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 Science Beats Guesswork in Fitness
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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 to today's show, I want to thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden 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. You know, there really is a method to the madness. That's uh the title of this podcast, as I think everybody knows. Hopefully, anyway, or maybe you don't. I mean, I guess sometimes I'm uh listening to podcasts and uh one will end and another one will pop on, and um, I'll not even really know who it is or what's going on, but I'll get the first glimpse of it and go, oh, this isn't bad, and continue to listen. That'd be really cool if that happens with mine, but I don't know. That's not happening right now because I think that's happening among the uh the real big boys, you know, so to say. But uh anyway, that's uh the title of this podcast. And the title of my first book I wrote was There is a Method to the Madness. And that is because it's one of the big premises of my career. I think I said premises is is let's just keep in adding, let's just keep adding plurals to that. Here I'll uh I'll wake up pretty soon. It's actually not that early, but uh guess my brain isn't completely awake yet. But there must be a reason why, which uh, you know, is another way of saying that uh there's a method to the madness. So because it's always been a really important theme for me. Um early on in my career, I would say it a lot when people would wonder why we're doing things or wonder why things work or whatever. And I would say, well, you know, there is a method to the madness. And uh my search for like the truth and my search for uh science has always been a big part of what I do, and not just like in physiology, but in all realms, in all sciences, and in all biological sciences or um social sciences, you know, and psychology as well. Like there is a way to explain what works and what doesn't work, and I think ultimately it's just such a more efficient way to follow or such a shortcut on the path you're on if you will actually go to what you're really looking for and figure out the best way to do it. And when we use science, we are able to do that. I mean, I think I don't know. Um help me out here if you're listening, you know, think in your own head, have a conversation to yourself or somebody in the car as you're listening, but you know, bump that around a little bit. Like, like, do people know better? Like, do people understand that like there is better ways to do things, or do people just still think things are randomness and things that aren't? I mean, there are plenty of things in life that are random. I guess that could be argued too. But fitness, health, you know, with the exception of some things that pop up that you don't really have any control over, but it's not very random. You know, let's just keep it the physical fitness, I suppose. It's not very random. So somebody could say, Well, I don't know, explain to me this why this person does this amount of exercise and eats this way, and they look like this and do these things, and this person eats the same way, and they exercise the same way, yet they don't nearly have as good of a physique, and they don't seem to be able to do the things that this person does. And I'd go, uh, genetics. So, like there is a method to the madness. I mean, genetics is a big part of physical fitness, and that's no excuse and it's no cop-out, it's none of those things. It's it's neither. It's just a reality that for some people, just take weight loss alone. It's going to be harder, not impossible, but harder. Like, for example, if anybody um went through a very high obesity period in their life, they're gonna have more fat cells than a person who hasn't. And fat cells just don't go away. They either atrophy or hypertrophy, meaning they either get bigger or smaller. But if you have more of a propensity to fat cells, it's going to be easier to gain weight. Um this is not what this podcast is about. But the point is there is a method to the madness. So when somebody says something like that, I go, well, there's a reason that happens. And that's the point I really want to drive home today, and maybe give you some examples and think about like, what is the shortcut you could take on certain things and figure out what you need to do to get there. And you know me well enough, hopefully, that when I say shortcut, I don't mean the easy way out. I mean the more efficient path. And sometimes the more efficient path is far harder, by the way, but worth it because it gets you there without the wasting of time. And time is an incredible resource that I don't think that we want to waste. So, you know, I'm I outlined it for you. There is a method to the madness in all of these things, the reasons why we experts say things, the reason why certain things work, the reason why certain things don't work, the reason why we tell you not to do certain things. So there is a method to the madness. All right, so made that point. Now let's let's talk about some examples and how this like comes up often in the real world. I did the uh UCF U Can Finish Five Mile yesterday, which was Sunday, and um I like to do a lot of these different um running events and sometimes other types of fitness events, endurance events, whatever. But running seems to be the most common one. And uh so I'll often see a lot of different things that uh you know just kind of make me go, hmm, or well, there's that. So just a couple instances. You always see some things in these running events, whether they be 5Ks or a little bit longer, like this one, or a 10K or 15k. You tend not to see as many blatant mistakes as the distances lengthen because the uh impact of your mistakes are far more consequential than if they were in a 5K. So you tend to see less. And I do believe that people really do learn by doing. And when they make a really bad mistake, they have a tendency to not do it again. But as I say, you know, a big reason why I do this podcast is to try to like help people understand that there are better ways to do things, there are better ways to learn, you know, like getting a good education is learning from the experience of others, but naturally we have to listen to that. So I can think of a few different things that happen. One of them happens all the time that I just shake my head at. And again, just because of the undue misery they're causing themselves. But if you've done a lot of races, do you ever notice that people tend not to know, not know how to pace themselves? They are just totally like random because they're just burnt on energy, maybe that's the case I think sometimes with kids. But other people too. They might just be a bundle of nerves of anxiety, which is completely understandable. I mean, you're gonna have that for sure. But learning how to handle that then, method to the madness says there can be a better way to do this in a in a less good way. But some people are just like have no concept how to do that. And so I just think it's it's partly because of the anxiety thing, like I said, and ignorance of not knowing. But then there are also people that do the same thing, but they're they're a little more like um, what's the word? I think they maybe know a little more what they're doing when they do it, but they tend to be pacing off of other people, like they tend to be racing people. Um, you know, maybe not totally consciously, but enough to where the person they're doing it to notices, like you might run up on somebody, you know, not because you are racing them. Like, just to put this out there for me, like that's never going to be the case. I mean, I've been, gosh, doing this as long as I've been doing personal training, jumping in different races. Like, I don't race the random stranger. I mean, and people say, well, doesn't it make you better? No, it actually doesn't. So, like, and I'm also very in in my own way introverted in many ways, and running is one of the things I like to do because of that. So I either will have my headphones on or nothing at all, but I'm really in my own world, and I'm pretty darn good at like knowing my capabilities and knowing my goals and staying within that and not letting other people alter that. So the answer is no. I don't use other people for positive or negative, either way. It doesn't try to ignore the best I can because I'm trying to like really just kind of enjoy the moment of solitude, so to say. And if you know me, you know not to just come running up and start talking to me when I'm running, because I don't I just don't want to be bothered. I I don't enjoy it. So, anyway, but other people will, and you you're running up on them, or in my case, I am, and then next thing you know, like instead of you know going by them, they're now running next to you. And if you've been doing this long enough, you know, oh God, here we go, you know, and they tend to almost be like using your pace as a way to motivate them, right? And so is it a bad thing? I mean, I don't know about bad, but like there's a method to the madness that that's not gonna work long term for somebody. I mean, it doesn't ultimately bother me because I have a pretty good way of just tending to ignore people and doing my thing, and they usually burn out if they if that ended up sparking them and they run ahead and they and I never see them again. Great. I mean, great. I'm glad I was able to do that for you. Or if I run by them, you know, okay, either way. I mean, and that does happen, but sometimes you're kind of stuck with them almost, you know. And if you slow down a little bit because you have to, um, and then they do, and you're thinking, oh God, like person's use literally using my pace. So there's a reason why that people improve their cardiorespiratory fitness. Like if somebody goes into an event like that, they say, you know, this is my goal, this is the pace I believe I can hit based on objective thinking. If you don't know, you don't know. That's fine. Um, and I'm gonna do this. And then if somebody doesn't do that, and they're just like, well, I'm gonna use the other person to do this, or I just don't know better. And if they start running by me, that means that they're beating me. Like that they're thinking that the person is racing them, right? And so then their competitive juices get flowing. And that's unless you're like racing somebody like for real, like you're in the top three and you're battling it out for a prize of substantial gain, money or something, or even age group notoriety, whatever, like, and you know that, okay, that's a little different. I'm not really talking about that. Even that, I would argue, is a little bit superficial at the adult level, but you know, it definitely that at least there's a reason then. But the problem is that then you are going to have your own set of problems. Number one, you're not going to run your best race. If you're running somebody else's best race, you're not going to run your best race. And the whole idea is to get better. That's how I look at everything I do. I always try to get better. If I'm doing something aerobically like that, my aim is to get better. So, how do I get better? I look at what I did the last time in similar circumstances, similar distances, similar weather, whatever. And I said, Well, if I was able to maintain this pace, then I should be able to do this. So that is my goal. And if I hit that goal, then I'm getting better. Like that's how I look at things. And my idea of better, meaning best, are long over. I can promise you that in my early 40s, late 30s was when I was running my absolute best, but now it's just better than I was, say, last weekend or two weekends ago. Whatever. It's just always striving to be a little bit better for me, is the goal. Now, when other people don't go into it that way, and they go into it basically just being like victimless or a victim of the other person's pace, you're not going to get better. It doesn't work. So, what ends up happening is you'll see people running either too fast or too slow based on other people. So it just doesn't work. So the method of the madness says there's a reason why you want to figure out what your best average pace is and then run it. The reason is because you will be at your best and you will be able to set your future goals knowing you did your best. So there's a method to the madness. The other side of it is if you do it too extreme, if you're constantly racing somebody, then you might have like a really, really, really negative experience, meaning you basically just bonk. You run out of energy, you end up walking. That's because you're kind of like a rudderless ship. You're just doing what they do. So there's a method to the madness. That's just a small one. I'm going to give you some examples there. Another one I saw, well, there was a guy, um, I don't know, somewhere around the halfway point, I think. And um I catch up to him, and I'm running my pace. Like I was I was on yesterday as far as like hitting my goals. Um, not saying fast, I'm saying like I was reaching my goal of having nice, consistent, even paces of at five seconds or less per mile every mile. Like that was my goal, you know, to not vary it that much. And I was able to do that. So somewhere around the halfway mark, I come up on somebody. There's I mean, there's people the whole way it's packed, but I noticed this guy because he was kind of tall and he's wearing a hood. And that's the whole point. A hood. Now, it was like nice, 63, 64 degrees at the start. I mean, that's nice compared to the 80s we run in in Daytona Beach here or in Orlando in this case in the summer. So it was nice, but it's not hoodie nice, right? And I mean, so it's like, so what's the method to the madness? It's like, okay, so maybe you say, well, he absolutely doesn't care, you know. It's like, okay, so there's a reason to wear the hoodie. I mean, and it's not, it wasn't like a one of those hoodies that's like like kids wear because they're really cold. It was more like one of those hoodie t-shirt things that people wear now, you know. I don't know. I mean, I don't want to sound judgmental, but to kind of look cool, maybe. But it's like, okay, but you know, okay, so physiologists, what's wrong with that? Well, that the head traps in heat. So if it's not that cold out, and and bottom line is, you know, I had this conversation with a client of mine who was going up to Ohio to run a half marathon this past weekend, and she was saying it was like 47, 48. I said, well, the research shows that you know, if it's that, you don't dress that abnormal for that. In other words, that's just pretty much normal t-shirt and shorts right there, you know? And it it's not until it starts to drop below 40 that you start to think about wearing tights. As far as performance, again, I'm talking performance, and I'm not talking elite performance. I'm talking about you doing your best and then what is best for your recovery afterwards. So the research shows anything over 40, you don't really need tights. Below 40, it's time to start keeping some of the extremities a little bit warmer, or at least it's it's productive too. It's not going to be counterproductive to do that, okay. Research also shows that like we trap heat through our skull, through our head. So if you're wearing a hat or a hoodie, you're trapping in that heat. And he did it was a long-sleeve hoodie, too. So, you know, you say, Well, what's wrong with that? He wanted to be warm. It's like, okay, if you were to pull him aside and say, you know, not that I would, I mean, goodness gracious, I wouldn't say anything to any of these people. I mean, the one thing I've also learned in all these years is to mind my own frickin' business. I might talk about it in a podcast, but I'm definitely not going to offer advice or make schnide comments. Because again, it might, his reason it might be, you know what? I don't, I like was just running along and um I get cold really easy. And, you know, my girlfriend thinks I look cute with my hood like this, and that's my reason. I'm like, cool. I mean, great, no problem. And that's the whole point of this whole podcast is like, but why do we do the things we do? And is it in our best interest? And is it time to stop and think about it before we do them? Because the reasoning you would tell them not to do that would be, well, you're gonna go significantly slower because the heat's gonna be trapped in, you're gonna eventually slow down. You you feel 63, 64, which feels really, really nice, but your body temperature ramps up. And and just for me, for example, when I finished, um, I mean, it was that temperature and maybe got a little warmer at the end, but I was sweaty. I mean, it's really like that's still not cool. It's cooler, it's not cool. So the body is going to heat up. And if you ever watch some of those elite marathoners, like in Boston and New York and Chicago, you know, the elite, the pros, you know, even in cold weather, you're gonna see them in singlets and shorts. And occasionally you'll see gloves. And they ditch the gloves later on because like your body is gonna do better when it's cold. It's just going to. That's the method to the madness. I mean, your heart rate is going to escalate about 10 beats per normal in when it's warmer. So if you if you understand anything about fitness, you know that as you work harder, your heart rate goes up. So if you're if your heart rate's already going up, not because you're working harder, but because now your body is working harder to cool itself off, you're taking resources away from areas that could be making you go faster. And you might go, well, I don't want to go faster. It's like, well, we all want to be done, and we all want to be done like reasonable time and then recover. So I think even people that say that aren't being totally truthful. Like everybody wants to finish, may not want to like have the best time there, and I get that, but we all want to do our best, I think, or close to it, or at least get done in a reasonable time so we can go on and do the next thing and then again recover. So just so many people are like not putting a lot of thought into what they do when they do it, and it is a common, common theme in the fitness world. I'll see people go to the gym, or people will ask me questions on social media, and they'll say, I go to the gym and I see this guy doing this on the pull-up bar, and they'll describe something. I'll say, Well, okay, but why does that pique your interest? So, well, he's got pretty big lats, and you know, so maybe that's why he got pretty big lats. And I'll say, or maybe he's got pretty pretty big lats because number one, he has good genetics, and number two, he does work his upper lats and rhomboids on a regular basis, but it may not be for this. So I think a human tendency is to observe what other people and always think that they know more than you do. And I think that's a big problem, unless you are speaking to somebody who does know more than you do. Like if you're speaking to an expert in a given field, like if you're speaking to me about strength training or cardiorespiratory endurance or diet, then yeah, I would hope you'd kind of acquiesce to my opinions and and guidance on what, because I probably do know more than you do in that subject matter. So that makes sense. But just watching random people at events, I think we got to be really, really careful because there are so many people that when we go to some of these fitness vents like this five mile or like 5K, so we just assume people know what they're doing. And so people start copying what other people do. And in the case of like clothing, I mean, I mean, I think probably everybody listening has seen it, or now you're gonna see it, but that's what these kids do. I mean, they go to the gym and they now wear their hoodies, you know? It's like this cool thing to do. Some of them will literally pull the hood over the head before they bench press. It's like, okay, yeah, but but no, it's got no physiological benefit to do that. I mean, come on, right? You know that it there's not like, oh, it must do this. Like, no, it's it's a cool thing, right? So whatever, let kids be kids, but like we have to understand that, like, there's usually a reason why people are improving at certain things, and rather than guess or watch the rest of the clueless crews out there doing things, why don't we stop and ask the expert? Like, what is the method to the madness? How many people out there are told one way or the other they might not have somebody in their face saying, Hey, you need to take creatine if you want to get stronger? That may not happen or it may, but just the fact that your influencer is saying, I take creatine and it builds strength, is kind of telling you to take creatine. Now, am I telling you not to take creatine? No, I'm not, I'm not. I mean, I actually think it's a decent supplement, but right there, I'm not telling you to take it either. What I'm saying is, or what I'm getting ready to say is most people have no clue what it is or why it works. And I remember explaining it to a client because I think his girlfriend first brought it up, and then he actually did want to try it based on the explanation. But he's smart enough to go, wait a minute, what is this? And I said, Look, creatine is short for phosphocreatin, and it is an immediate energy substrate that is stored in the cells along with ATP or denison triphosphate, and they're the only two high-energy phosphates that are stored directly in the muscle cell ATP and phosphocreatin, the only two high-energy phosphates. When we run out of ATP, we don't have any energy, so our body is constantly trying to metabolize more ATP. That's what it's doing. So phosphocreatin or creatin's job, once it is used, so once the ATP is broken down, half of it, which is ADP, adenison diphosphate, forms with creatine, phosphocreatin, to make more ATP. So creatin's role is to bind with half of the ATP that's broken down to make more energy. So that's what ATP is. It naturally occurs in the body. Now, the belief has always been through the years that if you hyperstore ATP, meaning kind of try to store more than your body needs, it'll always be readily available and you can add some strength and power. Just strength and power, by the way. There is not a lot of studies that support ATP and hypertrophy or ATP and aerobic fitness. But there has been enough significant studies that I have seen that says it does improve strength and power. All right. So, but that's the reason why it works. Now, my whole point wasn't to like bore you with what happens with ATP and phosphocreatin, but it was to make you see there is a method to the madness, like there is with almost everything in the fitness world. So that might make you go, well, then if there's no side effects, which only you can discuss with your physician, by the way, if there's no side effects, then maybe I do that if I've got the money to spend. Okay, there you go. There's the information, but that's the method to the madness. That's why people take, well, I shouldn't say that. I love to believe that that's why people take it, but I think people take it because other people take it. But that's the reason why smart people take it. I'm not trying to tell you to take it. I'm trying to be so careful with my words here. Take it if you want to take it. But the point is, if if you're educated on it and you decide it's good for you and you know why you're taking it, then great. But don't just take it because other people do. And that is the exact point of this podcast. There are so many reasons why things work and don't work. And what you have to do with your goals is sit down and go, okay, what do I need to do? Like, what is the shortcut or shorter path to reaching my goals? What is the method to the madness? I heard a guy, and I heard it, I read a guy's post on social media the other day, and I actually really liked it. And he was a he calls himself a natural bodybuilder. That means people that don't take steroids, and I tend to follow a lot of them. And he said, you know, this is how I grow. When I go to the gym, I don't count this, I don't count that. I do high reps to failure, and then afterwards, I make sure I adequately refuel with food and I get enough rest. And because of that, I've been able to grow my whole life. And I thought, that's true. Like, there is a method to the madness behind that. Like, we can talk about repetition ranges and percentages of load and how many exercises to do per muscle group, and how many exercises to do per workout, and all that stuff is great. But the true direct path is learning to train all of the muscles in the body, all the major muscle groups, train them to failure with an adequate amount of reps, refuel afterwards with proper nutrition, and get your rest. And you will grow. Like that is the method to the madness. All those other ways to it could work, but they don't guarantee it. Like if you do a lot of high reps but not the failure, probably aren't going to grow any muscles. If you train heavier but not with enough reps, probably not gonna grow any muscles. If you train like all of the muscle groups in the body on a regular basis, but with very little intensity, probably not gonna grow muscles. But if you do like what he was saying, you know, trains them all, trains them to failure, and refuels, probably gonna grow muscles. So there is really a method to the mana. So I want you to think about that. And if you want, come up with your own examples of what you see people do, like the silly hood in the races or you know, other Other people racing people during training, you know, just the things you might see at the gym, people wearing weird outfits or weird belts and weird grips and weird wrist wraps and all this stuff at the gym, you know, all these things you might notice, or you might notice your friends taking this bottle of whatever for lunch every day. You know, look at it and go, hmm, like, is there a method to the Mattis, or do they just not know better? And we probably know the answer to that, but we can also change it. And one way to change it is share this podcast. 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.
