Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 92 - Q&A Belts, MLM Companies, and How to Start as a Personal Trainer

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome in everybody to another episode of the dynamic dialogue podcast. As always, thank you so much for joining. I am your host coach Danny Matranga, personal trainer, nutrition coach. I've been doing this for a really, really long time. I'm happy to create a space here in the audio world, where I can help you reach your fitness goals. Now, today's episode is a Q&A, so I will be answering questions from you guys directly. Now, if you're listening and you're thinking, I want my question to get answered on a podcast, there's two really easy ways you could do it. One of them is to just follow me on Instagram at CoachStanleyMitranga. I field questions for the podcast from there all of the time. But if you have a specific question, maybe something that's a little bit more detailed than what you could fit in the question box on Instagram, you can go to www.coachedanimatranga.com. And then the URL there on the backslash is coachedanimatranga.com backslash podcast dash questions. And you can ask a much

Starting point is 00:01:07 longer form question there. So before we dive into your guys' questions, not too much housekeeping, but all of the programs on my website are on sale. So if you're somebody who's interested in potentially grabbing a program, you want to improve your fitness, female physique, foundations, power build, and all of the bundles are currently on sale. Now, if you're somebody who's getting a stimulus check, because that was something that happened over the weekend, the Senate pushed through a $1.9 trillion stimulus package, that might be a good place to kick 30, 40 bucks just towards your fitness. And if you are interested in an online coaching relationship, I am tapped out as far as clients that I onboarded in early March, but I'll be accepting a new wave of clients, probably one or two people by the time that you guys hear this,

Starting point is 00:01:56 maybe midweek, second week of March. So if you are looking for somewhere to either put that stimulus check so that you'll get some returns on your health, consider those things. If you are looking for somewhere to either put that stimulus check so that you'll get some returns on your health, consider those things. If you're not getting a stimulus check, congratulations, you're crushing it. If you hate the stimulus package because you think it's going to cause a ton of inflation, I resonate with all that too. Just crazy shit happening in the world right now. $1.9 trillion. You could buy a lot of Pokemon cards with that.

Starting point is 00:02:24 Which, by the way, if you've been paying attention, my friends and I, we're all personal trainers. We're all physical therapists. I'm not a physical therapist. One of my friends is a physical therapist, but between our group of personal trainers, physical therapists, we have like stockpiled like two or 300 packs of these silly little Pokemon cards. And we're having like the ultimate nostalgic blowback of like, oh my God, I remember opening these from when I was a kid. And it has been amazing. Granted, these cards are like really hard to find, but it's brought us together as friends. We're going all around town when we

Starting point is 00:02:54 finish up our workday, opening cards together on the weekends. It's really been an absolute blast. And I'm not saying this to be braggadocious about Pokemon cards. I'm saying it as a reminder to anybody who's listening, let that kid inside you out here and there. It's very healthy. We live in a world where I think people take themselves way too damn seriously. And I think it's important to remember you are just a small little person, a little speck on a planet that represents a tiny little speck in the universe. And while your life is incredibly important and the people around you love you and everything you do matters, you're never too important to have a good time, have fun, kind of go into the way back machine, the time machine, the time capsule and relive

Starting point is 00:03:35 your childhood and enjoy the simple, nostalgic, never seeming, it never gets old stuff that makes you happy. So don't take yourself too seriously here, guys. Let's get into our first question. And this is from at miss.seenman. And she asks a really good question. Lifting belts. How to know when to use one? Should I use one?

Starting point is 00:04:03 So let's first talk about what it is that a lifting belt allows us to do as a lifter. But before we do that, let's talk about the function of the core, how the belt enhances that function, and when we work these things in, because I think we can work through a nice little educational continuum here. First things first, I'm the realist, just kidding. Your core creates rigidity by contracting various muscles that create that quote-unquote core region, right from your glutes to the lower lats into the thoracolumbar fascia. But mostly we're talking about the obliques, the rectus abdominis, the six-pack, and the transverse abdominis, working together with, like I said, upper fibers of glutes, thoracolumbar fascia, lower lats to create rigidity through the torso,

Starting point is 00:04:45 especially when we have something like a bar on our back or we're picking a bar off the floor. And so when you go into a squat and where you pick something up like a deadlift, you create rigidity by bracing the musculature in your core. And that does a few really important things for you. One, it creates an upstream downstream kinetic effect where we can better transmit actual contraction through something called the law of irradiation. Basically muscles contract via electrical impulse. And if you have multiple muscles in a chain contracting, you'll create a almost kinetic chain systemic effect between that musculature. So having a tight upper back

Starting point is 00:05:25 where you pull the bar into your shoulders, a braced core, and then squatting is better than having loose hands, loose grip, no core, and squatting. So we actually create greater contractility through the whole system. The big one though, and this is the one that we're going to talk about specifically with regard to the belt, is the increase in intra-abdominal pressure that comes from proper breathing and bracing during multi-joint movements, particularly for the lower body, where that spine is more, I guess we could say, at risk of a potential deleterious issue, whether it's a strain, a slipped disc, any of the stuff that could happen on a horrific day that probably won't happen in extremely rare occasions. But creating more intra-abdominal pressure gives us additional

Starting point is 00:06:09 support to help that stuff not happen. And we create stability through intra-abdominal pressure. And one of the things that wearing a belt does is it actually gives us feedback. It gives us something to brace into. And it takes the level of intra-abdominal pressure that we can create without a belt to that next level. Now, can you become dependent on a belt to the point where you don't use your core musculature? Not entirely, because the belt doesn't create the intra-abdominal pressure. Bracing into that belt creates the intra-abdominal pressure. However, it is important to realize that there are a lot of sets that you're probably going to do that don't require you to wear a belt because you don't need massive amounts of intra-abdominal pressure. So I have a kind of general rule of thumb for how I recommend belts

Starting point is 00:06:56 for men and for women. And my recommendation is this. If you're a man and you are squatting above 275 pounds and you're dead lifting over 315 pounds, I would recommend having a belt in your arsenal for those heavier sets. If you're still a newbie and you're in the 135 pound to 225 pound range and you're squatting dead, I don't think you need a belt just yet. I don't think that that kind of weight, even for a novice lifter, requires the amount of intra-abdominal pressure that you can create without a belt or couldn't create without a belt. But I also think you get a lot of low-hanging fruit by learning the proper breathing and bracing mechanics without a belt. Now, as you get heavier, as your sets get more strenuous, if you're somebody

Starting point is 00:07:39 who's powerlifting and you want to maximize the performance in that sport, a belt makes a lot of sense. Do you have to wear it in your first warm-up set where you're squatting the performance in that sport. A belt makes a lot of sense. Do you have to wear it in your first warmup set where you're squatting the bar? No. Do you have to do it when you're squatting 95 or 135? No, but it probably makes sense to have that belt available for those heavy working sets of squats and deadlifts. My recommendation for women, is it too much different? I just scale back those numbers a little bit. I think if you're squatting over 135 pounds or maybe 185 pounds, probably a good idea to have a belt there, whether you want to use it or not. And if you're deadlifting over maybe 225 pounds, I might recommend a belt as well. So those are some kind of guidelines as to how you know a belt works or how belts work in general, and then how to incorporate them into your lifting, what they do and really who they're for.

Starting point is 00:08:30 So hopefully that answers the question. One thing I'll say about belts, it's a common problem or not a problem, but something that grinds my gears is the way that belts are used in the bodybuilding community. So a lot of bodybuilders will wear a belt throughout the entirety of their training session. And there's nothing wrong with this. A lot of them seem to think that having this belt on is going to allow them to recruit less of their core musculature, control their breathing, keep their core tight, keep their waist small, yada, yada, yada. And I just can't get behind wearing a belt for exercises that don't call for enhanced intra abdominal pressure. And so in knowing that, I think it's really important to just wear a belt on your heavy sets where you really have your spine in a position that could be potentially

Starting point is 00:09:20 dangerous when you're squatting really, really heavy, deadlifting really, really heavy, and you might be incurring or have incurred a bunch of fatigue already. So those are the hard and fast rules. Probably don't need to wear a belt all the time. Definitely if you're not doing a lot of loading through your spine, doing a lot of squatting and deadlifting, probably not the best just blanket thing for people who don't need one. 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,

Starting point is 00:09:50 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.

Starting point is 00:10:25 This is a really easy one. If you guys are subscribers of the podcast, you may have noticed a couple of weeks ago, I dropped an episode titled my story that will tell you everything you need to know about how I got started to my journey to where I'm at now. And if you're not a subscriber, please do me a solid hit that subscribe button. Every sub makes a difference, helps more people find my message, helps more people get high quality fitness advice from industry professionals like myself and my awesome guests. So go back a couple episodes if you want to learn more about my story and how I got into this stuff. It's nothing special. It's nothing crazy. Although some people have told me that it was pretty inspiring. So go ahead and give that a listen a couple episodes back. All right. So next question is from at Matthew Calvert, one, two, three. And he asks, what's your opinion of Arbonne and other companies like it?

Starting point is 00:11:13 So I don't know the exact structure Arbonne has from a company perspective. I'm not sure if they're an MLM, a multi-level marketing company or not. I do know that they are a company that makes money by having distributors sell their product. And what Arbonne sells is what most of these other multi-level marketing companies sell, which is kind of an arsenal of supplements designed to help you improve your health. And I don't think they make bad supplements by any stretch, but I would say that their supplements are and have to be very overpriced in order to pay the distributor who is probably a friend of yours. And a lot of times

Starting point is 00:11:51 those distributors want to get you involved in the company as well, which kind of gives those flashing lights of multi-level marketing warning alert. And we'll get to another multi-level marketing company in a minute as we talk about some of the other companies in the fitness space that have similar product structures. But in general, I don't like this stuff. Growing up, my mom did every multi-level marketing supplement bullshit imaginable. And I used to just watch my poor mother go, oh, this is going to change the world. This is going to be awesome. These supplements are amazing. And a lot of this actually started when I had a decent understanding of health when I was a younger teenager, 14, 15 was when I actually started studying nutrition and supplementation long before I got into strength and conditioning and really maximizing exercise

Starting point is 00:12:36 and programming because I thought the only thing I needed to know about exercise at that point was to just work out as hard as possible, as long as possible, and that the supplements would take care of the rest. And so I watched my poor mom get duped into these really heavily marketed, gimmicky, hyper-expensive products that she thought were going to change the world and she thought was really going to make a difference in people's health. And it was always through the lens of one multi-level marketing company after another, whether it was Herbalife or Vysalis, or there were so many that would just come and go. And once I started to build a knowledge base, I was like, hey, mom, you know,

Starting point is 00:13:09 these supplements aren't really special and they're really expensive for what's inside them. You know, but my mom wanted to make money. She wanted to be a part of something. She wanted to have agency and belong. And so part of the problem here with these companies is that they really feed off people's desire to make money and help people. And that's something we all want to do. We all want to make a little bit of money, especially on the side, and we all really want to help people. And so they're incredibly appetizing, or I should say they're very eye-popping to those who are what I would describe as people who want to do good in the world. And my mom is definitely one of those people, but she was always getting taken advantage

Starting point is 00:13:49 of by either her friends who were upstream in these multi-level marketing companies who wanted my mom to join up. And my mom never made any money. She just ended up sitting on a bunch of the product. And again, I'm not saying that Arbonne is one of these companies. I genuinely don't know enough about it. And I didn't research it going into the podcast, but it does have all the conventional trappings of an MLM. Now, the worst one that I can think of is Herbalife. And Herbalife is massive. It's a massive multi-level marketing company. If I'm not mistaken, they actually had to file a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission about how the company is structured. Neither here nor there. That being said, it's a multi-level marketing company. And the way these companies work is you get paid for the product you sell, but you get paid more when more people sign up underneath you to sell product. And eventually you end up with a saturated market where everybody in your whole fucking town is trying to sell Herbalife to everybody who's already had it sold to them. Those markets dry up,

Starting point is 00:14:48 the people at the top make a ton of money, and this kind of stuff just ends up trickling down. A lot of these companies have really weird incentives, like cars. You get a car payment covered if you lease a car through this company as long as you maintain this much volume, and nobody can maintain that much volume, So they get stuck with car payments. Crazy shit. I really encourage you guys to look into the ways multi-level marketing companies work. And this is a statistic from the Federal Trade Commission, but 99% of people who join these multi-level marketing companies do not make any money. They actually lose money because you have to pay to join. You have to pay fees. You have to sell enough product, which usually results in people buying the product

Starting point is 00:15:30 themselves to hit their minimums. It's a slippery slope. It's kind of sticky. Overall, I think it's a stain on our industry. And I will be quite frank when I say, fuck that noise. I don't like it at all. Never have, never will. I think if you want to make money in the supplement industry, you can partner with a genuine company and you can be an affiliate. Or you can have a relationship like I have with Legion, who is an amazing sponsor. I don't take a dime from them. I'm paid in product. So my supplements are supplements that I was taking for years before I worked with Legion. And the discount that you guys get when you use my code Danny is for you. It's not for me. And that was really important. That was something that meant a lot to me was

Starting point is 00:16:13 like to be able to go, Hey, I take these supplements because I trust them. I really appreciate the owner of Legion, Mike Matthews. He's somebody who I think is an incredibly good human being. I've enjoyed the many conversations that I've had with him as a friend. And I love his product and I loved his company way before we ever met. So that was a marriage that made a lot of sense. If I wanted to make a ton of money selling supplements, I could partner with a different company, but that wasn't my goal. So you guys are listening to this and you're like, Hey, I want to make money on the side. I've got this friend who's really hyping up their MLM. I would definitely recommend staying away from all of that. All right. So the next question comes from Labruja 2.0. And Labruja 2.0 asks,

Starting point is 00:16:56 most versatile piece of home workout equipment. And I think a lot of this depends on your budget. But I actually wrote a blog about this. So you can actually head over to www.coachedaniematranga.com, check out the blogs and articles section. And I wrote an article a while back on just this. But there are many things I recommend. A TRX is way up there. Very affordable, very versatile, gives you the ability to train shoulders, abs, to train shoulders, abs, hamstrings, lats, mid-back, upper-back stuff that can be a little bit tricky training without machines or free weights. So I love that. I think that's a wonderful piece. You know me, I like bands and exercise balls as well. It all depends on your budget, right? But a TRX is really high on that list. I like a set of lighter dumbbells relative to your strength level and a set of lighter dumbbells relative to your strength

Starting point is 00:17:45 level and a set of heavier dumbbells relative to your strength level. Those will give you the ability to do a lot of different things. It seems like stuff is becoming more available than it was previously. We had this huge run on gym equipment. It seems like everything that I've been trying to get, there's been huge runs on, whether it was Pokemon cards or gym equipment, they're not easy to get because a lot of people just sit at home and can buy them on the internet before you can. So it's a little bit of a problem. That being said, definitely look into a TRX exercise balls. All that stuff is really, really good to have. Light dumbbells, as well as a set of heavier dumbbells. I really like a nice heavy kettlebell for things

Starting point is 00:18:25 like swings, RDLs, goblets. Those are good bang for your buck options. All right, guys. And the last question of the day comes from the underscore Indian underscore queen. And she says, just finished my NASM. I'm nervous to start. I was nervous to start too when I finished my NASM in like 2013, a long, long time ago, back in the old days. And it's very normal. I think it's very normal to be nervous about something like this. I think it's very normal to be a little bit nervous when you're about to take something on, like working with people's bodies. But the first piece of advice that I would give you is not to be nervous. I don't think being nervous is going to help you out at all. I would say that if you did your due diligence and you

Starting point is 00:19:12 learned what you needed to learn through your certification, you should have a certain level of confidence that you can work with people and that you can help them. Now, this doesn't mean that you're going to come right out of the gate and be the best personal trainer ever. It's going to take a lot of trial and error. You are going to learn from having skin in the game that you're going to come right out of the gate and be the best personal trainer ever. It's going to take a lot of trial and error. You are going to learn from having skin in the game. You're going to learn from working with people. But if you're too nervous to start working with people, you'll never reach your full potential. So the first thing I got to say, it's totally normal to be nervous.

Starting point is 00:19:37 It's totally okay. Being asked to work with somebody's body to make it move better and feel better is an honor. It's a privilege and it's something that you should take seriously. But don't be too nervous to get some skin in the game, learn through trial and error, and give this thing a go. That's one of the big reasons I actually started working on the trainer mentorship, which will be going live in a couple months. If you haven't already, go to the website. Again, check out the, in the resources link, the mentorship signup list. I'll talk all about it as we get closer. But my goal is to take trainers in their first 24 months through a course that's going to

Starting point is 00:20:11 help give them the confidence they need to be able to assess clients properly, engage and communicate with clients effectively, sell clients without feeling slimy so that you can actually help them reach their goals and teach you the ins and outs of how to develop as a trainer through the right types of continuing education opportunities, certifications, getting some skin in the game, and really learning the nuance that will help you be confident. But I'm not just here to plug the mentorship. I do think it's really, really important to understand that pretty much anything you're going to do in life, if you're nervous going into it, and that is a barrier for you actually putting some skin in the game and trying stuff out, you're not going to get very far. When you start working with your clients, you're going to find

Starting point is 00:20:53 that they're going to be nervous to try new things, to try new diets, to try new movements, to try new exercises. And you're going to have to tell them, hey, I know you're nervous. I know this is scary. I know we haven't done this yet, but trust me on this. If you do it enough times, you'll become very good at it and you'll build some muscle and you might even lose some fat. So the same applies to you. Of course, you're going to be nervous to start. If you weren't nervous, I'd be worried about you. I'd be like, oh, this person's kind of a piece of shit. They don't care what people think about their craft and they're just going to go out there willy nilly and not take it seriously. It's a good thing to have some nerves. nilly and not take it seriously. It's a good thing to have some nerves. The problem is if you let those nerves get in the way of putting rubber to road. You've got to get some skin in the game.

Starting point is 00:21:32 You've got to get out there. So even if that means training your parents or your siblings or your loved ones or your friends for free while you build a little bit of confidence, do it. Nothing wrong with that. But do not let your nerves get in the way of starting. I love the quote. They say fear killed more dreams than failure ever could. And that's what we'll end with. So wherever you're at, whatever you're working on, if you're nervous to start, it's probably the right thing to be doing. But you got to give it your all. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this episode today. If you did, do me a favor, share it to your Instagram story, tag a friend, send it to a friend, tag me. Let me know that you liked it on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter, wherever you listen

Starting point is 00:22:09 to your podcasts. Leave me a rating and review and hit that subscribe button, guys. I will be recording another episode tomorrow and I really appreciate every single one of you. Have a good one. Stay healthy. Stay happy. Stay humble.

Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 92 - Q&A Belts, MLM Companies, and How to Start as a Personal Trainer

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