Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 61 - 10 Things I Wish I Knew/Did When I Started Lifting

Episode Date: August 14, 2020

In this episode, Danny sits down and outlines 10 of the most regrettable mistakes he's made in his fitness career. Some are more common than others, but all are representative of missed opportunities. Listen in and be sure you are not making any of these easily fixed errors!---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 HERE!-----Support the Show.

Hey guys, welcome into another episode of the podcast. Again, I am your host, Danny Matranga, and this is the Dynamic Dialogue podcast, audio experience, whatever you want to call it, no big deal. But today I want to talk a little bit about something that I think is really, really valuable. And that's 10 things I wish I had learned sooner in my fitness journey. Now, I'm going to say fitness journey here, rather than professional fitness career, because while I am a personal trainer, while I coach clients online, while I make content to help people on social media. I also have a personal fitness journey and, you know, everybody's is different. Not everybody has the same goal. Not everybody has the same

background. Not everybody has the same barriers. And I think that being able to draw that line and say, Hey, as a coach, yes, I do know a lot about what I need to do to keep myself on track and be successful. And I've certainly got quite a good handle on helping others do the same. That does not mean that my fitness journey is all perfect or has always been perfect. In fact, part of what has made me a successful coach, particularly with regards to relating to people and helping them break through barriers, is some of my own holdups and my own issues. And that's in part why I think it's really important for coaches to live the lifestyle. I don't think there's a certain look that you have to have.

You don't have to be jacked. You don't have to have a big butt. You don't have to be a bodybuilder, a powerlifter, any of that stuff. But you do have to be on the journey. And, you know, my journey has had its ups and downs and it's many years long. And there's lots of lessons to learn from that. And I wanted to actually share 10 things that I have kind of learned along the way that have really helped me be successful. And that I'd wished, or I should say I wish I had known right when I had gotten started. And I often actually make a point to emphasize that through these trials and tribulations,

we often learn a lot about ourselves and who we are. So while I think making mistakes is good and learning from them is good, if I could go back, ideally, I would like to change a few things. And this is what I would change. So the first mistake I made early in my training career was simply showing up to the gym. And you know, when you're new, basically every time you walk in there, you're making some degree of tangible progress, which I think is really cool. And I think that that's one of the things that really draws people in.

It's certainly something that I've become a lot more acclimated with with golf recently because I'm so new. Most of the time I go, I see progress session after session. And the same thing is true of resistance training. However, you can get into a little bit of a bad habit where you kind of just get into a rhythm of, hey, every time I go, I get a little bit stronger. I can push a little bit harder. But that only works for so long.

At some point, you need to gather data and you need to start tracking your workouts. And as obvious as it may seem, the simple act of tracking your sets, reps, the weight that you're lifting, it can have a profound impact on the overall effectiveness of your training. Given that progressive overload is the central thing that we are aiming for, and it's the number one thing that we need to have locked in to have a long-term success with resistance training, with building muscle and gaining strength, it really does help to know where you've been. And that way you have benchmarks to know where you're going to go. And if you are tracking your workouts, that can make a really big difference. It's the biggest reason why I have all of my

online clients using pen and paper PDFs to track their workouts. I don't want them on their phones, so I don't use an app based training interface anymore. I started doing that when I first started coaching, because I thought that you know, apps and being on your phone was the way of the future. But now everything is delivered via simple PDFs that my clients print out and they take to the gym. It has sets, it has reps, it has RPE, it has direction, notes, cues, but it also has blank boxes. Blank boxes where you write down the weight you used for that set. And one of the things that I think is so amazing as people progress through training blocks is the simple act of writing stuff down allows you to know,

hey, last week I did 165 on this. This week I'm going to try 170, 175, 185, whatever it may be. But if you don't write that shit down, it is unbelievable how quickly we can fall into the habit of just doing what we're comfortable with. It's kind of the default. You know what you can do so you put that weight on the bar. Having something written down, tracking your workout in any capacity. Look, I know I bagged on the phone and the app based stuff, but that works great for some people. And if that's for you, awesome. Something I really recommend for people who maybe aren't working with a coach is to get a little journal that you keep in your gym bag. If you're not following a program, which you probably should

do, the very simple act of just writing down your workouts each day, even if you just pick random stuff, will eventually provide you with an understanding and kind of an idea of where you're at and what you need to do to keep going. And so that's my number one tip here. I'm working through 10 and none of these are in any particular order. I think that's important to go like or to state because one of the things that's so funny is people get to like number one, two or three and they're like, well, these are clearly going in order. They're not. Many of these things are are equally if not more important than this. So these are purely numerical. They're not ordered in terms of importance. So the number two thing that I'd wished I'd known when I started lifting or that I

think is really important to see success is in some way, shape or form, you should keep track of your body weight. Now I get it. There is a big fuck the scale culture kind of wave rolling through the fitness industry. And I do think that weighing yourself can be problematic for certain individuals. I would never say that everybody should weigh themselves, but I think for people that are new to this, for people that want to gather that data and understand how their body is responding to certain styles of eating and certain styles of training, your body weight is a unique opportunity to take a close look at how our body is responding. And you know, look, if you're looking to lose weight, but you're not weighing yourself,

you're missing out on a big chunk of data. If you're looking to gain muscle and you're not weighing yourself, you're missing out on a good chunk of data. You can use things like circumference measurements, pictures, body fat scanners, even training journals or log books to look at progress. Weight is not the only thing we have, but it is something that I think really provides some decent insight. And so getting in the habit of hopping on the scale here and there in the morning, right when you wake up, before you've eaten anything, after you've gone to the bathroom, is a really great way of just assessing your body's general response to at least some of the

stuff that you're putting upon it with the gym and with your nutrition. And I'm a fan of doing stuff that I believe is easy and repeatable. And I think that weighing myself is both of those things. Now, this doesn't mean you have to weigh yourself every day, but if you are one of those people and it doesn't impact the way you look at yourself. Like you can hop on the scale and be up two pounds and be chill or hop on the scale and drop two pounds and be chill. I think it's a great thing to do. And I wish it was something that we weren't so actively and openly poo-pooing right now in the fitness space.

It seems to be something that's become really, really demonized. And I think that it's important to remember that your weight is not a, you know, indication of who you are as a person, the effort you're putting in the work you're putting in. And a lot of people look at it that way. And instead looking at it as, hey, this is just data, this is going to help me be successful. And so those are two things right out of the gate, data acquisition, tracking workouts and keeping track of your weight that I really wish I had done earlier on in my training career. Number three, and this is a nice one because again, the first two are free. This can be free too. Find an accountability partner, right? So hiring a personal trainer or a coach is ideal, but finding a workout partner or just finding one friend who you can communicate your goal to,

this is a concept that I borrowed from, I believe, James Clear's Atomic Habits. He's really big on accountability partners and finding people, a select few people who you trust and say, hey, this is what I'm working on. This is what I want to accomplish. And there's a story from the book of this guy who had quite a bit of money. And every time he ate a crappy meal, stopped at fast food, or missed a workout, he would actually pay his trainer $100. But because he was so high functioning, he was crushing work, he was making a lot of money, the last thing he wanted to do was piss that money away. And interestingly enough, and this is just how the story goes, I don't know if this is a true story, but it was in the book, the guy really stuck to his routine because he

kind of had a little bit of a wager going on with his trainer. He was committed for his health. He was committed to showing up for his workouts, but he was also committed not to self-sabotaging. And he had some accountability baked in where he would actually pay this person when he made mistakes, which gave him additional incentives. So if you don't want to find an accountability partner or hire a trainer, one of the things you can do is bake some additional incentive into your fitness journey, right? I'm doing this because I want to look like this or I want to feel like that, but also, right, dive into and lean into the but also find other things that are going to help you be successful. successful. Find things that are going to help you have additional reinforcement to follow through and hit your goal. I know when I started, my main goal was to gain size and get bigger, but I had

additional reinforcement from people giving me compliments about how I looked, the way I performed, the way I felt, where my energy was at. And so I would always, you know, dive into those additional incentives too and appreciate those. And again, that's kind of a 3B, if you will, finding additional incentive. But let's reiterate, the big focus here is to find somebody or something that holds you accountable to going in and doing that work. And while we are not all in a situation where you can hire a coach, where that's certainly the best option, you know, a workout partner is a fantastic place to start for a large number of people. And that can be a friend, a family member, a spouse, really anybody that you trust to hold you accountable, not bag on you and keep you on track. Somebody who knows why you want this goal, what it means to you, and that you're comfortable being vulnerable with when you make mistakes. That can be a really, really good thing to have on your side

and something that I wished that I had taken advantage of earlier. 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 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. Number four, now we're getting into what I would call mechanistic mistakes. And this is program hopping. And to put it concisely with regards to fitness, you need to start what you finish. A below average program that you finish and follow from A to Z is probably going to be better than hopping between but never finishing really good programs. And this is something that a lot of people do. And I used to do it all the time, I would be on a program for like two weeks, and I'd be like, Oh, what's

the other there's got to be something better than this. The gains aren't happening fast enough, because gains take time, particularly gains in size. And so I would hop from one program to the next and to the next and to the next. And I bought this influencers program and that one and I did this one on bodybuilding.com. And I did this one on a forum and then I made my own and then I went back to this one and then I took one that I made built my own off of that or I combined two and I was always in this idea that hey, if more is better, if I switch to a new program, I'll get better results, or if I combine these two, and in all honesty, I ended up wasting a lot of my time, not trusting the process and simply following through with something from A to Z. It's something that I'm much better with now, because again, I teach it and I preach it. But, you know, that preaching

and that understanding of why it's important doesn't come from anything that I've learned in a certification or a course or in my, you know, undergraduate education. It comes from my own mistakes and how much of the time I wish I'd spent sticking to a program instead of program hopping early in my training career. And being transparent about that is pretty important. Because when you have the understanding that somebody like myself does from working with so many people, and you know, the nuts and bolts, you have the scientific background, you know, you know better than to do this stuff. But still, I made those mistakes, because a lot of them are emotional, or they're're kind of silly or they're, you know,

they go back to those strange neurotic tendencies we have to want to mix things up or that, you know, the all or nothing, this isn't good enough or more is better. And so just sticking with programs, trying different things is important, but do finish what you start. The same can be said for working with a coach. You got to go all in. You got to trust that person. If you're going to pay them, do what they tell you and you should get there. But a lot of us either think we know better or we start changing things up and it can become kind of a problem. Um, number five was, you know, not getting adequate dietary protein intake.

Now, while it is relatively difficult to stay on track with nutrition all the time and nail everything perfectly, one of those really non-negotiable central tenets of having success with your fitness is nailing your protein. It's difficult to smash out and perfectly execute macros, calories, and adhere to every single dietary guideline that we're trying to go with micronutrients every day. Life happens. However, you've got to make that protein goal the non negotiable. That's what helps you build the tissue. That's what helps you stay on track of your diet. It keeps you satiated. There's so many benefits to hitting that protein that you'd be kind of silly to miss that. And one of the things I've learned is that it's almost impossible to be perfect. However, it is very possible to have a few

non-negotiables. And while I would never ask that a client hits their macros 100% perfectly every single day, because I think that that's unreasonable, I do think that always hitting dietary protein is something that makes a huge difference. And it covers so many of your bases, particularly if you eat some nutritious whole food sources of protein, you tend to get some great micronutrients in there as well. But you know, whether you're looking to gain muscle, or you're looking to lose body fat, which are most people's primary goals, you cannot go wrong with eating a considerable amount of protein and making sure that you do not miss that every single day becomes perhaps the most foundational step of your nutrition protocol and your nutrition

strategy. And it will help you see results quite a bit more quickly than if you kind of just slap dick around and miss your protein. Number six is a concept that I call eating like an adult. And it's kind of funny to say it out loud, but really it is exactly what it sounds like, which is that you need to make a point if your goal is health and fitness to eat more whole foods, to eat more nutritious foods, to eat things that are good for you, that give your body what it needs needs that help you accomplish things. Okay. That aren't just things that taste good. Something that kids do that's kind of funny is they really like to eat foods that taste good, but they don't always like to eat foods that are good for them. If you have kids, you know this, I don't have kids,

but I've been around kids. I know this. And at some point, you got to grow out of that, particularly if your goal is health and fitness. You cannot be the guy that's like, everything has to taste good or I won't eat it. That's not going to fly if you want to optimize performance, if you want to be lean, if you want to be healthful. Some of the foods that give us the most benefit aren't necessarily the tastiest. And that's what I mean when I say eat like an adult. It means you're going to have to eat some food that does not taste bad. It's just not the yummiest, tastiest thing you've ever eaten. But it's aligned with your goals. And getting into that space is really important, right? Minimize your intake of unnecessary processed crap. Minimize your intake

of fast food, snacks, all that stuff. I got away with this when I was younger by virtue of having a really high NEAT and being able to burn a lot of that off. And it wouldn't stick to my physique, but it never really made me feel good. And you can tell when you're deficient on stuff, or you can tell when the carbohydrate you're eating isn't giving you any nutrition because it's so hyper processed compared to some of the other stuff. So eating like an adult is something that I really wish I had well, quite frankly, started doing before I was really an adult. Number seven is you need to prioritize your recovery in the same way you prioritize your training. One of the quotes I say all the time is you only make the gains you can recover

from, which means if you had two dials and they went from zero to 100 and zero on the recovery dial was doing nothing, eating like crap, not getting sleep, and zero on the training dial was not training, but 100 on the recovery dial was getting adequate sleep, hydration, taking the right supplements, meditating to manage stress, and 100 on the training is tracking your workouts, going balls to the wall, training your ass off. Those two dials need to always be at or around the same number if you can. Meaning if you're training at an 80 and you're busting your butt, you need to have 80 plus recovery, right? This is just a silly little arbitrary visualization or visual example, but you got to recover on par with your training. You have to give your body for every amplitude of training you put upon training. You have to give your body for every amplitude of training

you put upon it. You have to give it equal opportunity, if not more opportunity to recover because that's where the gains come from, right? So all of that intensity that you put into your training, you want to match that, right? Whether that's hitting the sauna, getting a massage, meditating, getting that eight to nine hours of sleep, maybe taking a nap midday, doing those little tiny things that people tend to overlook can make the biggest difference. Because remember, when we're in the gym, we're breaking stuff down. It's during those recovery hours after the workout, while we're sleeping, while we're eating, those are where we're really building the tissue back up. That stuff is super, super important, which kind of leads me to number eight, which is take your sleep seriously. This was not something I did early on. I would wake up super early to go to the gym on like four or five hours of sleep.

hardcore ideology that as a teenager, I don't need, I can get by on four hours of sleep. I'm tough, which really wasn't true. If anything has crushed the potential gains I could have made over the years, it's this. And given what we've been dealing with recently with these quarantines and these shelter in place notices, I've kind of cut free some of my early morning clients. And I didn't do it for any personal reasons. Like it wasn't anything that the clients did. It was just I wanted to experiment with getting, you know, nine hours of sleep for the first time in a decade. And man, oh man, let me tell you how this has changed my physique. I have gotten leaner. My appetite is so much better regulated. My mood is so much more efficient with regard to work. I'm more stable with my mood.

A lot of good things have happened. So prioritize your sleep. Go for eight to nine hours of quality sleep if you can get it. It is going to maximize your results in the gym. Now, number nine is an interesting one. And I put this down as read a book. And what I mean by read a book is, look, I'm a big proponent of becoming an expert on something that you are pursuing.

And by that, I mean, if you want to get in shape, you want to get lean, you want to get fit, you want to get strong, you shouldn't just go to the gym aimlessly and do the mechanistic work. You should do the underlying educational work to understand this journey to the fullest, right? Really learn the knowledge, learn the tactics, get everything you can in your corner. Don't fall victim to paralysis by analysis. Don't overdo it, but be a student of the game, right? Be a student of the game. That is the best way to put it. I've told my athletes that with regards to sports,

right? Don't just be a great athlete, be a student of the game. If you don't have the athletic capabilities to be the best player on the court, being the smartest player on the court, on the field, on the diamond can be a huge difference maker in the outcome in your success in sport. The same is true for fitness specific pursuits. Be a sponge, be a learner, bust your ass, but also do a little work for that brain. Okay. The last tip I have for you guys is something that if I had just done this one step, I wouldn't have needed to do the other nine because somebody would have been able to tell me. And that's hire the coach. If you are serious about getting results, there's no substitute for the direction of an integrous professional.

Somebody who cares about what they do, who's going to give you the direction of an integrous professional, somebody who cares about what they do, who's going to give you the direction, the support and accountability is worth its weight in gold, especially if you've been training less than like two years. If you've been training less than two years, or you've been training for a really long time, and you're trying to get the last little bit of juice out of the turnip, if you will, hiring a coach is massive. If you look at athletes at all levels of basically all sport, they have coaches for resistance training, they have sports specific coaches, they even have position specific coaches. And if you take it to the highest, highest level, a lot of those guys even have mindset coaches. So these are dudes that have four or five coaches

for four or five different things in their corner. And I think a good personal trainer can act as a pseudo nutritional advocate, a pseudo mindset advocate, as well as somebody that just straight up helps you go full on beast mode in the gym with good programming, good accountability, good support, and most importantly, good education. Somebody who's teaching you as you go, right? If I had had a coach, I'm going to go through all the things I mentioned. I would have learned to track my workout. I would have learned the importance of tracking my way. I would have had my accountability program. I wouldn't have been hopping. I would, or sorry, I would have had my accountability partner. I wouldn't be hopping programs, right? Because I literally would be on a coach's program. He'd be making sure I got my

protein. He wouldn't probably, he or she, he or she, probably would be making sure I wasn't eating crap. They'd make sure my recovery was in check. They'd make sure I was sleeping and they would be providing me a lot of that education. These are all things that would have easily been remedied by hiring a coach. Now, I'm not shilling for my coaching services. If you want to work with me, fucking you know where to find me. This is not that conversation. This is not a sales podcast. This is me just giving it to you straight. Hiring a coach makes a big difference. It will help the outcome of what it is that you're trying to do. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. If you want to get there and you want to get there faster and safer, hire someone, period.

All right, guys, that will do it for today's episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. Again, just a quick little blurb. Stay tuned. Lots of cool stuff coming your way. I so very much appreciate every single one of you on every single platform, whether it's Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Apple podcasts, Spotify, wherever you're interacting and engaging with me, I appreciate the hell out of you. Not just saying that as a blanket statement, literally you, the person who

is hearing this through their ears right now, you have been an integral piece to the development of my business and my brand. And you've helped me reach more people with my mission of helping them perform and live better. So thank you very much and you have a great day.