Andy: [00:00:00] Alright. Alright. Welcome to the Gobstopper Mustn't Bite podcast. I'm Andy. 

Ryan: [00:00:09] I'm Ryan. What's up. 

Andy: [00:00:10] Ryan is here and we are scraping the bottom of the barrel for words, that GMB can be an anagram for. Before we get into that topic of this show, what I would like to say is I have a request for everyone listening. We've done a lot of different ones, help us help us, please. I'm begging you.

Ryan: [00:00:31] Please.

Andy: [00:00:32] Please. Send posts to socials or in some other way, notify us of your ideas for what GMB could stand for it. And here's what I'll do is I will pick three of the best ones and I will send you a Giant Meat Balls T-shirt. Yeah, because that is probably the very best thing that GMB has ever stood for.

All right. So, that is our snappy intro, I think, in the podcast biz, that's what they call The Hook that gets you wanting to listen to more, we've demonstrated the value of the upcoming content. And now we can transition into that content, confident that our listeners are along with us for the ride. Is that not true? 

Ryan: [00:01:26] Winning. That's how you do it right there. 

Andy: [00:01:30] Right? Yeah. 

Ryan: [00:01:32] Wow. 

What Most Traditional Workouts Are Missing

Andy: [00:01:33] Yeah. So as you can probably tell I'm in top form today. And so we're going to be talking about though, something that I think is really important and really the basis of a lot of the things that we do in GMB. And it's basically it's this: most workouts leave out a lot of things that are really important.

So we're going to be talking about what those things are, and what you need to do to fill in those gaps. Okay. So let's get in to that. 

Ryan: [00:02:05] Cool. Yeah. So first off, basically, we're just going to be talking about all this stuff that you need to cram into your workouts, because it's very important to have as many possible pieces of equipment as well as protocols inside of your program, just so you can get and reap the most benefit from it.

Of course. I'm kidding. Yeah, so today it's pretty interesting. We've had the opportunity to work with a lot of different people over the years. And sometimes, we actually get messages that kind of surprise us. And in terms of what your workout leaves out, this is something that while Andy Jarlo and I get it, we've been doing this for quite a while, we  don't think about everything. 

And so it's always good to hear from people who've been using GMB and let us know, like thanks to a particular thing that they've been doing, it actually helped them. And I just bring this up because I just thought it was funny, like the motorcycle guy. So we had this guy, motorcycle road racing, and he just said that the particular position that he uses on his bike is similar to the Frogger position that we have in there. And so that just really helps him when he's riding his bike. And so this is interesting to me because we would have never thought about this. And so really how does this relate to, what we're talking about? 

And that is really, some uncommon things basically is what we're going to be talking about. Some things that get left out, but in particular, the things that are going to be good for you. And that's also important because we also need to think about, okay, even though we do a particular thing, doesn' t mean that you should be. 

And so want to bring the conversation back to yourself. So when you're listening to the things that we have in what we're saying in here, always think about how this is going to relate to you, in that case, the motorcycle rider and how that actually helped him for his particular position.

So we're gonna talk a little bit about things that they get left out, which is the big thing. And then also, what do you need to do in order to cover and make sure that you're doing the things that are going to help. You with what you need for your particular activity. 

Andy: [00:04:07] Cool. So let's start with that motorcross example because that's actually a really good one, just to demonstrate something real quick.

Motocross: he's in this position with his knees bent up close to his chest, like almost in his armpits, right. And hunched over very similar to, one of the positions in the Frogger movement. And so you might look at this static position, in a picture or something and think, okay, well, there's lots of things you could do to be prepared for that.

Why not just squat because obviously, according to, maybe 1% of our Facebook commenters, squatting is literally the only thing anyone ever needs to do. Squatting will boost your IQ, make you more attractive to potential sex partners and, cure rabies. However, once you have boosted your IQ cured or abs and had sex with as many partners as you need, what do you do then? And that's what we need aside from squats. 

Alright. So this position, what I'm getting at here is the reason that the Frogger movement is useful for this is because it's not just a position. It's not just getting a range of motion. It's not just putting strength in, it's moving in and out of this. And if you're on a motorcycle and you're having to twist and turn, I think mostly turning left as I understand it.

But you have to be able to shift your weight in this position. You have to be able to adjust that load and you have to be able to absorb the shock of the road under the bike in this position too. And so it's not as simple as just lifting a weight up and down. And this is one of the things with many traditional kinds of fitness training is that they're extremely linear.

Okay. You are lifting a thing up and down, be it a squat or a bench press, or, even a curl or something, or you are running or you're swimming, or you are biking. And most of these things work in a straight line most of the time, I'm not saying that they're all perfectly linear, so I don't need some kind of brain genius to come and tell me that sometimes people turn when they're on bikes.

Like I get that, I've ridden the bike before. We all understand this and we know that there's like functional training and all kinds of different training methods that have rotational movements and things. But by and large, most people spend most of their time doing fitness stuff on movements that are extremely linear and that's not bad. 

By limiting the ranges of motion, by limiting the angles, you're able to work the primary, prime mover muscles, the main big muscles in a very efficient fashion. But if you limit yourself to only those kinds of movements and only those kinds of exercises, that's where you're leaving a lot of things out. You're leaving out any range of motion that is atypical and you're leaving out almost every, every angle of expressing force and power aside from two or three specific angles that are very common. 

Ryan: [00:07:16] Yeah, it's really good. And I think a lot of people do fall into the category of thinking, 'Oh, I need to get better with my sport. Therefore I'm going to hit the gym.' And again, while that's not a bad thing, it's interesting to me, because at least in my mind, I want to take a look at my sport and say, all right, this is what's happening during my sport. This is the particular movement. This is the particular angle, I am put into this position, therefore I need to get better at X to be able to do this. In my mind, that would make more sense to do. 

However, unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on what's going on in your case, we just find the majority of people thinking, 'Okay, I need to get stronger for my sport' and limiting it to that, therefore hitting the weights and then unfortunately, sometimes missing out.

And the fact that yes, you might be getting stronger in one position, but does that position actually going to carry over for the particular sport and for your needs of that sport? It might not just be a matter of getting stronger, might be a matter of saying, okay, I need better control in this particular position. And so kind of missing the point with that. 

And really, I think the big thing to say before we go forward is, for your sport, if you really want to get better at your sport, do more of your sport, please that's really gonna help out in getting better with the sport. So what we're we're looking at though, is actually taking a look at some of the things that might be missing in your workout that can help you with your sport.

And I say sport, but I'm talking like activities in your life. And so not just talking about if you're just a sportsman or an athlete or something like that. 

Andy: [00:08:59] So, this is one thing where if we talk about specific sports and activities, then that  brings up to mind the second thing that most traditional fitness styles really leave out and that is skill development, and yes, of course it can be argued that if you're doing, swimming or biking or running, that there is a skill development aspect to those things and you can improve your skills and become more efficient.

And that's true, but it's a very limited skillset, right? And yes, there is a little bit of skill to various lifts, but you're not constantly challenging that. Now, if you don't have a specific sport or activity, you might be thinking, why do I need to develop my skill in fitnessing? Why do I need to focus on skill training and skill development?

And the reason is, it's not because it will make you better at a sport that you don't play. The reason is because motor patterning and skill development is all part of developing your agility, your balance, your coordination. Your ability to improvise when unexpected things happen.

And I don't mean life altering, unexpected things like diving out of the way of a bus. I just mean somebody knocked something off a table behind you and you turn around and catch it real quick, you know? But that's the kind of things that you can do. I, it was very impressive. I know.

Right. You're going to brag to all your friends, right? That's the kind of cool stuff you can do if you have a generalized skillset that you've developed . And you do that by practicing a variety of skills. If you look at pro athletes again, we get a lot of clues from how professional athletes train, because it's literally their job, right?

They don't just practice their sports specific skills. They do a lot of agility training and coordination training, and very broad range of skill development. So that is another thing that athletes do, that people in movement disciplines like dance, martial arts, circus arts, slack line do, but most people that are doing general fitness do not do. It can be argued that a lot of people doing CrossFit do a lot of this.

It varies box by box as I understand things. And so that's cool too. But still most traditional workouts do not have a lot of skill development. And if they do, it tends to be focused on a very narrow range of skills. 

So those are really the two main categories of things that get left out really. It's odd ranges and strengthen different, different angles, right? It's this kind of like non-linear stuff outside of your normal planes of motion and the other one is skill development. And these are things that we think are very important. And part of the reasons we think these are important because our backgrounds are like martial arts and also Jarlo's clinical background too, is he's gotten a lot of appreciation for doing things outside of the normal confined linear, prescribed methods.

So we think these things are important, but not just for these applications, but for being able to have a full physical autonomy to live your life, and be able to explore and do things and improvise and have fun, right? And so what we're going to talk about now is if your training does not have these specifically built in, what do you do?

Because I think, when you start learning about all of the things that you could do where a lot of people go wrong is what Ryan was alluding to, closer to the beginning that, you have to start filling up all your free time with, 'Well, I've got to do 20 minutes of mobility every day, and I've got to stretch in a special method for like 45 minutes. And I have to do my high intensity intervals and I've got to do my self miofascial release, and I've got to do all of these different things. Right. I also have to work on my hand balancing. I have to hang from a bar for a total of seven minutes. I have to...' We've got this long ass list of things we absolutely must do in a day.

And this is where you'll see a lot of people, a lot of more traditional strength coaches on the internet, talk about people majoring in a minors or spending four hours warming up and never getting to their actual workout. If you take things to that extreme, that is also not good for you. That's not what we're suggesting. Right? 

What to Focus On and How

Andy: [00:13:27] Ryan, what should we focus on instead of trying to do everything and how can we make that work? 

Ryan: [00:13:33] Absolutely. This is great. And this is one of my favorite, I will say it is my favorite topic recently. And, actually not though in the exercise movement realm, it's actually my favorite topic for myself right now in my language learning.

I'm currently learning Spanish. And there's any number of ways that I could try and cram a bunch of stuff in throughout the day to learn this language. I've already, I believe, mastered into a very high level Japanese and thanks to that and my study through that, it's actually helped me to take a look at what I feel to be essential to myself for my Spanish practice.

Again, I could look at listening to a particular podcast for an hour. And then on top of that, go through a reader and then try and cram in a bunch of vocabulary and then learn some grammar. And then also try and make sure that I get in my conversation, speaking practice during the day-

Andy: [00:14:35] And suddenly you're studying six hours a day. Your wife divorces you, your kids forget your name. And I fire you from GMB. 

Ryan: [00:14:42] That's right. And that won't work out too well. 

Andy: [00:14:45] But your Spanish is going to be so good.

Ryan: [00:14:48] Great. I can order a fricking taco like nobody's business. So, but this is really interesting to me because, we're all so busy. Okay. If we really take a step back and look at our lives that we're so busy, but when we find something new that we want to work on, all of a sudden we, we say, 'Oh, well, I can't do this, this, this, this, and this.' And think that we can just cram a bunch of stuff in there. 

So I think the real important thing is to figure out what is essential to you. And this is the toughest thing. And by the way I'm going to plug a book just because I love the book called Essentialism. If you haven't read that book, it's a great book, but essential, fabulous, fabulous book.

And so I think really, conversation's going a little different way, but look at maybe all the options that you have, but then start making these decisions by saying, okay, in terms of where I want to go and what I need for my particular activity, my life, is this particular thing, this option on this list, is it a 'hell yeah' for me? 

In other words, is this something that I know that I can do, I know that it's going to help me and I know that it's basically essential to what I'm doing and if it is not a 'hell yeah' then basically you don't need to be doing the other stuff. Now, this is tough, I know, because there's so many different things we want to do, but bringing this back to, in terms of, the exercise realm and the movement realm, you only need a single thing at one time to focus on.

You only need a single thing. I'm not saying you should only focus on the single thing. Cause as soon as I say that, you're like, well, but I want to focus on that. I'm telling you, you literally only need one thing. And if you can understand that you only need one thing. And if you were to just focus on that one single thing, it's going to help whatever you're doing.

And then when you get really good at that one thing, then you just go and you find another one thing. And I think being able to have that freedom of just saying, I just need to focus on this one thing and you're going to be perfectly fine. And just focusing on that thing allows you to be able to have control over the situation and not get all sucked into this, all the other stuff that's going on.

And that one thing is going to be that particular thing that relates to your activity. So to bring this back, if we were to look at, for example, in the very beginning, I mentioned strength. A lot of people will go into the weight room or something like that. And then all of a sudden think they need to do a bunch of stuff, but let's take a step back and really look at your activity.

Okay. What is that strength component of your particular activity that you really feel that you're lacking? Just that one thing. Great. Just work on that one thing. You can do the same thing with your flexibility. You can do the same thing with your control. So there you go. You got three things. Okay. And I said, just focus on the one.

And the thing is that's really, all you need to do is within those three things, you've listed them out. I need to improve this strength component of my particular activity. I need to improve my flexibility component of my activity. I needed to improve this control component of my activity. Great. You now have that list.

You choose which one you want to focus on, which one's the most important, the one that you want to work on right now, period. That's it. And I think just keeping it super simple and doing it that way is actually going to help you to get closer to where you want to be within your activity, because it's one thing.

And you just focus on that one thing. And when you get to that point, great, and you know exactly what comes next, you choose the next thing, flexibility or control or strength, whatever it was, then you just do that. And this way, again, it comes down to that freedom so that you're not trying to cram a bunch of stuff in there, and you don't have the fear of missing out kind of thing and thinking you need to do everything because you're just getting good at that one thing.

And, you're on track because you know that you only need to focus on one thing because Ryan tells you and you're going to be fine. 

Andy: [00:19:04] Well, I think now that people have your permission, it's going to change some lives. 

Ryan: [00:19:09] No, we're good. I think that's what everybody's just been waiting for, right? Yeah.

Andy: [00:19:12] Probably. So I think that, so it's important to understand that so what you're saying is not that someone only needs one thing forever. This is the antidote to the idea that you have to add 50 different types of training to fill in all the gaps. Right? So we identified a couple of gaps in traditional training and a lot of people, I think, over the last, 10 years or so have recognized that these gaps exist and, in addition to GMB, like a lot of companies have sprung up trying to fill these gaps with different kinds of things.

And so it's really, I think when people discover this, they see all the options and they think that they need to do all these. So what you're saying, what Ryan is saying is that you don't need to do everything. And you can basically just pick one thing at a time. And you don't have to think that you have to do that one thing forever. Right? 

So don't worry about trying to add every range of motion. If you're worried about having limited ranges of motion in your training, right. It doesn't mean you need to train every range of motion. It doesn't mean you need to train pushing in every direction. All right. Just because overhead and bench press might not be enough types of pressing for it to be fully well-rounded doesn't mean that you need to add pushing in every direction. You know, do some crab walk or some dips, focus on one of those things for a few weeks to a few months.

And it will round out your pressing strength in a lot of different ways, right? And the other one is skill development. You don't need to learn every skill just because some guy with a man bun says that you should be able to do 43 different things does not mean that you need to develop every skill simultaneously.

You are not a professional mover probably. You probably have other things that you do with your time. So pick one of those skills that is interesting to you that you want to pursue and focus on that for a few weeks or a few months, right? And within these things, that's where you recognize that you need to develop more strength, more control, or more flexibility or whatever, and you might decide that you need to do some specific exercises to support those, but it should be serving one main goal that goes along with this.

And to bring that sort of back to how we try to avoid these pitfalls. Right? How do we structure things so that we don't have either side of this problem where we're just completely leaving things out, or we're a hundred percent majoring in the minors and spending all our time on tangential shit that isn't getting us anywhere,  and that is really a lot of the art of programming yeah.

Assess, Address, Apply

Ryan: [00:22:12] No, absolutely. And that's a such a good point. And again, I kind of went off on a big tangent when I was talking about that, but really bringing it back to how we look at it. It's all our AAA Framework where first off you just simply need to assess.

And this is really the heart of the discussion right now is taking an honest look at where you are and really, is that good enough? Or are you lacking something? And so that's the assessment. And when you assess, you're actually able to understand where you're at so that you can make smart choices, which is second up where we address the issue and say, okay, what is exactly keeping me from being able to do what I need to do?

Okay, this is where I'm at. This is where I am now. I need to address a situation and figure out what's going on. And then you can make those decisions. And instead of trying to cram a bunch of stuff in, you know exactly what you need and to add that point. And this is where, this freedom comes in and allows you to actually be able to then to just simply do that particular thing.

And then you come back and you assess again. And like you said, it's not that you're doing this forever. It could be a week. It could be two weeks. It could be maybe a month. But the thing is because you're always coming back to assess where you're at, that you might've brought that particular  area that was lacking up to a level where it's good enough. 

So then you can start looking at something else and you can add in another variation or a progression or something. And so this is where it's not just a matter of guesswork because you're using the AAA framework and you're assessing the situation you address, what you need to work on.

And then you apply the necessary protocol needed for that. You know you're going to be getting the results, but again, it keeps it easy for yourself so that you're not trying to cram a bunch of stuff in there and just actually getting frustrated and not seeing the results that you want. 

Andy: [00:24:08] Very cool. Yeah and assessing is really the key to so much stuff. And, that's what we talk about a lot here is the importance of one, starting from a base of kind of self knowledge, right? You're not just focused on the destination. Even if you have a clear destination, you're not going to be able to plot a path unless you know the starting point, right?

But many, many of us do not have very specific goals for ourselves. Physically. Most of our goals are things like don't fuck our shit up. Right? Just don't die. Don't die or don't be in pain. and those are kind of anti-goals. Some people do have very strong goals. Like I want to be able to, lose a certain amount of weight or run a certain amount of time or lift a certain amount of weight or do a specific skill or whatever. Or I want to hit a few benchmarks that to me symbolize being at a high level of physical fitness. 

These things are all completely fine. And if you do have those goals, then that's great. It gives you a little bit of a North star, but you still need to know where you're at with relation to those goals in order to make good plans for how to get there.

And if you don't have those, well then at least figure out where you are and think about what next step you could take that might be fun, or get you a little bit better in some dimension. 

Ryan: [00:25:32] Absolutely. That's good.

Andy: [00:25:35] Yeah. And so with these things is just be aware of there's different options. We did an episode, a few weeks ago about, not just trying to, when you're working out for a sport, not getting trapped by just doing like strength and endurance training.

And Ryan mentioned that again today, but it's not just for sports. For all kinds of general fitness purposes, too, just getting stronger or just building your endurance is not really adequate. That's why we have so many people that have bad knees and bad backs. If you've ever seen any like Facebook posts of ours, where we show any stretch at all, you've seen that the majority of commenters are people that have bad knees. 

Why are there so many people with bad knees out there? If the things people are doing were adequate to keep them physically fit for their daily life lives, then we wouldn't have this many people with bad knees. It's just truth. You know? So you need to do things even without a fitness goal.

You need to do things that will have you be healthy . And that's where like knees, knees tracking over the toes and your squat is not going to make your knee more resilient to injury for the 95 times during the day that your knee and ankle and hip twist out of alignment, you know? So that's just the way it is.

So you need to practice moving in these different ways. You need to develop some amount of skill. You need to have some nonlinear motion, you need these things. And that's why so much of GMB is based on providing the things that get left out by traditional stuff. We don't need to  recreate the gains you get in the squat rack. If you want squat rack gains go squat, man. Don't need to reinvent squatting. 

Ryan: [00:27:27] That's right. Get under the bar. Yeah. Oh, this is great. Yeah. And just kind of wrap it up a little bit. It's just, it just, again, it comes back down to really looking at the activities that you're doing and if you don't even have activities instead, reframe it and say, how do I want to feel?

Or maybe you don't even know how you want to feel because you haven't even thought about that. Well, then take a look at going through the day and saying, Oh wow, when I squat down to pick up whatever it is, I'm picking up, I kind of feel that somewhere, so, okay, great. Then use that as a reference point to say, all right, I would like to feel better when I do this particular thing. 

So again, activity, what do you want out of that activity? Then the next step is assessing the situation. Really taking a look at just where you're at and just being honest with yourself that addressing those needs, whether it be, 'Okay now in order to be able to do this particular thing in my activity, I didn't realize it before, but now I realize I do need to actually improve a little bit of my control.'

Okay. Great. So you've addressed that, then it's a matter of figuring out exactly the one thing that you need to focus on in order to get there. That's where you're addressing. And then finally applying the necessary protocol to get you there. And the thing is, this can be tough. If you've got questions, we're here to help you.

So feel free to reach out to us now, but those are really the two things is just to take a look truly at your activity or whatever you're doing and say, okay, what is the thing I want to improve? What's that 'hell yeah' that I really want to work on and then go through the process of assessing and addressing and applying which you need for that.

Andy: [00:29:08] All right. That is it. Is it? Thank you for listening. Be well.