Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 16 - Three Underrated Fitness Tools, Bodyweight Training, Building Muscle on a Budget

Episode Date: April 12, 2020

In this episode, Danny outlines the three most underrated fitness tools that you may still be able to get your hands during COVID-19. We also talk about all things building muscle on a budget, including:Supplements REALLY worth takingMaximizing micronutrient intake on a budgetTraveling where gym access is limitedAnd more!Check out the new micro HOME and LIMITED EQUIPMENT home programs from Coach Danny Here!Support the Show.

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. This is our first solo episode in a little while. I took a break from the solo episodes, that would of course be those that are including just myself, because I was able to kind of rope in a couple of really, really awesome guests. I had Dr. Eric Trexler on as well as Dr. Amy Bender. And also this week, you can expect to hear an interview I did with Dr. Gab Fundaro regarding gut health. So all kinds of stuff coming your way.

Exciting, very enjoyable interviews, very enjoyable podcasts, just good people. I appreciated having them on and I hope you enjoyed the episodes. So based on my tally, I'm on day 26 of shelter in place or quarantine, whatever you want to call it out here in California. And while it's far from perfect, it's certainly been enlightening in many ways, particularly as to how one can go about creating fitness routines and implement different tools to get a lot out of having very little. But before we get into it, let's talk current events. Let's talk about some stuff going on, some things that might be positive.

The NFL Draft is coming up, not very long. April 23rd will be the first day of the NFL draft, round one. So I'm quite excited for that. It'll be a very interesting draft as it's going to be entirely virtual. So the real football managers and general managers get to try their chance at a fantasy football draft, if you will chance at a fantasy football draft, if you will. A literal fantasy football draft, as the whole thing will be entirely digital. I have been playing Final Fantasy VII Remake on my PlayStation 4. Final Fantasy VII, of course,

was a PlayStation 1 game that came out early in the system's kind of launch, and it was a game I liked quite a lot as a child, so when they remade it, I had to get it. So I've been doing quite a bit there. But other than that, some things that you guys might be interested in, I enrolled in something called the Nutrition Coaching Global Mastermind. I hate the term mastermind. But again, there's connotations with everything. And that's my own bias. So nutritional coaching global mastermind, which is led by Eric Helms. And it includes, again, two of the people who have been on the show, Dr. Eric Trexler and Dr. Gavin Fundaro, just to name a few. And the first webinar was very intriguing. So I strongly encourage any nutrition coaches or

anybody who's in the nutrition space, even dietetics, give that a look. It's quite interesting. And I found it to be very enjoyable. I am reading a book right now called The Go-Giver. I'm enjoying that so far. That was recommended to me by a friend. So I've quite enjoyed The Go-Giver. And I rewatched my favorite movie ever, Whiplash, with J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller. It's a music movie, but if you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend watching it. It is quite good. So without further ado, let's get into this episode. A couple of days ago, I got a direct message from somebody and they said, I only have about $100 to spend. What are three or four things I can grab for around 100 bucks that will allow me to train at home? And I actually thought this

was a great question because it's something that as a coach, it actually made me ponder really quickly because I had to pause and say, hold on, wait a minute. I have the luxury of being able to train at one of the best gyms in the world. In addition to my own space in a studio, my garage, I have everything I need anywhere I could imagine it to be and I'm totally set. And when you set the confines of, hey, you only have $100 for somebody who's used to essentially not having any limitations, it can be a little bit tricky. And I think that's something that we've all run into, is I'll just grab a pair of dumbbells and kettlebells, which I very much recommend. However, getting your hands on those right now is quite difficult. So let's play the game of three tools, three or four tools you could get for under $100 that don't have any metal or iron in them. So the first tool is a suspension trainer. Now, the primary suspension training brand in the industry that you're probably most familiar with is TRX. However, there are some reputable TRX knockoffs.

One of them, I believe, is called Lifeline. And I was able to find a Lifeline suspension trainer that is door mounted on Amazon with Prime as of last week for under $50. And while it's certainly far from perfect, there's tons of clones coming out right now. I even saw one yesterday on a targeted ad. God, I don't want to butcher the name, but anyway, it was essentially another clone of the TRX, a suspension training clone, um, that was door mounted with steel handles. And that was small enough to fit in your pocket. And it weighed less than like 20 pounds, pretty, I'm sorry, less than 10 pounds, uh, or one pound. What was it? Something was 20. Anyway, pretty fascinating stuff. Oh, it could support up to 200 pounds. That's what it was. So pretty, pretty cool stuff. And suspension training has

been around for quite some time, and it gives you a lot of different things you can do. So first and foremost, you can train your entire body on a suspension trainer. It might not be perfect. The resistance profiles might not be ideal, which would essentially just for you, the layman, mean not every exercise is going to feel tremendous. Although you can do an effective job of loading various tissues in various positions. They're quite portable and they can be mounted from hooks. They can be mounted usually on doors and they can be put into things like suitcases and backpacks and brought with you. Most of the movements require some manipulation of your positioning that may or may not result in you being less stable. So you can expect them to be slightly more core heavy. And while you're

using essentially your own body weight as resistance and letting the suspension trainer support you in various positions, everything seems to feel really fluid and athletic. And that's quite enjoyable, particularly when all you do is heavy resistance training all the time. A suspension trainer can be quite challenging and feel somewhat more fluid and athletic, if you will. So that's one that I absolutely love. And again, if you want to save some money, particularly right now, because I understand that this is a time where many people are not working, or if they are, they're working less, reduced hours, or even for reduced wages. I've had a lot of trainers reach out and say,

hey man, you know, I'm only able to do X number of sessions and I have to do them for cheaper because that's all my clients can afford. I get it. One of the things you can do is you can actually take two bed sheets. I would strongly recommend selecting bed sheets that you have that are of higher thread count, if you will, something that's a little bit stronger. Then you tie a knot at one end of each of those bed sheets. You can toss them over a door so that the knot is hanging on the side of the door that faces away from you. Close that door and lock it. And grabbing the bed sheets, you can actually kind of replicate a suspension trainer for essentially free. Now, if you do not have a visual based on kind of the outline I've given you just there, if you go to my Instagram page about two weeks ago, I made a video on makeshift

suspension training using a couple of bed sheets. And I went over about eight to ten exercises that you could do to hit various muscle groups in a somewhat challenging way so I do encourage you to check that out so the easiest thing you could probably do you can get your hands on a TRX home a unit I believe they're called for under a hundred dollars I was able to get two for under $100 each. It's about $200 with shipping and taxes. You could get a Lifeline, whatever I believe the knockoff is, for about $50. Now, again, if you're actually able to find them now, I can't say, but the prices are pretty affordable on those. Or you could just make your own for free with Sheetz.

But that's an incredible tool that's going to give you a lot of variation and a lot of unique opportunity to load your muscles up in some pretty cool ways that I think has far and away some of the most versatility. So the second tool is probably the oldest piece of fitness equipment known to man. And that's the medicine ball. So a medicine ball is just a heavy ball that's generally full of sand and they come in a couple different styles. So and again, if you guys hear a lot of like competing sound or any, you know, shaking or rattling, it's because I'm recording in the garage today because we're all stuck inside and I want to take it into a space where

I can have some privacy and I let my girlfriend kind of use the space I traditionally use for the studio so she can watch some TV. So no big deal. But if you hear competing audio, bear with me. I promise that this won't be forever. It's just during this shelter in place thing. So medicine balls come in a few different styles. And I'm looking in my garage gym right now. You have those that are wrapped in a canvas and they're usually sewn shut with a variety of different types of composites, sometimes laid over top. So sometimes you have like a pseudo pleather, a fake leather. Sometimes you have a composite or a plastic. And then some of them are hollow, but they're highly rubberized spheres.

So they, they're quite able to withstand the concussive forces of being thrown on the ground. But the reason I love a medicine ball is because one, you can usually get a good one for decently cheap. Two, you can actually make your own with a basketball on some sand, depending on where your budget's at. But the ability that the medicine ball has to be used as a power training tool is pretty encouraging. So we have closed chained exercises, which is typically what we're going to do in the gym. But then there's open chained exercises, which usually involve stuff that can tend to be explosive. And medicine ball work lends itself really well to explosive work and power work, right? So they're portable. You can throw them to build

explosive power and you can throw them in a variety of different ways. If you throw them against the wall, like a basketball chess pass, you're working a lot of explosive power in chest, shoulders, triceps. If you pick a medicine ball up like a deadlift and throw it as far as you can behind you, extending violently forward, it works a lot of the same muscles as a deadlift. If you throw the ball straight down into the ground as hard as you can, it works your lats pretty well. If you throw it straight up into the air, it works your thoracic extension stuff pretty well as well as your hip extension. The other thing that's nice is medicine balls are a really good way to level up your core training. So you can use them as an implement to do things like added range of motion push-ups.

You can also use them as a way to do things, like I said, core training, like full range of motion Russian twists, where we're tapping the ball on the ground from side to side. You can use them to load things like sit-ups. You can use them to do lateral ball throws or heightens. You can even, and I've done this with them before, it's not perfect. You can do ball hamstring curls like you might with a Swiss ball or yoga ball. So it's a very, very versatile implement that you can get your hands on right now. And with the run on iron-based gym equipment being what it has been, I found that a lot of medicine balls are still available. Availability hasn't been as impacted as some other pieces of equipment. And I find that they work really, really well.

equipment. And I find that they work really, really well. And then another thing that they do, or that I should say they allow, that most gym equipment does not, is they allow for movement in the transverse plane. So the transverse plane is a plane of motion through which the human body rotates side to side. So imagine a pitch, like a baseball pitcher or a baseball swing or a tennis swing, a lot of rotation, right? And we get a lot of power in our core, or we get a lot of strength in our core when we train in that transverse plane. But most lifters train in what we call the sagittal plane, which is front to back, body moving front to back, squats, for example, deadlifts, for example. The other plane of motion is the frontal plane, which we don't do a ton of movement in, which would be exercises in

which the body is essentially moving on a plane that divides it front to back. So think of things like stepping side to side or lateral movements like side lunges or lateral raises. And the medicine ball is particularly useful for transverse plane loading and explosive work. So I do like it. I think it's an interesting implement and you can probably get one for a pretty affordable price. And if you're willing to get creative and you understand that there's a really large connection between power, motor unit recruitment, and strength, you can use this as a tool to maintain your gains with relatively low volume. Because remember, if you have strength and kind of force

on one end of the curve, when you think of that, think about like your heavy one rep max squat, but then we have velocity on the other end of the curve, which I want you to think of like your highest vertical jump. both really similar, both require a lot of explosive power, if you will, but very different types of movement. One is velocity based and one is strength based and medicine balls will generally allow you to work better on your velocity. And there's quite a bit of carryover. If you're training on one end of the curve all the time, like most people do, where they do a ton of strength work, adding in a little velocity or power work generally has a lot of good carryover. So don't be afraid of doing some athletic and med ball work. Some

resources for this that I've found to be excellent are the guys over at Hyperthrive Athletics based out of Sacramento. They run a fantastic sports performance facility. They're a couple of brothers. Not a couple, a trio of brothers. All really, really good dudes. Good coaches. Very well educated. But beyond that, beyond what they are as coaches, they're just good guys.

And I think that that's really important in a space that's dominated by not always the best people. And they have a lot of really good medicine ball exercises right there on their page. And I would strongly encourage you giving those a look because one, it'll inspire you to play with this tool in ways you've never seen before. But two, it's also really, really, really just a good page in general

for sports performance and athletics. 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. Another implement I quite like, and this should come as no secret because this is probably the most popular type of home workout equipment that you could have gotten your hands on early on in this

COVID-19 debacle are bands. Now, bands are going to be something I continue to use moving forward because I've become exponentially more aware of how much utility they have through this. And what I've been doing with my clients with them has simply just made me a better coach. It's made me more aware of, wow, you know, these aren't just things that you slap on your bench or you use to add some variable resistance to your deadlift or take some weight off the top half of your squat. These are legit training tools when used properly. So one of the things I really like about bands is they tend to be fantastic for training the lats, upper back, and posterior chain, which is really, really hard to do without a lot of weight or a lot of things to do, or if you can't do pull-ups. Of all the things we

can do, right, we can do a million and one different types of split leg work, single leg work, lunge work to work our quads, and anterior chain leg stuff. We can do a bajillion different types of pushups, tempo pushups to hit the majority of our anterior chain from a upper body perspective. Now we can do single leg isolated glute specific work with relative ease, even things like hamstring sliders with a towel. But if you can't do pull-ups, a lot of people are just simply SOL, shit out of luck, when it comes to hitting lats or posterior chain, basically beyond hamstrings because it's quite difficult without the ability to do pull-ups or rows. But I have found that of all the equipment that really allows you to hit that musculature, bands definitely take the cake. Now, again, another one that I think they're particularly good for is triceps. And what I found is when it comes to training triceps, almost everybody and their mother defaults to the body weight tricep dip, which is a fine movement

for most people. But for some, it can be really tough on the shoulders. So bands are excellent. And a great way to scale up your band training with limited accessibility to equipment or limited funds is to simply buy a wooden dowel. Now, you can get these made out of various woods and various densities. And I would recommend one that's about six feet long and relatively dense. And you should be able to get this at your hardware store for under 10 bucks and get it cut. I would recommend getting this six foot dowel cut into two segments, a two foot segment and a four foot segment. Now, what I use these for is to emulate your basic gym bar equipment that you would hook to cables. And if you can, you could even get somebody to drill into that, put a nut at one side, and you could actually attach a carabiner to each one of those pieces. They'll do this for you at the hardware store

most oftentimes, particularly if you buy the equipment. They'll have no problem helping you out if you don't have a drill or you're just not very savvy with this stuff on your own. However, you don't need any carabiner. You can just cut the dowel wherever you need to cut the dowel to get a two foot and a four foot segment, but you attach it to one end of the band or just loop it in. And essentially what you have then is the ability to do tricep extensions with that shorter two foot bar, overhead tricep extensions, banded upright rows, banded curls, overhead tricep extensions, banded upright rows, banded curls, banded straight arm pull downs with the longer bar. You can do banded cable-esque rows, banded lat pull downs, pronated and supinated, banded face pulls, as well as straight arm pull downs if you prefer a longer bar.

And there's a million and one ways to play with it. What I started to get really creative was when I was doing banded Zurcher squats using the longer bar, banded sumo deadlifts, banded RDLs. And so a small set of bands and just a couple of these dowels can be unbelievably valuable.

And again, for more stuff in this vein, do check out my Instagram page because I went fairly into detail on quite a few of these different things the other day. And I think you'll find them very, very valuable. So don't be afraid when you're traveling from now on to just say, Hey, I'm going to pack my two foot wooden dowel and a couple of these bands because you can get a ton done with that. If you just need somewhere to mount the band, you can tie a knot to it and toss it over a door in the same way that you would the TRX makeshift bed sheet thing I told you about

earlier. However, just make sure you lock the door. Now, as far as band densities go, I found a quarter inch to a half inch band is great for shoulder and arm work. A one inch band is good for rudimentary lat work and an inch and a half to two inch thick band can be good for those deadlift, makeshift, MacGyver, whatever you want to call them exercises. So as far as affordable fitness tools, you can get relatively easily now while pretty much everything with iron is on a two to six week back order. And you might have to pay a little bit of a premium for them if you don't decide to make them yourself or get a knockoffs or get kind of the less, I should say,

name brands are medicine ball and suspension trainers and bands. So another question I got was in regards to building muscle while going through COVID-19 and perhaps being on limited financial resources. And as somebody who went through college, basically I put myself through college on my own dime, and I wanted to build muscle, a lot of times I wasn't privy to, you know, having everything I could because I was on a one, a student's budget. I was working as a personal trainer, but still, you know, I live in a very expensive part of California. So I was only able to get my hands on so many things. And I'll share some of those tips with you for budget muscle building. So one of the ones that I really, really liked was just buying fattier cuts of meat, like thighs, um, ground beef and things like that I really, really liked was just buying fattier cuts of meat like thighs, ground beef,

and things like that. Now, all I would do to offset the added dietary fat intake was just kind of skimp my fat elsewhere. So I might not have had the most ideal omega fat ratios, nutritionally speaking, but opting for meats like that can allow you to get quite a bit of protein and your necessary dietary fat for a pretty affordable price tag. Because let's be honest, buying organic grass fed beef isn't always in the cards for everybody, even though, you know, it might be slightly more nutritious. Another one that I want to remind people of is that a lot of quality, nutritious carbohydrate sources are actually very affordable. So, rices, whole grains, and potatoes are all really nutritious carbohydrate options that you can use to supplement fuel for training and recovery that are absolutely 100% affordable for most people in most places.

absolutely, 100% affordable for most people in most places. Sweet potatoes, yams, pretty much anything in the potato family, oatmeal, whole grains like that, quinoa, rices, all of that stuff, even though quinoa is a seed before somebody says something. Those things are pretty darn affordable. And you can use them as a way to fill up most of your carbohydrate requirements. And then you can kind of, you know, fruit tends to be slightly more expensive. Some fruits do. You can use your fruit and pretty sparingly, but a lot of your vegetables are going to be pretty inexpensive too. Things like broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, spinach, leafy greens, all very nutritious, and they tend to be quite affordable. So if building muscle on a budget is a goal, I tend to recommend a moderate fat, relatively high protein, and high carbohydrate diet. It seems to lend itself well to training

and lend itself quite well to the budget. Another way to just kind of pack the calories in an affordable and nutritious way is to make a smoothie as a meal. So particularly for students or anybody who's traveling to and from class, a lot of times it's hard to get meals in and you'll end up having to stop at the cafeteria, stop at the little coffee shop on campus, and you spend more than you should to get some protein in on some food that probably comes with some calories you didn't want, or at least some macros that were out of your desired ratio. But making a smoothie with something with some Greek yogurt, maybe a scoop of whey protein,

you can toss a little bit of oatmeal in there, a banana, some spinach, all that stuff. You can toss all of some of these nutritious foods I mentioned earlier into a smoothie, take it with you on the go, and it's a great way to increase your micronutrient intake. So a lot of you are probably thinking, well, dude, if I'm throwing all this stuff into a smoothie,

isn't that going to be kind of expensive? Well, let me make my little argument here. A lot of people who are trying to build muscle on a budget are still spending a lot of money on supplements, particularly things like vitamins, additional supplementation like greens powder and if you're somebody who knows you need to get in a lot of calories and you can make a smoothie with micronutrient dense fruits and vegetables in it you'll probably be okay with taking either one

lower doses of those supplements and spreading them out or two not taking them at all because you're able to get much of what you need from your nutritional intake. So a little bit of diligence there and using micronutrient rich carbohydrate sources or vegetables in things like smoothies to not only make your meals portable, but also make them hold up pretty well. Because let's be honest, nobody wants to walk to the microwave in the middle of class and come back with tilapia and broccoli and stink up the whole classroom. So a smoothie is something you can be pretty low profile with, get the nutrients you need, the macros and micros, and it's also really affordable. One supplement, budget building supplement, you should be taking, I think everybody should be taking, even if their goals aren't to build muscle, is creatine.

be taking, I think everybody should be taking, even if their goals aren't to build muscle, is creatine. You can get creatine for a very affordable price tag. You don't need to get any of the designer creatines or anything special like that. Simple, plain, old creatine monohydrate is a fantastic tool for you. It works very, very well, just fine. Two to five grams a day is plenty. And that's probably all you'll need effectively supplement wise to build muscle on a budget. So there you have it. All right, guys. So I hope you enjoyed this episode of the podcast. If you did do me a favor, give me a five star rating and review on iTunes. It makes a huge difference, particularly if you write a review. I want to reach as many people as possible with this platform and continue to grow as a professional in a space like podcasting that gives me the ability to dive a

little deeper than I can on social. So please share it. Tag me if you share it in your stories. I would love to pick your brain about what you liked and didn't like. It's a great opportunity for us to connect on a deeper level. And if you've done this already, please continue to do so. It makes a tremendous impact on me and I really appreciate it.