Program, Not A Gym

Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
Welcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...

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Chapters

• 0:00 Name Matters, Method Matters
• 0:24 Sponsor Shoutout & Setup
• 0:46 Why I Named the Business
• 3:04 Personal Training Then vs Now
• 7:03 Degrees, Credentials, and Standards
• 7:33 Program Over “Gym” Mindset
• 10:53 Who Makes A Good Client
• 12:25 Programming 101: Volume
• 14:05 Reps, Load, and Safety
• 14:41 [Ad] Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
• 15:28 (Cont.) Reps, Load, and Safety
• 17:38 Intensity: Training Near Failure
• 21:11 Modifications For Real Bodies
• 24:50 Anti-Bootcamp Philosophy
• 28:31 Individualized Squats and Progressions
• 31:12 Good Trainers Program, Then You Work
• 31:52 Closing Notes & Sponsor

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to There is a Method to the Magnets. My name is Rob Maxwell, and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. 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 worked. Hence the name, there is a method to the magnetic. Before I get started today, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden 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. There is something in a name. Did you know that? When I was first starting my business, I was told that number one, make sure the title of your business has your name in it. And this was from, you know, some research people at the university talking about businesses that found that the businesses, I'm sure the small businesses, you know, I imagine that's what they're talking about, tend to do a little bit better when it's more personalized and has your name in it. And then also, what is it your business does? So that kind of sounds like common sense how to pick your name, at least as far as the second part of that goes. So I've always believed that there is something in a name. And I often say that to people because I want to emphasize the important part of what I do. For those that don't know, I own Maxwell's Fitness Programs. That's the name of the business. And it's been that ever since I started out. And I've been doing this 31 years now, basically since 1994, when I first started taking paychecks from my own individual clients. Naturally, the business has evolved, but uh that's how long I've been doing it as a personal trainer. And uh I picked Maxwell's fitness programs. Well, like I said, I was told that you should use your name in the business, but I also picked it because of the programs. Now, naturally, fitness kind of goes without saying, right? If you know it's a personal training business, then fitness kind of goes in there. That's the easiest one to figure out out of all of them. But the programming I wanted to make sure was unique because I think it is unique, or it's at least unique to me as far as what I want to do, and as far as what I believe in, and as far as what I do. So let me backtrack just for a second. And I need to explain that when I started out as a personal trainer, it was not like it is now. And I'm sure most of you shouldn't make that assumption. Many of you are old enough to remember going back like 30 years, you know, maybe you didn't have a trainer, you know, maybe that wasn't part of your lifestyle, but you know what I'm talking about. It was very different. I can think of two trainers that I knew for sure at that time in my life in the early 90s that were working as personal trainers. That's it. Now I've learned since that there were other people in the area working as personal trainers, and I got to know some of them, and they're friends of mine back in those days, but I didn't know them then. I knew of two guys, and um that's all I knew. And at the time, personal trainers, it it wasn't like this everybody has to have one thing, or everybody has one at a gym. I mean, it wasn't even close to that. Like, I don't believe, at least not in Central Florida where I lived, there was personal training studios. For the most part, personal trainers were doing what I did early on. They were meeting their clients at different gyms that they either had memberships at or they made an arrangement with the owner and they would train their clients there. The client would pay them, and they'd be on their way. So that's kind of what I knew about personal training. And when I was training at World Gym in Daytona Beach around this time period, I was training for my first bodybuilding show, and I can remember these two guys coming in and they train people, and people would, you know, they talk about you know who they are and what they did. Because, you know, it's gonna be you're gonna be curious. You're gonna see these guys walking around and they always have different people with them. And it was definitely more of a luxury item back then, like it was more of um what you would think of it at the time, like only rich people had personal trainers type of thing. And there was one guy, he always waited for his client, and she'd roll up in her Ferrari. Um, you know, and if if you live in Daytona, you might even know who I'm talking about back then. But she would work out with this guy, and you know, that's when we'd start asking questions about what they're doing and and all this kind of stuff. And and I got along with both of these trainers pretty well back then. I mean, I always did actually, but I mean, one of them in particular, one of them later on wanted me to uh after I got um my master's degree, he wanted me to be his uh guy on all of his paperwork because he didn't really have a lot of credentials. Um he didn't have any at the time. And uh that's neither here nor there. But the bottom line is he's a nice guy, and I I politely said no. Um politefully, politefully, word of the day. Politely said no, and we remained friends, but I didn't go into any kind of business with him. But in any event, that's what I knew about it, that's what they did. So that was way back when, and now personal trainers are a dime a dozen, essentially. I mean, you go into your local YMCA, they're gonna say, Hey, do you want to get some personal training? And it's so much per half hour or hour or whatever. And they typically work for the YMCA. If not, they always work for the YMCA. You know, these different uh box gyms, so to say, have different trainers floating around that either work for the gym or maybe they've worked out a um trade agreement of some kind or another, but it's very common now. I mean, most people that I work with now, they'll say, Oh, I had a trainer a while back. Um, so it's common. Now, um, when I got into it, you know, number one, I've said before that I always wanted to make sure I did it right. So even though I had a ton of gym knowledge at the time, in my early 20s, I did. I mean, I'd been working out regularly in a gym since my teenage years, and I uh had a lot of personal success with it. But to me, that was never enough. And I went and I wanted to get my official education in it, so I got my master's in exercise physiology. So when I started out, I had a good scientific foundation. I still had a lot to learn. I still do have a lot to learn, and I love that. I love learning new things. But it was time to pick the name after I got the degree and all that good stuff, and I landed on Maxwell's Fitness Programs, bringing it back to where I started this. So the program part is huge because I always emphasize with people that I write and help people with their programs. I'm not a gem. Yes, I have my own studio, and I've had my own location or studio for many, many years now. Different locations, a few different locations now. But that's great. But I don't like people to think of it as a gem. Like Maxwell's isn't a gem. It just, I know what people mean, like I don't think they mean anything by it, but it is insulting to me. Now, when I was at a previous location, it was a little more common because I was the only gym in town, so to say, in this very tiny, I don't want to even say where because I don't want to offend anybody, had a lot of good memories there, all was good, great clients and everything. But there was that sense of, hey, are you taking new clients when they'd call? And it depends on the season. But if it was early on, I'd say yes. If it was more towards my end of my time there, I'd say no, because I was just flat out busy. But in any event, they'd say, because we were driving and we saw your gym and we really wanted a place to work out. And like I would cringe. I know what they mean, but man, I'm not a gym and I hate to be thought of as a gym. Like I write programs and help people follow the programs. No matter where we did it, that's what I would do. It's about the programs, not the gym. So I would always politely say, at least I didn't say politefully this time. That's good. That's good. My green tea's kicking in a little bit. Um, you know, but I would explain to them what I do and you know, kind of see if that's still what they wanted to do. And when when people are looking for a gym to work out, rarely do they make for a good personal training client. Like, even if they have the means, the money, the time to do it, and they're like, oh, okay, that just sounds like a more expensive gym membership. That sounds good. They're typically not an ideal client because personal trainers, at least I can speak for myself, you want to be able to help people. And if you're working with somebody that's already got their mind made up of what they want to do and what they should do, they're not any fun. And I won't work with them. It's like, look, we're either gonna, you know, follow my program or you're gonna have to go on your way. I used to say to one client all the time, it'd say, me and you're driving down the road, and you're either gonna move over to the passenger seat or I'm gonna have to let you off the next stop. And I meant it. And it would reel her in sometimes, and sometimes I'd have to kind of give her her walking paper, so to say, because it's like I know what I'm doing, I'm here to help you, and I can't help you if you think you already know what you need. And if you already know what you need, why aren't you doing it? You know, I'm not a convenience factor, I don't need to be. And uh, you know, I've never really adhered to the business philosophy of green is green, because I used to kind of vent to a counselor of mine a little bit and they go, Well, green is green, you know, you're getting paid. I'm like, ah, dude, that doesn't do it for me. You know, it's like at the end of the day, sure, we need to get paid, but nah, I do think like selling out isn't like a great way to be happy, you know. So that doesn't do it for me. I might say that, I might try to adhere to that philosophy, but at the end of the day, I'd end up getting pissed off and not wanting to work with the person. Because if you know anything about me, you know, I'm pretty hard-headed myself. So programming has always been key. Um, and I love talking about programming. And, you know, programming is funny because it's complicated, but then it's not complicated. But if you don't sit down and do the work as a trainer, if you don't program the fitness program for your client, you are doing yourself and of course the client a huge disservice because there are things you want to figure out what they need. So let's take the strength training component alone. There are like different variables that people need to understand that good trainers know, like the back of their hand. For example, there's volume. Volume means the amount of strength training a person is going to do. Volume. Volume can be broken down into how many days per week the person is going to exercise, how many total exercises that they're going to do, how many exercises per muscle group that they're going to do, and how many sets of the exercise they're going to do. So that's like volume. And a lot of people only count volume. And what's funny is when people talk about writing workouts for people, you see a lot of volume being written. And when I mean a lot, I don't, I mean there are programs that have a lot of volume, and then there are lower volume volume programs, but I don't mean that. What I mean is there's a big emphasis on volume. They'll say, do this, this, and this, but nowhere in there do they say how hard. And how hard is the most important variable, bar none. So there is volume. Another thing that gets programmed in or needs to be thought about is repetitions. And you might think repetitions is a part of volume, but it's really not. Like one set of exercise, for example, of 20 reps versus one set of five doesn't really move the volume stick very much. Like that's a very kind of subjective thing. So most good fitness professionals or trainers know that there's a range of repetitions that work, but it doesn't have to be thought about too much. And again, good trainers know this, and good trainers program for this. So, in other words, the big difference between repetitions is more, you know, yeah, there's an upper limit of, say, 30. And I don't want to get in the weeds here as far as like this isn't a podcast about, you know, exactly the amount of reps or sets or intensity that work. No, I mean, that's all important, and I've done it before, and I'm sure I'll do it again. But this is like trying to teach you how to program or to teach you like how good trainers program. So when it comes to repetitions, though, sure there's a high-end, mostly because of time constraints, but really it's more about well, can we safely do higher reps with lower loads when this person that we don't know very well versus training with lower repetitions, i.e. heavier loads with this person that we don't know very well. And that's really where that comes in. It's like it's safer to start higher because you're using less weight, you can perform the form better, you can get to know the person better. I was working with actually one of my trainers yesterday who um she tends to struggle a little bit with being able to pick like loads and reps, you know. And I said, Look, I said, I put her on the uh overhead presses and I set the uh you know the bar to make sure that's the right level of range of motion. And I put it on, I can't remember, it's 70 pounds actually. And I said, All right, so give me six to eight reps. And after a little bit of a struggle, she gets it moving, and I think she did six. Now, total guesswork on my part, just knowing her a little bit and kind of saying, okay, if it's this load, you should be able to do this much, this many reps, I should say. And then I let her rest a little bit and I said, All right, so now move this down to, I think it was 20. It was either 20 or 30 pounds. So it was pretty low load. And I said, now do 20. So then she was able to do 22. And I said, Isn't that a pretty good guess? And, you know, she's looking a little surprised, and I'm really happy my experiment was working out very well because I think sometimes actual doing things makes us learn a little bit better. And then I did the same thing on the arm curl machine. And uh I said, so you know, repetition is just correlated to load. So if it's a heavier load, you're gonna do less reps. And I think even the non-trainer out there gets that common sense-wise. But there's nothing magic about either. It's more if you have a certain load, there should be sort of how many reps you're gonna get. And if a good trainer focuses on that more than they do other things, they would be a better trainer because where volume comes in is that the person actually did a set of the exercise. In other words, if they went to failure or almost failure, that's a set. Whether it be seven reps or 22, it doesn't matter. It still impacts the body recovery-wise for the most part in the same way, so that it's considered one set. So sometimes I think trainers who still have things to learn don't focus enough on that and go, well, you're really worried about this when this isn't that important of a component. I mean, for me, I mean, I believe in overload, and that's a good reason to track and know how much weight you're doing and all that. But at the same time, it's like I can go into a gym and put it, put the resistance if I'm using machines, put the pin on a certain level and you know, start and then know approximately how many reps I'm going to be able to do and then try to get the failure. I mean, I don't think about it that much. And like if there's only like real heavy weights laying around, I'll go, okay, I'll use these and I'll do less reps. If there's a like um, you know, you go to some of these hotels and their dumbbell rack only goes up to 25. So for me, there's a lot of exercises I can use more than 25 pound dumbbells for. And I'll, but but that's not the end of the world. I'll just do higher reps. Like it doesn't matter. I'll go to failure with higher reps, I'll make this work. I promise you this, I'd rather be able to have the low end of the weights than the high, because with the low end of the weights, you can always make it work. With the high end of the weights, you you you can't. Like, I mean, I don't see a world where the dumbbells start at 50. So that's not going to be a problem, but hopefully you get my gist on that. So programming takes into account these things. So that's volume. And then there's intensity. And intensity needs to be factored out. I had this conversation with a client of mine this morning. And um, you know, she's a she's got a great attitude, you know, she likes talking fitness and all this stuff. And I said to her, I said, you know, remember, the most important variable with strength training is intensity. And intensity in strength training is measured by how close you get to failure. And almost all research points to the fact that you have to get the failure or within like one or two repetitions of it to start to get stronger. I mean, if you do submaximal set after submaximal set after submaximal set, number one, in technical terms, it's not even considered a set. It's considered a warm-up set. You're probably not gonna get very far. Now, I'm not gonna go, well, you're gonna get nothing out of this, like it's a waste of time. That's not true. I mean, you're at the gym working out versus being at the bar drinking beer, right? So, no, it's it's a, you know, you're not wasting your time. I'm not gonna go that far. But you're not making the most of your time either, unless you absolutely hate to do anything that feels close to failure. Then I get it, you're better to not, because then at least you're gonna work out. But if you can muster it and tell yourself it's good for me to get the close to failure because I want to get stronger, just keep in mind that's the way to go. So good trainers are able to say, does this person need a higher volume routine, like more exercises and um more exercises per muscle group and more sets? That's usually not the case for most people, by the way. Or does this person need a lower amount of exercises, i.e., volume and higher intensity? That's usually the case for most people. And a good trainer knows how to program that because that's a big part of programming. Now, another part of programming that kind of separates the men from the boys regarding, or the women from the girls, doesn't matter, is how to modify exercises. And I think that a big part of programming is understanding that that I've just what I just talked about, that there is there's volume considerations, exercises, and sets and exercises per muscle group, and there's intensity variables like how close we get to failure. Then we have to consider the repetition thing as I spoke about, which kind of gets overrated, but we also have to talk about how to modify and how to make it work for everybody. And part of programming is doing that, and that's one of the things I really, really like to do. I mean, I've had people in many different circumstances in life. I had a guy trained for years, he he sadly passed a number of years ago, but he fell from a building and he was partially paralyzed. And um he had his his it was it was a condition where they kind of had to straighten and fuse some of his joints together in order to save it. I still don't understand what went into the surgery. I just know that like his muscles in in many areas and his joints in many areas were kind of like fused out in elongated positions, and he had a lot of trouble moving without going into spasm and straightening out some of his limbs. And uh, you know, he was in a wheelchair, and um, I was able to help him with exercises. We were able to come up with different things he can do, whether it be dumbbells from his chair position or being able to transfer onto a selectorized machine and helping kind of like tie his grip in with um deadlift straps so he was able to keep his hands on because he couldn't grip. He really couldn't form a fist, so to say. So we'd have to use artificial means to kind of like tie his grip down. Um, you know, there was I came up with this thing where I can get him on the treadmill and do the same thing, helping him, obviously spotting him, but helping him keep his arm on to hold on to the treadmill. And then I was able to help him swing his leg around so he can get some mobility, mostly to use his leg muscles. I mean, I can go on and on, but you know, I remember hammer strength equipment was a big friend of his because he can do things isolaterally because he really wasn't able to push one side out and keep the other side. Well, he couldn't push both sides out at the same time. He kind of had to push one out because the other one would go in the spasm. So, but anyway, he was able to exercise, and I 100% believe that that benefited his life. So I've always enjoyed coming up with modifications. And I think that if you know the body, if you know the joint actions, if you know what the muscles are supposed to do, like if you know each and every one of your muscles, and I think if you come to the gym, you know that I do, and you know Ellen is an absolute whiz with the muscles too. I think that's really critical because then you know how to modify exercises. So, you know, we get the volume down, we get the intensity down, and say, well, you know, they need to do three different leg exercises, you know, to get benefits. I mean, in most programs, you need to do some type of quad extension. I'm just talking the legs, keep it simple so you understand. You have to do some kind of quad extension so you can isolate the quads. You got to do some kind of hamstring curl to isolate the hamstrings, and then you have to do some kind of squat so you bring it all together with a compound. For example, a squat or a leg press or different versions of squat. So part of programming is understanding this, understanding like what exercises need to be done and how to modify. Like I have a guy starting up now. I mean, he he's got a lot of injuries and he's older, and I'm and I'm having to do this and go, well, you know, he's got to be able to squat, you know, if we want to keep him moving around, he's so what am I gonna do to program in a squat? You know, could it be a seatback leg press, meaning push the seat back, help him get on there? You know, he's pretty frail. And how can I help him be able to do a form of a squat? You know, maybe we need to do a form of a TRX. I mean, I'm saying maybe because I've actually already thought about a lot of this and put it together. I'm still working on it though, because it's going to take a few workouts before I figure out what's really working for him. But being able to modify somebody's program is critical. And it goes into programming because yes, the muscles do what the muscles do, and the joint actions do what the joint actions do. But every individual is different. And it doesn't mean that everybody can do a squat a certain way. So good training and programming needs to know how to modify these things. So I say all this because I want you to understand that when you're searching out fitness programs, you need to understand that professionals will program it and people who are not professional will not. I mean, you know, I used to have a term I taught to the students that I used to teach how to be personal trainers and also to new trainer hires, I would have, I'd say, look, what we don't do is we don't boot camp people. And I just detest organizations that do that. I think it is such a ripoff to people. I think it is such a bad example of what fitness professionals do, but I call it boot camping people. Now, I'm not saying don't go to boot camps. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that when you see a personal trainer or you're you're on a specific program, you know, because some personal training is done in group, group personal training, that's fine too. I mean, but the difference is in that situation, if you got a good trainer, they programmed your workout. Your workout is programmed by them and you. It's programmed. It's not like you're showing up and doing what everybody's doing. So when you go to a gym and a trainer, and yes, they do this, too many of them. They boot camp you, meaning you show up and they're just kind of doing the workout of the day that they are showing everybody, or they're just doing something, you know, fast and convenient for people, for them mostly, because they didn't want to sit down and try to think about it. You know, oh, yep, we're 20 squats today, you know, then we're gonna go over here, we're gonna do 20 on the hammer strength machine, you know, and then you're gonna do um, you're gonna do as many pull-ups on the Gravitron as you can, and then you're gonna take a break, we're gonna do that again. And it's like that's what they're doing all day long with people. Like we call that boot camping people. And it doesn't even have to be they're gonna do that all day long. It could just simply mean that, you know, they don't want to take the time to put together a workout. And so they just do real general things for people. They figure, well, you know, they're gonna do a squat and a push and pull, which, you know, it's great. That's a great beginning. But to program it, you have to say, okay, but what kind of squat? Like I have a lot of clients, and I have a lot of clients that are all different from each other. And I guarantee you, I mean, hopefully everybody does a squat when they come into the gym almost every time they work out, unless they can't. But they're all different kinds of squats. I mean, it depends on the individual. I mean, somebody really healthy and young and all that great stuff can do like multiple versions of squats. But some people you find the only squat they can do is a cable squat, or the only squat they can do is a TRX squat, or the only squat they can do is a goblet squat, or the only squat they can do is a chair squat or a wall squat or a wall set. Like the trainer has to think about the modifications of exercises and what is best for that individual where they're going to get the most benefit from it. And once you do that, you find, of course, that it feels great to you because you watch people who couldn't do things all of a sudden be able to do things. And then maybe they're able to be able to do different kinds of modifications. Or maybe you don't have to modify it all eventually. Maybe you can just, hey, instead of doing half squats, you know, we're able to do full squats. Or instead of only being able to use the leg press because you can't keep your chest up on a squat. And so you're kind of training the wrong muscle groups by doing this, you're now able, because your core has strengthened and you've loosened up some of your tight muscles like your hip flexors, you're now able to do both, and that's a huge win. But the only way we know that is if we are properly programmed. Now, I'm not trying to sell you that only certain people know the magic. No, I mean, it's really isn't that complicated. Like any good trainer knows how to do it. When I say good, I've said before, I think there should be a level of education requirement. I know there should be a level of certification. A uh, you know, there's only um four certifications that really count, and it needs to be one of them the American College of Sports Medicine and the NSCA being the two best. You know, and I think you have to have experience. But if you're paying top dollar, you Should be getting those things with that. So it's not like me or only a couple people know how to do all this. It's not true. But what is true is there's not enough people out there teaching proper programming. All right. So hopefully taught you a few things today. And hopefully, you know that when you're seeing a good trainer, whether it be us or another good organization, you know that they've done the hard work already. You're going to do the hard work physically. You got to put in the work. I had a client today and she just finished a big race and she's proud of herself. She goes, Oh, you know, I give you most of the credit. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. You get most of the credit. We just helped you. But what I'm saying is, is that if you've got a good organization, they have done the heavy lifting first to put together the right program for you. You still got to do the work, but they have put you in the right level of program. Okay. So there is something in a name. Remember to tell everybody that. When you refer to us, we really appreciate it. We're pretty full and don't ordinarily take new clients. But if and when you do, you just say, hey, just keep in mind they're a program. They're not a gym. Thank you for listening to today's show. I ask you to please follow this show on wherever you get your podcasts. And also please hit automatic downloads. It really helps me and it helps the show. Now I want to thank Overhead Door of Dayton Beach, the premier garage door company in Felucia County with the best product, with the best service. I can vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. They are great people. If you need any help with your garage doors, give them a shout. 386 222 3165.