Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 146: Training When Time is at a Premium (10 Tips from the Pros)!

Episode Date: December 17, 2021

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What's going on, everybody? This is your host, Coach Danny Matrenga, back as always with another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. And today I'm going to share some quick and dirty in the trenches tactics I've deployed over the years, both with my online clients through my coaching company, Core Coaching Method, and with the clients and athletes I have worked with over the many years I've done in-person coaching. One of the things that gets lost so much in the space because so many coaches are now focused on creating content that drives leads, that drives online clients, which I think is great. I do much of the same stuff as the actual nuts and bolts in the trenches, you know, dirty fingernails, knee on the ground, clipboard in hand coaching that is,

in my opinion, required to really make somebody an effective, high quality coach, both in person and online. And most of you probably think of me as a podcast host and guy who makes fitness content and tweets. But a lot of what I do during the day is working one-on-one with my clients and athletes, not like I said, just the clients I work with through core coaching method online, but the clients who I still see in person because that's a big part of what I do and it's something that I love. And I get a lot of questions about making training more efficient. I get a lot of questions about how do I work out with limited or, you know, constrained time. And so I put together a quick list of 10 things that I have picked up over the years that I think can help anybody make a quick workout really effective.

And I thought this would be an awesome time to bring that to the table because we're getting to the time of the year where our time really becomes increasingly constrained due to things like holiday gatherings, travel, not necessarily having access to all the equipment we normally do because maybe we're at our parents' house, or maybe we're visiting relatives in another city or another state. So this has been coming up more frequently, and I thought it would be a great time to just drop a quick little From the Trenches Training Tactics podcast. My only ask of you guys is if you enjoy hearing more about what I do in person with clients, the actual mechanistic stuff I do in the trenches, let me know, shoot me a DM, tell me, Hey, I really liked that episode, or even just send me an email, Danny at corecoachingmethod.com.

I'd love to hear from you. But number one, this is the first thing I recommend whenever somebody says, Hey, I'm pressed for time. I have 30, 40, 50 minutes, even 20 minutes or less. I want to get a workout in. What do I do? My number one tip is don't force it. Zoom out and take a look at the entirety of your program and ask yourself, is a constrained

short workout, effective as it may be, worth it? Or am I due for a rest day? I know a lot of you out there, because I used to be one of these people, have an aversion to taking time off. You have a very difficult time. You find it quite challenging to get outside of the gym, to just relax, to just take a day. And so first things first, if you are trying to jam in a quick 20 to 30 minute workout for no other reason than you just want to work out, if you need a day to recover, that might be a perfect day. Because if you're training one to two hours a day every single day, and that equates to let's say seven to 14 hours of training a week, which even if you're not training every day, you could easily get into that range. An extra 30 minutes might not make a huge difference. But for many of you,

that's all the time you have. So just keep in mind, if you are already training enough, adding a small, short workout, efficient as it may be, might not be worth it. But for those of you who are not, that takes me to my second tip, which is to always pick efficient movements with minimal warmup or technical setup requirements. So what do I mean? I mean, if you have 30 minutes to train and let's say you want to do the hip thrust, but when you go to the gym for you to do the hip thrust, you need to bring out three or five risers, a box step, a pad, something to put under the bar, a bar pad, and it takes you five to six minutes to set up. That might not be the most efficient exercise for loading the glutes. So on a day where time might be constrained, choosing an alternative, another heavy compound like a squat or a deadlift or even something like a glute-focused low back

extension or using something like the Smith machine and optimizing for efficiency both in exercise selection, look, optimizing for compounds, picking things that train multiple muscle groups. We'll touch on that here in a minute. But really, maximizing for setup time. Don't select stuff that requires a massive cumbersome amount of setup time. Don't select stuff that requires a massive cumbersome amount of setup time and you're spending most of your time moving shit in and out of where it's supposed to go. Pick stuff that's already ready to go.

Don't be afraid to leverage machines if that's more efficient. If you're training from home, just use the equipment you have to the best of your ability if you are time constrained. Point number three, piggybacking a little bit off of the previous point, is to make sure you are time constrained. Point number three, piggybacking a little bit off of

the previous point, is to make sure you are leveraging the benefit of compound exercises. So compound exercises are generally regarded as exercises that train across multiple joints and use multiple muscles. So some examples might be a squat, a deadlift, a barbell press, whether that be a bench press or an overhead press. Why a squat? Well, when you do the squat, you're using your quadriceps, your glutes, your core, you're stabilizing the bar across your back using your midsection and your upper back. Same thing with the deadlift, right? We're using the glutes, the hamstrings, a little bit of the quads, the core, lots of the lats. And exercises that are compounded in nature and recruit multiple muscle groups at one time are phenomenal when you are in a pinch. Now, that doesn't mean you can't use isolation exercises,

which are exercises that usually go through one joint and one muscle. So think about something like a bicep curl or a leg extension. Those can be used intelligently. We'll talk about that in a minute when we get to circuits, giant sets, antagonist paired sets, etc. But I do think that compounds should be your bread and butter when it comes to making your training as efficient as possible, dialing things in, making the most of your time. And all of the things we'll talk about here can incorporate compounds, but that's gotta be the number one thing for, for working with general population clients who maybe come and see me three times a week for 45 minutes, we pretty much

only do compounds. And when we do isolation work, it's generally as part of a circuit, a giant set, an antagonist paired set. We're talking all about this stuff in a minute here, but compounds are your friend. So point number four, don't forget about circuit training. So circuit training is often thought of as like a cardiovascular spastic form of weight training where you bounce around from silly exercise to silly exercise, a la F45, a la Orange Theory, a la boot camp. But I tend to think of circuit training a little differently. I think of it as anything that incorporates more than three exercises, right? I think two exercises makes a superset. Two exercises of the same muscle group

makes a compound set. Two exercises of opposite muscle groups is a superset or antagonist paired set. We'll talk about all of these as we go. Three exercises is a tri-set. Four exercises is, you know, a giant set. Sometimes you might have three exercises and call it a giant set, but anything more than three or four and the inclusion of anything non-resistance based, and we're talking about a circuit. And so I have, for many of my general population clients over the years, incorporated some intelligent or what I would call intuitive forms of circuit training. So for example, a good circuit might be if you're crunched for time. A kettlebell swing for 10 reps, that would hammer the posterior chain, the glutes and hamstrings, also mildly aerobic.

Grab that same kettlebell, do a kettlebell warrior's row, 10 reps a side. That's going to challenge the lats and going to challenge the core. Then maybe go into a TRX T-fly to train the delts, a lateral raise so that you work in something slightly simpler, and finish with a 10-calorie assault bike sprint before before taking a two minute break and repeating the circuit three to four times. That's an effective way to train your total body, all the muscle groups, various different patterns. We have a row, we have a hinge, we have a push, and we have something aerobic. And you can do two to three circuits, two to three rounds each that follow a similar

pattern and be done in about 30 minutes, getting a challenging workout that's going to push your fitness. And I think that we've forgotten about just how effective proper circuit training can be. And so something I like to do when I'm putting together a circuit, I like at least two compounds, generally one isolation exercise and one core ballistic or aerobic exercise. If it's ballistic, I'll usually do it first. If it's core or aerobic, I'll usually do it last. Hey guys, just wanted to take a quick second to say thanks so much for listening to the podcast. And if you're finding value, it would mean the world to me if you would share it on your social media. Simply screenshot whatever platform you're listening to and share the episode to your Instagram story or share it to Facebook. But be sure to tag me so I

can say thanks and we can chat it up about what you liked and how I can continue to improve. Thanks so much for supporting the podcast and enjoy the rest of the episode. For my hypertrophy focused clients out there, giant sets can be really effective. And so we'll think about giant sets as multiple different exercises that all train similar muscle groups at different muscle lengths, pretty close to failure. Milos Sarcev, one of the most popular bodybuilding coaches of all time, a guy who still works with a lot of really high quality, high caliber bodybuilders today, is notorious for his giant sets. And so this is something that I've not borrowed from him. It's been around since before him, but I really like

how he implements them. And so an example of a giant set, let's say you have 30 minutes, like I have 30 minutes and I need to train back today because I'm on a bodybuilding program. And today is supposed to be my pull day. I might do something like a chin up, uh, like, or a pull up, for example, that might be exercise one, a big compound movement that requires a lot of body weight. Then I might go into a bent over row, right? We're going to be also using the back. We'll be using different muscles of the back, a little bit more core stability. I might then go to a straight arm pull down or a rear delt fly, something that's a little bit less challenging on the core, on the stabilization component. It's a little bit more isolated. And then repeat, taking each one of those sets really close to failure for two to three rounds. And, you know, if you do that intelligently, when you do the chin up, you train

a little bit different musculature than when you chain the row and a little bit different musculature than when you do the rear delt fly. But doing all three in sequence with minimal rest allows you to train pretty close to failure, get a pretty considerate metabolic effect. You'll be able to fit a lot of work into a limited amount of time. And so for bodybuilders out there, I love leveraging antagonist paired sets when I'm crunched for time. I love leveraging antagonist paired sets when I'm crunched for time. The seventh thing I like to do is, or the sixth piece, is leveraging the power of antagonist paired sets in the same situation to minimize fatigue. So what are antagonist paired sets? Well, to understand this, you have to understand the relationship that all muscles have.

So pretty much every muscle in your body has an antagonist, meaning any muscle that you're talking about from a training standpoint has a muscle that does an opposite function. From a practical standpoint, there are multiple muscles that might be agonistic or antagonistic to each other because several muscles train similar functions. But when we talk about the quads, you kind of intuitively know the antagonist is the, that's right, the hamstrings, right? When we talk about the pecs, the intuitive thing here, we're talking about a muscle in the front part of the body,

the front compartment, right? It's probably going to be some of the musculature in the upper back, maybe the lats. You can just think about when I do a horizontal push where I work my chest and my shoulders, I might want to pair that with a horizontal pull where I work some of the stuff on the other side. So you can do antagonist paired sets from a musculature standpoint like biceps and triceps, quads and tibialis, or I'm sorry, calves and tibialis, quads and hamstrings, or you can do movements that are antagonistic,

such as vertical push with vertical pull, horizontal push with horizontal pull, you know, lunge with hinge. These things all pair decently well because they don't incur massive amounts of local fatigue in the way that a giant set would. So for somebody who doesn't need to apply as much muscle damage or stimulus to drive growth, like a bodybuilder might, if this is just a general population client and I want a short, I have a limited amount of time to get a lot of work done, a good example of a workout that would use an antagonist paired sets might be okay. We're going to start out with three sets of 10 deadlifts. So we hit our big compound movement. Then we'll do a little bit of upper body work, sticking with the compounds.

We're going to do an incline chest press paired with a bent over dumbbell row. So getting a push pull antagonist pairing in there, that's going to be really time efficient. I'll be able to go from one right into the next. I'm going to finish with a bicep tricep antagonist paired set, right? So there's a lot of things you can do, but antagonist paired sets are nice in that while one muscle group is working, generally that other one chills out a little bit. It doesn't incur as much fatigue and you can push it. Number seven, something that you can do and something that I think a lot of people have a tendency to do intuitively when they don't have a lot of time is shorten your rest periods. So using all of the techniques I've listed so far is going to allow you to train with a fairly limited amount of rest,

but just simply doing a workout you might normally do with shortened rest periods could do the trick. It might build up a little bit of metabolic fatigue that you're not used to if you generally train with very long rest periods, and it's probably impractical for people who do power sports or power training. But in general, if you're really in a time crunch, there's absolutely nothing wrong with shortening your rest periods. It tends to work really, really well. Tip number eight is train to failure or close to failure on every set. So again, for those of you that are more advanced, if you know you only have 30 minutes to train, and let's say you're supposed to be, I'll use a different example this time.

Let's say you're supposed to be training legs with a quad emphasis, and you start with a compound like a hack squat. Let's say you do four sets of 15 hack squats with a three minute rest in between, and that takes 15, 20 minutes. That leaves you with 10 minutes. You might finish with as many sets to failure on leg extensions as you can in that 10 minutes. An isolated exercise done close to failure in a stable environment, right, can really leverage the amount of muscle damage you're able to apply, the amount of mechanical tension you're able to apply. You'll be very localized, but it will be

effective. If you don't train to failure very often, taking a few sets to failure here and there can be really, really stimulating. So that's a good arrow in your quiver when time is at a premium. Additionally, a kind of an expert tactic. This is something that you might apply. It's from the Mike Menser hardcore old school bodybuilding style of training. Mike Menser was notorious for taking sets to failure and generally didn't do a whole lot of training volume. And so, you know, do one warmup set to get the muscles ready to go to get the muscles primed. And then one hard set to failure. Dorian Yates did something very similar, but he would do several warmup sets and then just one hellacious hardcore set with multiple drops. You know, just nobody really trained like Dorian.

If you haven't yet, and you are a fan of bodybuilding or just a fan of fitness, go look up Dorian Yates Blood and Guts on YouTube. That was a training video Dorian Yates made kind of at the peak of his bodybuilding career. It's pretty incredible to watch and you will see the difference between what it takes to achieve a physique, the highest level of bodybuilding compared to how most of us train. I'm not endorsing training that way. I genuinely don't think most of you could handle that, but it's probably something that's worth seeing. And number 10, my final tip for you guys to make the most of a quick workout is really nail the nutrition on both sides of the training. So book your nutrition intelligently. Make sure you have everything you need to recover. Make sure you have everything you need to enhance the training effect. So get a little carbs before, little carbs after, little protein before, a little protein after. And if you're smart, toss in a little creatine too. Always a good idea. So guys, if you are crunched for time,

the 10 things I would do to make a quick workout effective, starting with number one, genuinely take a look at your routine and ask yourself, do I really even need this session? More often than not, the answer is going to be probably not, and it's more than okay for you to skip it. Number two, always start with efficient movements that require minimal setup and require minimal deconstruction time. So if you're using a gym or you're training from your garage or you're training from home, try to pick movements that don't require a million moving pieces, a ton of moving shit around, just that you can get in there and get right to work. Number three, always leverage the power of compound movements. This should be the bulk

of your training in general, but particularly when you are crunched for time. Number four, don't forget about circuit training. This can be highly effective, especially for you coaches training general population clients in a very small timeframe. Number five, giant sets are phenomenal if you have a specific muscle group that you really need to hammer in a limited amount of time. Number six, antagonist paired sets can be really good for adding a lot of training volume without incurring massive amounts of fatigue. Number seven, obviously shorter rest periods will allow you to do more work in less time. Number eight, training closer to failure will make a limited amount of work very stimulative.

Number nine, if you want to deploy a more advanced failure training tactic, just do one warm-up set and then one set to failure and do that for enough exercises to squeeze them into your shortened window. Followed with the final tip, which is just to nail your nutrition anytime you don't have the opportunity to train the way you would like. So guys, there you have it. A really quick episode for you today. I hope you enjoy it.

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