Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 241: 10 tips to get in shape and 8 tips to stay in shape

Episode Date: November 25, 2022

Thanks For Listening!    LEAVE A REVIEW OF THE SHOW:There is NOTHING more valuable to a podcast than leaving a written review and 5-Star Rating. Please consider taking 1-2 minutes to do that (iTunes) HERE. You can also leave a review on SPOTIFY!OUR PARTNERS:Legion Supplements (protein, creatine, + more!), Shop (DANNY) HERE!HEREGet Your FREE LMNT Electrolytes HERE! Care for YOUR Gut, Heart, and Skin with SEED Symbiotic (save with “DANNY15)  ! Take your love of sports to the next level with UNDERDOG FANTASY and play with danny HERE! (CODE: DANNY for first deposit match up to $100!)RESOURCES/COACHING:  Train with Danny on His Training AppHEREI am all about education and that is not limited to this podcast! Feel free to grab a FREE guide (Nutrition, Training, Macros, Etc!) HERE! Interested in Working With Coach Danny and His One-On-One Coaching Team? Click HERE!Want Coach Danny to Fix Your S*** (training, nutrition, lifestyle, etc) fill the form HERE for a chance to have your current approach reviewed live on the show. Want To Have YOUR Question Answered On an Upcoming Episode of DYNAMIC DIALOGUE? You Can Submit It HERE!Want to Support The Podcast AND Get in Better Shape? Grab a Program HERE!----SOCIAL LINKS:Follow Coach Danny on YOUTUBEFollow Coach Danny on INSTAGRAMFollow Coach Danny on TwitterFollow Coach Danny on FacebookGet More In-Depth Articles Written By Yours’ Truly HERE! Sign up for the trainer mentorship HERESupport the Show.

This episode is brought to you in special part thanks to our awesome partners over at Ice Barrel. If you're like me, you want to get the absolute most you can out of your fitness and out of what it is that you're doing in life. I like to make sure that I'm recovering well and prepped for hard workouts. I like to make sure that my cognition is sharp and I like to make sure that I'm doing what I can to maintain my long-term health. And cold water immersion is a phenomenal tool I use and have used for a while to help me do this. Cold water immersion or taking ice baths is a great way to improve your recovery and performance. Just a few short sessions a week can really make a difference in how you recover.

It can increase and improve your heart rate variability. It can enhance performance. It improves mood and brain function. It also provides an awesome boost of energy and focus because when you hop in an ice bath and you get this amazing vasoconstriction effect and your body starts releasing epinephrine and norepinephrine, it kind of lets you re-enter the world awake, energized, excited, and enthused. And I would much rather take an ice bath in the mid-afternoon, especially if I had a hard training session in the morning, than consume more caffeine. Ice Barrel allows me to do this in a super sleek, aesthetically pleasing packaging. It's a beautiful barrel that comes with a matching lid for keeping the ice cold and water inside clean, a nice step-up stool, a cover. It's portable and durable, and it comes in

a beautiful matte black and a gorgeous tan. I have the matte black out on my patio and I absolutely love the way it looks with the fencing I have around the yard, but you can put this inside, outside, on the front porch, on the back porch, in the side yard. It's quite portable. It's very durable. Like I said, the design is super, super sleek and it's very easy to drain to make sure that you are only getting in to cold, clean water designed to help you improve your performance, improve your recovery, enhance the way your brain feels and functions throughout the day. This is an amazing one-time cost tool that once you have it, you use it a couple of times a week. It is one of the best investments you can make in your health. And again, if you want to improve your cognition and performance, and you have those midday lulls, or you want to be more present for your family or

for your friends when you get off of work, and you don't want to caffeinate, temperature modulation like ice baths or cold exposure or sauna heat exposure can be really valuable for increasing that subjective sense of well-being and bringing you back to a place of alertness in a really chaotic world. It's also great for just cultivating resilience. I find I'm much tougher. Again, this is a more anecdotal thing, but I find that I am much tougher, ready to face the day's tasks when I am consistently exposing myself to the elements. Call it bromeopathy, call it anecdote, but I will tell you one thing is for sure, cold water immersion has made a huge difference for my health and well-being in just

a few short sessions a week. And Ice Barrel is the sleekest, best-looking, cleanest, and most affordable way to do it reliably. You can head over to icebarrel.com slash Danny to take advantage of their 100% satisfaction guaranteed with, again, a 30-day money-back guarantee and save $125 on your Ice Barrel using the promo code Danny. So again, icebarrel.com slash Danny and check out using the promo code Danny to save 125 bucks. This episode of the podcast is brought to you in proud part thanks to our partners Seed. Seed makes the best symbiotic on the market. A symbiotic is a prebiotic and a probiotic. It's not just a supplement or a pill loaded with random bacterial strains that may or may not be clinically proven to work in humans. And it's not just fiber. Seed is a symbiotic capsule that contains a unique pomegranate husk prebiotic fiber that feeds the clinically proven to work in human microorganisms

inside the capsule. It's pretty amazing. Actually, it's this unique emerald green capsule that looks like a rare gemstone. I love taking my seed every morning because it just looks so damn cool. But the other thing that's amazing about seed is it's delivered on a basis that allows for all of the microorganisms to be alive, meaning they're active fluorescent units. So when you look at them, you see, oh my gosh, these microorganisms, these probiotics are actually still alive by the time I ingest them. these microorganisms, these probiotics are actually still alive by the time I ingest them. So I can get the most benefit possible from my probiotic supplement. And again, seed uses the most clinically proven to work strains, clinically proven to work in humans. For example, seed has

3.3 billion AFUs of dermatological health promoting probiotics. That means 3.3 billion microorganisms who have been shown in the research to clinically enhance the health of your dermatological microbiome, your skin, not just your gut. 5.25 billion for cardiovascular health, 8.05 billion for micronutrient synthesis and nutrient absorption. And of course, 0.05 billion for micronutrient synthesis and nutrient absorption. And of course, 37 billion AFUs from specimens shown to improve digestive health, gut immunity, and gut barrier integrity. Seed is amazing. And in addition to being so evidence-based, it's also vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, nut-free, shellfish-free, sesame-free, glyphosate-free, corn-free, and does not use binders,

preservatives, and is compliant with Prop 66. So that is one hell of a product that you can get shipped directly to you. They even have a brand new PDS-08 formula. This is their new pediatric symbiotic formula that is specific for children and teens with no observed side effects of GI distress. It's engineered to survive digestion, even in your kiddo's stomach, and it contains five grams of prebiotic fiber per serving. So an awesome thing you can work in there for your kids. When you go to seed.com, listeners today are going to save 15% off their subscription by checking out with the code Danny 15. This is the only probiotic supplement I would consider taking. And if you're interested

in improving the health of your gut, skin, and overall wellbeing, I'd look into seed as well. This podcast has some awesome partners. And one of my favorite, of course, is Legion Athletics. Legion is my go-to supplement manufacturer for what I like to call my big rock supplements. This would be my protein powder, my pre-training formula, my post-training formula and creatine, and my kind of ancillary vitamins and micronutrient protection. So why do I like Legion so much? What sets them apart? It's quite simple. Legion uses all natural ingredients. All the formulas include natural coloring and natural sweeteners. No artificial sweeteners, just stevia. And every single formulation, be it a pre-workout or a vitamin, contains

clinically effective dosages of ingredients shown to work in humans in clinical research supported by robust trials. No filler, just legit ingredients in each and every formulation proven to work. The whey protein isolate is so light. It's fantastic. It mixes in water. It tastes amazing. And I drink it every day, even as somebody who's lactose intolerant. That's just how high quality this whey protein is. And it's sourced from Irish dairy cows that are raised well, eat their natural diet and packaged in climate friendly packaging. I love their plant protein too, for those of you who like something that's a little on the thicker side and you aren't a fan of animal products. Also, I love

Legion's pre-workout, but specifically the pre-workout that does not contain caffeine. That would be their Stim-Free Pulse. I'm a huge, huge fan of beta-alanine and L-citrulline, but I don't like taking in wildly high amounts of caffeine. So if you are somebody who likes pre-workout with caffeine, you can try pulse. Or if you like it without caffeine, because you maybe want to enjoy your morning coffee or monitor your caffeine consumption, try the pulse stim free. My favorite flavors there for sure are the new grape and the amazing, amazing tropical punch. As for my creatine, I get that from Legion's Recharge, five grams each and every day. I take it on the days I train as well as the days I do not because Recharge also contains

L-carnitine, which can help with promoting muscle recovery and decreasing soreness, as well as some ingredients to help with creatine utilization. And of course, my favorite supplements for my ancillary micronutrient health are Legion's Multivitamin and Legion's Greens Powder. Not only do these two products contain a ton of high quality vitamins and minerals, they also contain unique adaptogens like KSM-66, ashwagandha, and reishi mushroom, which I like to take each and every day to promote my health. If you want to cover all your bases with a high quality protein, creatine, post-workout, or the ancillary micronutrient health stuff like greens, powders, and multivitamin, I encourage you to go over to legionathletics.com and check out using the promo code DANNY.

That'll save you 20% on your first order and you'll rack up points that you can use the same way as cash every time you use the code and you'll also be supporting the show. every time you use the code and you'll also be supporting the show. Welcome in everybody to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. In this episode, we are going to discuss the difference between what it takes to get in shape and to kind of initially embark on a fitness journey. One of the most challenging, and let's be honest about it, intimidating things you can do versus what it takes to stay in shape, which is to say, once you've established the routine, once you've committed to changing your identity into somebody who is or is working on their fitness, right? You're either pursuing fitness, you are fit,

or you're working on your fitness. How do you maintain it? I've got nine specific things you must do to get in shape and eight specific things you must do to stay in shape. These are things I've learned from helping hundreds of people over the course of 10 years in person, watching them change their behaviors, their identities, the way that they look at the world, so as to go from somebody who is not in shape, who might be sick, who might be in pain, who's certainly not thriving, to somebody who is. And I think this will be a very, very good discussion for many of you who are either in the business of helping someone get in shape. You're looking to inspire someone to get in shape as a coach, as a trainer, as a fitness enthusiast, or you've got this going. you're in your 20s, 30s, 40s,

but you want to know, how am I going to keep this going across the lifespan? So let's first start with the nine things you must do to get in shape if you are not in shape or you do not have a fitness routine going already. And the first thing is to understand that getting in shape requires massive action and massive change. There's no, no need to even bother deluding yourself with the notion that it is going to be easy. Now, some of the behaviors can be easier than they're often purported to be by fitness professionals and influencers. I'm not going to tell you that you need to be all balls to the wall, seven days a week, team no days off to get in shape. But the truth is, the way most people live their lives, if you look at the statistics right now, going into the pandemic,

into 2020, when the CDC's, let's say, attention and data acquisition shifted, we have data that shows over 40% of Americans are obese or overweight. That number's obviously higher now with the amount of sedentary shift we've seen societally. Okay. So let's say 50% of Americans are obese, 40 to 50% are obese, 70% are overweight, and less than 30% meet the standard exercise guidelines of 90 minutes a week of aerobic activity and two sessions of strenuous work to challenge your muscles. That's not a huge ask, but if you do nothing, adding 90 minutes a week and getting to two times a week of exercise is going to be a big change.

It's going to require a change in identity. It's going to require changing your calendar around and making time for these things. And that's just to get the bare minimum. Our recommendation, what we do with clients, we look for at least three to four days a week of resistance training, four to five if your goal is physique change. On top of that, we expect 90 minutes of cardiovascular fitness work so as to maintain the health of your heart, lungs, and blood vessels. That's what we expect from the clients that work with us at Core Coaching Method who have physique-specific goals, who want to be better than average. That is a change that if you look at the way most people live is massive, it is substantial, and you need to break it down into small steps. But the first thing you must understand when you

are looking to get in shape is this will not be easy. It should not be easy. And it is in the process of going from somebody who chooses not to do these things to somebody who chooses to do these things that you cultivate strength, that you cultivate resilience, and that you cultivate the adaptability required to be a strong fit organism. Number two, getting started, getting started is the hardest part by far. Like I said, it's going to require massive action to change. But the biggest step, the most massive step is getting started. It's like a video game flipped on its head. When you're getting in shape, when fitness is your goal, you start with the final boss. When you walk into the gym on day one, you're starting with the final boss. The hardest part for most people is walking into the gym, sitting down with the

person who's in charge of signing people up for memberships and committing. It's actually not even the commitment. It's not even signing the documentation. It's not even the sales process that you go through at most commercial gyms. The hardest part of getting in shape is having that shift occur where you go, I am going to do this. I'm going to walk into a very intimidating space where people are already committed to their fitness as the most obviously new person here. I'm not in the shape I want to be in. I acknowledge that I'm walking into this place so as to change who I am. We think. Think about it like this. When you go off to college, you are a freshman and you go into class with other freshmen. You're kind of all on the same page. Maybe you have some upper division coursework that you have access to because of

what you did in high school. But when you go to college, you're on track and in the room and in the classroom with people that are essentially in the same academic pathway at the same academic level as you most of the time. When you go to the gym, it's like being a freshman in with all the seniors, or at least that's how people frame it. Okay. When you go to the gym, you take on that final boss first, the hardest part, walking through the door. When you know, you're going to be intimidated. You don't have the education, the wherewithal, or quite frankly, the confidence to really walk in there with a whole hell of a lot of gusto. Some people do, but most people don't. That is the hardest part. If you can do that, if you can just get in there and you can get the membership and you can go for a couple of workouts in the first several

weeks, you will have done the hardest part. Number three, this is perhaps the most recent, let's call it, this is the most recent finding of mine. This is the most recent thing I've been playing with mentally. And that is the notion that to go from somebody who is not in shape and is not happy with their physique and is not happy with their body, the way it looks, moves, and feels to someone who is, you need to have a clear break in the identity where you basically say, I am no longer that person. I am going to be this person. You might be familially oriented. You might be a big family person, right? You might be a big social person. Granted, you might be a big family person, right? You might be a big social person. You might be someone who loves Star Wars. You might be someone who loves dogs. You can be all of those things

as a fit person and as a not so fit person, but it is very hard to hold onto the identity of somebody who is not fit, is not worthy of being fit, is not a hard worker, is not a diligent, persistent, routine-oriented person, and simultaneously be someone who is fit. You need to change parts of who you are. You need to kind of kill the old you. You need to kind of move away from the old you. You need to have a moment where you look in the mirror and you say, the person looking back at me right now, say, the person looking back at me right now, the unfit version of me, every day moving forward, the person I see in the mirror is going to become more fit, more dedicated, and more of the human being that I want to become. Yes, there's going to be some backslides, but you will change a lot

on this journey. And you need to distance yourself from who you used to be in order to become a fit person. This does not mean that you need to be an influencer. This does not mean that you need to eat a certain way or look a certain way or behave a certain way or wear certain clothes. It means that whatever you love, whatever you cherish, whatever you enjoy, those things can all stay the same. But the identity that you have around your commitment to your health, what you will and will not tolerate about your health, what you will go to, the lengths and extents that you will go to to change the way you look, those things all have to change. And when those things change, you will not be the same person. And that's probably a good thing if you are somebody

who wants to change the way your body looks, moves, and feels. Number four, this is for getting in shape, not necessarily staying in shape, but that is the power of abstinence. Abstinence from alcohol, abstinence from junk food, abstinence from toxic people who are negative, who are maybe not as fit as you would like to be, who maybe bash on people who are fit, who maybe bring you down when you try to make changes. A period of 30, 60, 90 days where you abstain from things, habits, behaviors, the like, that have a tendency to pull you back to the old identity, the person who is not fit, the person who is not in shape, you must have a definitive period of time, one week, start with one day for Christ's sake, one day, one week, one month, maybe even one year where you say,

I am not going to be the person who does the behaviors that got me here. I'm going to abstain, eliminate, or modify the amount of time I engage with the behaviors that are holding me back. So if you're somebody who comes home every day and has two glasses of wine, I challenge you to cut that for 30 days. If you're somebody who goes out to fast food for lunch every day, I challenge you to cook your lunch instead every day for 30 days. I challenge you to abstain from the habits that have the biggest propensity to hold you back. This is something that I learned from Anna Lemke in her book, Dopamine Nation, and it is the power of abstinence when it comes to breaking addictive cycles and negative behaviors. A lot of us have addictive cycles, dopaminergic, pleasure-driven

cycles, bad habits, bad behaviors that hold us back from reaching our full potential. And I think for you, for you, the best thing you can do is identify one to two of those things when you're looking to get in shape and make a small commitment to abstain or modify your relationship with them. Don't take too much all at once, but look to abstain from a few of the things that are holding you back. I think it can help build power, resilience, commitment, dedication, and motivation to the goal writ large. It'll empower you to know if I can stop that, if I can minimize that, I can do anything. What's going on, guys? Taking a break from this episode to tell you a little bit about my coaching company, Core Coaching Method. More specifically, our app-based training. We partnered with Train Heroic to bring app-based training to you using the best technology and best user interface possible.

You can join either my Home Heroes team, or you can train from home with bands and dumbbells, or Elite Physique, which is a female bodybuilding-focused program where you can train at the gym with equipments designed specifically to help you develop strength as well as the glutes, hamstrings, quads, and back. I have more teams coming planned for a variety of different fitness levels. But what's cool about this is when you join these programs, you get programming that's updated every single week, the sets to do, the reps to do, exercise tutorials filmed by me with me and my team. So you'll get my exact coaching expertise as to how to perform the movement, whether you're training at home or you're training in the gym. And again, these teams are somewhat specific. So you'll find other members of those communities looking to pursue similar goals at similar fitness levels. You can chat, ask questions, upload form for form review, ask for substitutions. It's a really cool training community and you can try it completely free for seven days. Just click the link in the podcast description below. Can't wait to see you in the core coaching collective, my app-based training community. Back to the show. Hey, everybody, before we get into today's episode, I have a favor to ask you. If you're a regular listener or somebody who gets value out

of this podcast, somebody who's learning from me on your health and fitness journey, whether you're a regular listener or somebody who gets value out of this podcast, somebody who's learning from me on your health and fitness journey, whether you're a trainer, a high level athlete, or you're just getting started, other people need this kind of advice. And the best way for you to help me grow the podcast is to take a little bit of time, literally one to two minutes max to leave a rating and review on the app that you listen to your podcasts on. The majority of you probably listen on an iPhone and you probably listen on Apple podcasts, but many of you listen on Spotify. Both platforms allow you to leave a quick, easy review. And if you could leave me a five-star review plus a short one to two sentence blurb about what you like, not only will it help more people reach the podcast, it will help me to continue to refine what it is I bring you each and every week.

Thanks so much for doing this. It means the world to me. It helps me achieve my dream of helping more people live a healthier life. Enjoy the episode. What's going on, guys? Taking a break from the show to tell you about our amazing partners over at Elemental Labs. Elemental Labs makes a flagship electrolyte product known as LMNT Recharge. Recharge is amazing. It's got bioavailable forms of sodium, potassium, and magnesium, which can really help you train contract your tissues and get hydrated. I love having it in the morning before my fasted training because oftentimes I wake up without an appetite, but I want something in my stomach so I'm not flat, I can get a pump,

and I can get hydrated in the gym and still perform my best. I also love to sip on my recharge when I'm on the golf course or especially when I'm in the sauna. The more you sweat, the more likely it is that you will need to replace valuable electrolytes like sodium, you sweat, the more likely it is that you will need to replace valuable electrolytes like sodium, magnesium, and potassium. And while if you have high blood pressure, you might not necessarily be a candidate for electrolyte supplementation, many athletes and active adults need more salt and more electrolytes in their diet than they currently get, especially if they sweat, live in warm climates or humid climates. I found a bunch of different ways to use my recharge, but like I said, I love using it before and during my training, whenever I do something active outside or my

sweat rate increases, or when I'm in the sauna. And you can actually try it completely for free. All their best flavors that are totally free of sugar have only 10 calories. They're sweetened naturally and they come in amazing flavors like raspberry salt, orange salt, citrus salt. amazing flavors like raspberry salt, orange salt, citrus salt. My favorite is the mango habanero or mango chili and the leban habanero, which I take in the sauna. There's flavors for everybody and you can check them out by going to drink element T slash coach Danny. They'll send you every single flavor and an individual packet. You can try them out completely free. Just pay shipping drink element t.com slash coach Danny. Get your sample pack them out completely free. Just pay shipping. DrinkLMNT.com slash Coach Danny. Get your sample pack today completely for free. Just pay shipping. Back to the show.

Okay, number five. Have hard boundaries around people who hold you back or bring you down. There are so many people on a journey to getting in shape who simply are not ready to watch the people around them change, become healthier, and quite frankly, do the things they're not willing to do. They do not want to see it. Because what that does is it shifts the focus from what they are incapable of doing or will not do to what you are doing. And when people see you doing something they are not willing to do, there's a strange thing that happens. Most of them, instead of being inspired, will try to bring you down. They will try to bash you. They will not, instead of being proactive, they will not just simply jump in and be like, I'm inspired. Let me join you. That is a rare thing. It is a rare thing

for somebody to say and ask yourself, how many times have you heard this? You are inspiring me to be better and make better decisions. I need to make changes with how I live. You are inspiring me to live a more fit and dedicated life. You'll hear that less than you'll hear people bashing on you, making fun of you. Oh, how's your little fitness thing? Oh, going to the gym today? Oh, another day of the Tupperware? Live a little, right? People are just not ready to see a change because when other people change, it forces the lens from them back to you and you go, oh shit, I'm not doing anything. Well, it'd be substantially easier to bring this person down than it would be for me to change my

behavior. Quite frankly, people would rather stay the same than endure the discomfort of change. And so you need to have some hard boundaries around those people. They are out there. They are energy suckers. They are fun suckers. Okay. They are not bad people. They are just people who are uncomfortable with you changing. And you need to understand that it is baked into the human brain to be uncomfortable with change and to try to keep the hierarchy the same and to try to maintain the homeostatic status quo. So just beware. And when those people come into your orbit, So just beware. And when those people come into your orbit, simply push them aside. Don't take anything personal and distance yourself from them while you go through this transformation. Number six, it's okay to have a little bit of an unhealthy obsession that might not be sustainable in the beginning of this process. And that's something that I've actually shifted my mind on more recently. When I first started creating fitness content, I was very cut and dry,

very direct, and I thought it was imperative that people operated with a 100% compliance, no bullshit. The more I worked with people, the longer time I spent in the industry, the more important I realized balance and sustainability work. But something that I noticed when working with people who are needing to transform who it is that they are from an identity level, meaning they got to go, I need to go from this unhealthy, unfit version of myself to a healthier, more fit version of myself. That being a little bit obsessed with it, being really dedicated to it, having more abstinence from what's wrong, a little less flexibility, a little less sustainability can be valuable in the initial

phases of a transformation. When we talk about how you stay in shape here, when we get to tips 10 through 17, we're going to discuss a little bit more about how you deviate from this. But the truth is a little bit of an unhealthy obsession can actually help in the beginning phases. Being really diligent. I think a lot about the military when they're going through changing the identity of a human being. And the military is not a perfect example because quite frankly, not everybody would survive in that environment and it's not for everybody and your fitness shouldn't be militaristic. But in the military, when you go to basic training, it is the job of that process to transform you from who you were when you arrived into the soldier that you need to be to fulfill your duty. And that process is

transformative and it's obviously obsessive, all encompassing and unsustainable. However, it is a transformative process in which identities shift very, very concretely with young people, right? Who might be more plastic than older people, but that little bit of obsessive kind of constant, never ending 24 seven, uh, you know, activity, engagement, behavior that changes people. So don't be afraid to lean into this hardcore as you're getting started, as you're changing your identity. Okay. Number seven, education and exploration are critical. You must learn what it takes to be fit. You must learn the basics of nutrition. You must learn the basics of exercise. You must learn the basics of habit and commitment. But exploration is critical as well. If all you do is educate and you are

constantly stuck in the cycle of paralysis by analysis, I'm learning, I'm learning, I'm learning, but I'm not getting anything done. I have the perfect workout routine. I've developed it, but I don't do it. I've learned about every food that may or may not be inflammatory, but I don't eat them. What good is it? Learn, educate, grow, but you must also explore, apply, and do. And it is through the actions of exploration and application that you will learn more about what works for you. You learn what works, you try what works, you find what works best for you. I have 10 things that I think will work on a fitness perspective. I have 10 things that I think will work for me on a nutritional perspective. I'm going to explore and apply all of these things, and I'm going to pick what works best for me, and I'm going to continue to apply myself diligently using these tools. That's the

formula, folks. Educate and apply. Do not be the bookworm who gets nothing done, does not train, who knows all the answers but doesn't apply these things. We know bookworm who gets nothing done, does not train, who knows all the answers, but doesn't apply these things. We know these people, they are frustrating and they oftentimes just spin their wheels and get nowhere. Okay. This is a difficult one because this is an obvious attitudinal shift when we talk about getting in shape versus staying in shape. And that is understanding how to optimize for the short term without losing vision of the long term. Tell people this all the time. People say, well, isn't it unhealthy to lose a lot of weight really quickly? And I say this, it's absolutely more healthy to lose weight very rapidly than it is

to be overweight chronically. So maybe you go through a period of a rapid weight loss where you lose three pounds a week and what's considered to be healthy is one to two. But in that three pounds per week weight loss period, you learn a lot about nutrition. You make some serious changes. You abstain from some really bad habits. And that might be a short-term behavior with a long-term goal in mind. And so that's something that I think is really, really important, which is don't be so obsessed with playing the long game that you don't actually get any momentum generating. It's like a big stone wheel. You got to get the fucking wheel rolling to keep it rolling. And it takes a lot of effort

up front. And sometimes you need to optimize for short-term thinking to build the momentum and get the traction required. Number nine, the most probably valuable thing you can do is hire a coach. Bring somebody on whose job it is to hold you accountable, to eliminate the need for excessive amounts of education and paralysis by analysis. Somebody whose job it is to help you apply a plan, to help you put a plan in place with the goal of success, sustainability, optimization in those initial phases. Look, I know who you want to be. You want to get fit. You want to get in shape. That is going to take some major behavioral change. And you will spend a lot of time and energy determining what will be best. Or what we can do is we can look at who you are as a human being, your situation, what is archetypically consistent for human beings in your situation, what tends to work well for people in your situation based on the expertise of a coach, of a trainer who's done this for years with multiple people who are not identical to you,

but who are in situations similar to you. And instead of you taking weeks, months, and even years to formulate a protocol that will work for you, you get one on day one and you get the accountability and support baked into that. If you want to save one, two, three fucking years spinning your wheels, I hate to say it folks, hire somebody because time is more valuable than money for most people, especially most people who are professionals, who have lives, who have families. So you can spend all the time and energy in the world spinning your wheels, getting nowhere, or you could just hire somebody whose job it is to cut that whole fucking process down or eliminate it altogether. So you start making results and learning the

shit that matters right away. So those are the nine things it takes to get in shape. If you are somebody who is currently not where you'd like to be with your health and fitness, but what does it take to stay in shape once you get there? Well, there's a different list. There's seven things specifically that I think need to be talked about, or I believe it's eight, eight that I have on the docket here. And the number one thing it takes to stay in shape is you need to regress, regress from what is optimal to what is most practical. This is something that I borrow from my good friend, Jordan Lips, whose podcast is literally called Where Optimal Meets Practical. To get started, you need to optimize for your situation. But situations change, okay? People change,

demands change, and here's the truth. Once you're in shape, it's a lot easier to stay in shape, okay? So regressing from what's optimal, maybe obsessive, and maybe short-term to what's practical. And that doesn't necessarily mean that your program what's optimal, maybe obsessive and maybe short term to what's practical. And that doesn't necessarily mean that your program becomes less optimal. Your nutrition becomes less optimal. Those things tend to get better with time. It just means, hey, I was five days a week, consistently tons of abstaining from negative health behaviors and tons of leaning into health promoting behaviors to get the momentum required going to stick with this shit. But now that I've got it going, now that I feel fit, now that I feel healthy, I'm going to do four days a week. I'm going to indulge a little bit when and where it's appropriate, and I'm not going to stick with this shit. But now that I've got it going, now that I feel fit, now that I feel healthy, I'm going to do four days a week. I'm going to indulge a little bit when and where it's

appropriate and I'm not going to feel guilty. That's what I'm talking about. That's how you stick with it. Americans have a really hard problem with losing weight and putting it back on. And I think a big reason for this is they stay in that transformative period with a ton of hard guardrails too long. And I think that there's an easy way to get out of that cycle. And I think it looks like regressing to a little more of what's practical over the long run. Number two tip for staying in shape, take the best of what works, keep it, take what doesn't work, toss it. You will learn a lot about your body throughout this process. You'll learn what exercises work well for you and what don't., toss it. You will learn a lot about your body throughout this process.

You'll learn what exercises work well for you and what don't. Maybe you're a taller lifter and hex bar deadlifting is better than conventional deadlifting. Maybe you're a shorter lifter and you really enjoy barbell bench press and notice that it doesn't have any negative implications for your shoulder, the way it moves and the way it feels. The barbell bench press, even though a lot of the conventional wisdom says dumbbells might be better for hypertrophy. When it comes to nutrition, you might hear fasting is no better than traditional dieting for fat loss, as long as we equate for calories and protein, but fasting works really well for you and your busy lifestyle. So you stick with it

to figure out, you know, what works for you in that initial period. We know how important that is, but once you've determined it, fucking put all your chips in on the shit that works for you, change it as you go. If you really want to take it to the next level, then you can rework it, but you should always be paying attention to the feedback you're getting from your body. And, you know, I'll give you an example of something I do myself. Like I had to do so much more machine training than free weight training because I find that I used to do. It's still more free weight training than it is machine training, but I used to do like 90% free weight training and 10% machine. And now it's like 60-40. And the reason I've done that

is because I have found a lot of these machines are actually better for my goals. I can have higher outputs, train muscles closer to failure. And as a more advanced lifter, I need to maintain a good idea of where my stimulus to fatigue ratio is at all times. I need to know, am I really frying myself out with these exercises? And am I getting the stimulus I want? And how much is it costing me on the fatigue side of things? And I've learned that machines are really agreeable for having a high stimulus and lower fatigue profile. So I do more machine training. I've learned that over 10 years. You will learn a lot on the way too. So always take the best of what works and toss what doesn't.

The third thing is to remember this quote at all times. Okay. We lived to live. We do not live to lift. I see this a lot. And I see a lot of health and fitness professionals and a lot of fitness influencers who struggle with their mental health because they have created an identity around exclusively being fit. Think about what I said earlier when it comes to changing your identity. You want to maintain your Star Wars fandom. You want to

maintain your social life. You want to maintain how important your family is to you. What you want to change from that is the relationship you have with food, exercise, and your health. You do not want to only become a human being who cares exclusively about your health, wellness, fitness, nutrition. Those people are boring to be around. Those people are not always as happy as social media might make them out to be. And I know a number of people in the fitness community who are quite famous, who have huge followings, who pretty much present themselves as exclusively being human beings who live and whose lives revolve around fitness. And they're not that happy because health is fulfilling. Having a body you're proud of is

fulfilling, but it's also challenging as fuck. And if you have fulfillment where you're like, I love how I look, I love how I feel, but I don't have friends. I don't have balance. I don't have sustainability. All of those huge attitudinal and behavioral shifts I put in place to become this person, I cling to them. I won't let go of them. I refuse to be anything less than a person who is totally fit and fitness focused at all times. Well, guess what, folks? You will not be fucking happy. I can tell you that right now. You have got to have some balance mixed into it. What good is being fit, healthy, and living a long time if you are a prisoner eating every meal out of a fucking Tupperware and you can't miss a workout without an anxiety attack?

You do not want to be that person. Remember, you lift to live. You do not live to lift, okay? Number 13, okay? This would be the fourth tip on how to stay in shape. And that is to remember that you can expand the range of what is acceptable. Okay. I used to think you needed a two hour hard workout every day and you needed to eat two grams of protein per pound of body weight. That's fucking ridiculous. It's not optimal. And it's actually outside of the range of what I believe to be acceptable. I've condensed the range now to a 30 to 90 minute workout is great. Getting between 120 to 200 grams of protein is great. Getting between six to eight hours of sleep is great. Lifting between three and six days a week is great. Expand the range of what's acceptable.

You will constrain that range at the beginning of this process so as to help you change the person that you are, but you will expand the range as this process continues and you will expand the range as you change as a human being. Okay. Number 15, we talked about shifting from short-term to long-term thinking. Now, what I want you to do to stay in shape is shift from a long-term or short-term to long-term thinking. I want you to think about how can I take this training protocol that I love four to five days a week and do it not just for five years, but for 50 more years. A lot of you are in your 20s, 30s, 40s. And think about the shift I mentioned about shifting from

machines or doing less machines to doing more machines. Maybe you're 90 years old, you're still going to the gym, but it's all machines. Are you cool with that? I think I'd be cool with that. I want you to think right now while you're driving, while you're walking your dog, while you're at the gym, while you're listening to this podcast, how is my training going to change each decade so that I can keep this thing going? That is a big piece of staying in shape is being able to be flexible and malleable. You are less flexible in the beginning, more flexible as you become a master of your health and fitness. Okay. flexible in the beginning, more flexible as you become a master of your health and fitness. Okay. Second to last tip. We're getting there folks. Second to last tip. Okay. Begin to share what's working for you with the people you care about in a tasteful and respectful way.

How many times have you had a teacher, a professor tell you, I want you to teach the class. I want you to present. I want you to show me because you will learn by teaching. Well, guess what folks has fucking true. Share what works for you. Don't be a zealot. Okay. Build a community, build friends, find a network of people who you can socialize with and discuss your fitness. Find a relative who you can share things with. Okay. Check your sources. Make sure you're legit. Make sure you're not a victim of confirmation bias or Mr. Will it works for me. But if you can find somebody who maybe was where you used to be, teach them and share with them the habits that will lead to success. It will help ingrain them in you forever.

And the last tip, the last tip, don't be afraid to find new friends who are consistently displaying the behaviors that you would like to exhibit and who inspire you to grow and expand your health outside of just your fitness. So maybe you cut out the toxic people, but also add in people who enrich your life, people who you look up to, people who are stronger than you, who are more fit than you, that have better mental health, that display peace, calmness, happiness, balance, tranquility, discipline. Find somebody who you can admire. I think a lot of us go through this transformation and really ultimately like the person who we become, but maybe we think, hey, I'm awesome. I got this. I changed so much. I've really become a completely different human being. There's no need for growth. I am all that there is. I've got this shit figured out.

The truth is, I think, guys, we always need to maintain that growth mindset and surrounding ourselves with people who we look up to and who inspire us can be a huge way to do it. So there you have it, folks. Those are the differences in behaviors when we look at what it takes to get in shape versus what it takes to stay in shape. And I hope that wherever you're at on this journey, you found this helpful. And I would really encourage you to share it because almost every single one of us is somewhere on this continuum. And every single one of us can benefit from sustaining our health and fitness and health promoting behaviors across the lifespan. So if you have not yet, do me a favor, leave me a five-star rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify, share this podcast via word of mouth. Those are the two biggest

things you can do to help me grow this podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in and I will catch you on the next one.