Is your exercise and fitness routine on auto-pilot? Not reaching your goals? Listen in to learn why you need to train with a purpose to achieve deeper ideals of health, wellness and overall functionality.
Jonathan Simos is my guest on this episode, and talks about the holistic nature of exercise and how influential physical training can be in ones life.
Also, how to break down self imposed limitations and live up to your truest potential.
Jonathan is a Certified personal trainer with a certification in Applied Functional Science from the Gray institute with a performance enhancement and hybrid certification in progress. He has gained vast experience in the industry from working with various demographics throughout gyms in CA, to gaining experience hosting Camp gladiator outdoor bootcamps, working as an orange theory coach hosting interval, heart rate based training classes, and even obstacle course/ boot camp classes in functional facilities.
See all episode artwork, links and notes at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Is your exercise and fitness routine on auto-pilot? Not reaching your goals? Listen in to learn why you need to train with a purpose to achieve deeper ideals of health, wellness and overall functionality.
Jonathan Simos is my guest on this episode, and talks about the holistic nature of exercise and how influential physical training can be in ones life.
Also, how to break down self imposed limitations and live up to your truest potential.
Jonathan is a Certified personal trainer with a certification in Applied Functional Science from the Gray institute with a performance enhancement and hybrid certification in progress. He has gained vast experience in the industry from working with various demographics throughout gyms in CA, to gaining experience hosting Camp gladiator outdoor bootcamps, working as an orange theory coach hosting interval, heart rate based training classes, and even obstacle course/ boot camp classes in functional facilities.
See all episode artwork, links and notes at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
[inaudible]
Speaker 2:welcome to the show. I got a freebie for you today. Before we jump into the episode, we've created a mini course called nutrition and fitness for busy professionals. Chances are that's you. And one of the challenges we all have in our health and fitness journey right now is life is super busy and complicated, and oftentimes we want to work out, we want to eat right, but it just takes time. It takes time to learn how to do that. It takes time to hit the gym. It takes time to do everything. In this mini course, really, we'll tackle three of the biggest areas that keep busy professionals from reaching their fitness goals. And it includes the three steps of fix, a broken diet, how to stay in shape when you're busy, including a really sweet minimalist workout. And finally, the all important power of sleep and important tips on how to get more sleep. We all know that that's kind of the, um, overlooked secret of health. A lot of people ignore to their peril. So go to[inaudible] dot com it's advertised right there on the homepage and get the mini course. I think you'll really like it. It won't take very long to read and yet it is packed with really great actionable information. And now on with the show.
Speaker 3:Hello everybody. Welcome to the dire Roby health show. I've got Jonathan Simos and Jonathan, am I pronouncing your last name correctly?
Speaker 4:Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 3:Simos[inaudible] Greek, right.
Speaker 4:It is actually to be honest. Um, it's funny I have cousins in New York who pronounces Simos but then my immediate family here in Florida, so CMOs, so I don't even know.
Speaker 3:But if I say Simos you're just fine with that.
Speaker 4:That is perfect.
Speaker 3:Sounds great. Jonathan has a certification in applied functional science from the gray Institute with a performance enhancement and a hybrid certification in progress. He's gained a lot of experience in the industry working with various demographics throughout gyms in California. He's hosted a camp gladiator outdoor bootcamp and actually done several of those. Also been an orange theory coach and done heartbreak based training classes and obstacle course bootcamp classes in functional facilities. I've looked forward to this interview cause I love all this stuff. Jonathan, thanks for coming on the dire OB health show today.
Speaker 4:Thank you. I'm honored to be on the show.
Speaker 3:So give us a little bit about your background. We already discovered that you have Greek origins. Tell us about that. Were you born in Greece and moved here or how does that work out?
Speaker 4:No, I was born in Sarasota, Florida, but my father is from Greece and so most of my family on my father's side is over there. Uh, and my mother is American, but she's Greek American. So, uh, both I have it on both sides
Speaker 3:and, and tell those of us, uh, what, what, what does that mean having Greek heritage?
Speaker 4:Uh, well there's different, like a, if you've seen my group, my big fat Greek wedding, you'll know that a family is very important and uh, everyone's very animated and, and laugh. A lot of heads,
Speaker 3:good food.
Speaker 4:So it's a, you know, very close to the community typically.
Speaker 3:I love it. And for those asking why I'm prodding him on this, it was included in Jonathan's bio. And so, uh, this is an important part of his story and it's thanks for sending us spending a minute on that. And then I thought you were from California, but you were, uh, in Florida, I guess you spent some time in California.
Speaker 4:Yes. Um, my, in my last relationship, um, my last girlfriend was a travel nurse, so we lived in Los Angeles for four months, uh, Austin, Texas for three months and then back in California in San Diego for nine months. And so, uh, within that time frame I worked in, uh, in the gym and started training clients on the side, had a lot of experiences with traveling and road trips. It was a nice experience.
Speaker 3:And now you're back in Florida?
Speaker 4:Yes. Back in Florida. Back from soda, soda for now. Uh, just uh, staying busy, working on different things, for sure. It's going to be back.
Speaker 3:Okay. And one of the things you talk about is I went through your social media and your bio and what you've done in your life. What are the things you're big on? Is training with a purpose? Talk to us about that. What does that mean?
Speaker 4:Yes. Training with the purpose is, um, not only finding an underlying deeper reason for physical training, but also having a sort term goal in mind. Because most people, they don't train with any purpose or any short term goals. They just go to the gym and uh, and a lot of people don't even have the direction so they're not even sure what to do in the gym. And so there's such a lack of motivation. It's hard to maintain, uh, motivation and consistency if you don't have an underlying purpose. So by purpose, I mean finding a deeper reason. So, um, everyone knows the health benefits. Uh, actually I'll start with the health benefits. So there's actually a quote before I get to that. John J Rady, he wrote a book called spark, the revolutionary revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain. And my favorite quote from the book is, exercise is the single best thing you can do for your brain in terms of mood, memory, and learning. The single most powerful tool you have, optimize your brand fortune as it has a profound impact on cognitive abilities. And it'll help. So, uh, it is really holistic, which I know we'll get to later, but for now, everyone needs to find a, an underlying purpose where such as a grandfather may want to train to be able to play with his grandchildren or a grandmother to take, you know, her grandchild out of the car seat, uh, easier to be more functional throughout the day within whatever lifestyle that, um, he or she has. And so that might be the underlying purpose to have better quality of life, life, longevity. Then a sort term goal would be to be able to, you know, maybe list a certain amount with an exercise or reach a certain mobility goal. So it's good to have that underlying driving factor that will motivate you, that bigger picture and then zero in on that personal goal, uh, and celebrate the milestones, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure. I mean, I've always been athletic. I've always loved athletics and it was only later in my life that I realized that not all, you know, not everyone in the world felt that way. There's a lot of people who weren't raised in an environment where they were encouraged to do school sports for example, or where they were that last kid picked at the gym. And so they always kind of had a negative outlook into gym class and to health and fitness generally. And now they're middle-aged and they're realizing, wow, I, I want to take care of my body. I bet I want to be more fit. And people like that. Like I had the ladies from flex at pink on my show and it was really phenomenal. What they do is they're helping take a women especially and encourage them to run a fiveK a and maybe a 10 K or a half marathon or something. So they are kind of using events to accomplish this kind of thing that you're talking about. So maybe a lady who's never ran anything in her life and, and never been interested in that suddenly finds these ladies on Instagram. He goes, man, this is really, really cool. I'm going to do a five K. and so for me that's one of the ways I've always encouraged people to do it. And the way I've done it myself, like I've noticed a massive difference when I'm signed up for a race. Like if I put my name down for a Spartan race, the next six months are going to be very different than if my name isn't on on that, uh, if I haven't signed up for that. Right,
Speaker 4:exactly. That's exactly what I mean. You hit it right on to have that purpose. Something to train for a reason
Speaker 3:and events are, to me, the low hanging fruit of this signing up to do a sprint, triathlon, a fiveK, a short Spartan, something like that. Seems like an obvious way. But what are some ways for people who that just doesn't appeal to them? They're like, I, that just doesn't interest me at all. Like, I want to be more fit, but I'm not going to go out and do that. So if it's not an event, what can people use for that type of motivation and purpose?
Speaker 4:Definitely. Um, everyone has their preferences and some people may enjoy outdoor activities such as hiking, uh, or, or anything in that category. So, um, you can train to be more personal, outdoors or simply within the lifestyle. So it kinda comes back to that underlying purpose where a personality, um, comes down to training to apply in your life. So it's not just, you know, lifting to get stronger or getting more muscle mass or you know, along those lines, but, um, to apply the progress in your life. So it's not just for the health benefits or the aesthetic side, uh, not just to get your bones denser and, you know, get stronger. It's also to be able to use that, uh, in your life. So if someone doesn't have that goal to train for a race or a competition, they can simply have an underlying purpose to be as fit and functional as they can be within their lifestyle. You know, there's no need to train, um, all day, every day to get that way either, which I can touch on later. Uh, you can have a very healthy, um, routine that with not even working out every day and not even more than an hour, less than an hour. But, uh, anyways, so the underlying purpose could simply be they want to be functional and healthy within their lifestyle and then they can gear that towards enhancing their quality of life and you know, activities that they do.
Speaker 3:Okay. Some great ideas. You use the word functional a lot. I become a huge fan of functional training. Let's shift gears and talk about that. First of all, give us a definition. What's your definition of functional training?
Speaker 4:Definitely my definition would be I'm carrying over. So training, so what you do in the gym, having that benefit carry over into[inaudible] to your real life. So, um, I started lifting weights at uh, 16 even though I was active my entire life and I'm actually almost 32 now. So, um, I have tried all different types of training and I began with different bodybuilding splits, like the average, you know, young guy tried to get as big as possible and a lot of other offensive training, like isolation doesn't apply outside of the gym. Even the strength, I'd had a hard time applying outside the gym because it was purely for muscle development. And so, um, functional training is working the body and units because the body is holistic and, uh, it's really a series of push and pull movements, uh, muscles working together and, and opposing muscle groups or, uh, or simply together. So it's training your body to perform, um, how it's supposed to perform and then specializing within that, uh, for whatever activity you need to work on cause the, the body adapts. So for example, I always, so it's for everyone to have a foundation, a fitness foundation, which would be a cardiovascular base, a weight training base, a mobility base, and then the mental component. So, um, so those elements, because then you have a solid fitness foundation, uh, and then you can kind of specialize. So for example, to give you a better example, if, uh, coming back to the grandfather example, if the grandfather's underlying purpose is to perform better in his daily life and he likes to play golf and he has, let's say, three grand grandchildren, one of them may be very young and is in a car seat. He could train a movement to enhance his golf game, like cable twists. And certain movements to make sure he doesn't have any injuries or lower back injuries. So in enhancing his golf game, uh, but also training movements such as picking up his child out of the seat. So strengthening a rotation, uh, certain muscles that he could use in his daily life. Uh, of course that's after he has the base because you can't just work some muscles, you have to work full body to prevent imbalances. So I'm just saying to specialize slightly further in certain areas, that's all.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 4:Functionality is to apply in life.
Speaker 3:I love it. And I am a grandfather and let me just tell you one of the kind of fun things I have going on with my grandkids is I try to be able to put them between my feet and do pull ups for as long as I can. Now as they get older, that gets harder. And uh, but it's a, it's kind of a fun thing. My, my granddaughter's coming up from Texas for Christmas here next week, and we'll see if grandpa can still put her between, between my legs, my feet, and uh, and get to the top of the bar. I, Oh, I am very active. I love this. I mean, this is, this is what I do. And, uh, you know, it's like on my last interview, um, I talked about how long ago I wanted, I had a goal of being young with my kids. I wanted to be that dad that if our boy was in boy Scouts and they had the 50 mile hike, I wanted to be a dad who went, not the one who said, I really can't do that, you know? So I've always wanted to be prepared for whatever I could do as a father. Well, guess what? His life goes on now. I've got grandkids and I got the same goal. I want to be as young and healthy with my grandkids as long as I can. So I, all this stuff. You keep talking about grandfathers. Well, that's me. I'm, I'm, I'm all about that.
Speaker 4:Good, good. I'm glad to hear that. Uh, that resonates with you because it's so true and uh, and strength and mobility and, and this physical fitness overall can be maintained, uh, you know, well into, uh, older years. It's just a, people have a mentality, you know, previous generations where, uh, they may have not worked out or been active. Um, and so they might not see the benefit of that. But now we're starting to see older generations, you know, uh, being very active, well into their eighties, even nineties. Um, so it's definitely, fitness is definitely very important, especially in maintaining, you know, quality of life and activity. For sure.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Now I want, I want to tell you a little story and then I'll have comment on it because you mentioned three things, strength, cardio and mobility. Well, you mentioned four strength, cardio, mobility and mental strength. Now for eight years of my life I did triathlon to stay in shape. I, you know, running, biking, swimming. I thought, well, these are really great activities. You know, what's more foundational and fundamental than running, biking and swimming. And I did that and it was really rewarding. And I did some big races and I did a lot of races and I always was training with a purpose cause I always had a race coming up. I did like six to eight races a year, but I transitioned from that to CrossFit. And when I did that, I suddenly was slapped in the face with the lack of mobility I developed in eight years of endurance training. I did not realize that I couldn't do a squat without my ankles coming up off the floor. I couldn't go deep. My shoulders were very inflexible. Um, basically I thought I was in really terrific shape, but I wasn't balanced at all. I had lost my mobility. I'd lost a lot of upper body strength. I couldn't do very many pull ups. For example, I couldn't do very many pushups. So I had cardio. I could go forever. I could do long races, I could get on my bike and ride for hours that I'd developed. But what I'd let go was a mobility and it took me literally a few years to get it back. So for those people listening who don't want to go through that experience of losing all their mobility, uh, so first of all, I tell the story because I want to motivate people to not go down that path to make sure mobility's part of the deal. But for those people, um, who are interested in this aspect of adding mobility into the routine, first of all, why don't you define mobility? First of all, let's get a definition of what it means and then let's talk about how grown up people who maybe have not been working on mobility for a while can develop it.
Speaker 4:Definitely. Well, a mobility would be simply being able, the ability to move a, a, a limit through a full range of motion. So, uh, being able to basically move to your body's full capacity. So if someone has a, there's different factors that might limit this. If someone has a tight, certain tight muscles, it'll definitely limit the range of motion or joint, you know, dysfunction. But, um, before I get further in that, the most common reasons are, uh, uh, common distortion patterns, common and balances. So when we sit a lot, our hip flexors get tight. And then when a hip flex is a good site, it turns your glutes off and then, uh, at least to, uh, makes you more quad dominant. So your cross try to take over. And so then, uh, it really makes, uh, working your legs out more difficult to make squats more difficult. And, uh, when you do a lot of distance running or distance events, they're great. But as long as you're balanced, if you're just doing that distance, that steady state or mostly distance, your stride will shorten. Um, if you're, you can always tell a distance runner by the way they sprint because, uh, they won't have a nice wide open stride. It'll be a very short stride, uh, because they'll get used to that range of motion. And so a distance runner will tend to body adapts. And so this will kind of show in this trial and it has certain, uh, things such as you mentioned, if you don't do weights, you will lose upper body strength and muscle mass. So it's not a bad thing. Um, uh, specialized. But you can also maintain the mobility side and maintain most of the strengths. Uh, you can have balances, but I'm saying, and you're starting to see that now with hybrid athletes. So, uh, for the, uh, everyday person who in the training to be an athlete, uh, well actually regardless if they are not, you can maintain mobility through a dynamic exercises, some flexibility, um, drills. So my favorite, I learned, uh, this base when I was in California, I was shadowing, uh, the manager of a gym and he had like every certification imaginable. Uh, this guy was awesome. There was Frank, awesome guy. He put together this, uh, warm up that involves foam rolling three places, so foam roll and your soleus, which is um, a muscle under your, your gastrocnemius, your lower legs underneath your calves, formal that cause that would often get sight. And that's actually called your second heart because when you contract it, it helps, uh, return blood back to the heart. And so interesting if you Google that, it's called your second heart. Uh, but anyways, that would get tight. So by foam rolling you could help lengthen that muscle. And also work out any kinks, get more blood flow in there, uh, piriformis, which is a triangular muscle under your glutes. And so that's this little triangular muscle under your glutes, uh, would often get overactive, especially when people sit a lot because when people sit a lot, uh, your hip flexors get tight. As I mentioned, the boots turn off and approved for misses, synergistic to your glutes, so tries to help out your glutes. So if they're turned off, it's going to try to overcompensate. And so then, um, it's just harder to work your glutes out. But also if it gets over active and hip hop trophy, it can cause sciatic pain because your Sadick nerve goes through or under. And so by formulating that, it helps you activate your glutes more and you know, helps potentially prevent lower back pain. So fumbling performance of the second one, the third one was laying back with that formal or on your upper back. Uh, so T spine, the thoracic spine, getting a little more mobility, just letting yourself fall back gently, uh, to open things up because, um, the other very common distortion pattern that everybody has is internal rotation. Their upper bodies kind of locked up like their hips. And uh, so by laying back on that FOMO, it kind of helps them get that mobility over time. Um, so the formula in three places as I mentioned, soleus performance, NC spawn, then, uh, it was a series of dynamic things. So bird dog, which is an exercise on your knees, extending your opposite arm and opposite leg alternating about five times we've side, uh, some yoga moves basically cat and camel. So it was a series of yoga moves and dynamic exercises with a couple stretches, like a hip flexor stress. Uh, it takes about 10 to 15 minutes and you could even do it on your days off. It doesn't have to be just before you lift weights. It can even just be on a day off before you start your day. And it really gets your blood flow going, gets, you know, your mobility in a sense. But bottom line, it's important to have that mobility and to maintain, to have something in the morning to, you know, to do, uh, every day.
Speaker 3:Love that. I love that I've added a routine into my workouts where I have mobility in there every day. These ones you've mentioned are great. It reminds me, I better pull up my foam roller cause I kind of let that slide, uh, implementing the yoga. You know, I, I love yoga and I, I've do yoga. I sometimes go out to yoga class. Sometimes I just put on a YouTube video. Adrian is the best of those of you listening. If you want to just do yoga and keep it real simple. Adrian's channel on, uh, you know, yoga with Adrian, I think it's called on YouTube is the bomb. She's got like 300 different types of yoga sessions. But you know what I found out, Jonathan? I'm sorry if you're not, you're not hurt, hurt. You haven't heard of Adrian? I'm a little familiar. Okay. Yeah, it's good. But you know what, I realized Jonathan is half the time as I'm going through yoga, I'm waiting for like those favorite moves that I really, really like. And finally it dawned on me, I don't have to spend half an hour getting to those moves. I really, really like, I can just do them. I can just add in those ones I really need. For example, I'm really flexible and have good mobility in some areas and there's other areas that are weakness. And I realized that I was kind of wasting time by spending say 40 minutes doing a yoga session in which what I really needed was five to 10 minutes of work on the right parts where I just needed to work. You know what I mean?
Speaker 4:That is, that is perfect. I like that. Very true.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And those specific exercises you gave, that was awesome. I know you have a YouTube channel. Do you have a, you have this detailed out in any of your videos or anything?
Speaker 4:Um, I, I do, I do have some of that in my, uh, my YouTube. Uh, there's a, there's different sections because I have a Dodge preneurial side. I'm working on building with, uh, launching his business venture, but, um, one of my business ventures. Um, yes, you can't find that stuff in the functional training advice section. Uh, but one of my business ventures that I'm focusing on now is one called new exist, which is a functional training paired with fitness education. So I'm finishing up a package, an online program where it's going to be, uh, a lesson. So a functional training session, uh, with a little bit of education for the client to read prior, so twice a week for three months. So after the course, um, they would feel comfortable in their knowledge and fitness foundation to work out on their own at the gym to take fitness into their own hands. And it's almost done. The goal is to launch it by, originally it was for the holidays, but now by January. So a program with to stay tuned for that.
Speaker 3:Okay. We'll put a link to that in the show notes. For those of you listening and uh, this, this recording by the time we publish this recording, that should be about that time frame. So those of you listening ought to be able to go to that website link. We'll put it on the show notes at[inaudible] dot com. Now let's move into another area that you're excited about. And that is the holistic nature of exercise. You alluded to it earlier with the quote that you gave. So what does this mean and in what ways, uh, is exercise holistic?
Speaker 4:Uh, well, whole exercise is holistic because your mind and body really are one. And, uh, even since the beginning of the fitness industry, uh, we've only focused on the body, but the mental aspect is so powerful that, um, it can affect training. For example, if everyone knows that, uh, when you're not in the right head space that you're overly stressed, um, you know, you're not going to have the workout, you're not going to be with a lift. If you're training as an athlete, uh, in a strength sport, you're not going to be able to lift the same weight. Uh, it's such a powerful factor. And also you can literally energy shift where if you're in a bad mood, you feel low energy and then, you know, we've all had this experience where something happens or you find out great news and then all of a sudden you have a burst of energy and you feel amazing. And so it literally is. Um, there's so much of it is mental. And, uh, I have a friend, a good friend of mine, uh, he actually teaches mental performance in the United States special forces. And, uh, I was supposed to catch up with him in about a month. He's in North Carolina, but we were talking about this recently. Um, and he was giving me all this insight and it's amazing how, uh, influential that is. So my concept of holistic training is not just working out the body, uh, as a unit in the push pool. Um, series a person pulling movements, which I'll list, but also working out your mind with, uh, mental exercises, visualizations. So, um, it actually starts with your why, what we spoke about earlier, having a training purpose, understanding your reasons, looking at the big picture, planning that goal, and then, um, sort of clearing your mind. So a little meditation before, uh, visualizing the aspects of the workout, you know, the most parts and uh, getting into it. So the mental side is just as important if not more than the rest just starts with that. Oh, and actually one more thing. Uh, they've done studies where, uh, one group would just visualize, you know, uh, let's say take basketball for example. One group would visualize doing free throws, the other group would actually train to unfreeze those and they would both improve. So the group that didn't physically ever throw a basketball during that time frame of the study still significantly improved simply by the visualization because the mind can't perceive what is re really to the mind. A visualization is just as real as reality.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That's really interesting. As you talk about this, I recently finished a book called the untethered soul. Have you ever heard of it?
Speaker 4:Uh, yes. I was recommended that book, but I haven't started it yet.
Speaker 3:I got to tell you, it is an amazing book. I read it twice. I finished it and I loved it so much. I actually got the audio version. I read it first, then I got the audio version and on a trip to Colorado I listened to it, uh, on the way. They're phenomenal. But one of the things that was really interesting in that book, uh, it tracks well with what you're saying. I'm going to tell you the little story and then have you comment on it. But the guy gives the analogy of a young man deeply in love, got this perfect girlfriend. He thinks they're going to live their lives together and have babies and all that stuff and, and she breaks up with him and he goes into a slump where he, his apartment gets dirty over the next three months. He just comes home from work. He's got nothing to live forward or at least he feels that way. His apartment is a dive with pizza boxes all over the place. He stops exercising and his life basically goes to pot. And he has no energy. He just feels like crap. Then she calls him on the phone after three months is, Hey, I hope you can forgive me. Breaking up with you as a dentist thing ever did I love you. We've got to get back together. Can I see you soon? And suddenly this guy who one minute didn't have the energy to clean up the pizza boxes is getting his apartment spic and span. He's got the energy of the Energizer bunny. And suddenly, even though nothing physically changed in his mind, he's now Superman, right? We can all relate to that story. And uh, yeah. And I think it's basically what you're saying, like the power of the mind to influence our physical reality is unbelievable. And we all can picture that. And I love the story, but it's very, very dramatic. And the thing I wanted to have you comment on is you're, you're tapping into the same power. You're, you're talking about the same type of thing, but not all of life is so dramatic as having a major breakup reunion. And so what are some practical ways that people can tap into that energy that's just right there below the surface ready to go except maybe covered up with if not a major breakup in our life, some type of stress or some type of negative thing going on that keeps us from having these really great workouts and having really terrific energy and being at our best.
Speaker 4:Definitely. Um, that's actually everything sort of comes together uh, perfectly where, um, I feel like everyone should have that time, you know, even if it's five minutes before beginning the warmup to get their mind right and a look at the big picture and be grateful because gratefulness really does change your brain and change your mindset and your energy, uh, and get clear your mind and be able to focus on what is coming up. Because, um, it really does all come together. Your thoughts affects you on a cellular level. And so most people don't even, you know, they go to the gym, don't eat, not even thinking about, um, getting focused. They might have things on their mind and they literally just walk in the gym and try to get started. And, um, if you think about it, everything we do, you know, is habits and routines, but it's preparing for, you know, if you're going to bed, you brush your teeth, uh, you know, if, if whatever you do, you, there's maybe one or two things or a series of things you do prior to it. So if you're going to work out, you should clear their minds. Um, have your goal, you know, there's certain things that should be a prep, certain habits that you should have prior to just jumping into working out, like you warm up. So this should be a part of everyone's a warmup to do the mental side, the clearing our minds, uh, thinking about something you're grateful for, you know that you're exactly where you need to be at this point of your life. Uh, so the big picture, and then zero in with their purpose for training and then their goal. And all right, I'm going to go in and do this, have a great workout. And the, they'll notice their energy will be much higher as opposed to just walking in and trying to get it done. You know, cause a lot of people are posted, the gym is, Oh, let's just get it over with. But um, it's much more than that. It's much more enjoyable and it, it can be, you know, freeing. It can be, uh, an escape, not in a bad way, but just a allowing you to get in that zone, which is very beneficial for the mind and body.
Speaker 3:Okay. So for your workout, are you sitting down and doing a brief meditation or what exactly are you doing
Speaker 4:before my workouts, I typically get, uh, I'll get the foam roll, I get everything set up and then I'll, uh, I'll just sit there for a little bit and, or on the way to the gym, I'll even start this process. So thinking of a big picture, you know, um, I got enough, I got plenty of rest last night. Not that that should affect the workout, but just thinking about, you know, I'm ready for a great workout. Everything's great. Um, my underlying purpose, I'm training to inspire others to break down self imposed limitations as a lifetime drug free athlete and also to provide credibility for my venture. Uh, so I've this deeper underlying purpose. And then my goal is to train for an upcoming, uh, competition, just coming up in about a month and I want to try to place and at this time, which I should be able to, uh, with the training that I've been doing. So that's my underlying purpose. And then my short term goal and then I'll spend a minute and just kind of clear my mind and get focused in and visualize what I need to focus on. So with me, my hip mobility has always been a weakness. So, uh, I would focus on dead lifts and squats, really perfecting that to, uh, enhance performance and, uh, if I'm working them that day, for example. And then I get in, start warming up, you know, nice and focused and really start getting in that zone. Well, by doing these steps, it makes it easier to get in that zone. Uh, most people don't get in that, that zone when they go to the gym. And I'm talking about that mental state that, you know, Olympic athletes get in that zone of focus where everything gets shut out and uh, just zoned in cause that's very beneficial for, as I mentioned, the mind and the body. And so if people can learn how to tap into that, uh, not only will their performance go up, but also, uh, that can apply that, that level of focus and intensity can, you know, apply to other areas of life. Like everything comes together in the end that also applies towards the self imposed limitations. Uh, you know, in another aspect. But my point is everything comes together. So this all helps you outside the gym as well.
Speaker 3:It's interesting stuff. I like how you're keeping it kind of simple and informal. So you're, you're walking through this mental checklist, uh, in a, in a sense you're going through your, your purpose reviewing why you're training, but like you said, you could even do it on your way to the gym. It's just the difference between, you know, maybe someone else's, just listening to the radio on the way to the gym and you are mentally preparing your mind on the way of the gym so that you're ready to be in that training zone when you get there.
Speaker 4:Yes. Um, you said it does help you have a much better workout. Uh, for example, imagine, you know, having a conversation on the phone. Uh, and I, I had been there, but, uh, being on the phone up until you start the workout, like even walking in the gym, trying to warm up while you're finishing a conversation with a friend or family member, um, and then you get off the phone and it's almost like a, it's a hard transition to snap out of that social mode and, and start working out. And, um, if you're able to, uh, seamlessly, you're not really focused on that level with working out. It's more surface level, which fine, but you're not going to get the full mental, physical benefit. That's my point. Like a lot of people are not even sure how to tap into that and tapping into that, uh, that level of focus and mental fortitude that not only will be, have a lot of mental benefits, but also that she just people how to do that outside of the gym, you know, with the focusing on given tasks. So I love the gym because it's symbolic. It's so symbolic of life, the level of intensity that, you know, one strain in the gym, not saying you have to go all out, but I'm just saying having your mind right and focusing and getting it done that can be applied outside of the gym and uh, it makes you more mentally resilience, uh, increases mental performance. So all comes together. It really, truly all comes together.
Speaker 3:You know, a few years ago, the first CrossFit gym that I joined did a day camp on jumping. They had Michael Moody who currently holds six, um, six Guinness records for, for jumping. He's the world record holder for he's, he's actually the only person on the planet, including all basketball players, all volleyball players, all of which jump, uh, all of which work consistently and very hard on being able to jump higher. Uh, he's the only person on the planet that can jump on a platform higher than his head, so no one else can do that. Well anyways, I did a a day long bootcamp with him. It was, it was super fun. One of the things he said at the beginning is everyone in this gym will be able to jump six inches higher today than you have ever jumped before. I thought, well that's interesting. Right? And I knew my, I had already done a PR on unbox shop. My box shop was 48 inches and so I knew that number. I'm like, okay, so I should be able to do a 54 inch box jumps. So I was really intrigued to see how he was going to do that. Right. Well part of it was right along the lines of what you're saying. He talked about mental preparation before he broke any of his world records. And one of the things he'd learned was that the color white was a color of strength. And so he had this habit of finding a whiteboard or a white wall and looking at it and visualizing himself achieving his goal. So he pictured himself on top of the jump or over the bar, whatever the, whatever the jump was at he was doing, he pictured it while looking at something white. So he taught us this and then, and then, uh, as we all warmed up and he showed us these different exercises and improving our mobility and, and a lot of things we had to do to prep for jumping. The final thing once we were already in warmed up and for me it was a, to try a 54 inch box jump was, um, I went and stood and I looked at the white board just like you said, and I pictured myself on top of the platform and I walked over to it and nailed it first time.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's amazing.
Speaker 3:It was, isn't that cool?
Speaker 4:That's a good hike too. You sound very athletic.
Speaker 3:It's what I do. I love it. I love it. I, I'm getting older now, so I don't know if I could do that now, but that was a, I was six years ago. Um, but yeah, it was, yeah. And it was mostly mental. It wasn't, it wasn't that I was suddenly stronger. There was no more strength in my legs then when I walked into the gym. Right. It was a hundred percent mental and channeling something I could already do. Um, but just getting my mind to see it, believe it and have the, yeah, it was awesome.
Speaker 4:That's the thing. On a neurological level, even with powerless can, for example, a lot of power lifters will spend a lot of time in the one to five rep range, uh, because it trains your nervous system. So it trains your nervous system to be more efficient, to fire more muscle fibers at the same time. So recruit more muscle unit, uh, motor units. And so, um, it's not getting bigger or, uh, you know, muscular muscles aren't getting bigger. You're simply getting, uh, your nervous system, just getting more efficient and, um, good example of powerlifters aren't as big as bodybuilders, but they're much stronger. So, uh, the mental side or nervous system, just simply, uh, you know, learning a pattern or recruiting one muscle fibers or getting privates, uh, it makes such a big difference. The, the sides behind it. Like you can't deny the mental side of performance. It's so important.
Speaker 3:No. Uh, but what you have pointed out to me today, the thing I've learned from you, um, that's, this has been going to be a big takeaway for me is although I told you that story and I, I used that to achieve a, a personal goal. I didn't walk out of there and then apply it into my day to day life. I just thought, Oh, this is something you do if you want to set a record. What I like about what you're saying is to take a few minutes preparing for every single workout. Like I never translated what I learned from Michael Moody into how to prepare for every single workout. I really liked that.
Speaker 4:Yes. Uh, because it's something that we honestly should be grateful for. We have the ability to, to move to do those movements. You know. Um, one thing I've learned with training, especially in groups is everyone, uh, often needs a modification, which is, which is completely fine cause everyone's body is different. Everyone has different injuries. But my point is that, um, you know, someone might have a, a knee injury and so it's hard for them to do like a reverse lunge or a squat. Uh, some people might have a soda injury with hubs are going to do, you know, a full range of motion overhead press. And my point is to be grateful for having the ability to work out your body, you know, within those parameters. So it's a move freely and experience that like it is something to be grateful for and not taking for granted. So a lot of people forget that.
Speaker 3:I love that. Well Jonathan, this has been great. You've given us a lot of great tips and ideas. You've got your new website coming up that will give a link to, is there any, any thoughts or ideas you have that you want to share with us before I let you go?
Speaker 4:Uh, yes. I would just mention, um, a lot of people feel that they have to, when they do weight training, split it up into a sort of like a bodybuilder split. And that stems from a lot of misconceptions, uh, to make it easy, nice and efficient, nice and simple. Uh, taking everything that I mentioned, you know when you get to the gym you could work out full body three times a week, uh, in a series of movements where you could literally do a, um, horizontal push. So one chest exercise, horizontal pool. So one back exercise for upper back, a vertical push for soldiers, a vertical pool for the biggest muscle in your backlash. Um, elbow extension, which would be triceps, one extras, one exercise, elbow flection, which would be biceps. So opposing muscle groups here is the common theme. Push, pull, push, pull, push, pull. For your core. They could, it does a flection or rotation and an anti rotation. But you could literally do, let's just say the flection most of the time. So one exercise for that, uh, or a cable twist for the rotation. And then, uh, maybe two exercises for legs. His legs are either hip dominant or knee dominant. But my point is you could have a full body workout doing two sets, uh, 12 to 15 reps, uh, two sets of sufficient, especially in the beginning, one exercise for each movement and you're out within 30, 45 minutes. So even doing the proper warm up and stressing after you're out within an hour and then, uh, eventually you can throw on a third set, but literally one exercise for each of those is sufficient to get stronger and uh, and maintain that balance for, you know, the everyday person. So it can be much more simple than that. It has to be.
Speaker 3:I love that and it totally makes sense to me. Yeah, absolutely. And the push pull thing again, that's something back to my story about triathlon, what I did not realize I was doing to my body was, for example, cycling is all one way. You never, you never cycled backwards. You're, you're always right. You're always running forward. You're in the swim, you're always pulling. There's never a push movement. This is part of what whacked me out with my mobility is I was, I was not doing the opposing movement to anything that I was doing. And that's what kind of led to me being very immobile. So this workout you just laid out, can you email that to me and I can put it in the show notes? I really like it.
Speaker 4:Definitely, definitely. I will definitely email it to you. Um, but basically it's just the, uh, weight training, so not overloading the weights, you know, too much in a sense where weigh 20 every day, uh, we could just do full body two to three times a week doing some cardio, one distance run for that steady state, one interval training day where you get your heart rate up, rate down. That's important for, of recovery. Uh, so there's certain types of cardio cardio and then one day it could be more, uh, you know, sprint related, uh, for that explosive and high intensity. But, um, those three types of cardio are important. For example, if you take a distance runner as, as I'm sure you know, and you have them do a, let's say a marathon, what's a competitive, a very competitive time. So a great marathon runner and have them do high intensity intervals. So let's say 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off, uh, they're going to have a very hard time with that cause even though they're an exceptional cardiovascular shape, they're not used to that active recovery. And so, um, it's good to have that base of all three types of cardio, the weight training within all references and the mobility side. And um, you could have it all with literally less than an hour, uh, an hour, a day or that hour, let's say three to five times a week, including the cardio. So it depends on the lifestyle. Uh, you created it in the lifestyle you want to live basically. What's your goals?
Speaker 3:Okay. Well this has been great. You've given us lots of actionable stuff, some great ideas, some pre-workout ideas, training with a purpose. This has been really good. Thank you so much for being on the show.
Speaker 4:Thank you, Dave. I'm honored to be on the show.
Speaker 3:It's been terrific, and for those of you listening, all of these notes and books we've referenced and Jonathan's new website, all those things will be at blog dot[inaudible] dot com that's[inaudible], R O B i.com. If you also just go to nairobi.com you can click on the podcast and find it from there. So this has been Jonathan, Jonathan Simos on the dire OB health show, and thank you all so much for listening. This is Dave Sherwin wishing you health
Speaker 2:and success. Well, thanks again for listening. I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. And just a reminder that that course, the mini course, health and fitness for busy professionals is available for free download at[inaudible] dot com so check that out. D I R O B[inaudible] dot com we'll see you next time.