Latest / The Dan John Podcast / EP 371 - ABF, Mobility, Rotating Programs, Recovery, Squats, Muscle Imbalances & More

Transcript

EP 371 - ABF, Mobility, Rotating Programs, Recovery, Squats, Muscle Imbalances & More · The Dan John Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome back everybody to the Dan John University.com podcast.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I'm Dan John. Each and every week I sit down
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: here and I answer your questions. This is episode 371.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: It seems like we're on our way to 400. That
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: couple of years went fast. Listen, if you have a question,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: please send the question to us at this address, podcast
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: at danjohnuniversity.com. We got an interesting group of questions today.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: There's one at least I think I'm going to enjoy
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: talking about. Our first question is from Spencer, and I
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: got to tell you, it's a different kind of question
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: for me. He said this, I want to get your
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: thoughts on how to convince tennis players and golfers to
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: do strength training. when they believe that lifting weights is
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: going to hinder the mobility and thus their performance. Of course,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I believe in your methods, so I know getting stronger
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: will certainly help. I'm stunned that this is still around, Spencer.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I can't believe it. Now, I dealt with this, you know,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: when I first started lifting 61 years ago that somehow
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: lifting weights made you immobile. It's not true. Even then,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: there was already a research study that proved In fact, famously,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: John Grimmick was still alive and he went to the
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: university and was doing it. And he did some hand
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: balancing and I guess he just, he had the best
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: toe touch, you know, that little test they do. He
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: had the best of everybody. Also, I just got to
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: say that a tennis player, let's just do golfers first.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: A golfer who doesn't believe in lifting weights now. I mean,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: I remember when Nautilus was taking over golfing and lifting.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: This is a long time ago. And, but the thing is, yeah, their,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: their people got better because nobody else was lifting. And
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: no matter what you do, uh, you're going to get,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: if you get stronger, you hit farther. Um, Gary player,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: who I had a chance to meet. I've told the
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: story before I was at the, uh, uh, Atlanta sky
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: club for Delta. And I walked up to get some
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: chicken noodle soup and this guy turns around and I said,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: you're Gary player. And he goes, you lift weights. And
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: so we talked for 15 minutes. And after he left, uh,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: these golfer types, because Atlanta's close to all the golfing places.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: What did you guys talk about? I said, lifting weights.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: He goes, did you talk about golf? No. And then
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I told the one guy the story about my dad
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: with Will Chamberlain. Another story for another time. Gary Player
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: lifted weights, and he won the Masters because even though
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: he wasn't very big, he was stronger than everybody else.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Tiger Woods, of course, famously, and how he got there,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: I don't completely know. He weighed 185 and benched 300.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: If any of your golfers are better than Gary Player
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: and Tiger Woods, I'd like to sit down and talk
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: with them about what they're doing. And on the tennis side, man,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I know for sure on the women's side, they take
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: lifting very seriously. It's funny to see Serena Williams in...
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Glass Onion, where she has that, she's doing the work,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: she's leading the work out in that TV screen thing.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I thought that was really interesting. So listen, it comes
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: down to this. The people who don't agree with you
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: are kind of like, well, I don't want to say Luddites.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: There's always people who don't believe in things, and that's fine.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: You can You know, you're allowed to believe anything you want.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: I just don't have to agree with your beliefs. And
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: that makes a lot of people uncomfortable in the current environment.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Lifting weights is not going to... Lifting weights will probably
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: enhance your mobility. I feel that original strength, that mobility
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: program I use from Tim Anderson, and my strength programs,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: to quote Tim, they're peas and carrots. You know, they
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: fit perfectly together. You know, I can't imagine a modern
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: athlete who could get away with not lifting weights. When
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: I was at the Olympic Training Center, the one time
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: our divers were there. The really famous one was there too. And,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: you know, they were in the weight room, you know,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: lifting weights. Divers, you know, not, you know, U.S. Navy divers,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: but Olympic divers. You know, when our junior women's volleyball
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: team went in the weight room, These were accomplished weightlifters. The,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: a couple of them did the Olympic lifts and the
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: power styles, and they were, they were knocking up some
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: big weights and then, you know, spike in the bowl
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: on people's heads the next day. I just can't imagine
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: in this day and age, not lifting and competing at
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: the highest levels. Uh, there's always outliers. There's probably someone
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: born today. That's going to be the fastest person ever.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: And if they are lucky, they will prove it without
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: doing any training at all. Um, when I work with
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: like people in the inner circle, when I work with
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: some of my other friends, uh, it's funny, I have
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: a hard time calling a client, anything about a friend. Um,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: you know, almost universally, they tell you that weightlifting, you know,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: weightlifting just does so many wonderful things for their life.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: So Spencer, I struggle with this. I would like to
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: actually see some quotes from the people who push back
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: on this. Um, But I have to say one last thing,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: and it's not nice. But one of the hardest things
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: about elite performance is, you know, it's kind of a
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: farewell tour. Not the way Jim Schmitz talks about it
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: with the weightlifting, no. When you lift at my age,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: your final attempt on the platform at a weightlifting meet,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: it's a farewell tour. You kind of say, thank you,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: because you'll never see that weight again, which is sadly true.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: But when you're in elite performance, And every time you
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: step up to the next level, people just fall off
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: like icicles on a hot day. You just look around
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: and all these people are missing. And very often, the
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: people who are missing are the ones who didn't do
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: the extra work, the lifting, the mobility, the strategy sessions.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: They're the ones who just want to be part of
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: the fun. And at the next, every time you move
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: up levels, how do you spell fun? W-I-N. So, Thank you, Spencer.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I did a good job on it,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: but it was a strange question for me to see
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: in this era. But thank you. Got a question from Isaac.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: I've appreciated all the content you've shared about easy strength
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and strength training. I've used easy strength to maintain a
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: healthy and active lifestyle while balancing being an attentive husband,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: an engaged father, a high school administrator, and most recently,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: A graduate student, a busy boy. I have a question
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: about adapting the program as I approach 50. I really
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: enjoy barbell training, but I've noticed I don't recover as
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: well as I did even in my early 40s. And
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: there's a truth right there. My goal is to maintain
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: my barbell strength numbers while also addressing some asymmetry issues
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and continuing to train in a way that supports longevity.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: What do you think about running easy strength while alternating
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: barbell workouts with unilateral dumbbell workouts. For example, I might
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: perform my normal barbell-based easy strength one day and then
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: use unilateral dumbbell movement the next while keeping the general
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: easy strength principles of low volume, submaximal effort, and consistency. Boy,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: you summarize my work better than I do, man. Good, good.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Isaac. Do you think this would be an
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: effective way to maintain strength while giving my body a
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: little more recovery and addressing side-to-side imbalances? which is the
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: best thing about unilateral training. It gives you a chance
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: to test this side versus that side. If you're an athlete,
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: your stronger side is always going to be better, and
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: you kind of want it to be. But for lifetime
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: health and everything, you want to be balanced. Socrates talked
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: about it. There's nothing new about this. Do you think
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: this would be an effective way to maintain strength while
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: giving my body a little more recovery and addressing side-to-side imbalances? Yes.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Or would you recommend a different approach for someone in
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: my situation? Thanks again for all the practical and sustainable
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: training advice you've shared. Easy strength has been a tremendous
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: fit for this stage of my life. And I'd appreciate
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: your thoughts on how you would go with modified as
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: recovery and balance became a bigger consideration. Actually, you know, Isaac,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: your timing on this question is like perfect, okay? I
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: was asked to give my first workshop on the mature
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: athlete and probably, oh gosh, it was right around when
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: I turned 40, you know, and of course, don't forget
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: when I turned 40 and what, 1997, but I had
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: the best year of my athletic career at age 47.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: So seven years later, and I held on to that until, uh, 2009.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Those are the best years of my athletic career, um, from, uh, Uh,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: 97 to 2009 by far. Uh, those were, those were
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: great years. Um, and I look back and I was
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: asked to give, I was asked to give a little
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: workshop and, and I looked at it and I still
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: think it's great. I recommend a couple of things. Of course,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: if you're a school administrator, of course, you make more
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: money than the teachers. But the first thing I said
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: was use your wallet. Don't be afraid to buy the
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: best equipment, recovery tools, and be smart. The next thing
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: I talked about is that young athletes sometimes don't fully
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: respect the opportunity they have. Whereas the aging athlete, this
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: is my second point, is like, you know, they knew that,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: you know, every tick of the clock, you're getting closer
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: to the end. And then the third thing I talked
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: about was changing the way you saw workouts. So it's
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: kind of funny because at that time, I was recommending
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: in 96 for a master's athlete to train five days
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: a week. And I'm answering this. So you do something
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: like heavy, light, light. Heavy, light. And there's your training
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: sessions for the week. Two full recovery days. And light
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: was technical practice and some movements. Now, you know, if
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: you're an Olympic lifter in your 40s or 50s, yeah,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: I mean, when I say heavy, heavy is always a
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: daily relative thing. And light means whatever light means that day.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Not long ago, somebody asked me if I'd changed my
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: mind on that. Kind of funny. And I said, and
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: this is maybe a decade ago, I said, yeah, now
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: I'd go light, light, light, light, heavy. And then I
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: thought about it when your question came up and I
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: thought to myself about a joke I made a while ago.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: so my thought for you would be this. Since you're
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: doing the same relative, same, relatively same movements, why don't
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: you have a barbell day, two, you know, your asymmetrical
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: dumbbell days, a barbell day, an asymmetrical dumbbell day. That way,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: I think you have a chance to stay fresh. One
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: other idea I had for you. Now, you better get
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the pen out and start writing. So first idea, barbell day. barbell, asymmetry, asymmetry, barbell, asymmetry.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Next idea, barbell, left side, asymmetry work, right side, asymmetry work, barbell,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: both sides, asymmetry work. That was an idea I thought
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: for you. It's a little different than what you asked, obviously,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: but I think that's a really good way to go.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Years ago, I wrote a workout called the Road Warrior
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: or something like that. I wrote it for... a group
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: of people in our United States government who travel a
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: lot and are expected to stay in somewhat good condition
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: with a lot of travel and a lot of desk work,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: you know, and then be able to leap up and
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: go do something, which is, that's a hard combination, folks.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: And I gave the idea of a left side workout
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: followed by a right side workout and then a whole
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: body workout. That's your three days a week of your training,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: plus obviously walking and whatever else we can do. But
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: the idea was you would do the left side workout
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: and that might have an emotional hit on you. But
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: two days later, the right side is like, yeah, I'm fine,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: I got this. And then the whole body workout would
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: just be, that'd be your Saturday or Sunday workout when
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: you have the time and energy and space to train.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: I hope this helps you. I think barbell training is a,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think, I think you can start kids
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: on barbells as soon as you can get appropriate weights
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: for them if they're interested. You know, I started, you know,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: when I was, what, I guess I was eight, seven
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: or eight. I fell in love with the Sears barbell.
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: It was only 50 kilos, 110 pounds. And I still
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: think for most people I interact with, it's, you know,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: I know, I know we have a lot of, you know,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: rural muscle heads in the audience. But honestly, when you
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: deal with most people, most of the time, 110 pound
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: adjustable barbell set is pretty good. You can get most
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: of the work you want done. You know, it's like
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: when I tell people, when they ask me about kettlebells,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: if they're male, I tell them, just get a 20.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: I want doubles, get two 20s. I mean, it's like
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: one of those funny little, the more you do things,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: the more you realize that, you know, most people don't
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: need a lot of load what they need to do
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: is do the work, not worry so much about perfect equipment. Uh, yeah,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: I love the fact that you're still barbell training and
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: I really liked the fact that you came up with
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: this idea. Now I'm going to have to wait on
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: this idea, but I'm going to claim this idea as
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: my own in the future. Uh, this is, I think
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: this is a good idea. So, uh, finally, for those
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: of you who do easy strength and you have other equipment,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: kettlebells or, uh, dumbbells, why don't we try one of
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: these ideas where you do, um, maybe, and let's try this,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: three barbell workouts a day, three barbell easy strength workouts
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: a week, and then plug in those half-body dumbbell workouts.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: You could either do like Tuesday left side and Friday
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: right side, or you could do both sides those two days.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: I think there's some wisdom to this. Dumbbells and even kettlebells,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: for me at least, make it very easy for me
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: to deload. Whereas with the barbell, it's just a little
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: harder for me. And maybe that's something I need to
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: see a therapist about why I think that. But great question.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: And I really enjoyed it. Thank you. Our next question
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: is from Chris. I'm Chris. And he adds a thing
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: that's funny. Sorry, not Dan or John. You can take
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: that up with my mom. I think that's very funny.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: A 38 year old husband and father, two kids, four
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: and six. Well, it was about the same as me.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: You're almost, you are the exact same as me. Wow.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: That's interesting. I've been training for about six years, bouncing
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: back and forth between kettlebell and barbell programming. My goals
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: are to set a good example for my kids and
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: be able to keep up with them. And you'll want
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: to do that because you know, you're 39. And as
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: I answering this, uh, You're 38 and as I'm answering,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: I'm 69. And before you know it, you'll be sitting
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: there and you're going to have holding grandkids and your
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: daughters will be sneaking up on, well, 40. Our kids
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: are sneaking up on 40. And that's great. I do
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: like seeing my numbers go up and look good. And
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: I want to look good at the beach, but they're
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: not my why. So yeah, I understand that. So it
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: is nice to look good at the beach. I'll show
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: you my most recent rainbow beach, Australia pictures. and it's
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: nice to see increases in your lifts, but it's also
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: some other important things. And now we move on. I
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: recently did an eight-week block of armor-building formula and made
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: noticeable progress, but I was feeling pretty tuckered about the
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: end of it. Yeah, because it's a hard program at
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the end. I decided to switch to somebody else's program,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: which is built around another idea. It's no means easy,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: but doesn't take it out of me the same way
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: as the armor building formula. I'm a few weeks into
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: it and feel great. What do you think about swapping
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: between these two same but different programs for the longer term?
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Both fit nicely into my life now. I can get
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: them done at home in half an hour or so
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: after the kids are in bed. Well, I'm glad you
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: said same but different because I was thinking along the
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: same lines. Uh, you know, the armor building formula, you know, I,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: I tend to tell people to do it, take a
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: week off, maybe three weeks off. If you decide to
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: take longer, do something like the perfect program. It's in
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: the book and it's on the video here on the
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel and then repeat it. And then after that,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: go do something different for me. And, uh, you know,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: when you mentioned barbell programming, I was wondering why you
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: didn't slide over into a barbell program. into another fairly
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: same complexes that you're already doing. That would be the
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: only thing I would suggest. The problem with doing, you know,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: you can go online and get a thousand kettlebell programs.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure that, you know, if we were
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: sitting at a bar and had enough pieces of paper,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: we could probably come up with 20 kettlebell programs. And
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: how many of them would work? I don't know because
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: I believe in testing things, but I'm wondering why you
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: didn't want to switch to a barbell program after the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: eight to 16 weeks. To me, that's more natural from
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: what you said with, with what you want. Certainly do
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: whatever you think works for you. Um, you know, I
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: have some pretty, we'll just talk kettlebells. I have some
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: pretty good programs that have a lot of swings in them.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: And we found out, uh, in my, um, So the
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: one that's over at Amazon, the kettlebell workout companion has
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: this really brutal five day a week program we did
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: for a while. And it was really good. Lots of presses,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: lots of pull-ups, tons of swings. It was a very
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: aggressive program and everybody liked it. And the only problem
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: was everyone got kind of fat on it because we were,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: going out to breakfast every day because we're all starving,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: which going out to breakfast every day isn't always a
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: good model for elite performance. We had a break in
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: that one time where we did the 10,000 swing challenge.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: So we had a swing heavy program followed by an
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: extremely swing-heavy program. And that's probably the first time, almost
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: as a group, there was this kind of thing like,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: we need to bring it in a little bit. So
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: if you're going to do a program that's the same
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: but different, which I applaud, I think there's great value
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: to it, just remind the three things that you can
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: find in my... my worst selling book, Attempts. I talk
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: about three kinds of variation and I really make a
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: strong argument about it. There is no variation, which I
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: think is brilliant if you are an elite athlete. You know,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Charlie Francis, the great sprint coach, talked about how he
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: didn't care what you did in the weight room. Just
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: don't change things up because he never wanted you sore
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: when you sprinted. That's no variation. With Dick Notmeyer, I
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: could be any place on the planet and tell you
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: what our team was doing that day in the workout.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: All I needed was the day of the week because
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: we did the same thing all the time. We got
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: really good, but, you know, it was the same always.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: No variation. Then there's mild variation, which I'm seeing you
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: get into here. Mild variation, and, of course, the example
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: I usually use is in the press. You know, you
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: go from incline press to bench press to decline press
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: to military press. six weeks with each and just change.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: They're all presses. They're all the same, but they're a
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: little different. With kettlebells, you could go from swings for
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: six weeks to snatches for six weeks. That would be
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: a mild variation. With what you're doing is you're doing
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: programs that are, the variations are mild. They're same, but different.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: The program you showed, and my armor building formula are
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: pretty close to each other. So what I'm suggesting to
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: you is something different, and that would be more wild variation,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: where you do kettlebell programs for, you know, eight weeks,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: 16 weeks, and then you change over to a barbell variation.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: If you have the armor building formulas, I have barbell
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: variations in there. And I got to tell you that...
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Those workouts where you do clean and press, clean and press,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: clean and press, clean and press, followed by curls, just
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: that can really open your eyes about how much work
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: you can get in in a short amount of time
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: with just a barbell. In 1971, when I went to
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Southwood Junior High, I learned the Southwood program, power clean, military,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: front squat, bench press, 8-6-4 reps on each one. It
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: was only 18 reps. But it was a dynamite program.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: And then, of course, the one day where Mr. Freeman,
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: we didn't have enough time. So we had to do
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: my first complex, eight cleans, eight presses, eight front squats.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: I thought that was so amazing. It's still the foundation
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: of my barbell complexes today. And that was a long
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: time ago. Hey, I hope it helped. No variation, mild variation,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: wild variation. In elite athletes, no. Sadly, it's probably one
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: of the best answers. Elite athletes and most people, mild
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: variation helps a lot of time. For most people, if possible,
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: wild variation, after you've established your skill sets, is a
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: lot of fun and very refreshing for the brain. And
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: I got to tell you, sometimes that's important. Good question,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: and I really appreciate it. Thank you. We have a
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: question from Mike. I wanted to start by thanking you
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: for all the work and education that you share with
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: the community. Then he says, Intervention is my favorite book
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: of yours. It's gold in paper format. Well, thank you.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: And just so you know, Mike, if you go over
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: to my website, danjohnuniversity.com slash bookstore, you will find Fitness Forge,
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: which has Intervention. Can you go and now what? All...
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: in one book. Okay. I'm 41 years old, 205 pounds.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: I have three kids, six years, three years and three months.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: You're busy. And managed to get in three weightlifting sessions
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: a week between 45 and 60 minutes long and an
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: easy cardio session once a week of either biking with
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: kids in a trailer behind me. That's so fun. I
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: used to love doing that. Or hiking one of the
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: local forest routes with the kids perpetually asking for snacks
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: And how much further it is. That's a fun time.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I've got a good home gym, so equipment isn't an issue.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: But time can be, which is why I'm finding efficient
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: use of my time really important to me. My question
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: is one regarding the necessary mobility I should be doing.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: I have a hard time sticking to rest periods. And
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: I've started doing original strength movements after each set. Exactly
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: what I was going to tell you to do. By
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: the end of the workout, I feel like I've done
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: enough mobility to not need a dedicated day in the
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: week of mobility. I'm a lover of good enough solutions.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: So is this good enough or is this something I
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: should really be dedicating my day to? Well, you know,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: I like Tonic Thursday, but I like it for a
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: reason that takes us back to the 1970s when I
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: donned the Utah State University's uniforms. Coach Mon had a thought.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: It was a theory called the two-day lag rule, and
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: it is absolutely true. You can train fairly heavy the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: day before a competition. You can't. But two days before
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: kills you. In the same way, soreness tends to hit
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: people about two days after. You know, if you've never
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: bench-pressed before, and I come up the next day, and
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: I go, does that hurt? Yeah, a little bit. Two
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: days after the first time you bench-pressed, stick that finger
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: right there and dig it in. I'll put you on
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: the floor. I learned that from Dick Notmeyer. He thought
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: it was hilarious. And I do too now as my coach.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: So since the mid 1970s, I have tended to compete
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: on Saturday, like things like the nationals or, you know,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: a lot of the Highland games, the really big ones
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: are two days events, but Most of the time, I'm like, gosh,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: I can't. When I played adult American football, we played
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: a couple nights, different nights of the week, but that's
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: kind of a random example. Almost universally, I still compete
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: on Saturday. So I have turned all Thursdays into Tonic Thursday.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: That works with my schedule, my life, my experience. Do
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: you need a dedicated day of Absolute nothing but mobility.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Maybe not. Now, one little hack I do is whenever
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: I sauna, my sauna's right there, I always do mobility
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: work while I'm saunaing. And I think it really helps
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: me in a bunch of ways, emotionally too. But I
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: think if you're honestly lifting, doing original strength between every lift,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: you're doing okay. When I'm doing more of a push, pull, hinge, squat,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: loaded carry kind of thing. Uh, I always do the
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: neck nod family, prone, seated, walking, hanging from a bar, uh,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: six point, whatever, um, after every set of presses, every
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: set of pulls, I do neck rotations. And again, any
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: variation I can think of any level I can find, uh,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: after squats, interesting. I do six point rocks. Um, There
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: are some other variations I do with that, but it's
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: not that important. I will do the kickstand style. You
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: can watch that in my tonic workouts where you put
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: the leg out to the side. After sets of hinges,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: we do bird dogs or speed skaters, but we call
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: them Frozones. That's the bird dog where instead of extending
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: your hand out front, you extend your hand and you
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: try to touch your back heel. And then you can
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: get a little pumping action going and... It very much
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: is a gait pattern. Between sets of loaded carries, I
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: do marching cross crawls. That's where I march in place
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: and my right hand slaps my left knee. My left
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: hand slaps my right knee. And then I go wrists,
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: meaty part of the forearm, elbows. You can also do
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: it marching, you know, and moving away. And I'm sure
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: you can also do it seated too. And you can
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: sit on your back and do it for a nice
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: ab workout. My minimum mobility workout, and I don't talk
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: about it as much because it's just so built into
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: what I do. I hang for 30 seconds every day
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: and then I sit in the bottom of a goblet
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: squat for 30 seconds every day. Um, if you can
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: add that to the start of your workouts and maybe
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: add that to your off days and you don't need
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: to have weight with a goblet squat, you can use the,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: you know, doorknob handles as a counter, or you can
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: use one of your kids, you know? Um, yeah, there
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: you go. Yeah. Have the three month old until you
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: train up to the three-year-old, then you train up to
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: the six-year-old, then you train up to, you know, I
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: don't know, somebody big. Um, I think it's a great idea. Uh,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the tonic workout, that Thursday workout, interesting. And it just
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: kind of warned everybody. That's the day I get hungriest
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: is so mobility and flexibility tends to get me a
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: little bit, you know, time to eat something. So just
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: as a warning, I hope that helped, uh, I think
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: you want to have your mobility work always complementary to
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: your strength training or your bodybuilding work or whatever you
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: want to call it. Okay, thanks. Good, great, quick question.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Ark says this, I've been following your work for many
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: years and really appreciate the simplicity and practicality you bring
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: to strength training. Everyone today has been very kind to
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: me and I appreciate that. I'm adapting armor building formula
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: into a nine-day rotation for a bit more recovery. Interesting.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: So he's going to do ABC. I hope I get
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: this right. ABC, easy aerobic rest, modified rider passage press day,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: easy aerobic rest, ABC, then alternate. ABC is the standard
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: X he's going to do, resting between one and two rounds.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: I'm starting line up to eventually build into 30 rounds.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: The press day is a modified 235 press scheme with
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: one kettlebell, plus a reverse lunge each run and pull-ups.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I'm 56 training mainly for long-term strength and health with
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: some left hip OA arthritis. Okay. Does this look like
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: a sensible armor building form right of passage hybrid, or
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: would you change anything? Well, uh, it comes back to
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: a question we had earlier. Um, I have no issues
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: with a toss in an extra day rest. Um, If
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: you're going to fall, I'm going to do the armor
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: building formula. And then you do it something like this.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: So day one, the complex. Day two, day three, walk, stretch, recover.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: We got to do. Day four, the press. Day five,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: day six, rest, walk, recover. Day seven, ABC. Two days,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: one day. Two days, one day. Two days, one day.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Two days, one day. I think that's a good approach.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: I guess what I'm asking here, Ark, as I look
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: at it, you know, at 56 with that hip and
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: all the squats, is the armor building formula still the
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: best option for you? I still think you should press, press, press, press.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, my last day on the planet, I'm going
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: to be over there, you know, pressing a beast for
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: no i i you gotta pressing and glute work are
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: the fountain of youth is overhead pressing and glute work
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: and how you get your glute work you're doing squats
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: um and easy aerobics and rest i don't know what
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: what that means but i generally when people say aerobic
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: it's a butt exercise in there somehow um you know
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: hip thrust squat deadlift snatch clean The Romanian deadlift for me,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: a great one, it seems. These are all great glute exercises.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: My concern is about this. I'm concerned about the arthritis.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: I just want to make sure you kind of maybe
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: talk to your doctor, show a video. This is what
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: I'm doing. And make sure you got another set of eyes.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: I would also think it'd be wise for you. Now,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know how good you are at it. But
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: I would video my armor building complex workouts, not every time,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: but so every three weeks, just videotape it. And then
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: what I want you to look for is I would
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: videotape it right in front arc. And what I want
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: you to look for is to make sure your chin,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: your sternum and zipper are staying in a straight line
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: the whole time. My concern is that you might be
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: doing this and turning your hip, you can't see it,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: but and turning your hips away, compensating. And that's going
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: to apply more torque. In my original assessments, which seemed
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: like it was interesting, no matter how many people I
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: taught this one drill, no one seemed to ever understand it.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: But you take a PVC pipe or a broomstick, you
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: put it in the overhead position, and you drop to
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: the bottom and squat. And then I would look, and
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: all I was looking for was to see if your chin,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: your sternum, and zipper on a straight line, almost universally,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: even with young athletes, there's a shift at the bottom.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: And one of the things I would recommend, maybe more
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: hip flexor stretches, the thing that was most helpful is
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: having them squat in a mirror so they could see
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: that shift as they dropped down. Sometimes they called for
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: not necessarily medical intervention, but a little bit more advanced
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: prehab work Fortunately, we had trainers. Here in the States,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: a trainer is a physio in some other places, just
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: for clarity. And they were able to say, okay, this
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: kid's got really tight hamstrings and a really tight hip flexor,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: but only on one side. And of course, you'd go, ah,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: of course. Or they hurt themselves playing wrestling or football
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: or something, and their lower back was aching, so they
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: were compensating through that. Do me a favor, every three weeks,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: video that ABC round straight ahead. You're looking for chin, sternum, zipper.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: You're going to get a sense of your technique. If
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: your knees are going in and out, especially the side
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: that's been aching, let's keep an eye on that, okay?
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: I think it's a good program. I never have an
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: issue with people adding an extra day or so in
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: for rest and recovery because life is going to give
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: you those extra days off from the weight room. Either
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: kids get sick, your car has a flat tire, things happen.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: And so I don't think missing a workout is the
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: end of the earth. What I think is a problem
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: is when you miss four decades of workouts or five decades, okay? Ark,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: great question and I appreciate it. And I can't believe
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: we're done today. That was easy. That was episode 371
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: and it's done. Listen, if you have a question, please
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: send it to the podcast at this address, podcast at danjohnuniversity.com.
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: And until next time, let's all keep on lifting and learning.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you.