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
Progress Over Perfection: Breaking the Workout Paralysis
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. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening.
Speaker 1:Whenever you are listening to this, coach Rob here to talk to you about some health and fitness things. That's always the objective of this podcast is to kick around different ideas, help you get motivated, help you do what you need to do, help you try to get the roadblocks out of your way so we can all enjoy a healthy and active lifestyle. Only 25% of our country is doing it. 75% of our people in this country are not on the sustainable exercise program and you know, I actually think it's probably a little bit lower than that, but in any event, 75% people being inactive is simply not good enough, right? I mean we want people to be more active. I want people to be more active because I know how beneficial it is for every walk of life and I do think people know that they just kind of get in their own way. So some of the things I talk about on this program are you know, they can be very technical, if I get into the exercise physiology so people can understand some of the things that we want them to do and they understand some of the science, because I think that can trigger some people into getting more motivated. For other people they need a lot of like the different tips. They need a little, you know, steering kind of behavior modification tips to help them get into it. So I try to handle it all because ultimately my goal is to get more and more people out there exercising in the wellness lifestyle. So today I'm going to talk about one of those subjects and I think it's very helpful. It's one that's been very helpful for me through the years and it's an area I struggle with and that is basically perfectionism, right, thinking things have to be perfect. I do think that really gets in the way of many people trying to exercise the classic paralysis of analysis. Right, so we analyze so much and we think it's got to be so right and then we just don't move. We don't do it.
Speaker 1:I heard on a podcast that I listened to the other day. I heard James Patterson, the great author, and I always liked him. Like his books are just like good, easy reads that are definitely entertaining. And then he's written more serious topics. He wrote a book about getting into a little bit of the Kennedy assassinations and stuff, so he definitely does nonfiction as well. He's got a new book out that looks interesting about being a father. So anyway, I've always admired his work and I left the podcast admiring him even more because I learned about like his work ethic when it comes to writing and you know he's a machine. I think he holds the record for most books out, most books on the New York Times bestseller and all that stuff. But like, that doesn't happen by accident. I learned about like his style and his processes and I found, wow, this is pretty cool stuff.
Speaker 1:One of the things he said was that perfection is actually the enemy of progress in many cases and that's what inspired me to talk about that this week and talk about this today, because I just think that is so true. I mean, I've been doing this for over 31 years and for some people that's a you know a non-issue. It's just not anything that comes up, the old perfection thing, the you know how do I do this, how do I do this perfectly? How many minutes, whatever. For some people it doesn't come up. For some people it's really just trying to get them going at all and, like I said, that's fine. We have to be all things to all people in this industry and meet people where they are and professionally to help people get where they need to get. But I would say that I don't want to say more people are perfectionistic in nature than I don't know, but it's pretty even. But that's a tough one to help people with because I get it Like I can definitely have that black or white thinking, all in or all out thinking, so I can totally relate to it. And you know I don't always do the best job myself of following the advice, but I definitely know how to give the advice and I think that really helps. So I really want to talk about that and talk about where that comes up. And then what do we do about it? Because we can learn about something comes up. And then what do we do about it? Because we can learn about something, but if we don't have an active step right, a game plan, then what good does learning do really? So let me give you some four instances.
Speaker 1:So I was talking to somebody the other day and trying to help them figure out how to exercise. Like you know, that's a big part of what I do. I mean I don't just sit in my gym and take people around a facility that I have set up for personal training. I mean that's a big part of what I do. To me, that's, you know, I don't know, I'd say the easy part when somebody's there. You know, another thing that I do and I do it often and it's important is just helping somebody get started on exercise.
Speaker 1:Like what is it that's going to work for them? Because you know there is no perfect way. The first thing we have to understand and that's where this is coming from is trying to convince the person that you know all of the information that they've been told is usually false. I mean, you know there's people out there selling something all the time right and I consider myself more in education and you know, sure, I sell personal training. I don't have to sell it very hard, I'm full and all that. But of course there's that side.
Speaker 1:But like I'm not selling exercise, so I don't have an agenda, I just want people to figure out what works for them. I mean, we all need to meet the health and fitness guidelines, we need a semblance of cardiorespiratory exercise, we need strength training, we need mobility and flexibility. I mean, that's a given. But how we find that there is no perfect way. And if you've got people out there saying that, oh you know, only strength machines is the way to do it, and not only that. Let me take it even further Only strength training. So you get people out there now that are purists, black or whiters and you know what. I don't even think that's a personality characteristic. I just think that's salesmanship just going to beat up your joints. It's not going to create as much EPOC, which stands for excess post-oxygen consumption, or burn more calories when you're finished. Only strength training is going to do that. So they're selling this perfect way to exercise and, in their opinion, is strength training.
Speaker 1:Then you have others, I would say less common these days, but maybe in the past that it was the opposite. It was no, no, no, no. Don't do strength training, that's just going to hurt you, which drives me nuts, because it's not true. You know, you need to do cardio, cardio, cardio, cardio. And then you'll have your people that maybe are yoga purists and that's fine if that works for them, or Pilates, and they'll say, well, no, this is the way that we need to go and it's the only way everybody needs to go, and nobody in that instance is correct. Any of those groups, none of them are correct. You got to find your own way, understanding that to be as healthy and fit as we can be, we need to have a fit cardiovascular system. We need to have a strong skeleton, which comes from strength training, and we need to have a mobile skeleton, which comes from flexibility and those other things Pilates, yoga, a lot of different things. So there isn't a perfect way.
Speaker 1:So when I sat down and met with this person about they want to start exercising, like they know it's going to make them feel better, they know it. Like they know just getting their heart rate up and moving and burning calories and getting active is going to help them. But they were kind of lost, like they've heard so much crap. And you know, I said, what about this? What about this? Well, I don't really like that. I said, okay, I don't want to go to gyms. I just don't want to go to gyms. I don't like it in there. I don't like people staring at me when I exercise. All right, I'm like, well, why do you? You don't have to go to a gym.
Speaker 1:So we kind of landed on running might be good for them. So I said, yeah, you ever thought about running? And they said, you know I have, and I don't mind it. I mean, I kind of like it. You know, I thought I could do it. It's something I can do for my house. I've done a little bit of it in the past, you know. It seems like, yeah, it seems like something I can do and I'm waiting for the big button, you know.
Speaker 1:And then it comes in but I don't have time to do this and this and 30 minutes or four miles, and I'm like, start at 10 minutes. 10 minutes, is that enough? I'm like, of course it's enough. If you've been doing zero, then it's 10 more minutes than zero minutes, of course it's enough.
Speaker 1:And I'm not saying this person was thinking with a perfectionistic viewpoint, because they actually weren't. They were very open-minded and said oh, okay, yeah, I think I could start with that. And you know they're going to start with that. I bring this up because some people and you know they're going to start with that. I bring this up because some people I've had that conversation more times than I can count have said oh, come on, what's 10 minutes going to do? That's not enough. I thought I was supposed to do at least 20 minutes per time, or I thought I'm supposed to do 150 minutes per week at a minimum, you know. So if I do 10 minutes five times a week, that's only 50 minutes. I'm not getting it done. Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. Right, all this, you know it's got to be perfect, perfect, perfect instead of progress. And I always tell them I'm like, ok, sure, those recommendations are out there, but something is better than nothing.
Speaker 1:And if you start the habit, you don't know where that's going to grow to. You don't have to be in your perfect, ideal workout program from the get-go. You can build into it and as you're building, you are getting the benefits. It's the perfect time. When you are starting out, everything works. It's awesome If you're starting back. Everything works. It's awesome when you are pretty peaked out, like you've been training consistently for years and you've been doing your cardio, you've been doing your strength training. You're not going to get much better. I mean, you have peaked and that's okay. I also have to work with people on that one too. The old people that are like you know hate the fact that they've hit maintenance. I'm like you know it's really not a bad thing, but that's a whole other ballgame right there.
Speaker 1:But when you're starting out, you are making progress at that 10 minutes. But when you're starting out, you are making progress at that 10 minutes, like you're going to notice a difference. You go for a run for 10 minutes. You know, maybe most of the week or whatever, by the end of the week you're like man, I have more energy. Maybe I dropped a pound. You know, regardless of what the person's goals are, I feel more energetic. I'm feeling good about myself because it's a win.
Speaker 1:You know, if you go out and do something good for yourself, you think of it as a win, because it is a win and it's progress, not perfection. So for people that are open-minded and don't think that way it's kind of a no-brainer and it gets them into understanding starting is the hardest part for everybody. It really, really is. But for people that tend to be perfectionists it's tough because they don't get that Like there's just something in them that won't let them do say, the minimal. I just threw 10 minutes out there. Hell, it could be five minutes, it could be. You know when you're walking your dog, you know the last block run in. I mean, it's all progress. It's just about getting better from where you are. Make today slightly better than yesterday. There's absolutely no perfection and I promise you with all the years I've been doing this, perfection is one of the things that drives people out of an exercise program, and I mean even people who are pretty well established in it.
Speaker 1:All right, so let's move on to where this gets in the way with strength training. I probably see it, I do. I see it even more in the strength training realm the old. It's got to be perfect or I'm not going to do it. I do. I see it even more in the strength training realm the old. It's got to be perfect or I'm not going to do it. So to begin with, you get your opinions again out there. You know the guy that says oh, if you really want the best beach body in the world, you're going to have to do a split routine training five days per week, splitting up your muscle groups, spending about 45 minutes in the gym on your strength training alone five days a week, plus your warmup, plus your cardio, blah, blah, blah. That's what it's going to take to have a body All right. So we get that. We get the people out there that are pushing those kind of programs.
Speaker 1:And if you've got a perfectionist that wants to start strength training because they know they need to, they know it's good for them, they're going to look at that and go. I don't have time for that. You know I work for a living. I can't, you know. Well, number one, that's not true. That's somebody selling a program that is an inexperienced trainer or a clueless trainer or a clueless social media influencer, telling you that that's what they do, maybe, or that's what to do, but that's not true. If you worked with a true expert, a person with legitimate personal training certifications, or an exercise physiologist or a physical therapist or somebody like that, they're going to tell you well, no, let's figure out where you are and let's build you a program. There's's no truth to that. Having to do all of that, that you know. You just said so. You know the perfectionist isn't even going to start if they hear all that. So that's one problem. And again, the solution to that is going to a true expert that can help them realize that that's not true.
Speaker 1:But then you also have the situation with the perfectionist that says that let's say they're on their normal exercise program and they have every intention of going to the gym on a particular day. Maybe they're going to go after work, but they get behind and they normally do 10 exercises at the gym. They have their normal routine, but they got behind all day. The day got away from them, and so they're already thinking somewhere after lunchtime like I'm not going to have time to go to the gym, you know. And if they're a perfectionist they're going to go. I'm just not going to go because I don't have time to do my entire workout. So I'm not going to go.
Speaker 1:If it's not perfect, why go? And of course you know you listening to this because it's not you, and when it's not personal, we tend to give the best advice, right? So we're probably thinking well, just go and do something, and that is the answer. That is absolutely the answer. I mean, why not just go and do five exercises out of 10 or three? You know, convincing yourself, convincing people in my job, trying to convince people to understand that that is absolutely better than nothing and it's really good. Missing the workout isn't good, because what tends to happen is that snowballs and then momentum starts to happen and then it's easier to miss the next time, so it's really better to go All right. So the day got away from me. I normally do these 10 exercises. Well, I'm going to do five of them and I'm going to feel really good about that. So my workout time is going to be cut in half and I'm still going to be able to get home for dinner like normal.
Speaker 1:Well, there you go, and I promise you, as an expert, if that's your new mindset, you are going to be more than happy with your results. Because what we don't want to happen is for you to drop out, because if you drop out, you're done and it is going to take a lot longer to get going. So we want to build momentum. So if we can go to the gym and crank out five exercises. Maybe you do that for your entire week's worth of programming. Like maybe you just have a really crappy week. You know, maybe whatever your job is, you're just overloaded with work. And you know for me to say, oh, don't worry about work. Well, that's totally being non-empathetic on my part and, quite frankly, stupid, because we are going to worry about work, we are going to do what we have to do. So instead, I'd rather be the true expert and coach and say, well, I promise you right now, if you just did a little bit, you're not going to lose any progress you've made and you're going to maintain momentum. That's the mentality that I would love to see people have.
Speaker 1:I don't remember who it was, but I was listening to somebody on a podcast a while back and they knew that they struggled with getting their exercise in, like they just I mean, it's not that they hated it, but they just struggled like getting going and, you know, building a habit. So they it sounds kind of funny, but I love it and so many people like won't do it because it's like not proper, so to say. But they put a couple different dumbbells out on their kitchen counter. I think they were like 10 pounders or 15 pounders, I don't know Two sets. And in the morning, as their coffee was perking, they literally did like I don't know. I think they said it was like a minute's worth of exercise and it was like I don't even know what it was. You know, maybe some squats and some curls with the dumbbells they had on the counter, but that's like what they did to get started.
Speaker 1:I think that eventually pushed them into a little bit more of a habit, or I should say a habit of doing a little bit more. But they did that for a while and they and they talked about that positively, like what a great idea that they probably heard from somebody else, but what a great idea that was to build momentum. Like they didn't feel like they had to make their workout perfect in the beginning. You know, like here is the grand poobah of workouts and it's going to be 30 minutes of full body strength training three times per week and then the other four days per week it's going to be 45 minutes of cardio respiratory exercise and on Sunday it's going to be more of an active rest version of that and after every workout I'm going to do 10 minutes of stretching and blah, blah, blah. Ok, that sounds like a great routine. But if you think about that in the beginning and it overwhelms you, then don't think about that. Just start to think about building momentum, like that person did, putting the dumbbells on the counter.
Speaker 1:I don't know that their spouse was overly thrilled. That's what made the story kind of funny when they told it. That's what I meant by proper. But they didn't care. They're like look, I know, as my coffee is perking, I'm going to have like not a lot to do. And I think they were kind of ADHD, so they didn't just want to stand there. They're like sounds like a good time to do a couple exercises. And again, it worked. It was by far an imperfect program. It was just a couple exercises done for I don't know a minute, but it was great and it built momentum and eventually it worked into them continuing it, because when I heard them, they've been strength training now since that time and that was years prior to that.
Speaker 1:So perfectionistic thinking is absolutely going to get in the way of progress. I mean, james Patterson is absolutely right and I know he didn't come up with that, but he was talking about how in his world of writing that that can get in the way, like if if he sits down and goes I now have to write the perfect paragraph, he's screwed. I mean I do some writing. I've written a couple of books. I finished my third manuscript and again I struggle with perfectionism for sure, and I have to follow these types of advice.
Speaker 1:So, like for him it was if so I mean for me the take home message because again I like to write and I can get stuck was when you are stuck in a paragraph thinking is this perfect or not, like stop, stop where you are and go into your next paragraph, like don't sit there and go through the battle. And I was like you know, that's very helpful. So there are ways for us to deal with that personality. Because you know, if I do that too much, I'm not going to sit down in front of the computer and do it. And I don't want to do that because I want to write and I do think I have contributions to give people in the health and fitness world. So I want to write and I do think I have contributions to give people in the health and fitness world. So I want to continue to do that. So I have to battle my tendency towards perfectionism.
Speaker 1:So we all do, you know and again, I started to say that I doubt you know, he obviously didn't come up with that term. He was relating it in his life, because I know, like in 12-step recovery programs they talk about it all the time. They say progress, not perfection, because addicts and alcoholics tend to be very, very, very black and white thinkers, you know. And so, oh, they're supposed to do like if they're new to recovery. Seven meetings or, I'm sorry, 90 meetings in 90 days, it's like, okay, that sounds pretty tough, right? I mean, granted, they have to make it their priority, but what if they miss one? Well, if they're thinking perfectly, that's going to screw with their head. They got to say no, no, no, no, that's an ideal, but I just need to be better. I used to go to no meetings, now I'm getting to one almost every day. That's how we have to think to keep moving forward, because we need positive momentum.
Speaker 1:All right, so I hope these tools help you and if they help you, please share them with other people. Hit automatic download, share it to your social media and do me a favor At least. At least send it to one person in a text or an email. 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.
