Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 161: Ten Training Commandments For Gains and Pain Free Lifting!

Episode Date: February 4, 2022

Thanks For Listening!SUPPORT THE SHOW:There is NOTHING more valuable to a podcast than leaving a written review and 5-Star Rating. Please consider taking 1-2 minutes to do that HERE.You can also leave... a review on SPOTIFY!OUR PARTNERS:Legion Supplements (protein, creatine, + more!), Shop (DANNY) HERE!Get Your FREE LMNT Electrolytes HERE! Care for YOUR Gut, Heart and Skin with SEED Symbiotic (save with “DANNY15)  HERE!RESOURCES/COACHING:I am all about education and that is not limited to this podcast! Feel free to grab a FREE guide (Nutrition, Training, Macros, Etc!) HERE! Interested in Working With Coach Danny and His One-On-One Coaching Team? Click HERE!Want Coach Danny to Fix Your S*** (training, nutrition, lifestyle, etc) fill the form HERE for a chance to have your current approach reviewed live on the show. Want To Have YOUR Question Answered On an Upcoming Episode of DYNAMIC DIALOGUE? You Can Submit It HERE!Want to Support The Podcast AND Get in Better Shape? Grab a Program HERE!----SOCIAL LINKS:Sign up for the trainer mentorship HEREFollow Coach Danny on INSTAGRAMFollow Coach Danny on TwitterFollow Coach Danny on FacebookGet More In-Depth Articles Written By Yours’ Truly HERE!Support the Show.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, everybody, welcome in to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. As always, this is your host, Danny Matranga. And in today's episode, we're going to talk a little bit about what I believe are 10 habits, behaviors, commandments, if you will, if you are interested in training for a really long time. Now, a lot of people are very passionate about training. They're very passionate about exercise. And I think that's phenomenal. But even those of us who have a long-term vision have a hard time playing things out over the long term because of that passion. It's our desire to train hard, our desire to put our all out there that makes it really hard to manage the wear and tear that comes with physical
Starting point is 00:00:45 exercise, whether it's pounding the pavement for those of us who like to run, managing soft tissues, the health of our spine for those of us who like to lift. In the long run, there are some strategies and some habits that I think you can implement to train longer, train safer, make adjustments, avoid injuries, or manage them when they do occur so that you can consistently make gains pain-free across the entirety of your training career. Now, before we get into it, I want to be sure to shout out one of our amazing sponsors. It's sponsors like this that help me continue to bring this podcast to you absolutely free. Today's sponsor I'd like to highlight is Legion Athletics. Legion makes
Starting point is 00:01:26 the best supplements in the ergogonic aid slash performance enhancement space. If you are talking about creatine, pre-workout, multivitamin, fish oil, or even things like protein powder, Legion makes phenomenal products, all of which have transparent labeling. So you know exactly what is inside the product. They only include evidence-based, clinically proven to work in human ingredients. So meaning like the stuff that's in the product is shown to work in humans in the doses that have been shown to work in these studies. That's really important because the supplement industry has gotten really good at identifying ingredients. We'll just make one up, for example, here. We'll call it L-alphalene. And they go, okay, well, L-alphalene, this is a fake
Starting point is 00:02:10 amino acid, has been shown to help with improving muscularity and improving endurance. But you need five grams to get the effect. However, five grams costs us a lot. How are we going to include that in the product and still make a shit ton of money? Well, let's just say it's in there, hide behind a proprietary blend, and we'll only put a fifth of a gram, you know, or, you know, 200 milligrams in there, way less than what's clinically proven to work, but we'll advertise that it's in there. We'll tell people it's in there, but not actually be transparent about the dosage. That's really commonplace, and Legion does not let that fly. Everything on the label has been clinically proven to work in the literature with humans, and it is included in these products, things that work synergistically, that work together in the dosages that you want. train. I recommend their Pulse. If you're like me, though, and you like to enjoy a nice cup of coffee in the morning and you like to train a little bit closer to the afternoon, but maybe you don't want
Starting point is 00:03:08 to double dip on the caffeine, the Stimulant Free Pulse is phenomenal. It still has amazing ingredients like L-citrulline and beta-alanine that can help you train hard. The Recharge Creatine is my absolute favorite. I love the watermelon. I love the strawberry lemonade. The unflavored one is pretty good too, if you like to toss it in a shake. And the new blue raspberry is growing on me quite a bit. Also, Triumph, their phenomenal multivitamin supplement that includes a full dosage of ashwagandha, zinc, magnesium, stuff that I recommend on the regular. They have a men's version and a women's version. The thing I like about this is there are certain things that female physiology might need specifically with regards to things
Starting point is 00:03:49 like minerals, for example, iron. And so these two vitamins each kind of are tailored towards the unique physiology that kind of differentiate men from women. So if you want to support the show, if you want to take your training to the next level and upgrade the supplements you're already using, I would recommend considering shopping with Legion Athletics. Check out using the promo code Danny to save 20% on your first order and earn two times the amount of points which can be used the same as cash on future orders. Here's the thing. You don't need a ton. A good protein powder, a good creatine, maybe a multivitamin, maybe a fish oil, maybe a greens powder. You don't need much more than that. I'm a very simple guy. All I really add on top of that for my own supplementation is, of course, our awesome partner, Seeds Probiotic and Elemental
Starting point is 00:04:37 Labs Electrolyte. So I try to keep it fairly simple. I think less is more. But when it comes to supplementation, high quality stuff is really important. And I think you want to get what you're paying for in an industry that is so shady and so dubious. So shop with Legion Athletics. You won't regret it. Getting into our first commandment here on our 10 commandments to train forever,
Starting point is 00:04:57 avoid injury and make gains. The first, of course, is that you cannot prevent injuries, but you can avoid them. There are a lot of coaches in this space, a lot of trainers in this space who, and I despise this behavior. I think it is absolutely pathetic when a professional athlete gets hurt, meaning somebody playing a sport like basketball, baseball, football, a dynamic sport, they will look at the injury video, right? The video or a highlight from the game in which the
Starting point is 00:05:25 injury occurred. They'll make a diagnosis based on probably what's already been put out there by the many, many physical therapists and orthopedic specialists who watch sports, who can quickly determine the MOI, the mechanism of injury, and they can quickly go, okay, that's an ACL. And they will go, oh, this wouldn't have happened if he did this, or this is because of that. And truth be told, even at the highest level of sport, injuries are not necessarily something that can be prevented. Sometimes shit happens, and it's really unfortunate. And the same is true for those of us who engage in recreational athletic endeavors, whether that be running, weightlifting, cross-training, kickboxing, you name it. Whatever your fitness thing is,
Starting point is 00:06:12 injuries are something that you can hope to avoid, you can hope to manage when they do occur, but you cannot reliably prevent them all the time because we are operating in a dynamic world. them all the time because we are operating in a dynamic world. Now, there are some things that you can do, in my opinion, to prevent injuries from occurring, particularly injuries that might be specific to tendons and soft tissues. The first of which is warm up properly prior to training. We will talk quite a bit more about this when we get to point number eight, when I give you some warm-up specifics. The second of which is don't train beyond failure with bad form on compound exercises. If you want to train to failure, if you want to incorporate failure training, that's fine. I think it can be very productive. Now, the element of failure training that I like is that it pushes our muscles to a point of no longer being able
Starting point is 00:07:06 to contract. And oftentimes we have to use secondary muscles to make something kind of look similar to the movement. So for example, like a bicep curl, like if I can't get a clean rep, I might use a little hip drive and a little bit of anterior delt to flex my shoulder up. And that tends to be okay. But when you go to failure and you start to get sloppy and you start recruiting other tissues or using other patterns of movement to kind of replicate what you're after, you're then putting those tissues that are coming to help in harm's way, or you can be. So for example, I'll tell you something that I think I see quite a bit, which is, and again, every single person is different. So you can't say for sure, but I'll give you an example of this. When people start training, they often complain about their
Starting point is 00:07:50 forearms and their grip giving out before the target tissues, right? Well, a large reason for this is because some muscles are stronger than others. And so if you fatigue a really strong muscle, but you continue to do an exercise mechanically that's quite challenging, but that muscle that's strong and maybe it's the prime mover is no longer able to assist, you might put some of those secondary muscles in harm's way. So one of the things you can do to manage your injuries or manage the potential of injuries, reduce the risk if this is even possible, right? Because quite frankly, we live in a dynamic world. Don't train like an idiot. If you're going to train to failure, try to train to failure using intelligent exercises that maybe are isolation-based, stable and machine-based. Try not to go to failure on things like barbell
Starting point is 00:08:34 squats, barbell deadlifts, barbell bench press, these things that are really fixed, really rigid, unless you have a phenomenal spotter, which again, we'll talk a little bit more about as this episode unfolds. We'll talk about the importance of having a coach or a good workout partner to help you manage these things and help you not overdo it. But overall, I think the biggest thing you can do to ensure that your training career lasts a long time is be really, really smart. Acknowledge that you cannot prevent injuries by any combination of things. Sometimes shit happens, even if you warmed up perfectly, even if you train smart, right? They are always on the table. They're always possible. And so that's the first thing is you got to know that nobody's invincible, nobody's impervious.
Starting point is 00:09:16 The best athletes in the world can have freak injuries. And so you got to do what you can do inside of your control, but you also have to acknowledge that you can't control everything. to do what you can do inside of your control, but you also have to acknowledge that you can't control everything. Okay. Number two commandment for a long, healthy training career, hopefully an injury-free training career, a pain-free training career, is logging your workouts on a semi-consistent basis. Now, you don't have to log your workouts every time. I understand that for many of you, that might be impractical, but there are a lot of applications that allow you to do this, such as the Strong app. I'm working now with a company called Train Heroic. We're in the middle of producing something for you guys that I think is going to be very, very cool.
Starting point is 00:09:53 Keep your eyes peeled for that around April, May. I'm excited to share that with you when the time comes. You can do what I recommend for our clients at Core Coaching Method, which I know many people think is old school, but I absolutely love it. And that is logging your workouts with pen and paper. Print your workout logs out, bring them to the gym in a folder, and write in them. That way you're not on your phone all the time. You're not constantly bouncing back and forth between devices. You are focused, you are writing it down, and the power of seeing the fucking pen hit the paper and the ink come out, and you get to write that PR or you get to reference the previous week is so, so cool. And if you want a long training career,
Starting point is 00:10:32 building up these logs is really motivating. It's really inspiring to be able to go back and say, dude, two, three years ago, this is what I was doing. I've had some clients that I have had the pleasure of working with online for many, many months, many, many years even, but some of them do a phenomenal job of keeping logs. They're really, really reliable and they're really, really good at it. And every once in a while when we get the opportunity to check where they were at one, two, three years ago, comparing these logs, it is unbelievable to see the progress, to see like, oh my gosh, you're 10 repping or doing 10 reps with what you used to do three reps with on this exercise. How cool is that? So not only is this a good way to make sure you're not overdoing it, it's a great way to make sure you're making small incremental progress, but it's also a phenomenal way to keep yourself excited, fresh, and looking forward for what's to come. The long grind and haul of committing to exercise and training for life can get really boring and really lonely. And having these workout logs to look back on,
Starting point is 00:11:33 to see your progress can be phenomenally motivating. Okay, tip number three is stop demonizing movements, modalities, etc. Find what works well for you. Okay. So CrossFit gets demonized a lot as being really dangerous and really likely to cause injury and stupid and poorly programmed. And that's oftentimes very true, but there are also really good CrossFit gyms or boxes with really good coaches, really good community and really good programming. And that motivates people. There are a lot of trainers out there who say that machine work is stupid and you should only ever do free weights. And again, it's demonizing machines that might scare people who are entry level and they want something stable and easy that they don't have to worry about their form
Starting point is 00:12:17 looking good on, right? Like if you're going to the gym and you're looking at a barbell squat or even a goblet squat, those are really intimidating compared to something like a leg press that you just sit in and you push away from, right? For many people, the gym is still a very intimidating place. And so demonizing certain modalities that might be accessible for other people like Zumba or CrossFit because of the community or modalities specific to like actually how we execute the ins and outs of our exercise, like machines or bands or free weights or TRX as being less than, we might be scaring people away. And we see that all the time with people looking to get involved
Starting point is 00:12:57 in exercise and those of us who are initiated kind of poo-pooing things, which I don't like. But this shows up a lot in how people actually program for themselves and how they approach training. I cannot tell you how many people that have come to me with bodybuilding goals or physique development goals or fat loss goals. And when I program machine work for them, they're like, wait, you want me to do the hack squad? I thought machines were bad. And I'm like, no, the hack squad is incredibly efficient quad stimulus. It's probably better for developing your quads than even a barbell squat. And they go, oh my gosh, like this is news to me. I'm shocked to hear this because I've been told for so long that machines were bad or machines were not good. When in fact, it's all about how we're applying the device, the stimulus we're looking to go through or,
Starting point is 00:13:41 or elicit, right? So we're always thinking about a few things, which is one, what's the goal? So let's say the goal is quad growth. You go, okay, two, what do we have access to? Do we have access to a hack squat, a leg press, dumbbells for lunges, dumbbells for goblet squats, barbells for barbell back squat, leg extension machine? Okay. Maybe we consider what is the client's preference? Does the client have a training preference? We can take all these things into account. But if you start cutting yourself off from the world of what you have access to because you've got some preconceived notion that kettlebells are dumb or machines are dumb
Starting point is 00:14:14 or maybe you're on the other end of things and you think free weights are dumb and that machines are the way to go, you really quickly start to put yourself in a box where you have a limited number of tools. And I think that even if you're constantly picking the same tools, it's never a bad where you have a limited number of tools. And I think that even if you're constantly picking the same tools, it's never a bad idea to have a lot of tools in your toolbox or a lot of arrows in your quiver. I think that you'll find this proves to be productive for your
Starting point is 00:14:35 training career. It will help you stave off boredom. Even though I heard somebody say this the other day on Instagram, I don't remember who, but it was a really good quote. They basically said, it's oftentimes better to maintain the exercise selection, keep that consistent, but change the stimulus than it is to change the exercises all the time, which I loved. I thought that was really smart. Compound performance. I cannot remember the guy's name. I just call him compound performance. That just came to me. Anyway, really good quote. Really, really good quote. Makes a ton of sense. And I agree with that. But every once in a while, you might change the exercise. For example, if you want to have a higher volume metabolite-focused stimulus, and you go, well, I was doing a heavy barbell-style squat. Do I want to do 20-rep barbell
Starting point is 00:15:19 squats? Or would I rather do 20-rep hack squats where the machine provides a lot of stability? I can really focus on output. Might be a little bit easier when those reps get higher, especially on things like my knees and low back, whatever. That's an appropriate time to change exercises. You don't want to change them all the time. What works is what works. But changing stimuli, changing exercises occasionally, having a lot of arrows in your quiver is smart. So stop demonizing stuff, even if you don't personally like it or you don't find a lot of opportunity to apply it. There's very few exercises or even very few modalities that I would describe as bad,
Starting point is 00:15:59 dangerous, or unsafe. 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. Number four, expanding a little bit more on training to failure or training with high outputs. I think it's important to pick your spots. This is something I talked a little bit about on Instagram. How do you pick your spot? Well, when you train to failure, it's generally better, in my opinion, to train to failure in
Starting point is 00:16:40 environments that are stable and where we can reliably, reliably elicit stimulus at the target tissue. So what do I mean by this? If we're talking about, let's just select the hamstrings, for example, and I want to train to failure so that I can build up a lot of mechanical tension and have a fairly hypertrophic stimulus on a few sets specifically for my hamstrings. Maybe I'm looking to calibrate my RPE. Maybe I just want to really pound my muscles. Now, I'm not saying that failure is better for hypertrophy. In fact, you'll find some studies that say going short of failure is better. But I do think going to failure on occasion is productive. And I think it can be helpful if nothing else other than for calibrating
Starting point is 00:17:19 your RPEs, your RIRs, your outputs, or learning what your limits are, right? So here you go. You're trying to figure out where am I with this, you know, set of hamstring exercises or this set of hamstring work I want to take to failure. Do I want to use an RDL where my grip might fail first, my low back might fail first, my upper back might fail first, my glutes might fail first, or do I want to use a lying hamstring curl where I'm stable, I'm locked in, I'm creating tension, I'm really only able to use my hamstrings and maybe a little bit of my calves. And so I think that when you train to failure, knowing the tissue you're trying to stress and selecting modalities that allow for that stress to be as targeted as possible is always a good idea. And I do think
Starting point is 00:18:02 that machine work is often best for this, which again, all of these things are really intertwined. And I think these two go together really nicely. Three, which would be stop demonizing stuff. And then four, of course, if you're going to use like failure training to expand the library of which of things that you use. So I think that this is a really good opportunity to just kind of continue to recommend to you guys, have as many arrows in your quiver as you can. Number five is to find a good coach or a good workout partner. So for those of you who are independent, you like to go to the gym on your own, maybe you go early and you have a hard time finding a reliable gym partner or trainer, having an online coach who
Starting point is 00:18:42 understands the basics of programming, who programs things intelligently, you know, they're not going, okay, what I'd like you to do is do, you know, 200 reps of leg presses with your body weight, supersetted with 200 jump squats, supersetted with a deadlift one rep max. They're not doing obviously dumb programming, right? They're putting things together in an intelligent, you know, mindful way so that you're prioritizing the tissues you most want to develop, the movements you most want to develop. They're making sure that the accessory work you're doing is productive and ultimately supports your primary goals. They're making sure that you're getting work on the schedule to do that maybe you would otherwise not do. We know that when
Starting point is 00:19:22 left to our own devices, we will often make mistakes. We'll talk a little bit more about the customization and making sure that you're doing the work that needs to be done as we unpack this a little bit more. But having a coach that puts something together for you that's intelligent is really, really helpful. Same thing with having a good workout partner. A good workout partner can be there to kind of push you a little bit. They can be there to support you. They can be there to spot you. They can be there to drive accountability. All of these things are really, really valuable for avoiding injury, if you can, again, avoiding injury, minimizing the opportunity for something like that to occur, increasing the duration of your training career
Starting point is 00:20:05 by making smart decisions, by having a spotter there, by having somebody there to drive that accountability and keep you coming. I can't recommend it enough how valuable it is to find a good workout partner or to find a good coach to make sure that you're doing the right things. Now, moving on to point number six, expanding a little bit more into this, is to not just follow a program and not just hire a coach, but to make sure that what you're doing is custom. And so for those of you who are self-guided, maybe you don't have a coach, maybe you don't have a workout partner, you don't want to really take that last tip into account. When I say custom, I mean it's taking things into account like your injury history, maybe your tissue tolerance at
Starting point is 00:20:46 certain places. For example, I have a client who I work with online. She's a physical therapist, and she told me that, hey, when I do lunges, this knee hurts more than others when it's the trail leg, and this knee hurts more than others when it's the lead leg. She gave me some very specific things to work with. And when I made her initial programming, I took those considerations into account. That's a really intelligent thing to do if you want to train for a long time. So for example, if you're training on your own and you go, man, I really want to bench, I really want to develop my pecs, but barbell bench press just keeps bothering my shoulders, but I don't feel that way when I use dumbbells. Well, you'd be darn smart to include more dumbbell
Starting point is 00:21:24 pressing than barbell pressing. So try to customize things based on the feedback you're getting from your body, based on your injury history, based on your anthropometry. Anthropometry means limb length, the size of your body, the individual constraints of how you're built. So for example, if you're like six foot eight, you know, barbell squatting might not be the best way for you to load up your quads because you just are going to have a hell of a time with these long ass limbs, getting a lot of knee over toe, getting a lot of that deep knee flexion. You might do better with a hex bar deadlift or a leg press or a hack squat. So tweak and customize things based on your injury
Starting point is 00:21:59 history, based on where you experience pain, based on what movements give you the right kind of feedback, and always be on the lookout to adjust. Don't be married to any one movement. Don't be married to any one philosophy. You're going to probably know your body better than just about anybody, and you should. So make sure that you're making the right decisions as you go. Number seven, don't just take days off. Include activities that promote and enhance recovery. So when a lot of people think of recovery, they immediately go like supplements and hydration. And I think that those help. So obviously protein powder to increase total protein availability, electrolytes to increase hydration, omega-3 to help with inflammation, creatine to help with intramuscular
Starting point is 00:22:41 hydration and creatine stores, potentially carbohydrate supplementation or carbohydrate timing to help with excessive muscle protein breakdown. Sure. That's all stuff you can do to enhance recovery. But what I'm talking about here is things like making sure that you're getting great sleep, making sure you're doing a zone two cardio to get metabolites exchanged in and out of tissues that have been trained, to get blood flow circulating, right? To increase the capacity of your circulatory system to actually transfer nutrients to and from where they need to go. Things like sauna to reduce stress. And again, increase vasodilation, decrease feelings of soreness. Get outside and go on a walk, get some vitamin D. Increase those feel-good, happy hormones that are
Starting point is 00:23:26 associated with being in nature. A day off from the gym is a great idea if you're training really hard. You shouldn't train hard seven days a week, not if you want to train for a long time. So having days off where you can completely recover and relax is good. But I would definitely make time for some active recovery work. So all the stuff I just mentioned, obviously being active and intelligent with your supplementation choices, being active and intelligent with your inclusion of things like sauna, aerobic work, outdoor walking, et cetera, but also making sure that you're doing things like stretching, making sure that you're doing things like tissue specific work if that needs to be done for you. If you're somebody who responds well to massage or chiropractic, you know, or even things like yoga that are still active, but maybe not necessarily
Starting point is 00:24:11 as in, you know, challenging. These are all things that you should consider and look to implement when and where possible in the general, like obviously keeping your main goals in mind. Don't just train hard five days a week and sit on the couch the other two, right? I do think that there's always a time and place for complete sloth and laziness, but I find that active recovery and being intelligent and still including some movement is a really good way to maintain a rhythm, keep things going, train for a long time, avoid injury, and make gains as you go. Okay, number eight, we've only got three more guys, is make 10 minutes. Take 10 minutes to warm up properly. A good warmup does
Starting point is 00:24:53 not take a ton of time. You might spend three to eight minutes getting your heart rate elevated, getting your tissue temperature elevated, doing some aerobic specific work, and you can go right into your first set, just taking the time to do a couple of light warmup sets first. It can be that simple. You can break it down and take a little extra time and include some tissue tempering or some stretching of tissues that are tight or foam rolling of tissues that are tight. You can go ahead and for example, if you're benching that day, you can take a couple minutes to do some face pulls and some external rotation just to kind of give your body a little bit of the opposite of what you're about to pound it with. There's so
Starting point is 00:25:30 many ways you can warm up. You can do things like post-activation potentiation work, nervous system activation work. Point is, if you're going to take hours and hours and hours a week to train, you might as well take a few minutes before each one of those sessions and get your body in a space where it's going to be ready to rock and perform at a high level. That's not asking too much. Again, a lot of you guys have big goals and you're not going to reach those big goals if you're constantly having to take breaks or your training is just shitty and unproductive or you're injured here and there. So do take the time to warm up properly. It doesn't take that much time. It's a lot like another tip you'll hear me talk about often, which would be getting enough water where I feel like it's almost inexcusable not to take this
Starting point is 00:26:09 seriously. And I don't think that your warmups should be getting longer and longer. I actually think they should get shorter, but you should take the time to warm up. Okay. Number nine, if there is pain, if there is an injury, if there is a movement dysfunction, stop pushing through it, right? If, stop pushing through it, right? If you can move through it and move around it and get creative, that's fine. But stop pushing through pain if you have the ability, capacity, and access to an assessment and to a professional who can help you break down exactly what that is. My first recommendation is, and always will be probably, physical therapy. I do think that chiropractic work is okay. I think that a lot of personal trainers fancy themselves as injury assessors. I oftentimes can
Starting point is 00:26:50 get to the bottom of what my clients are dealing with. For example, I have a client who's in his seventies. He does a lot of competitive cycling. He came into me one day for a session. He's like, dude, my thigh is really hurting from right up here by the top of my hip all the way down to my knee. And I said, well, if I had to guess that might be iliotibial band syndrome, let's go ahead and meet with the physical therapist. So I called my good friend and local physical therapist. We got him in. He got his assessment. It was IT band syndrome, but we didn't have to guess. I didn't have to step outside of my scope of practice. He got the diagnosis that would then get him the treatment specific for the issue. That's what's so important, guys, is if you get a good diagnosis, you get an accurate
Starting point is 00:27:31 assessment, you can immediately start treating it and get out of pain. Working around it is always smart, right? Working through it, not always the case, but getting an assessment, getting a treatment plan is so, so valuable. So if you are dealing with an injury, you are dealing with pain, you are dealing with dysfunction, get that shit looked at. Okay. And number 10, this is one that I saved for the end because I think it's so important. Commandment 10 on things that you can do to train forever, avoid injury and make gains is do the work that you know you need to do. Yes. You know what I'm talking about? It's the work
Starting point is 00:28:02 you don't want to do. So for some of you, it's that zone two cardio to increase your aerobic capacity and heart health. For many of you, it's training your core and not skipping abs. For some of you, it's training your calves. For a lot of you, it's working on your ankle mobility. You probably have some insights as to where the holes are in your game, what you need to work on, and what people have a tendency to do is they tend to go to the gym and do the shit that they're already really good at. And that is just not going to cut it. You guys, you got to take time to work on those areas that could use improvement. There are a little bit weak in the NFL. They say you're only as good as your third receiver. You know, they say you're only as good as the weakest link in your chain, whatever you want to say, right? I think that
Starting point is 00:28:42 you're probably only as fit as the weakest element of your fitness. And if you can take a little bit of time, not a lot, to just spend on those areas that are weak, because you have not trained them very much, they tend to catch up quite, quite quickly. We all have these things that we skip out on because we just don't like them, or they're a pain, or we don't want to make time for them. I would strongly recommend that you stop doing that. Thank you again all so much for tuning in. Those were 10 commandments to train forever and avoid injury. The first of which was acknowledge that you can't prevent injuries, but you can work your hardest to give yourself the best chance to avoid them in dynamic situations. Number two, log your workouts, pay attention to your progress over time. Number three,
Starting point is 00:29:18 stop demonizing things. Number four, pick your spots when you're training hard or training to failure. Number five, find a good coach or workout partner. Number six, try to customize things as much as possible. Number seven, don't just recover, recover actively. Number eight, take the 10 minutes or so it required to warm up well. Number nine, if you feel pain, movement, dysfunction, et cetera, please get that assessed by a professional who's qualified to do such assessments. And number 10, do the shit you're avoiding just because it's hard, even though you know you need to be doing it. All right, you guys,
Starting point is 00:29:48 thanks so much for tuning in to another episode. If you could, this would be a huge help for me. Leave me a five-star rating and review on iTunes and Spotify. If you listen on one or the other, just take five seconds right now, click the link in the show notes, leave me a five-star rating and review. That stuff is unbelievably helpful and it helps a podcast like mine grow. I have seen more organic growth, more downloads in December and January than any other month. Thanks to people just like you sharing this podcast, leaving awesome reviews and helping me get my message out there so that more people can live a healthy, fit life. And that's exactly what I'm after. And I want to say thank you to everybody who has left a review. And again, if you have not, it would make a huge difference for me.
Starting point is 00:30:28 Stay tuned and I'll catch you on the next one.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.