Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 1852: The 4 Worst Ways to Judge Your Workout Success

Episode Date: July 7, 2022

In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin cover four popular ways to judge the effectiveness of a workout that are just plain wrong.   The 4 Worst Ways to Judge Your Workout Success. (2:47)   #1 – Soreness. (You should feel little to no soreness.) (8:10) #2 – Sweat. (Some of the best workouts don’t make you sweat.) (17:10) #3 - How hard it was. (Hard is easy to produce.) (22:42) #4 - How exhausted do you feel afterward. (You should feel better, not worse after.) (26:55)   Five Great Ways to Judge Your Workout.   #1 - You got stronger. (31:56) #2 - You gained stamina. (34:14) #3 - Your body composition improved. (34:44) #4 - You have improved energy. (36:57) #5 - You have better vitality. (39:22) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit Chili Sleep for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! July Promotion: RGB Bundle or MAPS Suspension 50% off! **Promo code JULY50 at checkout** Sore muscles…what does it mean? - Mind Pump Blog Why we Caution People to Stay Away from CrossFit – Mind Pump Blog My HONEST Thoughts On Crossfit – Mind Pump Blog Mind Pump #1142: Nine Signs You Are Overtraining Mind Pump #1057: How To Get Stronger For Fat Loss & Muscle Building How Phasing Your Workouts Leads to Consistent Plateau Free Workouts – Mind Pump Blog Why The Scale Is Not Always The Best Way To Measure Progress – Mind Pump Blog Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind, hop, mind, hop with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the world's number one fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pup, right? In today's episode, we talk about the four worst ways to judge your workout effectiveness and success. By the way, at the end of the episode, we actually give you great ways to judge your workout effectiveness and success. By the way, at the end of the episode, we actually give you great ways to judge your workout success.

We'll leave you with some good positives, some constructive positives. Now, this episode was brought to you by our sponsor, Chilly Sleep. So they make devices that dramatically improve the quality of your sleep. So my favorite device is their Uler Sleep system. So it goes over your mattress under your sheet and it uses water. So it's water cooled or water warmed

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All right, here comes the show. It can be really challenging to kind of determine whether or not your workout is successful, but what we're gonna go over in this episode are some of the worst ways to judge your workout success. So if you do some of the following, and you look at them and you say, oh, this means it had a good workout.

You're totally wrong. In fact, it might be the opposite of what you think. You know, I wanted to talk about this because I always get messages from people who are like, you know, hey, you know, this workout made me feel this way. I think it's real effective. Or why am I not getting sore anymore? How do I know if my workout is working? Sounds like the answer would be obvious, but as a trainer, this was something I had to constantly battle and overcome. Constantly, people judging the workouts the wrong way. Yeah, it's a tough one because these are things that our clients actually feel.

It's basically direct feedback from the workouts. And this is something that they can associate with something good. Whereas we have to deconstruct that and then reeducate them on why, you might feel this, but it's not the most beneficial way to approach this. It's going to be interesting to see how people receive this one because this is still a problem because we're still marketed to this way. Totally. I mean, the sweat, the burn, the soreness, all those things that, you know, beastmo, no

days out, we've been talking about thisess, all those things that, you know, beastmo, no days, we've been talking about this since we started this damn podcast. And I still don't think we're winning the war on it. I think that it's still what people still attach to what they think is a good workout. Yeah, you know what it is, is the the challenging part of consistent fitness isn't necessarily the pain that you get from the workout. I think that's what people think. It's like, oh isn't necessarily the pain that you get from the workout. I think that's what people think.

It's like, oh, it's the pain of the workout. No, the challenging part is the consistency. That's the no pain, no gain. It's the sacrifice of the consistency. Not necessarily that I go to the gym and then beat the absolute crap out of myself and then, oh my God, this is gonna be so successful because I feel so crappy.

I mean, Justin brings a good point though too. We attached to the way we feel. The other day, we had a live caller and she was training like six, seven days a week. She was running, but phenomenal shape. She was ex-gemness, 10 to 13% body fat. We had a little bit of a conversation afterwards about, you know, how hard it is to get somebody like that to stop doing it. Especially she's in good shape already, right? It is stop doing that and focusing on those things when they know it makes them feel good. There's

nothing you can say as a coach or a trainer that is going to convince them otherwise because they get that cortisol dump and that does feel good. So they get that dump from that crazy intense workout and you're over here as a coach, you're going like, that's not what you should be doing. That's not the right idea. That's not what's best for your body and they're going like, it feels what's best for my body. Yeah, well, sometimes what they, the reason why they think it feels good is because the workout is a distraction from something that feels worse. So for example, if you have really bad body image issues or you have a depressing job or a bad relationship, well, it's an escape to go to the gym constantly and beat yourself up.

And in that case, it does feel good. Look, you ask an alcoholic. That's a good point because now you're getting two, right? You're getting also the escape and you're getting the dump. Right, because you ask an alcoholic or a drug addict, like, hey, does it feel good to do the drugs? Well, I mean, it obviously feels better than whatever it is that they need to deal with.

So there's that part of it. Then there's also the effect that you get from, you know, not liking yourself or feeling like you're too fat or you're not attractive, and then you go to the gym and you kind of, self-flagulate yourself, you beat yourself up, and that feels satisfying, like, ah, I'm such a lazy person, and I have no discipline.

Punishment, but I punished myself, and that feels good, it's cathartic to punish myself for all these bad jobs. Now, you might not be thinking that logically, but that's kind of what happens subconsciously. Yeah, how many times have you had clients do that where they tell you about a class that they took, and they were like, oh man, I was crawling out of the class,

and it was so good. Oh, I remember group Margar syndrome. Yes. I remember having clients that I would be training, like let's say three days a week, and we'd be on this routine, and I would come in like, or I'd see them in like an off day, and I come walk them by and they'd be over

like in the elliptical in the corner. Pumping like crazy, and I'm like, what are you doing here, Deb? Oh, like, you know, last night I went out with the girl and I had some drinks and this and that. And so, and not telling me, like she was gonna come in and, you know, burn it off because of what she did yesterday and it was like this form of one punishment

and then two trying to burn off the calories that she could and it is cathartic when you feel guilty. Right. I feel so guilty for the drinks I had last night. I will, it's like doing your hail, hail marries or asking for forgiveness. So I'm going to the gym and I'm gonna sweat it out and now it's okay, I've solved the problem that I created last night. So that cathartic feeling feels good

temporarily. Now when people say, oh no, but it feels good, the people that have gotten to, who have actually convinced to change their approach within a few months, they go back and say, I had no idea. I do feel, now I really feel good. I had no idea that I actually felt as bad as I did. I thought I was feeling great. So now the first one that comes to mind, this is an easy one. And this one took me a long time to figure out

for my clients, it took me way longer to figure out for myself. And I've said this before on the show, but trainers are always better with their clients than they are with themselves. For some reason, we consider ourselves, like the rules don't apply for some reason, but, and that's soreness. Soreness is not a great indicator

of an effective workout, but for the longest time I thought it was, if I didn't get sore in a muscle or an area that I was training, I thought it wasn't effective. Well, obviously it's not effective. I don't feel any soreness or pain there. It did even really get the work. Yes.

And this is like, especially for somebody just first coming in to the experience, because that's kind of a hard one to gauge initially. Yes, in terms of like, like how much effort to put out and like what volume to attempt attempt and if you haven't really had any experience before. And so a lot of times like, they may just assume that this is part of the experience. And I just have to mentally get a little bit more discipline in how I deal with this type of pain, but they're always kind of seeking that first initial

same kind of experience where they end up with the soreness and this kind of overworked feeling. I actually think this one remains difficult even after you've put it together because ideally I'm always trying to like take it like right to that, like right before that. And so even with all my years of experience, like that, that's a moving target. It's a moving target based off of your stress levels. It's a moving target based off of your previous consistency of nutrition, your nutrition. So it's this to me, it's, it was, I had a big aha moment. I too, like figured it out with my clients first later on, still struggling myself.

Okay, now fully started to piece it together for myself. I understand it, I understand that. I'm not trying to be sore, but then even trying to gauge my workouts and go like, oh, that's probably enough, that'll take me right to that edge. I mean, I'm sore right now, more sore than I need to be. And again, I was just like,

and you know, it's crazy, I thought, man, I only did two sets of that, but I chose a weight that was much heavier than what I needed to do for that exercise because that specific exercise, I hadn't done it a long time. And of course, I still make this mistake. I go like, oh, I've done 225 on my back. You're comparing yourself.

Yeah, I've done 225 on my back. So putting, you know, what did I have? 159, 110 pounds or something on my back. And I'm like, I've done 250%. And I'm only doing two sets. I should be fine. Sores, shit. You know what I'm saying?

So I do think that even when you figure this out, you still kind of continually make these mistakes of, so it's constantly moving towards. Yeah, the interesting thing about soreness is if soreness tells you anything, it tells you that you did too much. Really, there's really not much else soreness will tell you. It doesn't tell you how to work out,

doesn't tell you're gonna build muscle or burn body fat, but it can tell you that you did too much. What's interesting about this one is my approach with clients in this regard was a complete flip as it became more experienced. So what I mean by that is an early trainer, I would seek out getting my client's sore. Hey, how did your legs feel after a workout? Oh, they felt fine.

And then I'm like, oh, I'm gonna go, I've gotta go, I've got to go, I've got to go, we gotta get your sore. Oh my God, I can barely move. Good, effective workout, right? Five years later, like it took me this long to figure it out, maybe even more. If someone told me, oh man, I was so sore after that workout,

okay, we went too hard. What I was looking for as an experienced trainer, and when I was experienced, I was much more effective, meaning clients got way better results, okay. What I was looking for was, I kind of felt it, or really didn't get sore. Perfect, that's the intent,

that was the right intensity and the right volume for your body. And that's my goal. With my own body, I didn't think about, this isn't something that I applied till much later because for myself it was always beat myself up, beat myself up, beat myself up. But at one point when I figured out full body workouts

and I figured out not going to failure and I figured out how to modify intensity, my strength gains exploded and I never got sore. This was the part that was like, aha for me, but it was also obvious. It was like, oh my God, I'd go to my workout. I'd finish my workout a day or two later, no soreness, and I'd repeat the workout again and it felt good.

And my strength went through the roof. Till this day, my goal is to feel little to no soreness. So a little bit of soreness, it's probably okay. The kind that you have to search for, like if you worked out your chest, you kind of have to stretch it and maybe squeeze it and be like, oh, I think I worked it, that's fine. If you have the kind of soreness that lasts like a day or two

or where you're sore to the touch or it affects your movement, you went way too hard. Yeah, because I mean, everybody, well, that has gone to the point where they feel that sore where it's almost like they're immobile where it's really hard for them to even function, but then now try to apply that same type of intensity to the next workout.

I mean, you're limiting your progress just in the next workout by having that kind of sornice coming into it. So to really kind of look at it from a longer term perspective about how you can keep adding on and chipping away at progress, it's got to be a lot less and you got to be energized each time to be able to do a better performance in your workout. I wish there was a study on this because I have this theory too that it dramatically impacts your neat even.

So for example, I'm going through it right now. I just told you I overreached. I'm so subconsciously right now. I have a tendency to just move less. Because my ass is so sore, it's sore to the touch right now. That's what I'm saying now. Yeah, I just want to sit down and every time I get up, I go, and every time I say, so because of that, I'm less likely to pop up out of my chair

and go move and do something like I would if I felt really good and energized. So, you know, and how much far-ranging effects doesn't it? Yeah, so how much more does that, most of us are in pursuit of building muscle and or burning body fat, having a lean fit physique, right? So it's not, I don't wanna just get sore,

build and build muscle, I also wanna be lean. And so that also affects my movement and calorie burn for the day too. And it'd be interesting to see how much in the starting since yesterday, today, tomorrow, does my need diminish because I'm so short. It makes perfect sense, right?

I'm gonna use an analogy, okay? So building muscle, burning body fat are adaptation processes in the body. So when you build muscle, you obviously, you, there's a certain level of stress that you put on your body by lifting weights. And then your body, it tries to adapt to that by becoming stronger. So that next time, the same insult doesn't produce the same amount of stress. And so this is how you get stronger over time. So let's use another form of adaptation.

I've used this before, and that's your skin tanning in the sun. So if I go to the sun and expose myself to the right amount of sunlight, my skin will slightly darken to adapt. That next time the same amount of time spent in the sun with the same intensity, it wouldn't produce any stress. Okay. Soreness would be akin to a sunburn. Okay. so imagine if you're trying to tan effectively, and what you keep seeking is sunburn, are you going to tan faster? You're gonna, it's gonna take you much longer to get a good tan if you keep going out and getting sunburned.

You're just creating too much damage for your body. It's also a good analogy because the, how much sun can cause a sunburn in you is determined by your genetics. It's also determined by your exposure. Previous exposure to the sun, it's also can be determined by your diet and hydration and those types of things as well.

So the reason why soreness is also a bit challenging is because it's impossible to avoid. And I do wanna be clear, you're gonna get sore when you change workouts. You're gonna get sore when you're not a layoff, or it's hard for you to judge the intensity. But once that happens, use that as a gauge and say, okay, that was too hard.

What you don't want to do is use it as a gauge and say that was perfect. Let's push harder and keep seeking out that soreness. That is a fast track to overtraining terrible results and actually reverse results. It's actually going opposite direction if you keep seeking out so I You know, I think that's such a good it's such a good way to say that because I don't I also don't want to get this

Misinterpreted as you know, oh if you're getting sore you're you're doing a terrible job like because it's inevitable You're gonna get sore from working out. It like how sore you are though. It's just the way you like you said It's perfect. It's like I I, I know after I did that, I go like, oh wow, I didn't need to do that much. That's how you versus me going like, oh yeah. That's good, you know what I'm saying? Next work it, I'm gonna get it again, like that or ramp it up. I'm going like, oh wow, I could have probably

reduced that weight significantly and got as good of, if not, arguably better results. That's the way I look at it now versus going like, what I used to do, which is like, oh yeah, I got it. That's a good workout. All right, so the next one is sounds funny, but I can't tell you how many clients use this as a gauge of an effective worker. And that's how much you sweat in the workout. I've had clients literally tell me with a strength training session, that's traditional, where we're resting two or three minutes in between sets,

we're doing low reps, which happened to be for these clients, the most effective workout at the time, where we saw strength gains, we saw whatever, and they would say things to me like, I barely sweat in these workouts. Is it really being that effective? You're the sweat you produced in your workout. You're an aerobic.

All it tells you is that you're overheating. So it can be a good workout, can make you sweat, and a crappy workout can make you sweat. An effective workout can make you sweat. And an ineffective workout. There's also a massive factor. Yes, there's a massive genetic variance in this too. Like I've had clients before that I crush them in the gym

and like one drop of a big sweat comes down there for a forehead and that's the littlest thing. And I've had clients where they're just dripping everywhere and like we're carrying towels. And you know, it it's just one of those it's just very so substantial. Well it goes back to your point earlier it's a feel thing. Yes. It feels like you're I mean I'm sweating really I feel like I'm doing a lot. Yeah I'm doing a lot right now.

Yeah I remember when you can't convince the otherwise good. Do you guys remember when we went to that equity? That Pilates studio we were going to do this video. Oh yeah. There was this idea, our media team was the long time ago. There's a lot of time ago. I hope we deleted this somewhere. It's somewhere in the vault, never be released.

But our media team was like, oh my God, it'll be so funny if you guys, because your meet head looking guys, right? We took you to a Pilates class. It wasn't a Pilates, it was one of the, it was a bar class. Bar, bar. Right, right, right, bar.

So similar, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if we take you to this bar class and we'll film you. So we go there, it was a bar class. Bar, bar. Right, right, right, bar. So similar, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if we take you to this bar class and we'll film you. So we go there and I mean, okay. Bar and that kind of movement's got some value, right? It's gonna create some stability and short ranges of motion. I can see how it's applicable for certain things. It's activity.

So I'm not saying it's like a worthless workout. But in terms of like muscle building, strength, and fat loss, it's inferior to just a traditional, slow-paced, strength training workout, but all of us were in there, sweat and our asses off, because we've never done a workout like that before, and it's not something we're used to.

Was that workout more effective? Because we sweat a lot? No, it's very effective. It's very effective. And it burned a lot like that. Yeah, and I, you know, and- I do what I do. One point we're drumming on the ground with like,

stash. Oh yeah. I do want to correct you, because I know our customer service team is going to get a ton of emails of you for you actually comparing bar to Pilates. Totally. Bar and Pilates are not allowed.

That's right. I like it all. And I actually think that there's a lot, there's tremendous value in Pilates. There's value in either one. I can see that. It's not very much value in Pilates. Well, I think so.

Well, maybe I'll go ahead and say that. Now the customer service is going to come for you, man. And I'm going to chop it up. Who's right? But yeah, no sweating is a terrible way to judge a workout. I mean, you could literally turn up the temperature in the gym. Well, the reason why that's such, okay, and let me talk about like,

because of course you're right, there'll be some people that take bar and they're like, they swear by it, right? It's like, oh, I got, I'm the best shape. That's my arguing that is so amazing. It's like, if you were doing nothing and you decide you're gonna go join your bar class and you're gonna eat better, like, of course,

you'll lose body fat doing that. And of course, you'll even build a little bit of muscle because you weren't doing, and there is a component of isometrics in there. You're definitely doing 20, 30 reps, so that will stimulate muscle growth. And if you pair that with eating well, you could get some results with it.

But you're gonna adapt to that way of training, relatively quick, and then you're gonna stall really hard. And if you don't find a way. But you'll sweat every time. Yeah, you'll sweat every time. And so then in your hand, which is why you see in the orange series, the F-45s, the curves type of model,

all these circuit base type of classes, people get results at the beginning of it because it is novel, it's a novel stimulus to them. And they sweat better than nothing, right? Yeah, I applied probably. This was like the confusing part of being in the gym and then seeing the group X instructors, like not being in the greatest shape, but you see them sweating their ass off

and doing multiple classes all day long, but yet their body composition wasn't really changing. What about the cardio addicts and the gyms that we would run? I mean, you would see people the same difference. Yeah, when you manage gyms for a long time, you see your regulars, right? And look, anybody who's worked in the gym

for longer than a year can attest to this. There's a group of people typically mourning, And look, anybody who's worked in the gym for longer than a year can attest to this. There's a group of people typically mourning in my experience that come in and they get on cardio and they go nuts. They go crazy on the stair master, crazy on the liptical, and they sweat buckets and their bodies never change. Never change. Now, their fitness is better than somebody who doesn't do that.

They're definitely getting some health benefits, so I don't wanna say they're doing nothing, but my point is this sweat in the workout isn't producing results for them. In fact, these people would often come to me frustrated and say things like, you see me coming in at 6 a.m. every day and I'm sweating my ass off. Why can't I lose this 25 pounds? And I say, well, okay, well, we gotta try some strength training.

Let's look at your calories. Oh, strength training? Is it, that's like, doesn't really, I don't really sweat when some strength training. Let's look at your calories. Oh, strength training? It's like, doesn't really, I don't really sweat when I do that. I would have people tell me that all the time. I like to sweat when I work out, like, okay, why? Just because you like to sweat or because you like the results. Some of the most effective workouts that I've ever, ever had clients do were the ones that didn't make them sweat.

Well, especially if you're the type of person who's attracted to that. Yes. If you're the someone who likes that and you gravitate to that type of training, trying to always break a sweat, nine times at a 10, the best workout for you is that 5x5, 3-minute rest period type of training, and watch how much your body responds to that, because it's so polar opposite of what you gravitate to. Now the next one is funny because this is everybody and that's where people judge it work out by just how hard it is. Okay, and you'll talk to people like this, like,

hey, you know, how's that work out? Oh my God, it's so awesome. What do you mean? It kicks my ass. Yeah. You do realize that you need zero workout programming expertise or experience to design a workout that kicks your ass I could literally take anybody and have them do jumping jacks for an hour and it'll kick their ass

I could tell them to climb stairs and and then do pushups. It'll kick their ass where personal trainers get the stigma Yes, it really is like it people don't realize there's a science to this whole process. It's just because of They come in with this expectation and a lot of trainers will meet that expectation realizes a science to this whole process. It's just because of, they come in with this expectation, and a lot of trainers will meet that expectation to try and provide them with something that is insanely hard and challenging because the thought is that that's gonna be the most effective. Yeah, the problem is that there is an element

of value that comes from challenge. So there's a little bit of truth here, right? There's some truth. Challenges what gets your body to adapt, you learn from it, you grow from it, so I get that. But what I'm talking about is when this is, this is how you judge your entire workout because it's super hard,

and it feels good to overcome something that's hard. And that's where people get this, like I survived this hard workout. Oh, it must be super. And there's, people get this, like, I survived this hard workout. Oh, it must be super. And you get this one workout. And you get this great feeling for that. The truth is, there's a spectrum. And most people are on both ends

and the sweet spot is in the middle, right? So you have client A, who we've trained this person, who, you know, consistent. She's never missed a workout. She's been training five days a week for 30 years with her, and she does, you know, bicecroll shoulder, but she has this routine and it's like she has the same weight For everything that she's reading a book the whole time right. She does the same exact way She's been doing the same weights and the same type of a routine forever

So it's good. She's exercising. She's moving. Okay, so I'm not enough But that's this side of the spectrum that person is not challenging themselves. They're never overreaching, they're never stretching their capacity, they're never like going beyond what they normally do. And then you have the other extreme, which is like the people that I love and addicted to like CrossFit things that are like so crazy hard,

they wanna throw up afterwards. It's like really the sweet spots somewhere in the middle of this of like, okay, I don't wanna catch myself, never challenging myself and kinda of doing what's easy and what I can always do because then I'm not forcing my body to adapt and change. But I don't want to try and force myself to adapt and change so bad that I'm puking and hobbling the next day. It's kind of somewhere in the middle of this. You know what's funny about that? I'm going to say

something controversial. If we took those two people and we looked at long-term success. I see the one. The person who went to the gym and the five pound double lady wins. The person who went to the gym and took it easy, why? Because they're consistent, they didn't hurt themselves, they didn't fry themselves. The super intense, like, I gotta beat myself up people, they can't, they can't.

They can't drop off. They just can't, and they have the harder pendulum swings. Oh yeah. The lady, I'm talking, like I'm thinking of like several client slash, like I'm not. Same here. That I had that I had there in their 60s now and stuff like that and they come from the watching Jane Fonda videos like for decades, pretty good shape though. I mean, she looks great still right now.

She came to me to get to the next level and one of the first things I looked at I was like, you're doing the same thing the same way forever. Like, that's kept you here, which I think you look great for your age, but if you want the next level, these are the things we're gonna do. How funny versus the person you're talking about,

who like is attracted to that stuff, that person goes on crazy yo-yo swings. Hard court, they've been in better shape maybe than she has. It's small periods of their life for a month, and then they fall off the wagon, then they go to the opposite extreme. Well, they burn themselves out and hurt themselves. It's so funny, the person you were talking about at first,

you can always tell, because you'll say, well, what do your workouts look like now? They'll say, well, I start out by doing lunges with 10 pound dumbbells, and then I do overhead presses with five. Like, they have the weights already. Yeah, yeah. Not just the exercise,

but until the exact weights they're using, like, wait a minute, how long have you been using these weights, dude? It's the same thing over and over again. Yeah, that seeking out that I gotta beat myself up every time I work out is only gonna lead to failure. And I don't care who you are, it's 100% gonna lead to failure,

which takes us to the next one. And this is another terrible way to judge your workout. And that is how crappy you feel afterward. Literally, literally, people tell me, it's a great workout. What do you mean by that? Man, I couldn't move for two days afterwards. Or, oh man, when I got home,

I just laid on the couch for the rest of the day. It threw out everything at 8.5. That was awesome. What a great workout. I'm like, what? That is, that's actually the opposite. That means you went too way too hard, and your body's not gonna adapt from that. It let alone heal. It's going to have a tough time just healing from that.

So collectively, we all kind of hammer on the CrossFit programming and the CrossFit mentality. But a lot of people don't understand or realize is that the three of us long before MindPump had our own personal journeys. And we all had very much, CrossFit has been around for a long time now. We didn't know each other when we had our own individual experiences. And so this was my experience with CrossFit. Early days, CrossFit. Yeah, before it was popular, some of that,

I had some of the original friends that were doing in parking lots. Yeah, people started up here in Santa Cruz. Yeah, they originated here in the Bay Area. Yeah, so it's from here. So before it became mainstream, it made its way over into my circle of friends and my trainer group and we were doing it. I was doing like I would take from the workouts

and then we would apply in the gym. And I remember I vivid memories of doing it with some of my trainers and stuff and then laying in my office just my I could fill my head pulsing and I'm like, and I didn't want to do anything the rest of the day. I'm like, I can't do this and be like a workout. And this is, this can't be a good thing to feel this way. And I remember trying to push through and thinking, oh, I'm gonna do it and like having that competitive athletic mindset to it. I'm like, this is not good.

And that's what made me never train a client that way or like tell most people the way. It's like zero to a hundred. Yeah, way too crazy. Yeah, the same experience. And it was almost like you got a little bit of tunnel vision because of the cardiovascular demand on top of, you know, the anaerobic demand, like both in combination.

Like they're just trying to pull the most exhausting hardest, most intense combinations as possible was really the desired outcome of the structure of these works. Yeah, the original unofficial mascot, a lot of people don't know this. Unofficial, original mouse, it was a clown throwing up. Yeah, puke the clown, right? It was amazing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that alone will tell you, you know, kind of, you know, how that went. And I tell you what, you may be listening to this saying, oh, I know somebody that works out that way and they have a great shape. Okay, this is all individual. What may be an effective workout for me?

Yeah, I know people that run big companies that do cocaine every single day. No, that's not, that's not, that's not, I mean, but that's a terrible argument, you know, just because we know somebody who's fit who does something that's not healthy and good for you doesn't fucking mean it's the right way or success.

What are they intervening to maintain that? Like have they ever had any injuries? Like, I mean, let's do percentages of that. Well, here's the point that I'm trying to make. If you took someone off the street who doesn't work out and you had them follow my workout, they would be super hard, they get super sore and they would feel like dog shit for two days afterwards.

So for me, it's an effective workout, for them, it was too much. So that's what I mean by that. There's an individual component here, so you may know someone that does these crazy workouts, and well, it works for this person. It's not working for you, especially if you feel anything that we talked about. That's telling you, it's an inappropriate, intensity, volume, and frequency of training for you.

It's just not effective. In fact, it's the opposite of effective. It will take you backwards. I mean, you bring that up and I just think it's a good point or good time to bring that point up to is it is a terrible idea for us ever to compare anybody else's results to what we're what we're trying to. Yes. For so many reasons, aside from the the mass of genetic variance, to where they're currently out in the routine, to what their eating eating habits look like like it's so different and

To not know everything about that person like a lot of people are in really good shape in spite of how truly healthy They really are a lot of people are tortured inside and it's their insecurities that drive them to do is They're running away from something and instead of medicating with drugs They found health and fitness to be their medication and they've gone all in on it. And so they have this physique that you go, oh my God, it's so amazing. They look so healthy, but inside they're so unhealthy. So to even use somebody else as an example for what you think you

want for yourself is a terrible idea. I don't care how well you think you are. I tell you what, if you take a 50 shredded people, I bet you the mental health, the mental health issues will probably be twice as worse as the average population. And I mean shredded, right? So like what you said, some of the worst eating disorders I've ever seen

were people in the fitness industry. So that's a great point that you absolutely make. So you don't know what that person is doing. They may look a particular way, but you may not, you probably don't want to trade for what's going on inside to look the way that they want it. That's right.

Now, okay, so we talked about terrible ways to judge a workout. We should give people good ways. Like, okay, fine, how do I judge a workout to know that it's good? Here's the first one. You get stronger. Okay, sounds obvious, fine, how do I judge it work out to know that it's good? Here's the first one, you get stronger. Okay, sounds obvious, but you can do things some stuff wrong

and get stronger, but usually it means you're doing a lot of things right, especially if it's consistent, especially if you're past that first couple months of working out where everybody gets stronger. If you're still seeing strength gains, you're probably doing a lot of things right. And it's objective. There's more weight on the bar. There's more weight on the bar. I know I'm stronger. That's a great way to judge a workout. I like this one because I didn't focus on this for a really long time because I didn't care about it. I didn't care about strength. And so I was so focused on aesthetics the way I looked

in the mirror that that was what was driving or me dictating like, whether I was having a good work or not, but this is way less subjective. I think this is a much better way to judge if my programming is solid. Forget about my diet, my consistency, and all the other things that come into it, it's like, am I following a good routine? And if I can say I'm getting stronger in my routine, the answer is probably yes, I'm following a salt. This also implies that you have to really be paying attention in terms of like if you are progressively overloading,

if you have a plan in place to achieve more load within like certain lifts or like otherwise, for the majority of people I've encountered most people just want to get through the workout. Yeah. And really it's just like the objective is to just I made it through. And a lot of that the intent of going into it is completely different than say somebody that is thinking and focusing ahead of time on very specific lifts and what they've done before, which means they're keeping track. And now they can see progress.

Yeah, strength gains, consistent strength gains in my clients always preceded muscle gain, metabolism boosting, and then with good diet fat loss. So when I saw my clients get stronger consistently, you know, relatively consistent, cause it's not always, you know, up, but they would go up and pause up and pop type of deal. When I see that happen, I'm like,

oh cool, we're moving in the right direction. All those aesthetic goals that they want, they're gonna start popping up. The next one is improved stamina. So your fitness improved basically, right? So you can go longer, you can handle more volume, you feel great from doing so. Again, it's more of an objective measure, right?

And it's funny that I'm saying this and that I have to communicate this, because obviously, you should be looking forward to work out. Am I better at it? Am I stronger? Do I have more stamina? Those are pretty damn good objective measures of a successful workout. The next one, I like this one because people tend to look at weight on the scale. I look at body composition, okay?

If your weight goes down or up, doesn't matter to me, if your body fat percentage went up and your muscle went down. I'm looking at muscle going up, fat going down. If you're building muscle and you're burning body fat, you're probably doing most things right. And you could usually tell this by how your clothes fit.

A lot of times the clients will be like, wow, my waist is, you know, my waistline is definitely different, but I feel like heavier or like I feel like I've put on, you know, a little bit of weight, but if you look at objectively of how like your body's composition has changed, like that's really what you need to be doing. So I'm a big fan of the front side and back shot photo with your iPhone or whatever in the mirror at the same time, every single week.

And even though I'm having you take it every Friday, first thing when you wake up, we're not making any dramatic changes week to week. We're looking at it like every three to four weeks. Every three to four weeks, I'm comparing those visuals from the week one versus week three or four if I'm going to make any changes to it, right? Because a lot can fluctuate in just a few days and definitely even in a week's time, right? Like someone took a picture and we've talked about the water and how that can change

the way somebody looks the day before. It could throw off what I think I see in the mirror in one week's time, but over the course of like three, four weeks, if they've been consistent with the dieting and following what we're doing, I should see a physical change from week one and week four to give me an idea as a coach. Like, oh, I need to increase this or oh, we need to cut back on this or or more of this, less of that.

And I just like that. I like teaching a client to look at that. And it's not, we're not doing that to judge, or compare, or anything like that, to other people. It's literally just another tool that we're using to measure, and I like it better than the scale. Yeah, and you gotta make sure you do it. Same time, same, you know, the same lighting,

everything the same, so it could be as objective as well. Yeah, yeah, I'm not, when I'm doing these, like these are for my personal use, and, or, everything the same, so it could be as objective as well. Yeah, yeah. When I'm doing these, like these are for my personal use, and, or which is client, I'm not using it for social media to share, it's not for any, it's literally for me just to have another objective way to measure, am I doing the right thing?

Yes. The next one is you just have more energy. And I mean good, clean energy, not stimulant energy, or wired and nervous energy, but you just have more energy. You notice you have more energy for things around the house, more energy to do things with your kids, more energy for work.

You just have more energy. Crapie workouts and bad program will give you less energy. Like all the stuff we said earlier, all the bad stuff, you'll find that your energy will start to wane over time. You just start to feel more and more fatigued. With something like this, you just have better energy over time. And it means that your workouts are probably doing

a good thing. This is my favorite thing to teach clients, because I think it has, it's one of those things that I think we could want. It's easy for people to be able to measure and compare, like because their days are pretty consistent. They go to work at the same time. They do the same kind of thing.

They eat lunch at the same time. They come home same kind of thing. They eat lunch at the same time. They come home at the same time. So we're very consistent creatures when it comes to our week. And it's pretty easy to take a client. You get them and they go, yeah, I always kind of have this energy dip around this time. Or I come home from work and all I want to do

is relax and watch TV or whatever. And then you start training them correctly. And those things start to change. Right? And I noticed this first thing. I noticed this in myself right away. It's one of the things that has kept me consistent as I've gotten older is more so doing it for how I look or how I feel or how strong I am. I love this aspect. I'm just a better person at home. I'm a better husband, I'm a better father, I'm a better supporter, like around the house. Like, I just, after I work out,

I don't have the same feeling. Like, if we're in here all day long, I miss a workout and I don't feel good, I drive home. Like, I just tend to lay around. I don't wanna do much. Like, can I force myself? Yeah, there's times where I tell, okay, Adam, you gotta get up and go do something.

But, I don't have to have that internal conversation when I'm training. When I'm training, I's myself, yeah, there's times where I tell, okay, Adam, you gotta get up and go do something, but I don't have to have that internal conversation when I'm training. When I'm training, I naturally have that energy. I come in the door and I ride away, wanna do the dishes on the counter or help out with Macs or do something like that. I think this is one of the best things to help clients connect.

Well, I think it also to one of the byproducts of expanding a certain amount of energy and to the point where you're not over fatigue, like it really then impacts the way that you sleep, which then helps with you to recharge. And then the next day provides you with more energy and it's this sort of cycle that you're promoting a better way for your body to recharge and recover. Yeah, which brings us to the next one, which is a little different than energy, and that is that you have improved vitality.

So what does that mean? A better zest for life, more motivated, a better attitude, things don't seem as bad, and good things seem even better. You start to notice you have more gratitude. You just generally have better vitality. This is how, this is the things that I would point out to clients because physical results take a little longer to happen, but these results tend to happen relatively quick. And so I'll ask them questions like,

well, okay, how's your energy, how's your sleep? Have you noticed any changes in your mood? I'm like, well, yeah, you know, I noticed, I'm just more patient with the kids, or, you know, I come home and I had great conversation with my wife through the day, and, you know, before that, we were kind of at odds and now,

and so we're talking about their vitality and that's a great way to judge your workout and your diet. If you have improved vitality, you're doing a lot of stuff right. If your vitality starts to decrease, then we gotta start to look at the workouts and nutrition because something might be off. I love talking about all these things

that you start to make the connection that you're making a good workout because these are all the same things that I think that keep you working out. Yes. So I love like good ones right? Yeah, all the positive things that represent, you know, hey, you've had a good workout are also all the positive things that are what keep you going for the rest of your life. If you can learn to look at these things, that's why it's so important.

Like the other things that are bad ways of judge, like those things don't bleed into your life long, like crushing yourself after a workout, does it make your life necessarily better later on? It's these things right here that we're trying to connect the dots with clients because if they can make that, make that connection, it's much more motivating for them to continue on long term. Yeah, you only feel as good as what you know know in terms of how good I've ever felt. So some people have never felt like that optimal health and that combination of everything

working at the same time. And so once you get to that place, it's like, wow, it's a bit addictive in a sense where you can keep repeating these patterns and it's going gonna promote that type of a feeling. Totally. Look, if you like our information, head over to MindPumpFree.com and check out our guides. We have guides that can help you with almost any health or fitness goal. You can also find all of us on social media. So Justin is on Instagram at MindPump. Justin, Adam is on Instagram at MindPump.com and you can find me on Twitter at MindPump.com. Thank you for listening to MindPump. If your goal is to build and shape your body,

dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at MindPumpMedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and a ballac, maps for performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks,

feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money bag guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at MindPumpMedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support and until next time, this is MindPump.

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