Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 13 - Austin Current: Pragmatism, Muscle Memory, Proximity to Failure and Staying Afloat.

Episode Date: April 4, 2020

In this episode, I sit down with Austin Current (@austincurrent_). We talk about a variety of things, including, but not limited to:Things to be positive about during these uncertain times.Muscle memory, myonuclei, and how your past training will help you bounce back faster.How to make gains with bands, sprints, and training closer to failure.Nutritional tweaks you can make to preserve and build on what you have.Lifestyle adjustments for staying fit and healthy.What should trainers be focusing on RIGHT NOW.You can out more about Austin and the many projects he is involved with below:To learn about COFIT-19, click HERETo work with Austin and the Physique Development Team, click HERESupport the Show.

Guys, welcome back to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue Podcast. Today we get to sit down with Austin Curran, co-owner of PhysiqueDevelopment.com and one of the best and brightest young coaches in the space. Today's episode is extremely encouraging, in my opinion, for anybody dealing with this COVID-19 situation. The title of the episode is all about pragmatism, and we are going to go over everything from training strategies, nutrition strategies, to even lifestyle and mindset strategies that you can deploy today. And I guarantee that by the end

of the episode, you'll be in a better mood, you'll feel better about what you can accomplish, and you'll feel uplifted and encouraged as to what you can do moving forward through this time. Thanks so much for listening and enjoy today's episode with Austin Current. So Austin, how's it going, man? Pretty well, man. How are you? Excellent. I'm doing well and I'm feeling very fortunate to have what I have and be where I'm at.

And we talked a lot off air kind of about some of the things that you and I have both been working on to maintain our physiques and help our clients maintain their physiques, their fitness goals, and what they've accomplished up until this point. And you hit on a few things that I think a lot of people would really be encouraged to hear that would be uplifting from everything from muscle memory to proximity to failure to things they can implement with nutrition. But the first one I want to highlight is muscle memory. And hopefully we can talk a little bit about that because I think that that will really encourage people to abandon the I've lost everything mentality that I'm seeing a lot. So let's talk about that.

Yeah, man. And this is kind of something I'm going to be speaking on in a kind of an online seminar setting as well over the weekend. But I'll just kind of go over some brief notes and stuff that I'll be kind of speaking over. So specific to, you know, this time and how much volume is needed to maintain muscle tissue and uh how can i what type of training uh can i can i do during this time to keep my muscle tissue around is have i lost all hope uh you know if i lost all my muscle and just to again kind of just be pragmatic about it and have a good overview and positive outlook on it the answer answer, the quick answer is no, you're not going to lose the tissue that you've gained. Um, and knowing and speaking on muscle memory from a standpoint of, you know, as we train and as our muscles grow, there's things happening from a genetic standpoint,

there's things are down to the DNA and RNA of our cells. Um, and there's things happening from a cell perspective, looking at, uh, my own nuclei, like you mentioned, and, uh, multiplying those and adding those. So adding a nucleus, you know, adding more nuclei to the muscles themselves, uh, which are that kind of that command center that govern and, and essentially, yeah, just govern the growth and the maintenance of your muscle cells. So as you're training and stuff, and as you're growing up leading up to this, you know, lockdown period and this pandemic itself, you were adding almost kind of putting reserves into the bank, putting things into savings, um, as far as kind of adaptations go. And now you're sort of milking those and living off those

adaptations a bit, um, while doing your best to keep things maintained. Uh, so think about budgeting in the sense of finances, you're kind of budgeting your training right now in the sense of hitting the things you need to hit. Um, so when speaking on the amount of volume that's needed per muscle group and proximity to failure while training. So if you only have access to resistance bands and maybe TRX or very limited equipment, or even you have a home, your own home gym, and you're very fortunate in that situation, the volume needed to maintain tissue is quite low. Um, I've seen anything from four sets a week to eight sets a week per muscle group. And so, you know, the exact number is not definitive. And I think it's not definitive one because there's restrictions on the research and the

methodology used there. But I think there's this individual variability to those numbers and each person is going to be a little different. So just know that at a very, very low. So if you train normally five days a week and you get after it, you're probably close to 15 to 20 sets per week per muscle group, if not more for some people And you're, you may be freaking out right now and saying like, Oh my gosh, I'm doing, you know, a quarter or more, less than a quarter of what I normally do. You know, am I going to lose muscle? And the case is no. Um, and with those four to eight sets per week, if what you can do, even if you have very limited equipment, you know, almost throw reps out the

window at this point. And what we've been programming for our clients is the amount of sets. The only thing it says in the reps column is AMAN, meaning as many as needed. And then we give a reps and reserve number. So like how close to failure are we going? And typically it's, you know, anywhere from three to five sets or, you know, upwards of six sometimes, depending on your availability of equipment. Uh, and then as many reps as it takes to reach the proximity to failure, that reps and reserve number of kind of one to three reps till failure. And depending on that, you can get a lot done. No, and I quite agree with that. I found the same thing to be true for my clients. You really hit on something that I

thought was a great analogy with how you kind of made the comparison between the training you've done prior to this and the effect that has on how you express stuff at the genetic level for your muscle tissue, being able to kind of keep you afloat during this time. And about myonuclei, while we train, we develop muscle tissue, we develop new muscle fibers perhaps even, but we also develop those myonuclei that during traditional training might not do nearly as much. But after a period of detraining or a period of maintenance that people are in right now, when people go back to training heavy might not do nearly as much, but after a period of detraining or a period of maintenance that

people are in right now, when people go back to training heavy in two, three, four months, however long this might be, all those myonuclei you've accumulated over the weeks, months, years you've been training, they get to ramp up and they get to help you get back to where you were at more quickly. And so I think that just people being aware of that kind of lets them take a breath and go, you know, I have some underlying machinery here that's built into me that's going to make me not only be able to get through this, but get back to where I was more quickly. And that's something that I don't think a lot of people are talking about. And I'm really glad that you brought it up because I think it gives people a little bit of hope

on the back end of this. And another thing you said that I think was really nice was throwing reps out the window and just focusing on an intensity factor of, you know, one to five reps close to failure with whatever training modality you're using, whether it's body weight, TRX bands, because there's some degree of stimulation that you're getting closer to failure that you might not get if you're just doing arbitrary sets and reps. Can you talk a little bit more about perhaps what's happening within tissue when you get closer to failure or what's happening from a tension standpoint, a metabolic standpoint that people might want to know that they can do stimulate or achieve with even body weight or low equipment training? Yeah, I think an easy way to put it is

just the, you know, putting tension on a muscle. So, so loading a muscle, obviously there's a certain amount of motor union, motor units that are recruited by your nervous system when you pick up a load or train to a certain intensity. And the more intensity that you get, and the more, the deeper into fatigue you get, the more of those motor units have to start firing. And the more tension is caused and subsequently, the more intense the modality of training is, right So, um, as far as that goes, you know, that's kind of what you're doing. And so if you don't have the, the overall load to force that tension to be created within the muscle tissue, we have to do it a different way. And that's kind of where within the research people, you know, you'll sometimes hear you can grow muscle with anywhere between

six and 30 reps per set. And it's like, okay, how does that work? And it's a matter of working into fatigue and proximity to failure. So obviously if you're upwards of 30 reps in a set, that load is going to have to be very low. And I think that's a period of time that we're kind of in right now and where that research is coming into hand, coming in handy because, um, you know, when you go to the gym, normally I personally don't find that research to be that helpful in programming for hypertrophy or doing anything like that, just because doing a set to 30 more than one set to 30, that's exhausting. And if you do that over and over and over again, like, you know, there's some people that I think enjoy that, but when it comes down

to it, if you can get the same amount of work done with eight to 12 reps, okay, let's do that. That seems to be more efficient. Um, but as far as being able to create that intensity and that level of tension and, and firing by your nervous system to recruit those motor unit motor units. I don't know why I'm struggling to say that. The, you know, the less load you have to work with, the more reps you got to do and the closer and closer you'll get to failure as you kind of work through those reps. And you're, you're somebody who I've kind of always looked at in this space as being very, very capable of articulating the importance of technique and mechanics. Are there things people can do with

their technique and their mechanics right now to potentially get more tension or recruit more motor units with less volume, even if they just use body weight and bands? Yeah. So there's some intensifiers as far as that goes. So one thing I really love within, if you only have a suspension system like the TRX, or you only have resistance bands or body weight or anything like that, I really, really enjoy an advanced protocol that called quarter reps. Um, so it's basically like you're doing one and a quarter reps and that counts as like one rep, for example. So, and if you, let's say you have a resistance band that you're doing kind of a pull down with. So you do that pull down, you know, through the full range of motion. And then instead of going all the way up after that rep, you go, you come down, go a quarter

of the way up and then go back down. And the reason for that is you're intensifying that tension. So, you know, with a band, there's little to no tension as you start to return to that starting position. So the more we can spend time where the tension's greatest, the more tension will be able to be created and the more intensity in that, that repetition and the, you know, the less overall volume you'll have to do. And I'll tell you right now, you can do something similar to that within a squat. So you can, you know, if you're doing a body weight squat, you can go down, reach, reach depth, reach the bottom, go up a quarter of a rep

and then return down under control, reach the bottom again, and then come back up to the top. And that's one rep. And I'll be honest with you. I've, I've been doing techniques like that and intensifiers like that. And even with body, you know, body weight, TRX and resistance band only for resistance. I've been like, I've, I've left myself sore for days at this point. So you can definitely still get the work done. Yeah. One I've been playing with a lot, two things. We'll probably talk more about the second one. Cause I think the first one is a little bit more aligned with what you talked about already are EQIs or eccentric quasi isometrics, where you essentially just do one concentric contraction,

hold it in the shortened position, and then allow the natural impetus of the weight to lengthen that tissue back out. You let that extend over one, two, three minutes. And it's essentially one rep. It's a short concentric contraction and then a very long isometric that becomes a essentially full eccentric contraction, but it's one full rep. And the ability that I've gotten to kind of increase my sensation, my perception of tissue are like, hey, I really feel that in my lats or whatever it is I'm working on is something positive too, because it's increased my mind muscle connection. It's increased my competency as a lifter and it's

encouraged me to put more intent into each rep that I'm doing. So, I think playing with tools like one and a quarter reps, EQIs and just making the most of what you have can be really, really valuable. Now, on the note of motor unit recruitment, you actually talked a little bit about off air how you've been doing some sprints. I have also been trying to do some sprints. Now, sprints are, they're never easy to do. But I think that they're something that does require a very high degree of motor unit recruitment. And if you look at the physiques of the people who sprint, they tend to have quite a bit of muscle.

sprint, they tend to have quite a bit of muscle. Would you say that higher velocity contractions and things like sprinting are tools that people could use right now to potentially help maintain or even establish potential for building muscle? Yeah. And I think under a body weight, under body weight conditions, absolutely. Especially with spr Um, because yeah, I mean, you said it. So even, even looking at, uh, the physiques of sprinters, obviously they're doing stuff outside of sprinting, um, as well, you know, they're, they're deep into strength training and building muscle tissue and strength and power and all that stuff as well. But, you know, if you don't have the loads to be explosive and dynamic, um, like with normal Olympic lifts, like, like the cleans and, and the jerks and stuff like that, then I think sprinting is a great way right now to kind of elicit a similar stimulus or similar stress on your,

on your physiology. Yeah. I think that would be encouraging for anybody who's perhaps not physique oriented, but maybe they're more performance oriented and they're typically used to getting those more explosive training stimuli from weights. You might move on to something like sprints. So we've covered some really cool things like myonuclei, the potential for muscle memory, how you can get a lot out of body weight training, but you're also somebody who knows quite a bit about nutrition. Are there things that people can be doing from a nutrition standpoint to help maintain their muscle to the best of their ability right now? Yeah. So I think there are a few things. So the first one, probably the most overarching one is going to be protein intake, being sure that that's adequate. And it's really anywhere between,

so we'll go per pound, grams per pound. So if you go anywhere between 0.6 to maybe 1.4 grams per pound of body weight, you can ideally keep muscle tissue around. Obviously, if you have the means to be on the upper limit of that requirement, I would recommend it just out of overall, especially if you're still training, just out of kind of a safety net. But also, depending on where you are in the world, depending on where you are in this country, in the United States, I have clients who are in these little pockets in the U S that, you know, here in Denver, our shelves are pretty stocked. I mean, there's, you know, the, the normal, you know, like the toilet paper set, you know, those, those things that are pretty

obvious that are just being wiped out, um, in terms of their stock, like canned goods and stuff like that, that people are kind of just buying in bulk, you know, those are, those are gone, but as a whole normal foods and normal, the shelves are normally stocked within, you know, within Denver city limits. But I do have clients who are in these places where, you know, their grocery stores are still just ransacked and they haven't been able to get more food in there. So as far as being able to make their protein sources last a bit longer, you may want to reduce it. So if you're, you know, you're someone eating 1.4 grams per pound of protein per day, that's quite a bit, especially when we're within a pandemic and you may not have all that food available, or you may not have all that food available or you may not have the financial means to keep that up or that high.

So that's kind of why I mentioned the more of like the 0.6 to 0.8 grams per pound because it's still shown within the literature to be a positive net as far as protein balance and doing the job, especially during a time of less overall stress, most likely on your muscles themselves. Yeah. So I'll let you go. No, I think you're spot on. And I've experienced that with clients too. There's a lot of variability as to what people have access to when they actually get to the store. Some are completely able to buy all their traditional staples. Others are really, really limited. Like I even had one client who was like, dude, the only protein I could get was salami. And I'm like, okay, well that's in, in every other scenario, that's probably suboptimal, but get what you can.

And even if you are somebody who's going to be forced to be more on that side of 0.6 to 0.8 grams per pound, maybe there's things you can do with your protein feeding frequency. Perhaps we make a more concerted effort at this time to spread that out into four feedings of close to equivalent size because that might be a little bit better than two feedings. And now is the time where I think that learning to pull on different levers and tweak different factors is going to make coaches, lifters, and fitness enthusiasts alike more adept at one controlling on certain situations moving forward, but it'll give them

a better understanding of, Hey, I can really effectively help myself out by changing small little variables. Yeah. And I think another thing to mention, that's a really good point. I think another thing to mention as well that we kind of talked about off air was meal structure that you just mentioned, but also just your routine and stuff like that. Because, you know, if you're not going to work or, you know, you're working from home, your routine that you normally have those triggers, those cues to eat or to eat certain foods, um, you know, those are gone and you may be more at risk of making poor decisions with food. Now that you are home, maybe more around your family

or your children, um, who don't be obviously eat probably the diet that elicits the best overall body composition response. So if you're someone that wants to keep your goals going and you want to keep that unwanted body fat off during this time, things that we mentioned with training are very, very useful, but also from a nutritional standpoint, keeping structure, keeping your routine, keeping your sleep, uh, as high as good as it can get. So limiting caffeine intake, uh, meal structure and meal timing is huge as it works off circadian rhythm and allows our body to kind of work off that internal clock, um, which can help, uh, improve sleep. And if you don't take care of it, it can actually be detrimental to sleep. Um, and then being sure that you're being active each day and, um, stuff

like that. But from a nutritional standpoint, I think the meal structure and the meal timing, like you mentioned with protein feedings and being sure that you're able to, to kind of keep that, uh, as structured each day as you can within, you know, 30 minutes to an hour with each other on any given day, I think is a good idea. Yeah, I agree. And I think that from a lifestyle standpoint, right, like implementing some training stimulus, it's going to help you train closer to failure with high amounts of tension, that's going to be big, making sure you're in that protein range is going to be huge and maybe manipulating some timing variables. But from a lifestyle standpoint, sleep and routine are probably the two biggest

things you can do right now to help with your physique and performance. But are there any other things you can think of that you've implemented with clients, any things you're doing to help people perhaps cope with stress, to deal with these peaks and these valleys that we've talked about. Because for a lot of us, especially as coaches, the dialogue we have or the conversations we have, have, at least for me, they've extended beyond just coaching from a physique standpoint or a performance standpoint. You know, there's things that we're talking about regarding motivation, or even just, hey, what do I do if I don't want to train? Are there's things that we're talking about regarding motivation or even just, Hey, what do I do if I don't want to train? Are there any things that you'd want to share

that have been perhaps effective with your clients or even in your own life right now? Yeah. And I think kind of having a practice to manage your stress is important. Again, I think routine is a really big one as far as managing stress and understanding, kind of keeping yourself busy, especially if you aren't working or you're not receiving an income. It's going to be a very, very stressful time and you're going to have a lot of time on your hands. And so coming up with, now's the time to maybe dive into hobbies that you've wanted to get into, dive into courses that you've maybe wanted to take. And I've had a couple of podcast episodes on my podcast about this. It's kind of methods of

managing stress during this time. And so as far as, as far as Coursera goes, um, so Coursera is a great resource. Um, you know, if you're looking into, uh, kind of the, the arts of, um, overall happiness and, uh, fulfillment, life satisfaction, there's a great, uh, Yale driven course, uh, from a professor, Dr. Santos from, from Yale. That's free. And you can take that over Coursera and it's, I think it's a six week course again from Yale university. And you can take that for free, which kind of just goes over the principles of kind of gauging and what metrics to use for, for happiness and perceived stress and what it means to actually be happy and what you can expect of happiness and fulfillment and stuff like that. Because I think one thing that she does a great job of touching on that course,

especially opening things up is kind of testing the, the, the status quo of what we think makes us happy and fulfilled. And I think that's something that's being tested right now based off of a world of convenience and abundance that we live with on a daily basis, normally within this country and most of the world. I think that's obviously being tested right now. And it's having people reevaluate what is important, what does make me happy, what is that status quo that needs to be met on a daily basis. And I think that's sort of returning back to a more appropriate baseline for most folks because, you know, the bare essentials right now, I think a lot of us are just grateful that our grocery stores have food in them and we're able to have enough food in our fridges to

cook each day. We're grateful that we have a, you know, a warm bed to sleep in and we're not bedridden in a hospital trying to breathe to keep our, keep our existence alive. Um, and we're grateful for the books that may be on our bookshelf that we haven't read, um, and stuff like that. And so it's kind of revisiting the status quo of what makes us happy. And so managing stress is a huge one. So taking like a course like that. And so it's kind of revisiting the status quo of what makes us happy. And so managing stress is a huge one. So taking like a course like that can help kind of manage perceived stress and reevaluate what does, what you do need in your life for overall fulfillment and happiness. Um, journaling is one thing. So if you're into meditation,

um, and where are you, maybe you're not in the meditation, um, that maybe you're into meditation and where are you, maybe you're not into meditation, that maybe you're into prayer, which I, I'm kind of, I've talked about this on my podcast, but I, I see those things as synonymous. So prayer and meditation are just these times of self-reflection of what we need right now within, whether it's our lives, ourselves, or, um, those around us. And so whether you're more into prayer and that action or more into meditation and that action, just being self-reflective and introspective during this time for managing stress is super important. And the last thing I'll mention here is kind of just that the, the, the act of

journaling, uh, and writing things down is extremely helpful. And I've mentioned this recently and it's super important for me because a couple of days ago, I was on a podcast with Emily Duncan and she was like, you're a very calm individual typically, or most of the time, anytime I've ever interacted with you, you're very, very calm. And I was like, it's funny because it's typically chaos in my mind. And she made this analogy to a duck, which is, I thought that was very appropriate. So like on the surface, very, you know, tranquil, very calm, majestic looking animal that just seems to have its life together.

But under the surface, those feet are going a million miles an hour trying to keep this, you know, this ship running, um running and maybe keep them out of danger, get to where they're going. So, and I know that a lot of people on the outside can seem very calm, but in their mind it's chaos and there's a lot of things rattling around in there. And so one thing that's really helped me is journaling and getting those thoughts and those,

those things out of my mind and writing them down, because then you can do an inventory of your thoughts. You can do an inventory of your, your perceptions, and you can start to either call bullshit on some of them, or you can be introspective or consider some a little bit deeper. Um, and if you're able to free up kind of your mental capacity or your mental, your mental airspace, in the sense of throwing the junk out that doesn't need to be in there that doesn't really make sense. Or it's sort of irrational to think about right now or out of your control. You can throw all that stuff away, which can free up, you know, let's say, give it an arbitrary number. It frees up 40% of your,

you know, that mind and your thoughts. And so now you can use that 40% to dive deeper into what is actually bothering you, what is actually very stressful for you right now and what strategies can I kind of further right now to deal with that or cope with that. Yeah, dude, I think that's huge. And first off, thank you for being open enough to share that there are feet paddling under the water because i think that it's something that in an effort to um illustrate and exude stoicism professionalism in in our space and just in general people often choose not to be open about what's going on under the water if you will and. And I think right now, there's a lot of value in people

just hearing that maybe the fitness authority they look up to, or somebody in the space that they admire, has stressors and is trying to proactively cope with them. Everything's not perfect. I think that people being able to look at other people and go, okay, yeah, I see that that person is also dealing with this is really, really big. Because there's a lot of people right now that would rather project that everything's fine and everything's great and everything's perfect than say, hey, there's some practices that I'm using to cope and manage this. Regardless of how you see me and how I might look on the surface, I'm doing the best I can. how you see me and how I might look on the surface, I'm doing the best I can. And then another thing that you really highlighted that I thought was great was, you know, what abundance looked like a month ago is very different from what it looks like now. I mean, I have the, I'm very fortunate to be able to access one of the better gyms I think in the world within 10

minutes of my home. I have a studio that I can train my clients with. It's incredible. Everything for me seems perfect. And, you know, a month later, I walk out into my garage and I'm just so fortunate that I have two kettlebells. And I hope that, and this is a challenge to myself, I hope that I'm able to remember what it feels like to feel as though I'm living with abundance by focusing on things that otherwise I might take for granted. Because I think that that's something that we might as a population, as a cohort, be able to take with us after this whole thing that could be really valuable, which is doing more with less, being appreciative of small things, and using that as a mechanism for accepting where we're at right now. Yeah, and I think one metaphor I've used recently to kind of explain this is a vehicle metaphor.

So imagine kind of whatever situation you're in right now, that's what vehicle you're driving, that's the vehicle of this situation. And during your ride in this vehicle or you driving this vehicle of the situation, you're accumulating things. You're, you know, in your car, you have knickknacks and shit that you shove under the seat or in that, that part of the door that you're like, put gum wrappers in that you're like, I'll get that later. You know, you're accumulating all these things, right. And you may put stuff in your trunk that you're accumulating or whatever it is, but when this situation's over, you're going to, you're going to need to do an inventory of that vehicle. What's in there. What did you accumulate and collect?

What's positive, what's negative. And what can I throw into a gym bag and put it into this next vehicle that I'm now in, which is that next situation, which is that aftermath of whatever this is and however it ends. And understand that, you know, kind of getting on this hedonic treadmill can be dangerous because, you know, we've seen from research that's been done of, you know, people, whether they win the lottery or they become a paraplegic, they often return back to their hedonic happiness level. And so, you know, if you're, it's kind of thought of to be this average number that you are generally happy. So some people are very fortunate to be always an eight or nine out of 10 happy. You see them and they're just elated to be alive, you know, and then there are people who maybe are more like a five or a

six or seven or whatever it is. And it doesn't mean you can't jump up or jump down based off events in your life, um, which you do, but it's seen and known to kind of be this average that we level out to be. And so try your best to use the things you're collecting right now, those thoughts and those perceptions and the outlooks that you're, you're, you're accumulating right now, or, and maybe considering and maybe write them down. Maybe that's the only way that you can revisit them in the, in the future, because our brain, I think is often working against us in this capacity. And one thing that we have control over now, based off the technology that we've gained

as a, as a species is the written word and, and cataloging our thoughts and putting them out kind of like, like an external hard drive of sorts. And that's what a journalist, man, that's a heck, that's an external hard drive of your thoughts that you're, you're manually writing down and you can look at later. So that's why I say journaling and kind of getting those perceptions out. Anything you're grateful for right now, anything that's just you want to remember after the fact, I think it's important to write it down. And maybe once you, let's say a year from now, you're in a shit situation and, you know, you're kind of down on yourself or you're playing the victim card of some situation that you've either got yourself in or someone's put you in, you can take the ownership and responsibility to maybe revisit some of those journals you were writing in during this time and just remember what abundance you're now in or that hopefully we're going to be back in in a short amount of time. So I think that's a great strategy and a great way to kind of look

at the metaphor of hopefully we can take some stuff with us that we've learned during this time. No, I couldn't agree more. I think we're in a very unique place as coaches, as professionals in a lot of different fields to be able to, one, accumulate things in that car. But also, if we do make it through this, and I want to be pragmatic and encourage everybody to wake up each day with the mindset that you will make it through this, that we'll probably be better for it at the end. Hopefully, we'll be stronger for it. And there will be days in the future that are dark as well. But being able to look back to this and say, you know, I made it through that I picked up some skills, I learned how to cope, perhaps I started journaling.

And if if I did that, you know, this isn't going to shake me. And I think that that's something that a lot of coaches are struggling with, which kind of segues nicely into what I wanted to talk about next, which is how this has impacted the industry and what direction you think the industry will go after this. Do you think that this is going to set the fitness space up for cleansing, if you will, where perhaps some of the people who were just in this to make a buck now don't really know what to do and the people who are passionate are going to stick around or do you think it's going to maybe usher in a whole new era of you know how fitness is being marketed how it's being sold what people are looking for where do you really see this going if you have an idea at all hey guys just wanted to take a quick second to say thanks so much for listening to the podcast. And if you're finding value, it would mean the world to me if you would share it

on your social media. Simply screenshot whatever platform you're listening to and share the episode to your Instagram story or share it to Facebook. But be sure to tag me so I can say thanks and we can chat it up about what you liked and how I can continue to improve. Thanks so much for supporting the podcast and enjoy the rest of the episode. Yeah, I've been kind of thinking about it. And, you know, you mentioned you being yourself. You know, I am a realist in that in the same sense you are in terms of things are often half-assed empty most of the time with me, but this is something I'm doing my best to actually, again, not be tone deaf, but come at it with a glass half full, because I think it's easy to

kind of get into this time right now of, you know, people accumulating ammo and 12 months worth of food in their home and new security systems that, you know, shoot on, on command out, you know, outside to the street, like all this stuff that just assuming the world in this community is going to go to savagery in a matter of months, I think is a kind of a doom and gloom way to think about it and not giving the sense of community and positivity and the, the cohort and collective, the benefit of the doubt. And I really want to think that this has just brought versatility and resilience to the fitness industry and how we conduct business. And some of the gyms and gym owners that I follow who have very successful gyms around

the world, they're even having to obviously revisit and restructure their entire company or business based off of the situation we're in. And I think what that's doing is not only allowing them to revisit what is working and what has worked in the past, but just maybe getting rid of old systems that were just hanging around because they were maybe too lazy or it didn't matter so much that that was still there. So I think cleaning house in terms of our business structure and the way we conduct business and being able to maybe generate more passive income streams for our companies and our businesses and come up with better solutions to problems that we face similar to this one. Uh, cause I guarantee

you, this isn't the last thing that we deal with of this scale. Um, as long as, you know, our age group is coaching and stuff like that. So, um, but I, I also, in the same sense, think it is trimming some of the fat, uh, that that's out there and it's taking individuals who, um, you know, personal training in this industry has a, has a very high turnover rate and, um, a short, yeah, I think I did just a short lives and a high turnover rate in terms of career length. Um, and I always say, uh, and I kind of, I'm always telling myself just stick with it because those who stick with it and break through that threshold of average turnover, man, if you give a shit about anything in this industry and you have any lick of passion, you're going to make it. You're going to be just fine.

You may not be the best at what you do. You may not be the most successful at what you do. long as you're trying and you're helpful and you're bringing something of value to someone else and you're going about it in, in the right way, uh, whether that's, you know, ethically or, or from a, from an educational standpoint, man, you're going to be just fine long-term with this. So I want to get that. I want to, I want that to be said, but I do think it's trimming the fat. I mean, what do you think? I mean, no, I think it is. I think that it's a hard time to make money in the fitness industry, period, end of story. And I don't think that's a bad thing. You know, when I worked in corporate fitness, when I worked at big box health clubs and when I was hiring trainers, there wasn't a single trainer that I ever interviewed that said, I want to do this to make money. Every single person I ever

hired in the space said the same thing, which is, I want to do this to help people, or I want to do this to make money. Every single person I ever hired in the space said the same thing, which is I want to do this to help people or I want to do this because it changed my life and I want to help it change other people's lives too. And just going back to what you said about that turnover rate, like it's 60% of trainers or 80% of trainers don't make it through their first year and I think 50 to 60% drop out each subsequent year. So it's a hard industry to stay afloat in. And it's really chaotic and it's populated by a lot of really good people and a lot of really slimy people. And my hope is that if the fat is trimmed by this, that some of the slimy people go, well, crap, I can't make money in fitness right now selling waist trainers and detox teas. So

I'm going to start selling, you know, COVID-19 cures and XYZ. And then they're just going to disappear into the ether of people who we just toss in a bucket of being shitty opportunists. That's my, you know, pragmatic hope that we trim those people out. But one of the things I'm concerned about, and I hope we can kind of riff on this, is what advice do we give to those coaches who maybe they just got started? Maybe they're in their first year. Maybe there's somebody like myself who worked in a box gym for a while that's now closed. who did a little bit of personal training initially and then really rapidly moved into the online space, but they're struggling to stay afloat. Like what encouragement can we give those people? What advice can we give those people

who are here to help people, but they're really discouraged because it's kind of a bear time right now. And maybe they don't have the following. Maybe they don't have the gym access. What can they do to stay pragmatic, to stay focused on that goal of, again, helping people and sharing their message? Because you said, and I think you put it really well, you know, most trainers, if you're just

trying to help people, you're going to be okay. But it's one thing to hear that. And it's another thing to believe that. And I think that giving them things to do would be really powerful. So what would you say to those people right now? What would you have them focus on? So from a very blunt perspective, if you're in the victim headspace right now, if you feel like, whoa, is me, this is happening to me, this isn't fair, headspace right now. If you feel like, whoa, is me, this is happening to me. This isn't fair. Snap out of it. That is the wrong place to be. And you're doing yourself no good. That doesn't mean don't let this sink in, let it sink in, but get the hell out as soon as you can,

because the sooner you can get out of that headspace of being the victim. And once you start taking responsibility for your future and taking responsibility for your current situation and the one you're going to be in, and let's say four to six months from now, every action every day is a chance and an opportunity to use the general principle of compounding, I think, because just like investing in terms of how the compound effect works or just the compound effect in general is, you know, small increment, incremental changes turn out to be exponential over time. And you can see this in very simple math equations that, you know, if you read a book like atomic habits, for example, and kind of, or Daily Habits or Daily Rituals or whatever it's called, they show just kind of that those incremental changes over time compounds have become great. And I think if you're able to right now, again, not be the victim and

go into offense, quit playing defense and go into offense and ask yourself questions, ask yourself valuable questions on what can I do right now to keep building trust with my audience, keep building trust with people who do follow me right now. How can I go deep for those people? And again, a lot of that work is going to be free. A lot of that work is going to be on your end, but what the fuck else do you got to do? You know? So again, you could sit there and, and, you know, maybe after you catch up on Ozark or whatever you're watching right now, like figure it out and understand that the effort you put in right now, day in and day out is going to compound and it's

going to come. And I think it's going to index positively at a time when you need it most in the future. And again, the kind of a daily thing that I say to myself is man, just stay consistent because I've gone through high valleys and very low, high peaks and very low valleys during my time in this, this industry over the last, we'll say six to seven years. And within that, I've played the card of, okay, I'm waiting for that next big break. And then I play the card of, okay, I'm not looking for a break. I'm not looking for anything big. I'm just looking to do daily things and stay consistent. And I'll be honest with you, the daily efforts, having fun with it,

staying consistent on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly basis, index is much greater than going for that big ticket thing. You know, that big win. Oh, wait until I get this or wait until I get this person on my podcast or wait until I signed this client, then everything's going to take, like, get yourself out of that headspace. And remember that it's the daily efforts and the consistency over time that, that are going to index. And the more you can build trust with your audience right now, the better it's going to index. And the more you can build trust with your audience right now, the better it's going to be. I completely agree. I think now would be a really good time for just any coach in the space or trainers, wherever you are, to double down on one, like you said,

vacate that space of I'm the only person suffering right now. I'm the only person going through it. In all likelihood, there's a good chance perhaps you don't have a job or you're not able to work at the same capacity that you had before. But at least you're fit. At least you understand fundamental principles of health. At least you probably don't have this illness. So there's a lot to be happy about. And then use that to generate some momentum to, like you said earlier, do the course. Don't be afraid to work for free. Connect with that audience at a deeper level. Lay the groundwork right now. If you were on a ship and there was no wind to take you out to sea, you could still make sure that your sails were set perfectly. You could still make sure that your deck was clean.

You could still make sure that your rudders and everything was aligned so that when that wind does come, you take off fast. Whereas I think a lot of people will sit around and be like, well, there's no wind. So there's really no point. And I would just encourage all of those people to, again, listen to what you said, find small, incremental, daily things that you can do that don't require you to have a Herculean surge of motivation that you can, you know, put your head down and get to work on, whether it's reading a book, connecting with clients and offering to

perhaps FaceTime or Skype them for a session or write them a body weight program or even just be available to help them feel more motivated about the situation. Now is a good time, I think, to get deeper into that mentality of serving and helping than it is to continue to wallow in the mentality of I'm the only one suffering and going through this. Right. And I second everything you just said. I love that. And another thing too, is reach out to people you look up to reach out to coaches who, who you're trying to, to be like, or emulate or, or you just use as motivation, because I'll be honest right now. Like I try and I do try and help everyone that reaches out to me, whether that's getting on a quick, quick call or whatever it is. And it's a matter of, it's a matter of time and situational perspective. And I'll be honest with you, like right now, I feel like I'm pretty good at it normally, but right now, whoever reaches out to me about shit like this, whether you're a coach who's just struggling, or you just got started and now you're, you who's just struggling or you just got started.

And now you're, you know, just as you started to gain momentum, everything, you know, the rug got swept, you know, swept from under your feet and man, reach out to those people because right now they're probably the most empathetic to you and your situation that they're ever going to be. And again, don't be, don't. And when I say that, go into that interchange with zero expectation of return, write out a well thought out email, direct message, whatever it is, plead your case, go over what you're, you know, what you're going through, things that you're trying to do. You need to show that you're trying to do something more, more so than just take blame or be a victim. Again, if, if I get a lick of I'm,

you're being a victim and you reach out to me, the only thing I'm going to say is stop being a victim, knock it, knock it off essentially. Um, but if you're, if you're showing that person that you're, you're looking up to and you're reaching out to that you're trying and, you know, write a well thought out thing, email, or one thing that I've done to people that I look up to is I actually record a video and send it to them via email or whatever medium that I can. And that man, like that just hits home when someone sends you a video. And so do whatever you can right now to do everything that we've talked about up to this point, but also use this time, reach out to people, ask them for, you know, I'm in the middle of writing a book. And one thing that I've been

trying to do is reach out to people that I either look up to, or I know are the kind of the leaders in their field. And I'm asking them for textbook recommendations and I'm asking them for resource recommendations based off of their graduate level courses or things that they've written in the past. What helped you write that? What helped you kind of collect that, you know, that body of knowledge and, you know, it may take them a week or two to get back to you, but everyone I've reached out to is in some way, shape or form gotten back to me with some sort of recommendation. And so, you know, right now I'm ordering textbooks, I'm doing all that I can to keep learning. And, you know, there's a lot of people offering free courses and free resources right now. And so whether that's, you know, a big body that we're all

going to probably recognize is Precision Nutrition. They're doing a ton of great work for nutrition coaches right now, putting on free webinars and things like that. And other people, you know, like N1 just launched something for home workouts and coaches and stuff like that. just launched something for home workouts and coaches and stuff like that. JPS education out of Australia just launched a lot of free stuff for people to go digest. I know revive stronger is doing some stuff. Like there's so many people doing great things. And so scour the internet, scour your social media and write down all these things and just consume all the free stuff

that you can right now, because it's probably the most abundant it's ever going to be at this time. I agree. And I think it's a really good opportunity to become a better coach. I've noticed that I've had to get very much outside of the domain where I'm comfortable with programming because people have less. And a lot of times you just stare at this programming sheet or whatever it is that you utilize as a tool to get clients a program and you're just stumped. And, you know, two weeks ago, I was really struggling and now I feel like I'm exponentially better that I've made huge leaps and bounds. And it's actually been encouraging to say, hey, you know, my coaching skills have improved. And now anytime a client goes on vacation or has limited equipment or whatever might pop up, maybe we go through this again,

hopefully not, but I'm going to be so much more prepared. It's made me so much better of a coach. paired. It's made me so much better of a coach. And to the point you made, the leaders, the teachers, the seminar experts that go around all year long that make a living off of teaching have had to stop doing that. And they've led by creating free available content to coaches like us or new coaches. And I think that that's leading from the front in a really integrous way. Certainly be aware that there are people in the space that will want to take advantage of you and take advantage of the situation and the scarcity and the fear.

I would encourage all trainers to be very skeptical. But to the point you made, brands like JPS, Revive Stronger, N1, Precision Nutrition. I know that the PT, I think it was. PT Collective, Personal Training Collective. Yeah, they've done one. Luke Johnson and those guys. Yeah. And those are just things that you can sit at home and do for free. And I've done

education with most of those companies and it's never been an experience where I regretted my investment. And the fact that it's available to us now for free is kind of a way that you could kind of just supercharge your enthusiasm and it'll help carry you through. But, you know, dig deep now, go back to why you do this, become a better coach and just continue to be pragmatic. I think that's been a really, really good tone for the entirety of today's podcast. Are you allowed to talk at all about the book you're working on? I honestly don't know. That's okay. I just, I thought it was, I heard you bring it up. So, you know, I don't want to

press you on it, but I would want to congratulate you publicly on that. I know I texted you in private, but that's something that's really cool. And I just want people to be on the lookout. He's got a book coming at some point. I'm sure it'll be nothing short of excellent, but to get billed for that is really cool. And it's something that not a lot of young coaches get the opportunity to do, man. So big time kudos. That's huge. Thank you.

I love to talk about it. I just honestly don't know at this stage if I'm allowed to. Yeah. And so, yeah, I'm just going to hold back. Unless there's more in this situation. Can you at least divulge, like, was it an email that you woke up to one day and you were just like, man, so it's, yeah, so I'll go through that. So

it was funny because again, I'm not, like you said, I'm pragmatic. I'm real. I'm a realist in that way. And typically a glass half empty sort of guy, honestly. Um, and so it's, it's one of those situations where I thought it was a joke and cause you know, you just receive a lot. Um, like I know you do a lot of, uh, do a lot of different stuff for, for content and stuff like that. And you have a, you have a big reach. And, um, when you have a bigger reach companies reach out and pitch ideas and pitch things that they want basically more from you than you're going to get from them most of the time. And so you get a lot of offers like that. Um, and I just thought this was, was another one. And so, uh, basically I was

boarding a flight. This was around Christmas of last year. So about four months ago, ish, I was, yeah, I guess four months ago now, I was boarding a flight and we were waiting, you know, it's a hurry up and wait situation when you get on a plane. So, you know, you get on the plane, but then you're just standing in the aisle with all your luggage and your headphones on, and then you get really hot. And then you're like, I don't know what to do with my, with, with anything. And so I was checking my email and I saw a, I saw a subject line that, you know, basically said book proposal or book offer or something.

And I had had the title there again. I don't know if I'm at liberty to say the title, but it had a title there and then it said book proposal from a public, this publisher. And I was like, there is no way this is real. And I showed my wife and she read the email. Um, and she was like, this is absolutely real. Like you should answer this person. And I was like, man, all right. Uh, so when we landed, I, I got, you know, we got to my parents' house. I wrote him an email and started the discourse from there. But I, and then I had to do a phone interview and I was, I was up basically as, you know, they were testing people for like lead authors and stuff like that,

or interviewing people over the phone for lead author, lead authors. And so, you know, I had to do a phone interview and all that. And I asked them how they found me and it was pretty interesting. So, um, you know, I had been featured a couple of times on men's health and they had basically were just searching for authors and they found some of my stuff on men's health. And then, um, they saw that I was mentioned on men's health and they, they found my website, they found my Instagram, they found my YouTube. They basically just digested everything they could have mine. And then that's when they reached out. Uh, so that was super interesting to me that, you know, an opportunity like this, that I honestly didn't think that would come to fruition, uh, and the way that it did, uh, whatever happened. And so like, man, yeah,

it's interesting. That's kind of how it happened though. So you never know, like, I want to say just to coaches, like always, always lead from the front with what you do and understand everything you put out matters. And I say that from this situation specifically, and also situations from job opportunities and opportunities I've gotten to present around the world. You never know who's watching and you never know who's about to read your stuff or consume some of your content. even on your Snapchat, your Instagram story, whatever you're on, people are watching, people are finding you and they're consuming your content. And the more that this world gets into AI, the more this, and I know you can, you know, there's the more of this world gets into AI and, and using basically these algorithms to, to do a full sweep of all your social media channels and bring up any red flags that can understand that that's where we're headed and so everything you put out matters and that's why it

you know don't be a perfectionist to the sense where you don't put out anything but understand that you there needs to be quality and substance the shit you put out um and that that people are they are listening i man. I think that it really, the book story really ties nicely into some of the stuff we talked about earlier of just putting your head down, doing the work, being constructive, coming from the right place and not looking for those big breaks, but understanding that will make themselves available to you so long as you do the right work and lead from the front. And kind of beyond that, just going another level deeper, choosing to do things with integrity and doing them the right way is important for coaches. I don't want this to get like misconstrued as if it's not perfect, don't do it. Or if it's not perfect, don't post

it because content creation and even coaching is a skill. Just understand that you won't be perfect right away. That's not an excuse to not try. But always remember that there's like a window. And if you can think that the person who I most look up to in this space is watching my every move through that window. And never forget that. Just lead and do everything that you're doing, pretending that whoever it is that you want to be or turn into or the person that you're going to be in 20 years, they're watching you through that window. What are you going to do? How are you going to coach? What are you going to post? What are you going to respond to the DM? Are you going to be nice? Are you going to be mean?

And I think you do a really nice job of kind of encapsulating all those things in the work that you put out and the content you've created. And so just to wrap this up, man, I know you're working on a few really cool things right now that I want to talk to you about. The first is CoFit. Can you tell me a little bit about that yeah so co-fit is again as you guys are listening right now the event is happening so you can go to my instagram and you can go to just try to maybe google co- C O dash fit F I T. Um, but it's ran through iron paradise fitness. It's ran through Simon, uh, Simon Mitchell, who's out of the UK. Um, and he's put together,

I mean, everyone from like muscle mentors, talking about muscle mechanics to Gabrielle Fundaro talking about, uh, with, with Shannon, uh, bear i think it's her last name and they're talking about uh you know what bear diving into kind of health at all size initiatives intuitive eating principles um you know dr fundero is kind of the leading our leading frontier as far as gut health goes and all that she's actually coming on the podcast next thursday that's amazing yeah so go go and consume some of her stuff's actually coming on the podcast next Thursday. That's amazing. Yeah. So go, go and consume some of her stuff before she hops on the podcast. You have kind of a background of her if you aren't familiar. Um, and then there's a host of other, other

individuals. I think there's probably 10 of us at this point. Um, whether it's collective brands like physique development. So I'm going to be joined alongside, uh, Sue Bush and Alex Bush, who are the co-owners of physique development. Um, and, and also just a collective of other coaches who are basically presenting on their, their level of, uh, their level of expertise or specialization or what they're most known for. So that's co-fit. Um, and it's ran through Facebook again. Again, you can find some stuff through my Instagram account and that of the physique development teams, but also through Simon Mitchell at Iron Paradise Fitness. He's putting it on.

I'll be sure to link to that just in case. I'll send you the link, yeah. Yeah, because what I would imagine, I don't know how all that stuff's going to end up working out, but a lot of times these have access or accessibility after the event's even finished. I'm hoping it does. I think Simon's going to set that up. So he's a content guy and he's all about giving and he puts out a podcast episode every day of the week just to give you kind of a brief overview of how much he gives out.

So yeah, I really do think it's going to be available after the fact. So, so check that out. And then what are, if people are interested in working with you, uh, in a coaching relationship, even right now, because it's, it is a time where people need support, um, where can they find you and where can they reach out to you? people need support, where can they find you and where can they reach out to you? Yeah. So if it's easy, you know, if you're just browsing the web, physique development.com, that's a great place to find us and learn more about who we are and what we do and kind of our past clients and stuff like that. And then through Instagram, you can, I hang out there.

And so if you just search my name, Austin Current, usually if you type in AUS, you'll see a guy with a beard pop up. And that's me. I got a big beard, so you can know you're in the right place. But yeah, I mean, we still have people signing up, thankfully, keeping our doors open. And everyone is in a different situation right now but if you're in a situation where you do need help and maybe you're confused then absolutely reach out and

you know know that reaching out doesn't mean you're signing up either like just reach out and ask some ask some questions and we're willing to answer those yeah dude i think that's awesome i i reciprocate that same message and then one last thing i know you have a podcast yeah uh what is the title of the podcast and where can people find that because i'm sure if I reciprocate that same message. And then one last thing, I know you have a podcast. Yeah. What is the title of the podcast and where can people find that? Cause I'm sure if they listen to this, they probably like your vibe and they'll want to hear more. Life beyond fitness. So yeah, life beyond fitness. You can find it on any podcast platform, whether that's Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, all the rest of them. Um, but yeah, the, the podcast is

all about taking, taking principles and understanding concepts of your life beyond fitness and kind of tying those, those connections back to fitness and how that all transpires throughout your life and the important bits of life that sometimes go unsaid within the fitness industry. So, um, what I do is I just interview, you know, guys like Danny, I interview other coaches and fitness professionals, but it's really just more of a conversation. Um, so as soon as we hop on, I hit record and that's, it's kind of just a coffee shop conversation. So as soon as I, as soon as that guest hops on, I hit record and it's like you and I were going to talk at a coffee shops, just either shooting the shit or talking deeper concepts

of life. So, um, kind of just riffing. Uh, so that's kind of what it's about. Yeah, man, I love that. And I think for coaches who are listening, that's something that they might be able to draw some inspiration from hearing some authorities in the space, talk a little bit more about things beyond an outside fitness. All right, man, dude, I so appreciate your time. I appreciate you coming on. And again, everybody,

for any of you who are looking for Austin, more from Austin, I'm going to link that below in the show notes. You'll find everything you need for CoFit, for his business physique development. And I'll be sure to share more about the book as he's allowed to share more. So Austin, thanks so much for coming on, dude. I really appreciate it. I appreciate you, man. Thank you so much. All right, guys. So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed today's episode with Austin Currant. Again, just to remind you, COVID-19 is kicking off right now as we speak. So do give that a look at the link in the bio below. You can also find all of Austin's work, his Instagram, Physique Development's website in the bio below. So please

do enjoy the rest of your day and take these tips with you. Be pragmatic, be encouraged, share this with a friend. It would mean a ton to me and both Austin. If this podcast resonated, that you share it on your story and tag us both so we can interact with you. And thank you for doing that. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, it's always a good day to be a good person.