Maxwell's Fitness Programs

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• 10:04 (Cont.) Maxwell's Fitness Programs

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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 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 Magnets. 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. All right, what is happening, everybody? This is Coach Rob here. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever time you are listening. So I had this thought, and I'm thinking, you know, I don't think I've ever really put down what Maxwell's Fitness Programs is. I mean, I know I've put it down, I know I've written about it. Uh, you know, I'll put it in my few books, but I don't think I've done a podcast on how I decide upon people's programs and my overall methodology. So I'm going to do that today. I think it'll help all the clients go, oh, that's why we do that. And, you know, people that aren't clients that are looking to work out hopefully will get some ideas into how to set up their own programming. So let's jump right in and begin that. First off, let me talk about the name a little bit, Maxwell's Fitness Programs. Well, obviously, Maxwell's my last name. But when I went into business, I always wanted to be programs. In other words, I think that is one of the critical components. The programming is very, very important. The implementation, of course, has to happen, or nothing happens. But the programs is very, very important. I always made sure that I established that and made sure people didn't kind of call me a gym. That used to just irk me, you know. I don't know why, but I'm like, I am not a gym. In other words, we are programs. We're not just a place to work out. When I was at another location, it was kind of common that somebody occasionally we would get a referral and they might say something like, Well, you know, you're super convenient and there's nobody else in here. So we wanted to get a consultation. I mean, they're gonna have to do a ton to change my mind at that point as far as not taking them, because that just was not what I'm about. I'm not a convenience thing. I've um, you know, got a lot of education, a lot of certification, a lot of experience, and I take fitness very serious. And, you know, I'm not just there to kind of like open up the door to somebody, babysit, and then let them do what they want to do. So I would oftentimes say, well, you know, we're programming, and when you come in, we do an assessment, and we're basically telling you everything that you need to do to reach your goals, and I'd feel them out a little bit. There probably was some occasions where um maybe I misunderstood them and uh, you know, they became clients. I don't know, but I but I think more times than not, I had to say thank you, but no thank you to them. Because, you know, as I think a lot of people know that uh at least train with us, um, you know, we we turn quite a few people down. Like uh I'm in that fortunate position to do that, and I really, really want to make sure that it's going to be a win-win. So the programs was always a big part of my belief system. When I first got started in 1994, it was all about making sure everybody is on the appropriate program because everybody is different. There are definite generalities in fitness, there are definite consistencies in fitness, but everybody is different and requires a specific program. All right. So we got the name out of the way. So so what happens first? I like to begin with an assessment, and uh the assessments can vary, and the assessments have varied through the years as far as like uh, you know, how much I do, but I always like to do an assessment. I always do do an assessment. So I like to start off with health screenings, we call it, par que's, which are called physical activity readiness questionnaires, to make sure the person is physically able to do an exercise program, to pick up on if there's any risk factors that maybe they need to go see their doctor before they train, um, and all that kind of stuff. So I get all of that information on them first before we even do the assessment. They fill out their health screening, they fill out their park, I make sure that uh they're okay to exercise. And if there's any questions, I give them a physician's release form and they go to their doctor, and their doctor signs it and says they can do this with maybe these restrictions. So we go from there. Then after that, I read through it with them. It's so funny. Um, when I was teaching uh personal trainers how to be personal trainers, I'd always tell them that that health screening form is so critical because you really have to go over it with them. And if you're not thorough, they're just gonna turn it into you because they're just trying to get it over with. And uh, you know, I think we all kind of do the same thing. You know, we'll we'll see a new physician or another allied health professional of sorts, and you're given like nine copies of forms you got to fill out. You end up kind of like checking this and checking that. So I really, really do get it. But like when I'm on the receiving end of it and I need that information, I have to make sure that they understand that it's not an insurance form. So there's nothing to hide because I need to know all the pertinent information. And it never, never, never, never not happens to where when uh when they hand me their health screening, the par queue is usually pretty uh cut and dry. It's seven questions, and you know it's it's yes or no. So that one's usually cut and dry. But the other one is longer and asks a lot about like um different kinds of chronic health conditions, um, different time of type of symptoms they may or may not have had, whether or not they smoke, whether or not they drink, whether or not they take any kind of drugs, whether it be prescribed or non-prescribed, like all those types of questions, orthopedic injuries, soreness, exercise experience, all that good stuff. And it never, never not happens to where somebody leaves stuff off and I'm going through it and I'll say, okay, so you checked you don't have any joint discomfort, and you never have. No, nothing really, not since I got my knee replaced. Okay, so knee replaced. That is, you know, that's kind of some joint abnormality. And I'm not kidding, by the way, that one has happened more time than not. And yeah, yeah, okay, it doesn't hurt anymore, but it's like, I kind of need to know that you've got an artificial knee, you know? Or, well, yeah, I mean, I had back surgery like 20 years ago, but it doesn't bother me anymore. It's like, eh, okay, let's check that and let's put that in there. So, like, I used to tell the trainers who want to be trainers, you've got to go through this with them. You just can't take their sheet of no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and accept it, you know, especially when it comes to joint discomfort because everybody has something. And I'll typically say, okay, so no elbow pain. Well, you know, once in a while, okay. Shoulder, well, yeah, rotator cuff tear, 1997, you know, whatever happens all the time. So we go through, I'm very thorough about making sure that they didn't leave anything off. And the other area, it always happens is with medications. People don't like to talk about their medications. I get it, but they affect heart rate. You know, if if you're on a psychotropic medication for anxiety or something like that, it could affect heart rate, which is not a big deal. But like if the heart rate's not moving, you know, it just kind of helps us understand. Or more importantly than that, really, beta blockers. So beta blockers don't allow the heart rate to get above a certain level. So if we have them on an aerobic plan and their heart rate's not raising, we're not going, oh, what's wrong with you? What's wrong with you? Well, you know, they're not raising because we know as exercise professionals that we can't use heart rate as a good indicator for somebody on beta blockers. So we need to know those things. And so often I'll say, Oh, so you're not taking any, you know, that's just want to make sure because over 50% of the population is on psychotropic medication, it's no big deal. Well, yeah, I mean, I am taking blank. It's like, okay, it's not a big deal, but you know, we'd like to know these things. So we have to be very thorough on the screening. And through this screening, I'm I'm also doing my own little secret screening. I'm really getting to learn somebody, I'm getting to know somebody. How honest are they going to be with me? You know, are they gonna tell me everything? Like I'm doing my own little screening through this process of talking about them. And yeah, I'm giving you the secrets, but that's okay because, you know, when I put somebody in a program, the only way I can help them is if I really know what's going on with them and I really know their motivations, and I really know how authentic they're gonna be, and I really know like how much they're not gonna BS me. And so, like, that's a critical point. All right. Then from there, they do all their legalities, they sign their informed consents and their waivers and all that good stuff. I give them their uh, you know, their policies thing where I talk about cancellation policy and all that. And then from there, as I said, we go into an assessment. The assessment will basically be dependent upon their goals and then also basic vitals. So your vitals are gonna be your heart rate, your oxygen saturation, your blood pressure, your respiration rate. So those are your good vitals and your weight. So we're gonna get that. And then, like if their goal is to, as they call it, tone up or lose some body fat, we'll do body composition assessment. If their goal is ADLs or activities of daily living, because they just want to be able to feel better, move better, I don't worry about body composition. So it really depends upon what the goals are as what assessments I'm going to do. But we always get the vitals, that's important. We always get some kind of a moving screening, meaning that uh we kind of evaluate the squats. We always do grip strength because that's a really good variable to know how somebody's general strength is, believe it or not. There's a huge correlation between grip strength and overall body strength. So we always get that, plus, it's harmless. Like you can test grip and it's not really going to impact them a whole lot unless they have super high blood pressure, then you have to watch the isometric contractions. But that's why we do the vitals first and all that good stuff. So the assessment is going to be based on what their overall goals are. If it's general fitness, then we do a lot of general assessments. From the assessments, we then sit down. I sit down, I make all the goals for the clients that I'll give to the trainers and go over the goals with the client. But we like to make a long-term goal. It could be as simple as somebody is coming back from a knee injury or something like that, and their overall goal might be to get back to just their general life, how it was. So a long-term goal is anywhere from say six to 12 months down the road. So it's kind of like just a kind of a point, a compass point. And then from there, though, it's really important to set anywhere between three and five short-term goals. And that could be to um be able to do step ups without pain in the next month. You know, I'm just using the old knee as an example, depending on where they are. Uh, if it's to lose weight, I convert it to fat instead of weight. So it might be to lose 2% body fat in the next six weeks. So make very good objective short-term goals. And we like to use the SMART method for goal setting, which stands for specific, measurable, action-based, realistic, and timely. So it's got to be something you can measure. There has to be a time component to it, and it has to be realistic. So that's like the model for short-term goals. All right. So that's what we do next. And then from there, I sit down and I write the exercise prescription. I typically use the FIT frequency intensity time and establish the workout that way. Now, most of what people do with personal training, with us, with most personal trainers, is the strength training portion. So I'll give them the homework first, the, and that's going to be the cardio, because no matter what your goals are, you have to do your cardio. We go with the ACSM guidelines, where we'd like to see you get at least 150 minutes a week of moderate cardiorespiratory endurance training. And that could be walking, jogging. It could be more vigorous if you wanted to go beyond that. But I give guidelines for that. I'll talk to you and tell you what you can do. If you have a heart rate monitor, we can use heart rate. But oftentimes, I really keep the cardio kiss, keep it simple, stupid, because really it's about moving and elevating your heart rate. That's really what it's about, most importantly. And I don't like to get people bogged down. You know, uh, on 60 minutes a week or so ago, Dr. Pete Peter Adia was on there. He's great, you know, he's good and everything, but I do think he like really makes things complicated and talks about VO2 Max, which is all great. And I've studied VO2 Max Max inside and out. I mean, but we really don't have to know or monitor our VO2 Max to get in better shape. I mean, we know we need to move. We need to elevate our heart rate, we need to keep it elevated for about 30 minutes, and that's it. And we can do that with power walking, swimming, jogging, all those things. So keep it really simple. Try to get 150 minutes a week at least. Uh, and that sounds like a lot, but it's really not, it's less than 5% of your week, right? If we if all your exercise is really less than 5% of your week when you add it all up. So that's that with the cardio. And if somebody has like goals to do different things like 5K's marathons, well, then the cardio plan, the homework becomes a little more specific. But then from there, we get into the strength training. So I always advise for clients to strength train between two and three times per week. Now, some people do all three here, some people do two here, and then maybe try to catch a third, or they don't catch it, or they might catch a third at home or at another gym. That's fine. I don't look, I'm busy, I don't ever push, you know, you got to come here. I'm not that kind of a trainer, thank goodness. So, but two to three times a week has been shown to be very, very effective. And by the way, two days a week is 95% as effective as three days per week, according to the research. So after I set the frequency, then I sit down and say, okay, so what major muscle groups do these people need to work on? Well, this is where the generality comes in. This is where everybody needs to focus on the 10 major muscle groups. They need to be exercised two to three times per week. All right. Now get into how we differentiate that for each individual, but there are 10 major muscle groups. You got your hips, your quads, your hamstrings, your pecs, your lats, your shoulders, your arms, and your core. All right. So, I mean, I condensed them for you, but like those are the major muscle groups. They need to be trained two to three times per week. Split routines where you train different muscle groups on different days are fine. Like, if somebody wants to do that, that's great. But for personal training, we typically don't program that because most people they can't really afford or have the time to train with the trainer five to six days a week. So then it's like, well, they could do these muscle groups on their own and then certain muscle groups with me or my trainers. Yeah, that's fine. I mean, that'll work. It just gets kind of complicated, and it's not necessarily better, it's just different. So two to three days a week of the 10 major muscle groups that's programmed in there. Now, the the muscle groups are all the same, as I said. You got your hips, your quads, your lats, your hamstrings, your pecs, your shoulders, your biceps, your triceps, and your core. And the core is broken up into your lower back, which is your erector spinae, and your abdominal. So this is where I have to first start to use my brain because the rest is kind of like we know this. I mean, we trainers better know this. Two to three times a week, hit the major muscle groups. Now, depending upon what kind of condition the person walks in with will depend upon what exercises I choose for that. I mean, in a perfect world, you know, we'd like to do squats for their lower body first, but if they can't squat for whatever reason, then we can't do a squat. We have to do something similar. You know, maybe it is a half squat at first, maybe it is a TRX squat at first, maybe it is a leg press, maybe they can't do any of those compound exercises, and we have to start with bridges and leg extensions and leg curls. That's where I don't know. Like, that's where the individual comes in. You know, how is their activity level? Have they been sedentary for a long time? Are they arthritic? Do they have arthritic knees? Do they have arthritic hips? Like everybody can exercise and everybody can get better. Absolutely. But we have to pick the right exercises that are going to work for you. And that's one of the reasons I can't stand some of the vines and the videos and the reels that you see on all these social media platforms because they show all these like really hard high-tech exercises, and people try to do them and they get hurt. So a big part of my programming doesn't include that, includes going back to basics. We don't have to get so fancy. I mean, there literally is not a better leg exercise than a basic squat, and you can do it anywhere. There is not a better exercise. It is the movement of getting out of a chair. You can't get more functional than a squat. So, you know, we don't have to get so freaking fancy. You know, I use a lot of machines because I have them. So that makes it easier for people to get on and off and move. That's great. But a combination of free weights, machines, and body weight, I think is absolutely ideal. So, as I said, the exercise programming comes in next. And that's when I decide upon all of the major muscle groups. That's where I look at them and say, okay, they can do squats, they're gonna have to start with the TRX. They can do leg extensions just fine, they have no issues there. They can do leg curls just fine, they have no issues there. Then I decide what's the best kind of calf exercise for them. You know, again, based on are they really thin-skinned and don't have hardly any meat on the top of their knees? Then I'm probably not gonna put them on the seated calf because the seated calf is a really hard pad and it might cause bruising. So little things like that we think about. Say, well, calves on the leg press might be better for them, or standing calf raises might be better for them. You know, depends, but come up with a calf exercise for most everybody. And then decide upon a pec exercise. You know, a lot of people begin with the chest press because the machine is kind of easy to learn from the get-go. You just push straight up. It's hard to do machines wrong, but again, it depends. Sometimes it's gonna be push-ups for some people, depending on where they work out, or chest press with dumbbells. It depends, but everybody is going to do pec exercises, everybody's gonna do lats and rhomboids or upper back exercises. It could be two of them, could be a high row and a low row. It just depends on what they can do the best at. Like that's very important. By the way, none of this means that that doesn't vary. I mean, that's what we begin with. And then as far as moving the exercises around, we do. Number one, you don't want to get bored. Number two, it's it's fun to do new things. Number three, it's it's good to hit different angles. Some people don't like change much, so we don't change as much because then they're not as um content with their workouts. Some people get bored easy. We don't let them dictate the planning, but we definitely take that into consideration because you know, exercise enjoyment matters. I mean, it does matter. Like me, I like to move things around a lot. I like to switch things up a lot personally. So as long as we're overloading and hitting the right muscle groups, we're good to move things around. The more fit and able people are, the more exercises they have a variety to do. So that's also a consideration. When somebody's pretty um inactive and beat up or whatever, it's kind of hard to find a lot of variety of exercises. So we just have to make do. And one of the things I've really been proud of through the years is I have a pretty good creative ability to come up with exercises for people that haven't been able to do certain things. And I really like doing that. It's one of the most fun, creative parts of my jobs is thinking about how I can get them to modify an exercise so they're able to do it. Because we can probably all do almost anything with a modification, right? Not completely, but oftentimes if we modify, we can do it. So I come up with exercises for each and every muscle group. Now, the more advanced somebody is, they can do more like compound exercises. And so then we're kind of combining more than one muscle group in an exercise. So we can do like that exercise twice. So then I'll determine, not twice, but do different sets of it. So I'll determine is this person better doing more like straight sets or is this person better doing a circuit? So after I get the exercises in line, then I decide, okay, so how do we want to program this? Like, can we do more compound movements with them because they're interested in general fitness? So we don't have to do as many isolation exercises, such as bicep curls and tricep extensions, because they're already working their biceps when they're doing pull downs and they're already working their triceps when they're doing push-ups or chest press or dumbbell press. So they might do like a circuit, but it's still the same thing. Whether we're doing more isolation exercises in a straight set format, like a lot of people do, or whether we're doing more circuits combining compound exercises or multi-joint exercises, you're still working your whole body. And so that's always part of my program. We got to make sure that we're working in balance and we're not neglecting muscle groups. All right. Then after that, I decide upon the rep ranges. And you know, the research has shown that we're gonna get results as far as strength and hypertrophy anywhere from five to 30 reps. I mean, that's a huge range. So when you hear people say, oh, higher reps lead to definition, lower reps lead to strength of bulk, it's not true. It's really, really not true. If we want to get stronger, we need to use more load, yes, but we don't have to go super, super heavy. All right. And doing higher reps isn't gonna tone you up. The thing that toned you up is not eating so much. I mean, that's all about body composition. So anywhere from five to 30 has been shown to be effective. So typically we're between 10 and 20 reps with most people because it's just a nice, moderate rep range that's not overly heavy and doable in a time frame. I mean, if everybody's doing 30 reps and doing multiple sets and multiple circuits, that's gonna take a long time. And you do have to factor in the time component because people are on a time budget too. And it's important. Like the biggest reason people use for not working out is lack of time. So if they think they have to do these super long workouts, they're not gonna do it. And guess what? Here you train with science, you don't have to do that. So typically it's gonna be 10 to 20 reps somewhere in there, sometimes a little higher, sometimes a little bit lower, but somewhere in that range. Intensity is key. So we always tell people we want to use the most load that we can use in that range. We build up to it. At first, we don't go to what we call failure. We kind of just keep building until it gets harder and harder, but eventually we want to be able to use the most weight that we can use for that rep range. That's very, very critical that we do that. So intensity is key, quality is key. And so that's how the load is determined. It's more determined by the reps, not the other way around. So we decide upon this weight, they should be able to hit fatigue around 15 reps. Let's use this load. And absolutely, we believe in overload. So when you can go up, meaning you got your reps, but you did it in good form, then we try to go up. Not all the time, but just on a regular basis. So part of my programming is very big on overload. I would say though, the biggest part is form is everything. Like, I'm just a stickler for form. We really teach to do it right. We have to leave the ego at home. I can't tell you, I wish out a dollar for every time somebody said I can go heavier than that. I'm like, okay, but can you go heavier and do it right? And oftentimes the answer is no. Like, there's a lot of ego in the gyms. We know that, unfortunately. But like here, my programming is going to be all about form. Look, not everybody gets perfect form. You can try, you can try. And some people just maybe they're not that coordinated or they're just not getting it, but we still work with them. We still try to get it better. And if they're not using good form because they're going too heavy, well, that's just a no-no. It's like, no, we're gonna go lighter and we're gonna do it right because that is critical. And then sometimes, like I said, sometimes form is just for some people, they're not getting it. And we just continue to coach them up and try to help them with the form the absolute best way we can. Sometimes we just have to switch exercises because they're just not able to get the form down on that. All right, so that's pretty much the programming, you know. And then as I said, the getting better part is all about every time we work out, you know, we want to try for a win. Number one is we want to do it right. As I said, we want to do it right. Every exercise that we do, we want to have the best form that we can possibly use. Number two, we progress by overloading when we can. That's another way that we do that. Number three, sometimes it's just about doing it better. Like some days I'll tell clients to say, okay, so you know what? We're not gonna go up today because I think the person might be getting a little too obsessed with moving up, up, and up. And I'll say, so instead, I want you to do that same rep and same same rep number and same load that you did the other day, but I want you to do it better. I want to see you do the best set of push-ups you've ever done. That is a way to overload. We always want to keep the emphasis on quality. And then finally, with the programming, it's re-evaluation time. So, you know, after a while, everybody can get a little stale. It's like, okay, I'll hit I'll ask people, what's your goal now? You know, you lost this weight, or your back is now better. You're back to doing your sports, you're back to this. What's your goal now? Well, I just want to, you know, continue to improve. It's like, okay, but I still think it's very important to set new goals. It's funny, one of my uh clients in front of He challenged me in a text the other day. He said, By the end of the year, see if you can do five sets of ten pull-ups. I'm like, ugh, yeah, that's that's a challenge. You know, pull-ups are hard. I like pull-ups. And uh he said, and I said, you know, I wanted to clarify because remember the whole thing about smart, specific, action, realistic. Yeah. There you go. Say smart for me one time. Specific, measurable, action-based, realistic, and timely. There we go. Anyway, so I said, All right, you know, so what's the the rest gonna be? Because that matters. He says, How about a minute? I said, okay. So like I've been doing this for 40 something years, but and and I get challenged with a goal. And I said, you know what, that's a good goal. So I started this morning, I did 10, then I did eight, then I did six, I did five, and I did five. It's like, okay, I got a goal. So, like, you know, I consider myself to be in good shape, but it's like a good goal, a new goal. So little things like that. We always want to keep moving forward by setting new goals. And that kind of summarizes the programs. Um, you know, if you have any questions or if I didn't cover something, hit me up. Like I always say, you know, I'm available via text or via message. You can literally send a message through the podcaster and I will get it. All right. Please hit automatic download. And until next time, B Max Fit and B Max Well. 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.