Latest / The Dan John Podcast / EP 374 - Staying Consistent, Timeless Fitness Books, Suitcase Carries, Squats & More

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EP 374 - Staying Consistent, Timeless Fitness Books, Suitcase Carries, Squats & More · The Dan John Podcast

• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome back everybody to the Dan John University.com podcast.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I'm Dan John and this is episode 374. Each and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: every week I sit down and answer your questions and
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: if you have a question please send it to us
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: at this address podcast at danjohnuniversity.com Our first question today
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: comes from Jack. He says, Hi Dan, long time fan
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: of your work. I'm 38 years old, 6'2, 50, dad
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: who has struggled with body composition, sure. I've been working
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: out with kettlebells for many years, but with frequent work
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: travel and a toddler, man, you know, body composition with
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: work and kids and life is hard. Especially if you
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: live here in the United States. Just got back from
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: several trips, Australia, Crete, Ireland. And I got to tell
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: you folks, I think the quality of food can be
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: an issue. Okay. I struggle to lift and walk consistently.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I lost about 25 pounds two years ago using easy
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: strength for fat loss, but gained back about 10 pounds
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: in the last year. A couple of months ago, I
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: had a break from work travel and I just decided
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: to kick in. Waking up earlier, good. and getting him
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: 150 to 300 swings with the 24K, and walking the
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: dog every weekday. That's outstanding. I was never a morning person,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: so this is a huge step for me. I add
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: in armor-building formula or a pressing workout two or three
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: times a week as I can, but even if life
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: gets in the way, I'm still getting in some swings
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: and walking. My questions. I think this is pretty sustainable,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: but any tips on maintaining consistency even though work travels?
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: even through work travel, I'm sorry. Hotels sometimes have dumbbells,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: but almost never kettlebells. You know, for a while there,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: that did change. And now it's kind of slid back
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: in the other direction. Well, the first thing is that
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: you're already getting there. Number one in body composition, I
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: think you got to get the habit of exercise. I know,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: I know that fat loss happens in the kitchen. I
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: know that, you know that, everyone knows. It's caloric control.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: It's having a healthy gut biome. It's all kinds of things.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: There's also other things like inflammation. And there's probably a
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: list of 100 things that all are factors. And sleep
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: and stress are other big ones too. And if you've
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: got kids and work, sleep and stress are an issue,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: as you've noted. So the first thing I'd recommend is,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: you know, I think you should only lift three days
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: a week, but walk every day. for body composition. Are
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: you overtraining? I love the idea of you doing swings
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: all the time. And I love, I would argue that
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: maybe you could do those swings three days a week
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: and then do presses right after and then short walk
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: with the dog. And the other days take the dog
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: for the walk. On the road trip, somewhere in my work,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: I have the road warrior workout. One of the things
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I recommend for people who travel a lot, listen, Most
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: good hotels now, well, they have treadmills, they have exercise cycles.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: They're never used, but very often they have good dumbbell sets.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: The one I go to when I visit my daughter, Lindsay,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: they have a really, they go from five pound double
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: dumbbells up to double 50s. So, you know, it's not
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the heaviest, but it doesn't matter because I have a
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: road warrior workout. There's two ways to attack it. I
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: would say this. First off, you got to start saying,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: I'm going to use dumbbells when there's dumbbells. So, What
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I do is I do a basic bodybuilding workout. I
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: do military. I do bench. I do that supported row.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I do goblet squats. I know that's a bit, you know,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: down the middle. I have done some other things. Like
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I've tried doing double dumbbell deadlifts, but it's, you know,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: with 50 pounds, you're not getting much. But what I
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: want to say is this. One of the things, tweaks
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: I've used to be successful in this, when I first
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: proposed this, back in 2001, right after 9-11, to a
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: group of people who had to travel a lot because
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: of the changes, I suggested this, and I like it.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: On day one, say your Saturday, you do everything left-handed.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: So you do military press left-handed. You do bench press left-handed.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: You do rows left-handed. Maybe you can do single-side dumbbell
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: squats left-handed. You can do waiter walk and suitcase carry
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: and rack carry left-handed. Well, guess what tomorrow is? Well,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: tomorrow is right-handed. What's nice about this is sometimes it's
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: hard on the road. And listen, I've lost good nights
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: of sleep on the road to traveling basketball teams, traveling
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: volleyball teams, traveling soccer teams. You know, all the rich
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: kids with all the expensive stuff who never go to
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: bed and are supposed to be elite athletes running up
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: and down the hallway all night long screaming. Hard to
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: sleep through that. But the nice thing is, if you
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: did left side on Saturday, it makes... You'll be motivated
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: to do right side. So that's one idea. And it's
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: an idea I like. So two things come up right away.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: First off, don't worry about kettlebells or dumbbells or barbells
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: or machines. Whatever you do is outstanding, Jack. I think
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: whatever you can do on the road is great. And
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: hats off to you. I always travel with a glute
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: loop and a mini band. I've shown this on a
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: video from about a year ago where I do the
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: glute loop. hip thrust clamshells, followed by monster walks with
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: the mini band. And then I do my best to
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: do pushups. I do them T style on the road.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: You bring your chest to the ground, you kind of
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: put yourself into the Superman stance, bring your hands back underneath, press, down, boom, boom, press.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: I like that because it's very strict and it forces
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: me to do full range of motion. So I think
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: if you just did the hip thrust, clamshell, minivan walks,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: and push-ups, you would hang in there. The habit of
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: exercise comes first. The second thing I'd want you to
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: really start thinking about is the nutrition side. When I travel,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I tend to put on, it almost seems like a
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: pound a day. That's an exaggeration, but I'm just coming
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: back from kind of a marathon, six months of travel.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: I've been on practically every continent this year. Um, I've
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: been fighting time zones for weeks. I can even see
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: it in my face. I still, I feel like I've
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: been needing a nap, uh, the whole time lately, but
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: you know, it travels hard. And so one thing I
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: really liked you to think about is besides the workouts
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: is your sleep hygiene. Uh, I always travel with the
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: music and music cozy, uh, eye mask with the, the, uh, earbuds, uh,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I use brain.fm. Last night I used the deep sleep one.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: I think it worked well. Sleep hygiene is really important.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: I used to be able to get these, they were
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: called performance pajamas or something like that. I've had a
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: hard time finding them in the last few years. But
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: when I travel, I wear a long sleeve pajamas and
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: long sleeve pants. I don't think they're magical. but it
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: does give you one more barrier from the hotel sheets.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: And I have traveled to places where it's actually a
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: good idea to not have skin on skin contact with
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: the sheets. You have a second question here. I've been
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: thinking about adding in some hill sprints as I haven't
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: sprinted in years. How can I add this to the above?
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I want to get more comfortable running, even though I'm
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: too heavy right now to run a lot. My main
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: goals are to improve my body composition by being healthy, strong,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and active with my daughter as she grows. So what
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: I would do on the hill sprints first, first off,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: get your walking in. If you have small dumbbells, or
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: you could probably even use something smaller. You know, I
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: have one pound clubs. You could probably use baseball bats.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: But one of the things I found really helpful, or
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: you can use PVC pipes, is doing your doing your
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: gait work, your walking, your faster walking, your sprinting with
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: either sticks or clubs in your hand so that you
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: actively work your arms as you do that. So the
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: harder I drive my arms straight backward, I learned this
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: from Tim Anderson, the longer my stride gets. And it's
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: real natural for me to go from that to kind
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: of a sprinty kind of thing. You asked specifically about
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: hill sprints. The thing I like best about hill sprints,
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: and I think I've been saying this for years, I've
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: never had anyone get injured running up a hill. So
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: at first what I would do is just kind of
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: one step over a fast walk up a hill. A
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: little bit of air. Don't worry too much. Pump the
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: arms and drive up the hill. Don't go too far
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: at first. Don't go too fast at first. And the
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: thing with any time you're doing adding sprinting is nudge
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: yourself up. you've written a lot here. You've got a
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: lot going on. I applaud everything you're doing. My biggest
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: concern is don't do too much too soon. You are
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: making great progress on easy strength for fat loss. And
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: then kind of backed off and it came back on.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: You have a program that worked. Don't try, you know,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: this is a cliche in the business, you know, you
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: can't out sprint, you can't outrun a bagel, you can't
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: outrun ice cream. You got to take care of this
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: on the nutrition side, but first make sure you ensure
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: that you have the habit of exercise. Then we can
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: talk later about nutrition, take care of your sleep, bring,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I would say, get a glute loop, get a mini
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: band on the road, uh, so that you can always
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: have a piece of equipment to train with. You just
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: don't need that much to get a workout in. Um,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: I know life on the road is hard. Um, in
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: my trip to Ireland, I was there for two weeks
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and I was able to get four workouts in, which
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: is kind of a travel personal record for me and for,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: I haven't done that in a long time. It's really
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: hard to work on the road and get the workouts in.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Something has to give. So I support you. I applaud you.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: And I understand the difficulties. I just hope you just
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: keep swinging away. You're doing a great job. Okay. Thanks
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: for sharing that with us. We have a question from Doug.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: When you recommend three sets of eight or three sets
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: of five, et cetera, are the first two sets warmups
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: and the third set an all out? Are those the
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: work sets after warmup? Doug, I assume that you warm up. Now,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: warming up, at least as a weightlifter, comes in two parts.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: There's that general kind of warmup-y thing you do to
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: get yourself ready to go. I'm to a place in
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: my career, in my life, that I can look back
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: and tell you I've had extended long warmup periods. And
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: I've had really short warm-ups. I told the story many
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: times in the site about literally being in our team
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: bus hearing last call men's discus, running down to the ring.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: My first throw was my first throw in competition. My
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: second throw was my lifetime best. My point on this
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: I'm such a great person story is that as Wilt
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Chamberlain told me at the West Coast Relays, warm-ups is warm-ups.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: But A general warm-up has great value. Pat Flynn recommends, what,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: 10 minutes of just doing Turkish get-ups without weight. Other
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: people have you doing all kinds of mobility work. For me,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: I like to do mobility work between sets of a lift, personally.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Then there's specific warm-up for the set. For me, no
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: matter what exercise I do, I always strip it right
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: back to the bar. If I'm doing a barbell exercise,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I go right back to the bar, And I do
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: the empty bar a few times. If it's something like inclines,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: the empty bar allows me to make sure the incline
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: is in the right place compared to the racks. If
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: it's a military press, it makes sure that I have
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: the rack at the correct height. And even very often,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: it'll be like that. Make sure the safety racks are
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: underneath me. Even the way you spotters, I still have
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: the safety racks there. That empty bar is a good one.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: And then from there, depending on how things go, I
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: just start slapping plates on. But the three sets of
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: eight and the three sets of five are working sets.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: How many sets it's going to take for you to
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: get to your first working set? I got to tell
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: you from the heart, it's very scientific. It depends. There
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: are days today, good example, I went empty bar and
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: then I had the big plates, 135, and then I
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: had more big plates because I just felt like I
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: was in the groove today. Other days, I put the
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: bar on. I put tens on the side. I put
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: two tens on the sides. I put three. You know,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: it's just more warm-ups. Things do change day to day
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: to day with warm-ups. But the three sets of eight
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: and the three sets of five, those are the work sets.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: And I figure you can, the longer you stay in
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: the game, the more you'll understand this. Okay, thank you.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Good question. We have a question from John. I'm an
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: avid fan who listens to you every week, and I
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: have several of your books, including Never Let Go, The
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Easy Strength Omnibook, and The Armor Building Formula, both one
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: and two. Before I get to my question, I'd like
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: to start by thanking you for the huge amount of
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: free content that you give out. As we are of
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: a similar age, I particularly enjoy the lifestyle advice and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: follow it pretty rigorously. Fasting, training, eating, sauna, etc. John...
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Wish I could hang out with you. Yeah, I sauna
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: every morning. My sauna, as I often mention, is right there.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: I have a little system for, I shave in my sauna.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: I listen to podcasts. I do our Brain FM. I
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: have a whole system set up and it's a great
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: start to my day. Excellent. I have a question that
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: I hope you might find interesting. The givens, I like
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: to try to stay fit, healthy and strong. Good for you.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Especially for downhill skiing. I am now 70 years old, 6'2,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: 205 pounds. Although I've played a lot of rugby at
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: a reasonable level and done a lot of rucking with
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: heavy loads, I still have my own knees and hips.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: And apart from a herniated disc, which can bark a
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: little when deadlifting, I am injury-free. That's remarkable at 70.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Good for you. I belong to a gym with plenty
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: of equipment, and I'm currently doing the barbell version of
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Armor Building Formula with 40 kilos. So for my Americans,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: 88 pounds for all five sets and really feeling the
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: benefit just as well, given how much it sucks. I
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: do lots of zone two plus hill sprints once a week.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: So I think the heart lungs are reasonably taken care of. Yeah,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: I would, anybody listening, on Tuesdays for sure and often Saturdays,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: I get my, I'd love to call it sprint training,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: but it looks a lot... It looks, you know, it's
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the old joke, start slow and ease off. That's the
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: way I sprint. But once a week, I get my
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: sprint training in and often twice. And it is an
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: amazing thing to do. If you're not doing it and
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: you have, if you're wondering about adding an extra day
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: in the weight room, I'd rather, gentle listeners, you think
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: about an extra day sprinting. I just sprint out in
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: front of my house. And of course, my neighbors love me.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Work and other commitments, not to mention the expense, mean
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: that I only get to ski once one week a year,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: so I try to make the most of it. However,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: by day three, I get excruciating delayed onset muscle soreness,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: which stays with me for the rest of the week.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: With only six days of skiing a year, I don't
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: want to take any days off or dial it right back.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: My question is this. With 16 weeks to prepare, what
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: strength conditioning program would you recommend for to get the
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: most out of my precious time on the slopes and
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: hopefully avoid the DOMS, delayed onset muscles, DOMS, which take
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: the edge off the second half of my holiday. I'm
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: guessing your answer is bound to include a lot of squats,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: but would you lean towards front or back squats, split
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: or conventional, sets of five or sets of 30 to
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: 50 deep squats, one quarter, three quarter squats, or some combinations?
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: What other exercises would you recommend? For example, is there
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: likely to be any value in walking backwards uphill with
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: a rucksack? How much weight? How often? Etc. Finally, do
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: you have any recovery tips? Wow, you asked a lot there.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: First off, you know, I live in Utah. And boy,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: for those who don't know about skiing in the last
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: few years, skiing is no longer a family sport. It's
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: a rich kid's sport now. It's gotten ridiculous. what they
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: charge for food and drink and lift tickets. And now
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: they're here in Utah, they're charging for parking in the canyons.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: I get it. They're trying to keep people from going up,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: but that only keeps away the poor people and the
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: middle-class people. So I'm certainly not an expert on this.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: You ask a lot of important questions here. Okay. The
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: big one I want to get to is, you know,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Getting over the soreness of skiing is hard. You need
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: specific training to overcome the soreness. A few years ago
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: here in Utah, and they were in a lot of gyms,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: there was a machine that mimicked downhill skiing. And it
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: went like this, and you had these two poles. And
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: people loved it. Boom, boom, boom. Whether it worked or not,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm not sure that front squat, back squat,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: one-quarter squat, three-quarter squats is going to matter. Personally, I'd
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: rather see you do something like a goblet squat, either dumbbell, kettlebell,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: and depending on your flexibility, double kettlebell front squats and
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: really get those numbers up. I mean, the issue with
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: what you're trying to do is you're trying to overcome
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: something that you know is coming, but here we're coming
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: up with some ideas. There is an exercise we used
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: to do a lot, and we called them speed skater squats.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: I'm sure there's a better name for them now. But
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: you get a bit of a wider stance. It's also
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: called sometimes in stretching the Cossack squat. So besides maybe
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: high rep gaba squats, and you could probably take well,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: I have a great book over here. Uh, it's a
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: training for, uh, the skating style of cross country skiing.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: And they're, they're sharing the workouts of speed skaters, ice
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: speed skaters. And it's not unusual to hear 100 reps
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: in a squat. Um, The place where my orthopedic surgeon
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: is has a doctor, and his name is Eric Hyden,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: and he won five Olympic gold medals in 1980 in
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Lake Placid. And, you know, I've seen his workouts, and
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: I've got to tell you, those are some high reps.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: I have an idea for you. One of the things
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: I got, so yes, you should do high rep squats. Yes,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: rocking backwards up a hill, probably a really good idea.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: But don't be silly. I mean, I don't want to
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: see you get over... Don't get over 35. Don't get
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: over 30 pounds on any of this. We're looking for
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: the high reps. We're trying to engage soreness. One thought
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: I have for you. Now, what our cross-country skier guys
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: used to do, I'm sure it's much fancier, is they
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: would get a car inner tube, which tells you this
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: is a while ago. But now you can just get
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: a sandbag. I would get yourself a fairly longest sandbag.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: There's also those... I call them Bulgarian goat bags, but
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: they are those wrestling bags. But any sandbag that you
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: can put over your shoulder and keep it light, again,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: that 15 to 30 pound range. But if you do
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: the Cossack squats back and forth, back and forth, you're
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: going to attack some of the same soreness you're going
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: to discover on the mountains. You can also do exercises like,
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: and if you are going to do a walking lunge,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: I would suggests more of the dragon style, though I'm
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: no expert on that. But it's that where you step forward,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: you bring the other foot close, you step to the side,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: you bring the other. So almost like you're skating. And
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: the reason I keep bringing up speed skaters and skating
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: is I still think that speed skaters, it's changed. And
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: maybe I should have Lyle McDonald come out and explain this,
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: but he knows much more about this than I do.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: But For years, speed skaters never had enough ice time.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: So they became masters of dry land training. You know,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: if you can only get on the ice six weeks
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: a year and compete, you got to do a lot
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: on dry land. And that's what you're trying to do.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: So high rep squats, high rep those side to side,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: those wider side to side squats. I wouldn't go real
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: deep on them. You know, don't overload the hips or
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: the knees. You know, be smart. Take your time. Build
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: up the load. That kind of weird skating lunge might
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: have some value. Hill sprints I think could be great
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: for you. And then, of course, if you have that
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: with you, rucking up and down the hill with that
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: weight and then rucking backwards up and down the hill
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: might have some value. One of the things that people find,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: we have a mountain right there called Mount Olympus, and
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: it's probably one of the hardest one-day climbs there is.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Because it's not a two-day climb. I guess you could
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: backpack up there and spend the night. And it's about
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: a six-hour round trip or more. The only problem is
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: it's straight up and it's straight down, basically. And it
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: is straight down. And one of the things that people
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: pick up is that what gets them sore doing the
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: Mount Olympus climb is coming down. The boom, boom, boom.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: of your quads catching the earth to stop you from,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: you know, falling forward into a rattlesnake because the place
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: is crawling with them. So we also have a marathon here,
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: a very famous marathon that the first 10 miles are
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: downhill and experienced people say by far, that's the most
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: difficult marathon in the world because it starts by destroying
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: your legs. Uh, even though you go fast, your legs,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: when you make that turn into mile 11, um, Your
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: legs don't feel very good. So for me, going downhill
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: for you will have as much value as going uphill
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: for you. I hope that helped. I'm certainly no expert
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: in this. How do you get over delayed on the
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: muscle soreness, the DOMS? I travel a lot to Europe,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: so I always buy European painkillers. But I learned a
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: lesson years ago from the late great shot putter Brian Oldfield.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: that Excedrin is your friend, and maybe I shouldn't use
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: the brand name, but it is aspirin with caffeine. Caffeine
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: working with aspirin, I think the caffeine helps the aspirin
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: not downregulate or something like that. But I have found
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: in my career that aspirin mixed with caffeine is a
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: wonderful helper to DOMS. Finally, I would also bring some
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: recovery tools with you. There's so many variations of those guns.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: And if you don't want to pack it in your bag,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: just order one online and have it meet you at
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: the hotel. But those guns can do marvelous work. Maybe
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: they don't work. I don't know. But it sure feels good.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: So that's just another idea. And if you can, if
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: you're in a nice expensive resort, book a massage for
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: maybe the second night you're there to see if that'll help.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: And again, the other stuff I would be, I have
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: to say, it's going to be your sleep. It's going
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: to be your water. It's going to be your protein intake.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: That was a fun question. And let me know how
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: it goes. I'm interested in knowing how this goes. All right.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Thank you. We have a question from Adam and I'm
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: really enjoying this question. I'm in my mid twenties with
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: an interest in all things fitness and training. And I
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: know there's a lot of great material out there before
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: my time, which is where I'd love your input and opinions.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: I'm looking for standout experts, coaches, authors, or practitioners who
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: work has a timeless quality to it. These can be
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: in strength conditioning, athletics, bodybuilding, nutrition, or endurance training. Put
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: another way, regardless of any advances in exercise and sports
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: science in the coming decades, whose insights do you think
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: will still hold up? Who are the names that have
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: always proven useful and effective and likely to stay that
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: way long into the future? I'd love some recommendations that
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: might point me to things I'd otherwise have missed or
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: not known. So before I answer the question, Adam, I
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: want you to understand that every day I read from
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: the great books, the classics, and I think that's really
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: an important thing to keep me grounded. Last week we
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: had a reading from Pasteur on germs, and he had
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: a follow-up to it. And we're still using that information today.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: This is my great Harvard classic, great book series, The
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: Five Foot Shelf of Books. I read every day in here.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: And I think it really impacts me. Of course, if
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: you know, I do a lot more than just that
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: kind of reading. Over here, we have a whole bunch
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: of other classics I read constantly. In fact, one of
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: my favorite books down there is The Collected Works of
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Calvin and Hobbes. And of course, one of my favorite
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: books is Homer and The Iliad and the Odyssey, and
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: this is an autographed copy he sent me, and it says, Dan,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: have a fun summer. I hope I have classes with
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: you next year. Stay cool. Homer. I thought that was nice. Okay,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: so obviously I'm a big believer in the great books,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: but I also think we have some great books in
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: the field. It was interesting when I was preparing this question,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: I was looking for a book that I thought I had,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: but I don't. But there's a book called Keys to
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Progress by John McCallum. And as I was thinking about it,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I realized that I never needed the book because I
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: have the original strength and health articles up there on
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: the top shelf that he wrote when I was young.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: I love John McCallum. And a few years ago, they
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: compiled his best work into Keys to Progress. I don't
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: know where you find it online. But it's very popular. Personally,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I think the guy's hilarious. His training programs are hard.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: The Get Big Drink shows up every few years. I
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: think there's probably three or four variations of it. But
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: it's great. Then, of course, I got to tell you
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: something else. And I wasn't joking about, you know, I
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: showed you the great books. This is a book I
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: picked up in Crete not long ago. How to Stay
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: Fit Like the Ancient Greeks. Now, the thing that I
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: like about this is that It quotes Homer. It quotes Hippocrates.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Hippocrates said obese people and those seeking to lose weight
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: should fast and only eat one meal a day and exercise.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, come on, that's still good advice. We have
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: all kinds of specific things. We talk about Milo, whose
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: father-in-law was Pythagoras. A squared plus B squared equals C squared.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Pythagoras was also a coach and a philosopher. But I
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: love this book. As I was going through it, They
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: just pull out some things like how to train for
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: the Olympic pentathlon, how to use sand versus olive oil
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: for your skin after training. I love this book. So that's,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: this is, I don't know where you get this book,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: but I thought this was a fun book. And I
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: guess my point is, you know, when I'm reading a book,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: like the other day I was reading the Anit. you know,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: once again, have to, you know, read great books. And
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: there's a famous boxing match in there where at the
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: end of the match, the older guy who's been around
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: a long time, uh, the younger guy, it's, I, maybe
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: I misread it, but the younger guy is a little
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: bit full of himself and the older guy pummels him. Um,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: And there's a life lesson that comes out of that.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: When you read about in the Odyssey, Ulysses wins the
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: discus throw. And it's just kind of cool. And there's
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: a lot there in those ancient books. Interesting, someone got
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: on me online about talking about fasting. Well, Thucydides talks
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: about the German warriors, the ones fighting the Romans, would
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: would only, they would not eat breakfast. They wouldn't eat
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: until lunch. They were doing intermittent fasting. When you start
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: studying the ancients, these things will just pop up as
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: you go through. And it's a lot of fun. So
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: there you go. Now, the other one, I mean, there's
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: others here. I'm such a huge fan of Harry B. Paschal.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: This is one of his books. This one is, these
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: are called the Bosco books. And I really like this one. Uh,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: this is the development. Yeah. This is the development of strength. Uh,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: Bosco was that, you know, the guy I, according to, uh, uh, Pascal,
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: he only snatched 985 pounds. It was all blown up,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: but a lot of fun. He's a funny guy, a
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: great author. And, uh, you know, he uses kettlebells, uses barbells.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: He uses all kinds of contraptions that he invented. Um,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: I just love the work. I just love, um, Of course,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: I have to mention Percy Serity. This is Larry Meyer's book,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: who we have no idea what ever happened to him.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: But fortunately for everybody everywhere, my good friend Andrew Gunn
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: just came out with this book, Andrew Gunn, G-U-N-N, Percy Serity,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Life Lessons from a Remarkable Coach. I am quoted in
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: the book because I feel like I'm one of the
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: people who kept his legacy alive because I loved what
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: he did. So if you really are interested in that
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: program I have called Easy Strength, read this book because
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: this is the roots of it. Yeah, true, true. Pavel
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: is the one who gave me the 40-day idea. But
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Percy was way ahead of his time when it comes
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: to strength training, nutrition, and just life habits. I have
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: great respect for him. Another, I don't have my other
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: copies of my other books, but John Jesse, J-E-S-S-E, This
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: might be the single most amazing book ever written. You'll
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: get this from Bill Hinburn's site, H-I-N-B-E-R-N. Be sure to
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: tell Bill that I sent you. Wrestling Physical Conditioning Encyclopedia.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: If you invent something, I'll just go into this book
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: and say, no, no, no, no. It was, you know,
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: it was here earlier, but I was doing this. No, no, no, no.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: It was in here long before you were born. Wonderful book.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: He also wrote a book on football training, which I
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: thought was pretty good. and one on sprinting and hurtling
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: that was really good, way ahead of its time. I
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: got this book that I like a lot. This one
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: is by Vance Thompson. In my next... I'm doing an
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Armor Building 3, but I summarize this whole book. I've
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: got the 1915 edition of this book. He met someone
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: called Mada, and... It's just wonderful. The key to the
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: diets here is that basically, so you eat this big dinner.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Let me give you a dinner item. I'm not going
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: to eat that. Sorry. There's a lot of fish and
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: weird birds in the book. Fish, fish, fish, fish, fish, fish. Oh, yeah.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: So boiled cod steak or any fish relish. leg of
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: spring lamb, puree of turnips, artichokes, and fruit for dinner.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: It's a lot of food. Lunch the next day is leftovers,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: cold lamb, lettuce and egg salad, and sliced oranges and pineapple.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: The point of this book is, I mean, there's almost
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: no carb. I mean, most of the meals are just
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: massive amounts of root vegetables, pureed very often, and meat, seafood, eggs.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: And very often, lunch the next day is leftovers. And
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: so in Armor Building Formula 3, for those of you
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: who are busy, I'm recommending you make an extra portion
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: at dinner and eat that tomorrow for your lunch. Not
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: only will it save up a lot of brain space,
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: it'll save you a lot of time and effort. An
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: older book that they've redone recently, Secrets of the Squat
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Snatch by Larry Barnoff and Peter George. I I was
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: able to get a copy of this book when they
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: first kind of re-sent it out. But as I was
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: going through it recently, I realized that so many of
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: the things these guys were teaching in the 1940s, 50s especially,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: are now very much what I see the Chinese lifters doing.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: And it is interesting how what goes around comes around.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: And as I'm looking at it, I think I need
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: to read... I might need to reread the book. There's
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: a lot of good materials here. Obviously, I can't help
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: not help myself. This is the book that changed my life.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: Ted Williams, we got this in 1965. I think it's, yeah,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: copyright is 1963. My brothers went to Sears in 1965.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: And the reason I know that, my brother Ray, not
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: only had just been home from the Vietnam War, but
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: I think he'd been released by the Marine Corps, honorable
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: discharge from the Marine Corps And he started college. And
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: I just remember it clearly. And I fell in love
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: with progressive resistance exercise. I've got a few other booklets
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: I've kind of tossed together here. But one of the
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: things I keep finding in these older booklets is that
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: if all you have, well, this one here. If all
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: you have is a barbell and a bench, you can
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: get remarkable workouts done. These are the workouts that changed
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: my life And I love him. An author who I
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: think died way too young is John Jerome. This book
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: is Staying Supple. But he also wrote Stay With It,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: a book about him returning to competition as a master's athlete.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: And he was a swimmer. But when I read this book,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: I come away that with most people are just footnotes
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: of his book. when it comes to the stretching and
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: mobility world. He's also the person who taught me the
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: body is one piece, and so I have great respect
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: for him. Another book that I just cannot recommend enough. Now,
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: I love the writings of George Sheehan. He was a jogger,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: but he's also just a brilliant writer. I find him
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: one of the most quotable authors of all time. This
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: book has got chapters on suffering and diet, but it's
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: running and being the whole experience. And it could be
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: throwing and being or whatever. And of course I would
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: be remiss if I did not mention all I've got.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: I think I've got all of Tommy Kona's books. Um,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: this is his second book. The other one is a
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: weightlifting Olympic style. Um, I love it. Um, there's a
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: lot of fun. This, this book's a bit funnier, but, um,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: it's just great stuff. Uh, there's the part here, motivation,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: the American system, is still fabulous. I love his work. Now,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: I just also want to mention, and this is, I'm
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: going to get in trouble for one of the people
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: I'm going to mention. People get angry sometimes when I
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: mention things. But there's a couple of people I'd like
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: you to look up. First off is a guy named Nicholas,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: and his name is Verhoeven. Nicholas Verhoeven. And his website
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: is Physionic, P-H-Y-S-I-O-N-I-C. I don't know how much money I
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: spend every year because I'm a member of his site,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: but it's well worth it. For example, after reading one
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: of his pieces, listening to one of his pieces, I
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: started adding walnuts to my morning breakfast. So in my
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: yogurt or whatever, I have a very, so basically my
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: breakfast real quick, two eggs, And then either cottage cheese
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: or yogurt with fruit and walnuts. And then a protein
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: smoothie with berries. But I've added walnuts because of his insights.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if it's... The difference will be...
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Who knows the difference will be. But
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: I like it when he talks about creatine. It's clear,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: it's safe, and it's not pushy. So Nicholas Verhoeven Physionic.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: Somebody else I really think has a bigger influence, certainly
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: a huge influence on me, was Rusty Moore. His site
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: was called Visual Impact, and he was famous for the
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: yacht bod. And I think his book, Ageless, I think
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: it's called Ageless, Visual Impact Ageless. It's about, and I've
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: quoted him many times where he met that guy, John,
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: who recommended you squat your body weight five times a year.
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: Just a little standard, and I just thought, when I
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: heard it, it was like, man, that's genius, you know?
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: But I love his work. He was a big influence
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: on Greg O'Gallagher, Now, I like Greg. The thing about Greg,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Greg makes me laugh. Recently, he's been talking about eating donuts.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: And then I would love to gamble with him because
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: I think I know his tell. He makes us kind
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: of look like this was about to say something that's
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: whimsical and sarcastic. But, you know, when you look at
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: the body of work Greg's come up with, and I
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: bought his first stuff in, what, 2013. It's consistent, it's regular,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: and clear it works. Now, funny thing is, because I
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: say that, somebody's going to write down in the comments
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: here that they're never going to follow me anymore because
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: I think Greg O'Gallagher has some insights. I'm also a
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: big fan of Brad Pilon and many others because I
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: learn stuff when I read their work. I also include
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: on this list Lyle McDonald. I've known Lyle a long time.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: When I was a strength coach here in Utah, Lyle
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: would come by sometimes and it was great. He would
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: give these just little impromptu talks to my athletes about nutrition.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: And it's funny because no matter the age of any athlete,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: they're always looking for an edge. And Lyle is the
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: kind of guy who can talk you down off the
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: stupid stuff and explain to do the important stuff. And
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: then finally, of course, I think Stu McGill will be
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: on that short list generations from now. We look back
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: and go, you know, I knew him once. There's a
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: number of that. Listen, I've forgotten so many people. I just,
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: it just came into my head. Charlie Francis, the great
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: Canadian sprint coach, you know, his candid, his candor and
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: his honesty is, were wonderful. He was such a relief.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: You know, he's so honest about things. And I think
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: I went to the last workshop he ever gave. I
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: think he died right after that. There's many others. Of course,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: in my own personal world, there'd be Dick Notmeyer, Ralph Maughan,
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: Bob LaPotti, Ray DeYoung, all blessed memory now, who impacted
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: my life and I can't thank them enough. And the
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: other thing I wish all our gentle listeners, if you
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: get a chance, If you have good training partners who
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: are well-read and can share with you things that you
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: might have missed or explain things even better, that might
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: be the best resource you'll ever have in your life.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: And I've got a great one, so there you go.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: I hope that helped. I've got to tell you, Adam,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: that was a fun question, and I appreciate it. Thank you.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: We have a question from Ryan And Ryan says, I
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: very much appreciate all the content you provide. You're welcome.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: The quality and quantity are unmatched. I'm currently reading through
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: the Easy Strength Omnibook, available at danjohnuniversity.com slash bookstore. I'm intrigued.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I'm intrigued by something you discuss
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: in the chapter title, Is Easy Strength Minimalist? To start,
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: I fully understand the sports background you come from, And
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: from my understanding, that does not include baseball, but yet
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: it does. I'm a former collegiate baseball player. I'm now
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: training my sons to improve their sports performance across a
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: variety of sports as they are still fairly young. But
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: the wisdom regarding mixed training you shared got me thinking
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: how well this would work with baseball work really well.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: In fact, if you want your kids to be all-stars
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: at 12, that's great, but they're not gonna be all-stars
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: at 18. If you brought them out by 13, um,
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: As an example, we bring a kettlebell to the batting
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: cages and perform kettlebell swings prior to doing some hitting
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: drills or barbell clean and press to throwing some pitches
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: in the bullpen session. I like this. Baseball has always
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: been notoriously behind in strength and conditioning world. Yeah, when
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: I first got, when I first started reading the magazines,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Scholastic Coach, Athletic Journal, they would have articles on weightlifting
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: for baseball and it was interesting It was cheery. It
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: wasn't great. Although now the social media world is putting
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: out a lot of low-quality content for baseball, mostly around
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: rotation exercises, there must be a better way, and there is.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: I would love to have your thoughts. I'm not sure
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: if I've ever been a strength coach for any baseball athletes,
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: but even if not, I believe you can add some value,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: especially in your expertise in throwing. Now, this is interesting because...
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: I have worked with a handful of professional baseball teams.
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: I got a funny story. I got a call one
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: time from one of my guys. I'm not going to
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: tell you the names of the teams, but they're major
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: league baseball and they're famous. And the guy calls up
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: and he goes, hey, man. I go, yeah. He goes,
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: when did you start working with Team X? And I go,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: I'm not working with them. Well, I talked to your
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: strength coach and they're doing all your stuff. Well, what
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: happened is that one of my guys that I coached
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: in the offseason here, I went to a team. And
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: so he did all my stuff here. And then he
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: got traded to Team X. And when he got to
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: Team X, they said, what'd you do in the off season? Because,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: you know, you look really good shape for an older athlete.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: And he goes, well, I wouldn't trade Dan John. So
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: they got out pen and paper and stole all my ideas.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: All right. So at least in Major League Baseball, the
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: best way to train Major League Baseball players from the
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: information I get back is an easy strength variation. Now,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: one of the things that they usually have to do
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: is they have to change the easy strength up a
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: little bit into an ABA format. So on an A workout,
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: you'd bench press, a B workout, you'd military. And the
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: reason is this, you know, ABA, BAB is supposed to
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: be a two-week program. But like my one friend, we'll
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: just call him Louise because that's not his name. He said,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: hey man, you know, For us to get six workouts
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: in the season might take us eight or nine weeks
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: because of travel, injuries, stuff. And one time I was
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: at a thing, we're sitting there, and the guy just
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: said very kindly to me, he goes, just putting on
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: your uniform 162 times in 180 days is exhausting. And
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: I thought, well, that's an interesting thing for me to remember.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: So easy strength, and I'm going to tell you the
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: million-dollar exercise that goes with it. So I applaud the
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: fact you're doing cleaner presses and swings. I think those
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: are just fine. But there's an exercise that you must do,
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: and that's the suitcase carry. One of the teams I
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: worked with feels that suitcase carrying has been adding miles
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: per hour to their fastballs for their major league pitchers. Now,
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: you're paying someone a paycheck with a lot of commas
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: in it. And if they can throw a fastball faster,
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: they get a paycheck with another comma on it. It's
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: a moneymaker. Suitcase carries, for whatever reason, seem to make
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: elite pitchers throw faster. And by the way, I'm sure
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: it makes elite first basemen throw faster and outfielders too.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: So the suitcase carry has to be one of those
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: bread and butter lifts that you're going to do. When
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: I was young, baseball players were always worried about the
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: grip strength and stuff. Well, the suitcase carry builds that.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: getting back to an earlier question today, I still respect
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: the work of Harry Paschal. Uh, he said, uh, before
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: I was born that the key to rotation is to
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: rotational strength is to do the basics of, you know, squatting, deadlifting, cleaning. Um,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: I think it's going to help your kids a lot
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: if they continue to do the basics mixed in with
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: some suitcase carries. Uh, So I would say easy strength
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: program as they get older. Get them as strong as
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: easily as you can. Suitcase carries for the rotational strength
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: and whatever it does to the shoulder to make it happy.
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: One other thing I was going to throw in, if possible,
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: if you can get yourself a set of monkey bars
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: and have them play on monkey bars. For some reason,
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: especially with my javelin throwers, monkey bars seem to do
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: great work in stopping shoulder injuries. Okay. Fun question, and
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: thank you for sharing it with me. Let me know
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: how it goes. All right, thank you. All right, we
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: got a question from Hollywood. And Hollywood says, thank you
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: for writing the easy strength and armor building one and
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: two books. I have run armor building formula kettlebell version twice,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: armor building formula barbell version once with barbell, and now
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: twice with my adjustable double bells, increasing half a kilo
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: a week along with 10 weeks of easy strength utilizing
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: power clean, immediately followed by front squat, three sets of three.
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: That's good stuff. Incline bench, two by five, and suitcase
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: carries three days a week, followed by walking or jumping rope.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: I went from 192 pounds to 172 pounds. Good work. 5'9, 55.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: You're doing great. In a little under six months, following
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: your dieting advice and the above workouts, I move better,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: feel better, and my wife tells me, look better. There
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: you go. The longer I follow your advice and programs,
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: the smarter you become. That's great. My plan now is
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: to continue with your advice and rotate Armor building for
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: me and easy strength. I'm thinking about replacing power clean
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: and front squat with power snatch and overhead squat for
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: easy strength. I like that. One thing I really do
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: like about what Hollywood is telling us here, folks, is that,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: and he has no question. He just wanted to share
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: that with us. But I want to share his insights.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: The first thing he does is he finishes programs. And
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: I cannot tell you What an unusual thing that is. First,
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: exercising by itself is just a miracle. But someone who
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: finishes a program, that's great. What I like about what
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: Hollywood is saying here. Okay, so I did power clean
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: front squats. Okay, good. Now I'm looking down the road
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: to power snatch and overhead squat. That's what you want
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: to be doing. Finish the program as written or as
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: you said you're going to do it. You write it
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: down and you say, I'm going to do it this way.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: But about halfway through the program, ping, ping, ping, just
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: like what Earl Nightingale said about writing. He said, always
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: finish what you write. That was a big one, and
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: that comes from Hemingway. But his idea that you always
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: get inspired for your next book in the middle of
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: writing the current book. Well, his idea was you take
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: a few notes about this next project you're doing, but
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: then you get right back in and you finish what
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: you're doing. Hollywood, thank you. That was quite good, and
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Thank you for the testimonials, and I
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: hope everyone joins you in buying Armor Building Formula 1
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: and 2 and Easy Strength Omnibook, available at danjohnuniversity.com bookstore.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Our last question today is one that is fun.
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: Travis says this, I recently joined a bowling league with
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: some friends and I haven't bowled seriously in almost 30 years.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: I tell you, man, if you like, I went back
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: to bowling. I bowled up until about 2004, three or
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: four times a week. And then when I changed my
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: career to being a full-time strength coach, again, I didn't bowl.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: And then a couple of years later, I went in and,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: you know, It's funny how you lose specific qualities if
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: you haven't done it in a while. And I got
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: to tell you, bowling will wake up that wrist. I'm
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: looking forward to strengthening my grip, wrist, and arms so
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: I can throw a 16-pound ball accurately. Currently, I'm doing
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: a full-body machine hypertrophy workout on the weekends at the gym.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: During the week, I do kettlebell or bodyweight work at home.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking about focusing on unilateral exercises and would love
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: your input on the best approach. And for my home workouts,
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: I have the following equipment. Three kettlebells, a pull-up bar,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: gym rings, wrist roller, light adjustable dumbbells, ab wheel. What
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: do you recommend? Well, interesting because when I was young,
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: every week in the San Francisco Chronicle, and I think
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: it was on Saturdays, they had a little column. It
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: was with drawings from Dick Weber on how to become
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: a better bowler. And one week, I remember he had
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: weightlifting advice And it was a lot of, I mean,
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: it was curls and wrist curls and all that. So
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: in honor of Dick Weber, any wrist work you do,
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: any curl work you do is great. The one thing
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: I would caution you on, if you're going to do
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: unilateral work, let's say I'm right-handed and I'm lunging forward
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: on my left foot forward. I would suggest that you
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: kind of focus with the right leg forward on any
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: kind of lungy thing you're going to do. If you're
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: going to try to build up You're going to get
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: a lot of extra reps in that left leg. It's
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: called the rule of X in throwing. My right arm,
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: my left leg, every time I blocked with my left leg,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: hit the ground with my left leg to throw, that
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: little bang made my left leg much stronger than my
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: right leg. My right leg is the one that whipped
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: around to keep the length of the discus out there.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: So over time, I began to notice that that all
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: my injuries were with my left arm and my right leg.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: And that's the first time someone pointed out to me
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: the rule of X. It's because we tend to overuse
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: one side, but we expect the other side to keep up,
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: you know, just by sprinting alongside. It's like, you know,
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: going for a walk and driving your car and your
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: poor dog is trying to keep up with you. It's
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: not very kind. You might want to do a ratio.
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: I don't think... two to one would be a little
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: bit high, but maybe add some extra reps in a
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: lunge exercise with your right leg forward just to make
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: sure you're keeping things balanced. You have a wrist roller.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: I think that's going to be plenty of work for
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: your wrist. But of course, as always, you have an
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: ab wheel. I would suggest supersetting the ab wheel with
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: suitcase carries. I think, you know, when I was young,
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: People didn't have back injuries like we do now from bowling.
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: But as I was told not too long ago, that
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: a lot of people are getting back injuries. It could
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: be because of all the extra beer and, you know,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: pizza at the bowling alley. But also could just be,
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe adding the new balls. You have so much,
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: you can throw so much more torque on them than
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: the old ones. That could be a factor. I'm no expert.
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: Suitcase carry, ab wheels. Work those in a group. And
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: then I would just I would continue just doing your
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: basic bodybuilding stuff. Uh, do keep doing your basic hypertrophy
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: work with machines. I think that's great at any age. Um,
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: ab wheel side bends, supersets together. I think that'd be great. Um,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: if you want to do the wrist roller stuff, I
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: think that's fine. And then any general, general kettlebell stuff
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: is fine. Um, I think you get better bowling by
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: hiring a coach. Um, getting a lot of practice. But
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: I do think weightlifting can really support you a long time.
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: When I played, I always wore that glove. I want
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: to say it was like a metal thing here. And
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: for me, that took care of most of the wrist problems. Remember,
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: at the same time, I was also shot putting, discus throwing,
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: highland gaming and stuff. So I wore that, mostly so
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: I could still do this at track meets. But I
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: love the idea, and I think you're in due grain.
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: Thanks for sharing that question. It was unusual, and I
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: enjoyed that. Well, that's it, folks. That's all the questions
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: we have today. Remember, if you have a question, please
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: send them to the podcast at this address, podcast at danjohnuniversity.com.
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: Each and every week, I'm honored to answer your questions.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: And until next time, Let's all keep on lifting and learning.
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: Thank you.