There Is A Method to the Madness

Do Better, Not More: Smart Training Strategies

• Rob Maxwell, M.A.

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Speaker 1:

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 to today's show, I want to thank Jonathan and Lynn Gildan of the Gildan Group at 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. 386-451-2412.

Speaker 1:

Don't do more, do better. Did you know that by doing your exercises better your strength exercises or really this could apply to running, cycling, swimming, anything that has technique but did you know that by doing it better, you're actually overloading, a concept that I talk about all the time here? It's very important to do more, but sometimes doing more is simply doing it better. Now, as a trainer with a lot of experience, I can tell you that there are many, many, many types of people out there have to be told to slow down on their overload, because you know they tend to do everything to the 100th degree that they do. So they're going to go up, they're going to go up, they're going to go up and then sometimes they make their increases too fast, they make their increases too sudden, or they make their increases too much and then they start backsliding a little bit and they're probably like that in everything. And we know that we in the allied health industry, we can figure people out pretty quickly and there really is no right or wrong. That's what makes for a good trainer, what makes for a good physician, a good massage therapist, a good dentist, fill in the blank, any profession that works with people psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health counselor, addictions counselor. They learn their patients or their clients and come up with solutions for them, and that's what I believe makes a good trainer. That's one of the most important things, I believe.

Speaker 1:

Like I hate the one-size-fits fits all programs. You see out there the blanketed advice of just do this, this and this that I see out there in physical fitness and one size does not fit all. So there are different types when it comes to this sort of drive. You know it's probably a type, a type of personality that you're going to have to pull back a little bit more. I'm one of those people and you know there might be others that it's harder to get them to overload. Maybe they don't want to overload, and that why that? Well, one of the reasons why they might be seeing a trainer because they understand that to make progress they're going to have to go past their current limits. I mean, that's just the way it is. There's no other formula out there. There's a lot of ways to overload, but we do have to overload and there's nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 1:

Like I said, there's nothing wrong with the alpha type A who really, really push and drives himself or herself and they need to hear what I'm going to talk about today and there's nothing wrong with the person who has a little bit of a harder time pushing themselves and striving to do more on things, and you know what it takes all types to make the world go around. I don't think we want a world of full alphas, right? I mean I think that's all we see pretty much in politics. We see where that gets us. So we don't want that right. We want some give and take by everybody, and everybody serves a great purpose. So it is up to the good trainer to good allied health professional to work with those people and know when to give advice and what advice is merited.

Speaker 1:

So if you are one of those types of people that's more type A, you might know that because you burn out, maybe you get injured physically frequently, you know, maybe you suffer some more of the extremes of that, like lack of sleep or it's impacting your mental health. Then you know you're more of the type A. Well, I have found that that piece of advice of don't always do more, do better is really really good, and what I mean by that is you know, we keep charts here on people. I keep one on myself. I like to look back and see what's going on, see what I've been doing and you know what. When I get away from that, I typically will push myself too hard. The numbers actually reel me in sometimes, and when I go away from that and I simply go by, feel and I'm getting not as objective, I tend to start overtraining.

Speaker 1:

And I think it's important for me to point out at this point too, too, that, like when I have a fitness podcast, obviously you are listening to it and I listen to a lot of different podcasts on different topics I like to listen to, like on philosophy, I like to listen on to those types of things, on to, you know, improvement and things like that. I mean the podcasts I listen to, you know, improvement and things like that. I mean the podcasts I listen to, you know, are not really say, fun podcasts. They're fun for me, but I like to get something out of it and learn how I can do a little bit better and more. And one of them I listen to the author always talks about how he's not like preaching to us all like he knows everything. He's just simply somebody that's on the path that might be a little bit further down the path than the people listening and you know that's how I want everybody to understand too.

Speaker 1:

So with me, when I come up with topics, I mean, sure, I've got a lot of degrees credentials in health and fitness and I have a lot of experience. But like I study, got a lot of degrees credentials in health and fitness and I have a lot of experience but like I study this stuff because I love this stuff, and as I used to tell my students that wanted to learn how to be trainers, I'd say you know, you have to be your own first client first. Like you, have to really want to improve yourself and figure out what works for you, and hopefully you will learn that it's going to be many different things and it's going to change over the years. But you are your first experiment and I am my first experiment and I know what I learned for me. I try to pass on for other people and the evidence I have is oftentimes what has helped me. Naturally, I use scientific evidence all the time. That's one of the things that I think is very important. But I still have to take that scientific evidence and research and apply it to myself and go well, I don't know that I really like that a whole lot, you know. And then I throw out my experiences to try to help other people.

Speaker 1:

So when I bring up a topic, it usually comes to me when I'm exercising. A lot of times, when I'm running or walking, doing cardio, when I let my brain just kind of go and I'm not working actively is when I get good ideas of topics and usually it's something that I am struggling a little bit with. And when I start to feel a little burned out, a little fatigued, I'm like all right, what am I doing? And I went back and said well, on this topic I'm like man, I've been pushing, so I need to go back a little bit and take a little bit of a week or so and say you know, do better, don't overload so fast. So what that means is, again, this is more applicable to the person who drives, drives, drives. The person who, you know, isn't as motivated to go up all the time. Maybe they don't need to take a step back and work on doing things better, or there's definitely nothing wrong with it either. So maybe you can.

Speaker 1:

But, like, let's say, you're pushing yourself really, really hard and you notice you're feeling burned out or plateaued, and that's usually how we figure out that we need to take a step back is when we plateau. Now I have to be honest and say don't panic every time you hit a plateau, because sometimes plateaus are flat out, just normal. We're not going to go up forever, as I preached before. Getting to a maintenance stage is a good thing, but sometimes we're increasing too fast, too soon and it's important to say that to yourself. Okay, don't do more, do better, cause I can promise you you probably can do your exercises better than you are.

Speaker 1:

Some people I don't. You know I've. I wish I could figure this out. It's always baffled me. It's not an athletic thing. Figure this out, it's always baffled me. It's not an athletic thing. I don't know that. It's a coordination thing. I mean it could potentially be a focus thing. It's definitely not a fitness thing, though, and there are some people that just have naturally. I mean, of course, we, we train people to have good form, right? Um, it's funny.

Speaker 1:

One of the things we hear a lot is when we tell a client that they're doing it really really well, they'll say, well, you know, I had a good teacher, you taught me and me, or Ellen or you know anybody else has always said well, that's not always true. I mean, thank you, we try to teach, but at the same time we've taught this same technique to people that just don't get it and they just don't have the best of form. So we know what we're working with. Oftentimes we do the best we can to help those people and it's frustrating for them too. But some people just don't have naturally good form and I don't think it's an effort thing, like I think they want to do better, they're trying to get better. I don't know. Like I said, I wish I could like really pinpoint what the variables are that leads to this. But you know, the common things you think of is just not true. It's not always somebody who's just naturally coordinated, because I've had people that were naturally coordinated on certain things and their form is still like haphazard at best after years, years of direction and, you know, helping them try to change it. I've had people that have seemed to be focused in some things that you know seem to not be able to get good form. So we don't know.

Speaker 1:

But the biggest key to this, before I get back to the point, is that it's not a fitness thing. I don't want people to think, oh, it's because that person's fit. It's not true. I have some really fit, fit clients that their form. I scratch my head at sometimes and say, you know, do you realize you're throwing it right now? And they don't. So it's not a fitness thing. So, yes, you can be fit with bad form. It's just you're not getting as much out of it and you could potentially hurt yourself and you're just not helping your gain. So it's not a fitness thing. There are some very fit people with awful form and there are some people who are like really less fit with phenomenal form. You know, ideally we would love to have those two meet in the middle, of course. So for the people that are always driving and maybe they've heard me talk to them about their form you know, focus don't do more, do better.

Speaker 1:

So when you're doing those tricep press downs as an example, let's say, uh, you know you're doing okay, so I'll use me, I can do, I think, on my best set, 10 repetitions at 140 pounds. So rather than say, all right, you know, I'm going to bounce up to 150 and I'm going to do a pyramid, I'm going to to do eight. I mean that's fine if I'm doing natural overload or I'm going to take that 10 rep up to 12. You know, sometimes it's a week or two to go, you know what. No, I'm going to stay put and I'm going to do this better. It doesn't mean it's going to be easier. It could be harder because you're focused or I'm focused.

Speaker 1:

More and better means I'm going to really make sure my elbows stay on the side when I'm talking these tricep press downs. I'm not going to lift my deltoids like I'm doing a shoulder shrug at the top to get a little bit of momentum going. I'm not going to like stop 99% of the way down, I'm going to go all the way down, like that's doing it better. Or maybe my tempo needs to be improved. Maybe I have great tempo in the first three or four, but then I start changing the tempo so I can get more repetitions. That's a common thing people do and then they're getting out of tempo when really it's always best to stay in that nice, even tempo. So that's what I mean by don't do more, do better.

Speaker 1:

You know, maybe your squats are good but they're not great. So, instead of going up, maybe you say you know what, before I go up, I want to make sure I can get to 90 degrees with the weight that I'm using and keeping my spine up Again. Maybe you can't get to 90 degrees with the weight that I'm using and keeping my spine up Again. Maybe you can't get to 90 degrees because you have a posture issue or you have knee issues. That's okay, I'm not talking about that. That doesn't need to be forced. What I'm saying is, if you are always thinking about going up and you haven't perfected your level of technique, I think it's time to perfect your level of technique. We can take every exercise and do that.

Speaker 1:

You know, wayne Westcott for a long time talked about the two-by-two rule and I really liked it. I think I really like him because he's a PhD guy. I got the honor to hear him speak once. I actually orchestrated bringing him to Daytona Beach. It was just, you know well, part luck and part just good contacts being able to connect them and he was going to be in Florida so I asked him if he can come speak and he's like I said, he's a PhD guy. He's really kind of famous in the health and fitness world. He was the director of Nautilus Incorporated for a long time. Bigwig Bigwig has written a lot of books. Anyway, I always loved him because he's still around I shouldn't say past tense, but I mean I don't know that he's still publishing but I always loved his work because he was able to take concepts, because he had the experience and he was able to take things and go all right.

Speaker 1:

What's human nature? Well, for many human nature is to drive, drive, drive and they're always going up without putting maybe their thought into quality, putting maybe their thought into quality. So he had his two by two rule that I really, really loved and that was being able to do two more reps than your goal weight under after two consecutive workouts. Then you move up, so two reps more than you wanted to achieve, and when you can achieve that two times in a row, then think about going up. I think what that did was that did slow people down sometimes because, again, you know our body does need to adapt to the amount of stress and stimulus. How much. We don't know that magic ball that can see into the future that tells me exactly the amount of stimulus that a person needs to get better, or the amount of stimulus I need to get better. We don't we have to go by symptoms, we have to go by what feels like it's working. We just know that there has to be a stimulus, then there has to be a form of an adaptation, rest and then you grow so like we don't know exactly how much we need. But the two by two rule was good because they didn't go up every time. They made sure that basically the body adapted and then we went up. I practice that a lot with people, especially again, we, I know, my trainers know people, so I'll know. Okay, I'm not going to go up with this person every time, because they push themselves really hard already. Others, if it's harder to maybe get them to go up, it might be every time, because we basically take advantage of it when we can get it. So, yeah, we use a little psychology, we use a lot of trickery, but the good thing is it's all for your best benefit. That was a good way to think about.

Speaker 1:

Don't always do more, do better. What can you do better? Maybe let's take this to the cardio. You know, as I wrap up, you know maybe you're always driving yourself on your runs, but have you thought about, you know, instead of increasing my mileage, I'm going to try to do this a little bit better. That doesn't mean like better pace, because that's increasing too. To do this a little bit better, that doesn't mean like better pace, because that's increasing too. It just might mean, you know, I want to do this run at this pace, at this distance.

Speaker 1:

I want to do this a few times and see if I can't work on my technique a little bit better, see if maybe, after the third time of doing this, it felt a little easier than the first two times, which is really what should happen, right? I mean, if your body's adapting, you're supposed to feel that it's getting a little bit easier. Now it's a little bit harder with the cardio because there's other variables. You know, the first time you do it it might just be a freakishly out of characteristic day in Florida and it's 20 degrees cooler. And then the second and third time you do it it's 20 degrees warmer, and so you're like God, that didn't get better, that got worse. So there's variables we have to think about. Of course, that makes it a little harder for cardio, especially outdoor cardio with hot ambient temperatures, but you can still think about this concept All right.

Speaker 1:

So everything that you're doing, I want you to really put the focus this week on doing it better. If you're doing box jumps or explosive jumps because you're working in a power sport, like some of my baseball players are, and volleyball players are focus on landing softer, focus on making less noise. That means that you're gaining more control. Don't do more this week, do better. Thank you for listening to today's program. I ask you to please follow the show wherever you get your podcasts and please select automatic download, because that really helps the show. Now I want to thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, the area's premier garage door company. They have the best product, they have the best service. I personally vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. No-transcript.

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