Latest / The Dan John Podcast / EP 366 - The Odyssey, Easy Strength, KB Press, Conditioning, Machine Exercises & More

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EP 366 - The Odyssey, Easy Strength, KB Press, Conditioning, Machine Exercises & More · The Dan John Podcast

• 0:12
  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
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: here and answer your questions. And if you have a question,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: please send them to our podcast at this address. And
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I'll point down because it usually shows up right here.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Podcast at danjohnuniversity.com. I do my best to answer each
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and every question. We've become very popular lately. I have
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: a lot of questions today. But I got to tell you,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: this first one kind of excited me. For those of
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: you who don't know, I mean, I've had a love
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: for the great books since my youth. I was in
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the great books program at St. Veronica's and I loved it.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: So this first question comes from Anthony. Long-time reader from
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: the T-Nation days, back when it was good, and now
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: listener from New Zealand. By the way, my son-in-law is
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: half Kiwi, so hats off to both of you. I
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: don't have a training-related question, but I did want to
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: say I appreciate your wisdom when it comes to all
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: things training and even outside. I listen to the podcast
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: most Friday mornings when I do mobility drills before heading
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: off to work. Well, this is great, Anthony. This will
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: be a fun one for you then. However, I did
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: have a question outside of training. I recently saw Christopher
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Nolan's Odyssey and thought it was a brilliant piece of cinema.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: And I agree. A wonderful and evocative take on a
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: classic story. Given your background and scholarship and interest in
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the classics, I wonder if you have any opportunity to
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: watch Christopher Nolan's adaption and what you thought of it. Well,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, I thought it was one of the best
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: movies in a long time. I really enjoyed the movie.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: You know, there's a couple of things I want to
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: bring up if you don't mind. But first off, you know,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Mike Brown and I were walking today and I decided
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: to give him a spoiler. You know, at the end
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: of Oppenheimer, an atomic bomb goes off. Okay, that was
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: funny to me. But the nice thing about The Odyssey
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: is if you're worried about spoilers, you really should go
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: and go back to elementary school But I loved the movie.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: One of the things I liked a lot was the
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: discussion of the peoples of the sea. Now, of course,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: you know, I used to teach quite a lot about
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: the peoples of the sea. And also, where I got
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: sick originally was at a place, this is when I
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: went to the Middle East, I had to make a
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: water decision at a place called Medidet Habu. And basically,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: do I want to I would say, I'm not sure
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: what it would be in Celsius, but we were in
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: the high 120s in Fahrenheit, which I'm guessing would be
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: sneaking up at least on 50, if not around 50 Celsius.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: And I brought, I thought, plenty of water that day,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: but I made a mistake and I had to drink water.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: And that's when I got very sick. The fun thing
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: is that I still have, The photos of Medet Habu,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: so these are some of them. I know you can't
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: see them. These are photographs from four or five decades ago.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: But I love teaching this. So what was great about
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: teaching the peoples of the sea is that it ties
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: you in to probably the Iliad and certainly the Odyssey.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: And then it also ties you into the Bible story.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: There are certain names that show up. Now, my name's Dan,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: so maybe I know that better. But when you study
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Greek during this period, the word Dan, D-A-N, shows up
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: a lot. Dan also means judge. And when you go
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: to the book of Judges, so Daniel, God is my judge.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: When you go to the book of Judges, it's kind of,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: in a sense, the book of Dan. And the word
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Dan then shows up in some Egyptian writings. but some
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: other stuff show up too. Now, this is something that
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: got me in trouble with one of my professors, but
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: the letters P-L-S-T show up as one of the groups
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: of the people of the sea. And I think I
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: have all the groups listed, but something certainly happened in
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: 1220-ish BC. Something happened. Now, there's all kinds of things.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: There's a discussion. It could have been an earthquake. It
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: could have been a volcano. It could have been just
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: a massive you know, like we're facing now, climate change
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: of some kind because of those events. But something happened
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  Speaker 1: and there seems to be a period of great movement
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  Speaker 1: by a lot of peoples. And obviously the peoples of
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the sea are one of them. I have a point
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  Speaker 1: I'm trying to make. In the movie, one of the
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  Speaker 1: things I like, and I thought was really eloquent and brilliant,
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  Speaker 1: is that there's a sense that, you know, the major
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: characters start to kind of elbow each other, maybe We
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: are the peoples of the sea. Now, the reason I
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: bring that up, that if you read the Odyssey, now,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: I don't have, I have my signed copy from Homer,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: but I didn't want to share it with everybody. But
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: I brought up, this is one of my favorite copies
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: of Homer. Frankly, it wasn't because the translation was so
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: great or anything. I just love the fact that this
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: is such a beautiful version. You know, you've got the
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Achilles on the front and all the great, it's got
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: the little tablets, gold bond. But when I first read
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: this book, I remember I was late for class. So,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: you know, I still had my helmet on when I
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: got to class and we were working on this book.
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  Speaker 1: What a lot of people miss, and I used to
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  Speaker 1: teach my students this, both in history and in sacred scripture,
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  Speaker 1: that the Odyssey probably contains a story where the peoples
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: of the sea are destroyed. Ulysses in the game, Odysseus
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: in the game. Interesting because at Medin Habu, it also
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  Speaker 1: describes probably the first... Medin Habu, Ramses III put this up.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I think I have the date 1182 written here. 1182
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: written here. While the peoples of the sea are bouncing
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: down the eastern Mediterranean coast, the Levant, We do know
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: some things about them. They had a very particular kind
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: of hub on their wheels. And even though I don't,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: you can't see it very well, but if you go,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: if you get the battle picture, two things happen. The
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Egyptians show up with superior military technology. They have oared,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: their boats are oared power, and they have bows and arrows,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: where the people of the sea fight in sailboats with spears. Well,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: if the air is calm, rowing is a lot better
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: to get you around. And of course, when you're shooting
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: bows and arrows, you can stay back. And that's literally
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: what you see on the walls of Medina and Habu. Also,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: there's a very, I don't really have a good enough
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  Speaker 1: picture to share with you, but it is a very
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: important small moment in the battle where on one of
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: the chariots, you can see a woman dropping her child
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  Speaker 1: off so that the PLST children and the Kibra and
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  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of other ones have a chance to escape.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: I find this just fascinating. If these people do escape,
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  Speaker 1: they go back up north away from the Egyptians and
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: the PLST, some argue, become the Philistines. Now, this is
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: what got me in trouble in my college class because
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: That made perfect sense to me. But when you take
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: courses in college, sometimes when things make perfect sense, it
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: still means you shouldn't say anything. Well, the reason I
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: bring up that is so we have the book of Judges,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: you know, in the Hebrew Scriptures, Old Testament, that has
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: these kinds of stories. We have the Egyptian story that
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: has these stories. at Medinabu, but hold on, there's more.
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  Speaker 1: We also have some other stories of people getting their
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: cities destroyed. There's a famous brick that was found. It said, basically,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: we see seven more ships. We need help now. But
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: the little brick that had written never got out because
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: the city was destroyed. But we also have in Homer,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: in book 14, an interesting part, and I'll just read
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: a little bit of it. On the fifth day, so
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  Speaker 1: this is Homer, Book 14 of the Odyssey. Now listen
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  Speaker 1: to this. On the fifth day, we reached the river Egyptus,
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  Speaker 1: the Nile River. There I stationed my ships in the river,
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  Speaker 1: bidding my men stay by them and keep guard over
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: them while I sent out Scots to reconnoiter from every
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: point of vantage. And then this famous line. But the
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  Speaker 1: men disobeyed my orders, took to their own devices, and
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  Speaker 1: ravaged the land of the Egyptians killing the men and
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: taking their wives and children captive. The alarm was soon
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: carried to the city, and that's when we heard the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: war cry. What I'm just saying is that I think
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: that Christopher Nolan and the people working with him and
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: his group did a nice job there by simply saying,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: where are the people? of the sea? Because I think,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: I think in Homer, we see some of that. It's,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: it was always the funnest thing I would teach, you know,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: as a, as an instructor, you know, when you have
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: the Bible in this hand, you have Homer in this hand,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: you have the, the archaeology at Medident Habu. You've got some, uh, um, well,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure, I don't think they were Syrian, but
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: you know, you have this, this archaeology from North. Then
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: you've got the, you know, the archaeology from Ilios, uh, Iliad, Troy,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: all together. I, I, I just found that, uh, that,
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  Speaker 1: that moment of time still as fascinating as anything in history.
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  Speaker 1: My other favorite would be around the eight hundreds, but that's, uh, uh, uh, uh,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: and on Domini, but, uh, that, that, that period of
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  Speaker 1: about 1220 to about 1180 or so, so much happens
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: and the impact still literally, I mean, the best film,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the most popular film in the world at this moment
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: is the Odyssey. And so we're still reverberating this story
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  Speaker 1: all these, uh, years later. Hey, I really, really appreciate
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  Speaker 1: the question. Uh, Maybe next time I'm in New Zealand,
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  Speaker 1: I can do a workshop on the impact of the
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: peoples of the sea and your day. One thing that
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: I thought the movie did a really nice job, they
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: called the law of Zeus, I think, in the movie,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: but the idea of hospitality. One of the things I
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: really enjoyed about my time in the Middle East, especially
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: in the places, the regions I was in, which weren't
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: always the safest places on the planet. And I look
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: like this. When I was in Nubia, everybody figured I
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: was out of town. I wasn't out of town. There
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: are some areas where I was the first person of
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  Speaker 1: my skin color and certainly the first person of my
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: eye color most of the children had ever seen. But
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  Speaker 1: the hospitality... still influences me to this day. The kindness
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: people say, especially when I was sick and I was struggling,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: just the kindness and language was a barrier, but the
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: kindness was a kind of a universal translator. Thank you
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: very much for the question. I got to tell you,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: I really enjoyed it. And so thank you. I kind
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: of missed teaching a lot of this. It was, you know,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: it certainly got my brain going. And if your brain's
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: working and you're making friends and you're moving, you stay young.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: So thank you. Our next question is from Sean. And
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: he said, I did your armor building for me with
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: 16 kilo kettlebells. Really liked it. May try it again
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: in the fall and try with 20 kilograms. But find
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: squats hard with the weight. I like your philosophy about fasting, lifting,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: and then going for a walk. I will continue to
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: do this. I also like kettlebell military presses, but never
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: really incorporated them much in past programs. Have decided I
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: will continue to do 100 reps one day a week
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: for the duration of my exercise career. You know, I
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: got to tell you, Sean, I do. There is something
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: magical for me about that one day where I do
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: the 100 reps. I just feel I mean, I feel
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: like Steve Reeves, you know, some Hercules movie from the 50s,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: you know. I also got your Easy Strength for Fat
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Loss book. Did about three or four weeks, but I'm
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: not sure if I'm optimizing it. I know your programs
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: are evolving. I did the hanging leg raise, three by
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: three sets. I hope you have some load on that.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Six single pull-ups and kettlebell swings. Do you now recommend
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: anything different for a healthy, fit 72-year-old? I'm designing a
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: full body workout to do once a week using your
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: guidelines of a push, pull, hinge, squat, and carry. Plus,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: I'm going to add leg extensions, leg curls, and arm curls.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: What rep range do you recommend? I have always, I've
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: usually followed 8 to 12 upper body and 12 to
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: 15 lower body, increasing weight when maximum reps get easy. Well,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: let me tell you something about leg extensions. You're probably
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: good for 20 to 30 reps on those. Leg extensions,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: you always seem to have more reps than you think.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: We have a leg extension machine in my gym, and
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: I'm just not sure I can load enough weight on
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: it to hold myself to 8 to 12 reps. At
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: least the machine I have. I'm sure there's somewhere on
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the planet a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious leg extension machine that I could
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: only do a few reps with. I would also say,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: probably with the leg curls, your reps are going to
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: be higher. Well, why are reps higher with leg curls
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: and leg extensions? It's a single joint. Whereas when you squat,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: you know, when you're doing an overhead squat, a front squat,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: and I would even say back squat and zurchers, I mean,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: it's hard to relax everything on a real serious back squat.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: So you'll notice that the reps on overhead squats and stuff,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: they're just less because there's just so much going on.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: The entire body is singing, but when you're sitting there
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: in the leg extension, you know, even when I'm roasting,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: like say I'm at rep 26, 27, I really am
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: feeling that kind of weird burn you get on leg extensions.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: If Mike Brown says something funny, I'll still laugh because
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: I'm not fully, I mean, yeah, I know on paper
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be, but you know, it's with a single,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: an exercise like that, my mind doesn't have to stay
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: so focused. If you make a joke in the middle
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: of a clean and jerk, I'll throw the bar at you. Yeah.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: So I would say with your machine work, you can
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: probably go higher with my arm curls. I have a
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: curl machine, arm curl machine. Also, uh, I noticed I
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: can go pretty high reps on those too. When I
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: get heavy on those because of the way of the design,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: it's when the pivot arm moves to a certain angle, uh, that's,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: that's where I get stuck. So I have to play
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: around with like, uh, On top of the weight that
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: I have, I'll put three dangling tens. When I can't
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: make another rep with the three tens on, I just
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: knock one of them off. Probably not the smartest thing
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: to do. Well, it's a rubber mat. And then when
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: I stop with the two tens, sometimes I just knock
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: it off and I get more with just the single ten.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: I think you're doing a lot of stuff here, and
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: I think it's all pretty good. So you're doing the
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: high rep presses. You're doing the ab work. You're doing
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: the pull-ups. You're doing kettlebell swings. You're going to do
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: this leg extension, leg curl, and arm curl. Plus, you're
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: looking forward to doing one extra day a week. I
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: think you're covering it. Now, here on the site, Sean,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: I've got on this YouTube channel, I've got this workout
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: called the Perfect Workout now. If it's something you might
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: want to try, I like the idea, okay? It's half
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: kneeling press, hangs, goblet squat to overhead squat, a hinge drill,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: suitcase carries. It's, you know, it's a fun workout. There's
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: value to it. When we talk about different rep ranges,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: one of the things that came up, in fact, it
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: was today's walk, is, you know, obviously from Tom DeLorme,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: I'm a big believer in progressive resistance exercise. Well, progressive
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: means you can add more reps. You can add more sets.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: You can add more load. You can change the exercises.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: In fact, I think there's more variations. Recently, someone said
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: online they haven't come up with anything in decades. And
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: I was like, well, this stuff I call level changes
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: I think is extraordinary. And honestly, no one ever asked
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: me these questions. I think it's the most important thing
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: you do in long-term training. The downside of just doing
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: machine work, the leg extension, leg curl, arm curl, you're seated.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: And yet I want you to move, but you're also
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: doing that. So when it comes to progression, one of
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: the things that happens is you also change equipment. If
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: you're doing machine work, you'll notice naturally the reps are higher.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: It's just, especially when you're just doing a single joint one.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: If you're doing a tricep extension, you'll probably get more
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: reps for most of us anyway than you'll get doing
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: a military press, which has all of a sudden kicks
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: in two, three joints, okay? If you want to, I mean,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: I guess you go like this with your hands or something.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: But for most of us, the more joints you add,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: the rep ranges begin to shrink. When you use a kettlebell,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: generally the reps are higher than when you use a barbell.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Because the kettlebell is also designed for high rep ballistics.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: It's a much easier movement to do. So if I
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: said I want you to do a set of 35 swings,
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: you know, probably most of the audience would say, yeah,
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the right load. I can handle that. If I said
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: 35 goblet squats, a lot of us would go, okay.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: If I said 35 pushups, and if I said 35 pull-ups,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: I can't do 35 pull-ups. I mean, I could maybe
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: in my imagination, but so When you talk about progressive
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: resistance exercise and reps and sets, it becomes a bit
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: of a matrix, really. If you read my books, almost
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: in all my books, I include this page here on
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: my movement matrix. Now, on the far left, it's time.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Those are all planks and isometrics. A push-up position plank,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: holding it for two minutes is very insightful. For, you know,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: if we have that one drill, that test we do,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: the squat test where every 30 seconds you stand up
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: from a goblet squat and then instantly pop back down.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: The training for that, to warm up to that, you
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: do a two or three minute. But the actual test
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: is six. So you start with a goblet squat. You
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: sit at the bottom for 30 seconds. At 30 seconds,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: you stand up, sit back down. So when you hit
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: 60 seconds, you've done only three squats, but you've been
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: sitting at the bottom, pushing your knees out the whole time.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: And it just, it's a real challenge to your mobility, flexibility, this,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: whatever you want to call this core strength, anaconda strength,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, the ability to stay
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: tight and the ability to, you know, kind of stand
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: back up every time you have to have that boom,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: that explosion, that squeeze, that pop. So In a drill
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: like that, you know, you might get, I guess, in
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: three minutes, is it seven goblet squats? Top of my head,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know. But it's only seven, but it takes
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: you three minutes. As you move over to the classic weightlifting,
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: you know, the classic strength exercises, you know, we know
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: from the research for generations now, about 15 to 30
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: total reps is where you want to be. That's three
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: set to eight, five by five, three by five, five
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: by three, Three sets of 10. I mean, eight sets
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: of three, which is another good workout, especially in a
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: movement like the front squat. And when you move over
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: to the asymmetrical exercises like one-arm rows, I always use,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: I let the less strong side dictate the reps for
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the stronger side. And then when you get to the
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: ballistic movements, very often it's just, you know, did you
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: make the lift? So when we talk about reps and
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: sets as part of progression, Just remember, certain pieces of
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: equipment and certain movements lend themselves to higher reps, higher sets,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: longer time. Other exercises, like say the Olympic snatch. I
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: was watching a young lady at the World Championships. She
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: moved the bar so fast and she stood up and
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: got the down signal immediately. It looked like maybe three seconds.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: I don't know if they'd speeded it up or what,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: but it was like boom, boom, boom. I mean, it
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: was like so fast. Well, three seconds. Well, if it's
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: the world record, you're the best of all time. So
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: I hope I answered your question. I think you're doing
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: a lot of good things, and I want you to
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: keep doing it, John, okay? Thank you. And for those
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: of you who missed that short little point, you know,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: he's 72 years old asking a question about 100 presses
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: a week. If you choose... Young people, if you young
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: people choose, you can be fit and strong for a long,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: long time. Good question, and thank you. We have a
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: question from Jessica. Well, it's nice to have Jessica question.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: I'm a 40-year-old, 41-year-old, and have six children between four
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: months and nine years old. Jessica, you're a hero. After
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: recovering from my last birth, my husband showed me your
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Easy Strength for Fat Loss program, and I'm finishing week nine. Oh,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: that's great. I'm only now starting to fast for 20 hours,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: eating at 12 p.m. and 4 p.m., veggies, protein, and
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: fat only. I was not eating terribly before, but I
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: can see now that it wasn't controlled enough, hence the
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: reason I didn't slim down as much as I thought
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: I would, or I hoped I would. Regardless, I have
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: lost 10 pounds already. With a four-month-old, that's very good.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: My clothes fit looser, and a couple of people have noticed. Oh,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: and I feel great. My question is, my baby wakes
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: up in the morning. Of course they do. Usually while
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: I'm just finishing the weight portion of the training and
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: tying up my shoelaces to go for a walk. Or
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: she'll wake up while I'm walking. Either way, my plan
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: is interrupted because I have to nurse her. I suspect
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: it won't really matter and I'll just burn some fat
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: if I control my diet as mentioned above. But just
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: want to get your thoughts on being interrupted. Finally, she says,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: I've tried waking up earlier than she does. Somehow she
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: always manages to get me and I have to resign
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: myself to that. Babies have some magic sense of where
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: their mothers ought to be. Well, I got to tell you, well,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: first off, congratulations. And this is just a wonderful thing
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: to read. And thanks for trusting me. Uh, so my,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: my advice to you is, um, you know, I'm so
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: glad you're getting up in the morning, getting lifting. And
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: if you can find in the day, a 30 minute
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: period to walk, you got it covered. Um, I think
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: sometimes I get a little bit rulesy. Here's a rule.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Go follow it. I think that's because I coached American football.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: I think because of the track and field. I think
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: because I've been in education my whole life. Rules are rules.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: If the school says we're going to have uniforms, I
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: think we should wear the uniform. If we're on a
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: football team, we should all wear the same uniform. I
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: strongly believe that, okay? In fact, there's a couple good
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Ted Lasso episodes on wearing the same kit. I was
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: a little rulesy. And here's the thing. I think, and
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: I just double-checked this with my doctor, and he said right.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: I think one of the best things you can do,
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: and this would be advice for every single listener, is
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: try to have a half-hour walk, uninterrupted walk, every day.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: When I'm alone, I've been listening to a Tony Robbins thing,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: a live recording of him lately. That's a great one
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: to listen to while you're walking, because... Yeah, yeah. Of course,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: everyone thinks I'm a lunatic anyways. It doesn't matter. I
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: listen to books on tape. I'll talk to friends. Sometimes
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: my friends will say, I can hear you huffing and puffing.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Are you walking? Yeah. Half hour a walk. Now, if
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: you're doing easy strength, if you're doing the three-day-a-week version
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: or the five, try to get that extra half an
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: hour in. Now, it could be a sacrifice with you
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: with six kids, you know, trying to find, you know,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: hour a day, 45 minutes a day, for your own self-care,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: it might be hard, but I'm going to tell you, long-term,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: it's going to really be valuable. One of the things
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: I'm very proud about is that both of my daughters
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: still exercise and train. In fact, my grandchildren have grown
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: up with kettlebells around them and play with the bells,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: and they know basic exercises. I'm very proud of that
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: because modeling proper eating, proper health, proper exercise. You know,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: if you floss, your kids will floss. You brush your teeth,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: your kids will brush your teeth. If you take sleep seriously,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: your kids will take sleep seriously. So I think you're
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: doing fine. And if you can walk that half an
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: hour every day, I think that'd even be better. One
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: thing I would suggest, especially since you're so, you've locked
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: down on the diet so hard, You know, you could
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: lift two or three times a week and then walk
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: when you can on those days. I would prefer where
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: you are currently right now in your life to make
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: sure you get that walking habit. Remember, you can use strollers,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: and if you have another one, you can ruck. I
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: have a picture of myself with, I got one grandkid
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: in a backpack, and I got another grandkid in a stroller,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: you know. You know, you get a 30 minute rut,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: you know, sled push. It's a pretty good little walk. Um,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: do your best. Um, uh, but the walking, the walking
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: is really underrated. I think, I, I think there's great value. It's,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: it's really changed my life, but the answer would be
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: do your best and don't worry about exacting. Don't worry
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: about my rules for your life. Okay. Okay. Great question,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: and it's an absolute honor and my best to you, okay?
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Well, we have a question from Nick. I
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: was wondering if you could share some thoughts on the
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: kettlebell push press versus military press for athleticism and sport crossover. Well,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: you know, and the follow-up question, have you ever programmed
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: the push press instead of the strict press for any
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: of your athletes? Well, Nick, that would be the absolutely yes.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: If you're an American football player, if you're a rugby player,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: if you're a track and field thrower. you've got to
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: do the push jerk, the push press, and all those families.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: I would say it's a must. I'm a big fan.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: In fact, I wasn't going to talk about it, but
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: right now I'm working on Armor Building Formula 3. My
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: friend Eric has been wonderful. He's a highland game athlete
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: and he's a great guy. Great guy. And I've been
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: doing some experiments with him because we want to keep
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: upping his game. And so we've moved to armor building
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: formula with push press, with push jerk. For those of
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: you who don't know the difference, a strict press is
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: when you just use your barnyard wide shoulders, your titanic
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: triceps and just go like this. a push jerk, a
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: push press, sorry, is when you take a little dip,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: get the weight going, and then you lock out with
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: no help, a push jerk, a little dip into another
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: little dip, you know, um, all three have great value,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: great value. The overhead ballistics, when it comes to kettlebells,
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: I do worry a little bit. I mean, I think that,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, obviously I think, I think the push press
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: becomes very natural. Um, But I think you need some buildup.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I would also argue, you know, try not to go,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: you know, oh, today's my first day. I'm going to
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: do the double 48s, you know, wait a little bit
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: on that. With the barbell, I think they're very simple.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: One thing you do have to learn, you do have
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: to learn to clear your chin, constantly teach athletes about it.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: I have some tricks I use, like, you know, you
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: want to stab your head through because you go, With
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: your neck, you go boom, boom. But there's always part
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: of learning how to do this correctly is hitting your
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: jaw on the way up. And there is a video,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: a film of me somewhere, of me at a big
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: weightlifting meet. I mean, it wasn't like I was a
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: brand new lifter. But I hit it, and I'm sure
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: I was just trying to add a little extra. Kept
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: my jaw here, hit it here. Really did a good
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: number on my tongue. I got it pretty bloody and
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: made the lift and I'm gurgling blood down the side.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Didn't take long for the blood to come out. I
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: think they're really important exercises for anybody who plays a
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: game where there's a lot of hit, snap, punch, whatever
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: the word is. So throwers, strikers, I don't know about kickers.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: I don't think it would hurt, but there might be
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: better things. But certainly for a lot of you, it's
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: an exercise to consider if that's something you need. And
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: as we're working on this heavier press day with the
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: push presses, I'll do my best to keep everybody informed
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: on how that's coming, okay? Thanks. Okay, we got a
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: question from Adam. I grew up playing sports and have
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: had the opportunity to play collegiate football at a Division
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: II school in East Tennessee. My sons are 9 and
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: 10 years old and are really beginning to develop as athletes.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: They currently play football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and run track
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: through the school. That's great. Keep making them play a
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: lot of sports. Between practice and games, they stay very
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: active throughout the week. At what age do you recommend
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: introducing barbell strength training? I'd say you can introduce it now,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: but I got a very good answer for you. More broadly,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: what advice would you give for helping young athletes continue
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: to grow stronger, move well, and develop athletically while balancing
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: multiple sports throughout the year? I'd love to hear any
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: recommendations you have regarding strengthening, mobility, recovery, and long-term athletic development.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Thank you for all the resources you have put up
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: through the years. I've really enjoyed reading and listening to
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: your work. And it's been a tremendous help, my own
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: fitness journey overall. I appreciate the impact you've had and
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: look forward to any guidance you're willing to share. Well,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: I got to tell you, wouldn't it be great if
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: somebody wrote a book like training the youth athlete by, Oh,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: by me. Now, listen, you can only get this book
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: at Amazon. Most schools have practice after school. And I
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: applaud that. And I still think it's the right way
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: to do it. Um, If your child is playing after-school sports,
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: which I think is wonderful, having a breakfast, a lunch,
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: and then maybe some kind of snack before practice is
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: very helpful. Now, if they're a 45-year-old man who wants
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: to lose body fat, maybe the breakfast idea isn't as important.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: It's okay to have opposing ideas in your head, okay?
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: In fact, the sign of intelligence is to be able
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: to have opposing ideas in your head. and not go crazy.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: Rule number three, protein at every meal. Rule four, drink water.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Rule five, fruits and vegetables daily. Rule six, sleep is
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: a nutrition strategy. Rule seven for the adolescent athlete, snacks
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: are fine. Rule eight, supplements are the last 1%. Then
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: I got rules here about before you even consider supplements.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: And I recommend a basic multivitamin, vitamin D if needed,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: especially if you're, you know, from certain parts of the
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: United States, Canada, a whole bunch of, uh, Northern Europe.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: There's not a lot of sun. Uh, there are places
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: in the world where athletes live literally in 24 hour darkness, uh,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: up in Alaska, it happens. Oh, guess what? Finland, Sweden,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: the Northern parts. Uh, Rule number nine, no energy drinks.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: I'm a real, that's something I really push, but it
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: breaks my heart to see how much these young high
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: school kids now are knocking down all these chemical-laden things.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: I don't think it's good for them, but what do
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: I know? And then number 10, rule 10, play the
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: long game, okay? And then I have this fun follow-up.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: So this would be a workshop for the parent, okay?
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: The simple checklist. Before worried about macros, ask, Did you
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: eat three real meals today? Did you drink water? Did
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: you eat protein at every meal? Did you eat at
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: least one fruit and one vegetable? Did you sleep enough?
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: And so then the next chapter, managing compromises in sports,
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: is a much more of a read with some ideas
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: at the back. That's mostly for coaches. In the book here,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: I have big discussions on the different flags of green
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: flags are a good thing. Red flags are a bad thing. Uh,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: I also give you, uh, I break down puberty in
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: the athlete, single sports, uh, year round specialization, which I
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: don't agree with. And then I also give you some templates, um, for, um,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: so at age eight through 11, and again, this would
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: be a workshop for a coach, uh, the movement matrix,
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: you know, you can do goblet squats with light loads,
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: hip bridges, um, From 12 to 14, front squats with
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: a light barbell, trap bar deadlifts. And it includes every
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: movement and every exercise. I also use the word core,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: ground exercises, gait, and throw. Because I put this book
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: together for parents and coaches and anybody else who wants it.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Those words are going to come up, so I wanted
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: to make sure I nailed it. Parts of the book
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: might not sound like me, but I got some good
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: advice about what we need to talk about. I also
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: talk about how difficult it is to work with the
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: female athlete through this age range because many of them
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: suffer during secondary puberty. You know, they show up as,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: you know, some girls are 12 and 13 and they
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: can start for the varsity team and then you know, some,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: some other changes happen and it takes a little while
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: for them to come around. Ted Lasso season four talks
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: about one of the, you know, really important concepts called
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: the Q angle. And I, and I discussed this in
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: the book too, and it's, it's, it's true. It's, it's
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: an issue. And sadly we're seeing the rise. There was
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: kind of, it's not a joke. It was when, when,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: You talk to a young woman and she says she's
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: a collegiate athlete. The follow-up is, how many knee surgeries
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: have you had? They answer and they'll say, how did
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: you know I had a knee surgery? And I said, well,
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: because you're a collegiate basketball player. And that is very common.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: And I think we do need to work on that,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: but that's another story. So you'll find this book only
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: at Amazon. Type in Dan John and it'll pop right up.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: I hope you find value in it, okay? It answers
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: all your questions as best I can. Thank you. We
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: have a question from Christian. I'm just starting the program.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: I've been a student of Dan John's training philosophy for
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: quite a while. So I'm looking forward to getting going.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: I'm a strength coach who has battled anxiety and depression
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: for quite a while, and this year has been a
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: complete 360 for me, and I am thriving. Complete 180.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: You've turned things around. I have transformed my body with
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: calisthenics and walking good, and have the final 25 pounds
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: to get rid of. So I was thinking to start
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: with easy strength for fat loss. Good choice. I was
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: saying to go through the program twice, just increasing weight
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: as I get stronger. And that is the way you
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: should do that. Let yourself naturally increase. But the big
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: one is makes you walk after a workout. But once
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: I am done with that, what would you recommend as
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: a great transition after easy strength for fat loss? If
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: you have kettlebells, armor building formula, The feedback I'm getting
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: on armor building formula for fat loss has been great. Now,
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: if all you have is barbells, it's a hard program.
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: But the armor building formula for barbells is really good.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: It is much harder. It is a classic complex. You
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: will be breathing hard after those rounds of clean, press,
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: front squat. It's hard. But the feedback I'm getting, and
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: by the way, you don't have to use a lot
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: of load. Um, I, you know, some of the best
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: feedback I'm getting to one person said, okay, I took
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: your advice. I did. I'm sorry. Uh, from internationalist, I'm
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: just gonna use pounds. Cause that's our standard barbell. I
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: did 45 pounds, 55 pounds, 65 pounds, 75 pounds, 85 pounds.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: And I was gassed. So you got an athlete who's
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: getting gassed with 85 pounds because the reps, it takes
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: a while to get through all of it. So that's
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: what I would suggest to you. Um, Let me know
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: how the progress is going, Christian, on the easy strength.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: And then, yeah, maybe easy strength with kettlebells or barbells. If,
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: you know, I would rather, and I'd rather you maybe
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: even practice the armor building formula exercises. Maybe as you
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: get in, you said you're going to do this for twice.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: So we're looking at, so maybe weeks, 12 to 14,
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: go through the armor building formula. Just test out the
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: ABF with barbells. Just test it out. Just with the
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: empty bar and just get a sense of things. Just
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: kind of practice. And if it's too hard with the
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: empty bar, then we'll go to plan B on that, okay?
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Which I don't know what that is. Okay? Thank you. Oh,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: we got a great name here next. Rudolfo asked the question.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: That is awesome. Has to be a good question. His
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: name is Rudolf. I've been following your videos and started
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: your armor building formula a couple of months ago. Due
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: to some changes, I purchased kettlebells instead of going to
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: the gym. However, I have a height limitation in my garage.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: This is such a class. So did Tommy Cronin of
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: the Greatest American Weightlifter, which I can't do a full
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: standing press without hitting the ceiling. My thought then is
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: to substitute it with half kneeling presses. Would that work
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: long term using two cleans, the half kneeling press on
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: each side, then the three squats? Would I be missing
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: much on the benefits of the standing presses? Would you
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: focus on 30 rounds as opposed to 30 every minute
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: on the minute? And since I took three weeks off
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: of the easy strength to wait for the kettlebells to arrive,
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: I'm actually considering doing the perfect workout for a few weeks,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: maybe the 40-day challenge. Oh, I like that. Before jumping
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: in the armor-building form again in order to build a
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: better structure as I struggle with lower back pain and
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: a half for years. For reference, I'm male, 35 years old, 6'1,
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: and about 185 pounds. First off, you know, when I
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: first read this question, man, Rodolfo, I thought to myself,
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: that's a really interesting idea. And as I often do,
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: I'm glad I didn't film it because it was an
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: absolute disaster. I tried your idea, double clean, step into
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: the lunge, press, step up, front squat, next round, other leg.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: It gets too confusing. Here's my advice to you. In
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Armor Building Formula 2, or you can just find it
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: online because it's very popular, I know what's called the
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: running back complex. That's going to be, so it's going
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: to be doubles, and you're going to do five cleans,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: five front squats, four cleans, four front squats, three cleans,
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: three front squats, two cleans, two front squats, one clean,
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: one front squat. The goal is to build up to
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: five rounds of that. Now, listen, my friend, if you
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: can do five rounds the first day with a double 48,
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: you're a better man than I can get in. Um,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: and on the other day, I would suggest you do
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: the half mailing presses. Um, I think it's, uh, um,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: and I think you can get away with it. Um,
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: the downside, uh, no, there are some things you're going
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: to want to do. Now, If you're worried about keeping
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: things balanced, you can do half-kneeling presses with double kettlebells.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: It is a little hard for some people to get
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: into that position. Basically, when I do a half-kneeling press
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: with a single bell, I have it at the side
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: and I just kind of, like I'm throwing a backpack
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: over my shoulder. It's not a very perfect clean, but
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: it's okay. With the doubles, you're gonna have to probably
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: clean them both and then get yourself into that half-kneeling
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: position If you decide to go singles, don't overdo it
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: at first. Don't try to do 100 left and 100
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: right in the same day, the first workout. Take your time.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: But I think your ABA workout of the running back complex,
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: the half kneeling press, running back complex, half kneeling press,
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: I think is a really good variation. It's probably something
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: I should remember because that might make a good thing
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: to talk about. in Armor Building Formula 3, which is,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: I cannot believe I'm going to have to put that together.
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: I think this is a good idea. Height in a
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: home gym is always an issue. I prepared for the
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: American Open one year training in what later became my
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: daughter Kelly's bedroom. We had a faucet break so that
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: we had to rip everything out. And so I just
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: threw a piece of plywood in there. But the problem
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: was when I jerked, I came dangerously close to driving
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: the plates to the ceiling. So what I worked around
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: was a couple of things. None of them were great ideas.
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: And that's ultimately when I decided to make my garage
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: my gym because I didn't have the space. One of
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: my workarounds was just to use 35-pound metal plates and
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: 25-pound metal plates, which is great, except the math is
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: hard and the bar is lower on the ground. But,
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: you know, you just work around. Tommy Kono, when he
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: trained in his basement in Sacramento, his weight room, when
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: he was doing presses and jerks, he had to make
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: sure he lined up the bar so he could drive
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: him through the beams. Not perfect, but, you know, he's
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: some consider the greatest weightlifter of all time, so Look
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: at you. Hey, thanks for that question, and try what
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: I was telling you about. I think your idea is good,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: but if you figure out a way to do it
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: better than what you're telling me, what I tried, send
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: me a video. I'd like to see it. Thank you.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: We got a question from Omar. Omar says, I'm the
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: father of two toddlers, and I recently realized that a
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: gym won't work for me. Been there. I have quite
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: a bit of equipment at home, including double 32s, a
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: single 24. That's interesting. Double 32s, but just a single 24,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: a single 16, and a pull-up and dip station. I'm wondering,
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: would this be enough to work out at home? Yes.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: I've been listening to your podcast recently, and I've been
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: doing suitcase carries, goblet squats, Bulgarian split squats. It's all good.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: One hand overhead press, weighted pull-ups and dips. I've also
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: been doing single leg deadlift, mostly with a 24K belt.
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: The double 32s I purchased recently, to up the weight
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: on my goblet squat and hopefully at some time be
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: able to front squat the doubles. Additionally, I have a
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: 50-pound strongman type sandbag for bear hugs. Would you recommend
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: any additional equipment or can I build a good strength
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: program with the equipment? Apologies for the long-winded question. Well,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: I tell you, first off, Omar, I think you have
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: a really good facility. I It's better than some of
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: the stuff I've had in my life. I mean, you know,
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: I've moved a little bit and, you know, I build
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: up these great gyms and then I moved to an apartment.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: I build up a gym for the apartment and then
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: I moved to a big house that now I can
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: have barbells again. Next thing you know, I have five
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: Olympic bars because people don't use them and give them
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: to me. So I think first off, you're fine. And
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: I like what you're doing. But there is something I
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: want to get you to think about, Omar, is Over
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: at Dan John University, there's a thing called the workout generator,
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: where the first question is, what equipment do you have?
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: And as much as I like what you're doing, very
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: soon you're going to have to have some variety so
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: my thought is uh go to dan john university put
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: your equipment into the workout generator and then if i
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: were you you know then you then you press the
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: button you can work out two days a week five
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: days a week whatever it is and then it'll spit
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: out a program for you and a very good program.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: And then there's one more thing you can do. If
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: you look at an exercise and you say, I don't
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: want to do that, then you can scroll the exercise
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: up to something harder or down to something easier. And
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: I would recommend that for you because what's going to
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: happen when you, and you've got a great setup here.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you're doing double kettlebell front squats with
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: double 32s followed by dips and chin-ups, that's a pretty
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: good program right there. But it'll get dull, and you'll
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: want a little bit. Also, the fact that you added
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: a sandbag means you can do a lot of other stuff.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: Sandbag carries really feel like the real world. I think
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: I mentioned on the podcast before that I think it
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: was 84. I think we had the big floods here
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: in 84. And every night after I taught school, After
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: I coached football, I would go to these various areas
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: in the valley and help throw sandbags. And because of
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: my background as a thrower, I was very good at it.
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: And everybody's good at the kind of the first three
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: or four levels, but then you really need to hook
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: them up there. And I got to tell you, when
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: you throw sandbags for two, three hours a night, six,
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: seven days in a row, you discover muscles that really
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: open your eyes. So I'm a big fan of sandbags
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: and sandbag throwing. I do have a knock on sandbags.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: They leak. And I don't want to hear that your
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: product doesn't leak or whatever because they always end up leaking.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: So I like them. They have great value. I've bought
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: a new style of sandbags I'm testing out. And I'm
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: a lot careful with them. I do a number of
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: exercises for my gait, G-A-I-T. to help myself as I
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: move towards, yeah, I'm almost middle-aged now. You know, I'm
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: going to be 70 next year. So, you know, I'm
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: halfway through. My goal will make it to 140. So
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: I got to make sure I keep everything straight. All right.
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: Fun question. I hope I answered it. Okay. And finally,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: our last question today is from Christopher. I know you
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: have a long history working with throwing athletes. from track
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: and field world and baseball. Here's my thought and looking
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: forward to your insight on this idea. I get the
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: Olympic list for track and field throwing events. You need
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: the explosive power over three to six attempts. Looking at
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: a starting pitcher who also needs to be explosive in
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: power with 15 to 20 throws per inning on average
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: and an average of 80 to 100 throws a game.
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: Here's the question. Have you ever used kettlebell swings with
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: pitchers as part of their training? Okay, so... I would
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: argue I've been in as many Major League Baseball weight
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: rooms as just, well, more than most, okay? And I'm
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: very proud that several Major League Baseball teams use my
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: programming extensively. I've been, you know, I spent a lot
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: of time in spring trainings and winter camps and stuff.
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: When it comes to training baseball players, first thing is,
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: I think you need to do the Fundamental human movements.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: You've got to push, pull, hinge, squat, and then loaded carry.
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: And the big one for baseball and loaded carries is
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: the suitcase carry. Now, one of the professional baseball teams
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: shared with me that they felt that the suitcase carry
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: actually added speed. Now, we're talking about major league baseball players.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: So when something makes a fastball go faster, this is
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of money for a lot of people, man.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: I didn't get any. So the suitcase carry is something
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: you want to do. Now, you're asking a question, though,
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: about stamina. Some teams are now doing kettlebell swings. My
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: issue with the way they do them is they're not
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: very good. So that's why the teams I work with,
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: you know, I emphasize doing like the hip thrust or
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: that exercise I call the Bulgarian goat back swing, where
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: you hold the load here and do a, A very careful,
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: very strict hinge plank. Hinge plank. Hinge plank. I think
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: swings would be a good idea, but, you know, the throws,
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: all the throws really are, you know, they all tend
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: to finish in that little snap, that planky, you know,
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: where everything's coming around as a right hander. Then my
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: left leg just pushes back into me and I crawl
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: over the top. I fly over the catapult over the top.
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: Crawl is a bad word. So suitcase carry, basic lifting. Personally,
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: I would emphasize the military press over the horizontal varieties.
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: I would also emphasize getting some hangs in with the
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: goblet squat. front squat. I would go deep. I would
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: worry more about depth. But the great tradition of training
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: sprinters was, pitchers, was sprinting. So one thing I would
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: think about, I'm a big fan of running hills, uphills.
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: I've never had an athlete get hurt running up a hill.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: It just, it's, you know, it's a self-limiting exercise. But
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: to me, and I'm not saying you run, you know,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: 100 hills, but Get yourself in a kind of condition.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: Get strong enough in the basic lifts, push pull, hands, well, okay?
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: Emphasize the suitcase carry. Get some hills and some sprints in.
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: And let the game train the conditioning. Which, by the way,
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: is a basic tenet of this book I talked about
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: earlier in the podcast, Training the Youth Athlete. Conditioning for
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: conditioning's sake rarely carries over. like the specifics of the game.
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: I hope that helped. Well, that was a lot of questions,
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: and we were all over the map today on questions,
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: from the Odyssey to training youth athletes to a new mom.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, what a fun day. Listen, if you have
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: a question, remember, send it to us at this address,
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: podcast at danjohnuniversity.com. Each and every week, I sit down
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: and answer your questions. And until next time, let's all
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: keep on lifting and learning.