Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 35 - 7 Mistakes To Avoid When Gyms Reopen

Episode Date: May 25, 2020

In this episode, Danny outlines the seven biggest mistakes to avoid when gyms reopen, as well as:How to train when things open up.What splits/routines to consider.How to manage shortened workout windows.Movements to do and movements to avoid.And MORE!Thanks For Listening!---RESOURCES/COACHING: I 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 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 INSTAGRAMFollow Coach Danny on TwitterFollow Coach Danny on FacebookGet More In-Depth Articles Written By Yours’ Truly HERESupport the Show.

Welcome in everybody to another episode of the dynamic dialogue podcast. I am your host, Danny Matrenga. And today we are talking a lot about getting back into the gym. Now, not just getting back into the gym, but the seven biggest mistakes you need to be sure you do not make as we get closer and closer to normal. Now, a lot of you have already gotten back into the gym as this post-COVID-19 landscape has become increasingly more clear on a state-by-state, region-by-region basis. Many of you have not gone back. Many of you will not go back. However, I still encourage, listen to this podcast from start to finish. There's going to be a lot of interesting takeaways for you. So without further

ado, let's dive in, okay? Because I think that there's a lot of questions going around. I'm getting questions via email, via direct message as to how should I handle this return to the gym? How should I handle this return to the gym? For many of us, it's been over 60, 70, even 80 days by the time you might be getting back into it since you've touched a barbell, since you've touched anything with essentially any weight at all. Many people have been doing just body weight. So there's going to be a lot of changes happening in your routine as you work yourself back into a gym setting. And it's very important that you take care of your body and that you do it in an intelligent way. So tip

number one is do not go back to your old lifting frequency. Now, I believe that frequency is an actually fairly abused tool in terms of number of sessions per week. I think far too many lifters kind of veer towards the 5, 6, 7 day per week weightlifting frequency, and I don't think that's ideal for most natural lifters. I think you can do just fine with 3, even four days as we come back from COVID-19. I would reserve those six-day training splits for people who are very advanced or people who are able to accumulate a high training volume whilst they were away. So what I would recommend in place of a five, six, seven-day-a-week routine is a technique-focused three to four-day-a a week training split to start for

the first one to three weeks. Here's what that might look like in practice. So if you're only going to be able to allocate three gym sessions a week, and remember, people will be competing for times in most commercial big box gyms using appbased reservations. So who's to say we'll even get three or four? Five to six times might not be possible. So even for those of you who are going to try that, do listen closely because it might not be actually, might not be feasible. A three day a week split with an emphasis on barbell technique work on the main movement pattern. So this would be some type of barbell squat, if you can, some type of press in a horizontal and vertical plane, some type of row in a horizontal

and vertical plane, and some type of hinge, like a deadlift or a Romanian deadlift. Spend the bulk of your time really greasing and grooving, if you will, those fundamental patterns, those loading techniques that we've probably been veering away from due to lack of equipment. You can supply a ton of tension across some pretty functional lines of force and some pretty functional movement patterns by simply focusing on the big rocks two to three times a week. If you can go four, that's where we might play with an upper lower split where we still really focus on those big lifts for the bulk of your time in there. However, we're going to split them up hemispherically, if you will, top half, bottom half.

So lifts and movement patterns to focus on. And I've hit on this many times, but squat patterns, goblet squats, front squats, back squats, hinge patterns, deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, lunges, split squats, walking lunges, rear foot elevated split squats, push patterns, bench press, overhead press, rows, lat pulldowns, stuff like that for the pull side of things, core instability work with some aerobic work. Focus on those. You might feel a push to go immediately back towards machine-based exercise. Because for many of us, that's what's been missing. However, I would still caution you in doing that. And I

would say to primarily emphasize stability and technique in those first few weeks. And again, progressively adding load through those really functional, really high return lines of tension, like hinging and squatting and pushing and pulling. Try to get the most bang for your buck in those first two to three weeks. Don't fall into what I call the candy shop mentality where you're hopping from machine to machine, from machine to machine, and just getting too excited. That's a mistake I think a lot of lifters are going to make. So number two, trying a bunch of fancy new stuff. So again, motor learning takes time and you already have programmed quite a few motor patterns if you've been lifting for any reasonable amount of time. And I would recommend polishing those up and applying load into those

patterns that you've already kind of formed at the neurological level before you go out trying a bunch of crazy new stuff. While it might be really tempting to get in there and do a bunch of stuff you've seen on Instagram from people who perhaps have already been back in the gym, I would strongly encourage that you push those urges aside and again, really focus on the nuts and bolts bang for your buck as you establish what will hopefully become a really, really solid foundation for you to build upon moving forward with your lifting. And again, just the first couple of weeks, all I'm asking is in that first couple of weeks, you really focus on the basics and relay that foundation for continued growth. That's going to be really big and it's going to be tough because there's going to be a lot of distractions. There's going to be, like I spoke on earlier, that candy shop mentality,

the desire to go back to the machines you didn't have, which again, you can still do, but the bulk of your volume and your training time, in my opinion, right out of the gate, should be spent on those basics. It should be spent on those fundamentals. So number three, it should be spent on those fundamentals. So number three, avoid abusing intensifiers. So let's establish first a baseline definition for what exactly an intensifier is. Intensifiers in general are extensions of traditional straight sets with the goal of applying more volume, more intensity, oftentimes past the original point of mechanical failure. So for example, we have things like drop sets. We have things like giant sets. We have things like super sets, mechanical drop sets, a lot of things that people will probably be inclined

to do because they have this candy shop mentality. Like, oh my God, look at that. I haven't done that in a while. Oh, look over there. Look at that. And what happens is a lot of times you're going to get what we call junk volume, which is just low intensity, low quality, high volume work done in a semi-spastic manner all over the gym because you want to try this candy and that candy and you're going to superset lateral raises and bicep curls. And again, now is a chance to lay that foundation for higher quality work. So while the utilization of intensifiers might have its place, I wouldn't incorporate them every day.

I wouldn't incorporate them all that often. Instead, I would say take a low to moderate volume approach with an emphasis on great tempos, great technique, and great execution. Lay that foundation outright so that all of the volume you're doing in your return to the gym is of really high quality. It's very focused. It's very deliberate.

Gradually sprinkle those intensifiers in because, again, it's been quite some time. You will get so much bang for your buck focusing on just the basics. There's no need to go all the way up to the highest level of programming with intensifiers to get gains again, right? It's been so long, there's been so much resensitization, your body is probably incredibly sensitive

to acute changes and very small increases in load. So there's no need to overemphasize the utilization of intensifiers or high duration sets, high intensity sets, high volume sets. Your body is going to be incredibly sensitized to these stimuli because again, it's been quite some time since you trained. So save that shit for when you actually need it. Alright, so here is a big one. Do not dive into marathon sessions. I would recommend keeping your sessions south of or less than 90 minutes.

We know scientifically that the longer a set goes, the greater the release of cortisol, which is not necessarily ideal for a return to the gym, because the introduction of a novel environment, a novel training stimulus, the excitement, it's going to be a stressor on the body. And marathon sessions are only going to extend the impact or increase the impact of said stressor. So I strongly encourage, as you make that push back to the gym, that you get a high quality amount of work done in 45 to 90 minutes. Don't think you need a two hour plus long marathon session where again, the candy shop mentality comes into effect. I have to try this, I have to try that, I have to try this, I have to try that. have to try that. Stick to your bread and butter. Keep your session short and effective. The minute you notice the quality of your work start to decrease after two, three sets in a row, that's when it's probably time to throw the flag in and say, hey, I'm done. You want to get the absolute

most out of this. And remember, you only get the gains you can recover from. And while many of you have been training from home, you've probably kept your work capacity somewhat high. However, your nervous system's ability to recover from these intense sessions that you'll be walking into with the kind of utilization of more advanced training techniques, you'll need to have a greater amount of motor control to do these movements because they are more intense. You're going to fatigue more quickly. So just be aware of that. Be realistic. Understand where you've been and don't abuse your return to the weight room. Try to, if you can, be excited about coming back for your next session when you leave your current session. Don't be so wiped that

you're like, I have no idea how I'm going to do this tomorrow. Leave enough in the tank that you're super excited to come back. I think that's a great place and a great way to quantify, or I should say qualify, exactly what this return should look like. 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. Another thing that I strongly caution you guys against is don't rush back into that slamming back of all the supplements.

So I worked in a commercial gym for quite some time and I work out at a commercial gym a lot. some time and I work out at a commercial gym a lot. And one of the things I see almost all lifters doing is they walk around their training session with a canned energy drink. And those have like 200 to 350 milligrams of caffeine. And almost every single one of these people will not work out without one of these energy drinks in hand. And while caffeine can be a performance enhancing tool, it's also a stimulant that can be very much abused and create a high degree of dependency. And if you haven't been pounding these back because you haven't been training and you haven't been going to the gym and that ritual isn't in place, I wouldn't rush back into

it. I think that now might be a fantastic time to start to pull back on your utilization of stimulants, to start to ask yourself, do I really need these? Or do I want to prioritize using them on my more intense, perhaps leg days or high nervous system output days? I don't want you guys to think that you need to rush back into the gym and use all these crazy supplements and use all these crazy stimulants that you were using before. You may have had a break you might not have. You might have just kept pounding back all the same energy drinks. However, you only get so

many opportunities to get a fresh start in this space. And I think that at least tapering back, your utilization of these things might be really beneficial in the long run for your health, your performance, and your dependence on stimulants. I think that that's something that a lot of people really overlook. We take for granted the fact that our body, in effect, should be able to create plenty of energy for us on the day-to-day. We should be energized from simply getting high-quality sleep and getting adequate recovery, and that the dependency on a high degree of stimulation from artificial stimulants or excessive amounts of caffeine, that's not ideal. You don't want to end up in a situation where you cannot work out without a massive amount

of caffeine in your system. That's a dependency issue. But because caffeine is so culturally accepted, we don't consider those types of things addictions, when in fact, they very much are. So be aware of what you're doing, be intelligent about your utilization of caffeine, and think to yourself, how can I reincorporate this in a more intelligent and perhaps more healthful way that's aligned with my long-term performance goals more so than my current or former dependency on these substances. Okay, so tip number six, don't assume things will be normal.

The commercial gym space is going to permanently be impacted by the impact that COVID-19 had on us sociologically and societally. People will be different. People will be edgy. People will probably be uncomfortable. There'll probably be some contention, some contentious interaction, some glaring. It's going to be atypical. And so I just forewarn you to put your blinders on ahead of time. Go in there and do the work. Many of you will be working out in an environment where you have a fixed one hour reservation window. This has already been thrown out at gyms like UFC, Crunch, and 24 Hour Fitness. So if you only have an hour and you know people

are going to be on edge and uncomfortable and weird about having to share space again, and they've been bombarded by this media frenzy a frenzy of fear, and oh my gosh, it's everywhere, it's on the boxes that are getting delivered to your car, don't breathe, wear a mask, all this crazy shit. You need to understand that that's probably going to impact the people around you's behavior. Don't just be prepared for how you're going to interact when you re-enter this space, be prepared for the interactions you're going to have with other human beings, right? There's other people in the picture here. So don't assume things are going to interact when you re-enter this space. Be prepared for the interactions you're going to have with other human beings, right? There's other people in the picture here. So don't assume things are going to be normal. Go in to do the work, put the blinders on, be as respectful as possible,

make a point to clean up after yourselves, regardless of the severity that you look at COVID-19 with. And I think that, again, remembering that there's other people in this equation and trying to respect them as much as possible will create a really, really improved environment for the return to what will at some point hopefully be normal, but what right out of the gate will probably be very, very strange. Another thing that I think you guys really need to focus on and try to do now to the best of your ability is get your hands on some equipment. I talked a lot about this in a previous episode about getting your hand on some home equipment so that you can do your accessory work from home after your potential one hour window at many big box gyms might have run out

or dried up again. That's why I'm so big on hitting the basics right out of the gate when you get to the gym, because you can apply a lot of line of tension, a lot of force, a lot of things through a lot of different muscles when we focus on big work done with free weights like dumbbells and barbells. But having things at home like bands, light dumbbells, a kettlebell, a suspension trainer, even a barbell with some bumper plates. That's going to give you a tremendous amount of freedom to be able to say, hey, I went to the commercial gym today. I did my squats and deadlifts. I left after an hour. I went home. I did my lunges. Hey, I went to the commercial gym. I did my presses and my barbell

rows. When I got home, I did some curls and some tricep kickbacks. Oh, I went to the gym and I really hammered my Olympic lifts. When I got home, I did some mobility and some TRX work. There's so much that you're going to have to change behaviorally if you're limited to an hour the way most people lift that setting yourself up for success and having things at home, at least the way I see it, is a non-negotiable. There's no way in hell, if you ask me, that we're not going to see something like this happen again in our lifetime. We've totally laid the framework for shutting the entire country down anytime there's some type of scary foreign pathogen or virus. And the likelihood of these things happening again, if you study the medical space, or you spend any time in the infectious

disease space, or you listen to what a lot of these experts say, they said we were overdue for COVID-19. And we might even be overdue for something more severe. And this isn't to fearmonger. It's just to say that, yes, I know home equipment is hard to get your hands on, but get your hands on some. The good news is the stuff doesn't really lose its value. So if unfortunately you do have to sell it or move on from it, or you genuinely feel that you don't need it, you should be able to find a buyer. As more and more people go back to the gym, some might be using things like Craigslist, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Mercari to resell their gym equipment that they no longer need. So be on the lookout and try to accumulate a

stash of this stuff that will tastefully fit in your living space. You don't want to just be overflowing and inundated with too many things, but there's a big, big, big push, I think, right now to buy gym equipment. I think it's well established that things are going to be abnormal for a while, and I think it's money well spent. It's the best investment you could probably make into ensuring you have the tools you need to continue to apply yourself towards resistance training and making physical change. Because in an uncertain landscape,

you can provide a lot of certainty by covering your basis and having some of the things you'll need for home training. And again, if you can only get in for an hour and all of the reservations are taken because maybe your app crashes or you weren't fast enough or you were at work and you couldn't reserve the time, you can always fall back on the things you have at home. And I understand that these things are expensive and that a lot of them are kind of pricing people out of being able to buy them. but things like a suspension trainer, a light set of

dumbbells, a kettlebell, bands can all be purchased for under $100, which is less than what most people spend for one month on their phone bill. So don't completely neglect getting your hands on some equipment. I think that you'll find it's money well spent. So let's do a quick recap on the mistakes I don't want you guys to make when we return to the gym. Number one, don't go high frequency. At least don't go high frequency of sessions. You can do high frequency of movements, particularly if you're a powerlifter and Olympic lifter, but don't go five, six, seven days a week right out of the jump unless you've been training from home with a barbell and a high amount of volume and tension. Number two, avoid the candy shop mentality. Try not to jump around from too many things. Try not to try too many new things. Try to stick to the basics for the first

couple of weeks. Number three, take it easy on the intensifiers. Save the drop sets, strip sets, giant sets, super sets, compound sets, mechanical drop sets, all of that stuff. Save it for later. Your body is going to be so sensitive to these training stimuli because they're novel. It's been a while that you can save these things for when that sensitization goes down. When you've adjusted, don't blow your load, quote unquote, right from the jump. You're going to set yourself

back. Take it easy, slow it down, minimize how much you use intensifiers. You'll be very glad you did this because you'll get so much from so little, you can always go to the well or the intensifier well later. No need to, like I said, blow your load right out of the gate. Okay, number four, minimize the marathon sessions. Try to keep your sessions between 45 to 60 minutes because that might be all the time you have. If you can get more, keep it less than 90. Try not to spike the cortisol. Only do high quality work that you can do with a high degree of focus and intention as you return. Number five, if you had a dependency on stimulants or caffeine and you got a little bit of a break from that during COVID-19, keep the ball rolling there. Don't dive back into, I need my pink unicorn 5000 energy

drink before I work out. Take it easy, be smart, and again, try to form some habits that are aligned with health, wellness, longevity, recovery more so than intensity and just getting after it. Number six, just make the assumption that things might be different. Be prepared to be courteous, be prepared to defer to other people, be prepared to put your blinders on. Don't expect anything to be normal. Expect everything to be abnormal and just be on your toes with the expectation that people might be a little bit irritable a little bit uncomfortable and that you might have to make some adjustments and then lastly get your hands on some home equipment guys you know it's probably time and money well spent to at least search for it if you can get your hands on it you'll be very

happy that you did so again everybody thank you so much for listening to the podcast. I appreciate you immensely. All of you have been tremendous through this time supporting me, supporting my business, supporting the show. I can only help to reciprocate. If you have a question for the podcast, click the link on my Instagram bio. You'll see a little link there where you can ask questions directly about the podcast. If you want guidance as we transition back to this,

perhaps consider purchasing one of my programs or even working with me one-on-one in a virtual coaching environment. And lastly, guys, if you found value, please share this to your Instagram story, tag me, share it to any social media email that you may use. It makes an immense difference for me when we get this out there and it'll really help people live a healthier, more fit life. So thanks again so much for listening. You guys have a great day. Stay fit, stay healthy. And again, take it slow. It'll be worth it in the long run. Have a good one.