Andy: [00:00:00] Alright alright. Hey, welcome to the Giving My Best podcast. I think that is the most like straight, non-snide fitness podcast sounding name that we've ever used.

Ryan: [00:00:13] That's right. Works very well with our topic today because we're going to push it, baby. We're going to hit it hard.

What It Means to Push

Andy: [00:00:19] We are,  I'm just gonna get started here because giving your best, putting in your best work. Everyone knows that to get the best results you have to put in effort. And so we know that we need to do our best effort, if our results are important to us, but there's also this kind of like fitness cult culture around.

Pushing yourself to you vomit or  pushing yourself too hard. .And a lot of what we talk about in a lot of what people struggle with is where the balance is because everyone knows that you need to put in effort, but you know that pushing yourself so hard that you hurt yourself or pushing yourself, too hard in a way that's unsustainable with your lifestyle is not going to be good for you in the long run.

So how do you, one, know how much to push yourself? And two, make sure you're able to push yourself adequately when you inevitably come up against resistance to that effort, which we all experience, no matter how long we've been doing this. So that's what we're going to be covering today.  On the face of it, we're talking about motivation.

Not really though. we're also going to talk about some really specific tactics for how to make your workouts not feel so much like you need to push. But yeah, that's the background. Ryan, you want to get into it?

Three Kinds of Days

Ryan: [00:01:43] Yeah, man. Let's do it. Let's get into it. One thing here really want to focus on is, as you mentioned, when to push and actually when not to, but also training in a smart way. I think that's really what it is. and a lot of being able to train in a smart way comes down to planning and, having a plan, but.

First off, let's look at what we're talking about when we're looking at pushing yourself and here in GMB, what we're doing is we're talking about autoregulation. And so first off that's really what we want to focus on. and auto-regulate in these terms means having the flexibility to. Be able to do what you need for yourself that day.

So there's going to be days where, things might be great and there's some days where you're not feeling so great. And then there's some days where you're just kinda you don't know what you're feeling. And so really, I kinda like to look at it as there's three kinds of days. Okay. So to go over those first, we'll go a little bit into the autoregulation of that, but.

There are the, you don't have any new days where, life happens. It's those days where something in your life has affected what's going on with your energy levels or your mental capacity to be able to deal with shit that day it's, you wake up and, it's just not there. So that's those days where, you start your session and then you realize right away that, 'Hey, this isn't going to happen' and you know what, that's perfectly fine. You're still a good person. It's all good. And what I suggest on those days is call it a day, and you can step away from it and nothing wrong with it. 

Again, now, the other thing though, with that though, is, if you have those kinds of days  three, four, five, six, seven, one month in a row. That's not what we're talking about here. So what, I'm not just saying, you step on the mat and just be like, 'Hey, I don't feel like it's the day. I'm not going to do it.' Those are a little bit different. So that's why I always suggest that you at least step on the mat, start your prep work, and then, go through that to truly figure out is this just me not really wanting to do it today, or am I truly physically exhausted and mentally taxed to the point where it would not benefit me doing this session today? So that's an important point there.

Andy: [00:04:13] Right. We'll talk about some strategies for what happens when you get started. And when you're trying to make this decision of if you should or should not continue, we'll get to that in a little bit, but I think it's important to understand is when we talk about capacity issues, like Ryan said, you have a limited amount of energy, a limited amount of capacity for effort in a day.

Now this isn't to be all Neo-Malthusianism , and this is a strict limit. One of the tenants behind the idea of training is that your limits and your capacity can be expanded through work. However, don't make the mistake of thinking that you can expand that limit now. So the both sides of this are true.

One is that you have limited capacity. Two is that you can extend those limits. You can increase that capacity. But you cannot increase your capacity by hitting and trying to exceed your limit constantly. That will actually backfire in your quest to exceed your capacity. it's really important to know that yes, you have these days where you don't have it in you and it might be because you have this limit, and that doesn't mean that as a permanent limit, but it is a thing that you need to be, you need to get in the habit of recognizing when you are truly near your limit.

And we'll talk more about ways you can do that later on, but let's move on to then Good-Enough-Days days.

Ryan: [00:05:45] Yeah, Good-Enough-Days. So as we just mentioned, there are those days where you don't have it in you, but then we have these Good-Enough-Days. And this is really where you're going to spend the bulk of your time in your training.

Andy: [00:05:55] Almost every session.

Ryan: [00:05:57] Yeah, pretty much. And we're talking like 80 to 90% and This is really where by good enough.

What we're saying is you get on the mat and you just do the work and that's it. And the goal of this just to be consistent, that's really it. And the more consistent you can be with Good-Enough-workouts. The better you're going to be. This is where Andy was talking about work capacity.

This is where this is built. This is by having enough Good-Enough-Sessions. You're going to work towards creating this capacity. And then the thing is that this is also, as I mentioned for consistency, this is going to help with sustainable progress. And so instead of having a good session or like a really hard session this day and then a crappy session the next day is really, it's not going to help you at all. You've got this up and down all over the place .

Have enough Good-Enough-Days. And then, just doing that, you're going to be great. So the next thing though, and this is really where this talk today, where we're getting to is these Feeling-Amazing-Days where you step on the mat and you're like, 'Oh man, I just feel so good today.'

And this is the time where you really want to push yourself and this, when we're talking about yeah. Autoregulation a lot of people might think we're just trying to see when we want to back off. No, you also want to see where you can push yourself harder. And the thing is on those days where you are feeling good, please push yourself. 

But pushing yourself in what we're talking about doesn't mean you're going to the point where, you need a trash can sitting over in the corner because you're going to, vomit after doing so much stuff or you actually push yourself past the point that you really should be doing.

It's really just, they're coming for me right now. They're coming for me. They're coming. I worked out too hard.

Andy: [00:07:48] The autoregulation police are--

Ryan: [00:07:49] Yes the autoregulation police. The thing is you can actually, if, by the way, if you have certain days where, for example, they're going to be good days, like you don't really have anything else going on that week. You can plan in some of these. Awesome days, if you will, and you can do this for pretty much any day.

And I do this, so this is actually how I set up my schedule. I know that my Mondays are crazy and that those are my days where I can't expect to have a really great session. So if anything, it's just going to be a Good-Enough-Day. But I know on my Tuesdays, in the late afternoon, that's my time and I know I'm going to have a lot of energy.

 I can pretty much guarantee that I can go into that session and push myself with using some of the tactics that we're going to cover here in a little bit and have a really great session. And then that way, the remaining days of the week, except for usually Friday afternoon is another day where I really push myself hard.

I only have two a week. I just know that I can, focus on having those two days and then Good-Enough-Sessions. And I am going to be making progress with everything that I'm doing. So planning and scheduling is also important. So it's not just going into the saying, 'Oh, I feel great today. Let's make it a high intensity day.

And then the next day you might feel great too. And you might say, 'Oh, I'm going to have another high intensity today'. And you ended up having these three, four days in a row. That's actually not going to be good for you as well. So planning things into your schedule, having a specific goal, have a plan, scheduling it by putting it on your calendar.

These are things that you can look at and really focus on doing. So then it becomes a habit, if you will, leading towards success. I hate to say it that way, but to whatever goal it is that you're working on.

Andy: [00:09:37] And a lot of this stuff, it can be a matter of planning because I know the things that I have to do over the course of my week. I know that Tuesday is my day that is the busiest with meetings. I know that on a Wednesday night, I'm going to go to the dojo and I'm going to go and have dinner with my friends afterwards and I'll be late getting home, which means that I will be not getting to sleep early that night, which means my sleep will probably not be very good. So on Thursday, I'm going to be more tired on Tuesday. I'm going to be having these meetings and I'll be tired, but I'll have been sitting down the whole day.

So my body's going to be dying for some activity. I usually have a really good workout on Tuesdays, but if I schedule a workout for Thursday after I've been here, the dojo, and I know that I've had a bad night of sleep, I'm going to be fatigued and I'm not going to have a good session. So I can just plan to not have a workout that day.

You can feel out in your schedule, look ahead and think of , what days you're going to have more energy, what days you're going to be tired, what days you'll probably be recovered and you can start to see, there's very very little chance there will be an optimal pattern that you can put things into, but you'll start to see that some days will be better than others for a hard day or a rest day.

And that's one way that you can start over time. If you start putting things into the plans, into your plan that way and make it consistent, your body starts to adjust to the cycles too. And that's another thing that you that happens is that you can start to train yourself to have better days more predictably at the right times when you're consistent.

Ryan: [00:11:21] Yeah, that's great. And, yeah, I like that in both of us. We talk about this a lot. Like we really have to plan everything we do. And when we do that, though, we do know that life can get in the way. And so that's where autoregulation can be great. And just because, today you go into your day, like I said, my Tuesday or my Friday with the intention of hitting it hard, you might be tired, but that's where you can just back off just a little bit or use the tactics that we're going to talk about 

Anything to add to that before we move on?

Andy: [00:11:53] I do want to say that moving into the second part of this, if you like the podcast, I would love it for you to go to gmb.io/podcast and find the big pink button on that page that takes you to our Facebook group about the podcast, because this is where we get suggestions and ideas and run ideas by our community about what's going to be on the show and it helps us make each episode better.

 If Ryan and I just sat down and were to say, let's do a show on like how to push yourself. It would have been super lame. I'm just telling you right now, this is the group of people that helps us make these shows actually useful. So if you do think these shows are good, and if you don't and you're still listening, that's crazy. You should stop. 

But if you do think the shows are good. Probably at least partly because this group exists and so you might be a good fit for it. Alright. So with that said, let's get in to the stuff.

Different Ways To Push

Ryan: [00:12:47] The stuff. Now there's a lot on here. And I want to say before we get into that a lot of the stuff that the majority of the things we are going to be talking about right now are actually not you creating a push, like a super hard session. What you can actually do is take your current session, whatever it is, and use these tactics for when you're feeling The Zest and he wanted it push it just a little harder. Okay.

Andy: [00:13:18] That's going to be the new T-shirt, Feel The Zest. 

Ryan: [00:13:21] Feel The Zest. So basically what I've tried to say, these are just slight adjustments that you can add in there that, like I said before, they are fun. They're going to make it interesting. And what it's going to do is going to push you and it's going to push you in new ways.

And so I think that's also very important because let's say that you're just doing a pushup, but if you were to slightly adjust the way you do that pushup. It's going to push you in a new way. So that's an example of pushing yourself and making it harder. So again, it's not about saying that you need to go from doing a pushups to doing like planche pushups or something like that.

It's a slight adjustment. And by adding in that slight adjustment, you're going to find that it's going to tax your system, therefore, making it more difficult. And that's what we're after. So let's just get into it. Here's some things. And the first thing that we're going to talk about is you continue with the same number of sets that you have and the time the sets and time, but you'll work on a harder variation of the move.

So a little bit different from what I just talked about with the pushup but basically what you're doing is if you're used to a particular movement and you simply work on a little harder variation of that movement. Now I say variation doesn't necessarily mean it's a progression. So a progression where you're jumping up to a harder movement.

It's, you're changing up that the movement slightly. So that, as I mentioned before, it's taxing your body in a different way. So to give an example would be, let's say that, you're typically doing the Bear. Okay. And you typically do the Bear and you're doing that for a minute. In this case, when you're performing the bear, rather than just doing the Bear as you usually do it.

You pause where your hand and your foot are off of the ground in between each step and you hold that for three seconds or something. So it sounds pretty easy, but doing that over a minute is pretty taxing and it's a different variation of the Bear instead of a harder progression. And therefore, doing that for multiple sets or whatever it is, according to your particular program that you're doing that day, it's going to make it, it's going to make it fun and a lot more interesting.

Andy: [00:15:35] So the neat thing about this is that this is not a thing where you have to psych yourself up. Like I'm going to push myself today. It's not a thing. Where you have to, get some electrolytes ready and, I don't know, get another towel -- 

Ryan: [00:15:49] Get your pre-workout going.

Andy: [00:15:51] You don't have to change anything.

You don't have to do any extra work. To get this going. And this is, what's what you're going to see for the rest of these tips too. And why I want to bring it up is because none of these are things where you, that take extra work for you to push yourself harder. You don't have to psych yourself up. You don't really have to prepare for them.

You can just start like it's a regular session. And then when you get, about a third to a halfway through, you start to realize, wow, you've got more energy in the tank. These are ways that you can. Without having to do anything different, you can get more, you can push yourself harder, push yourself further and get more training, stimulus, and value out of what you were already planning to do, which we find is just a much more sustainable way than having to be like, all right, today is my day to crush it. And then you get to the end of you realize you're worn out and you didn't crush Jack shit. 

Ryan: [00:16:46] Very true story. So yes, exactly. So the other thing too, which I love and, is that taking your training session outdoors, or just putting it into a new environment? I'll give you an example. So when I was working on my one-arm handstands, I was really good at doing my one arm handstands at the same time, in the same place, on the same hand stand board.

And great. I had my one arm handstand. I went to Jarlo's. I had to go to Seattle to teach. I was at Jarlo's garage on his Olympic weightlifting platform. His garage is actually at a slight angle goal, and I found that I couldn't hold my one arm handstand for shit. Why? Because it was a new environment. I wasn't used to it. 

So by simply taking your session outdoors or just doing it in a different place. It's going to create a different stimulus for your body and your body then has to then learn and get used to that new, and basically just has to adapt to that new environment. This is going to push yourself.

It's going to make it harder, but the cool thing, it's going to make your movement better. And that's the big thing about this. Okay.

Andy: [00:17:53] Quick tip for anybody else. That's working out in a garage, just so you know, almost every garage has a slight slope because it's made to let fluids run off. The thing you might want to do is just drop a marble in there and see which way it slopes. So you can choose which way to face and make sure that the slope is not screwing you up.

You're welcome.

Ryan: [00:18:16] Yeah. Next one is restricting yourself to a certain movement or combination of movements and just going deeper with that. So let's go back to the Bear. Now with this Bear though, is you restrict yourself to the Bear, but you only focus on doing the entry and the exit of the bear. So rather than just saying, I'm just going to do the Bear well.

Okay, great. You can already do the Bear. How about you try and see how many different ways you can go in and out of the Bear and by restricting yourself to that one particular theme, concept, what is going to do is one, force you to get creative. Okay. But the other thing you're going to find is pretty taxing because the things you're going to be doing, aren't the typical things you're used to doing.

You're also going to get better at going in and out of the Bear. You're going to find some new things that you hadn't thought of before. It's going to lead to some other options for you to explore in later sessions. And that's a very cool thing. Now, continuing with the locomotion theme there. The other thing you can do is let's say, you're working on the Bear.

You can only focus on nasal breathing. This is a lot harder than you might think. And especially when you're working on some movements that you're still not quite 100% comfortable with, you probably don't even realize it, but the majority of the time you probably have your mouth open when you're doing this. SImply closing your mouth and trying to use nasal breathing for the duration of the locomotion that you're doing.

It's pretty taxing. It's also going to give you some really good feedback and it's also a good gauge on whether or not you truly have mastery over that movement or not. The reason why is because if you're huffing and puffing or feeling that when you're doing the nasal breathing, that you have to open your mouth to really bring a lot of air in, you're probably going too fast or simply means you're doing a movement that you're not quite, at a level that's really good for you at that moment. Doesn't mean you should stop doing it. It just means that you should just be aware of it. Continue working on it in order to continue to get better at it. So nasal breathing, just closing your mouth is a great tool.

Andy: [00:20:19] And this is one that I just want to say,  it's really easy to think, 'Oh, that's super simple. It doesn't make a big difference.' But it will surprise you with this, especially if you've been rushing through exercises, if you force yourself. So breathe only through your nose, you're going to find, what it does is it limits the air flow, right?

So you're reducing the amount of fresh oxygen into your lungs, which, probably you usually get more than you need, but, so it's not going to hurt you, but it forces your body to become more efficient with the way it's using the air. And it's going to definitely challenge you mentally and cardio-wise and a little different way, even with the exact same movements.

So it's definitely something not to underestimate as a way. It doesn't feel like you're pushing yourself, but you will push yourself more by doing the exact same thing by limiting the amount of air flow. If that makes sense.

Ryan: [00:21:12] Yeah. So next one up, is going for a longer duration of time. Now I want to be careful with this one though, because I'm not saying that should take a movement, a single movement, like the Bear and do it for 30 minutes straight. I really, I don't think people should do that. It's just silly to be honest. Really what I mean - 

Andy: [00:21:28] Boring, too.

Ryan: [00:21:29] Yeah. It is boring as shit. But anyway, the thing though I am referring to is combinations of movements. So let's say you have three movements that you put together into this little combination. And typically when you're doing this, you'll do it a couple of times and you might not even realize it, but you're like.  You get done and you're breathing a little harder. Okay. First off you can do it nasally, close your mouth and try it and see how that goes. But then you can also continue to do it for a duration of time. And so for example, up to one minute of a single combination of movement, This can actually be a lot harder than you think  if you haven't done this before.

This is something, back in my gymnastic days where I remember we would do a tumbling sets is what they were called. So basically what it is as soon as you got to the end of the mat, then you have to just continue going like a five minute period and you would just go back and forth doing this tumbling.

It sucked. This is really working on our endurance. And the thing about this is that you find is that the form would break down. So you would actually have to regress or drop down a level of a movement in order to keep going. And the cool thing about this is, again, you're working on the strength in terms of endurance, so that the next time that you're doing a single pass, so that single combination of that movement, it's going to be at a much higher level.

Andy: [00:22:53] Yeah, this is something people talk about gymnasts and, they practice perfect form and for some moves, that's actually true. They do practice perfect perform because they're judged on form, but mostly gymnastics. You're not judged on the actual form or like how pretty each specific move is.

But the reason that gymnast and martial artists and a lot of dancers also get very good at things isn't necessarily for beauty, it's endurance, because if you have to keep doing something for a very long time, bad form takes a lot of energy. Bad form is inefficient. And this is like Ryan, you were talking about dropping down to an easier move where your form is better.

It's not just because the move is easier. It's because your form is so much more efficient. And when you're tired, you're saving so much energy just by going slow and smooth. It's a hugely underestimated thing, 

Absolutely. And the way that you can actually do this immediately is for example, if you're working through our Elements program and you get to the end of Elements and you really want to challenge, this is what you can do. And so you can take the highest level of the Bear.

So if you're working on the Spiderman, you do the Spiderman for a minute and you just drop down. We're actually going to be talking about this in a little bit, but this is an example of how you can continue with the time and then just keep moving down the movements, mechanical drop sets, and drop reps.

Ryan: [00:24:15] And we're going to talk about that in a second, but the next thing I want to talk about is actually adding in additional sets. To the movement. So basically we're looking at volume here. And so this could be, for example, if you were to look at, let's say the front lever. And so you're working on the front lever and it's single hold, and let's say, you're working on 15, second hold of that front lever.

Now, if that called for, five sets, that's great. But you might find that day that you've got a lot more energy in you, and this is actually something that I've been doing recently. And because I'm back to focusing on my front levers and my planches. And so what I'll do is if I'm feeling really good, I'll actually add more sets, but again, when I'm adding those sets in, what I'm trying to do is look at form, where am I in that particular movement?

If I can hold a full front lever, then great. I'll have that as my set. And then if I feel I can do another one that I will, and I might regress it. Again, that's looking at mechanical drop sets, but we'll do that in a sec. The other thing too is adding in burnout to the end of the last set, now. 

Andy: [00:25:19] This is one of my favorites.

Ryan: [00:25:21] This is what I do too. And it sucks big time. And the thing is though, it's great. it's one set. It's just a single set and it's after all of your work sets and typically at the end of whatever you're doing. So let's say that, let's come back to what is something we could do here that just a great example of it, handstand pushups okay. So I'm doing my handstand pushups and I'm doing single repetitions of my handstand pushups on the canes. And they're really nice. And then I get to the end of that. And then I'm going to do is I'm going to go to the floor and do inverted presses. 

So I'm not even doing freestanding. My feet are on the floor. My hands are on the floor and doing an inverted presses. And I crank them out until I cannot do. I cannot even return, I crashed the floor, burnout. You simply burn yourself out and then you go and cry in a puddle of sweat in the corner.

Andy: [00:26:18] So what's cool about this is it's different from going to failure. When you go to failure, especially on skill-based moves like a handstand push up or something going to failure isn't what you want to do because one, it's a little risky if you're inverted. But also you're training yourself to get better at not being in full control.

And we don't want that. But what we're doing is we're taking this to something that's at the end, after all of that, to something that is, it's working the same kind of muscle groups, but is within your control and it's not going to failure and then getting to the end and being like, 'Oh, I just couldn't get that third rep.'

That's not the feeling you want to end a workout with is feeling like you failed. There's a lot, there's a lot of conflicting advice on going to failure with stuff. Personally I don't like anybody ending a set or ending a session feeling that they failed.

That's not something that I like, but now you go through and you do these with perfect control, and then you go and you do this last burnout set.

That's gravy, that's icing on the cake, that's extra. So going to failure there, that's actually adding a feeling of accomplishment. You've done additional work on top, and that's really the definition of like really pushing yourself in a positive way as you've gone through a session and being like, yeah, I've got extra. I'm going to use it up.

Ryan: [00:27:32] Yep. and so to jump in here real quick, I was going to talk about this later, but this might be a good place to put it in here is looking at adding in a finisher set. And this is a little bit different than what I'm talking about for a burnout set. So burnout set is where I won't count reps. There's no time.

I'm just really just. Until I can't do anymore. And again, it's at a very low level and so it's safe and I'm not going to be hurting myself. A finisher set, and this is example of what we have, like in Integral Strength would be a set period of time. And you're just focusing on a movement where you're not burning yourself out.

You're simply ending with this particular set of something. It could be like jump rope. It could be whatever, but this is the difference between a burnout set and a finisher set is that a finisher has a set period of time. And the purpose of that is not to just do it until you can't do it anymore.

It's just to end on that particular set by doing a movement that's just going to tax you, whether it be endurance or cardio or something like that.

Andy: [00:28:36] Right.

Ryan: [00:28:38] Okay so let's get into another thing and I love doing this and these are cluster reps. And so what this is, let's say that you've got a particular movement that maybe you can only do one or two reps out of it because it's pretty high level for you.

Okay. We'll way that you can actually get in a bit more volume, is you perform that single repetition of that movement. And let's say, it is a chin-up, so you're doing a chin-up and you do your chin-up and you come off of the bar, you shake your arms out and then you get up there and you just try and do another one.

And then you get down and you shake your arms out. You try and do another one. So you continue to do it. And you cluster these repetitions together, but you're giving yourself a little tiny rest. Maybe 10, 15 seconds in between these particular repetitions building up volume and focusing on strength.

And it's also a mental thing too. I really love to do these.

Andy: [00:29:34] I think actually in pull-ups and chin-ups are a great example of this. I think this is. When I first started training pull-ups and when I first went from five, five to 10 reps of pull-ups, it was basically is I would do that instead of trying to do 10 in a row, I would try to do 10 or more just doing one, letting go of the bar, doing another letting go of the bar.

And I got up to 10 to 11, 12, that way before I ever tried to do 10 in a row, and it felt so much easier than just coming up against that last half rep with just pure humiliation, right? 

Ryan: [00:30:10] Yeah. And that's, I think why I like them too. it's is a motivational aspect of it. You feel like, yeah, I can do this. And then later when it comes back to it, then what you can start doing is you can use these cluster reps, but let's say, for example, you get to five and then for five, five, you do singles or something like that. And so there's so many different ways.

Andy: [00:30:29] It doesn't take a ton of time, like adding extra sets with full rest times or anything. So yeah, it's very handy and really easy to just Okay. Stop for a second. Hey, try another one. Bodybuilders have been doing rest pause sets like this for forever too. It's the same thing

Ryan: [00:30:46] Yeah. another thing I think this is probably my favorite way to train right now, and this is finally where at the mechanical drop sets and the drop reps, different.

Andy: [00:30:57] I've been waiting for us to get here. 

Ryan: [00:30:59] Yeah, this is, and there's many different ways you can call this. but giant sets, I've heard people call it a little bit different, but anyways, so mechanical drops.

So just talk about this a little bit. What I'll do is actually, this is where I might do my practice. So I'm going to come back to the same handstand pushup example. So I like to do my handstand pushups on these balanced canes. No, the reason I use them is because, I'm off the ground. and it allows me to drop below my shoulders so I can go really deep for my handstand pushups and go up to a handstand.

I can do these freestand. So I'll do single repetitions of this. Then, what I'll do is when I can't do that anymore, then I drop to the next level and I try and do that next level. And then when I can't do that, then I'll drop to the next level and I'll keep going down and down and down until I am at that inverted press.

So this is very different than the burnout set that we talked about earlier. This is where I'm going from the very highest level I can of a particular movement. Doing that particular movement as well as I can with great form, when the form breaks down, going down and continuing with that movement. I remember doing this where, working up to a particular weight, like shoulder presses, let's say you have a dumbbell rack and you start off with like tens.

And you do shoulder presses and then you do 15 and you work up to like fifties and work backwards. Okay. That's like a mechanical drops, that sort of thing we're doing with this mechanical drop reps we're doing, but I'm just looking at it in terms of body weight exercise. And this is a great way that you can really get in volume and also working on strength, as you're working towards  being able to sophisticate the skill for the next session and really that's what it's coming down to because by working through all of those regressions, going down the levels of these movements, you're continuing to teach the body what it needs to do in order to do this movement. 

You're going to gain strength. You're working on the volume. So you're going to be getting, actually you can put on some muscle, to be honest, if you do this right. So that the next time you go into that session, your highest skill level is even going to be higher when you do it,

Andy: [00:33:11] And you're gaining more reps, more volume under control this way than by trying to force yourself to do more and more at the highest level you're able. And just to also put this in perspective, where the term drops that comes from is this comes from barbell lifting. As you would you do, you do a few rounds with a number of plates on the bar, and then they would literally, you stand there holding the bar and someone drops a plate off each side of the bar, and then you do some more reps and then they drop some more plates off they're dropping, literally dropping.

And so it's, mechanical refers to the fact that you're changing the mechanics of the exercise as something less complicated, less sophisticated, a little easier to control or with less leverage or something. So that's what a mechanical drop set is. And this is something that we incorporate into GMB programs all the time.

it's a little bit in some of our programs, but also specifically in the way that we train people to adapt those programs and how we personally train as well. It's a huge part of what we do.

Ryan: [00:34:12] Yeah what you just talked about, the weightlifting. I remember back when I was in high school, we were doing, we called them Nickles. And so what you do is you just, stack all the fives, all the fives on the bar and then you get your buddy and you crank out the bench press, and then he takes fives off and you go all the way down.

So the bar, and you can hardly push the bar. I remember that I was a lot of fun. Yeah, so that's mechanical drop sets or whatever you want to call it, basically just, work your way down and, do it with as good form as you can. And the repetitions and things like that. if you end up getting to the very last movement and you can do 10 or 15 of that movement, then I guarantee you probably could have done more before that. 

So anyway, make sure that you're working at a level that's adequate for yourself and really trying to get as many quality repetitions as you can when you're doing that. So the next thing too is, super sets. I've got a couple more, so hang with us here. So super sets. I like to do super set myself, but.

Depends on how there's a couple ways you can do it. So one example would be just take two exercises and you're going to do them back to back. I'm going to use the front lever and the planche as an example. And so let's say that I do my front lever and I hold it for 15 seconds at the highest level I can.

And then immediately get done, shake my arms out. And then I hold a planche at the highest level that I possibly can do. And then great. Then I give myself like 90 second rest. So that's a super set, one example of a super set. I do super sets, but I actually do them a little bit different when I'm doing it. If I am using my friend lever and my planche, actually give myself a little bit of a rest in between the plant and the front lever.

So it's not that I'm going immediately into the front lever, but the thing is basically you're doing one movement right after the other and just continuing that particular group of movements for a duration of rounds, maybe three to five rounds. Now circuits are a little bit different. we also love circuits.

They're very good for the type of training that we're doing in terms of building endurance. And you'll find these in Elements as well as Integral Strength. Circuits are multiple exercises done back to back for a certain number of rounds. Sometimes it could be upwards to five movements and that's, typically what you will see is about five minutes in integral strength, all related to whatever goal you're focusing on for that particular day.

 When we're doing these, instead of looking at repetitions, we're looking at time. And so for Integral Strength to look at doing each movement for upwards of 45 seconds each then immediately going to the next movement, doing 45 seconds and keep going through that until you're finished with that one round.

You might have a break a 30 seconds to a minute before you start the next round of movement. Sometimes it could be where you built up the endurance so that you can just continue to work through those circuits, upwards three to five rounds of that with no rest. The other thing, I was just talking about that is the way to actually push yourself if you wanted to, is that if you are using circuits, you can decrease the rest time of those particular movements. So like I just said, you're doing these circuits and the first time you go through this circuit, you do 45 seconds of this and boom, five movements. Then you give yourself a rest period before you start that next round.

Now as you get better with that, instead of increasing the complexity of the movement, basically making the movement more difficult, you keep the movement as is, but you decrease the rest time. Another way that you can do it if you're doing a circuit is you can choose one movement within that circuit and you can make that one movement harder.

And then you keep the time the same, keep the rest time the same, and then gradually work on taking each movement up another progression through that circuit. But the time is the same. The rest time is the same. You can also work on increasing the hold time. Let's say that you're working on a particular movement and you're doing a circuit and the circuit calls for you to hold 45 seconds of the plank hold.

Okay. But you can only do five seconds and you usually hold it for five seconds, a little bit of a rest, and then you continue working on 45 seconds. You just gradually work on being able to do 45 seconds of that particular hold. Last one, anything to add to that?

Andy: [00:38:44] No, I think it's great. There's so much stuff you can do with circuits.

Ryan: [00:38:47] So much stuff, yeah.

Last one is accommodating resistance. And so this is one that, it's simply adjusting a movement during the middle of the movement or using something as an aid for part of the movement. So the example that I'm going to give is for, the one arm chin-up would be, you see this a lot where people will, have a band or a strap they hold onto with their other hand in order to help them when they pull up to the top of the bar, they'll let go and they'll lower themselves. That's something you commonly see. 

But what I think a lot of people miss is that actually you use accommodating resistance and adjusting the movement during the ecentric and the concentric portion of this for any movement and a pushup is a great example.

And we actually have this in Integral Strength where you start the top of the pushup and your body's completely straight and you slowly lower yourself to the ground, but you have trouble keeping form when you push back up so therefore the way that you can adjust it is simply putting your knees on the ground and then pushing back up into the top portion, then extending the legs. And then once again, when you lower yourself, keeping the body straight. 

So there's many different options for doing this. when I'm working on my front leavers, I'll start where I'm doing an inverted hang. And, what I'll do is I'll try and keep my legs as straight as possible. When I start the lower and mid-movement, where I feel that I'm starting to lose it, I'll tuck in my legs a little bit, and I'll be able to hold that front lever longer during the mid point, because I've adjusted it to an easier level for me that allows me to continue with the movement. So basically that's all I'm trying to say with that is that there's so many different ways you can do this and yeah. Yup. Yup. 

Last one, let's throw this in here: Play. I forgot to actually add this one, but yeah, play is simply where rather than trying to push yourself to do anything, you simply take a movement and you play around with it.

And a lot of good things can come of this. It's similar to what we talked about before, where you're looking at limiting the particular theme that day, where you choose the Bear, and you're only focused on the entry and exit. This really is play where you're simply trying to take movements that you're already accustomed to, putting them together, and just trying to see what comes of it. You can find that you can end up really, taxing yourself by just doing that. 

You're really used to doing pushups. Okay, great. What if you do pushups while you're walking with your hands forward? So it's like traversing pushups and things like that.

A lot of different things you can do with that that is going to make it more difficult, but also more fun and also, interesting.

Andy: [00:41:28] So we've got a lot of things that we talked about, especially in the second half of this today, but let's go back to sort of part of what is the central thing. How do you know how hard to push yourself? And one of the important things is just to understand, like Ryan, you said there's three kinds of days, some days, you're just not going to be able to do it. Some days you're going to feel great.

And then there's all the days in the middle. Everything under the middle bulge of the bell curve there, where you just go and you do what you've got to do. And on the days that you just don't have it, that you're running up against your limits, you have to learn when that's real or not. And the way that we suggest doing that is to just one, go on and get on the mat anyway. 

Unless there's something just keeping you absolutely physically preventing you from doing anything at all. Go on and get on the mat anyway, just start your prep. Start your warmup, shake your body out. Even if that's all you end up doing, you've done more than nothing and best case scenario, you realize that once you start moving, it feels good and you want to do more.

But that's a good way that you can know, for sure. Then the other days, you just start going in and you see how it goes. And on those days where you have a lot of energy where you feel good, you can push yourself and we've given you a lot of ways to do that. It doesn't mean that you need to change everything, but there's a lot of little things you can do.

And, you can get better at knowing ahead of time, what kind of day it is. But the biggest thing is to just get on the mat in the first place, be aware and then pay attention as you go through your session to see if you do have more in the tank to push yourself a little harder.

Ryan: [00:43:15] I think that's, I think that's a great place to wrap it up because really that's what it comes down to. if you get anything out of this is you've just got to step on the mat and start and just go from there. I think really that's really what it is. That's our secret teaching of GMB. 

Andy: [00:43:32] Absolutely. Alright thank you for listening.

Ryan: [00:43:35] Thank you for listening, until next time.