Latest / Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40 / Training Through Injury and Adversity Without Losing Progress (Anthony Bryan) | Ep 415

Transcript

Training Through Injury and Adversity Without Losing Progress (Anthony Bryan) | Ep 415 · Wits & Weights | Strength & Fat Loss Over 40

• 0:01
  Philip Pape: If you train consistently and push yourself hard, but injuries keep throwing you off, or you feel like you're always fighting your body instead of working with it, and you're wondering if there's a way to keep making gains even when you're not at 100%, this episode is for you.
• 0:16
  Philip Pape: Today I'm talking to a Guinness world record holder and double world champion in paraathletics, who spent his entire life figuring out how to train with left side paralysis from a childhood stroke.
• 0:28
  Philip Pape: What he's learned about training through limitations, managing recovery under extreme constraints, and building consistency when your body says no applies to any of us dealing with injury, aging, fatigue, or just the reality that training conditions are never perfect.
• 0:43
  Philip Pape: Your biggest limitation might just be the key to your next breakthrough.
• 0:48
  Philip Pape: Welcome to Wits and Weights, the show that helps you build a strong, healthy physique using evidence, engineering, and efficiency.
• 1:01
  Philip Pape: I'm your host, Philip Pape, and today we're going to talk about something that most lifters face, but few know how to handle well.
• 1:09
  Philip Pape: And that is training when you're not at 100%, which let's be honest, that's life.
• 1:14
  Philip Pape: My guest is Anthony Bryan, who at age six was diagnosed with a brain tumor that led to a stroke, leaving him with paralysis on his left side.
• 1:22
  Philip Pape: Doctors told his family he'd never run or live an active life.
• 1:26
  Philip Pape: Instead, Anthony went on to set a Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon with hemoplegia, I think I said that right, at the 2024 TCS London Marathon, and he's a double world champion in the 800 and 1500 meters in paraathletics.
• 1:42
  Philip Pape: Anthony has spent decades solving problems that everyone, everyone listening, eventually faces.
• 1:48
  Philip Pape: How do you keep training when your body has real limitations?
• 1:51
  Philip Pape: How do you manage recovery when fatigue is constant?
• 1:54
  Philip Pape: How do you stay consistent when motivation disappears?
• 1:57
  Philip Pape: And Anthony, I'm about to have rotator cuff surgery next week.
• 2:00
  Philip Pape: So it's great timing for me to have this conversation with you as well.
• 2:03
  Philip Pape: Uh, because these principles that you use to train with your limitations, which maybe you don't even call them that.
• 2:09
  Philip Pape: We're gonna get into that.
• 2:10
  Philip Pape: You're the no-limit athlete, right?
• 2:12
  Philip Pape: And they're the same ones you need when dealing with any limitations, injuries, aging, work stress, poor sleep, any constraint that keeps you from doing things perfectly, which is honestly not even a real thing.
• 2:23
  Philip Pape: Today we're gonna explore how limitations can make you stronger, how to auto-regulate what you're doing without losing momentum, and how to build the kind of mindset that keeps you showing up even when progress feels slow.
• 2:34
  Philip Pape: Anthony, Anthony, so great to meet you.
• 2:36
  Philip Pape: Welcome to the show.
• 2:37
  Anthony Bryan: Thank you.
• 2:37
  Anthony Bryan: Thank you for having me on today.
• 2:39
  Anthony Bryan: It's great.
• 2:40
  Philip Pape: So the question I I have right off the bat is do you think your paralysis has made you a better athlete?
• 2:46
  Anthony Bryan: It's it's made me more resilient, it's made me think outside the box because I've had to think outside the box.
• 2:53
  Anthony Bryan: Because I was told you will never do this, you'll never do that, you'll never walk, you'll never run.
• 2:58
  Anthony Bryan: And then I had to realise myself that actually I can do that.
• 3:02
  Anthony Bryan: And I think what I learned was people in in life will always tell you what you can and can't do, but it's up to you to prove them wrong.
• 3:12
  Anthony Bryan: In the end of the day, if you want to achieve something, it's always down to you.
• 3:15
  Anthony Bryan: And everyone's gonna try and keep you in your box, but you gotta go out there and just see what you can really do.
• 3:21
  Philip Pape: Everyone's gonna keep you in your box, man.
• 3:23
  Philip Pape: This is so relevant.
• 3:24
  Philip Pape: Uh, this is relevant to me personally, even recently, because it was something related to the healthcare industry, kind of like you said, where a doctor will say, like, you're never gonna do this again, or you shouldn't do this.
• 3:37
  Philip Pape: I've heard some ridiculous advice, even like stop taking the stairs because your knees hurt.
• 3:41
  Philip Pape: You know, just silly stuff like that.
• 3:43
  Philip Pape: But um, how did you do that?
• 3:45
  Philip Pape: Like, people want to know, okay, people tell you you can't do this, can't do that.
• 3:48
  Philip Pape: How do you even know you could do those things?
• 3:51
  Anthony Bryan: It is through trial and error.
• 3:53
  Anthony Bryan: Because this, I I had a brain tumor when I was a child, and um straight away doctors tell my parents we'll never do this, we'll never do that.
• 4:00
  Anthony Bryan: And it wasn't until I actually met this bodybuilder, and he was he was a guy in the gym, and he had a stroke himself in the age of 20.
• 4:10
  Anthony Bryan: And when my parents spoke to him, he looked at me and goes, That's absolute nonsense.
• 4:16
  Anthony Bryan: I'll show you how you can how can you can and can't train.
• 4:20
  Anthony Bryan: And he showed me all these exercises, and he said to me, I want you to remember this phrase no pain, no gain.
• 4:28
  Anthony Bryan: Whenever you feel the pain, you're always gaining something.
• 4:32
  Anthony Bryan: And ever since then, I just always remembered that saying it's on my wall in my hallway as well.
• 4:38
  Anthony Bryan: And ever since a child, I always threw myself into everything.
• 4:43
  Anthony Bryan: And I think what one of the big mind-blowing kind of realizations for me was when I was at school, we had to do a fitness running test, and I was the only disabled child in the whole school, and I just remember thinking to myself, we had to do a 12-minute run, and it's how far can you get in 12 minutes?
• 5:02
  Anthony Bryan: And I just remember thinking to myself, there's no way I could come last, not behind the overweight, lazy kids.
• 5:08
  Anthony Bryan: That would just be too embarrassing for me.
• 5:10
  Anthony Bryan: So I just went off as hard as I could, and I just kept going and kept going and kept going.
• 5:15
  Anthony Bryan: At the end of the um this test, I ended up coming.
• 5:18
  Anthony Bryan: I was I came 15th out of 30 kids, and I was the only one with disability.
• 5:23
  Anthony Bryan: And my teacher came over to me and just said, How did you do that?
• 5:28
  Anthony Bryan: I was like, I don't know, I just didn't want to come last, it's too embarrassing.
• 5:32
  Anthony Bryan: And he said, Have you ever thought about going into the Paralympics?
• 5:36
  Anthony Bryan: And I was like, No, what's the Paralympics?
• 5:38
  Anthony Bryan: And he said, It's like the Olympics, but for people with disabilities, you would be amazing.
• 5:43
  Anthony Bryan: And my reaction was no, that's something I definitely don't want to want to do.
• 5:47
  Anthony Bryan: Why'd I want to do a sport that shows off my disability?
• 5:50
  Anthony Bryan: I'd hate that.
• 5:52
  Anthony Bryan: Um, so he called my parents into the school and he said, Get that boy in a running club, just get that boy in a running club.
• 6:00
  Anthony Bryan: And this was the first time that actually someone has told my parents, get him to do this, instead of he can't do that, he can't do this.
• 6:09
  Anthony Bryan: So they threw me into it and I gave it a go.
• 6:12
  Anthony Bryan: And I went to my first um power race, and I I won a gold medal in the 100 metres and the 200 metres, and for once it's opened up my eyes to other athletes with disabilities achieving incredible achievements.
• 6:24
  Anthony Bryan: They might be missing a leg, might be missing an arm, but they're going out there to do their absolute best.
• 6:29
  Anthony Bryan: I was like, this is incredible.
• 6:31
  Anthony Bryan: So I thought I want more of this.
• 6:33
  Anthony Bryan: So I went and went away and joined a running club and I trained.
• 6:37
  Anthony Bryan: And slow slowly and slowly, I started realizing that actually I could build more speed.
• 6:43
  Anthony Bryan: I played for a um a football team, a soccer team, and one of the coaches said to me was instead of telling me I can't do something, I can't couldn't do this or that, he went to me, yeah, you might not be able to do this because you can't use your left side, but let's not focus on what on what you can't do, let's focus on what you can do.
• 7:03
  Anthony Bryan: And that was from that moment, I just focused on everything that I could do, and I could use one side of my body more than anyone else.
• 7:12
  Anthony Bryan: So I had a really strong right arm and a really strong right leg.
• 7:15
  Anthony Bryan: So when I would kick a ball, I had the most powerful shot of anyone.
• 7:19
  Anthony Bryan: So I started being a top goal scorer because I was shooting from left, right, and centre, scoring goals, and gradually I just became more confident in myself and finding that I could do things, and then I started doing competitions and winning more medals, and slowly by slowly I started realizing that I can push myself a bit further, I can push myself a bit further.
• 7:44
  Anthony Bryan: Started going to the gym and doing weights.
• 7:46
  Anthony Bryan: Then I got to the Paralympic trials for the 100 metres and the 200 metres, and unfortunately I finished fourth, so I just missed out being selected for the Paralympics.
• 7:59
  Anthony Bryan: But I thought this was incredible.
• 8:01
  Anthony Bryan: I want to be at the next one.
• 8:02
  Anthony Bryan: So I went away to my coach, I was like, I want to train hard, I want to push myself more, I will be there next time.
• 8:08
  Anthony Bryan: And she said to me, Okay, so you're slightly slow off the line because of your weaker side, but why don't we try something a little bit longer distance because you're really quick once you get going?
• 8:18
  Anthony Bryan: And she said, Why don't we try 800 meters or 1500 metres?
• 8:24
  Anthony Bryan: And my reaction was 1500 metres.
• 8:26
  Anthony Bryan: That sounds like a million miles.
• 8:28
  Anthony Bryan: I can't run that far.
• 8:29
  Anthony Bryan: And she said to me, How'd you know you can't run that far if you've never tried?
• 8:35
  Anthony Bryan: Give it a go.
• 8:36
  Anthony Bryan: And if you still hate it, you can always go back to doing the sprinting.
• 8:41
  Anthony Bryan: But she said, Give it a go because you never know what you could achieve.
• 8:45
  Anthony Bryan: So I gave it a go and I hated it, it was really hard.
• 8:49
  Anthony Bryan: I was out of breath, I wasn't used to endurance races, and I I joined this group of runners, and again, I was the only disabled runner in the whole group, and we were doing 400 meter reps, and all I remember was even the little girls that were like seven, eight year olds, were flying past me about half the size of me, and they're flying past me.
• 9:12
  Anthony Bryan: I was at the back of the group, and I was like, This is so embarrassing.
• 9:17
  Anthony Bryan: But I just kept doing the reps, kept going and going and going.
• 9:21
  Anthony Bryan: And my coach said to me afterwards, So how did it go?
• 9:24
  Anthony Bryan: And I said, Awful.
• 9:26
  Anthony Bryan: Even the little ones were going past me.
• 9:28
  Anthony Bryan: This is not for me.
• 9:29
  Anthony Bryan: I'm used to being a sprinter and being fast and doing this and doing that.
• 9:33
  Anthony Bryan: But she said to me something that I really kind of thought, yeah, you're right.
• 9:37
  Anthony Bryan: She said to me, You can't go in there and expect to be the absolute best when you have even put the work in.
• 9:43
  Anthony Bryan: They might be younger than you and half the size of you, but they've been training for the last few years.
• 9:48
  Anthony Bryan: She said, Give it a go for the next few months, and if you still hate it, you can always go back to sprinting.
• 9:53
  Anthony Bryan: So I gave it a go, and she was right.
• 9:57
  Anthony Bryan: After the next few months, I started getting fitter, started getting stronger, started getting more used to it.
• 10:01
  Anthony Bryan: I started going from the back of the group to the middle of the group and keeping up with the others.
• 10:05
  Anthony Bryan: And I think what made me realize I could do this was just belief.
• 10:11
  Anthony Bryan: Because I've been doing it over and over and over, I've realized that actually I can do this, gotta just push a little bit harder.
• 10:18
  Anthony Bryan: And then when then voices come into your mind saying, give up, this is hard.
• 10:22
  Anthony Bryan: You've got to override that and just keep pushing, keep going.
• 10:25
  Anthony Bryan: And after doing that for just under a year, I got selected to represent Team England at the power world championships, and I ended up winning gold medal in the 800 and 1500 meters.
• 10:39
  Anthony Bryan: So I'm gone from thinking it's impossible to run that far to now being a world champion.
• 10:46
  Philip Pape: Man, so that whole thing, I want to break this down from beginning to end because this is great.
• 10:50
  Philip Pape: If you started at the end, people would say, okay, he's successful, must be really talented, born that way, genetics, this and that, right?
• 10:57
  Philip Pape: But you gave us a breakdown.
• 10:58
  Philip Pape: I got at least five lessons I want to break in for the listener here.
• 11:01
  Philip Pape: All right.
• 11:01
  Philip Pape: The first one that's a really recurring theme is you had support along the way and people to maybe help you reframe and motivate you.
• 11:09
  Philip Pape: And I, right?
• 11:10
  Philip Pape: I mean, and I think that's super important because I could imagine if you were alone that whole time, you never had these figures in your life, do you think it would have turned out the same?
• 11:18
  Anthony Bryan: No, you listen to those doctors and that told you you can't do this, you can't do that.
• 11:23
  Philip Pape: Yeah.
• 11:23
  Philip Pape: So having somebody like the bodybuilder, I think is awesome, right?
• 11:26
  Philip Pape: Who had a personal experience, just like you now telling our listeners about this experience that they might relate to, that hey, this is insane, this is nonsense.
• 11:34
  Philip Pape: And honestly, I I've gone through a philosophy of life now that I say, if I'm weird, if I'm in the in the 1% of people who are thinking very differently than the other 99%, there's probably something to it.
• 11:44
  Philip Pape: Kind of like the um, what's his name?
• 11:46
  Philip Pape: Mark Twain, who by the way, uh lived here in Connecticut.
• 11:49
  Philip Pape: Uh, and he had that famous quote, you know, when you're on the side of the majority, it's time to stop and reflect.
• 11:54
  Philip Pape: And that's kind of like, you know, bodybuilders and and coaches who train elite athletes are probably in the tiny minority of people who really know what's capable, and you absorb that from what I can hear.
• 12:06
  Philip Pape: So that's a good one.
• 12:08
  Philip Pape: But I like something you said.
• 12:10
  Philip Pape: You used the phrase no pain, no gain, which has become, I guess, a trope almost or like trite over the years, where it used to be a big thing as an inspirational mantra, and then it became something to reject, right?
• 12:24
  Philip Pape: Like, well, no, you shouldn't train through pain.
• 12:26
  Philip Pape: Don't do that.
• 12:26
  Philip Pape: Like, you're training too hard.
• 12:28
  Philip Pape: I like that you you framed it as a positive.
• 12:30
  Philip Pape: Dig into that for us just a little bit so people understand like how to use that mantra in a healthy, you know, positive way for themselves.
• 12:39
  Anthony Bryan: So for me, it would be when I feel that burn and I'm running, don't stop and slow down because you're gaining experience, you're gaining something, you're gaining speed, you're gaining an achievement.
• 12:52
  Anthony Bryan: Like, for example, I'll talk about this later.
• 12:54
  Anthony Bryan: When I was in the marathon, I had cramp in both legs, and everything was telling me to stop.
• 13:01
  Anthony Bryan: And I just thought, I need to keep going because if you're in your comfort zone all the time, you're never gonna achieve those great goals that you dream of.
• 13:14
  Anthony Bryan: You have to go through those tough moments, and that and that's the pain.
• 13:18
  Anthony Bryan: It's not exactly like metaphorically pain, but if you don't go through those tough times, you will never achieve those incredible things.
• 13:26
  Anthony Bryan: You have to be outside of that comfort zone.
• 13:28
  Anthony Bryan: If you're in your comfort zone, you're not gonna achieve those incredible goals.
• 13:33
  Philip Pape: Yeah.
• 13:34
  Anthony Bryan: Try something new, try something different.
• 13:36
  Anthony Bryan: It might be challenging yourself to do something new, and it's uncomfortable, maybe not maybe more uncomfortable and painful.
• 13:44
  Anthony Bryan: You'll push through that uncomfortableness and great things will happen.
• 13:47
  Philip Pape: Yeah, yeah, I was thinking the same thing, right?
• 13:49
  Philip Pape: People get hung up on language and say, Well, you mean you mean discomfort, don't you?
• 13:53
  Philip Pape: But there is an element of pain, man, like especially in physical pursuits sometimes.
• 13:57
  Philip Pape: And it's it's not a you know, pain is a spectrum, it's not uh a sharp, like you're breaking something pain.
• 14:03
  Philip Pape: It's a I'm doing my fifth squat at 90% RM and this shit sucks, and I need to stop right now because it's so hard, but I'm gonna do it anyway.
• 14:13
  Anthony Bryan: It's like if if I'm not aching the next day from a gym session, I'm really annoyed of myself.
• 14:18
  Philip Pape: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:18
  Anthony Bryan: If I'm absolutely aching like DOMs everywhere, I'm like, I'm gaining something right now.
• 14:24
  Philip Pape: Yeah, right.
• 14:25
  Philip Pape: So everybody has their own version of that because you said metaph not metaphorical.
• 14:29
  Philip Pape: I was gonna, I was only gonna challenge that in the sense that I know there's a lot of mental discomfort too.
• 14:34
  Philip Pape: That that is, I guess, metaphorical in a sense, but I know what you mean.
• 14:38
  Philip Pape: That it's the physically pushing your comfort zone or expanding it, and you're not gonna grow from that.
• 14:43
  Philip Pape: And man, there are a lot of impatient people I see every day.
• 14:46
  Philip Pape: I I actually feel really bad when somebody reaches out and says, What do what do I do here?
• 14:50
  Philip Pape: And I'm, you know, I don't say like by my program.
• 14:52
  Philip Pape: I say like here, try this thing out.
• 14:54
  Philip Pape: And they want to give up in a day, you know, because oh, it's too hard or it's too much work.
• 14:59
  Philip Pape: Um, and you're just sad for them because you're like, Man, you're just never gonna achieve anything with that attitude.
• 15:06
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah.
• 15:06
  Anthony Bryan: It's it's about never giving up.
• 15:08
  Anthony Bryan: It's yeah, it's a constant journey.
• 15:10
  Anthony Bryan: Even when you achieve things, it's like, right, what's next?
• 15:13
  Anthony Bryan: Grow again, grow again, go again.
• 15:17
  Philip Pape: Yeah.
• 15:18
  Anthony Bryan: Everything.
• 15:18
  Anthony Bryan: So for me, it was once I went to the world championships and won the gold medals, that that was a massive light bulb moment for me.
• 15:26
  Anthony Bryan: I thought, I was told I'd never run or be very active again.
• 15:29
  Anthony Bryan: And I've just I'm now a world champion.
• 15:31
  Anthony Bryan: So then I thought, how much further can I go?
• 15:35
  Anthony Bryan: How much further can I prove them wrong?
• 15:37
  Philip Pape: Yeah, and I bet everyone has their own level of what world champion means to them, is what I would say.
• 15:42
  Philip Pape: In that, I guess the lesson that I take from you there is you did something that was hard, pushed through that metaphorical pain, you got a result that gave you confidence you didn't have before, expanded that comfort zone now, and the identity of yourself grew effectively.
• 15:58
  Philip Pape: Like the person you were at that point was different than what you were maybe six months or five years or 10 years before.
• 16:04
  Philip Pape: And now you're like, oh, I'm gonna do this endurance thing where the little girls are passing me, but I know I did something before and I adapted and grew, and I'm gonna do it again.
• 16:11
  Philip Pape: And like that, that's another really good lesson because people who've done, I mentioned the heavy squats, right?
• 16:16
  Philip Pape: Like people who do physical pursuits that are hard and then get something, they tend to want to do more of it or they tend to have less friction to jump in to more of it.
• 16:25
  Philip Pape: So that's confidence you talked about, right?
• 16:27
  Philip Pape: That's that's the confidence.
• 16:28
  Philip Pape: Yeah.
• 16:29
  Anthony Bryan: Self-belief.
• 16:30
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah, over and over and over.
• 16:32
  Anthony Bryan: I believe actually I can do this.
• 16:34
  Anthony Bryan: I'm not gonna combust.
• 16:36
  Anthony Bryan: I'm I can do this, yeah.
• 16:38
  Philip Pape: And so speaking of the can, because you said that as well, not what you can't, what you can.
• 16:43
  Philip Pape: And people get annoyed with me, call me a positivity Nazi or whatever sometimes because I will I have an optimism bias, right?
• 16:50
  Philip Pape: Like I think the good is gonna come no matter what.
• 16:53
  Philip Pape: And when you say what can you do, to me, that's reframing, that's like a psychological technique.
• 16:58
  Philip Pape: How much are you into psychology and mindset like academically, or is it all just from experience where you talk about this stuff?
• 17:05
  Anthony Bryan: Um, a big role model to me would be uh David Goggins.
• 17:09
  Philip Pape: Oh, I knew you were gonna say that, man.
• 17:10
  Philip Pape: He he's he's controversial in in in a way, but yes, yes.
• 17:15
  Anthony Bryan: But and well, I I I read his book in lockdown, and that was another light bulb moment for me as well.
• 17:23
  Anthony Bryan: Because there's two chapters that really kind of hit home with me.
• 17:26
  Anthony Bryan: One was Be the Only.
• 17:28
  Anthony Bryan: And that I read this chapter, and he told this story of how when he lined up on the on the start line of the um triathlon, he looked to his left and he looked to his right, he's like, Yeah, these guys, they all train hard, they're fit, they're in good shape, but no, not one of them really stands out to me.
• 17:47
  Anthony Bryan: No one does what I do.
• 17:49
  Anthony Bryan: And then he looked over the other side and then he saw this guy in a wheelchair, and he's just perched on the edge, ready to dive into the water, ready for the race.
• 17:57
  Anthony Bryan: And he looked at him and went, There he is, that guy.
• 18:01
  Anthony Bryan: That guy is the only.
• 18:02
  Anthony Bryan: He's in the same league with me.
• 18:04
  Anthony Bryan: And when I when I read that, I thought, yeah, that's me.
• 18:09
  Anthony Bryan: Every single race, everything in my life I've ever done, I've always been the only disabled person doing it, but I've I've always shied away and been embarrassed with my disability.
• 18:18
  Anthony Bryan: So I shouldn't shy away and I should go out there and own it.
• 18:22
  Anthony Bryan: And I was like, and that's when I started kind of showing my training on social media, like my weightlifting, my running, and otherwise I would have just been embarrassed of it.
• 18:33
  Anthony Bryan: So that was a big confidence moment for me.
• 18:35
  Anthony Bryan: And the other chapter was the 40% rule, and that rule was he said in that chapter, when you think you're done and finished, you've got nothing left, and you've really hit that limit.
• 18:47
  Anthony Bryan: He said, You're actually only 40% done.
• 18:50
  Anthony Bryan: He said, if you keep pushing, you start to unlock a compartment of the brain that will be like, oh god, this guy's not gonna stop.
• 18:59
  Anthony Bryan: We need to keep him alive by giving everything we can, and then it's only then that you start realizing you can push further and keep going.
• 19:07
  Philip Pape: I wonder how many people ever experienced that in their entire life.
• 19:10
  Philip Pape: Like I've thought, I know I'm prone to want to things to be easy sometimes, right?
• 19:15
  Philip Pape: Like many of us wanna take it easy, we want to relax.
• 19:17
  Philip Pape: I used to do CrossFit, and I remember some of the wads were so grueling, but because you had this clock and competition, your brain was like, okay, I gotta keep going.
• 19:26
  Philip Pape: I it feels like I'm done, but keep going.
• 19:27
  Philip Pape: Not that I'm a huge fan of CrossFit for other reasons, but that's a different story altogether.
• 19:32
  Philip Pape: I think it's worth anybody listening, and I've had guests on the show that talks about this, to have some goal, some challenge, some race, some competition, something like that.
• 19:41
  Philip Pape: Like you sound like you did Hans constantly to push you to have to do that almost.
• 19:46
  Philip Pape: Like otherwise you're gonna be disappointed in yourself, who is the only person who cares, really, right?
• 19:50
  Philip Pape: Is yourself, let's be honest.
• 19:52
  Philip Pape: And so the Goggins thing is really good.
• 19:55
  Philip Pape: I know some people the controversy is like, you know, what when he's like bleeding and You know, stuff coming out of us.
• 20:01
  Philip Pape: You know, but but the general principles are still good.
• 20:06
  Philip Pape: So then like let's make it practical for somebody listening.
• 20:09
  Philip Pape: You know, maybe they don't have a disability, but like we all get, let's say, disabled at times or have an injury or pain or something that just sets them back or stops them.
• 20:17
  Philip Pape: Well, like, what's a good reframe?
• 20:18
  Philip Pape: And I'm sure it happens to you too, right?
• 20:20
  Philip Pape: You get injured or whatever.
• 20:21
  Philip Pape: What's your reframe?
• 20:22
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah, so for example, I can only use one arm and one leg, but I train just as hard as anyone else, if not more.
• 20:31
  Anthony Bryan: Um, I can do deadlifts, I can do as cane and press with one arm, I can do pull-ups.
• 20:36
  Anthony Bryan: And people just look at me and go, how do you do that?
• 20:41
  Anthony Bryan: And I just think I think outside the box, if I have an injury, how can I train my body best effectively?
• 20:49
  Anthony Bryan: And then every single exercise you in the world is adaptive.
• 20:53
  Anthony Bryan: You can do it just in a different way to make it work.
• 20:56
  Anthony Bryan: So, say you've broken your arm on one side, how are you gonna work your biceps?
• 21:01
  Anthony Bryan: So, how I would do it is I would get a strap around the part of the arm that's not broken, and I would cut.
• 21:06
  Anthony Bryan: If I've broken an ankle, how would how would I do squats?
• 21:12
  Anthony Bryan: I would put a box out and I would do single leg squats until my leg other leg is recovered.
• 21:17
  Anthony Bryan: Everything you do, there's always an adaptable way to do it.
• 21:21
  Anthony Bryan: For example, um, I went to the uh adaptive CrossFit Games last year, and I I came eighth in the world of the CrossFit Games, and in the finals I was up against guys using two two arms, and I can only use one arm, so when it came to the snatches and cleans, they're just like this, and I was struggling really hard, but I just didn't want to stop and give up because that's just demoralizing.
• 21:49
  Anthony Bryan: So, my advice would be there's always a way, there's not one set way to do things.
• 21:55
  Anthony Bryan: Find a way, find an adaption.
• 21:58
  Anthony Bryan: Look on Instagram, there's I have so many friends.
• 22:02
  Anthony Bryan: Um, one of my friends is everything he does is on crutches, so he can't use his legs very well, but he's done an Iron Man on his crutches, he's done a marathon on his crutches, and it's just the body is an incredible machine.
• 22:17
  Anthony Bryan: If you push it outside of its comfort zone to do a new thing, it will find a way to do it.
• 22:24
  Philip Pape: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 22:25
  Philip Pape: If you lose a sense, you lose a limb, you lose something.
• 22:28
  Philip Pape: We had someone on a long time ago, Kevin McShann, in a wheelchair, um, I think in a form of like cerebral palsy, so he could only do limited upper body stuff.
• 22:36
  Philip Pape: Man, he was so passionate about what he could do and like what he did every day and just came right through.
• 22:41
  Philip Pape: Uh, and by the way, I the reason I uh for the listener kind of tiptoed around CrossFit is because of what because of what Ezy just said.
• 22:49
  Philip Pape: He's an athlete and a competitor in that space, which is, in my opinion, a different world than just the everyday goers who go to CrossFit.
• 22:56
  Philip Pape: But uh let's let's dig in on that.
• 22:58
  Philip Pape: You know, it's funny because I'm having surgery next week on my rotator cuff.
• 23:02
  Philip Pape: Last time I did this, uh, I tried some things like a deadlift harness and I used a safety squat bar and things like that because I couldn't use an arm.
• 23:09
  Philip Pape: And, you know, anybody listening, the surgery thing is definitely a big reason people often ask for help, right?
• 23:16
  Philip Pape: Because they're like, here's how it's quite phrased.
• 23:19
  Philip Pape: What do I do?
• 23:20
  Philip Pape: I'm having surgery, the doctor's not gonna clear me for however much many number of weeks, which in some cases you can lift before that, but that's not for me to say.
• 23:27
  Philip Pape: I'm no not a medical expert.
• 23:28
  Philip Pape: And then what do I do because I'm not gonna be able to train for X?
• 23:31
  Philip Pape: And it's like immediately the excuse of I'm not gonna be able to train, so what do I do?
• 23:35
  Philip Pape: as opposed to how do I train?
• 23:37
  Philip Pape: Yeah, which I I prefer that question.
• 23:39
  Philip Pape: So maybe dig in a little bit more.
• 23:42
  Philip Pape: Like, obviously, they can go check you out.
• 23:43
  Philip Pape: They can go go on Instagram, chat GPT, heck.
• 23:46
  Philip Pape: I mean, there's like so many ways now to look up.
• 23:49
  Philip Pape: I don't have an arm for 12 weeks.
• 23:51
  Philip Pape: What do I do?
• 23:52
  Philip Pape: Maybe let's start here.
• 23:53
  Philip Pape: What do you know about the benefits of let's say you only have one arm because of surgery, the crossover effect?
• 24:00
  Philip Pape: Like, do you know much about the the cross?
• 24:02
  Philip Pape: You know what I'm talking about?
• 24:03
  Philip Pape: Cross-education effect where like training one side helps the other?
• 24:06
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah, it does because um it wires the brain.
• 24:09
  Anthony Bryan: Um say you you've broken an arm, you have another arm, you have legs, you have core.
• 24:16
  Anthony Bryan: Keep yourself fit, healthy, and strong, so that when your body your arm does recover, the the rest of the body's ready to go, and this one just will catch up.
• 24:27
  Philip Pape: Yeah.
• 24:28
  Philip Pape: Um stay stay strong before the surgery or two if you can, if you know that's what it is.
• 24:33
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah.
• 24:34
  Anthony Bryan: But the the whole body is wired together, so if you train one arm, it will still have an effect on the other arm.
• 24:41
  Anthony Bryan: Um, I don't know if you have you heard that um where you can visualize training in the gym, and it uh you can increase muscle by by two to three percent if you just visualize working out in the gym.
• 24:54
  Philip Pape: Because your body's gonna adapt yourself physiologically to that desire.
• 24:59
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah, and your subconscious.
• 25:00
  Philip Pape: That's incredible.
• 25:01
  Philip Pape: Yeah.
• 25:02
  Anthony Bryan: So I read this in the book the other day.
• 25:04
  Anthony Bryan: If you just lie down, visualize, and think about training in the gym, your subconscious will believe that you are actually kind of working out, and it will it's not gonna have the same amount of games than when you are in the gym, but it will give you a small percentage of strength.
• 25:21
  Philip Pape: I wouldn't be surprised because I used to be I'm skeptical, right?
• 25:25
  Philip Pape: But and not skeptical of that, I'm skeptical in general of life and everything.
• 25:29
  Philip Pape: Uh I'm just that type of guy.
• 25:30
  Philip Pape: But like simple things like not sitting all day has known to increase muscle protein synthesis by like 30%.
• 25:37
  Philip Pape: So I could imagine something mental like that could have a similar or even not as much of an effect, but still an effect, right?
• 25:45
  Philip Pape: So that's incredible.
• 25:46
  Philip Pape: Let me ask you when you do something like, since you've got one side of your body to work with, when you do a deadlift with one arm, how does that change the mechanics?
• 25:55
  Philip Pape: How does that change your approach?
• 25:57
  Philip Pape: Is it are there a lot of resources about those kinds of things, or is this the kind of thing where you really have to experiment with it?
• 26:03
  Philip Pape: I'm just curious, you know.
• 26:05
  Anthony Bryan: Um, so I would have a strap on um this side, which is like a harness, and I would attach it to the bar so it kind of evens me up a little bit.
• 26:14
  Anthony Bryan: Because I'm lifting of one side, yes.
• 26:18
  Anthony Bryan: It also all the weight and pressure comes down one side of my body.
• 26:22
  Anthony Bryan: So obviously the muscles around the pelvis and the spine get really tight.
• 26:28
  Anthony Bryan: So I then have to have sparse massages and see osteopaths and chiropractors weekly.
• 26:35
  Anthony Bryan: But yeah, lift lifting deadlift, I'd have to lift from the center of the bar.
• 26:41
  Anthony Bryan: Try it next time you're in the gym, just do a light deadlift one arm.
• 26:45
  Anthony Bryan: You will feel all this pressure and weight just go through one side of the body.
• 26:49
  Philip Pape: And the balance is tough too.
• 26:50
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah, so try and even up.
• 26:52
  Anthony Bryan: I use a harness around this shoulder and attach it to the bar.
• 26:56
  Anthony Bryan: Gives me a little bit a little bit more even tea.
• 26:58
  Philip Pape: Okay, yeah, and I was just curious, uh, because I've done the harness with no arms, right?
• 27:03
  Philip Pape: How you can do it like just with using your uh torso, and then the one arm definitely creates that asymmetry, which is interesting because yeah, now you're gonna have side effects you have to think about and kind of train around that.
• 27:14
  Philip Pape: Really cool, man.
• 27:15
  Philip Pape: So asymmetry now comes up as a topic.
• 27:18
  Philip Pape: I'm this is great.
• 27:19
  Philip Pape: Like I'm throwing away all my questions because we're just this is good stuff.
• 27:23
  Philip Pape: Okay.
• 27:23
  Philip Pape: I guess when you see people doing stuff in the gym, you know, do you have advice for people on like just training more efficiently given what you've learned that most people don't learn because they don't have to go through, you know what I'm saying?
• 27:35
  Philip Pape: Does that make sense?
• 27:36
  Anthony Bryan: Yes.
• 27:36
  Anthony Bryan: So what I've realized is when I see people training in a gym, that everyone's doing the basic things that they've seen online, and I'm like, let's break it down a bit.
• 27:46
  Anthony Bryan: I'm really good at thinking outside the box, and I make up different exercises, and they're like, Whoa, I feel that way more.
• 27:53
  Anthony Bryan: How did you learn that?
• 27:54
  Anthony Bryan: It's just like just thinking about it differently.
• 27:57
  Anthony Bryan: So I would say I see a lot of people bench press, but when you bench press, naturally everyone's a little bit stronger in one arm, so they're pushing slightly more with one arm.
• 28:07
  Anthony Bryan: So to counteract that, a dumbbell dumbbell press is way better because then both arms doing doing their own work.
• 28:13
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah, um, things like that.
• 28:15
  Anthony Bryan: Um I see a lot of women, all they do is kind of leg kicks on on the cables and things like that.
• 28:22
  Anthony Bryan: Or hip hip thrusts, that's that's all they do.
• 28:26
  Anthony Bryan: And I'm I just I'd say say to women, Bulgarian split squats is so much better for you because it's single leg, you're single and doing it.
• 28:34
  Anthony Bryan: And I say if you're doing a leg press, do a single leg leg press, because again, if you're doing leg press with both legs, only marginally, but one leg's gonna be pushing more than the other.
• 28:45
  Anthony Bryan: So I'd say build each leg up separately, and then think about them separately, then you can bring together, you can be even stronger.
• 28:53
  Anthony Bryan: So I'm always thinking single single, and a lot of time in the gym I see people doing double things, but then when I break it down for them, like whoa, I feel that way more.
• 29:05
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah.
• 29:05
  Anthony Bryan: But I find thinking outside the outside the box really kind of makes a difference because everyone thinks about training the same way.
• 29:14
  Philip Pape: Man, this is good stuff.
• 29:15
  Philip Pape: The but two things there.
• 29:16
  Philip Pape: You talk about unilateral training and being creative.
• 29:19
  Philip Pape: So the unilateral thing, I think a lot of people just find it hard, right?
• 29:23
  Philip Pape: And it's hard for a reason.
• 29:24
  Philip Pape: And if it is hard, ask yourself whether that maybe is why it's worth doing.
• 29:28
  Philip Pape: That's what I always tell myself when I'm doing a walking lunge and I haven't done those in a while.
• 29:32
  Philip Pape: And I'm like, holy crap, after just like 18 of these in a row, I will feel like I want to fall over, you know, and I wanted to get 25 or whatever.
• 29:39
  Philip Pape: It's super important.
• 29:40
  Philip Pape: And the idea that it's it's weird how the physics works.
• 29:43
  Philip Pape: When you do something bilaterally, you can generally handle more than twice the load as the two individual limbs, and you have to think about why that is.
• 29:52
  Philip Pape: There's like systemic support you're getting, right, from other parts of the body, which sometimes you want that, like you're trying to do that to develop the movement patterns.
• 30:00
  Philip Pape: But in your case, what you mentioned is hey, there are weak spots you're not getting because you're not loading the thing individually and hitting its weakness, like you said, because one is taking for the other.
• 30:10
  Anthony Bryan: And then what's doing individually, you bring it together, gives it even more strength.
• 30:14
  Philip Pape: Yeah, exactly.
• 30:15
  Philip Pape: And then it pushes the overall side.
• 30:16
  Philip Pape: I I agree.
• 30:17
  Philip Pape: It's a great, great point.
• 30:18
  Philip Pape: And then the creative side, you know, a lot of us don't figure that out for a while until think I'm raising my hand here because I used to be the guy who was like, hey, I don't know what to do, so I'm gonna do the basic pet movement patterns or the basic lifts that you tell me to do, which is a great foundation, right?
• 30:34
  Philip Pape: If you don't even lift at all, but the idea that you can use infinite types of grips and widths and like range of motion and disadvantaged positions, everything, right?
• 30:47
  Philip Pape: Yeah.
• 30:48
  Philip Pape: Are there are there like a top three type of change someone should experiment with next time they go in the gym?
• 30:54
  Philip Pape: Like just in general, if they're using a press, pressing movement or squatting, what kind of thing should they maybe experiment with?
• 31:01
  Anthony Bryan: Um, narrow squats versus wide squats.
• 31:04
  Anthony Bryan: Feel the difference in that for the quality.
• 31:06
  Anthony Bryan: Well, I like is um for the shoulders, I will always do a tricep and I'll do front raises, then I'll do lateral raises, and then I'll do front raises with thumb up, and then I'll do a shoulder press.
• 31:20
  Anthony Bryan: So that hits the front side top.
• 31:22
  Anthony Bryan: And you don't even need to go mad heavy.
• 31:25
  Anthony Bryan: If you go maybe five kilograms, you do things in pounds, but uh uh kilograms over here.
• 31:31
  Anthony Bryan: Um, you should go nice and light, you will feel the craziest burn in those shoulders instead of just going super heavy.
• 31:38
  Anthony Bryan: Because I find when a lot of guys going super heavy, they're not getting that full range of moving, they're jerking it, they're kind of half-repping it, or just momentum lifting.
• 31:48
  Anthony Bryan: Sometimes when you go lighter and get the movement patterns of each muscle, what I've learned is you've if you learn the movement patterns of the muscles and just really get them working, you don't need to go super heavy and you can strengthen them really, really, really well.
• 32:06
  Philip Pape: Again, some great points, right?
• 32:08
  Philip Pape: Because uh my coach Andy Baker is always he he's this big, massive, strong guy, right?
• 32:13
  Philip Pape: And he's always telling the guys in doing lateral raises, don't go so heavy, man, because he sees them coming up halfway and it's just like rounting, you know, right?
• 32:21
  Philip Pape: And it's like just and you're right, and there's so many ways there's scaption raises, thumb up, thumb down, you know, like because of my shoulder issue, I've realized like palms up sometimes, you know, supinated, whatever you call that, helps.
• 32:34
  Philip Pape: Uh, like if if your goal is hypertrophy, right?
• 32:36
  Philip Pape: We've talked about this on the show before.
• 32:38
  Philip Pape: If you're at least 30% of your max, as long as you train close to failure, you can grow muscle, right?
• 32:44
  Philip Pape: Like that's the general numbers.
• 32:46
  Philip Pape: Whereas if you're going for strength, it's 60%, or if you're going for like super heavy, you know, it's like 80, 90%.
• 32:52
  Philip Pape: Yeah.
• 32:52
  Philip Pape: So yeah, that's good stuff, man.
• 32:54
  Philip Pape: Um, yeah, I love this.
• 32:56
  Philip Pape: I love talking about training.
• 32:57
  Philip Pape: So auto-regulation was the next one I wanted to ask you about because uh some of us are in the fixed mindset of like, I have to go up on the bar, I have to increase my weight, I have to increase my load, and we or my reps, and we do have to have progressive overload.
• 33:13
  Philip Pape: Sometimes, though, people have a limitation again from fatigue.
• 33:16
  Philip Pape: It could be, you know, it could be you're just not eating enough lately and you have a lot of stress from your kids and your family, right?
• 33:21
  Philip Pape: It's the holidays, and you're just like wiped, even if maybe you are eating it, whatever, and all of a sudden you don't have the same capacity.
• 33:28
  Philip Pape: How do you feel like you're still getting a good uh training session and you're still making progress?
• 33:34
  Philip Pape: Like auto-regulation comes to mind, but what are your thoughts?
• 33:37
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah, mix it up, try new things.
• 33:39
  Anthony Bryan: I love playing about with um supersets and tri sets and things like that, and just try different things.
• 33:48
  Anthony Bryan: Um, don't always have to go super heavy max reps kind of thing.
• 33:53
  Anthony Bryan: What's super effective is um what I love is isometric holds, and then um so for some of my people that I train, try this session one day.
• 34:06
  Anthony Bryan: So you do a wall squat holding the wall squat for 20 seconds, then you do 10 leg extensions, then you go back to the wall squat, 10 leg extensions, 10 reps, 10 rounds, that's a hundred overall, and that is absolutely soul destroying.
• 34:28
  Philip Pape: Taking back a CrossFit, man.
• 34:30
  Philip Pape: Nightmares, but yes, it's good stuff.
• 34:35
  Philip Pape: 10 by 10 or 10 by 10, man, with the squat, 10x10 squat day was like brutal.
• 34:40
  Anthony Bryan: But massively strengthen you those legs.
• 34:42
  Philip Pape: I know, I know.
• 34:43
  Philip Pape: It's incredible.
• 34:44
  Philip Pape: Yeah, I love this stuff.
• 34:45
  Philip Pape: Thinking differently, you know, it brings to mind concepts like mind muscle connection, which is is a completely valid thing that I think people aren't tuning into.
• 34:53
  Philip Pape: I saw a good video years ago on YouTube.
• 34:56
  Philip Pape: Oh, you would know the guy.
• 34:57
  Philip Pape: Man, what was his name?
• 34:59
  Philip Pape: He always has his shirt off, of course, like a lot of the bros, right?
• 35:01
  Philip Pape: But he was talking about back training, and the back is so complicated, it's got so many muscles, so many muscle groups.
• 35:07
  Philip Pape: It's a beautiful thing.
• 35:08
  Philip Pape: And when you go for a massage, right, they take like, you know, 60% of the massage is on your back because of that.
• 35:14
  Philip Pape: Uh deadlift, squats, everything hits it.
• 35:17
  Philip Pape: But for me, as with the shoulder issue, I'm like trying to strengthen my back and scapula and rhomboids and traps and everything.
• 35:23
  Philip Pape: And I, for some reason, my entire life, I never did standing, narrow grip cable poles, right?
• 35:29
  Philip Pape: And it was just one of these things you stumble across because you're trying to be creative.
• 35:32
  Philip Pape: And that's the thing.
• 35:33
  Philip Pape: If you get in that mindset that Anthony's talking about of like, what else can I do to hit something just a bit different?
• 35:39
  Philip Pape: And then all of a sudden you find something and you do it and you're like, Nirvana.
• 35:43
  Philip Pape: I mean, it felt so good because you just felt this squeeze and like you can almost visualize the muscles rotating and squeezing, and you're like, okay, that's my lift.
• 35:52
  Philip Pape: And for the next guy, maybe it's useless.
• 35:54
  Philip Pape: Like, like it's it depends.
• 35:56
  Philip Pape: What's what's like what's your favorite?
• 35:58
  Philip Pape: Like, I don't know, two or three things like that that you're just maybe you discovered them by accident, or maybe whatever, you know, somebody told you about them.
• 36:06
  Anthony Bryan: So I'm always thinking about how can I put exercises together?
• 36:10
  Anthony Bryan: What really burns.
• 36:11
  Anthony Bryan: So I love super setting a chest, for example.
• 36:15
  Anthony Bryan: I would I'll get um I'll go on a bench and I would fly, not too heavy, but heavy enough, then straight into chest press.
• 36:25
  Anthony Bryan: That will get you on the sides and then straight into the middle afterwards and fatigue you beat time, things like that.
• 36:31
  Philip Pape: Uh one of the things is that is that a fly with dumbbells or like a machine fly?
• 36:35
  Anthony Bryan: Dumbbells, yeah.
• 36:36
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah.
• 36:36
  Anthony Bryan: And then if you wanted to try set, I would add another exercise in.
• 36:40
  Anthony Bryan: Uh maybe cables and fly them in underneath the body, and that really gets you, or a pec fly machine, really good as well.
• 36:50
  Anthony Bryan: I had this uh bigger guy, and he was doing I said to him, Do you ever like get DOMs the next day after doing flies?
• 36:56
  Anthony Bryan: He's like, Nah, never.
• 36:58
  Anthony Bryan: I was like, Alright, let me try this with you.
• 37:00
  Anthony Bryan: Um, so have you heard of like net negative training?
• 37:03
  Philip Pape: Yeah, net the the negative, the eccentric.
• 37:05
  Philip Pape: Yeah, where you all know.
• 37:06
  Anthony Bryan: So I got I got I got him to do 10 heavy pet flies, and then I said to him, Hold the the um the machine into the middle really, really hard, and I want you to keep it there for 10 seconds, and I'm gonna pull this machine out.
• 37:19
  Anthony Bryan: He's like, Okay, go.
• 37:21
  Anthony Bryan: So I'm pulling the machine out, and he's like holding it in.
• 37:25
  Anthony Bryan: But then after that, he's like, mate, when you pull that machine out, feels like you're tearing the chest bit by bit.
• 37:32
  Anthony Bryan: I was like, technically, that's what we're doing, and it it's gonna give you that massive extra bit of strength.
• 37:37
  Anthony Bryan: He's like, Oh, amazing!
• 37:39
  Philip Pape: Awesome, man.
• 37:40
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah, so if you can um bring negatives into some of the exercises, well, that's it, it burns and it's hard, but wicked effect.
• 37:48
  Philip Pape: Yeah, yeah, that that's one of those things you have to think about.
• 37:50
  Philip Pape: You have to sit down like the day before, right?
• 37:53
  Philip Pape: And really look up on YouTube and figure out how do I make that happen?
• 37:56
  Philip Pape: Because most machines or setups are not designed for negatives, right?
• 37:59
  Philip Pape: Like a bench would be super dangerous for a negative if you don't, you know, like a bet like a barbell, you know.
• 38:06
  Anthony Bryan: And there's one there's one that I made up.
• 38:08
  Anthony Bryan: I made uh woman do leg extensions on the machine, and then on a tenth one, I said, hold your legs up there and keep them there.
• 38:15
  Anthony Bryan: So she held them up, then I would come on top and I'll try and push the legs down so the quads are burning and holding.
• 38:22
  Anthony Bryan: That's another one where you could do as well.
• 38:24
  Anthony Bryan: So legs in the knob.
• 38:25
  Philip Pape: It makes total sense, man.
• 38:26
  Philip Pape: It makes total sense.
• 38:27
  Philip Pape: I mean, when you every time you do a deadlift really heavy, you're you're kind of doing an isometric hold in the middle, you know, you're you're for for a couple seconds, aren't you?
• 38:35
  Philip Pape: Like with the the erectors, right?
• 38:37
  Anthony Bryan: Right with the sponda, yeah.
• 38:38
  Philip Pape: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 38:39
  Philip Pape: Um, yeah, it's crazy to think about all this stuff.
• 38:41
  Philip Pape: And and anyone listening, like if you're feeling overwhelmed, if you never lifted before, this is all new to you, you know, don't get overwhelmed.
• 38:47
  Philip Pape: Just put it in your back pocket and just when the time comes, come back and listen to this episode.
• 38:52
  Philip Pape: You have it.
• 38:52
  Philip Pape: Just make sure you're trading.
• 38:53
  Philip Pape: If you're not trading, you gotta be trading.
• 38:55
  Philip Pape: All right.
• 38:56
  Philip Pape: So another thing we talk about a lot on the show is we say listening to your body, but in an objective way, like in a data, a data-based way, not necessarily biohacking, but like, you know, paying attention to your recovery.
• 39:08
  Philip Pape: I know you mentioned DOMs and soreness.
• 39:11
  Philip Pape: You know, we kind of go back and forth on that.
• 39:12
  Philip Pape: If we're talking about strength type movements where you're not necessarily chasing that versus more hypertrophy and supersetting and high rep stuff, but what kind of signals do you like to track, pay attention to for performance, for biofeedback, even nutrition?
• 39:27
  Philip Pape: Like what are your what's your bag of tricks for data?
• 39:31
  Anthony Bryan: Um, hydration, um, watching, watch out for the color of your urine.
• 39:35
  Anthony Bryan: That that's a big one, I think.
• 39:36
  Anthony Bryan: It's a good one.
• 39:37
  Philip Pape: Yeah.
• 39:38
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah, because everyone kind of skips that and that gives you energy.
• 39:41
  Anthony Bryan: Um, makes you feel awake.
• 39:43
  Anthony Bryan: Um, sleep.
• 39:44
  Anthony Bryan: Sleep's a good one.
• 39:45
  Anthony Bryan: You have to get those hours in.
• 39:46
  Anthony Bryan: Don't don't be staying up all hours and then having five hours of sleep and going getting up.
• 39:52
  Anthony Bryan: Makes a massive difference.
• 39:53
  Anthony Bryan: And you'll make a massive difference through a gym session, whether you're tired or not.
• 39:57
  Anthony Bryan: Even pre-workout gels.
• 40:01
  Anthony Bryan: I I try I try to stay away from pre-workout.
• 40:04
  Philip Pape: Like you mean actual pre-workout compact substances?
• 40:07
  Philip Pape: Like but do you eat you do you feed do you eat do you uh train faster or fed?
• 40:13
  Anthony Bryan: If I've got a big competition I'll be I'll be fed.
• 40:17
  Anthony Bryan: But I try and work out faster.
• 40:20
  Philip Pape: Oh interesting.
• 40:20
  Anthony Bryan: Alright.
• 40:21
  Anthony Bryan: Because I want my muscles to push themselves without that energy source so that they're like working harder.
• 40:29
  Philip Pape: You know that that is that's like the only legitimate reason other than schedule that I've ever heard and I like it.
• 40:35
  Philip Pape: I like it Anthony because you know there's a lot of claims about facet training that aren't true right but the idea that you are using it as a challenge as a deficit almost right as an eccentric training form let's say I want my body to train with that without that energy source.
• 40:51
  Philip Pape: And then when I give it the energy source for the competition it's like oh I can do that now because it's got that makes sense man I'm feeding it yeah no no that makes a lot of sense it it's like when I've been in a fat loss phase for 16 weeks and then I have a huge buffet Sunday night before I train Monday all of a sudden my deadlift like you know goes up 20 pounds right uh it's like because I I stay away from caffeine yeah then when when I have like um a big race I might have an energy drink before and then I'll be like whoa during the race and I feel like get where what does energy come from?
• 41:25
  Philip Pape: That's a really great point is the tolerance factor because a lot of us are hooked on caffeine myself included.
• 41:30
  Anthony Bryan: I mean I have coffee and pre-workouts and so you could have caffeine you could have the energy before and it worked no effect.
• 41:36
  Philip Pape: Yeah yeah yeah yeah it's it's it's you've got to make that trade off if you're gonna do it right like um you mentioned sleep of course we're always gonna hammer home on sleep I heard a podcast recently I think it was actually next level university uh who's um Kevin Palmer he's one of my podcast producers so I always like to give him a shout out him and his business partner Alan and they were talking about sleep uh they talked about a story this professor said about or not a professor but motivational speaker he said imagine going to a college campus and the big thing there is everyone smokes cigarettes right everyone's smoking cigarettes they love it it's like the big thing you've got to smoke cigarettes crazy idea right like crazy idea imagine you go to another one and everyone is just shooting up heroin like everybody in the campus that's the thing they do they all shoot up heroin we'd shut the campus down overnight right now go to another campus and every kid is falling asleep during the day taking Adderall or taking whatever and you're like wait a minute that is college campuses right and his point was they're all almost the same level of health detriment over the long term being sleep deprived smoking taking drugs they're all like let's say toxic to you I don't know if you agree with that I just want to share that because I recently heard it and I'm like it's a good way to frame how important but neglected and accepted poor sleep can be what are your thoughts on sleep man lay it on us like how do you get good sleep besides the number of hours it's tough one um I find what makes me sleep better is re reading a book before before I go to bed.
• 43:08
  Anthony Bryan: Love that because I I found I'm reading after about 20 pages I'm like oh my eyes are stinging now and then as soon as you close your eyes you're like don't sit on your phone before bed uh scrolling because that's gonna they've got I've read this it's got it's got that blue light or something that and that's designed to kind of keep you awake.
• 43:28
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah so what helps me is reading and that that sends me off to sleep.
• 43:34
  Anthony Bryan: Not in a bad way but a good way.
• 43:36
  Philip Pape: No I I actually it's funny you mentioned that we're we're kindred spirits my man because like I'm reading a post apocalyptic fiction novel right now and I read it every night in bed.
• 43:44
  Philip Pape: Now I have a Kindle but what I do is I wear red I wear amber tinted blue blocking glasses and then the Kindle is on black mode so it's like only the text is white and I'm just sitting there uh with the lights off because my wife needs to sleep she goes to bed earlier than I do.
• 43:58
  Philip Pape: And you're right after about 20 minutes if that you're just like you might even fall asleep with the book and you're good.
• 44:04
  Philip Pape: Do you read like a physical book with a light or how do you read?
• 44:09
  Anthony Bryan: Yeah physical book yeah and I try and read self-help books and because okay because I I watched another thing that um anything that you kind of comes into your your process before you go to sleep kind of goes into a subconscious and you start thinking about it.
• 44:24
  Anthony Bryan: So a lot of people before they go to bed they'll watch the news and it's all negative like war poverty and it's like doom and gloom doom and gloom so put a bit of positivity into your mind by reading it and I don't know if it's true or not but it kind of brings that into a subconscious kind of thing.
• 44:44
  Anthony Bryan: So I kind of read positivity self-help books before I go to sleep.
• 44:49
  Philip Pape: So the listener needs to pay attention here because Anthony is full of like tons of wisdom.
• 44:53
  Philip Pape: I get the sense man that you've just learned this through the school of hard knocks a lot of this stuff.
• 44:58
  Philip Pape: Yes the way you talk is like supernatural it's just something I learned whereas a guy like me who are like studying this stuff and trying to make it for a podcast, you know, it's it's a little more like um kind of learned from a book, right?
• 45:11
  Philip Pape: But what you just said again is something something I learned not long ago.
• 45:15
  Philip Pape: Now you've you've known it just naturally to not stress yourself out with what you're reading and experiencing before bed.
• 45:21
  Philip Pape: Like don't watch a highly stressful movie or TV show for example.
• 45:25
  Philip Pape: Don't read terrible news.
• 45:27
  Philip Pape: Now I told you I read post apocalyptic novel to me that's relaxing but I guess it's all it's kind of like for me playing a video game that's violent actually relaxes me but it's not necessarily the case for everyone right so I wouldn't do that before bed though.
• 45:41
  Philip Pape: So yeah guys listen up this is this is really great wisdom.
• 45:44
  Philip Pape: All right what else so sleep we covered sleep what about so that's that's a big part of recovery is there anything else any other recovery practices that you like so recently um one of my one of the guys I know actually um kind of helped me get into this um ice baths ice bath oof yeah okay horrible horrible thing but what what I found was um so I started having ice cold showers before my races and then I found that my my running was going really well and I kind of looked into it and basically instead of having a hot shower um so I would have a hot shower first and I'll have a cold shower after and what I was doing was um I was firing up my fight or flight system straight away in the morning so then it's basically turning on all my muscles and my fight or flight system getting ready to go to go fight or go to run that race and I found that my performance level just went up another level I hate it but now every time I compete I'll have a cold shower before I go and I just find I I'm more alert um I can I perform better my muscles are sharper and that's that's something I learned along the way.
• 47:00
  Philip Pape: Yeah it's it's funny you mentioned the performance aspect because I did an episode not long ago about like all the things that are overrated and one of them on on the list was ice baths but I said in that episode except if you're using it on like a performance day or between you know your max lifts on a powerlifting meet or something because you're right that like that uh hormetic effect I guess is the word or that like acute effect is powerful but there's not really a long-term benefit if you're trying to get more jacked or something you know it doesn't necessarily help with that so I'm glad again you you've got natural wisdom my friend like this is good stuff and I I totally have heard that ice bass can be really powerful for competition right that's cool that's good yeah so speaking of competition man um a lot of people have no experience with the level of stage you've been on and I'm just curious like what that experience is like for you how especially your first maybe your first one I don't know maybe it just was a daze because I know you were younger but you know what is that like and and is there a lesson there for people who may be interested even a small like local powerlifting meet or something like that.
• 48:03
  Anthony Bryan: It's it's gonna be nerve wracking um you're gonna get those butterflies but give it a go and what I've what I've learned is you're gonna go into these competitions and you're gonna look at the the top people and think I'm awful I'm nothing like them but what I've learned is go to that competition and give your absolute best whatever you can do and that's that's a PB and then every time you go to a competition you set your benchmark as that now you gotta beat yourself if you against you beat yourself don't don't focus on how much they're lifting or what they're doing because the real the real achievement is you're getting better and better and better.
• 48:44
  Anthony Bryan: Every competition you do write down your PB and be like right I'm coming for you you're my competition today and that's what I do every time I go for a race I don't focus on all the other people that flying past me.
• 48:58
  Anthony Bryan: I'm going out there to beat me and that and that that's that's my main kind of mantra every time I go out there.
• 49:06
  Anthony Bryan: I'm gonna go lift in CrossFit I'm gonna go out and beat me this weekend I'm I'm doing a high rox race so I'm I'm going out to try and beat myself this weekend.
• 49:15
  Philip Pape: Good luck or break a leg or whatever we're supposed to say beat yourself beat yourself um so is that is that 100% true my man or you gotta have some sense of competition right though oh a hundred percent yeah if um if if I'm if I'm near the front leader I'm I'm chasing them now I'm going for them but it's like those who are just getting started.
• 49:38
  Philip Pape: Yeah yeah you everybody can't expect to be the winner uh especially right out of the gate yeah yeah yeah but if if I'm going in to be the best I'm I'm gonna guns blazing I'm going for it.
• 49:49
  Philip Pape: Yeah I always wonder competition's interesting and I know there's a difference sometimes between the sexes men and women I'm just gonna say it I'm just gonna say it you can hate on me but like there you know from all the messages I have all the time it's my guy buddies who also lift weights and we we kind of push ourselves through metaphorical competition all the time from afar.
• 50:07
  Philip Pape: And it's like you know we rag on each other for our numbers sometimes but we know hey you're a hundred pounds more you weigh a hundred pounds more than me dude so like of course you're gonna you know bench more than I do.
• 50:17
  Philip Pape: So and we can joke about it like guys, you know, a good sign of friendship is that you could sarcastically make fun of each other, right?
• 50:23
  Philip Pape: And like be cool with it.
• 50:24
  Philip Pape: But I I think it's interesting with competition because you want to be pushed by things around you.
• 50:31
  Philip Pape: And I think like the CrossFit world is a good place where that happens.
• 50:34
  Philip Pape: I think community it happens but there's like a healthy level of that that pushes you to ultimately do what you're saying, which is beat yourself.
• 50:41
  Philip Pape: What am I trying to get at here is like how can people find a community that can push them and help them because throughout this whole conversation it's been like you've had coaches and trainers and friends and people to learn from and lean on yeah how what if somebody feels alone out there and like trying to go alone but you don't really want to go to loan how how do they find that community you need to go out to to the the club the the training clubs need to get to go online look up CrossFit look up weightlifting get down there meet people find a circle of people that are doing the same thing as you because surround yourself by people that are doing the things you want to do and you'll learn from them and you'll grow together in everything with cycling groups running groups um I found massively um a lot of my friends a lot of pi you you find friends in these groups and then you'll find yourself grown because you that you're learning from them and doing new things and yeah just keep pushing yourself to try new things go online find a group and just join in.
• 51:43
  Philip Pape: And what is the new thing you're trying now?
• 51:45
  Anthony Bryan: Pyrox uh okay that's your new thing all right yeah all right so that's your very first race ever right tomorrow or this weekend this is my second yeah and so so um when I for when I did my first one I came uh I ranked second in the world so now this weekend I'm trying to chase that guy in the first in the world oh my god okay I didn't I didn't realize that I I did a lot of research on you but I couldn't get all the accolades because there's so many this is all new this happened last month and the last one okay now wait is that what like what's the what's the like what does what's the class or the group you're in I'm just curious I don't know how it's organized.
• 52:19
  Anthony Bryan: Um so it's it's neurological so anyone has had um like a stroke or a brain injury um so it's a bit like separal pausy separate is a brain injury and um what I've found is like I've found this whole new community of people it's athletes that just want to push themselves and I put a video of me doing burpees of one arm and one leg and on Instagram it blew up to like 3000 hits.
• 52:43
  Philip Pape: I was like whoa and I'm finding this new community of people that are like you're smashing it man keep pushing and I think high rocks it's it's a it's a competition of people they just want to push themselves from elite athletes to your everyday athlete and it kind of brings them all together and crossfits a bit more for your elites right yeah yeah yeah that's awesome man that's awesome no we're root we're rooting for you um and I want people to go check out all your content and check out you because if nothing else they could be inspired but if more than that it take action based on what you've shared with us today.
• 53:22
  Anthony Bryan: This has been truly a pleasurable and and enlightening conversation for sure and I mean that in all the honest ways that I try so where can people reach out to you Anthony so they can check out you your content connect with you find some community um so you can find me on Instagram at the no limits athlete um or just type in my name Anthony Bryan I also have a YouTube channel where I do exercise classes for people with disabilities or mobility issues and that's called Ant Brian Fitness.
• 53:50
  Philip Pape: All right so just to clarify we'll put those in the show notes for everyone the no limits athlete is Instagram and on YouTube it is at Ant BrianFitness.
• 54:01
  Philip Pape: So that's Ant Shore for Anthony BrianFitness those will be in the show notes everyone don't worry about it if you can't find it and man thank you for coming on Wits and Weights it's been a pleasure meeting you talking with you I feel pumped myself like I gotta go do something now and not sit on my ass when we're done yeah man thanks for coming on thanks for having me great great to see ya