Weights and Plates Podcast - #66 - What Dogs Can Teach Us About Strength Training

Episode Date: February 10, 2024

A meandering chat about dog training turned into an interesting idea for strength training. Trainees are not so different from dogs -- they have different personalities, different motivations, and different "drives" -- and therefore they will respond best to a program that most closely matches their individual traits. An enthusiastic endurance athlete who regularly runs marathons or cycles long distances, for instance, would likely struggle mightilty on a program that calls for them to frequently hit singles or doubles on the big compound lifts. Likewise, an amateur powerlifter probably wouldn't enjoy the burn and sweating of a bodybuilding workout. We could say that in these examples the lifter would be training in inhibition, that is, against the things he enjoys doing.   A better program for compliance (and therefore, better for outcomes in the long run) is one that matches a lifter's natural drive. Endurance athletes still need to lift, but will probably do better with a program focused on 4-5 big compound lifts for sets of 3-5 reps, perhaps only two days per week. Simple and effective for general strength training. This kind of program won't prepare the lifter to hit impressive 1RM's, but it will build muscle, build strength that will carryover to the endurance activities, and won't interfere or take away too much time from the fun endurance training.   If you have big goals, however, you may need to train in an "inhibitory" manner for a while. For the average person, taking your deadlift from 405 to 500 may take a couple years and will definitely require some sacrifice in other areas of physical fitness. You will likely have to cut out all non-lifting sports and physical activites while you train for this, and you may have to gain more bodyweight than you want to for those sports to facilitate the lifting. This is not a bad thing, but you should have an end date if you want to stick to your goals. White knuckling your way through two hard years of training is not going to work for most people.   Understanding your drives can help you setup a program that you will comply with, and because of that compliance, you'll see results and have some fun in the process.     Weights & Plates: https://weightsandplates.com Robert Santana on Instagram: @the_robert_santana   Trent Jones: @marmalade_cream https://www.jonesbarbellclub.com

Welcome to the Weights and Plates podcast. I am Robert Santana. I am your host along with Trent Jones, my co-host. Yo, what's up, man? What up, man? It's like eight here and it's dark because we don't do daylight savings like everybody else yeah it's um it's late here i've been i've been burning the midnight oil recently and um you know uh one of the things that they don't tell you about sleep regressions with babies is um they can last a long time i don't know if this is just our baby or what, but, uh, like he's working on a sleep

regression right now, which doesn't really affect me that much more. My wife that handles in front of this, but like, yeah, he just will wake up a bunch at night. Like he, he sleeps, but he, you know, he'll wake up every hour or two and fuss. And, uh, I think it's just his brains and overdrive. Like he's, he's, you Like he's walking around, learning all these new skills. He's definitely trying to talk. And so I think his brain is just going a million miles an hour. And so he's just all night. He's just, I don't know, whatever brains do,

defragmenting, putting all the experiences of the day back to order, trying to learn some new things. But what that means is that, you know, I'm up late working after he goes to bed and then he gets up at like six o'clock, six 30 sometimes. And he is just ready to go. I wish I didn't do that. I am not. I am not. You go to bed at midnight and wake up at six to do that for several days in a row. It's brutal. It starts to get to you. Um, you know, I had a buddy, he had a child not too long ago

and he'd always make this joke because he had a dog as well. He'd be like, isn't it funny that their brains are at the same place right now? He was so fascinated by this concept.

He probably brought it up like three different times that I talked to him but I always laugh every time. Oh yeah. Well, I mean, you know,

we have two dogs right here and yeah, it's funny. It's funny to watch them all interact and mean, you know, we have, we have two dogs right here and, uh, yeah, it's, yeah, it's funny. It's funny to watch them all interact and like, you know, how they've developed and our dogs are grown now they're seven and eight years old, but, uh, yeah, there's definitely, you know, there's definitely some of that, especially we have one dog who's a, she's a, she's a Cooley. So she's a, she an australian herding breed very intelligent extremely intelligent dog um highly disagreeable in terms of like training she does not care about pleasing whatsoever uh so highly intelligent not very trainable yeah it's funny man i mean this could

be a pretty good thing to talk about today uh for those of you listening you know we're just pulling a topic out of our ass so let's see how we do well yeah no i i i have i have a topic i have a topic here you know this is all this is all relevant yeah yeah yeah no so you have okay yeah so you pulled it out of your ass and i'm like no no i got i got something to say about this okay right so so you know so so this dog right so she's she's extremely intelligent she's the only dog that I've had. I can say whole sentences to her. And she looks at me and will respond in a way that tells me that she knew exactly what I was talking about.

Oh, that's my pit, by the way. She talks. She'll bark at you. Yeah, and it's like I can give her like, it's not commands. It's not like she's keying up on words that I've said a bunch of times before. I can say like a whole sentence of like a concept to her and she knows what I'm talking about. It's, it's wild, but she also, that does not mean that she's like this, she's not like a border collie or something that just wants to like, you know, learn like a thousand different commands and obey and stuff. No, no, not at all. She's very, very headstrong. And so, uh, the reason I'm talking about this is because part of living with her has been

an exercise in managing expectations and learning to, to meet up with like reality and reality hits really hard when you got a little baby at home and you don't have a ton of time to devote to the dogs anymore. And, uh, we try to be good dog owners. You know, we're very regular. We have, um, we feed them at the same time. We make sure we follow the pack order. Uh, we don't try to disrupt their natural dominance hierarchy. We also take them on walks every day. You know, we don't skip the essential stuff, but we also don't give them as much attention as they used to. Right. And, um, and that's part of like having her has been able to find like, what, what do we need to give her to make sure that she's, um, a healthy dog, uh, mentally and physically, and also fits in our family, but also realize that we're not going to have a exceptionally well-trained dog.

You know, like that's just not the phase of life that we're in. No. Uh, and it's same thing, you know, uh, when I think about my training, uh, I, I hate it cause I, I used to be a lot stronger than I am now, but I have to, you're not going to be a well-trained dog. I'm not going to be a well-trained dog. That's for sure. Right. So I think that's, that's what we want to talk about today is, um, we have, we have the holidays coming up here. And, you know, everybody wants to have like great body composition. And, you know, we've talked about it many times that you are the product of your habits. Your daily habits determine what you look like in your body composition over the long term. Okay.

But we're going to have a lot of those disrupted here over the holidays, especially if you're traveling or you've got family coming to town. And so this is a time to start to learn how to manage expectations and understand what the tradeoffs are. Of course. You know, you have your little baby, and I just got a third dog. You know, it's kind of how this kind of popped in my head. I'm up to three fucking dogs, man. That's too many damn dogs.

Okay, so yeah, we've got to give you the catalog, right? So you've got a German... It's not a French Bulldog. It's a Boston Terrier. Is that right? Yeah, so I originally had a pit. Then I got a German Shorthair Pointer. And I got this little Boston that I'm training up and handing off.

And then I have a Belgian Malinois now. I've upgraded to the Ferrari. However, my trainer, well, not my trainer. She defends him. She likes him. But one of the trainers there, the guy who sells the training, who also he trains a little bit too. He said, I got a subaru but they refer to the malinois as the ferrari but apparently the one that i got is a subaru it's a subaru i call bullshit this motherfucker's pretty damn athletic um apparently he failed out

um i don't know the specific uh name of whatever test they put him through if there is one I'm still learning this stuff but he uh he doesn't bite hard enough you know these dogs are bred for police work military work and when lives are on the line and they need these fuckers to bite they gotta bite and they gotta bite harder if they need him to bite harder and apparently that's where he kind of fell short but for my purposes as you know an amateur dog trainer you know at best you know i'm just fucking around here but i've gotten along with these dog trainers i like watching them work and i want to improve my skills so yeah you know i train more than the average person but i wouldn't call myself a dog trainer yet just like i

wouldn't want somebody to call themselves a strength coach because they've coached a couple people, you know? Right. Yeah, sure. But I'm an enthusiast that is not, you're like, what's the biggest challenge that I could take on right now? Exactly. I'm an enthusiast. This reminds me of when I first started, when I first started training people for barbell training when I first discovered the SSC credential and I was just

getting as many people as I could under the bar. I feel like I'm reliving that only now with animals and you know I can't just grab random animals unfortunately. Although I helped

a friend out with a dog not too long ago. But you know it's reminding me of that. And so I'd say I'm an enthusiast that could go further there we go yeah yeah well and you know i i mean i've been around enough dogs i'm certainly no expert but i've grown up enough and interacted with enough dogs to know that yeah there's a lot of personalities oh yeah uh and they can be tremendously different experience and the drives being with certain kind experience. And the drives vary.

Being with certain kind of dogs. Yeah, the drives, the personalities, the, yeah, the physicality of the dog. You know, the mental capacity. And, you know, how some dogs are, you know, there's like, there's smart dogs, but they can be, their drives can lead them in dramatically different ways.

Oh, yeah. Like, I grew up with hunting dogs, like your short hair pointer. They're assholes're all assholes well not uh i'd say maybe that's not the right word one of the english pointers that i grew up so so my my dad always liked having english pointers yeah and we would bird hunt with them and one of them we had she was real sweet she's very sweet dog she had a couple of litters of puppies and she got just even sweeter. They're little cleaners, man. But their intelligence is so keenly focused on the hunt.

They're not a particularly intelligent, they're not dumb as a whole, but like they're not particularly intelligent outside of that context. But man, inside the context of the hunt, they can be remarkably intelligent. They are a single purpose dog. That's what my trainer said. But they are single purpose. Yeah. And, um, and so that's, so that's one kind of experience of having a dog. You got to like, you really, if you want to have a dog at that, you need to go hunt that dog and give them that kind of experience. Um, and they, and they respond well to that. But then you have like my Cooley on the other hand,

she's very clingy and she's very into like human interaction. It's not enough. You can't occupy her with games that don't involve you. You know, so she needs a lot of mental stimulation, but it's not just idle stimulation. It's not just physical stimulation either. She won't just fetch the ball over and over and over.

You have to involve yourself. Yeah, my pointer pointer will do that she'll just keep bringing it back yeah right yeah exactly they just need that physical release it's a drive you know you're training them and drive they're retrieving something absolutely uh and so anyway that it could be just dramatically different living with different kinds of dogs. And, you know, so the part of that is like, you have to adapt to the dog. And but also, you know, you've the dog has to fit into your life, too. And so there's there's a compromise that happens somewhere along the way. Look, I just want this Malinois to scale my building and do a backflip off the top of it. 20 foot 20 foot building. I don't know that we're going to accomplish that,

but they have a Palisade at the training facility, so we might use it and see what we can get him to do. He can jump very high. He's capable of that. I just don't know that I have access to what I need for him to do that, certainly not on a regular basis. But, you know, I've seen videos where they can do that. They could scale a 20-foot wall and do a backflip and catch something.

Wow. They just, like, run up wall and do a backflip and catch something. Wow. They just run up the wall, basically, just kick off. These guys are like NFL frickin' linemen, man, offensive linemen. That's what they are. They're fast, athletic. Jacked and springy. I don't want to say they're dumb dogs. My trainer always says they're dumb dogs.

We like dumb dogs here. What she means is they're just, sorry... Sorry guys if you know you're real good athletes, but like a dumb jock. Not very intellectual, but physical geniuses. You can get them to do anything physical as long as they have direction to do it. That's a multi-purpose

dog. They were originally bred to herd and now they're mostly bred for protection. But he's interesting. He's the first dog I've had that likes to be pet you know i mean i think every dog does to an extent but like man if i pet him he just loves it more than the other dogs and i'm like this is new you know so i've been working that and as a reward not too much you know because i don't want to exhaust that option you know right but uh you know it's been fun you know like basically this will determine how much further i want to go with it you know sure sure but they call him the ferrari for a reason not him but the breed um yeah and uh if i want to get an actual ferrari style malinois this is a good starter is what i was told so i'm having a good time with him he's a sweet boy um

yeah he's good good looking dog oh yeah beautiful dog you know what i like about them the most in terms of their appearance is that five o'clock shadow you know yeah right right you just don't quite get it with a german shepherd i mean they have it but it's different you know yeah and i feel like the the german shepherd you know i'm i'm again i'm no expert here but i feel like the German shepherd, you know, I'm, I'm, again, I'm no expert here, but I feel like they've, you know, if you go back and look at shepherds from like 50 to a hundred years ago, they looked quite different. They've become whatever they are now, whatever the common German shepherd that you see, see now that has a real, you know, they've got those like weird, like jacked up looking hips that are like tucked under. And they have like super dark faces and super black you know um uh back of their coat um whatever they are now it seems like they've they've drifted quite a bit from their original sort of or maybe not original but like what we

used to have many many generations ago and uh you know i don't know all the history behind that but yeah i think they used to be more good-looking back in the day. And I know there's different colors. There's different colors. It's not like they're all that black and tan sort of thing. Yeah, I'm pulling a few up. The face and the jaw and the muzzle, it's patchy, you know, like with these Malinois. It's just black, you know, and I think it's cool.

Right, yeah. Yeah. Oh, for sure. I think it's a good look. I love the Malinois, but they're more, they're more, uh, they're just the way they carry themselves and their, their physique and their body. It just looks more alert and energetic. Like a lot of German Shepherds now, they just like kind of derpy and don't get me wrong. I love, I love German Shepherds. I have one, our neighbors have one. I'm a fan. They're goofy, fun dogs. But yeah, they just don't look like powerful, athletic dogs anymore for the most part. Yeah.

The Malinois looks good. Dude, they're bad motherfuckers. I can't wait to take this. Right now, we're just working on a relationship. You know, he looks at me and I reward him. I have him sit. I have him get down, you know, get on the place, you know, do the touch pad, like do a little bit of walking. Not much, you know. People don't understand. You the touch pad like do a little bit of walking not much you

know people don't understand you know a lot of people like to i think a dog needs to be walked you know like a walk you know and what i've kind of learned working with these people is a walk is not productive is what i was taught you know especially with my dogs you know if you got like like my boston she'll walk and she'll get something out of it she'll just keep looking up at me for treats you know like she offers a focused heel. I never try to teach her that. It's not that it's always unproductive, but a lot of the time it is

because loose leash walking with a dog is the most complex behavior that's been hammered into my brain by this trainer for the last two years. She always says, it's the most complex behavior. Don't rush into that. That's the first thing people want to do is walk their dog. She's says, it's the most complex behavior. Don't rush into that. That's the first thing people want to do is walk their dog.

And she's like, think about the thousands and thousands of pictures they're seeing when you're walking somewhere, especially like, let's say you've not walked them before or you're transitioning to walking and you walk a mile or two miles. Think about how many things that animal sees while you're walking. It's just- And smells. Yeah. God. Smells, yeah. It's stimulus overload. It's not fair to the dog. And people don't think of it that way. animal sees while you're walking you know oh yeah and from smells yeah god you know smells yeah it's stimulus overload you know it's not fair to the dog and people don't think of it that way they

think the dog just needs physical exercise and a lot of it's psychological they need mental stimulation this malinois i spend 15 minutes at a time with them you know and when i first heard about the breed it was for my first trainer he said it was his favorite dog to train most trainers love training malinois and uh i wasn't too interested at the time. I had a pit and I was new to all this, right? Then the second training company, which is the one I work with now, they had them. I liked them. You know, I was impressed with what they can do. And then, you know, when I was at the gym, I had some people that, you know, were into dog stuff casually. And they're like, oh, you got to run them so many miles or you have to, you know, have have that and the more i got into training the more i realized is you can wear these dogs out

in like 15 minutes you know if you if you know how to stimulate their brain you know and uh for him right now i'm not doing much but like what i have him do i have go outside with me you know he went to the bathroom and then it was just like sit get down come towards me walk get you know run into a heel like just did that over and over again rapid fire then i went in the gym and then i put him on his cot took him off his cot put him on the touch pad had him chase the treats you know like nothing complicated like he actually didn't even go to like full speed i put him away he didn't whine a whimper dude when i put him in the when i put him up in the kennel because i had him doing things you know he was engaging with me and you know i was more fun than everything else you know um so it was kind of interesting it was kind of interesting watching

that and that you know as many people listening probably can gather because of what i do for a living you know i watch humans do things and teach them how to do things it's no surprise that you know i'm enjoying it with animals as well um so there's definitely some transfer there and I've learned a lot and you know but uh you know the the biggest overlap that I see between training animals and training humans is this need for consistency you know like if you're gonna teach an animal to do something you're looking at thousands and thousands of reps you know know, before it gets clean. You know, like right now they gave me this dog. They're like, he got dirty.

You know, she's kind of laughing when she's telling me this. And then I'm like, what do you mean? Then like I take him out and he like pulls the leash. And then she's like, I told you he got dirty, but you could fix it, you know? And, you know, he knows what he needs to do. You know, he's testing the boundaries. Now he's with a new handler and he's learning me. I'm learning him.

Right. Right. So like, you know, for instance, I don't want him like these things have so much energy, but it's hard for me not to laugh when I watch of you. So I have a client, she's probably listening right now. I think she listens to the podcast and she used to do this and, and, uh, on the East coast for, you know, over a decade. And, uh, she got into protection work and did a bunch of other stuff and she told me she's like you're you know she's like i could tell you like this dog you're smiling ear to ear don't do that for the first month because that's that rewards them you know right yeah um you know so like you know he's funny but like if i go in that you know if i go in that room right now he's gonna

walk around in circles in the damn kennel a bunch of times dude and the thing's like kind of small like he you know just fits right in there. Right. And he'll just circle around it. And I'm trying to teach him like my other dogs that he has to get into a down before I open that door. You know, and he has to stay there until I tell him to come out. And it has been a fucking project, man, just to do that. You know, like I just sit there watching, but he'll go around in circles a bunch of times, you know, but then he's starting to slow down.

And anyhow, if i want to fix that behavior this is where i'm going with this that means that i have to go through the exact same drill uh to get them in that position every single day for however many days it takes you know some things yeah like right a week some things might take months so it's kind of the same thing in the weight room you know like when i'm watching people, the biggest problem that I see is, when a human starts running into problems, they want to quit, you know, they want to quit, because, you know, let's say, okay, you have, you know, good first month, right, linear progression, you're adding weight to the bar every time, you know, it's pretty easy to keep your form you're you know you can lose sleep but it's not a big deal you're still

making the next lift and then all of a sudden start missing lifts you can't do this you can't reproduce your squat reps the same way because the weight feels different past a certain threshold and these things start to happen or you know your job starts fucking with you you know and you're just great you know you're stressed out and then all of a sudden you're like you know i don't feel recovered i'm not motivated to eat i'm not motivated to train you know right all these things start to happen right well the only way to get past that is you kind of go through the motions every day for a period of time and i've seen the same thing in animals you know like there's this period right where you're like my pointer right teaching a pointer to loose leash walk is torture to the dog first of all so don't don't take yeah don't take

fucking hunting dogs out for walks in town that's not what they're for i'm right for that they don't understand no their brain is not wired to do that no you can teach them to do it but it's all inhibition so you can train a dog through inhibition, or train a dog and drive. That's what my client told me. So I'm giving credit where credit's due. I know you're listening. And I'm still learning what this is in practice, right? But to take a pointer in a town, like I'm in Arizona, so take a pointer in Scottsdale, right? The only reason I'm going to do that is just to teach her to stay next to me in busy environments in case I have to transport her from one place to another. But I'm not just

going to take her for a walk on the waterfront for no reason, you know? Right. Yeah. Like, I'm not going to do that. It's torture for the dog. I mean, you could teach the dog to do it, but it's not fair to the dog. You're being cruel to the dog. Like, she can do it right now. She starts offering a focused heel when I'm in scottsdale but i'm only doing that for 15 minutes i'm not and i'm doing that so that she knows to stay next to me that's the only thing i want her to know i'm not doing that to quote unquote take her for a walk or exercise her it's more of okay i get to somebody's house and i'm bringing the dog or i go on a road trip and i'm i gotta get the dog from the car to the hotel room i need her to stay next to me not run off and

chase a bird you know like these are practical room. I need her to stay next to me and not run off and chase a bird, you know? Like, these are practical reasons I'm training her to walk because I need to go for a walk and she needs to come with me, you know? But I'm not taking that dog for a walk, you know? That's all inhibitory training. You got the wrong dog if that's what you're doing, right? And, you know, some of this can apply to people, too. Like, I get people that are well-suited for endurance activities that fucking hate doing this, you know, some of this can apply to people, too. Like, I get people that are well-suited for endurance activities that fucking hate doing this, you know. They still need to lift for practical reasons.

They're going to get old and lose muscle, you know. Right. So, you know, that's going to happen to every single one of us. So, you know, for them, I have to tailor down the expectations. I'm not going to train somebody that has great marathon times. Like, I'm going to train somebody who walks in the gym and, you know, deadlifts 315 the first day or 405 the first day, you know? Yeah. You know, the second guy is going to do real good at this. And, you know, it's like training a dog. You're training that person in drive, you know?

Yes. Whereas the marathoner, you know, and I have somebody like this right now, and this is not a knock at this person if he's listening. This is just an observation, right? I have a guy like this, and I can tell, you know, it's starting to wear on him, you know. And in my mind, I'm like, okay, how do we get the most out of it for this guy so that, you know, he doesn't stop lifting weights? Because that's what I care about for him. The guy who's squatting 405 or deadlifting, sorry, deadlifting 405, you know, sometimes you do get guys that can squat 405 the first day. I don't know that I've had one yet, but I know they exist. Sure.

Some of our colleagues have had them. I don't know that I've had one that started quite that high, but I've had guys start in the threes, you know. But the guy who deadlifted 405, if he has a bad day, I could talk him off the ledge probably in one conversation. Then the next day, you know, he's going to pull 455 for five, you know, after he missed it the week before. And then he's just going to go through the headaches because he's better suited for this, right?

I'm not going to take my pointer and try to do obedience contests with her. She'll offer obedience. I can get her into a focused heel, but at a competitive level, she's not going to do that. I can get some out of her, but she's got some, and it's made it pleasant because I can take her places, right? But I'm not just taking her places for no reason, but like, you know, I'm going to a starting strength seminar this week and I'm driving. So I'm bringing her because I want Rip to meet her. I want all the people to meet her. And there's going to be a situation where I have to walk up to the room and I have to carry her kennel, right? And she's going to stay right next to me because I trained her to do that um but there's a functional reason for that right so now bring it back to people now if you are

somebody who excels well at endurance sports you might like this enough to put yourself through the headache you know i'm not gifted for uh i'm reasonably strong for my size, but I don't put on a bunch of muscle real easy. I wouldn't say that I'm gifted for this. I think I'm slightly above average, but part of it just comes down to, I was able to do this like it was a job for a long time and a lot of people can't.

So that's really where we're going with this, right? Yeah, the gifted part for you is really just in the mindset. You have an uncommon dedication to the process, but it's not any physical gifts. No, no. I mean, I accidentally got to a 315 squat my first year lifting and that was about it. You know, I couldn't bench the bar when I was 15, you know, or I could bench the bar. I could not bench 95. I remember that. I had to start with the bar when my friends were benching over 100 you know and uh they weren't considered gifted either

they were seniors benching 225 and for swimmers that's pretty good you know we're not football players here you know like think about the population i would i would say yeah my estimation of you is like you're you're like right in the middle of the bell curve you're pretty average physically in terms of genetic inheritance yeah pretty much but the one the one area you're not like you're not an outlier on the low side or anything you're not like a no no i'd say that responder i'd say i look at my lifts and i'd say the one area where i'm probably above average is the press because i press 225 you know and you know that's not heavy it's not chase lindley strong who bent you know he pressed 405 but i've trained a lot of guys and even a 185 press is hard for a lot of men you know absolutely so yeah i'd say that i'm slightly above average probably for swimming and that's what

transferred over to overhead movements you know that i swam a lot in high school you know thousands thousands of reps against resistance you know just like cyclists they you know come in and they can squat quite a bit. And you have to be careful with that because they're not used to eccentric loading. A swimmer, you know, you're pulling against resistance using your back and shoulders, you know, thousands of times per week, you know. So, and you're doing, in my program, we did a lot of pull-ups, you know. So fast forward, what, 10 years, 11 years? Yeah, about 10 years I started pressing. Nine, 10 years after I graduated, I started pressing.

And, you know, I got to a 225 press in, what, when did I start starting strength 13? So in a six-year span, I got 225. But I know guys that have trained just as long that have not done that, and some guys that are stronger than me at the other lifts, you know. So when I look at it, I'm like than me at the other lifts, you know? So when I look at it, I'm like, yeah, my squat is, you know, it's what you would expect from a guy my size that continued to train, was willing to gain weight for periods of time, you know, ate pretty well, recovered pretty well. I mean, I don't have any kids, you know, so I haven't had the disruption you're dealing

with right now. And I look at like how my lifestyle has been. Yeah, I own a gym. I own a couple of businesses, but you know, the thing I've, you know, kind of had good control over is my schedule. So like for a long time, I didn't lose sleep. I'm losing more sleep this year because, you know, I have three dogs and, you know, time's kind of getting more crunch now. So I'm getting closer to a lot of other people in terms of shit, man. There's not enough hours in the day, you know.

But for a long time, it was like I did an online coaching. I was pretty efficient with that. I had the gym, but I didn't let it get too big. And I was doing a PhD, but, you know, I'm working around the clock on that. So, you know, I always got enough sleep, always ate enough food. And, you know, if you do that year after year, you're going to get stronger. You know, most I ever squatted for a single was 445. I probably am good for more than that. But, you know, training for over a decade, if I were to squat 500, you know, under 200 pounds, that's, you know, pretty good compared to most people. But it's not because, you know, training for over a decade, if I were to squat 500, you know, under 200 pounds, that's, you know, pretty good compared to most people.

But it's not because, you know, I came out of this gifted. You know, if I got married and had kids like 10 years ago, I wouldn't be anywhere fucking near that right now. I guarantee you. Yeah. No fucking way. Yep. So, you know, what I would say is, yeah, I'm probably right in the middle of the bell curve on, you know, three out of the five lifts, you know. And when it comes to overhead stuff, I'd say I'm slightly above, you know.

Yeah, sure, sure. But that's epigenetic, yeah, early exposure to those types of movements, for sure. Yeah. You know, a low 500 deadlift is not impressive. You know, you could do that if you commit yourself to it. I know going from four to five, this is your second job. So if you

are willing to do that, and you, you know, like I got some data, actually I have my vertical jumps, 24 inches. So again, slightly above average, you know? Yeah. That's a, yeah. That's not pretty good. That's not 35, you know? Nope. Nope. That's, that's about what mine is. Yeah. I want to say I was like 22 to 24, somewhere in that range. Yeah. We're both comparable in strength. You're a little bit stronger than me. Um, but, uh depends on movement you know yeah it depends on the movement i got that deadlift i don't know i think i got the deadlift because i was obsessed with it when rip said any capable man can pull 500 and i just had to make that point i've got short arms yeah i've got i've got a very short humerus so uh i'm good at pressing but uh yeah it's i have that extra lockout

extra few inches of lockout on the deadlift. It makes a difference. Long forearms, I'll press. Yeah, but it did, you know, I managed to pull 500 even with that. You'll do it if you put the time in. It's not a heavy deadlift if you have mediocre, if you have below average genetics, sure, it's going to going to be hard you know and you're going to have to work so i think i i think what what what i'm hearing you say here that's i think interesting this is an interesting angle we haven't really talked about is managing your expectations but in the context of like what what you're good at and also like what your drives

are i like that that dichotomy between like, you know, inhibitory versus drive based, uh, training. Right. I think we could, we could apply that to, uh, I'm thinking of a lot of clients I could apply that to. We got to get my client on here. I like her. She's interesting. Well, and, and if you, yeah, yeah. If, if you are, um, so I know people who really, they excel at endurance endurance events but also i would say it's not even necessarily the endurance people there are those kind of people who are really good at that there's also people who just they enjoy and excel at a wide variety of physical oh yeah so they're they're they're my clients who are like every week they're like went mountain biking like if

it's mountain biking season they're mountain mountain biking two, three times a week. And then, okay, mountain biking season is over. Now they're out hunting, you know, like, hey, went deer hunting four times, you know? And then now that's over. Well, I'm snowshoe hiking now. You know, there's always something different in the mix and they enjoy that.

And that's just clearly, it's just a great physical outlet for them. So there's those people. And that's a wholly different class of people when it comes to strength training than my engineers and IT folks who are very, very like, they're just like, give me the program.

I will hit it every day on the dot. I'm going to do it exactly. Like you tell me exactly what to do. Tell me when to pick my fork up. Like what time, when to put it down, like, and I'll do it. Uh, they're extremely meticulous and married to the schedule. Uh, and you've got like those, I've learned too, you know, you've got to find a way to satisfy both of those people. Yeah. And, um, and the formula is different and the formula is

different. And so, you know, that's from the coaching end. But if you are that person, if you are that person that enjoys doing a lot of different things and you like to have a lot of different physical activities going on, that's cool. Nothing wrong with that. But if you then set your sights on having an exceptional deadlift and squat for an average person, I don't mean like elite powerlifter, but I'm talking about if you want to go from 400 to 500 on your deadlift and squat for an average person i don't mean like elite powerlifting but

i'm talking about if you want to go from 400 to 500 on your deadlift or you want to take your squat from 350 to 450 okay those are those are pretty good numbers for the average guy you can do that in about five years assuming no injuries and no bullshit that's right you can it's doable but if you are that person enjoys a really wide variety of activities, you're probably going to end up doing a bunch of stuff. You're going to end up working against yourself. And I'd say that's most people that are into physical activity. Yeah. That's, that is inhibitory training because you're going to have to cut all that other shit out. Like I have that my, I have one guy in particular I'm thinking of, he's great, great, great guy, really nice guy, great client. He's that guy that's always out

there biking, hunting, cycling, whatever it is. And guys like this too. He he's, he's, because taking kind of a couple of weeks off for that, cause it's kind of a transitionary transitional season for him. He's not really doing a lot outside of that. And he's been crushing his lifts the last two weeks. And he's like, I don't know why I'm so strong. And I'm like, well, dude, you cut out all the other stuff. You know, you're not biking 45 miles a week right now. And so for that guy to take his strength level up that extra notch and really those reach goals, he's going to have to cut out all that stuff and he's going to have to cut it out for a long time. And he's going to have to focus on just driving his numbers up. And that means, and by say focus on, it doesn't mean just hit your workouts. It means, uh, cut the other

stuff out, make sure you're getting plenty of recovery, make sure you're eating more food. He's going to have to gain weight and get to a body weight that is uncomfortable for the other activities so that he can push his strength. Yup. Right. Yeah. And I don't think this gets talked about enough, you know, and I think we'll... And it's just a recipe for failure. Yeah. Because he's going to have to do that now for, you know, maybe three to five years,

depending on what that big reach goal is. You know, if you're an average person, then, yeah, it's probably going to take you three to five years to get that 500 deadlift. Yeah. And you got to dial it down, you know? Yeah. And can you do that for three to five years? Yeah that 500 deadlift. Yeah. You got to dial it down, you know? Yeah. And can you do that for three to five years?

Is that really worth it? I don't know. You got to really want it. You got to really want it. Yeah. You know, I, this is all I like doing, you know, I, I hike, but I don't do anything else at a high level, you know, physically, at least, you know, I do have other activities that I do at a high level, but not physical activities. This is what I do, and I like doing it. And I like doing it in this way. I don't

enjoy training like a fucking bodybuilder. I hate it. I've always hated it. I don't like the burn. I don't like the sweating. I don't like the huffing and puffing. I don't like cardio. I like hiking. Obviously, there's a resistance component when you're hiking, like cardio. I like hiking. Obviously, there's a resistance component when you're hiking, you know, so of course I like that, right? Lots of uphill. Yeah. I like swimming, but it's not as accessible. You know, I have to go to a pool and shit and have to buy new gear.

And there's the getting wet, drying off. It's just kind of a pain in the ass these days, but I did enjoy it. I liked surfing when I did that, you know. But I don't like competitive endurance type stuff. I don't enjoy it. I do enough to keep my joints happy and keep my lungs happy. I never got into CrossFit. During the CrossFit phase, I came very close, and I wanted to get into CrossFit to get bigger

because they'd show these pictures of people that were big, and I knew that they were doing a lot of barbell stuff. I didn't understand what it was. I'm glad I didn't go down that rabbit hole because I would have hated it. I don't need to burn and go to failure. I don't enjoy that. I like going to failure with heavy weights. I enjoy that, you know, like I do like that. I just have always, I learned it 10 years ago.

I'd go through these quote unquote strength phases on these periodized programs. And when it got heavy, I'm like, oh, this shit seems like it's fucking working. I need to do more of this. And it would end in a back to hypertrophy phase or fat loss phase or whatever the fuck you know right and uh you know it's interesting yeah it's interesting we're talking about this i get some people that are gifted for bodybuilding you know in terms of how they're built but you know they think it's fucking stupid you know so they would never do it you know but they have those physical features that bodybuilding judges look for.

Right, right. But here's the thing. Without even being involved in that, they want to train like bodybuilders. They want to do an extra set. They want to do more reps. They want to do extra exercises. It's hard. I feel like I'm training them in inhibition when I get these people.

Capstone delts, tight skin, you know, big calves, you know, like all that, you know, like they look like an amateur bodybuilder that's not on drugs, you know? And then I start training them and just the fact that, you know, it's heavy, but not a lot, like it has to get really heavy before they can just part ways with doing extra shit. Like they have this drive to lift more, you know, which is kind of, have you noticed this? Have you trained people like this? Oh, absolutely. And those are the exact, those are the kinds of guys that, you know, um, I just assume, and I, cause I know it's happening. They're doing a bunch of curls without telling you. Oh yeah, absolutely. Like, like it'll just come up one day and they'll be like, oh yeah. So I was like doing, they'd be like, I was doing some curls the other day. I'm like, I don't know my,

usually it'll come up like this. It'd be like, yeah, my, my elbow's kind of tweaky today. And I'm like, oh, you know, so I usually start asking like, well, did you notice like it happened after, you know, a particular thing, like after your squat or something? It's like, oh, you know, I was doing some curls the other day. And, uh, and it was like, and you know, when I first started coaching, I'd be like, wait a minute, curls. I didn't write those in the program. Why are you doing curls? And now I you know, when I first started coaching, I'd be like, wait a minute curls. I didn't write those in the program. Why are you doing curls? And now I just know, I just know that they're doing it. Um, and I don't care. It's fine. It's not going to ruin anything, but, uh, but then, you know,

it's just funny how it will come up. And then you, you dig into that a little bit and it's like, oh yeah, I just do like a bunch of curls after like every workout. I've been doing that for like the last three months these people they have a drive yes yeah they have a drive to do more and you and getting them to dial back is challenging until the weight gets so fucking heavy they they feel that comatose feeling that high intensity gives you yeah yeah i find i find for these folks like they do well when they can when they if they can just get to that high level of weight and see the benefits of the carryover when they're like, Oh, I drove my bench up to, you know, I don't know, like

into the two fifties, you know, you know, or whatever. And then that now I can push the big dumbbells and you're like, yeah, yeah. And then they're like, Oh, it's because I did the benching. You're like, yeah, when that happens, then they can make the, then you can get them to train harder. But yeah, the hard thing for those folks I've found is that when they first start to hit those heavy and it's usually squats and deadlifts, when they first start to run into this real heavy squats and deadlifts, they start folding. They're starting, they want to like look for any excuse to be like, I don't know. I'm just not feeling very good today. Should I do 70% and just do a bunch of reps? Nope. They always want to find that way to take some weight

off the bar and do a bunch of reps. That's their default. They want that pump. They want that burn. It's not necessarily from a place of mental illness. That happens a lot. We deal with a lot of that. They just want to do more shit you know yeah that's right and um but once they if they can just get over that first hump yeah of of attacking those heavy weights and then get over the get over the hump it sucks it's hard then you get over it then they're like oh i see where the benefit is now yep and then they're bought in i had a gal once that understood this was not rational

that there was other things at play, right? And she used to joke that it was not enough. But she'd do what I say, and she did. You know, she didn't do extra stuff. But she would always say, yeah, it's not enough. It never feels like enough. And then she ran Texas Method for, I think, like a year, you know, and there was a meet, like, in between it that she just picked it back up after the meet. I think for a couple of lifts, you know, she didn't have to deload.

Yeah. And at the end of it, I'm like, was it enough? couple of lifts, you know, she didn't have to deload. Yeah. And at the end of it, I'm like, was it enough? She's like, that was enough. If you run, if you actually run Texas method for a year, good Lord. Yeah. Well, her motivation to do it was that, that weeded people out of strength training and it, and it has, you probably see that. That's why I don't use it very often. That's right. It's short periods of time if you do. It weeds people out because it gets so fucking hard. I have some pretty good damn lifters that have ran it, and they get, you know.

I had one gal. She got way up there. She was down to the doubles, and she's like, fuck this, and she just got out, you know. Yeah, it's like I feel like after i've run it a couple of times and i feel like after i've done that i just like i can't do it again it makes you not want to lift anymore but yeah it's it really does but um yeah i had the best squat ever i'm sure you fucking did i think i squatted 390 i'm trying to think what my my best of five ever was. I think it was like 390 I got to for a set of five on my second run through Texas Method. Dude.

Yeah, that was brutal. I remember telling this gal, she was naive to all this. She never was involved in any of this before. And I'm like, you want to work hard? I'm like, this is what teases people. This is what teases people, weeds people out. You know, Texas Method. I'm going to do it.

I'm going to finish it. She ran it out, bro. And, you know, Texas Method. Oh, I'm going to do it. And I'm going to finish it. She ran it out, bro. And, you know, many of our colleagues have. So this is not an unusual thing. But you have to have your cables fried in a certain way. You have to have your cables miswired to run it out. Do you think running the LLP is bad? I think running Texas Method is worse.

Oh, yeah. Well, so I remember now, yeah, it was 390 because um, my my volume pr was So I didn't know that a lot of other at the time. I did not know that a lot of coaches As your squat would get to higher and higher levels I'm just gonna use a squat as example, but kind of goes for most other lifts As it gets to higher and higher levels the the volume day percentages are supposed to come down. Oh, yeah I did not know that so i'm like i was like i thought it's always the light day is always 80 and then the medium day

or the volume day is always 90 so i get up to 390 for a set of five and i'm it's i mean literally that's like rpe 10 eyeballs busting on my head i blew some some blood vessels in my, some capillaries. So anyway, I get to the volume day and that's what's my volume PR is five sets of five at 350. And so then that means your light day, if you're, if you're still following the, the, you know, 80%, 90% percentages, that means my light day is 315, you know? Oh, brutal. But yeah. So the thing is though, uh, for me, if you throw me intensity, like if you just tell me, it's like, Hey, listen, your squat workout is over. If you just warm up and hit this weight, hit this real heavy weight for one set of five and then it's done. Yeah. I'm all in. I'm all in. I would

do that every day of the week. No problem. I got it. It doesn't matter how heavy, how absolutely bone crushingly hard that set of five is. I'm done. I'm like, okay, great. But if you asked me to do five sets of five, fuck, I'll do it. But I hate it. I hate it. I really hate it. And, uh, and then these bodybuilder type people that we're talking about, they'll say it's not enough. Yeah, that's right. They're the opposite. They're like five sets of five. That's it.

That's it. I want five sets of 10. You know, so what I found, like, so this is kind of interesting. So what I found in my personal training, and I found this has helped a lot of clients as well, is for me, those intensity days are great and I need to, I usually do better in whatever program I'm running if I give myself frequent high intensity, uh, exposure. So, you know, I might do like right now I'm, I'm doing a very simple, like high intensity week followed by a volume week on a given lift. Um, but I've started incorporating on my volume weeks, a, a heavy single just so I give myself that, that, that exposure to high intensity. It keeps me prime,

keeps, keeps the pump primed, so to speak, you know, it kind of keeps me in the feel for those, for the heavy, heavy, uh, weeks, but it also, it just, it makes the workout more fun. If I can just hit some, a heavy single and it's like, okay, yeah. Okay, cool. All right. I'm feeling good. All right. So I got that. I still got it in me. Okay. Now I can do my four sets of five that I have to get for my volume. And along with that is making my volume days when appropriate, bumping that percentage down. So in other words, it's grinding away at real high percentage loads for sets across. That's what reallyy. Let me go ahead and knock it down to 85%. And then 85 to 80%, as opposed to really like trying to drag myself through the ringer and run 90% as long as I can until I start risking missing reps. That makes me really lose interest

in training real fast. Right. So, but if I do the 80%, it's like, oh, well, that's not, it's not a big deal. It just doesn't feel that bad. I can get through it. I can convince myself. Right. So this is kind of a mental game, right? So did I, is that the most optimal program? Probably not. Probably I should stay with my higher intensity percentages as long as I can, if I want to be optimal. Yeah. But it's not, what's going to make me comply with the program the best. So I go for compliance over optimal every time. 100%. So, you know, I think it really comes down to is figuring out your drives and trying to determine whether, you know, in this case, you can feed them.

I can feed my drives doing this, you know, which is nice, right? But sometimes you have to train in inhibition as well. And that takes a certain type of mental discipline. And then you have to, you know, define your, you have to have a defined start and finish, I think, because on the diet side, I've learned that willpower is not sustainable for the long term when you're dieting, you know? And I think it's the same thing term when you're dieting. And I think it's the same thing. If you're somebody who was a reasonably high-level endurance athlete, maybe not somebody at the national or international stage, but somebody who's competed at a high level with endurance, and you want to get stronger.

I mean, realistically, are you going to put in five years of dedicated strength training where you sit at – by your standards, endurance athlete, you're sitting on your ass, you know, by our standards, you're still moving, you know, but, you know, do you want to quote unquote sit on your ass and just get strong for five years, you know? Like you have to answer these types of questions, right? Like what do you, how much, how much are you willing to sacrifice? How much time? And then, you know, dialing the expectations down, right? Like when Rip says, you know, any capable man can deadlift 500, which I believe, you know, we're talking about middle of the bell curve or above average, right? Yeah. Once you start getting below average for strength, you might be getting more above average for endurance and maybe not necessarily. You might suck at both, right? But let's just say that that's what's happening, right?

That you generally can run, tune out, and it's fun and you don't, you know, it's just easy. You know, it's a drive for you right and now you really want to put on muscle like okay that means that you're gonna have to do something that sucks for a while you know just kind of like you know i got a phd you know that sucked i was definitely inhibited when i was doing that you know um but i did it you know it was a four year well it turned into like a seven year deal but you know three and a half year and a half off and then you know three and a half, year and a half off, and then, you know, two and a half. So there you go, you know, six years. And it was all, you know, academia was all inhibition for me, but, you know, I performed at an above average level, you know, for the most part. On the research part, maybe not, you know, average. I'd probably, you know, I would say I'm below average. My advisor would probably speak highly of me,

you know, but, you know, it's just not something, it's inhibitory for me, you know, that was inhibitory for me. You know, working at the Globo gym was not fun. I didn't stick with that. It's not a good example, but you know what I mean? Like, you have to figure out, are you doing something that kind of goes against your drives? And if you are, that's not necessarily bad. You just, it's just not sustainable long-term. So you have to like figure out, you know out how far do you want to go with this

and how long can you realistically do this? Because you have to make the sacrifices. Trying to do both at the same time, you're just fucking yourself from two directions. You're going to suck at both. You're just going to suck at both. You're going to reduce yourself to mediocrity at best, below average at worst. So you just have to decide.

If you're the skinny guy that's run marathons a whole lot, what do you think? One year, two years, put on a few pounds of muscle at best, you're going to look better than you did when you started for sure. But you're not going to turn an endurance athlete into a bodybuilder, even though that's what Mr. Weider taught us all those years. Not everybody can change their body like that, even with drugs. Some people take drugs and don't get those types of responses, you know? Yeah. But it's like, it's one of those things, right?

Like, that's an extreme example, right? You take drugs and you lift weights, you're going to build more muscle than you did if you didn't do that, right? But some people might not have the same response as others. You know, when it comes to drugs of any type, not just anabolic steroids, you have responders, you have non-responders, and then you have adverse responders adverse responders right so that's how you kind of think of it like what they with lifting it's the same thing and with any treatment it's the same thing you know you're gonna have people that respond extremely well people that do not respond at all and people

that respond poorly you know yeah yeah and uh there's lots of different reasons for that on this episode we're talking about whether your drives suit it right like if you just hate hate like i hate cardio right so i just found a way to hack it i'm like i hike you know because i'm not thinking about i'm getting out of breath but i'm not thinking about it as much it's not the whole time because if you have to yeah are you like me so if if putting me on a treadmill is like just put a gun to my head man it's like i feel like i'm in a simulation maybe i am but at least you know it makes it very obvious if I get on a, on a treadmill, right. It's awful to me, but if I get out and hike, no big deal. I love it. I'm in my element. You know, the beauty of lifting is you don't have to do that many things. So if you're somebody who likes to run, dude, you only need

like five lifts, you know, and you can spread it out over two days, you know? So, yeah. Yeah. You know? Well, yeah. So I was, I was going to say, so like, you know, with the drive thing, where that comes out in practice is like, uh, yeah. So if you're, if you're an endurance guy, you know, like you're, you're probably not going to do well if you try to run a program that has you doing singles or doubles, maybe even triples, you know, triples are probably okay, but like, you know, high, high intent, real high intensity singles and doubles, you're probably just not going to do very well because a, cause you're probably a smaller frame, skinnier person. Uh, and you're just not going to have the good leverages for that. And B it's, it's against your, you know,

it's, it's the polar opposite of what you're good at. Uh, so, you know, maybe stick with a program that just runs fives and you're like, you know, maybe, maybe you taper when appropriate, you run out a program and you get to the end of your fives. Maybe you taper down to like threes or something for a little while and then go back to like fives or eights or whatever, whatever is in your, your program, but you don't need to run things out on the real, real high intensity, uh, range. Cause it's just not going to be fun. It's not going to be very productive for you. You're probably going to fail at it. And, and so that, so then you can think about like, for that kind of person, I would be looking at setting rep PRs. I would really want to gauge their strength progress by rep PRs. What are they doing for three sets of five, one set of five,

five sets of five, four sets of five, that kind of thing. Absolutely. And then obviously the opposite could apply for someone like me. I like doing singles. They're fun. I like doing doubles. So I really put more emphasis on that. I will run a program out and taper down to triples, doubles, and singles because it's fun. Yeah. I mean, we enjoy it.

Yeah. This extends to nonphysical activity too. Sometimes people have high cognitive drive, low physical drive, you know? Same thing, you know? Yeah. Like, if you like to sit there in your head reading and analyzing things or, you know, working on a computer all day and physical stuff just distracts you from what you want to be doing, then maybe you need to just train twice a week, you know? Because that's all you'll show up for, you know? Or make your workouts real short.

Yeah. I mean, that's something I've found recently. I just, I have so many things, you know, family, business, I have so many things on my mind. I don't have the mental capacity to handle a long training session right now. And it's not a physical thing. It's just mentally. It's like after about, frankly, after about 20 minutes, I'm starting to check out of the workout. I just, that's all I got. And so I'm getting better results,

uh, picking one lift to go real hard at and have, and like, I try to make sure my effort level's very high and, uh, and I can really focus on that. I'm, I'm executing. I'm really working in like great technique. Every rep's good. Putting high effort into every single rep. I'm focused during my warmups and get stuff done. I'm not distracted. But then after about 20 minutes of that, I'm done. So for me, much better to, to do a four day split, uh, more workouts per week, very short. And, um, that's the way to do it. Uh, but you know, some people might be, might do much better with, uh, a full body split that's two days a week. So I think one thing, if you are someone that has strength goals and you do want to push your strength and see where you can go with this, but it's not something that comes naturally to you, I think that signing up for a powerlifting meet or strengthlifting meet can be a great idea for

you. Absolutely. And you've talked about this in the past, right? You said that Dr. Bradford, she said this to you many years ago. At the seminars. It helps you. Did she say that to you too? Well, I don't think she's ever been a lecturer at the seminars I've been to. She said that at every seminar she lectured at, you know. Yeah. So it's turned out to be true and I've seen it with my clients as well as even if you don't care about competing, it's not about, don't think that, you know, a lot of people think that like you shouldn't try it unless you like have a chance at winning it or like something like that. No, nobody cares about that. It's all about you setting PRs for yourself. That's all anybody cares about at a power meet. But what it does for you is it gives you that defined time that you're talking about.

It's like, okay, let's sign up for that meet in April. Okay, great. It's December. You've got four and a half months to prepare for that. And there it is. And so you're going to have to go through a phase, especially as you get towards closer, close to that, the last six weeks training for that meet, it's going to suck. It's going to really suck. And you're going to have to cut back on everything else that you love to do

so that you can make that happen. But there's a light at the end of the tunnel. And that gives you a chance to see, okay, within this time constraint that I've given myself now until meet day, what am I capable of? And it will focus you. It, you know, it just gives you this, this automatic fire to do that. And then afterwards you'll probably be like, Oh, finally. And you relax and you can go do whatever again. Uh, but, um, that's a really useful tool and it doesn't matter how you perform at the meat. You know, even if you're like, some people have like competition anxiety, they just don't like being on the platform, people working, you know, watching them. It's okay. You, what the process that you followed to get there to the meet,

that was what was important. That's right. Yeah. Just really focusing on what you have to do to get from point A to point B, um, gives you a defined start and finish to what you're doing. So, you know, if you're one of these people that has a hard time doing this, that's one way to not overtax your ability to impose willpower, right? Yeah. You know, we're limited on that. Willpower only works up to a point before you just kind of break, you know. So keep that in mind.

You know, when you have a meet, you're just like, okay, you're probably going to prep for like, you know, three months, you know, maybe a little bit longer. I usually do three to four-month preps. And then, you know, afterwards, you can kind of lax up, you know, and maybe you don't have to train as much. But I think that's one way to hack your brain into doing it, especially if you've competed in other things that are different, you know. Yeah. But, you know, just to kind of tie it all up, you know, you just really have to identify where your drives are, you know, and identify if what you are doing is inhibitory, and if it is, then you want to figure out how to spend the least amount of time doing it to accomplish the objective you're trying to accomplish at a level that's realistic, you know?

Yeah. So I think that's really all I have to say on this topic. I kind of like where this went, so hopefully the audience does too. Yeah, I think it's an underrated thing. Now, notice how when we're saying this, we're talking about strength training in all of these scenarios. No matter which category you fall into, we're talking about the same thing. And that is doing the big compound lifts as a majority of your program, squat, press, bench deadlift, and adding weight to the bar on a regular basis and making the weight go up. That's true for

all of these scenarios. It's just the focus on how far you run a program, how you manipulate the program as you start to run out of steam on it. That is where things change. But in all cases, whether you're the marathon runner or you're the, you know, big power lifter guy, you're still focused on the same thing, which is adding weight to the bar. So don't lose, don't lose track of that. We're not saying, you know, it's, this is not a, not an excuse to, uh, lift light weights or anything like that. That's right. So, yeah. All right. Well, there we go. There's an episode for you, some food for thought maybe as you plan your, you know,

plan out next year. You know, 2024 is almost upon us. And, you know, it's a good thing to kind of think about your macro year, you know, like what are you going to do? What are you going to do in 2024? What are you going to accomplish? Yeah. I should give you some good food for thought.

Thank you for tuning in to the Weights and Plates podcast. You can find me at weightsandplates.com, where we have online diet coaching and strength coaching, or both. The gym site, I think, is up now, weightsandplatesgym.com. If you are local to Phoenix, I'm near the South mountain village, just South sky Harbor. Uh, we set the site up so that you could buy all your training sessions directly off the website. Uh, memberships have to be purchased here, but, um, we typically require an intro session to, uh, to, uh, coach you on the main list before you can join here. So we don't have any shenanigans going on. Um, so yeah, check it out. Uh, I'm on you on the main list before you can join here, so we don't have any shenanigans going on.

So, yeah, check it out. I'm on Instagram at the underscore Robert underscore Santana. That is the one platform that I probably update fairly regularly. Hopefully that'll change in 24. I'm trying to get more content out there, but, you know, working on a system. And the gym has a page. That's all I'm going to say about that. Weights, double underscore, and double underscore plates on Instagram.

And those are all the places you can find me, ladies and gents. Yeah, listen, in four weeks, the GloboGem that you go to, they're going to be packed. Absolutely packed with a bunch of

Jimbro douche nozzles and then a bunch of people who are trying to get you know trying to start something new which you know credit to them that's great but it's going to be packed and that means that there's going to be somebody curling in your squat rack there's going to be guys you know jacking around by the leg press machine and taking up all the plates. You can't find any plates for your bench and all sorts of crap like that. But if you live in the Phoenix area and you go to weights and plates, you don't have to worry about any of that. How many squat racks do you have? I have seven squat racks,

two eight by eight platforms for Olympic lifting and five, you know, standard four by eight platforms that are, uh, in front of the racks. So there you go. You will never, ever have to wait on plates,

a barbell. We now have dumbbells too. We now have dumbbells. You have dumbbells. That's right. You've got dumbbells up to like what? A hundreds now? A hundred and fives?

A hundred, a hundred. We're going to eventually get the 105 to 150, but we're up to a hundred right now. And we have fractional plates for them. And we have dumbbells, spotter stands And we have fractional plates for them. And we have dumbbell spotter stands so that you can unwrap them if you want to bench with dumbbells. Look at that. So think about it. So, you know, you go to weights and plates and you don't have

to worry about any of this stuff. And you've got premium equipment. You can lift on nice bars, not trashed out bars with no knurling on them. So anyway, you need to do that. If you live in the Phoenix area, you got to go see, go, go see Dr. Santana for a, uh, for a tune up on form check and, uh, maybe some regular training if you're, if you're in the area. So you know where to find me. I'm at marmalade underscore cream on Instagram, and you can email me jonesbarbellclubatgmail.com. We'll talk to you again in a couple of weeks.