Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 77 - Joe Rogan, Groceries for Gains, Olympic Lifts + MORE!

Episode Date: November 13, 2020

In this episode, we talk about everything from simple grocery shopping hacks to current events in relation to our everyday lives to diving into some Q&A! We talk about how to succeed as a personal trainer, progressive overload, and Danny’s diet!---Thanks For Listening!---RESOURCES/COACHING:Check out my programs and E-Books! Click HERE!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!-----TIMESTAMPS:Current events talk, APOLITICALLY! And how they can be similar to the fitness industry & market!  1:25Joe Rogan and his celebrity reach, don’t rely on just ONE source!  6:43How to: Grocery Shopping, featuring Sam’s Club and Costco  9:46“Any advice for future CPT’s?”  14:12“What does a typical day of eating look like for you Danny?”  16:11“Preferred rep range for bench press and overhead press?”  17:38“How can you keep progressing in accessory movements?”  19:12“Do you like Olympic lifting for yourself and/or your clients?”  20:38Support the Show.

Welcome in everybody to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. I am your host Danny Matranga. In today's episode we are going to chat a little bit about some of the issues I'm seeing in and content providers like Netflix are deepening the divide between what I believe to be sound nutritional advice and ideological nutritional advice. what I believe to be some of the best staples you can buy at bulk retailers like Costco and Sam's Club and some of the strategies that I like to deploy when I go grocery shopping myself. And these are things that I think will help both coaches with communicating to their clients around the nuance of buying groceries, as well as people who maybe are just enthusiasts and want to save a little bit of money, eat healthy, and make the actual nuts and bolts of functional nutrition a little bit easier. And then we're going to close with a direct Q&A where I'll be answering some of your guys' questions that I fielded from Instagram and from my email.

Before we dive into this, I actually want to talk a little bit about current events because I think it's going to segue perfectly into the dialogue I want to have today about nutrition. And we're going to try to have a non-political, non-partisan look at the election, right, the 2020 presidential election here in the United States, see what we can glean from how this stuff works, because again, looking at nutrition and the way in which we communicate nutrition requires us to understand the way in which humans assimilate and gather information of all types. Because nutrition, while it is a science, is something that people can be very emotionally tied to, dogmatic, and opinionated about. And I think to get to the root of that, we can use some examples that are non-nutrition related that will really

open our eyes and make things easier to comprehend. So with regards to the election, right, we have things kind of hanging in limbo. And you will have people on both sides passionately defending the fact that President-elect Joe Biden has won the election, it is a done deal, the electoral votes are there, the popular vote is there, and you will have people on the other side of the aisle vehemently arguing that while Donald Trump has yet to parse out enough electoral votes to win the election, he is entitled to challenge the results in court to the fullest extent of the law. Now, in an effort to be apolitical about this, we're going to take a look at how and which ways this information,

right, that the nuts and bolts of what's actually going on are conveyed to people like you and I. You will actually see passionate people on both sides, people who want Donald Trump to remain president, people who are excited at the prospect of a Joe Biden presidency, slamming you with facts or at least information that isn't entirely untrue. Granted, there's tons of misinformation, but we're not going to go into that. But you will see both sides bombarding you with as many facts, numbers, and statistics as possible

in an effort to stake the claim as to why their candidate or the person who they want to be president should be president. And one of the things that's quite interesting is we see this a lot with nutrition. You will see people in the plant-based vegan vegetarian camp go out and grab as much data as they can about the deleterious impact of eating red meat in animal products. And they will bombard you with that information that in context, right, is part of a larger picture. But when it's coming at you all at once, it's really daunting and could make somebody go, wow, that's crazy. Nobody should ever eat red meat again. But then you have people on the opposite side. Maybe you have your carnivores

or your keto people, people who will, to the bitter end, defend that you should eat animal products and not just that, that dietary cholesterol has no impact on the lipid markers associated with health, and they will throw a bunch of convincing data at you that way. And as is the case with politics, people like you and I who are looking for information, we might have a little bit of a bias and we might actually, oftentimes completely inadvertently, skew have a little bit of a bias and we might actually oftentimes completely inadvertently skew into a direction more aligned with our current bias. So we might be very readily accepting of the anti-meat story being told by the vegans, vice versa. So one of the things that becomes really important when we look at the overall body of what's happening in this election

is to say, okay, I got to look at what both sides are saying and parse it out for myself, which has to happen with nutrition. And one of the things that I tell people often is if you see somebody on Instagram whose name is like Keto Carl or Vegan Vanessa, you're not wrong to assume there's a bias. You're not wrong to assume there's a bias. You're not wrong to assume that a lot of what they're probably going to be making from a content perspective and the information that they're going to be putting out there into the space is probably going to have a lean one way or the other. It doesn't mean you can't grab some of that information, but you have to put it into the greater mosaic that is our comprehension of nutrition as a whole, right? So if we look at the entirety of the election and all of the things going on, we can't just look at what Fox News has to say or what MSNBC has to say. It would be wise to look at what the majority of people have to say, particularly if there are individuals who have a much, much less obvious bias, right? So with regards to nutrition, it's not wrong to listen

to the Joe Rogan experience episode where he interviews Paul Saladino, who is a big time fan of the carnivore diet. It's not wrong at all, especially if you can listen to it and say, hey, look, I really want to learn what it is that makes the carnivore diet so appealing to people. And I want to be more, you know, familiar with the research that, you know, the carnivore diet so appealing to people and i want to be more uh you know familiar with the research that you know the carnivore advocates like to put out there however you don't want to listen to a joe rogan experience episode or watch a single netflix documentary and let that be the entirety of the data by which you go about making your dietary decisions. That would be very unwise. It would be much like watching just MSNBC or just Fox News and allowing that to effectively create your entire political landscape,

paint the picture for you politically of what's going on when we know that, in fact, it's very hard to do that by watching any one network or listening to any one pundit or any one source. So with regards to nutrition, one of the biggest issues we have in our space right now are highly charismatic people with a tremendous amount of reach. And Joe Rogan, whom I do quite like listening to for a great many things, is one of those people. He is an individual who has unbelievable reach

and has given some people who I believe to be very, very intelligent, like Lane Norton, for example, an opportunity to speak about nutrition. But he also gives people on the carnivore side, the keto side. Many of you probably remember the debate he had with the Game Changers guy and can never remember his name anymore because he got absolutely shredded on that debate because uh oh man what was his name oh chris kresser so we had this debate between chris kresser and the game changers guy and it was just a three and a half hour long train wreck of the two guys basically walking around in circles admitting that a omnivorous diet of mostly whole foods that are minimally processed is probably great but there's nothing wrong with an intelligent plant-based diet this is stuff that we kind of

already know intuitively but again this is why i take not necessarily an issue but i do take everything that joe rogan produces with regards to nutrition with a tremendous grain of salt he is a comedian he's a very active individual. He's very fit. He takes his health very seriously. But he also has a bias. The guy tends to lean relatively freely into conspiracy. Like he has Alex Jones,

somebody who actively denies that the Sandy Hook shooting ever happened on a show all the time. And it's all fun and games, right? But we don't take that too seriously. And I think the same thing needs to be said for some of this nutrition stuff because if you have a charismatic individual presenting you with data that is very appealing and makes foundational and fundamental sense

it can be really easy to say hey this is the end all be all like this guy knows what he's saying i listen to a three-hour podcast on that but remember, there's a three hour podcast that's probably out there in the space somewhere that could easily convince you to do the exact opposite. Nutrition is just too nuanced to gather all of the information you need from any one podcast or any one documentary. And for the coaches out there, it's certainly not appropriate to take a ton of that and then start applying it with your clients. With regards to your clients, you always need to do what's best for them and what they can stick to. And quite frankly, for anybody who's listening, who's just a hobbyist or does this for a, you know, a fitness enthusiast, you just want to be healthy, you like to work out,

the best thing to do would quite frankly be to take this slow and learn as much as you can from all the different camps, but try to put it together into a bigger picture so all this has a roundabout way to just remind you not to mistake charisma with absolute fact and expertise and not to mistake passion for you know empirical truth we've got to parse all this stuff out so continuing on the lines of nutrition i want to talk a little bit about how it is I go about shopping for the week, particularly at places like Costco or a bulk retailer like Sam's Club. predominantly whole foods, single ingredient whole foods. And what I mean by that is things like fruit in its unaltered form, vegetables in the same form, meats, proteins, legumes, grains, all that stuff. And one of the things I really, really like about these retailers is it allows me to buy large amounts of protein, large amounts of fruits, large amounts of vegetables, and prepare them in advance.

It's also relatively inexpensive. But one of the big issues I see quite frequently is people buy foods in large amounts and then they go to waste. We've got dogs in the background whining. So if you're hearing anything like that, that's what that is. And I'm not probably going to take it out in post. So what I like to do when I go to these places is I like to look for my single ingredient staples that I know I'm going to eat and I'm not going to waste. In the fruit category, I really like to focus on berries, citrus fruits, and I'll even purchase things like frozen fruits if I believe that they will keep better or I like to add them to shakes, smoothies, or yogurts. My absolute go-tos in the vegetable department for convenience

are the pre-made salad bags. While they aren't perfect, I like to grab them as they are. I add about half the dressing. What I end up doing is taking half the dressing out, adding a little bit of extra virgin olive oil and some apple cider vinegar to kind of add a little bit more of the fat profile that I like to it, kind of dilute the dressing so I don't have to add the whole packet. But again, that's really easy and convenient and

it doesn't go to waste. And then I buy the vegetables that I like to add to my side dishes like spinach, as well as things like bell peppers. I really focus on getting these big rocks almost every time I go to the store. There are things that I have a history of eating with a high degree of consistency, which is really, really important to me, and it makes a big difference. When I get my proteins, I like to buy at least three different animal proteins. Again, if you are a plant-based eater, you can just insert the term plant-based proteins in place of animal-based proteins. But what I like to get are any combination of things like eggs, yogurt, steak. I particularly enjoy eating a nice steak.

Chicken, I do prefer breast to thigh from a macro standpoint, but I prefer thigh to breast from a taste standpoint. So if I get a fattier steak, I'll get chicken breast. If I get a leaner cut of red meat, I might get chicken thigh. I'll often get things like fish. And then some of the stuff I like to supplement once I've kind of knocked out my big rocks of my fruits, my veggies and my proteins, right? I like to get some pre prepared stuff there. And this is where I deviate from the single ingredient stuff because while I do think that's an awesome way of eating, it's not necessarily always convenient to cook.

And one of the things I found about Costco and Sam's Club is that they have a lot of really good pre-cooked protein sources that I can toss in the microwave and make in a jiffy if I'm in between clients. And it makes my life a lot easier from the standpoint of making sure I'm eating stuff that's semi-macro friendly. It's got what I want in it from like a protein standpoint, a carb standpoint, a fat standpoint. And I don't have to worry about a meal prep if I'm in a pinch. So those are go-tos for me. And those are things that I like

to rely on and bring home every single week. What that looks like for you might be very different than what I end up choosing. But at the end of the day, I'm making choices that I believe are going to be highly replicable week in, week out, and help me succeed. And I think that that's what you should do with the bulk of your shopping you shouldn't go to the store and be in a mood of like oh i'm gonna grab whatever looks good you can do that with about 20 of your cart but the bulk of what you get should look by and large the same week in and week out in my opinion if you're somebody who wants to keep their body composition under control but you don't necessarily want to do a ton of shopping and a ton of cooking.

So guys, that's that. Let's go ahead and dive in to some of your questions. So the first one comes from at muscle dot Meg and she asks any advice for future CPTs. And for those of you who are not familiar with the acronym CPT, it's just Certified Personal Trainer. So the best advice I could give to somebody who isn't yet a PT but wants to be one is get to know people, right? Like become a people person. One of the things that all personal trainers have to be able to do is communicate with

clients, make sessions enjoyable, and be somebody that people want to be around. If you're an amazing trainer who knows everything about everything, but you suck with people, you're not going to have a lot of clients. In my experience in the industry working with a bunch of different trainers, it's not the best trainers who have the most clients. It's usually the people who strike that perfect balance of being a competent trainer, but they're also really good with people. Another thing that I think is really important is you need to make an effort to always be on time to your sessions, always be prepared for your sessions, always be clean and presentable for your sessions. Nothing looks worse than a trainer who shows up late, has no idea what we're doing,

or asks the client, so what do you want to do today? Or they show up fresh off a workout, still in their workout clothes, and they're stinky. That is the worst look for a coach. It just shows to your client that there's other things you'd rather be doing, and it's not a very good way to build a reputation in your community if you're going to be doing in-person training. Assuming you're just getting started, right, because you say future PT, I think you have to take into account where we're at with COVID and the future of the industry being at least in some capacity digital. And I would recommend building a presence, working with clients on Zoom, building a social media presence, and at least building some type of mailing list or newsletter so you can keep in touch with the people who matter and the people who might become clients down the road.

Next question is from ShoudyIsATen. Great username. And she asks, what does a typical diet for one day look like for you? So what do I eat in a day? So right now at the time of recording, day look like for you? So what do I eat in a day? So right now at the time of recording, it's 1015 here on the West Coast. And I have not eaten much today. I have had a protein shake. I've had two scoops of Legion's Whey Plus and a scoop of Legion's Green Supplement Genesis in a shake. And that's it. Normally, I start my day off with a cup of coffee. I have my first meal around 9 o'clock, which is a shake. I don't have a huge appetite in the morning. Around noon, though, I will have some of the protein that I've prepared ahead of time, usually with some fruit and some grains, whether that be some whole grain bread, some rice.

That's when I start to really add the food in, when my appetite kicks up, which usually isn't until about 11 or 12. I train in the morning as well. So I do try to get that shake I described in a little bit closer to my training window so I can get some fuel to my tissue post-workout. But around 3, 4, 5 is when I start to eat more of my food. I have a very large dinner, which usually consists of a pretty big piece of protein, some vegetables, more whole grains, oftentimes things like potatoes. But I am atypical in that I don't start out my day with a big breakfast because I just don't have a huge appetite then.

Next question is from at Lucy ZL3. She says preferred rep range for the bench press and the overhead press. So these are two compound lifts that are quite technical. And because of that, I don't like to do absurdly high rep ranges, especially when we are talking about barbell versions of the bench press and the overhead press. I like to keep my reps in general south of 10, but north of 3. So between 3 to 10 reps is generally where I like to be. I don't love to do 1RM barbell overhead press or 1RM barbell bench press. If you're a powerlifter, those are things that you're going to have to do. But if you're a gen pop lifter, I think that the sweet spot for the barbell pressing movements is between 4 and 10 reps, with, you know, of course, assuming you're

training relatively hard and somewhat close to failure. But if your goal is hypertrophy, I would look at doing more dumbbell overhead pressing and dumbbell chest pressing. It tends to be a little bit better long term for the integrity and the health of things like the shoulders and the elbow. Again, those are ambiguous terms. We can't define shoulder health. We can't define elbow health. But I've worked with people for quite some time, and one of the quickest remedies for the, gosh, my shoulder bugs me after I bench,

or gosh, my elbow bugs me when I press overhead, is switch to dumbbells. It sounds a little bit silly, but the little bit of extra range of motion you can pick up and the ability to kind of articulate the shoulder positioning a little bit easier with dumbbells really makes a big difference in the long run. All right, from at Joe Sen, we got the question, how can you keep progressing in accessory movements? So this is a great question. And I don't remember where I saw this, but it's a concept I'm pretty familiar with, and you might be familiar with it too.

But it's the concept of progressing not just your 1 rep maxes and your 5 rep maxes, but looking to increase your 10, 15, and 20 rep maxes. And this is great for accessory movements or movements that tend to use less musculature than some of our big compound movements. Because again, you're not going to want to see what you can one rep max on a tricep extension but a great way to ensure that you're progressing is to say hey i can do 60 pound rope extensions for 10 reps and i'm going to see if i can increase my 10 rep max to 70 pounds or maybe i'm going to see if i can do 12 reps with 60 pounds and then 15 reps with 16 pounds and then maybe even get up to 20 reps with 60 pounds. That's the best way, in my opinion, to reliably progress your isolation exercises. Just aim to increase either a the amount of repetitions you can do with a given weight, or see if you can do

that given weight for more repetitions or rather, you know, say, say hey what's my current 20 rep max i can do 20 with the 60s today i'm going to see if i can do 20 with the 65s or the 70s whatever it may be whether we're talking dumbbells in this instance or like a cable so that's a really good quick way to do it next question is from at matthew manos and he wants to know do you like olympic lifting for yourself and your clients so So I do like power cleans. I think they are fun. They're quite technical. But that's really where I kind of draw the line with Olympic lifts. I want to lift for a long time and I don't want to have an increased risk for injury. And Olympic lifts aren't inherently dangerous, but they're really,

really technical. And if you want to be great at them, that's going to make up the bulk of your training. And because I don't necessarily love them, and I don't want to apply myself to become technically sound enough to justify doing them a lot, I think it's important to know that they don't have a huge place in somebody like my programming. And the same can be said for clients, right? If you're working with general population clients who just want to maybe say build a little bit of muscle or lose a little bit of body fat, the demand of the Olympic lifts is great. They're really arduous. They're tough. They can be really, really validating when you get good at them. However, they're very demanding and they can be, if not done properly, quite dangerous. And when we talk

about working with people in general population, we have to understand that a lot of them don't have a ton of what I would call barbell acumen. They're not lifters at heart. They're not the best with a barbell in their hands, which is not a reflection of you as a coach, right? It's just where your clients are at. And we have to meet our clients where they are at. That is critically important. So keep that stuff in mind, right? Don't do or make your clients do things that they're, you know, isn't necessarily in their best interest, right? Try to make the best decisions that you can in the long run. And I think that in general, we've got things like landmines. We've got things like dumbbell snatches. We've got things like throws and sprints that tend to be a lot easier for developing power for gen pop than olympic lifting all right guys so that will do it for today's episode thank you so much for listening if you enjoyed it be

sure to share this episode any way you can and before we go i want to let you guys know i am opening two spots for my one-on-one online coaching this is a relatively rare opportunity. I don't take on a ton of new clients very often, but I will be looking to add two new clients to my online coaching roster between now and the beginning of the year. I don't like to take a ton of new clients on in the new year because, again, you attract a certain type of person when you do that. And while there's nothing wrong with New Year's resolutions, I do prefer to work with people who are motivated at a time that perhaps may not be as, let's just say, motivation-ridden as January 1st. So guys, again, thanks so much for listening. I appreciate every single one of you, and we will chat soon.