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
Why Common Sense Beats Optimization in Fitness and Nutrition
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.
Speaker 1: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. No, I'm going to tell you all what.
Speaker 1:If you don't jump on this, I don't know what's wrong with you. I mean, you'd have to be silly not to jump on this new research. So I'm sure you've heard of the Blue Zone book, the Blue Zone documentary, the Blue Zone study, where they looked at the healthiest people in the world with the best longevity and what they did and everything, and I'm pretty sure you read about that. But just in case you haven't, I'll just fill you in briefly that they just studied the healthiest cultures around the world. They call them, the Blue Zones, and it's basically just sort of a historical viewpoint of what they eat and what they did and what their culture was like, what their sociological makeup was, what their psychological makeup was, how much they exercise, how much they eat, what they ate all that good stuff, and you know it's pretty cool. I think stuff like that is actually pretty interesting because you can look back and go, oh, that worked, so that's pretty neat. But man, it doesn't hold a candle to the green zone. Okay, so the green zone has recently been discovered and I'm going to tell you all about it and it makes, like the blue zone, people look weak and lame and obese. It's crazy to think that all you have to do is understand this new green zone concept and your whole freaking life will be transformed. I mean, what's better than that? Huh, all right, hopefully you've picked up on that I am joking. Hopefully that you haven't like turned off, because you know like turned off, because you know I was putting down the blue zone, which I absolutely was not and not, but I'm sure you know me, or hopefully you know, or you know. Maybe you thought this was going somewhere and it is, but it's not going where you thought it was. There's no such thing as a green zone people. Maybe there is, I have no idea, but to my knowledge there's not.
Speaker 1:And before I continue, continue, let me say that the blue zone literature is really cool. I really did like reading the book, I really did like watching the documentary and I really do believe that they uncovered a lot of pearls of wisdom of what people did their whole life to put them in the health state that they were in. And, as I said, I really do like historical standpoints in most things. I like it in history, I like it in the history of health and fitness. I just like going back and looking at what people did. The old saying don't tell me what to do, show me what you did, that kind of a thing. I think there's a lot of evidence to that.
Speaker 1:But the whole point is this is to understand that there are hooks out there and that was a hook and maybe not a very good hook, but there are hooks out there, there's clickbait out there and you know it really is very simple to make a ton of money in the health and fitness industry if you are either really naive or deceitful. I mean it's really easy. I mean, I joked around for years saying, man, if I just had it in me to lie, I could sell this because people are going to believe it. Once people do trust somebody and believe in somebody, they will buy it. Man, they will buy into it, and that's good if you have a reputable person that you're trusting or a reputable organization, but, man, that is not good if you don't. So I want to talk about some examples that I know of, and this kind of came up because, well, it comes up for a lot of reasons. I mean, this kind of stuff comes up all the time because it's one of the big, big, big motivations behind my podcast is to educate you on who to listen to, what you need to tune out of and what you need to tune into, and I try to use humor sometimes to get you to understand that just how ridiculous some of these things are. And look, I wouldn't be surprised if somebody does come up with a new zone.
Speaker 1:But look, in the game today, there are influencers out there who have taken their game to a different level, like, there are influencers that you can follow, and this isn't a bad thing, by the way. I mean, there's been influencers long before there were social media. I mean, all that means is you're a person that other people look at, watch and want to know what you're doing. I mean you influence people, whether you realize it or not. You influence your family, for the good or the bad. I mean we all influence, and there are some people that are just better at influencing right or wrong, or good and bad or bad than others. So this isn't new and it's not a bad thing. It's just that you need to know now that there literally is an industry of influencer, and that's not bad either. I mean, I listen and follow some of these guys and gals and some of them are quite entertaining and some of them are quite helpful. So there's nothing wrong with that. You just need to understand that there's a whole new industry out there and with any industry there's a chance of it getting corrupted by greed and money.
Speaker 1:Right, people are going to want to sell out and start doing and saying things that they don't necessarily believe in or know that are true. So a person can start out with a good social media influence, such on Instagram or TikTok or whatever. It seems to be TikTok that really grows people into the next stratosphere with that and then they get pretty popular on YouTube, which is similar to TikTok as far as that goes. Like most influencers, don't fool around too much on Facebook because the generation of people on Facebook are older, they don't tend to buy as much and it just it doesn't flow as well. Instagram's OK if you put together some good videos, but really people get more influenced by TikTok because it's video for one thing or it's made into a video and it's usually got a short story attached to it which engages people, and then YouTube you can take that story and spread it out even more and then people can subscribe to your channel and watch you or listen to you Like. This podcast is on YouTube, so YouTube is another way. But once people kind of blow through that, then they get pretty big and they start getting big shows, whether it be a podcast.
Speaker 1:When I say big shows, not all podcasts are big. This one's growing locally and it's doing exactly what I wanted it to do, which was just be able to talk to my clients and people that know me and people that are in my circle of influence. I'm also blown away and probably a little nervous when I pull up the maps and see who's downloaded some episodes and it's like all over the world. I'm like that's pretty darn wild and scary at the same time. But in any event, when I look at like the demographics which I like to do because it's pretty cool most of them show the central Florida area. As far as the downloads on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, orlando seems to be a big one, but that's not too surprising, and then some other parts of the state and then there's other states where I have family or friends or whatever. But you know, it's doing what I wanted it to do. It's spreading it to the local community in which I serve and that's cool.
Speaker 1:So, no, this isn't a big show, but when these big influencers do get their shows to big levels where they can get high level marketing involved, well it's big business people. I mean they're doing a podcast and then you'll notice like really, really big sponsors. You know my sponsors are great. I appreciate all three of them and if you ever noticed, sometimes Buzzsprout throws an ad on here and that's because my podcast got enough views to where somebody wanted to put it on there. But let me tell you people that little bit. I mean I appreciate it and I think it's pretty cool. But I mean the highest check I ever got from that ad when you hear a hold on and it goes and then it gives a little ad. You know, not that one, not my Gilding Group or Overhead Door or ProCharge, not my literal sponsors, but these guys right, and they'll come on and they'll say something. So the largest check I ever got from that was seven bucks. It's like woohoo.
Speaker 1:Anyway, now we're talking like when I listen to some of these big wigs, these heavy hitters I listen to, they got the big boys out there throwing big money at them. So naturally there's going to be a little bit of change of opinion. Right? Not all of them, I mean, there are a couple I'll listen to and I'll go oh man, why are you pushing that? You know better than that. And then I think, well, maybe you don't, cause I usually am just sensitive to, like, the health and fitness ones, and you know, maybe the person doesn't, maybe he or she has no idea that this product is just snake oil, who the heck knows. But anyway, most of them, if not all of them I listen to seem to represent companies that you know are reputable, whatever. But anytime there's advertisement there's going to be a change in influence of what you have to say. So you have to be really, really cognizant of that.
Speaker 1:You have to understand that when you are seeing things out there, it is a whole new level of marketing that goes on. You know, people talk about clickbait. Clickbait is absolutely real and people are like they don't understand. Every time you click on it or engage, you are helping that person. So if you want to help them keep clicking, it doesn't matter if this is political, if it is big business, if this is a corporation let's say this is an airline screwed you over, and so you see that they posted something and you get in there and you start giving them hell. Right, you just helped them, you did not hurt them.
Speaker 1:They're not looking at the type of engagement and I've had well, I didn't have to learn this through the years for bad reasons, but I've learned it from talking to people in that industry. They're looking at clicks man. They're looking at how many views this thing got and they've realized the marketing companies that rage and anger gets more clicks than anything. Nothing is going to get somebody to follow a post and either like it or try to give us a frowny face or, you know, comment than anger. They know that and they take advantage of it. Not so much in health and fitness, although I do see it.
Speaker 1:Sometimes There'll be somebody out there rage baiting and say something like for the guy telling you to do cardio, well, tell him to stick it, because he has no freaking idea what he's talking about. All that cardio you're doing is making you fat, and then he posts it, he leaves it, probably never checks it again, and you have a ton of cardio lovers clicking on it and debating him all day and he's not debating back, he's just watching his clicks and views go up. Which advertisers look at. They don't look at style of engagement. They go oh man, so this post just got a thousand likes in a minute, or it got a thousand views in a minute. It got a thousand angry comments in a minute, like they don't know it's angry, they don't care. So that's how it works. So clickbait is something to be aware of, that you know. If you see something like that and it seems a little like controversial, probably is probably don't have to go there Like I'm guessing. You know that it's something that you don't need to know at that very minute.
Speaker 1:All right, and I'll wrap up this little education part on it because I want to get to the more of the meat and the potatoes with one final little story on that. So yeah, I listen to a podcast that talks a lot about philosophy and he tells the story often about Napoleon who, you know, right or wrong, didn't do some great things but is considered to be a very good general. So one thing he did he told his, his people under him, was like he wasn't going to look at the mail for one month. He wasn't going to look at the mail. He was just going to say, all right, in a month, bring me last month's mail and if it wasn't dated a month, he didn't read it until a month went by.
Speaker 1:People were like that's a kind of a peculiar behavior. Why do you do that? He goes because all these things I was going to get wrapped up in have most likely 99% of the time resolved themselves without me having any input, and I just thought that was really fascinating. Can you imagine if he lived in today's society? Right, he's not going to be the dude scrolling on Twitter or X whatever it's called these days, or threads or wherever, and please don't tell me you get your news there, but probably not going to go on there to get the daily news, because in one month's time, if you think about it, it's going to be the next catastrophe, right? And then what did your input on any of this have to do? It didn't, right? We have to think about it that way.
Speaker 1:With the internet, is this something that really deserves my attention? Look, I want you to click on my stuff. I appreciate it. It helps me and I think if you do, and you know me you want to help me and that's cool. I'm just telling you that if you see stuff out there you don't like, don't engage in it, because you're helping them, no matter what. It's plain and simple. It is big business in the fitness industry and every other industry, all right. So let me give you some examples. This stuff came up with food because I overheard a client say and he was dead right he goes.
Speaker 1:I remember taking nutrition class back in I don't know 1980s, and I remember the teacher saying you know what? It's pretty darn simple Eat a variety of moderately healthy foods and don't eat too much of them. And I thought to myself yeah, the world hasn't changed as far as what is true, because that is still true to this day. There's not going to be any gimmicks out there that is going to help you. You know, these guys who are the big wigs of influencers right Big time. I mean people like I don't know what's going to be next with these guys, you know, are people going to start like building churches around them? I mean, like what they say is gospel to some people and it's really really insane. And in the world of optimizing, I'm telling you people, not everything has to be optimized. There isn't a perfect food that is going to optimize your diet. It's going to come down to what I just said.
Speaker 1:The client hit it on the head. Whatever his nutrition teacher, whoever it was, bless them, because let me tell you, they said the right thing. We need to eat a variety of moderately healthy food and not eat too much of it. When it comes to nutrition, that is it. If you need to lose weight, you need to eat less than you're eating to move more. It's that simple. If you need to get stronger, you need to eat less than you're eating to move more. It's that simple. If you need to get stronger, you need to go to the gym or strength train on a regular basis, at least two times a week. You need to be doing cardio respiratory exercise most days of the week. That's it. Get some sleep, drink some water. That's it. Don't buy into the bullshit. And if you do, don't blame anybody else my clients that do it. Man, I will talk about this stuff and then the next thing you know, a client will bring something up and I'll look at them and I'll say, seriously, I mean, didn't we just talk about this? Did I put that on the podcast and in the email? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you meant this.
Speaker 1:So there was a guy who is no longer alive and I will spare his name. Um did a lot of good things. He also did a lot of pretty crappy things, but anyway, he was in the fitness industry, very well known, very famous, and, uh, I knew some of his uh people and, um no, people that knew him very well worked under him and on one of his trips across the world, he decided he was going to collect elephant dung, which is elephant poop, and he knew exactly what he was going to do with it and he said what I'm going to do is I'm going to collect all this. I'm going to like run it through a few machines. I'm going to make it smaller, I'm going to mix it with some other crap and I'm going to bring it back to the united states. And this guy was american, but he was in another part of the world, another continent, and, uh, don't really want to say where because it might give them away. So, you know, people can guess, use their imagination. But anyway and he said it to his fellow travel mates who knew him, so they weren't surprised at all he said I'm going to bring this back to the United States and mix it with some other things and I'm going to sell it to the Americans, especially the ones that go to the gyms, because, man, they are a bunch of freaking morons and I will get them to believe that this is going to be the next supercharger, muscle builder, fat burner, and they will buy it.
Speaker 1:Now, keep in mind when it comes to supplements, the FDA doesn't regulate, so people can do that. Right, there is buyer. Beware, here is the crazy part. He didn't hide it. He told people well, number one was on the ingredients and number two, he told people what it was Like, didn't say this is a joke on you. I mean, I guess it was moderately safe. Nobody died from what I understand, but I don't know how many people bought it, but some people did. They literally told him on the packaging what this is going to be said. You know it doesn't matter, it is this super charger. Nobody's heard of it. You know, kind of like my green zones in the beginning, like you're an idiot if you don't do it. You know that kind of marketing and people bought it, even though they know they were consuming elephant poop. People bought it. Do I believe it? Well, number one, absolutely, because I know the people who told me the story and I trust them and I value their opinion. And number two, I've seen behavior like this in the past 35 years.
Speaker 1:When I worked out at my little gym in New Smyrna, we had this dude and he sold a lot of different things and a lot of people did actually, but this guy I'm just going to refer to, in his gym bag he would bring in stuff, you know, and it could be like liver in a supplement. You know, like people were selling liver back in the day. There was all these little things. He didn't make them, he bought them or got. Well, it's going to stay off the internet. But no way, this is. He bought them.
Speaker 1:He went to I don't know some wholesale health food store and bought up a bunch and he would bring it to the gym and he would sell it to people in there and be like, dude, you got to take this. It's going to make you so vascular. How much? 20 bucks. Somebody would go to their cart at 20 bucks. Come back he'd hand it to them. You know, I mean I seen it over and over and over this guy would be making a hundred bucks a day every time he came to the gym selling five different bottles of shit to people. So, yes, people are going to do it.
Speaker 1:You know, I mean I was going to say to his credit, but I don't know if I can really give this guy credit, but you know, he did, I think kind of believe in it. Like I think he took this stuff. I don't know for sure, but I know he sold it. So look, yes, I believe it and it's pretty scary. So you know, the moral of the story is use your common freaking sense. Okay, if it's. I mean, didn't we all hear this from our parents or grandparents? You know, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. You know little things like that. There are quotes and sayings, for a reason, and it seems like in today's society we have just forgotten these things. All right, so hopefully you've learned how to navigate the internet, how to eat and, hey, let's go out there and celebrate all of these new green zones.
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 Hawk, 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.
