There Is A Method to the Madness

Mind Over Muscles

• Rob Maxwell, M.A.

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Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
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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 training. I am the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Program, and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really worked and most importantly why things work. Hence the name, there is a method to the magnet. Before I get started today, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilding 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. Let's talk about some physical fitness and some wellness. First thing I want to do is give a couple brief updates. The uh MaxFit Mile went incredibly well. Um, about 10 days ago now we have our second one planned for October 25th. It went, I mean, it went super great. I mean, I was so thrilled with it. I'd spoken before about how we are trying to bring back something where people can compete on a monthly basis, have a little bit of a series. Um, and you know, the mile is is uh kind of a cool event. It's uh often thought of as uh by endurance athletes is actually the hardest endurance test. You know, a mile is a mile, so some endurance athletes will look at it like, well, that's really short, but the intensity is very extreme. And, you know, it's something that we can race and do. Yeah, so we brought it back for that reason for an opportunity for people to compete against each other, and it's sponsored by ProCharge Liquid Protein that's uh actually made here in Port Orange, and they sponsored it, which was really cool because they gave out a lot of money to the winners. There was$600 in cash prizes given. I mean, that's really generous. I mean, the registrants paid$20 to enter, and uh they get they can walk away with big time cash. And uh, that's another reason why we're putting on the event, is because the events, because we really feel like these race companies need to do a better job of putting these events on. Like I think they forget that the people that are paying to do these things, even though a lot of them are attached to charities and people are going to donate anyway. I mean, they are customers, and customers should be treated very well. And so many times in these 5K's over the last five years, if not longer, the quality has really gone downhill. I mean, a lot of times they run out of t-shirts, they mismeasure the course, they start late. I mean, in my opinion, being a business owner for the past 31 years, that's unacceptable. I mean, you need to earn your customers buck, right? I think you do. So that's another reason we're doing it, not only to have competition, but also to really put on a good series. So it was, it was very successful. Our male winner did it in just under four minutes and 40 seconds, which is insane. And um this was on a pretty hot, dark morning. The next one's gonna be at seven, a little bit later, and probably a little cooler, even though it'll be a half hour later. Um, but it was dark, and this guy still ran this time, and the female winner also ran an incredible time, somewhere around 515, I think. I mean, everybody ran well, everybody competed. Like it doesn't matter what your level is, the idea is to compete against yourself, and they did. I was really happy with it, and I believe all of the participants were as well. Another piece of news is that we won the best around award by the hometown news, and this is the third year in a row that I won it. And uh back in the day with the Daytona Beach News Journal, we used to win best around all the time, and they kind of got away from that. But, you know, now there's uh best around um in the hometown news, and we won that for the third year. And I'm very excited to tell everybody that Ellen won Best Massage Therapist this year, which is really kind of cool. So we got it brought home the dynamic duo of best personal training and best massage. So I thank everybody for voting in that. It's always an honor to say, you know, thank you that people care enough to log on and put our names in there. So we really appreciate the effort in that. All right, so I guess that's gonna wrap up the little bit of news. I want to talk a little bit today about adding more quality to your workout. I'm just gonna stay on that. We I talked about it last time a little bit in the value of having a personal trainer. I've been putting it in our newsletters, and I just want to continue to harp on, if that's the right word, of making sure that like we're really doing the best we can with the quality of our workouts. Um, it was yesterday I was working with a client of ours, and uh, he was on the tricep press down machine. And I told him, I said, look, at the bottom of the movement, I want you to open up your hands. And I kind of showed him, you know, where you flare your hands open and you kind of raise your pinky. So your hand is a completely open, not a closed grip, but an open grip. I said, at the bottom, just push down with the inner part here between your finger and thumb and open up your hand. And so he did, and he finished his set that way. And afterwards he was pretty surprised. And he said, you know what? I really did start feeling that more when I did that. And this is a client that really likes physiological explanations to things, which I also like. Like, I think that's really cool that he's interested in that stuff. I mean, that makes the workout more exciting for me is to go ahead and explain what we're trying to do. So he said, What is the physiological reason for this? Like, why does that work? And I kind of laughed and I said, Well, honestly, there isn't a physiological reason behind it, you know. I mean, there's just not. There, there's nothing in the kinesiology of it that's going to change if you open up your hand. So each muscle has a function, what we call a joint action, that it's responsible for. So the triceps are responsible for elbow extension. So it's going to completely extend your elbow. That's what the triceps do. They are also responsible for wrist pronation. Those two movements is what the triceps do. Opening up your hand does not technically improve either of those. It doesn't do either. So he said, Why did it work? And I kind of laughed and said, Because it does. So sometimes just putting our focus on things like that, other people's experience. And I think just opening up your hands really just gets the point across that you're trying to extend your elbow all the way. And it's sort of a visual reminder to do so, makes it burn, but there's really not a physiological reason. But the long and short of it is that another person's experience, mine, passing that on to him, is going to help him get more out of it. So we can really get more out of our workouts if we continue to try to strive to do little things to feel it more. I mean, I just think that's so important. And so when this happened the other day, and again, he he liked it. He is always one that likes little tick tips and tricks to get more out of his exercises. He always appreciates it. And then that makes me appreciate that because I love teaching little nuggets of wisdom like that. But like there are so many of these things that we can do to get more benefit out of the workout. When you have people around you that have experience, that have been lifting, that have been doing things for a really, really long time, and you trust them, understanding the difference between an unqualified trainer and/or influencer and a qualified trainer, once you understand that, there's so many nuggets that can be passed on that if we pay attention to them, we will get so much more out of the workout. Now, just from a personal standpoint, I'll say that I get like kind of blown away or surprised um because I just can't relate. And I get it. I mean, you know, look, if if if there weren't a lot of people out there that uh didn't absolutely love to work out and uh, you know, really struggle just to get to the gym. I mean, if those people didn't really exist for the most part, then I probably wouldn't have a thriving business for the past 31 years. So I absolutely get it that not everybody is just thrilled to get to the gym and when they're there, remain thrilled. I I get it. I guess the thing I struggle with sometimes, it's like, well, but once you learn, isn't there something in you that wants to get the most out of it? Because I have trouble relating to that, because me personally, that's like my happy place, you know. I mean, you know, when it comes to strength training, like that's what I do mostly. I really, really focus, and I've spoken about this before. It's almost a meditation for me. Well, it actually is a meditation for me when you really look at the definition of meditation, which is putting all of our conscience onto consciousness onto one thing, like really, really focusing on one thing. Too many people kind of like misunderstand meditation, and they think, well, you're kind of supposed to sit back and zone out and you know, let all this go. And it's like, no, that's not it. Like, you're really supposed to be in deep focus of some kind or another. So meditation does not have to be sit on the ground and get into a yogi position and close your eyes and say, um, and focus on your mantra. I mean, that's great if it works for you. But for me, meditation in many, many ways has always been some form of physical exercise. But the key is it is because I focus. I don't just kind of, I mean, I I'm not perfect every time, of course. So there are days that I'm a little distracted and I'm not as focused as I should be, of course. But that's the area that I try to work on the most. I really want to try to stay focused. So when I go to the gym, I absolutely will put my brain into what I'm doing, the range of motion, the squeeze. And if there are little tips and tricks that I can do to feel that movement more, then that's what I'm going to do. So when people don't take advantage of that, I feel kind of surprised. I'm like, I mean, we're we're in such a distracted world right now. I mean, we have our phones, we have our smartwatches, and they're calling for our attention all of the time. I mean, when we go exercise, wouldn't we want to like take a timeout and not feed into all of that and really just put our focus into the exercises that we're doing? Um, you know, it might come across as a little biased because my style of weight training through the years has always been more of a bodybuilding style. So when I started really getting serious about weight training in my late teens, early 20s, I kind of gravitated more towards a bodybuilding style workout, which really just means putting more emphasis on the aesthetics versus more emphasis on getting stronger and stronger and stronger. Like the emphasis was not on that so much. And I think, like, you know, there's that saying that says we don't choose our sport, our sport chooses us. I think there's a lot of truth to that because genetically I'm more geared towards that style. That's more my body type, uh, that's more my muscle belly lengths and things like that. So it came more natural to me. So I tended to gravitate towards that. So that's a fact that that was, you know, has been a hobby of mine. I mean, I think really when we all strengthen train, we all bodybuild. I mean, you know, so I have to put that out there too. But bodybuilders, and again, uh yes, that's kind of what I've done, but at the same time, I'm also saying this objectively, tend to do a lot better job of this than other forms of strength training that I see. So other forms of strength training are what? Well, there's powerlifting, and powerlifting is the sport of the bench press, the squat, and the deadlift. And the objective is to be able to do a one rep max with as heavy of a load as possible in all of those three exercises. They add up the total numbers, and that's how they crown the powerlifting champion. There's weightlifting, like you see in the Olympics. I guess you see powerlifting in the Olympics now, too. But there's weightlifting, and that's going to be the exercises of the snatch and the clean and jerk, which are explosive movements that are done with a lot of technique, but also a lot of load. So those two sports are predominantly about how much weights can you lift? Like what's the heaviest load you can use? So the emphasis is completely on strength. And then a lot of people don't necessarily call themselves powerlifters or weightlifters. CrossFit does a lot of the weightlifting style stuff, and I would throw them in the category of those styles of strength training athletes that just want to get stronger. I mean, those three sports kind of all go to that, where bodybuilding is more about aesthetics, and there tends to be less of an emphasis on how much weight is lifted and how many can you do, and more of an emphasis on how are the muscles developing, what is their tonicity, what is the symmetry. So it's much more of say an internal feeling-oriented sport. And a lot of times people that get into pure strength training, and you know, I said my when I got serious about it, I really got into bodybuilding. That's true. But we all start out just trying to be stronger. I mean, I can remember when I got my first barbell set, and it was one of those classic skinny bars with the cement weights, the plastic with the cement inside, you know, and I remember, I don't remember where I got it from, but I remember I put it together. I was probably 12 or 13 years of age, and um, you know, I'm sure my mom paid for it for me. And all I wanted to do was be able to bench press more. I mean, that's all I could care about because that's what the kids in seventh grade and junior high, which was the age I was, cared about. You know, how much do you bench? So, you know, I would go home every day after school until I guess the phase ran out, but and I would try to bench press more weight, which of course is a very dumb, you know, protocol of training, but I didn't know better. Yeah, uh, and there were days I would try to, and every time I would do it, I would just try to bench press more weight. Like there was no training methodology. It was just throw more weight on the bar and try it. And I can tell you on more than one occasion, having the weight stuck to my chest in my little garage in New Smyrna and having to roll it down my rib cage and finding a way to sit up with nobody around, no spotter mom at work, sister out doing whatever she's doing, uh, you know, and not dying. So, you know, that was great. So that was like my entry into it, like most boys at the time, just the bench press. But then when I got serious about it, as I said, I got into um the bodybuilding. So strength athletes, and some stay that way. Like some tend to not venture into anything other than getting stronger. So they may not formally call themselves powerlifters or formally call themselves weightlifters, but they go to the gym to get stronger. And we all do, but like when the emphasis is only on that strength, then the focus doesn't tend to be there. There doesn't tend to be as much of that mind muscle connection that I think is so critical, especially for your mental health, to be able to really focus and meditate as you are strength training. The the kind of the desire would be no matter what the exercise is, again, it it doesn't have to be formal powerlifting, a bench press, squat, or deadlift. It could be a guy just wants to like curl as much weight as he can. Or if you're looking at, say, endurance, do as many push-ups as he can or as many pull-ups as he can. I mean, all this is fine. But the emphasis on quality doesn't tend to be there. Bodybuilders tend to more naturally focus on the feel, which I think is extremely beneficial. And as trainers, and you know, once we go down that road and and realize we want to get into this as a career, we tend to be able to take that emphasis and teach it to clients because we all want to get stronger going to the gym. I mean, the majority of the people that come to us now want improved ADLs. And I love that. Activities of daily living, like that is has been the biggest change in the last 15 years or so of physicians making sure they recommend to their patients that they strength train so they have a better quality of life. So a lot of our clients are middle-aged andor seniors that are focused on ADLs, and that's great. That is getting stronger. What I want everybody to understand is that if you are lifting loads at the gym and the emphasis is on doing the exercise as good as you can, as well as you can, with as much focus as you can, you are going to get stronger. So it's not like you have to bench press a one rep max to get stronger. I mean, there's not a big difference between training for pure strength and training for pure hypertrophy, which is muscular size that bodybuilders would want. There's not a big difference. Like our muscles get stronger by adding muscle mass. That's how they get stronger. All of the strength gains, 95% of the strength gains come from hypertrophy, which is muscle cell enlargement. So that's how they get stronger anyway. The difference is the mindset going into it. So when we can go to the gym and focus more on the quality of what we're trying to do, we are going to get more benefits. I mean, there has been study after study after study that 100% confirms the fact that if you put your attention on the muscles that you are working, like you really sit there and think about it, mind to muscle, that you get a greater response. So that's a physiological benefit. The next benefit, again, is mental. You're actually getting some meditation when you do it. I had, when I was teaching, I had a uh professional bodybuilder who will remain nameless come and speak to the students. I should say a student had him come because she knew him. And I approved it. There were some things I did not approve about this bodybuilder because I knew that they were advocates of anabolic steroids. Now, in fairness to them, they did explain that they did it through the help of a physician and they thought it was absolutely silly for somebody to do it not that way. So, in fairness to them, they did say that, which I respected them saying it. At the same time, I'm not, unless there's medical reasons, I'm not an advocate of anabolic steroids. But anyway, um he did say one thing that I really, really shook my head, like, wow, yeah, you keep keep talking. You know, I was like, good, there you go. He was talking about how some of the kids were asking him about when he lifts, you know, how much does he lift and how much does he bench? And he kind of just said, you know, after all these years, you know, people still make fun of me because they'll look at the bar I'm using for an exercise and have all these different weights on it, and it'll look really funky because it'll be like two and a half, then there'll be fives, and we'll be tens. And he goes, that's because I don't think about any of that. Like I really think about how the load feels. And I couldn't even tell you how much is on the bar. I just know like what I start with, and then I'll do a set and I'll see what I feel, then I'll add a little more load, and I'll see what I feel, and I'll get close to fatigue, and then I'll rest and I'll add a little more load, or I'll take some load off, and I'm thinking, yes, that's it right there. Like, I don't know how many times I have to say to people that your muscles can't count. They don't know, they only know what they feel, and we can change how many reps we get by changing the tempo. So if that's the case, then what does any of that really matter? You know, we keep charts because professionally that's the right thing to do. We should keep some sort of a formal log of what people are doing, and also for some clients, everybody's a little different, but for some, it's very motivating to try to beat certain numbers. And that's okay. But at the end of the day, what really matters is what do the muscles feel on whatever exercise you're doing. Like you can be doing a body weight exercise like a glute bridge, which we have a lot of our clients do for hip strength and low back strength and glute strength, you know, just a basic bridge, whether they're using what we call our butt bench or whether they're doing bridges off the floor, doesn't matter. Like if they do that exercise with good focus and good feel and good form, doesn't matter how many they do. Once their muscles start to get engaged, once they start to burn, once there's a level of fatigue, those muscles are going to get stronger. Or take a calf raise, another very basic exercise you can essentially do anywhere. You can put fingertips on the wall for balance and go way up on your toes, getting your heel off the ground, squeezing those muscles, and it might take 50 or 60 reps to actually feel it, or it might take 10 for some people that are a little deconditioned. It's all the same. Now you can hand somebody 30 pounds, a dumbbell, say now do it. Okay, so now maybe they get closer to fatigue, but they do it in half the time instead of say 50 reps, they got there in 25. What's the difference? Guess what? There isn't one time. That's the difference. One took longer. So oftentimes, if a set's taking too long, specifically for myself or whatever, I'll say, okay, that's too light. This is not working. But there are many things we can do to feel the load. I mean, that's really what it is all about. We can change tempo, we can change um range of motion, we can change the load, we can change the reps. There are so many things we can do, but the most important part is that we really try to feel the exercise. So, like on those tricep extensions, I guarantee you, I just for fun, do it. Just go to the gym, do a set of mindless exercise. Like just do a tricep press down set and do it mindlessly. Put on whatever load you think is appropriate for you, and just kind of blow through it, not thinking too much about it, not focusing at all, just kind of like, okay, I'm supposed to do 15, I'm gonna do 15. I'm not gonna use crappy form because I don't want to, you know, get hurt or I don't want to like totally blow this, but I'm just gonna kind of mindlessly, decently do my 15 exercises, 15 reps. Great. Then, you know, rest, whatever, and then come back and say, this time I'm gonna put all my mind on this exercise. I'm gonna think about what the triceps are feeling. I'm gonna really focus on squeezing the muscle. You're gonna feel it so much more. You were there the same amount of time, but the benefit of really trying to feel that exercise is you're gonna get more out of it. Studies have proven it, and it's gonna be better for your mind. Okay. So one of my 10 rules that's coming out in my new book, which you know, the these are not new rules. The book is new, but these are not new rules. I've been saying them forever, they're up on the whiteboard, is if it's burning, it's working, which is absolutely true. So, next time you go to the gym, I want you to try that little experiment. And remember, we want to get the most out of our time when we are at the gym. I mean, I know I do. I hope you would too. Thank you for listening to today's show. I ask you to please follow this show on wherever you get your podcast, and also please get automatic downloads. It really helps me and it helps the show. Now I want to thank Overhead Door of Dayton Beast, the premier garage door company in Felicia County with the best product, with the best service. I can vouch for Jeff and Zach Hoff, the owners. They are great people. If you need any help with your garage doors, give them a shout. 386 222 3165.

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Rob Maxwell

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