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
Inch by Inch: How Small Changes Transform Your Exercise 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? 3-8-6-4-5-1-2-4451-2412. Happy Friday one and all.
Speaker 1:My last podcast was the April Fool's podcast on Tuesday, and I was looking at the numbers and I saw, wow, this hasn't gotten a lot of downloads compared to some of the others. And I started getting nervous, thinking man, can people really believe that? Did they really think I was telling people not to exercise? Well, shame on them, because they should know it's April Fool's Day, or it was April Fool's Day. Well, today we're getting back to reality and I'm going to talk about one of my commandments to have a good exercise program, physical activity program, in your life and that is progressive overload. It's one of the critical things that we have to practice, or we really should practice, if we want to have an effective exercise program.
Speaker 1:Now, the best way to kind of tell the story of progressive overload is a legendary story from a guy by the name of Milo of Croton. Now, this gentleman lived at around 550 BC and he was a great Greek athlete of that day. Now, legend has it that when a baby calf was born, he started lifting this calf and putting it up on his shoulders and would walk around with it and putting it up on his shoulders and would walk around with it, and then this story peaked with him carrying this giant bowl into the great arena and lifted him up the stairs. So that is how the story has been told and in the exercise, science worlds, personal training worlds, gym worlds, sometimes you'll see these posters of Milo. So whether or not he really was able to carry a giant bowl on his shoulders, you know that might, you know, be a little bit exaggerated, but let's get the point of it. And you know what, who the heck knows. But the story tells the story of progressive overload because, if you remember, from just 30 seconds ago, the giant bull started as a baby calf.
Speaker 1:So if we are able to start very small and progressively work our way up, we can get stronger, we can build our endurance, we can work on our balance, we can improve our blood pressure, like. There are so many things that we can do if we start small and stay on a program of overload. One of my favorite clients of all time who passed last year, jerry Johnson, who trained with me over 25 years, always said inch by inch, anything's a cinch Cappy. You know he really got it, because there would be days when he'd come in and I'd say well, you know, we went up just a hair there, jer, and he'd say, inch by inch, anything's a cinch Cappy and we would go up. And then the next time we would go up, we would go up until we can't and then we would do something new. But the mind was always on trying to progress. Now we put progressive overload in there because there is a method to the madness. We know that if we just add a little bit more and most research shows that it's a five to ten percent increase then our body can take it and we won't burn out and we won't be doing too much. So there is a science behind it and I like to lump them together and call it progressive overload.
Speaker 1:Now there are some things we got to understand about progressive overload. First off, there's a lot of ways we can do it Like we can get super formal and, as I think all of you know who come to the gym and train with one of us knows we keep a chart on you and typically, when you've reached your upper limit of reps and everybody's a little different on that, but let's say it's 15, because that's a pretty common upper limit then we will increase slightly and again depending on your strength levels and the muscle groups, because the larger muscle groups are going to be able to handle increased loads not by percentage but by actual weight, for example weight. For example, you will be able to go up 15 pounds on a leg press and really not even notice it, but 15 pounds in the arm curl would be very significant. So we have to consider percentages and not outright loads. So once you have hit your upper limit, we will have gone up in that ballpark of 5 to 10 percent. Now that is one way to do it and it's a very effective way to do it in personal training and physical therapy, where you are really watching your clients and it's usually pretty early on and you're trying to make sure that everybody grows at the right pace.
Speaker 1:But you know there are other, less formal ways too. Now a lot of guys will go to the gym when they're younger or gals and they work out with their friends and they're not really keeping charts. They might keep an exercise journal when they go home they might jot things down, but typically you're not going to see the guys working out or the gals working out in groups. You know two or three people necessarily keeping charts, not that they can't, not that they shouldn't, it's just it may not be necessary as long as they're following the routine. But there is still in most of those circles most, I mean, I shouldn't say most, I would say in most circles of the people who have been doing it for a while and are pretty serious there is still a program of overload.
Speaker 1:Simply knowing what you've done before and trying to challenge that is overload. So when I was working out in the gyms as I was going to college before, I knew really much about formal exercise working out and nowhere close to know much about exercise science. We practiced. I practiced overload all the time, like I knew my limits and I knew. Going to the gym I'd say to my friends well, you know, I want to try to go up on this today. So there is always a sense of trying to do a little more. So increasing weight is a way to overload the muscles, to get stronger. Another way is simply by increasing repetitions. That will increase endurance and it will also increase strength in the long run, of course.
Speaker 1:But another way to overload is to increase the repetitions. So, for example, if you're doing a bodyweight exercise such as push-ups, such as pull-ups, something like that, or bodyweight squats, you can say well, you know, 10 has been really hard for me. Doing 11 is a form of overload. Progressive overload also enters into the endurance world. So if you were told by your trainer like me look, you really got to build up to doing 30 minutes of cardio five times a week, that's the general recommendation of 150 minutes per week that we like to tell people as a good baseline. But you're only doing 10 minutes at a time. Nothing wrong with that. You're starting, you're getting moving, but you're going to want to increase slightly each time you walk until you reach that 30 minutes. And, yes, it can be as small as one more minute, which is 10% if you're doing 10 minutes. So that is a way to overload your cardio. So overload is going to always enter into any serious exercise program when we want to get better.
Speaker 1:I did the balance workshop on Saturday. It was a good event, had a lot of great questions and some people there that you know really needed it and I went over overload with them too. You know, if all you can do at this point and I shouldn't say all like, oh, you should be able to do this, because balance is a serious problem for a lot of people and it's very difficult but if what you can do now is stand on one foot for only a few seconds with a spotter, if you're starting out well, we begin to overload that to get better. We try to stand on one foot until we can reach, say, 30 seconds. That is actually, for a lot of people, very hard to do, but we wouldn't try to increase anything else until that goal is met. In other words, don't try to pick up weights and do standing curls or standing side raises on one foot until you have established the fact that you can stand on one foot, so overload can be practiced in this realm too. Overload can be practiced everywhere and should be practiced everywhere, and really it's as simple as trying to do a little bit more, just a little, than you've done before.
Speaker 1:Now I said I'm going to talk a few different things. I'm going to give you a few different pieces of information we may want to know about overload. So the first one is it's essential and it should be progressive. The second one is it doesn't always have to be so formal. Formal is great in my business, like, we like to keep charts on things, and if another trainer works with somebody, we'd like to kind of keep everybody on the same page. I also like to do some different forms of formal overload with myself. Some I don't, some I just know what I've done before and I try to do a little bit more. But some I'm more formal on and keep records on, because I'm really trying to hit certain numbers, because I'm really trying to hit certain numbers.
Speaker 1:The other thing we have to understand with this is that there will come a point when you have peaked on certain things and you think to yourself well, what then? Well, what then is that's actually a good thing Like let's just take a couple different basic exercises. Let's take the goblet squat and let's take the chest press. Those are like two exercises that uses major muscle groups and are very effective. So let's say that the most weight you can hold while doing a goblet squat has become 25 pounds. I mean, that is a great amount of load to hold up near your chin as you're doing a squat. A lot of people can't even squat properly, even when they're trying to. And let's say you're holding 25 pounds but you can't get past 10 or 11 reps without your form going to pieces or you're just too fatigued. Well, you've peaked and you've maintained a nice level of strength, so now you try to maintain it because in reality, maintaining it is actually getting stronger, because guess what, if you're maintaining it as you age? Well, you're getting older and maintaining the same level of strength. So technically you're getting stronger, especially when you can add on for my age type of thing. So my point is don't get discouraged by peaking.
Speaker 1:Now let's look at the second one, the chest press. Let's say you got up to 80 pounds on the chest press and you can do 12 reps, and you continue to try to do more than 12 reps, but you can't. And some days you come in, you only can can't. And some days you come in, you only can do 10. And next time you come in, you can do 11. Next time you reach your peak, again you're at 12. Okay, so you peaked at that weight Again. The first thing you need to understand is that's not the end of the world. You are peaking at a nice amount of weight.
Speaker 1:You can do two things with that. The first one I absolutely advise you to do Stay with it. There's nothing wrong with maximizing your best load for your best reps. You can play a game with it and say I'm going to do it even better. These 10 reps are going to be the cleanest 10 reps I've ever done. But the other thing you can do is you can take on different exercises that are similar to that exercise. That's another thing you can do is you can take on different exercises that are similar to that exercise. That's another thing you can do. I mean, I recommend both of these techniques. Stay with it and, just to stay fresh in your mind, do things that are similar. So if you peaked on the goblet squat, keep doing it and then, on alternate days, do the leg press and try to peak there. If you peaked on the chest press, stay with it and then on alternate days meaning your other workout day try to do dumbbell chest press. So that's something else you can do when you have peaked.
Speaker 1:The final thing I want to say about overload is I want to play devil's advocate. Some people say, yeah, but I just kind of don't want to push, I just want to use the same weights all the time that are relatively easy or very comfortable. You know, can I do that? The answer is, of course you can. And the answer is also but you're not getting the most out of your workout. I'm not going to say you're getting nothing out of it, because that's not true. Moving is a good thing. Being in the gym instead of a bar is a good thing, in my opinion. But if you really want to maximize your results, you are going to have to try to push it to your best. I mean, there's just no way around it. You can choose not to and go. I'm happy getting less benefits, okay, it's not no benefits, it's less benefits, I'm happy getting that, okay. Just know, don't fool yourself Without overload you will not get stronger, you will not get bigger, if that's your interest larger muscles.
Speaker 1:You will not gain more endurance. You will not increase your tonicity, because all's tonicity is the muscles underneath the fat have been developed and you are now losing the fat, so you're showing that muscle tone. That's all it is. That's not going to improve without overload. All right, we always have to do a little bit more than we've done before if we want to continue to see results, because why, inch by inch, anything becomes a cinch, and it's well worth it. See you next time. Ladies and gentlemen, 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.
