say you can't be the absolute best version of yourself. And there is just no doubt in my mind that if you're the absolute best version of yourself, you're going to be really, really darn good. So if you can just think about controlling all of the things that you can control, figuring it out, measure exactly what it is you're trying to do, and then you're going to be far more likely to hit the goal. My goal is for everybody to understand the beauty of proper diet and exercise and how well it can absolutely transform your life. It is one of the most important things anybody can ever do. So what I want to do is to always get people to understand that they can be the best versions of themselves.
Speaker 1:Let me give you a little story. So before I got into personal training, when I was basically a gym rat going to college, I worked out almost every day at a little hole-in-the-wall gym down in New Smyrna Beach. But I loved the place, it was just great. I loved going and I was really into bodybuilding. I was into working out every day building. I was into working out every day different muscle groups and so, speaking of genetics, I kind of do have more genetics to grow muscle and to get stronger. That is in my genetic tree there. So once I started working out on a regular basis, I started growing muscles pretty quickly.
Speaker 1:So in my late teens and early 20s I became kind of like one of the big guys down at the gym and I was going to Daytona State at the time. It was DBCC back then and there was a guy in one of my classes and his name is Kenny, a guy in one of my classes and his name is Kenny, and we became good friends and he looked up to me. He was a few years younger than me and you know, I started college a few years later and he was basically along the same line of me, where we were in college at the time, but he was a few years younger, I remember. So anyway, he wanted to get bigger and stronger and he talked to me about that and so he asked if he can go to the gym with me and I can kind of show him the ropes for a bit. I said, yeah, sure.
Speaker 1:Now, keep in mind I didn't know anything yet from a technical standpoint. I wasn't trained yet to be a trainer. I mean, I was working on my degree, I was going to, well, I did become a psych major and I graduated my first degree in psychology, but that's where I was going back then. But I loved working out. I mean, it was just part of my lifestyle and uh, but it's very important to understand, I did not have a scientific background yet. The only thing I knew was the old, you know, pass it on wisdom of one bigger guy tells another guy what to do and we, we just pass it down the line. And you know, I think that's, uh, you know, good for kids to get gone, but obviously it, uh, it's not a great situation if you're really trying to help people.
Speaker 1:But he would work out with me and Kenny was fairly tall, um, like everybody's taller nowadays, but like he was 6'2", very thin, real thin. And you know I didn't really understand genetics at all. I mean I knew what genetics were, you know. I mean obviously knew what that was, but when it came to strength training and body building, I didn't really know. I just figured well, if you're really skinny like that and you want to get bigger, you need to work harder. So we because there's a couple other guys I trained with who were, you know, the bigger guys I mean we would just kill Kenny in the gym. I mean we'd be doing these really hard heavy, moderate rep, hard workouts, heavy sets, rep, hard workouts, heavy sets. And you know we would, you know, quote make Kenny train above his means, basically by spotting him and putting all his weight on the bar. That he could barely do. And he was a tough kid, like he really would try as hard as he can, and we were really trying to help. I mean we're just like, oh, you got to do it, man, you know pushing this poor guy and he kept coming back for more.
Speaker 1:And you know the moral of the story is this he didn't grow hardly any muscle. Did he get a little stronger? I think so. Did he have some fun working out? Yeah, I mean it was like a good experience. Fun working out. Yeah, I mean it was like a good experience and hopefully to this day he's still working out. I hope he didn't quit because he didn't get the bulky muscles that he really wanted at the time.
Speaker 1:Maybe, you know, he, through his own learning, figured out that you know, genetics is a thing that he can be a stronger guy, he can have some muscle, but he's never going to be big. But he never really grew any muscle, you know. And now I look back and I'm like, well, you know, he didn't have long muscle bellies. That's genetic. I'm not really sure about his resting levels of testosterone, but that's also genetic. I don't think he had a predominance of fast twitch muscle fiber looking back on it. So that's genetic.
Speaker 1:And probably most importantly out of the body types for putting on muscle, he was an ectomorph. He was not a mesomorph. A mesomorph is a muscular body frame. An ectomorph is a skinnier build and an endomorph is a heavier, as in a propensity to put on more body fat. So he was an ectomorph, he was never going to really grow.
Speaker 1:So there's that story and I'm going to tell you one more because both of these are very important. That's an important story for the guys to understand Control the controllables. You know, a lot of young men want to put on big muscles and if you remember those old magazine articles where the guy was getting sand kicked in his face on the beach and it says, oh, do this. I think it was the Atlas training method, you know you can put on muscle and beat off the bullies, you know well, you know there there was that and of course that's not true. But guys mostly want to put on muscle. That's just a common thing. And, and the very opposite end of that, a lot of women are, and cross countrycountry guys and guys that are involved in weight-bearing sports that require you to be on your feet a lot and a lighter body type, are a little bit afraid of putting on muscle, and both of them are genetics. So one more quick story on that, because I do think we learn from telling stories At this same gym, at a different location, but it was the same gym I worked out at.
Speaker 1:I was there one day and there was a guy, big guy, and he was a big, big guy and he was running the gym that day. He was filling in and working the front desk and he was known to be maybe taking some illegal things and I think pretty much everybody knew he did which I'm not in support of, by the way. I think it was silly and I can thankfully say I never got involved in that stuff. But pretty much everybody knew this guy did and he was big and he was strong and he was watching the front desk, which to this day I don't understand why the owner would really want him to do that the owner of the gym, but he was.
Speaker 1:So a woman comes in who was a hairstylist from a shop pretty close to the gym and I think she was on her lunch break or something, and she pops in and she was inquiring about getting a gym membership and maybe if there was somebody that could potentially help her. Now this was in the 80s and personal training just really wasn't a thing yet. I think a couple people talked about how they could get paid a little bit of money in cash to help people out, but it wasn't a profession, at least not in where I lived at the time, so she wasn't really inquiring about a personal trainer. Now, that's just so common knowledge. Somebody will hire somebody at a gym. But anyway, she was trying to find out how she could go about starting a program.
Speaker 1:Now she made the mistake of saying to this gentleman she said now, keep in mind, I really don't want to get bulky muscles. And she says it, you know, in that way, and I'm working out, I'm looking over and I was like oh my God, oh no, because this guy was known to be hot-tempered, pretty much not all there mentally, and he just teased off on her. You know, basically a roid rage of you know. Do you really think it's this easy to put on muscle? And people go in the gym for two and a half hours and eat perfect meals and eat tons of calories every day and even spend a lot of money on illicit drugs to get bigger, and you just think by working out a few days a week you're going to put on muscle. I mean, I mean the rant was wicked right and I don't really know what happened, other than the fact she left the gym and you know he thankfully cooled down and walked away and who knows if the owner ever found out. I'm only telling this story because, even though it was a completely insane response from somebody working at a gym, he really spoke a lot of truth. He did not speak it in a very eloquent way and in a very nice way, because she just did not understand.
Speaker 1:She believed what a lot of people believe, which is that if they start working out, they're just going to either get bulky muscles and the reality is that, as I already mentioned earlier in the opposite case is about genetics, so we can't really control how those muscles are going to grow. So if, if you have the body type, like I said, a mesomorph, and you're born with more fast twitch muscle fiber and you have a pretty high level of resting testosterone which, by the way, women do have some testosterone, but they don't have nearly the amount of a male and they have or you have longer muscle bellies compared to shorter muscle bellies and longer tendons, then you have the four genetic characteristics to put on muscle. So if you're afraid of putting on muscle and you have those characteristics, well, there's not really a training program that's going to stop that from happening. You just have to make a choice and go. Well, I either don't work out or I work out and understand that this isn't such a bad thing. But the style of training is not going to dictate that. You could train like a crossfitter and you'd have big muscles. You could train like an endurance athlete, would train like they would think they would train to not put on muscle and they would put on muscle.
Speaker 1:So the bottom line is it's very genetic, as most everything is. You can get on the perfect diet program and perfect physical fitness program and you may never have washboard abs or a six pack if that isn't your body type and if you're not really designed to be super lean. Not everybody can be super lean and that's okay. You can work out all the time. You can be on the perfect strength program and want to join a strongman competition, but if you don't have the genetics, as I already spoke on, to gain muscle, and then in this case, if you didn't have a lot of fast twitch muscle fiber, you're not going to get overly strong.
Speaker 1:To the competitive side of things, if you want to run a 5k in super fast, elite times but you don't have a genetically very high VO2 max, it's probably not going to happen. So there are all these different characteristics that go into things, and too often you are sold a bill of goods on social media or on the internet that says if you just do this, you're going to take this amount of time off of your 5k. Or if you just do this, you're going to have washboard absk. Or if you just do this, you're going to have washboard abs. Or if you just do this, you're going to have big muscles. Or if you just do this, you're going to have tone muscles. And the reality is just how toned, just how big, just how fast, just how strong is largely dependent upon genetics. In fact, when it comes to the morphological side of things, meaning how much muscle we can gain genetics accounts for 50 to 70% of that. That's huge. And then, yes, the rest is training, but it is a huge genetic component to it. And again, this isn't negative. This is to get you to understand what can you do, because if you are really shooting for being the best version of you because everybody can get leaner how lean Depends, everybody can get stronger how strong Depends, everybody can get faster or improve their endurance All these things are totally within your control, and so if you control those things and didn't set yourself up with false expectations. You're probably going to stick to your program indefinitely, and that's what I want.
Speaker 1:The great Gary Jones, who I have the pleasure of meeting a few times, become a pretty good acquaintance. He's the founder of Hammer Strength Equipment. He used to always say that one is infinitely greater than zero. He was always quoted as saying that. He said it to me numerous times. So if we just get a little bit better even though maybe you're a young football player kid and you've got a dream to bench press 300 pounds, well, maybe, again, based on size, stature, genetics, it's not going to happen. But if you're currently benching 190 pounds, if you get up to 210 pounds, I mean that's great. That's, you just put 20 pounds on your bench press, you know. So we can always get better. Who really, really knows what they're talking about? To help you set your appropriate goals, so you can figure out what you need to do, and then you reach your goals and Pretty much research shows that success begets success. So if you are successful, you're going to stay with something. So perception is reality. So you know, you have to understand, you have to redefine what success is going to be. And it is so important from a sports psychology standpoint to set these things in motion for you, and I will leave you with one more story on that.
Speaker 1:When I was at one of my other locations, I had a woman call the gym and she was very anxious about coming in and talking to me about what she wanted to do, and I had no idea what she looked like. And this was back in the days of landline phones or whatever. And I just talked to her on the phone and she just said, you know, she had these aspirations to be like, uh, um, a model, basically a model for fitness. And you know her dream was to be on this uh, you know covers of magazines and stuff. And I thought, oh, whatever, okay, you know. So she comes in the gym and she hands me these uh, you know magazine covers, uh, what she thinks is the ideal body type, and you know what she would love to achieve. So you know, right away I'm kind of like a little hesitant and I'm like, oh God, I really have to put on my professional cap here and have a, you know, compassionate but honest conversation with her.
Speaker 1:Now she was extremely overweight. Now, that's not saying that somebody overweight can't achieve that, because I don't know her genetics. Just based on that, I have no idea. You know, in a lot of cases, people who are ectomorphs and mesomorphs the mesomorphs being more muscular, the ectomorphs being more skinny they don't get morbidly obese. Typically they will gain weight. So you know, there is that consideration and she was very overweight so.
Speaker 1:But I didn't know, and there's only one way to know and that's to ask questions. So before we proceeded, I just said, look, let me ask you something. What was your body weight and body type? You know, trying to get her to describe it in her words when you were a senior in high school and college age, because pretty much that's when people that don't really exercise or whatever you know, are going to be at their thinnest and, you know, closest to maybe their ideal body type. Not for everybody, like I think I actually got a little better older but you know, for a lot of people you at least get a really solid idea. And she basically went on to tell me that you know from the earliest that she can remember that she had always been pretty obese. So, right there, I'm like, okay, this isn't going to happen.
Speaker 1:And I had to explain to her that you know that's a different body type, that she can absolutely lose weight and reach a very good ideal weight for herself. There is absolutely there's no doubt that she or anybody can reach an ideal weight that is extremely healthy for them. That is very healthy and, by the way, there's there's no research that shows that being extra lean is healthier, by the way anyway. In fact, if you look at most longevity studies, it shows that it's really the in-between that tend to be the healthiest, especially later in life. That when you're looking at BMI and I don't mean to get off on this, but it's just important to explain that I'm not even saying to be the model on a magazine is the ideal, because that's not really necessarily what the research says anyway, it's just people build that up in their mind, but anyway.
Speaker 1:So an 18.6 to a 25 is a normal BMI, and then over 25 is overweight, over 30 is obese, under 18.6 is considered too thin. Now, yes, bmi is not a perfect, I get it. It is not perfect, but it's decent and the studies have shown that, like, under 18.6 is not healthier than those that are normal and in fact, in later in life the overweight in the BMI is actually healthier than the underweight. So not the obese but the slightly overweight. So, and think about it, it really makes sense from a frailty standpoint, but really it comes down to being the best version of you, right? That's the most important thing, and I'm not trying to knock on anybody that's been magazine cover or something like that. I mean that can be great too, but you know, everybody's ideal is different.
Speaker 1:But I had to have that tough love conversation with her and it was tough because I hardly knew her. But I had to say, look, I think you know I explained some of the genetics thing and I said, look, you can improve, you can get very, really, really healthy and really, really fit. Like, this isn't necessarily the gold standard anyway, like, but you know, this expectation, I think, is going to break your heart. You're going to work and work, and work and you're not going to hit it and you're going to quit. So why don't you change that goal to? You know, forget about all the magazine stuff and just think about, you know, again, one is infinitely greater than zero. So, you know, think about, I'm going to lose 10 pounds and I'm going to lose 20 pounds. I'm going to, you know, start strength training so I can increase my metabolism and get stronger, I'm going to feel good about myself. I want to increase my energy.
Speaker 1:Well, she took it very well actually, but she didn't really buy into it and I wasn't going to help her. I'm like no, no, no, no, because I really couldn't convince her to go in the direction of health. She was kind of more obsessed with hitting that and I think she wanted somebody to tell her she can do it with hitting that, and I think she wanted somebody to tell her she can do it, and I wasn't going to do it. I'm not going to take somebody's money and, you know, disappoint them like that. So, but she did take it. Well, it's not like she left unfriendly or anything. She just was like okay, well, I'm going to look into some things. So again, I close with that story to get everybody to understand that.
Speaker 1: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 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.
