Andy (00:02.14)
All right, all right. We are going to jump into another podcast here. This is we're going to talk today about something that our community members have asked us to talk about. We have these training programs and we've made hundreds of videos, probably thousands at this point with different routines, different exercises. People know that there's a lot of things they can do and the

question that comes up so much is how do I fit this into my life? How do I make this something that's part of my life? Because the pattern that comes up again and again is when exercise becomes a thing you have to add to your life or something that is not in your life but you have to make compromises in order to do, then it's something that is de facto at odds with the way that you're living.

And I think that a lot of people feel like trying to integrate more physical exercise and more training into their lives is at odds with their lifestyle. And if it's at odds with it, it's something that you're always going to be having difficulty making work. Right? So what do you think, Ryan? How do we make it something that's part of our lives rather than something that's at odds with our lives?

Ryan (01:30.828)
Yeah, there's a lot, a lot in here. I'm going to start pretty broad and then we're going to come back in to specific examples. But let's just say not just thinking of things as exercise, but what you're doing off of the mat, if you will.

I always just think about like walking. That's like, I don't even think about it. And the reason why is cause it's just like literally built into my life. You know what I mean? It's like my dog needs to go out and I therefore go out and we walk. And that allows me to be able to actually relax for the day. And I do that two times a day and I don't take my headphones and I don't even take my phone, you know? And it's like, there's just a part of

what I do. There are times, okay, where I might purposely not take my car somewhere, you know. It was a lot easier to do when I was in Japan and where you are, you walk a lot, obviously, because you don't have a car and public transportation is great, but that just means you walk more. But there are other things too. We're busy. We all, you know, we have stuff that we got to get done. And so

Maybe there are things we call movement snacks that you can do throughout the day. Little silly things that if you truly don't have time, for example, every time you go to the toilet, sit down on the toilet, do 10 squats. I don't know, whatever. mean, I'm just pulling stuff out there, but you know, like making excuses, making excuses. But the thing of it is, is if you're having to do that, honestly, I think you need to take a step back and re-evaluate.

kind of what's going on in your life, to be honest, in terms of like time and how you're using your time. So what I'm trying to get at is that there are a lot of things that you see on the internet, social media, you know, if you have 30 seconds, do this. And yes, we post that from time to time. But it comes down to you've still got to do it. Get in there and do the work in order to make progress.

Ryan (03:49.558)
And that's really what we're kind of getting to today. And that's what we want to talk about is getting there and actually doing the hard work. But I want to preface that by saying it doesn't mean that it has to take a long time every day to do that.

So that was my roundabout way of getting to that.

Andy (04:07.744)
It's good. Yeah, you have to do hard work if you want to make progress in anything you have to do hard work and I I think that there's a lot of things that are not hard work that are valuable like I know toilet squats, maybe not so much but You know just doing a little bit of stretching doing a little bit of hanging things like this, but I do think that

Ryan (04:25.325)
Come on,

Andy (04:34.856)
because of the nature of social media and because everyone is so busy and looking for hacks and tricks and things like that, we can get very overwhelmed with.

20, just do this. 20 small things, right? And so, okay, I'm just gonna do my morning routine, I'm gonna do my evening routine, I'm gonna do my lunchtime routine. Every time I walk through this door, I'm gonna hang from a bar for 20 seconds. Every time I am brushing my teeth, I'm gonna do it in horse stance. I'm gonna do five pushups when there's a commercial on TV. And that all sounds great, but what you're doing

Ryan (04:50.4)
yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Andy (05:17.052)
is basically a lot of, you've got 20 different busy work routines that are actually distracting you from the fact that if you just did 20 minutes of actual hard physical work, you would make more progress. If you...

Ryan (05:34.861)
Kind of reminds me of like snacking. You're snacking here and there. Hey, let's sit down and actually have a meal is kind of what we're talking about, right? Yeah.

Andy (05:42.634)
Yeah, exactly. You don't, you, if you have empty time, you can fill it with things that are beneficial and better than net zero, better than nothing. But also if you fritter away all of your energy on things that are not bad, but ultimately inconsequential to the point that you now don't have the energy to do

Ryan (06:08.557)
Mm-hmm.

Andy (06:12.872)
a focused session of actually working your muscles hard so you build strength, well then you can't be surprised that you end up six months from now no stronger than you are.

Ryan (06:26.539)
That's a it's a great point too. mean the other looking at it this way. You've got to have intensity sometimes in order to make that change. That's just how it works. And your gym example that's what reminded me because you see people with good intentions going into the gym but they literally look the same. Not that it's all about looks but what I mean is like they're in the same place after a year. They're going to the gym. That's great. But

Literally nothing has changed. That intensity, hard work, matters.

Andy (07:01.578)
Yeah, and I make fun of martial artists for this all the time. When they say, I've been doing karate for 25 years, no, my friend, you've done the first five years five times.

Ryan (07:13.709)
Yeah

Andy (07:15.584)
And this is super common and it's not it's not Well, okay. It is a dig at people. I'll be on it's a total dig at people What happens is we think that we are doing we think that we're practicing But we stopped practicing at a certain point and what happens is we repeat the things that we're comfortable with we repeat the things we know we repeat the things we like and We stop pushing ourselves to do the things that

Ryan (07:23.019)
Go ahead, do it, do it.

Ryan (07:36.407)
Yes. Yes.

Andy (07:43.24)
we don't like that we don't enjoy that are difficult for us. And we're spending all this time. I was researching infrared saunas for three hours last night. We're looking at all these supplements. We're listening to Huberman. We're listening to the stupid ass GMB podcast. We're wasting all of our time on this stuff because it's easy, it's simple, it's comfortable, it's fun. It fulfills that novelty itch. And it keeps us from having to confront

that really hard 20 minutes of doing several sets of our best pushups. It keeps us from having to do that really humiliating exercise of hanging onto a bar and trying our damnedest to do two, three, or if you're actually pretty strong, 10, 12 pullups. It keeps us from having to confront that limit

Ryan (08:21.995)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Ryan (08:38.711)
Yeah. Yeah.

Andy (08:42.208)
that is uncomfortable and difficult for us. And we feel like we're doing stuff, but we're not doing the hard part that actually forces us to grow and change and develop. And that's how you can practice a martial art for 25 years and not be good.

Ryan (09:00.621)
Yeah, no, that's, yeah.

And don't think that we're trying to say that you should be just pushing yourself so hard that it's just ridiculous. We're not talking about bad form. We're talking about putting yourself in a position that is going to allow you to make change, improvements in whatever you're after. And again, it doesn't need to be a long session. It just needs to have intent. And that is

That's the key point here. And I want to give some examples of this. Go ahead. What were you going to say? Yep. Yep.

Andy (09:37.696)
So let's, yeah, let's look at how that, I was just gonna say let's look at how we can actually do this because, so we've got five times five minutes of furthering away our energy, which if that's literally all you can do, it's great, it's better than nothing, versus, let's say not even five times five, not even 20, but let's say 20 minutes of focused intent. How can that look and how can we fit it in?

Ryan (09:48.834)
Mm-hmm.

Ryan (09:57.058)
Yeah, absolutely.

yeah. Just to give just I'll give a couple of examples. Let's talk about elements just right now. So a lot of people get excited. They see our elements program. They're like, hey, I know that's going to be good for you. It is going to be good for you. And so they decide to get it. And they say, you know what? I'm really I want to do well with this. So I'm going to do I'm to jump in and do 45 minutes of this and great. Every day, I'm going to do that.

Andy (10:28.339)
Every day.

Ryan (10:32.749)
Maybe, but probably not. 15 minutes done well. And I know you said 20, but I'm going to throw 15 minutes because that's that's what we have in elements as the starting point there. 15 minutes done with intent is going to get you more than you could by just doing a little bit of something here, a little bit of something there. The other thing about this is that those

Dedicated 15 minutes with intent done every single day is gonna get you where you need to be. Now, where is that? Wherever you need to be. It's basically just gonna make you better than you were before and that's what we're after. But.

Because you're getting in there and you are literally pushing yourself because that's built in so we have that push in there But done in a way that it's not going to harm you That means that you can continue to do that. And that's what the important thing is. So if you're listening and You're like, hey, I need a bit more Intentional exercise in my life elements 15 minutes start go. That's it

15 minutes. We have it all laid out. The prep's in there, the practice, then you're going to push yourself. You're done. And you just continue to do that. That's one example. Same exact. Yes.

Andy (12:00.692)
And also like this is just another thing where it's not like it's 15 minutes, but you need a warmup and you need to cool down and you need this and that. need all you everything is in there and in 15 minutes we've organized the session so that you have all of the things you need set up in a way that you will get value out of the training just by following it along. You don't have to add stuff to it. It's just there and it's organized for you so that you can

Ryan (12:07.637)
Nah, nah, nah.

Andy (12:29.844)
Just do it and like you said, Ryan, if you go about it with intent and follow the instructions for those 15 minutes, you will be getting a very, very solid training session.

Ryan (12:42.195)
And it's not just elements. Integral strength. Another example, let's say 20 minutes now. Okay. We'll look at the 20 minute session. So same deal. It's not that you're just going to just air quotes, do pushups and squats for 20 minutes. Okay. Every minute on the minute. No, you're you have the prep. You have the practice in order to get better at the skill. Then you push yourself with more intensity.

which leads to better sessions next time because you're building that strength that we're after, an integral strength. And done in a way where it's not that you're going to be repeating the same thing every single time. Everything builds upon each other. And so when you go back and do that, you're able to look at a different.

area I want to say in this case and by area I simply mean that you're going to be looking at different movement patterns when you're doing this. And so by doing these and continuing to do these your body as a whole is going to get much much stronger. But it's that intensity and that's what's so important. Another example I think I love this one is triple shot or triple shot program. Now with this one there's three different variations.

where it's depending on what you want that day. If you want a really hard session and hard meaning it's going to really get your heart rate going, we've got a session for that. Then we've got one that all the way leads up to more like zone two types work. But the thing of it is, that having these options and knowing that when you go in there, there is an intention to that session and know that you're going to improve with it is the important thing. So again,

prep, practice, and pushing. It's not just a single movement snack where you just do the thing and, oh, okay, I'm exercising because I'm doing that. Okay, well, you're moving good on you. That's great, okay? But let's do some hard stuff so that we actually make some improvements and we see a difference in what we're doing a month, three months, a year, and beyond.

Andy (15:02.068)
And movement snacks are great. They're useful, they're wonderful. But just like you were saying with food, you don't wanna have more than like two snacks a day. You wanna actually save room for real hard work. It's really important because otherwise it just becomes this laundry list of things you have to do. And even thinking about you've gotta get all these routines in is just exhausting.

Ryan (15:16.564)
Yeah.

Andy (15:29.522)
It's just exhausting. It's more stuff and it's more mental overhead when you could just instead set aside 15 and let's just the reason I say 20 minutes is because that's time to sort of get settled, get away from the world, do 15 minutes of focus work and then kind of like, okay, I did it and then get back to your real life. So a 15 minute session realistically does take 20 minutes of total time. Right?

Ryan (15:44.406)
Yeah.

Ryan (15:55.501)
Sure,

Andy (15:56.629)
but you can get that 15 minutes of work. And if you do 15 minutes six days a week, that's 90 minutes. Might not sound like a lot compared to the amount of time you spend on other things, but 90 minutes of focused work over a week can make serious difference in what you're able to do. And this is the key point is that it's focused work. You know, it's not 15 minutes just like staring into space, right?

Ryan (16:15.217)
yeah.

Andy (16:23.744)
but you have to focus and the intent is really important. So we've talked before about like time under attention, focus, being able to really be in the movement and be aware of it and be practicing. And also our muscles need time under tension to time contracting and holding and managing load to really stimulate the fibers for growth and everything. The time is important, but if the time is spent watching videos and

switching channels and updating your log and like shaking your protein bottle and You know rewracking weights and you know Whatever stuff and scrolling Instagram then that time is not useful to you. The time has to be spent attentive to what you're doing intentionally doing something and working and if you can spend the 15 minutes working it is going to be more valuable to you than

several times 30 second stretch or several times whatever. Now, if you do have the time to do a full intense session and also several other things that are just good for you throughout the day, wonderful. That's great, you know, but don't let those things fill up the time that you could use on a focus session. So how do you

Ryan (17:47.277)
Yeah.

Andy (17:53.79)
apply this in your typical training week right now.

Ryan (17:57.24)
Yeah, personally, it's just really simple and I give myself 30 minutes a day. That's it really. And I could do more. I could totally do more if I wanted to. thing is, is right now I realize I just don't need to. And so when I say 30 minutes though, it's not 30 minutes of just continuous work. This is similar to what you said. It's like, okay, I'm starting off. I my prep. then, and I was thinking about this earlier.

when we were talking about what we were gonna talk about, that is, because I don't really count reps anymore, it's all based on what I'm doing at the time. And so the total amount of work that I'm probably doing, it's very intense for me. But for example, when I'm doing my weighted chin-ups, so I have a day where I'll do like weighted dips, weighted chin-ups, it's one set. That's it.

But.

It is quite intense. But the thing of it is it's intense for that day. So I do change the weight that I have in my weighted vest depending on what's going on in my body that day. But other days, for example, I've got Tuesdays and Thursdays are my local motion day. That's how it is now. And so in that case, it's 15 minutes and that's it literally. And it's not.

15 minutes continuous, it's 15 minutes with intent because, you know, I like to just kind of flow and do my thing. But there are days where those 15 minutes turn into just maybe five of me just doing bear for one minute, monkey for one minute, frogger for one minute, crab one minute, because I don't really feel it. Thing is, though, is when I'm doing it, I'm doing it. And the other thing I want to say about that is that

Ryan (19:55.796)
On those days where you do feel good, do more. And I think that's also pretty important. And I'm not saying just go crazy, but but when I am feeling good, I'm going to do more. And because I kind of have that buffer in there, if you will, because I know, like, you know, actual work that I do maybe is X amount of minutes, but I've got 30 minutes and I'm good to go. Then I will do more. And this is how I can continue.

to improve and feel good about it without getting injured or anything like that is because one, I'm listening to my body, but also I understand I'm going in there with intent. don't check Insta or do any of crap. It's like 30 minutes and I just doing my thing. So what you said earlier, if you're doing 15 minutes of work, look at it as 20 minutes. I think that's important as well. And that's what I'm giving myself for those 30 minutes.

But I also make sure that I schedule that into my day, just like my walks. That's the important thing. And so I don't ever look at it as it gets done because it's not something that I just want to go in there and get done because I actually enjoy doing it. So, you know. But setting aside a time and trying to do that at the same time each day then builds the habit for when you just know, it's time.

And I go and I do it. So every day for me is a little bit different. But yeah, go ahead. Yeah.

Andy (21:22.816)
This is important because yeah, well, it's it's a little different for you because part of it is it's part of your job, but I think that this is one of the important things is that Keeping things as consistent as possible really does help it really does help but I'm an example of a person for whom a consistent schedule is just not on the cards I know that there's people listening to this that are the same I say well

Ryan (21:32.587)
Right, right.

Ryan (21:40.309)
Absolutely.

Andy (21:52.318)
That's great for you, but I, you know, I have shift work or I travel for work or my, have two kids that are playing different sports on opposite sides of town. And I know you've had that too. Like, how do I have a consistent schedule when every day is literally different? And this is how it is for me too. and it can be really hard, but one thing I do is every week on Sunday, I bring out my calendar for the week.

Ryan (21:54.773)
Yeah, it's not going to work for me, right.

Ryan (22:03.489)
Yeah.

Andy (22:21.48)
and everything that's important to me, I set a time on there. And it might change, but I go on and go through the motions of putting everything that really matters to me on that calendar. And it makes me have to sort of commit to what are the things that are important and what are the things that are less important, you know, like.

If I can only do 15 minutes in a day of something that is physically good for me, then that's fine, but I'll make sure that it's on that calendar at a time. If you can keep things consistent where you know that like before dinner you do 15 minutes of stretching or in the morning first thing, you go and you do your strength workout before you're too tired to weasel out of it. However that works for you, that's fine.

Ryan (22:52.865)
Yeah.

Ryan (23:07.959)
You

Andy (23:11.072)
But even if you can't do that, at least go on and put things on your calendar and find time for them. You can carve out time for most of these things. And if 15 minutes a day is not possible for you, fine. 15 minutes when you can, no minutes a couple of days, and maybe a couple of days, 30 minutes. But you need to find the time when you can because everyone says, I don't have time. We are all adults.

who are alive in 2026 and have lived through 2025, 2024, 2023, 22, 21, 2019. Guys, these have been some pretty messed up years in terms of what's been going on in the world and how we all have to manage time. You have the experience and the skill set to make the time to do what you need to do. You can't say you don't have time anymore. We all know that's bullshit.

Don't have time for everything we wish we could do the way we wish we could do it. We all have time for the stuff that is really important for us. And we know this is true. And I'm not trying to make this about a you can, I'm not trying to do some kind of like a Jaco Goggins BS kind of motivational crap. Those guys can suck it. But the truth is, I'm sure they're lovely humans, but you know what I mean? Like that shit is flat for me.

Ryan (24:12.973)
sure.

Andy (24:38.558)
What really is important though is that you have to make decisions. You have to make decisions and you can decide when it's important for you to do a thing. And instead of trying to choose 20 hip mobility routines that you have to do spread out all through the week, maybe just decide the three times you're going to really focus and give yourself the best effort for

stimulating your body to grow, to get stronger, to get better, that you can. If you can decide on three times to set aside 20 minutes, it's gonna be great for you. And you do have that time if you decide it's important. And if not, it's okay to say, this quarter, it's not a priority for me, that's fine. But again, then why are you listening to this? Because this is about trying to...

Ryan (25:09.815)
Yeah. Yeah.

Andy (25:36.82)
make the time work for you. And so, yeah, it's tough, but it's a decision. And the thing is we all can make this decision, again, like, are we gonna spend it on like 20 things that don't move the needle? Or are we gonna try to focus and get 20 minutes so that we can really stay intent for 15 on something that will move the needle? And we have to weigh this balance of how we're spending our attention.

Ryan (25:57.133)
Yeah, it's good.

Andy (26:02.176)
Because we do have time and we do have attention and we do have energy to give to things if we can consolidate them in a way that makes them effective. And that's more important than trying to get more or find it. You have it, but use it effectively. And that's the thing.

Ryan (26:25.761)
That's good, man. Yeah. Yeah. The only only thing else I would say with that is what's another thing that's going to help you to make that easier to do. Cut out all the crap that really is not helping you. There's so much stuff we think we need to do, and I'm going to argue that you don't focus on the stuff that's really going to help you. And the thing is, is you're going to have to sit down.

and do a hard think about what that is. And a lot of us don't know to be honest. We really don't know. But this is how I can personally keep my sessions very short right now. And that's because I am extremely clear on exactly what I want. Now there are other stuff I have to do but I don't even count those in my sessions. OK. Like my personal like for me. It's very clear. I want this.

Andy (27:03.85)
It's true.

Ryan (27:24.649)
And when you're really clear about that, then learn what you need to do in order to do that and cut out all the other stuff. It actually makes it easier to be able to say, on my schedule, I've only got 15 minutes here, here, here. Cool. Then you know what you're going to do. You go in there, you hit it hard. You're good to go.

Andy (27:45.568)
I, this isn't just once, I've had multiple times in my life where I was overwhelmed with things that I wanted to do and things I thought I needed to do and things that made it hard for me to focus on what I kept telling myself was important to me. And my friend Rob told me five words that when I remember them have almost always changed my life for the better. And these are them.

What if you just don't?

Andy (28:21.31)
And I would be talking to him and I'd say, well, I've got to do this and I've got to do this and we've got to have this and this other thing. And that's a problem because of this. And then there's this other thing that's not going and I'm worried about this. fuck. I forgot. have, there's so many things. And he would just say, but what if you just don't?

Ryan (28:39.937)
I love that.

Andy (28:41.734)
And ultimately, for most of them, nothing changes. Most of the things we get overwhelmed with, if we just don't.

Ryan (28:46.445)
That's it. Right.

Andy (28:52.938)
So we're gonna come after you? I'm not saying don't pay your taxes. I'm not saying, I'm not saying like, yeah, I'm not saying don't go get a checkup. I'm not saying don't brush your teeth. I'm not saying like don't pick up your kids from school, but.

Ryan (28:57.261)
Yeah, there are a few things we have to do, but yeah.

Andy (29:12.192)
There's a lot, I mean, they'll find their way home eventually. They can hitchhike, you know, it's gonna be okay. There's gonna be a stranger with a van and candy that's gonna bring them straight home. But, okay. But you know, there's a lot of other stuff. Like, I've gotta, I've I've gotta.

Ryan (29:15.927)
That makes them tough. Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan (29:26.039)
they'll be fine.

Andy (29:39.584)
buy this thing and try out this recipe before this dinner on the weekend. No, if it doesn't work when you make it the weekend, it'll find everyone who's just like, wow, that sucked. And you can laugh about it and like, it's a bonding experience. It's fine. You know, I've got to go like get this really special thing that's like the exact same thing as some other thing that's completely like easy to find. But I have to go to this store on the other side of town to get it.

You don't, what if you just don't? I have to like send this email that's gonna be like, and it's really, I'm really worried about, I don't know how I phrase it, what if you just say the thing you need to say? What if you just don't do the part that you're worried about? There's so many things like this. And so, yeah, if you're struggling with overwhelm and time management and a lot of stuff, like, well, you know, I know I need to work on my hip mobility and then my shoulder activation and I need to be doing.

self massage with a lacrosse ball. I heard there was this abandoned rotator cuff exercise I have to do. And Ryan told me I need to be hanging from a bar and sitting in a straddle. I've got to do elements 15 minutes a day. Also, I know I need zone two cardio. My doctor said I have to be doing resistance exercise. I got to worry about bone health. What if you just don't? What if you just pick one thing? What if just pick a program and follow that? Just don't. Don't do all of that stuff. Just one thing.

15 minutes, focus work, you know what's good for you.

Ryan (31:11.757)
See how it goes. You might not need that stuff.

Andy (31:14.88)
It might turn out that some geniuses invented this thing called elements that has all that shit in it. You might just discover, I don't know. You might just find that you don't need all that stuff. I don't know, try it and find out for yourself.

Ryan (31:21.901)
Yeah, you'd be good to go. Just saying.

Andy (31:35.104)
1995, four easy payments. Actually, it's a little more than that. what I want to say is that a lot of the stuff you just don't really need to do if you can just find a way to focus for a little bit. And it's just like what I was talking about is the intent. And if you can set aside time on a regular schedule, great. If not, plan it in advance. But you have to make time to do the hard work.

You have to make some time to do the hard work. How do you find it? By prioritizing it over other things that won't make a difference.

All right, so that is my ramp mode. Ryan, do you want to wrap this up?

Ryan (32:18.657)
I love it.

Ryan (32:23.265)
Yeah, well, I'm going to rephrase it a little bit differently. I like what your friend Rob said. I'm just going to throw this out. Is it necessary? If it's necessary for you to be able to do the thing that we're good to go and yeah. I did. I'm efficient, see?

Andy (32:36.416)
You just saved everyone two words.

Your tattooist is gonna be so happy when you get this put on your forehead.

Ryan (32:46.049)
Yes, just make sure you have, you know, all three C's in there.

Andy (32:50.982)
Make sure your tattooist knows how to spell necessary correctly.

Ryan (32:55.597)
No regrets.

Ryan (33:02.338)
Alright everybody, thanks for listening. yes, do things with intent, intention in this case. Have intention with what you're doing. Find what you need. And basically it all boils down to buying elements and doing elements. That's all that really matters. It will. So once again, thanks for listening everybody. We're outta here.

Andy (33:20.264)
It will solve world hunger.