There Is A Method to the Madness

MAXFIT GAMES 2025

• 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? 386-451-2412.

Speaker 1:

It is time for us to talk about some fitness. That's why we show up to this podcast, me and you. So today I'm going to talk about the 2025 Max Fit Games. I'll give you a little rundown, but you don't take time out of your day. Even if you're driving, whatever, you're still taking time to listen. So I'm sure everybody doesn't want a rundown of who won and that kind of thing. I mean, the people that did it maybe do, but other people don't. So I'm going to really explain why we do these things and how we pick the exercises and why it's important. That way everybody gets the fitness message.

Speaker 1:

But first a little business side of things. So we quickly had to pivot from our location. We had the Holly Hill Park off of 11th Street, on that corner there, 11th and Beach all set. We did it there last year and I believe the year before as well, and we put in our permit like four months ago, probably even earlier actually. So you would think that they would have known when they took the permit that they were going to be redoing the entire park that week. But you know, that's one thing. The biggest problem was we knew construction was going on for the last month because you could drive by and see it. So we called and they assured us that it was no problem. They were just replacing the sod and it was scheduled to be reopened in plenty of time before that Saturday. Well, the week of we saw that it was still closed off and closed. We had a couple of clients tell us that it was closed and they're concerned and we of course were still concerned. So we called them literally on the Thursday before the Friday. They told us it was closed and they still said oh no, no, everything's fine, it's the reopen on that Saturday morning, all good, and Angelica, who had been communicating with them, got a text message not even a phone call text message stating oh, the park isn't open on that Saturday, literally the day before.

Speaker 1:

I mean sometimes I'm amazed that people have jobs. I really I don't get it. Like I just couldn't imagine being an entrepreneur for most of my adult life, like what it's like to just do something like that, to be so irresponsible. I mean, things happen, but the week of you could have at least given us some notice. So they didn't, and you know what? It's kind of sad. They didn't even apologize. That's pretty weak. They acted more like offended that we were annoyed. So anyway we had a quick pivot. Thankfully we have really good volunteers and helpers and friends and employees.

Speaker 1:

So everybody started frantically searching around literally on that Friday. I did not want to delay the games because we had food promised to us like from big corporations like Wawa and 7-Eleven and Dunkin' Donuts. It's not like they can just change everything, like their scheduled deliveries. So we knew we were getting all that Saturday morning. There's just no way we could have rescheduled. So I mean there was a way but it wasn't going to be good.

Speaker 1:

So we decided upon a park down in New Smyrna, which we have run down there before, and one of our participants, the woman who won the mile actually at our event, ms Kitty Masante, actually was very helpful with that. She went out there on the Friday to make sure it was looking all good. She kind of measured out a course, a down and back that we thought would work really, really well. So we just quickly pivoted and we called everybody. We knew that was coming and everybody was volunteering and I think it's a huge win when only one person who was pre-registered didn't show up and you know what? That's less than most years when there is plenty of notice on everything. So I doubt that one person who didn't show up was due to location. It's just things happen sometimes. So I was pretty impressed that everybody was able to make it happen and get there and I'm thankful for the participants. I mean people weren't even late. I mean I think that's pretty awesome. So that's going to be our new place.

Speaker 1:

I mean we ended up loving the park. It worked out good. We're going to have our mile series coming up starting in September. We're going to use that course. Actually it was less crowded. I mean the other place we paid for and we typically don't have privacy. You know, I mean not that we need a lot of privacy, I mean shoot. Well, you know, we usually end up giving a lot of the food away to the people in the park. So it's not that, it's just that there was hardly anybody there and they had the Frisbee golf course there already. So that worked out really good for our last event. So, anyway, it was just a blessing in disguise. Everything worked out really really good and you know, I think we had our best games to date. I really really do.

Speaker 1:

You know, and now I'll segue this into, you know, the fitness side of things. So I put on the games because I'm a big believer in all around fitness. You know there's too many like extremes out there in the fitness world. You have people that are just known to be like runners, and then people that are known to maybe be triathletes, and then people that are maybe known to be bodybuilders, or people that are known to be, say, crossfitters, or people that are known to surf to stay in shape. I mean, all that is great. Don't get me wrong. I have done every one of those things except for CrossFit, but I've done some CrossFit activities. It's just that fitness is all of those things, it's not just one thing. That fitness is all of those things, it's not just one thing.

Speaker 1:

And locally we have a ton of 5Ks, you know, five kilometer road races. They're everywhere every weekend, basically in the fall, winter, in the spring, and that's great to an extent, but it's we have to have more for people that want to do, say, competitive events or events of challenging themselves to be more fit. If we just run, then we are not doing all of the components of physical fitness. We're not doing any muscular strength or muscular endurance or any power or any mobility really. So you know, I want a balanced event. I want to at least talk about the balanced event. And if we have an event we can talk about the importance of it and it all kind of works out. You know, it's kind of cool that really the events are going to be won. If you're really going for the money, they're going to be won by somebody who has the most balanced fitness. So every year I tweak it. That's why I say this was the best.

Speaker 1:

You know, we have done so many different versions and I've liked them all and there was pros and cons to each like even this one, which I really do think is our best, had some cons. I'm like well, there was too much of a difference between the two groups. We were really trying to pick the numbers of squats and numbers of burpees and number of push-ups based on what we feel like we've seen in the past to be the most fit and honestly, it's typically a pretty wide, open age group as far as the elite goes. So we landed on 18 to 50 and then the 50 to 69, there was just a little, from what I understand I agree with the participants a little bit too much drop off, like they were complaining, not complaining, but they said you know, I think we could have done a lot more. So you know, and I look at it and like that's true. So next time we're going to go with 10 year age groups and just kind of like start with 18 to 29 being, you know, I mean youth, I mean that's going to be the most elite. Typically it's not always like in our events because we get a lot of like middle age to maybe a little bit young adult in there, but basically nationwide that's supposed to be. The most fit age group is 18 to 29. And then from there. We will just back off a little bit every age group as far as numbers go. But we love how we did the numbers.

Speaker 1:

Everybody ran a mile, loved the mile, bringing the mile series going, because it's so important to really focus on intensity and to try to improve our cardiorespiratory fitness. You know, the Presidential Council of Physical Fitness has gotten into the news again and regardless how we feel politically I mean that really shouldn't matter I do think that's a good idea. If we can really get the schools to implement it, that'll be the key. But I've always believed in that being a good thing. And you know we take a lot of what we do from the military stuff because, look, we've got to be able to run if we can, to be our most fit, we should be able to do calisthenics like squats and pushups, most importantly, and some form of core like that is the root of fitness right there. So we took some of the army standards, or I should say military standards. We took some of the presidential council physical fitness standards and basically made an adult event out of it. So we ran a mile.

Speaker 1:

Then the next event was the burpees. But we did a version of burpees which was basically an up and down which works the core and works the legs mostly. Then they ran to the push-up area and did different numbers of push-ups depending on your age group. Then everybody ran to the squat area and did different versions or I shouldn't say different, but did different numbers of squats based on the age group and then from there they ran all the way out to the frisbee bin and grabbed the frisbee and finished with some frisbee golf, just to kind of like show a little bit of skill, some athleticism, whatever, just to kind of make it fun as well. But it was a great event because we have cardio in there with the, because we have cardio in there with the run. We have cardio in there with the run going from event to event.

Speaker 1:

We had burpees in there, which is some power because you have to get up and down quickly. That's the idea. Down to the ground, up from the ground quickly, that's the idea. So we have some mobility in there and you have some core in there. Then we go to the push-up. That is upper body strength, like I said, very critical. You know, sadly a lot of people that just run have almost zero upper body strength and that's not good, that's not physically fit. Heart might be good, but we have to keep those muscles toned as well. And then from there the squats was, of course, lower body strength, and I can't state and say it enough how I think the squat is probably the most important strength exercise that we could ever really try to master. It is just so critical.

Speaker 1:

And you know, I want to talk about how, like, we had a couple clients that wanted to get in and did get in, and one of them was sick, wasn't able to participate. But what was really cool is when we brought this up to them, either of them didn't think that they could really do it. And then one of them ended up winning the women's 50 to 69 and just started taking the techniques and practicing them on her own. And that's what I love to see, like, I love to see people get more fit. Before my eyes, when she first did burpees, they were a struggle. She came in the very next week for us to do some and already she went from, you know, basically not really being able to do them to being able to do them and then, the day of the event, being able to do them so well, she actually won her category. So the other she could do. But she definitely improved while training. The pushups and squats definitely was able to improve.

Speaker 1:

And the run she wasn't even running about a month ago but because she knew it was going to be a run, she started doing a mile or a little bit longer I think it might've been a mile, but one day a week just trying to get better. And each week she got a little bit better and then she had a great mile time. I love seeing that the other one who had COVID wasn't able to participate, is going to participate. We're just going to do it here at the gym when she's 100%. And she did not want her shirt given to her, although she paid, because on this shirt it says I am strong.

Speaker 1:

And we gave out the shirts at the end because we want people to feel like they earned them, they accomplished it. They can say I am strong and if you did that event, you are strong. That's what's cool. You're able to run or power walk your way through it, you're able to do the down and up burpees, you're able to do pushups, you're able to do squats, you're able to throw a Frisbee. That was the idea. Too many people give out shirts at 5Ks, like I'm paying for this shirt. It's like, eh, you're kind of supposed to be paying for the opportunity to better yourself, right? I mean, that's what this is all about. That's what we strive for with these things.

Speaker 1:

And so in this case, this client had been working for over six weeks trying to get ready, really kind of intimidated about the burpees, but then was able to do them, was super intimidated about the pushups, even though she had built up a lot of upper body strength here at the gym. Pushups are different, you know, and sometimes they're intimidating to people, but they got so much better. We went from like barely being able to do any to being able to do over 10 in a short period of time. Her squats were always good, but watching people train to do it is the real key to get better implementing it into their life lifestyle. And finally, we were able to donate $500 plus, because I'm very thankful that a lot of the participants, when they won cash, turned the cash over to Sophie's Circle along with our $500. And I love doing that because I just think it's very, very important to get back to the community. Every year we pick a recipient, and Sophie Circle was it this year and Kathy Blackman came out and she runs the organization and they just do such a great job trying to help animals and I shouldn't say trying to, because they absolutely meet their goal of helping but they can never get enough money, help and support. So I love doing that and she came out and we had great vendors come out to support. It was just a really good community. We had new groups come out, different track groups from Palm Coast, flagler and another one, daytona Speed, from Daytona, and they represented and it was just really cool to see new blood and then, of course, old blood Really cool to see new blood and then, of course, old blood. So it was a great time. I hope you guys can make it out.

Speaker 1:

Next year we're going to do roughly the same thing and tweak what we need to tweak and again we have our series coming up on the mile, which is very important. As I said, it's important to think about the intensity. I want everybody to understand. The other day one of our clients said well, I'm not fast. So well, who is? I mean fast is so relative. I mean the fastest mile is somewhere around three minutes and 45 seconds. Right now you can take the fastest runner that you have ever known in your life and they're not going to hit that even close, okay, so it is very, very relative. All right, you can go to these local 5Ks and somebody is going to win in an amazing time of 17 minutes and you're going to go. So what's your mile? And it's going to be a little over five or something like that, which is amazing, right, but it's not a 345. So what the heck is fast? I mean fast is relative. I'll tell you what fast is right now, faster than you've gone.

Speaker 1:

That's the idea.

Speaker 1:

If people can run a mile better, I don't care. If it's walk, okay, walk a mile, but the idea is to get better, to challenge yourself, and sometimes, like I said, it's great. People are doing different kinds of races and events like 5Ks and charity runs, okay. But really the idea is to always try to be our best, I believe, and do what we can do in between to be better, not just showing up to get a t-shirt. You want to donate that is phenomenal, their organizations need it. But I've always believed if you put a number on, you should be attempting to be your best and then try to be your best. So we're going to have a series for that reason, because we want to promote cardiorespiratory fitness. It's critical. It's critical. It's critical for the health of the heart too, and the way we get there is by always striving to be a little bit better. All right, so that's going to be September 20th. Hope we see everybody out there and until next time, people, please be max fit and please be max wealth.

Speaker 1:

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 Hock, the owners. They are great people with a great company. If you have any garage door needs, please give them a shout at 386-222-3165.

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