Barbell Shrugged - [STRESS MANAGEMENT] How to Assess Stress, Reduce Injury and Build Confidence Without Burnout w/ Anders Varner, Doug Larson, Travis Mash and Dan Garner Barbell Shrugged #661

Episode Date: September 28, 2022

In today’s episode of Barbell Shrugged you will learn: Why the depth jump is a great indicator of total stress load Relationship between injury and total stress When should you adjust workout intensity based on stress assessments Benefits of blood flow restriction for hypertrophy and lower volume training days The difference between performance coach and sport psychologist  How to develop confidence through preparation    To learn more, please go to https://rapidhealthreport.com Connect with our guests: Anders Varner on Instagram Doug Larson on Instagram Coach Travis Mash on Instagram Dan Garner on Instagram ————————————————  Please Support Our Sponsors Eight Sleep - Save $150 on the Pod Pro and Pod Pro Cover

Shrug family, this week on Barbell Shrug, we're hanging out with Travis Mash, letting him take over the mic today, talking about global stress management, how you can assess stress, lifestyle stress, work stress, all of these pieces, and how it plays into your training, reduce injury, and build confidence. We walk through the simple system that he has put together, that he is putting all of his athletes through, which allows him to understand the total stress load that they have in their lives. He coaches many college students, but they have their own stressors that they deal with. Much of our audience is older than college kids,

but you guys have your stressors, whether that's work or family, kids, whatever that is, how you can assess where your total stress load is at, reduce injury, build confidence, how a depth jump is a really great tool that you can use when you walk into the gym to assess where your total stress load is at, the relationship between injury and total stressors, when is the right time to adjust your workout intensity based on that stress

some tactical things that you can use as far as blood flow restriction and then really the difference between sports psychologist performance coach and building confidence in yourself and your athletes as always friends head over to rapidealthreport.com that is where you can see dan garner in real time read through my labs you can see Dan Garner in real time, read through my labs. You can see the nutrition and supplementation that he is prescribing me and I shouldn't say prescribing. He is recommending me use and that recommendation, which got me off of having reducing my coffee out by 40 ounces, boosting testosterone. It's really not friendly when you're putting your lab video out. The whole world sees your low testosterone.

That's cool because I talk to a lot of people that have it, and that's what they want. And also, just make sure you get over there and check out the video. It's a really phenomenal thing. We get to dig into individual pieces of Dan's work on the podcast, but to see it in real time and see the entire flow of what he does, head over to rapidhealthreport.com and you can schedule a call with me as well and get in there. We can talk about everything you have going on and how we at Rapid Health Optimization can help you. Friends, let's get into the show. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged. I'm Anders Varner, Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash, Dan Garner in the house today. We're kicking this thing over

to Travis Mash today. We're going to talk about global stress management because, dude, three national championships and your first three years of coaching, your entire PhD is on athlete monitoring and you coach a bunch of 20 year olds in college. Yeah. And I can only imagine the amount of, uh, stress from social media, uh, the number of people stealing these athletes attention, the number of like managing schoolwork along with practice loads. Uh, you've gotten very good, whether you kind of recognize it or not, at understanding the stressors of life, how it influences performance. And I'd love to dig into a lot of the systems that you have in place with your team on how you are actually able to measure and manage stress loads with athletes. I'd love to kind of kick it off on just really, what are some of the pieces that

you're using to measure total stress load from school, lifestyle, training? Where is your brain at as like an entry level to understanding stress with your athletes? Well, if you look at like fatigue, you know, fatigue is like a, it's like a measurement of stress. If someone is like moving something slower than normal, then there's more fatigue than normal, which means that there's, you know, they're under more stress than you realize. And then when a person, when a coach, like he, you know, creates a program and, you know know periodize it for however long you know what you're doing is you're creating stress that's the whole point you know stress the system it adapts gets stronger performs better but like what you're not considering is like um you know breakups

schoolwork exams we all know that like the one of the highest the highest times in an athlete's career to get injuries is during exams in college. And so by measuring, what we do is we do three different measurements. We do a subjective questionnaire that they fill out every day, which the key is you don't want it super long because they won't do it. So then it takes them three minutes is key, a few questions. Then we measure their depth jump and we look at, I like the depth jump better than the regular vertical leap because it's a true look at the neuromuscular system. You know, when, you know, when they land, you look at ground contact time and height. And so like, you're looking, the ground contact

time is completely neural. And so like, and then the height would be um that would be the force that they're able to generate so like if and then the third part would be we we measure the first moment of the day up to 80 and so like um even if it's a snatch and what we've done too for all the weightlifting coaches instead of like measuring the snatch when they get to that 80 load we have them do a snatch pull because it's easier for them to you know create as much force as possible as fast as possible which is to pull because 80 a good weightlifter like ryan can go slower than normal and still get it because he's so good at the movement so a pull really allows them to go all out and not worry about technique and just measure fatigue. So once I see a drop, you know, if I see them slower than normal,

or they're not jumping as high, or the ground contact time is a lot longer than normal, I'm going to immediately reference their, you know, their questionnaire. So that tells me that if they're answering the questionnaire, truly, I'll probably get a good idea of what's causing this problem. Like, you know, it could be just the fact that I've, you know, created too much fatigue for them from the training, but probably it's going to be like they didn't sleep. There's a breakup there. You know, somebody died in their family. There's going to be a reason. And then it opens up the door for me to sit them down and talk to them, you know, because's like sleep it's for me to sit down and say hey let's develop some better um habits so but if

it's like a breakup it's it's good to be able to talk to them maybe uh encourage them to go talk to a counselor but more importantly for me it means i need to like, I need to make some changes on that day and maybe the next few days. And so like, what I do is this, here's the protocol. If they're like, you know, 5% slower than normal, you know, I don't even care if they're between five and 10% slower than normal, I'm going to decrease volume and or intensity 10 to 15%. Now, if they're 10% or more, then I'm going to decrease volume and or intensity 10 to 15 percent now if they're 10 percent or more

then I'm going to cut the whole session like Monday for example great example like um two of my athletes Matt you know and it's funny the ones who are like you know extremely elastic and so like mean meaning their neuromuscular system is firing faster than most people's, like Matt and Ryan, they both barely did anything. Because once they did their first movement, and I saw that it was so much slower than normal, I just sent them home. And then the very next day, both of them set massive PRs in the jerk. Because I was able to rest them, then Ryan comes in and jerks 210 kilos, and Matt does 190, both massive PRs.

So, you know, just making wise decisions, opening up, you know, measuring, not just talking, but also like then sitting down and letting them develop better habits to handle their stress. Those have both been huge for me as a coach. I would say in the last three years, I've improved more at that than anything because in that first year, I wasn't really measuring their fatigue or any kind of velocity.

And most of them were freshmen, and so they were partying like crazy. And it was a rough year. We did okay. But then I got better at it the next year, and then you started seeing Ryan doing crazy things. Then I feel like I'm even better this year. Now he's just like, I mean, he's a monster. And so, like, you know, the whole team now seems to be really responding

at a much higher rate because we're looking at their fatigue. Stress. What are you using and why specifically the depth jump? And what does that look like on a standardized day-to-day system? Well, if you look at elasticity, that stretch reflex especially, there's more than one characteristic of elasticity. So I do need to be careful like there's the neuromuscular especially the neural side of that so you have the muscle spindles the golgi tendon organs

so like if the cns is flowing you know muscle muscle spindles will contract at a much higher rate and the golgi tendon organ what it does is it's inhibited because like if the golgi tendon organ like really fires what it does is it cuts force off completely and so you can't produce force or you can't produce near as much so like um if i'm if i'm functioning at a high level with little stress then that system is firing like crazy and so there will be very little ground contact time which and will lead to a greater height. But there's also like things like Titan. So there's that, you know, muscular side of things, the muscular physiology that is, but that's why I'm looking at the neuromuscular because it's the brain. So I'm looking at,

you know, the CNS as it relates to the muscles, you know, when it comes to stress, because that's where the stress really is held in your brain you know it's like i'm stressed out mentally and so which causes you know very a very direct and a very measurable you know increase in fatigue of the muscle yeah what are you looking at uh on like a the level of importance is it ground reaction time or the height of the jump, or is it 100% of each? Really both because normally they'll go in and end because if the neural system sucks, the muscle spindles won't contract with near as much force, and so therefore it won't be as high either.

So it'll be both normally. But you know what I really want to start doing that I haven't is on Huberman when Andy was on there, Huberman talked about the tap test with the finger just to get the upper neurons. You know, like I'd like to see – I'd like to do that more, you know, just to see, really just to measure and see how it correlates to performance. But do you guys do that dan

with your athletes no no i'm not as much in tune with the area with this area and nearly as much as you so i actually have questions rather than answers for this for this episode i actually so i might the goalie attendant organ to understanding, is almost like a defense mechanism for the body to not operate at a velocity that would possibly put it at injury. Correct? Right. Right. So then in that context, does stress reduce Golgi tendon organ activity? Because it's a perceived fight or flight situation to where we would need more activity.

Or does stress actually increase Golgi tendon organ activity so that we are protected from the stressor it would increase it it would stress will definitely increase the golgi tendon organ so then we reduce velocity of movement yes and yeah reduce velocity reduce reaction reduce you know like uh change the direction like all kinds of things because like it's it's it's definitely operating at a much higher level and the key with the gto is you want that inhibited as much as possible under in a safe way because it does protect you let's don't you know don't mistake you need the gto to not you know tear your tendon so it's very important but um that efficiency is the key so then in that in that lane too because a lot of people don't know a lot like i was a personal trainer when i first started i sit back a lot now and look at labs but as my 10 years working as a personal trainer

you learn that you need to coach the person even more than you need to coach the program at times. And that personal relationship, that development of understanding to where their actual stressors are coming from, made a huge undeniable impact in the results that my clients were getting. So I became very good at communication and asking questions and listening and really getting a grip on what was going on. And my question for you regarding, say, relationships, if there is a breakup, then there would be a client prototype that would want to train to put that energy somewhere.

But if that stress is increasing Golgi tendon organ activity and I'm being inhibited, I might actually be mad enough to go for a weight that i can't currently control so in that context fatigue management would be huge right it would be really huge and like it'll cause you to you know to make bad decisions too in training like i'm mad so i'm going to you know train without any type of like with with weightlifting it's super important to be in tune with what you're doing so you're going to, you know, train without any type of like with, with weightlifting, it's super important to be in tune with what you're doing. So you're going to make major mistakes. It's the one that

could lead to a pretty big injury. Like, luckily I was more of the athlete. Like if I had a breakup, the last thing I wanted to do was train. Like, um, I, I think I do much better under like, uh, if we're doing well, if my wife and I are like having a great you know moment in our relationship I'm going to crush it in the gym if we're arguing I don't even want to go and so like which is probably the wise thing to do but like if you're going to go to the gym when you're having that situation no matter how you feel I would dial it back because you're going to be you're going to be at risk of injury and like even though you might want to go to the gym, I'm still going to be able to measure that you're not ready. Because it'll show up in a decrease in speed, in velocity.

No matter what you think, it's going to be there. Shark Family, I want to take a quick break. If you are enjoying today's conversation, I want to invite you to come over to rapidhealthreport.com. When you get to rapidhealthreport.com, you will see an area for you to opt in, in which you can see Dan Garner read through my lab work. Now, you know that we've been working at Rapid Health Optimization on programs for optimizing health. Now, what does that actually mean? It means in three parts, we're going to be doing a ton of deep dive into your labs. That means the inside out approach. So we're not going to be guessing

your macros. We're not going to be guessing the total calories that you need. We're actually going to be doing all the work to uncover everything that you have going on inside you. Nutrition, supplementation, sleep. And then we're going to go through and analyze your lifestyle. Dr. Andy Galpin is going to build out a lifestyle protocol based on the severity of your concerns. And then we're going to go through and analyze your lifestyle. Dr. Andy Galpin is going to build out a lifestyle protocol based on the severity of your concerns. And then we're going to also build out all the programs that go into that based on the most severe things first. This truly is a world-class program. And we invite you to see step one of this process by going over to rapidhealthreport.com. You can see Dan reading my labs, the nutrition and supplementation that he has recommended that has radically shifted the way that I sleep,

the energy that I have during the day, my total testosterone level, and just my ability to trust and have confidence in my health going forward. I really, really hope that you're able to go over to rapidealthreport.com, watch the video of my labs and see what is possible. And if it is something that you are interested in, please schedule a call with me on that page. Once again, it's rapidealthreport.com and let's get back to the show. So if somebody comes, if they're, if they're post breakup and they're stressed, so we don't

want them to, to perform something that might otherwise put them at risk for injury, but you do still want to give them some form of outlet and something else to focus on. Would it be fair to say that your pre-workout assessment would catch the red flags associated with this breakup so that you could alter the workout in terms of volume and intensity to give them something to do, but not something to do that's stupid. True. You know, like Brian Mann has a great one. Like what he does when you're at 10% or higher, which would probably be if you're having a breakup with somebody that you care about.

If it's just someone, whoever, no big deal. But if it's someone you care about, you're probably going to be at that, you know, amount of stress where it decreases by 10% or more. And at that point, what he does, he'll do some bodybuilding. That would be a great time for BFR because you could do some bodybuilding that would encourage that hormonal release of IGF-1, growth hormone, testosterone. You get all that, which could aid in the recovery process. So that's what I would do to that person, you know, like, but if it's between that five and 10%,

then I would decrease the intensity and the volume. So that would also keep me safe. So it just depends on how much stress they're experiencing. What percentage are you referring to as far as five and 10%? Oh, okay. So to the amount, so like if they're slower than normal, you know, in their first movement, so like what we do. That's a speed? That's a speed.

That's a velocity. So like if they go to snatch and when they get to 80% and they do their snatch pull, if it's like between 5% and 10% slower than normal, I'll decrease everything. So that decrease in intensity especially will keep them safe. But if it's above 10%, we will scrap. Because also if they're above 10, most studies would say that like, nearly, you're not going to, it's not a great state to be in to learn movement. So for weightlifting, the, the type of movement you perform is,

it's like baseball, it's like swinging a bat or throwing a pitch. The technique is very important and specific. So like, I want, you know, some people will say, well, if I'm having a really bad day, just work on technique. Definitely not like work on technique when your brain is at, is functioning at a higher level. So it's just a great day to do something that's going to create very little damage. So get a pump, basically get a pump and go to the house. So that's, so you give them a little outlet without putting them at risk

yeah because there is some sort of relief that comes from just getting it out like yeah many stressful days that happen in life we're just going and doing something i feel like almost all of my training is in a reactive state many times like that where you're just on the phone or on zoom or just life is busy and you go, shit, what do I do for just 20 minutes? Just like shake all this out. I don't need to be doing snatch and clean and jerk. That's like, yeah, like highly, uh, skill-based, very technical, um, and needs to be done with X amount of weight, like being on program. I just need to go hit some pushups, do some rows, squat a little bit,

feel good, sweat and get things going where it actually does help reduce the amount of stress that I have without going and adding to it and forcing myself to go do a bunch of crap that I just don't need to be doing. I definitely want to try the BFR with it. You know, I haven't until we just – this show and I started thinking about it, I feel like BFR would be perfect for this moment because of the hormonal, not only the hormonal response, but you know, the way those tablets also pull around the muscles. So, um, I don't know, I would, it would, it would appear that it would be a really good decision. Yeah. And I think that like, I just know for me, um, I'm kind of like Anders and that, that the training can be reactive at times because thinking happens in the mind, but expression happens in the body. Like I can think of something, but until I express it, it's kind of going to be there.

Well, thinking is happening in the mind and expressing is happening in the body. But the key to that pre-workout assessment that you've got, it's a beautiful assessment because I want to express, but the only thing that will make me more stressed out if I go in there and get injured or go in there and create more fatigue, right? So that'll actually kind of, I'm using it as an outlet, even though that outlet serves me incorrectly. So the pre-workout assessment is a way in which anybody, not just athletes, but anybody can assess their own subjective and objective outputs so they can utilize the corrective strategy during training to work with your stress rather than support it. Yeah. I think long-term too, the idea of just

getting a win. Like if someone comes in, how many days have we all gone into a real training session where there's a real goal attached to it? And you don't perform like you're supposed to because you had a bad sleep, stressful going life, business, whatever it is. And you start missing lifts. And all it does is just compound the amount of stress and anger that you have inside you. But you could just go do some really fun stuff with the bros and get a pump and feel good. That would be a great way to manage stress. And so that would be a tool that I would say, like when I see athletes, I used to coach a guy, Blaine, who I still love, he's a great athlete. He would get so obsessed with weightlifting that he would lose. I would see it happen every time

we would start working towards a meet. He would start doing really well, and there would be a day where he would be exhausted. And I would kick him out of the room. I would say, you have to go do something that's not related to weightlifting, and you're not allowed to even talk about it. Go do something else. And that was a great way to approach that guy. He would get through it.

He was so obsessed with making team you're saying which he did he did and so but he was driving he like one day he like lost his mind teared up punched the wall like chill man you know the university this is not my gym so like uh but it was it was a great way to approach this guy he just you know weightlifting is obsessive man because you do the same thing day in and day out yeah like most sports you know you snatch clean jerk squat snatch clean jerk squat with mma you at least you can do i can do striking one day you know i can do grappling one day i can mix it up but weightlifting is like it's like uh a piece of a drip of water hitting you in the face every single day for your life uh with your initial jump test that you do,

how much of that is recorded on an ongoing long-term basis where you're graphing it in Excel type of thing where you can see the trends over time versus just looking at the individual days and comparing it to a number? All of it, especially with my top. Now, to be honest, like the new athletes, rookie athletes, or ones who are just kind of getting started, like, you know, I don't necessarily – I make them – you know what? I don't make them. I ask them to do the subjective questionnaire. But, like, really those guys are going to get better no matter what I do.

But, like, for, like, the top eight in my room, the ones who really have a chance at team USA or higher, I measure all of it. And so, but you know, and I correlate all of them with graphs. So it was, I mean,

but it was also part of my thesis. So like I had to do it, but so I just have continued past that because it made sense, you know, definitely like you really don't mean what i found you don't need to do both you don't have to do the jump and the first movement you could just do subjective questionnaire and you know like a depth jump or questionnaire and the first movement might be as far as time if time's an issue it might be better to just do the subjective

questionnaire and measure the first movement and that would, that would tell you what you need. And it's like, but it's so critical. I can't express how critical it is. It's like I never pushed Ryan or, or any of my top dudes past a certain point because it doesn't do any good, man. We've all seen it. That star athlete comes in and just beats himself to death because he's having a bad day. I mean, that would have been me.

Yeah. and just beats himself to death because he's having a bad day. I mean, that would have been me. For sure. On one side of this kind of conversation is like stress management, which many times feels like we're in like a defensive place of, I'm trying not to let the girlfriend or boyfriend bother me in my training session. So what do I do and how do I manage this scenario just so I can sort of perform in practice or on the platform, whatever it is. But on the more proactive side is the idea of like resilience where we're building systems into your life so that we don't have to worry about when stress shows up or lifestyle gets crazy or exams come. Like it's just built in that you have a resilient physiology, mindset, body, so that you can just perform. It doesn't matter.

You take these external stressors, they bounce off you, and you just go about your business on a day-to-day basis. Do you talk to your athletes much about things they can do outside of the gym to build that resilience? Yes. And what are those strategies? Well, I mean, you know you know first off just talking about it would be step one and then step two would be like you know once you get to know your athletes

i mean we we all know the basics but the key is like don't go past it so i'll i'll i'll talk about that in a second but like as far as like doing something outside the sport that's definitely one you know especially for a weightlifter to find some activity that is not weight lifting and to like avoid you know getting on youtube and watching illy illen videos day in and day out but then would be like sleeping like i mean what a great way and another thing i learned from dan is like that we've implemented is like and andy has talked about this is like when they're done working out now, instead of just like going home, you know, what we do is a cool down is a, is a really well thought out and measured cool down. So like putting, laying on the ground,

putting your feet up, focusing on nasal breathing five to 10 minutes and then go home. So you've gone, you've tried to encourage your body to go from sympathetic to parasympathetic, at least get the process started instead of just going home in this, which is what I used to do. I remember like big sessions going home and just like grinding my teeth until 2am, like being like, so it pumped up and never switched. So that's been a big help too, is like learning to cool down properly. We talk about sleep almost daily to the point now where I talked to Andy last week about, which I texted you both, but Andy talked to me about sleep and about his, you know, the new things that he's got going on with not-

Absolute rest. Absolute rest. And so now we're, and I wanted to talk to all you guys about a protocol. What could I do up until the point where they needed something like that or couldn't afford that? But Ryan, luckily, we're going to talk to his mom about maybe – definitely not maybe, but Andy talked to me. There's a list of things.

You can go one at a time, which is super slow. But when you're a guy like Ryan, you have less than two years now, which will be a blink. And so I got to get there as soon as you can. So absolute rest becomes like an imperative for us. And then there comes that point where it's beyond me. If someone is, you know, they have like a chronic stress thing going on, I'm not going to be a sports psychologist

or I'm not a clinical, I don't know, what do you call it? Someone to talk to. So I'm going to encourage them to go see somebody. And that's the biggest thing, Anders, is it is so hard to get an athlete to go and talk to like a support psychologist and i don't understand why it's a tool they'll do anything i can say go talk

to dan about your nutrition no problem go talk to dan about sleep no problem go talk to dan about sports psychology whoa are you saying something's wrong with me it's such a crazy am i broken yeah am i broken a counselor that's what i was looking for. They need somebody to talk to to give them new strategies to deal with stress. And so I definitely have gotten several. Psychologists is like, when you hear that, it sounds, again, I think the framing of so many of these questions is, or so many of these things is like, framing it like you need to go to a psychologist. When I hear that, it's like, it sounds like I'm broken and I need someone to fix me.

And that psychologist is the, is the person where if you're framing it and you hire somebody like Brian McKenzie, who's only focused on performance. Now, all of a sudden we have a frame where this is a performance driven way that you're going to incorporate breathwork down regulation to build resilience to whatever stressors are outside your life that are that are

outside of your control. And now you've got a coach versus a therapist or psychologist. And I think that that framing for athletes like makes a massive difference. I know that I probably if somebody was like yo you need to go see a psychologist be like can i just figure this shit out on my own like i figured a lot of things out on my own just give me the tool to do it i'll go do it because i'm an athlete and i'll just listen but if you frame it in a way where it's like man i feel like i'm kind of broken like i gotta go see like like sick people go to doctors and psychologists and things like that. Like people that have problems.

I don't have problems. I'm just trying to eke out that last half percent. So find me a performance coach that allows me to be more resilient. And they just happen to use breath work or they just happen to use whatever strategies that a psychologist would use. But the simple frame of having somebody like Brian McKenzie in your corner, that's super performance driven versus somebody that is in a clinical setting just feels like a completely different mindset when you walk up to them. Totally. I mean, how many times have you brought up breathwork to your athletes and they probably

roll their eyes because they think it's yoga? Well, what I did is I brought the research to them and then it changed. And so now a lot of them are bought into. You'd be surprised to see, especially I look at Matt and Ryan, two young boys, teenage boys, or early 20s, who do their breath work now. They get into the cold tubs twice a week. They get into the cold tubs. How they brought the blacked out curtains they're really buying into this stuff now because they're getting older and i what i but you have to do i think with athletes like that is show them the research and like yeah like look man you know and when you're ryan gets it he like, and now we're down to squeezing the last 1% because like at this point,

he's in that top 1%. So now how do we maximize what's left? And so he gets it. And so, you know, Matt, Matt is really certain. I'm proud of him. He's really starting to get it. So he's like, I'll tell you Ruby, who's also. Ruby's doing awesome, man. I just sent Ruby an analysis report and program just two days ago. And she is super receptive to everything. Like she goes all in on it.

She's, she's been a real pleasure to work with. Yeah. So like, you know, she's probably my, when it comes to like the people who actually do the thing, like adherence to the strategy, she's, she's number one. And so like, and she's one like when uh when i thought her about sports psychology she jumped right in like i feel like now thank god the culture has changed on my team as a whole we've gone through like you know we built it up to like 30 some people it kind of imploded now we got what's you know the 20 that's left are all on

the same page and so they nobody really like balks when I say, you know, go see a sports psychologist and like, really, I think that's a great advice for anybody, any athlete out there. Like if you're not seeing a sports psychologist, you're just not maximizing a really big tool. If you go read, if you think about the Chicago bulls and like, I forget the guy's name, like I have the book, but they were one of the first ones to utilize the mindful athlete, George Mumford. If you talk, Phil Jackson, right, the forward.

But that was back in the 80s and 90s. They were already utilizing sports psychology. And it's a tool. It's a massive one. It's a massive one it's a massive one i used like that is the real reason why i was able to do a lot of things i was able to do because you know i adhere to some really good principles that you'll find in sports psychology yeah and i think too that like a lot of this like some of this not like you can have physical cues for psychological triggers so like uh for

example the fighters everybody's got like a thing right like with george saint pierre he'd step into the octagon he'd sprint to one side and he'd sprint to the the other side and then he'd start bouncing at his corner anderson silva always put his arms out to the side and allowed his back to bounce off the cage john jones crawls into the octagon on all fours. I think in many ways, that is the bridge to where your outside world stays in the outside world and then your training stays in your training. You can almost have two different characters within you to where your real life is not your gym life. So a part of your

warmup in the gym could actually be just simply acting as that mental and emotional bridge. You need to forget everything out there, turn the trigger on because now it's time to perform. That's how you actually perform elsewhere too. If you're weightlifting in Greece, if you're weightlifting in Brazil, if you're weightlifting in Brazil, if you're weightlifting, uh, in, uh, in the States, uh, if you have a warmup routine that cues that difference where I transform from my everyday self to my monster self, that's a, that's a huge psychological thing that, that athletes, I don't think are using when they just kind of rock up to the gym, talk to the guys, don't really go through a warmup and then start training. You completely miss that bridge to your true highest competitive self. We even go back to what we were talking about earlier, how you feel like training sometimes

is like a very reactive thing. I feel like that specific thing that you said leads to more reactive training in my life than any other thing. Like I am literally in the place that I live for, except for when I'm sleeping nonstop, my gym, my office, my podcasting, whatever, my everything that my saunas right there, like everything I do is within this 10 foot place radius of where I'm standing right now. And then I go to sleep at night. It eliminates like, it's so hard for me to break from work and whatever's going on to, okay, now I got to go train. And I'd like to train hard today because I slept well last night. I'd like to, but it's so hard. So what I end up always, I mean, even when I was training, just going for a walk without music, without a podcast,

without anything, like shift things, create some sort of separation between the thing I was doing for eight to 10 hours to now I've got a 20 minute break to just clear my brain and walk through all the thoughts that are going on. And then I get to go lift weights and the warmup and all that stuff changes. But having that little bridge makes a massive difference because you you're actually able to go in a way, just hype yourself up for the next stage of whatever you're doing versus just rolling right into it. And if I don't do that walk, I also noticed like, I don't shut my computer down. I'm answering emails or answering Slack messages in between sets.

And if there's anything that is just the killer of productivity, it's multitasking. Yes. You're multitasking two important things that need all of your focus, which is training and communicating with clients or business partners or employees or whatever it is like you need to be a hundred percent in each of those things so that you do them well and if they're if you're if you're doing rows and answering emails in between you're getting zero benefit out of either either do your business or do your workout so you know what i was gonna tell you dan like and anders but i would love for you guys to come just once to a big competition and watch how, you know, Ryan goes from, like, if you taught him outside the gym, he is like a really soft-spoken sweet boy. He really is.

I know everybody sees this crazy guy, but like, he's like, he, he's the only young boy I've ever coached who brings my kids presents. Like, it's like, it's not normal. But then when he goes to a big kind of like when we're in greece like he's so calm before he starts he's yawning i'm like you're yawning we're about to go to the you're about to be at a world championships he's like he's like uh he's like he's like why would not be relaxed he's like i'm going to win be relaxed? He's like, I'm going to win. I'm like, it's the coolest thing. And, like, now the kid is, like, becoming mature and passing this on.

So, like, Ruby is now goes to Ryan and talks to him about mindset. And all he does is, like, talks about ways that he switches that gear. But, like, when he starts warming up, he becomes someone. Like, I don't even know who he is sometimes like he becomes this like a killer and like he's slamming the bar and staring at his competition i'm like this is weightlifting this is not in the name like he's in the back like you know like unafraid and then goes out there and he's never scared i've coached athletes in the past who are amazing but when they were about to go out i could

see the look of fear in their face i could see it on their face and i see him like zero yeah like just ready to go out there and to do his thing i had the same experience when i went to phoenix um the pandemic we worked together for like you know six months or so and the pandemic took place and international travel from canada was a nightmare for a long time. So I went out to go hang out with him just recently, finally, even though we've been coaching him for years. And I had the same type of experience because O'Malley like in interviews and hanging out with them, like he can be silly. He's funny. He's comedic. But the energy in the room fricking changes when it's time for him to train. He just turns into a killer. Like the room changes.

It's like, holy crap. You start to realize, oh, you are a cage fighter. Like, yeah, you have the capability to be funny, to be approachable, to crack jokes. But when it's time to go, the switch is on and everyone knows it. Yes. And he looks so, you know, know what's amazing there's two dudes who like amaze me it's sean o'malley and there's that that patty the guy from ireland or whatever yeah like they look like they're having fun in the ring they like it's like they're not scared

at all they're literally having a good time like a basketball player might look because the basketball player doesn't get punched in the face but i'm like you dudes look like that and you're about to you're definitely going to get punched in the face probably in like zero fear those two both the way they're able to turn it on and to be fearless amazed me as the saint you said george saint pierre it was crazy when i found out when he said that he was afraid every single time that he hated fighting and that he was scared walking down i'm like you sure didn't look scared when you were whipping everyone's ass you know like like that that blew me away like i would like to know of all the people what went on in his brain to go from being scared to killer you know like anyway i think like over time it'd be a progressive increase in preparation

just like um you know the the example that i've used in the past when i would talk to my athletes is what if right now i told you that you needed to do a 60 minute speech in front of 50 000 people the number one fear is public speaking so people are like oh i i can't there's absolutely no freaking way i do that. And then and then. But at the last second, I say, hey, now, hold on a second. All you're going to have to do is walk up to the microphone and recite that recite the alphabet. And then they're like, oh, yeah, but I can do I know I can do that.

And the reason why they can do that is because they're prepared. They have done the alphabet a billion times in their life. They know exactly what it is. They could have one hour of sleep and be drunk and still do the alphabet. Like that's something they're so prepared for. And I think that when it comes to preparation for a weightlifting competition, preparation for a fight, preparation for the Stanley Cup, preparation for anything, your confidence is measured by your preparation i agree with you yeah you will perform to the degree that you are prepared you will be confident to the degree that you are prepared and i think gsp being scared is what forced him to prepare like a motherfucker yeah going into that like i have so many ways i'm gonna win this fight that we're ready to go this is now an athletic competition for me right you know like matt weininger my you know i talked about him and

ryan a bunch but like there was a meet where two weeks prior he made a terrible decision like two weeks prior he decided to go to las vegas for his birthday and like so at the meet it was the greatest lesson ever. It was two years ago, the flick of fear on his face. He was afraid because he knew that he had not done everything he could to be prepared for it. And he bombed out. So I didn't even say anything to him. I waited.

And then later that night, he knocked on my door and we had the best talk. And I've known that kid since he was 10 to 12 years. I've been his coach and it was the best talk ever. Like he had his head down, he walked in, he was humbled. And I said, you know, and he said, I was just so afraid. And I said, yeah, because man, you knew deep down, you did not do the things you needed to prepare for it. So, and he agreed.

So fast forward the next year and he wins because he did everything. And now he's on a roll of being relaxed when he competes. That's the key. You're right. If you're prepared, that's a big step on in being confident. When you're doing that assessment at the beginning of practice, do you let the kids know the number, their numbers? No, no, no, I don't.

Unless it's something I need to tell them we're chilling today yeah i was wondering if it's kind of like the the hrv thing where you wake up and your hrv is in the tank the night before and you're like oh crap i'm gonna have a bad day today for sure right a lot of times those numbers can just like it's a number it's a day it's a metric it doesn't it doesn't influence um everything in your life it's just for me. It's just for me to make decisions and to at least be on the outlook, to be looking out for this could be going poorly. And some people like Ryan, he's probably the best athlete I've ever coached as far as auto-regulating himself.

Monday, I knew it wasn't going to't gonna go well and literally by the time he was done snatching he's like man he's like it's not in it today and i'm like yeah so he just went home no problem but then he comes back the next day and jerks 12 kilos over the world record so like it was good decisions i may have asked you this before in past podcasts, but how long or when do you feel like you have developed the trust with an athlete to be able to say they can kind of auto-regulate a lot of their own decisions? If they look at you and say, I got to go home, today's not the day. It takes a long time. How many of your team actually have that ability where you have the trust built with them that they can kind of say, today's not the day or today we're going heavy? One.

Just one. Just one. I think Matt is well on his way, but one that I know for certain. I know now his level of pain tolerance and i i know he knows his body i know he's not going to make he's he's rarely going to make a bad decision in his training you know i mean he's a boy don't be wrong like he does other things in life there's like man but like when it comes to you know yeah women especially if you want to have a fully formed brain but yes if you want to know if i were you know what i would do if i were coaching against us i would get the hottest girl prostitute

and send her to hickory and tell her to target him and that would be the kryptonite so there it is he does have four digits of testosterone levels. And he's one of the strongest kids in the country. And a jawline that would get him in some trouble. Yeah. I mean, if I were him, I would walk around naked all the time. I mean, he's ripped. So, yeah. That's the thing that scares me the most about him is the girl situation.

But he's doing better. He had one that didn't go so well, and it was like the only time of his career where we did not progress. He's very linear. He's the only one I've ever coached that's such a linear progression as far as how good. Every time he competes, he sets a PR, which is definitely not common, except for the year he dated the girl.

And I like her. She's a great girl, the man. He's at the junior Pan Am Games worrying about if she's going to text him or not. And I'm like, we are screwed. I just knew. We are screwed. Literally, I remember being at that meet being like, what? It's going to wreck everything we've been working on.

But luckily, it handled itself. There you go. Yeah. And now he knows. And so do his parents. But they know that's not a good thing for him. Let's wait until after the Olympics. You know, you can mess around a little bit, but let's not fall in love, please.

Yeah, there's plenty of that for the rest of your life. Yeah. He isn't a good time, though. He isn't a good time. You only get one shot, really, at being the best in the world. That's what I'm telling. I'm reminding him. I'm like, think about the girl you'll get if you win a gold medal. Because he'll be the first dude in, like, I don't know, 30, 40 years that's won one from America.

I was like, do that and see what happens. So let's wait. I think your quality level will goica i was like do that see what happens so let's wait i think your quality level will go way up if you do that if you're if you're tiger woods you're uh you have much much higher lead flow after you win the masters than being the best golfer at stanford can i get a name in exactly so i'm like bro be patient good things comes to those who wait much higher close rate much higher close rate he does i will say this about the boy when it comes to like he never parties and like and like i check i'm not going to be the naive

coach who just says that and like behind my back he's going crazy i check don't you know like yeah but the kid is just like uh he's like he went – he went to – where was it? Oh, Dominican Republic for one week and only partied one big time. And I'm like, that's amazing. Because I expected him to just get crazy for a whole week. Because that was – and I said, go do this because this is your last time for the next two years. But he was even good for that.

I even gave him the green light. So he's impressive, even more than I was at his age, for sure. I was crazy. Dan Garner, where can the people find you? People can find me at DanGarnerNutrition on Instagram. You can find my courses at CoachGarner.com, and you can get your blood work at InsideTracker.com slash Garner. There it is.

Travis Mash. MashLead.com or go to Instagram at Mashidetracker.com slash Garner. There it is. Travis Mash. Mashleet.com or go to Instagram at Mashleet Performance. Beautiful. Doug Larson had to bounce out of here. You can find him at Douglas E. Larson on Instagram. I'm Anders Varner at Anders Varner. We are Barbell Shrugged at barbell underscore shrug. Make sure you can get over to rapidealthreport.com. That is where you can sign up for a call where Dan Garner is going to read your labs. Dr. Andy Galpin is going to build out a macro cycle, solving your biggest lifestyle problems,

building it all into a program. And Doug and I will build out an execution plan so that you can achieve optimal health and performance. Friends, we'll see you guys next week.