Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 147: 5 Fitness 2022 Fitness Resolutions for Your Best Year Ever

Episode Date: December 20, 2021

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Welcome in everybody to another episode of the dynamic dialogue podcast. As always, I'm your host, Danny Tranga. And in today's episode, we're going to talk a little bit about five resolutions I have for the new year, five things that I really think could a bit of luck with in the last three to four months. They've really made a big difference for me, specifically myself, my clients. So these are things that I share with my clients over at Core Coaching Method. But these are habits and behaviors for improved health, wellness, mood, longevity, stuff that I think everybody can implement, whether you're looking to build muscle, lose fat, get in better shape, whatever. So these are some universally applicable habits and behaviors, resolutions, if you will, for 2022. But before we get into that, I'd like to take a second to thank one of the many sponsors of this podcast, Legion Athletics. Legion is my go-to supplement manufacturer for things like creatine, greens powder, protein powder, fish oil, multivitamin, because everything they put in that damn product is dosed effectively based on what's shown in the research, regardless of the product.

If we're talking about a multivitamin and I want to know that I'm getting adequate vitamin A, I can look on the label, see the type, the source of vitamin A, as well as the dosage. I can then cross-reference that with what's shown in the literature so I can make sure I'm getting enough of what I'm paying for. When we talk about things like pre-workout supplements, when we talk about things like vitamins, even greens powders, companies cut corners, they get cheap, they want to maximize their margins. And I know personally that from a profitability standpoint, Legion takes a big hit to make sure they're producing reputable products dosed with the right amount of the right stuff that's proven to work.

No fluffs, no fillers. And additionally, for those of you who aren't the biggest fans of artificial sweeteners or colors, all Legion products are naturally flavored as well as naturally colored. And they come in some pretty awesome flavors. My current favorites right now in the pre-workout department are the Arctic Blast, which tastes like white monster, and the Frosted Cranberry. I'm absolutely, absolutely a diehard advocate for the Strawberry Lemonade Recharge, which is, of course, my go-to creatine supplement. I love the Chocolate Whey Prote protein. I'm very simple,

but the vanilla plant plus, if you're not a dairy person is also really good. And then of course, no flavors on the multivitamin or the fish oil, but those always tend to be staples. So if you'd like to support me and take your supplementation to the next level, I would recommend going to legionathletics.com, perusing their library of products. If you're somebody who trains early and needs caffeine and you're looking to lose body fat, maybe you do something like pre-workout, creatine, multivitamin, fish oil, and a protein to replace a meal. If you're somebody who's looking to build muscle and maybe you train in the evening but enjoy your morning coffee, you might try the stimulant-free pre-workout, multivitamin,

pre-workout, fish oil, protein powder, et cetera. There's stuff for every goal. You can even check down in the show notes below, and there's a link to take you directly to legion.com, or you can check out using the promo code Danny to support the show. This makes a big difference. It helps me continue to bring you high-quality content that's free on platforms like whatever you're listening on right now. So without further ado, guys, let's get into my five habits, behaviors, resolutions, whatever you'd like to call them that I'm the most interested in implementing here in the new year, starting with number one. Now, this is something I've done for quite some time, but this has been something I've been

challenging some of my in-person clients to do. Now, for my online clients, of course, this is something that I absolutely do for them. This is what my coaching company does. We specialize in laying out plans for people so they can just show up, execute, and implement. And with self-starters, the people who tend to gravitate towards online coaching, we've had a tremendous amount of luck. But for many of my clients, those of whom that work out with me in person, not all of them specialize, let's say, in going to the gym every single day. That's part of why they've hired a personal trainer. That's the accountability and support that they need. But something that works really well that I would

strongly recommend for everybody, whether you are an advanced bodybuilder or you are totally new to this, is to schedule all of your workouts and all of your recovery days at least one month in advance on your calendar, stick to them, and be clear about what the task is for that day. So what do I mean? First and foremost, this probably looks like following some type of structured program. If you don't, you can actually head over to corecoachingmethod.com and shop the many programs that I've written, whether it's foundations, female physique one, the original female physique two advanced. You can do those in either order power build lots of programs available on the website, but those programs follow a structure, right? Day one, maybe legs day two, maybe push depending on the program. But my challenge to you

is to either, if you don't have a program yet, you should do that. But assuming that many of you do, at the beginning or preferably the end of each month, look at least a month ahead and book all of your workouts. Put them on your calendar. Put the time. Put the place. Put the actual intent of that session. Meaning, if you know that every Monday is a leg day and you know you're going to be training, let's say at home, because you have to go to a meeting at work and you don't have time

to go to the gym, then every Monday you book 6 a.m. workout, legs, this time, this place. And if you want to be extra, put the whole workout in there too. But every single one of you would benefit from having a long-term view when it comes to things like exercise programming, whether that be for fat loss, whether that be for athletic performance, whether that be for muscle building or bodybuilding. I think it's really important to plan ahead. You know what they say, if you fail to prepare, you're preparing to fail. And I really believe this to be true. And I think that planning ahead is a great way to follow through on your intentions and your commitments. Additionally, I recommend scheduling recovery days too. Now, this is big for those of you who, if you don't see anything on the calendar for that day, you might go to the gym to sneak in

an extra arm day. I'll sneak in a little cardio and abs. Many of you actually struggle with getting adequate recovery and not just taking days off, but things that can be recuperative and restorative, like going for walks outdoors in the sun, getting in the sauna, maybe going into the hot tub, maybe getting a massage, maybe doing some stretching or mobility work from home. You know, recoverability is unique person to person. Some of us need more to recover. Some of us need less. But I think there are a lot of you out there who are neglecting your body's natural recovery needs, overdoing it in the gym. You go five, six days a week, your body stays the same. And I've been there. I know how that feels. I've worked with countless

clients. They tend to be women, but there's plenty of men out there who do this, that just go to the gym and burn their body into oblivion with no time for recovery. And that's not good. So I strongly recommend scheduling something every single day for your body on your schedule. Obviously, we talked about the workouts, but also schedule recuperative and restorative activities for your rest day if time allows. Meaning, like I said, it can be as simple as a walk. It can be as advanced as a massage. But if you want to take your recovery seriously, on the days you don't train, schedule specific actions that you can follow through with on your calendar. It's important that you do this because if it's not written down, right, it's substantially harder to hold yourself accountable. There are very few things that will hold you more accountable to doing something than writing it

down or seeing it. So if you're like myself and you use a digital calendar, I actually use three different digital calendars or two. I have a Google calendar and then I use Square as my primary payment processor for my business. So I have the same calendar. It's an exact mirror. There's a link between the two different interfaces that if I'm on Google calendar, I see exactly what I have to do that day. If I'm on square, I see exactly what I have to do that day. And I even keep a third layer, which is a daily old school binder. It has a Boba Fett Star Wars sticker on it that says bounty hunter that I ironed on. And that binder is in this small leather case and that, that patch is ironed onto it. But every day I look in my binder and I see my kind of, um, schedule tasks for that day. It's even more advanced than my Google calendar and that it holds

everything I have to do that day. Not just appointments, podcasts, meetings, it has workouts. It has workout specific. It has go to the gym. And, you know, remember to ask the guy if you left your AirPods here. It has, you know, water the plants, add this much potassium, this much phosphorus. It has feed the fish. It has, you know, leaf blow the garage gym. It has all of my tasks on it, but I will go through every Monday and write those out, or sorry, every Sunday and write those out in advance of the coming Monday. So this is something that I can think, well, I think most of us can do, that I think is reasonable, that I think holds us accountable to our goals, that puts them right in front of us.

And it minimizes, you know, reduce of wiggling out of doing the shit you know needs to get done. So my number one resolution for you guys to consider in 2022 is scheduling all of your workouts and recovery activities at least one month in advance, putting them somewhere that you will see and always sticking to them. Number two, this is something that I've done for many years with clients who come to me to lose body fat, but I've more recently started doing it with clients who come to me to build muscle. And it's something that's a little bit more advanced depending on where people are at. This is not always something that needs to get done. In fact, this is something I do very rarely. But when I was putting this list together,

I thought, man, you know, this is something that I think everybody should consider because I think it's a hugely beneficial thing to do. And it's doing a fridge in pantry audit. And there's a lot more to it than just taking out junk food, but go through your fridge fully find anything that's expired, anything that you're not eating, anything that perhaps is not aligned with your goals. So for example, if you have a bunch of hyper palatable foods in there that you have a tendency to over consume, maybe not the best to have those in your environment if you're trying to lose body fat, but to do a full pantry and fridge audit and to create space in that fridge and pantry for more of the foods that are aligned with your goals. So if you're looking to

build muscle, that might mean creating a little more space for some meat, for some eggs, for some higher calorie options to help you get enough caloric intake that you're in a small surplus with a decent amount of protein and carbs, right? So whatever it looks like, I want you to take a look at your fridge and I want you to ask yourself the honest question is what's in here helping me reach my goals or pulling me further away from my goals? And if the answer is a little bit of both, try to pull out some of the stuff that's not helping you. You don't have to throw it away. You can make a point to be like, hey, I want to finish this between now and the end of the year. You can give it away if you have the means you can throw it away. I must acknowledge that not everybody has the means to throw food

away. And so I don't want to seem insensitive about that because I know we all have different situations financially and food scarcity is not something to joke about. And it's probably a really privileged prick douchebag thing to even point out. But I truly, truly believe that this is something that can be very, very helpful with environment design. And so taking foods out that are not serving your goals, that you don't even eat anymore so you can create space for stuff that will, or if there are foods that you're like, damn, I just can't stare that bag of Doritos in the face every day without eating a little bit more of it than I'd like. And when I do that, I just don't have enough space for the right kind of nutrition to reach my goals. Get rid of that stuff too.

This is something that I think everybody has a tendency to skip or avoid because there's always food coming in and out of the fridge and cleaning out the fridge and auditing the fridge is kind of a pain in the ass. But I would strongly, strongly recommend taking one or two hours to do this. You can actually disguise it as a fridge cleaning project. So actually taking the time to pull things off the shelves, whether you're going to eat them or not, clean the shelves. You can do the same thing in the pantry with something like a dust, duster, a vacuum, depending on where you store your dry goods, what that space looks like. Get it all cleaned. Get it full of the right stuff. Try to consume, get rid of, donate the

stuff that you're not using or that's not aligned with your goals so that the actual food environment that you live in, the nutritional landscape you are exposed to, is aligned with what you want. And you can absolutely create space in that pantry for some foods you might like that might be considered quote unquote junk food, if it fits within your goals. But I think, and again, this is harder for some people than others. If you have kids, this is substantially more difficult. I know that I've worked with enough people to know that. But if you do have dominion over your food space, make sure it's aligned with where you

want to go ultimately. Something else that you could add to this, an additional layer of protection, if you will. This is a point of friction in my life. During the pandemic, I became fairly reliant on apps like DoorDash to have food delivered. And while there's plenty of fresh, healthy, nutritious, high-protein options around me, I don't always choose those options because once I've made the decision to open the app and pay five to ten additional dollars to have food

delivered, for some reason, it's easier to make another quote-unquote poor decision and have junk food brought to me. And while with my current goals, I'm actually looking to gain a little bit of weight, I don't think it would be such a bad thing. I don't want to spend all that money on having food delivered. I'd rather go pick it up or I'd rather prepare it would be such a bad thing. I don't want to spend all that money on having food delivered. I'd rather go pick it up or I'd rather prepare it myself or prepare similar things myself from home because one, it's generally more cost effective, which is always good. I like to save money and apply it to the areas of my life that really bring me joy. But two, I don't think it serves my larger goals.

So that's an additional thing you can do to have more control over your food environment in the new year. If you're someone like myself who has the luxury of working largely from home, but because you're extremely busy all the time, whether it's with appointments, podcasts, sessions, meetings, whatever, sometimes it's easier to have food delivered. Sometimes it's easier to have food delivered. 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. Moving on to my third tip or resolution for the new year. This is a philosophy that I borrowed from James Clear from his book Atomic Habits. You've probably heard me talk about this many times, but it's habit stacking all phone-related audio or frivolous phone-related audio with walking. So for example, if I'm going to make a phone call to a friend, I want to put my headphones on and take that call on a walk, weather permitting, especially, I mean, obviously there's some accessibility stuff there, but if you can get

outside, go for a walk while you're on the phone, I strongly recommend stacking those two habits. With regards to things like podcasts and audio books, I recommend doing the same. Now, I definitely get a lot of that stuff in while I'm working out, which I know people think is crazy to listen to podcasts and audio books while working out or while I'm in the car. But I listen to a lot ofs while working out or while I'm in the car. But I listen to a lot of those things at home too. And so one of the things I've been resolute to do is to make sure when I'm doing that first habit, I follow it up with a secondary habit, which would be, of course,

walking. I know I'm going to make these calls, whether they're calls for core coaching method when we onboard clients or to consultations, whether they're calls with existing clients discussing macronutrient changes, exercise selection, recovery protocols, etc. You know, I'm going to be on the phone and I'm not always going to be getting these walks in. So combining these two habits has really helped me get more steps, get more sun exposure, right? Walking burns calories. It's good for your heart. It lowers your blood sugar. It reduces joint pain. It boosts immune function. It improves energy. It enhances mood. It can make you live longer, right? It even enhances creativity. So walking is something I want to do more of, especially with a dog like Cooper, who loves to be active. And while I get him for sure on at least one walk a day, he will go on quite literally unlimited numbers of walks. He just

loves to be with his dad and he loves to be outside. So it's something that's really good for my dog as well, which warms my heart because I have a tendency to put other people or even other animals before myself. So habit stack any audio content with phone call, whether it's phone calls, whether it's podcasts, whether it's audiobooks, with walking in the new year. I can't recommend that enough. I think most of you will find that of the four things I'm recommending, this is probably the easiest one to implement, but I strongly recommend giving it a try. Okay, number four.

This is a tricky one, but this has been very helpful for me. We're talking a little bit about hydration and drug or stimulant use here with regards to coffee and caffeine. So instead of starting your day off with a high calorie coffee from Starbucks, whether that's a frappuccino or some mixed drink, or this bomb cold nitro brew that's 450 grams milligrams of caffeine, you know, I might instead recommend starting with water and electrolytes, something that will actually get you hydrated. Now, my favorite electrolytes are LMNT. We have a sponsorship with LMNT. If you want to try a free sample pack, you can do that in the show notes. But I like these because they contain a little bit of sodium, a little bit of potassium,

a little bit of magnesium, no sugar, and the flavors are great. Slightly salty, which I actually enjoy. I love the combination of a little bit of citrus and salt. So my favorite is the citrus salt. And when I wake up every morning, I pour myself a huge glass of water, a half a packet of those electrolytes, and I drink it down. The reason I drink it down is so that I start my day getting hydrated because hydration is going to have a better likelihood of extending my energy throughout the entire day, the actual state of being hydrated, compared to just constantly needing caffeine to get anything done. And I know a lot of people who are closeted caffeine addicts, you know, at right upon waking, they have a coffee or an energy drink. And then

across their workday, they might have two, one, two, three additional coffees or energy drinks to keep them going. Now, this is likely due to caffeine dependency because caffeine is a stimulant. It works on your brain the same way amphetamine might or nicotine might. Now, those are substantially more intense, but they can cause some dependence. And the more you drink, the less it tends to hit in terms of like the actual boost of energy. And what many people are doing with caffeine is just staving off drowsiness and general fatigue. That's probably been incurred over many years of using stimulants somewhat recklessly. Myself included, I used to take two, three scoops of pre-workout every day for four or five years. And that shit fucked me

up. It was not helpful. It just really damaged my relationship with sleep, recovery, my mood, my mental health, and I'm still working on it. And I want to share with you how I'm doing that beyond just adding water and electrolytes in the morning to get hydrated. So instead of starting my day with a huge thing of pre-workout or a huge thing of nitro cold brew, I start with water and electrolytes. But when I do want caffeine, usually around an hour or two after getting up, getting some light exposure, getting movement, I do like to have a shot of espresso. Now I have an espresso machine and the pods are very cheap. I can make a double shot of espresso, which is slightly over a hundred milligrams of caffeine. I think it's about 120 to 160 for a dollar. I can literally buy 30 containers, these small little pods for my

Nespresso machine that will give me a double shot every day for a month for 30 bucks. And you spend 30 bucks a week minimum going to Starbucks and getting your drink, unless you're getting like a drink like this and it might take two weeks. But if you're going to a coffee shop daily, you'll save some money, which oftentimes encourages people to change their behavior, right? But you'll also have a little bit more control over your caffeine consumption, because if you're starting with a shot of espresso, that's about as small as it gets, you know, 60 milligrams of caffeine. Maybe it depends. I'm sure it depends on the type of bean, the type of espresso, but I'd rather you go 60 milligrams at a time with caffeine

than an entire 200 milligram energy drink, 150 milligram scoop of caffeine, you know, uh, laden pre-workout, a big cup of iced tea. You know, I'd rather you go small and use the least amount of caffeine required to get a, you know, dosage response you're looking for. So, you know, not necessarily relying on the huge caffeine bomb to get energy, for. So, you know, not necessarily relying on the huge caffeine bomb to get energy, starting with hydration and then having a smaller dose of caffeine, maybe one or two, one around, for me, it turns out to be like eight or nine in the morning and around 11. And then I'm done. I cut my caffeine off every day at 11 o'clock. That's my hard rule. So that has worked tremendously well for me. Now, if you like pre-workout and you're

looking to reduce your caffeine intake, you can try some of the stimulant free pre-workout options. Legion makes a great one pulled stem free. But if you're just like generally kind of burnt out on pre-workout, it's not a terrible idea to take a break from something like that. Um, but just know whether you're taking some time away from coffee, whether you're taking some time away from tea, whether you're taking some time away from pre-workout, it can be challenging. There can be some mild withdrawal symptoms like irritability, headache, lethargy, obviously, especially with something like caffeine that's classifiable as an upper. But I do think that this is a worthy challenge.

And I think that it will generally improve your sleep. It will generally improve your energy to be more hydrated and focusing more on hydrating because remember, caffeine is a diuretic. So it's something that you really, really need to be careful with when it comes to how much you consume because the more you consume, the less water you're going to retain. You're going to be going to the bathroom more. You're going to be expelling water. So caffeine, while it's not entirely going to dehydrate you, it's not like if you drink a cup of coffee, you lose two cups of water. It's certainly nothing like that. I think reducing caffeine intake while simultaneously working on your hydration will bring you to a really good place with your health and your energy. All right. And the last one has

to do with sleep, sleep hygiene, which is indirectly related to recovery, performance, pygene, which is indirectly related to recovery, performance, many things, not just, and obviously longevity. And that is, I am trying to, instead of being on my phone before bed, taking one hour off my phone before bed and using that time instead to read, whether that's something that I'm reading for enjoyment, something that I'm reading for personal development, that to me is substantially less important than the fact that I'm reading instead of looking at a screen. Now, I can say this for sure. Reading puts you to sleep much more quickly than the equivalent amount of time spent on your phone, especially if you're like me and you read a lot of nonfiction. If you're reading super hot, steamy, arousing romance novels, that might not be exactly the

best thing to read before bed but if you're reading something instead of scrolling through your phone i think that's good not just because of the blue light exposure we get from our screens that prevents our brain's ability to produce melatonin we know all about that and if you don't i have some episodes where i talk about that in detail earlier on in the podcast or I should say earlier on in my library of podcasts in the probably single digit early teens, twenties episodes where this is episode. Wow. What is this episode? 160 something. I think at this point now 140 something, whatever. Done a lot of these. Thank you all for listening, but I'm trying to read before bed, spend less time on my phone, and ideally get in bed 60 minutes

earlier than I was previously. So instead of being in bed at nine and out by 10, my goal is to be in bed at eight and out by nine. Or if you're somebody who goes to bed at 11, you might try going to bed at 10 and reading instead of being on your phone. Additionally, I would recommend waking up 30 minutes earlier if you already get enough sleep. And if you don't, don't worry so much about that. But going to bed a little bit earlier and focusing on reading instead of being on your phone, you can use a book light or a candle that emits frequency without a lot of blue light. Or, right, you can use blue light blocking glasses while you read by a traditional light that might

emit blue light. And then waking up 30 minutes early to get your body moving, get hydrated. You know, I've recommended that on tip number four, but also to be a little bit productive and set yourself up for the day. You can look ahead at what you've got on your calendar, see what workout you need to do. You can go to the fridge, take out everything you need, the pantry, take out everything you need and cook for all of the stuff that needs to get done, right? You can line up your calls and meetings so you can go on walks. All of this stuff is connected, right? But looking to read before bed instead of watching stimulating television or being on phone apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, anything that's likely to elicit some kind of emotion,

right? Go to bed about an hour earlier and wake up about 30 minutes earlier. So guys, those are the five fitness New Year's resolutions I have for you, challenges, if you would like to call them as such, but I strongly recommend giving those a try in the new year. Schedule those workouts, make sure your food environment's where it needs to be, habit stack movement with tasks you need to get done, focus more on hydration than stimulation, and try to get better sleep by creating better sleep hygiene slowly but surely. I want to thank each and every one of you for listening. If you have not yet, hit that subscribe button. Please do follow along, continue to put your health, wellness, performance first. And if you are looking to support the show, again, you can shop with Legion, LMNT, you can head over to

corecoachingmethod.com, peruse the programs I've written, work with either myself or any member of my phenomenal coaching team, and just continue to subscribe, share the episodes, leave a written five-star rating and review if you have not, and know that you are a valued, heard, and appreciated subscriber, and I can't wait to catch you on the next one.