What If Your Best Body Is Yours

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(Cont.) What If Your Best Body Is Yours

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Welcome to There Is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell, and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's fitness programs, and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and most importantly why things work. Hence the name, There is a Method to the Madness. Before I get to today's show, I want to thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilding of the Gilding Group at Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. Good morning, everybody. Good afternoon, good evening, whatever time you're listening. This is Coach Rob here to talk a little bit about the method to the madness. As I say every time, you know, this podcast is about trying to give you a little truth and the whys behind things or the why nots behind things, because that's what I think is really, really important. I think I believe that when people understand something, they're more apt to do it or not to do certain things. But I do think that understanding is key and knowledge is king. So we are going to dive into a topic today, kind of a controversial topic in a way. You get people that bite on both sides, and I guess that's just human nature. So let me begin this by telling a story. This was probably, I'm guessing, about two decades ago, 20 years ago, I was at my previous location. I was in the Spruce Creek flying. I know that. So that was probably around 20 years ago or so. Not that I've been here 20 years, but I'm just guessing that uh it's close now, 1415 here. So sometime in that uh ballpark of maybe the early, very early 2000s or somewhere around there. Um and I had a referral come in, and I don't remember where she came from. Could have been uh another client or who knows? I mean, who knows? Uh, most of my referrals come from other people, like not really Google searches or things like that. There wasn't even Google back then, I suppose. And uh she came into the gym and um she started telling me what she wanted to do. I would say she was um, gosh, I mean, she was maybe in her 30s, somewhere around there, maybe, maybe lower 40s, somewhere around there. And uh, you know, she was a little overweight from what I saw, maybe even um heavier than over, you know, a little overweight. She was overweight. And um, she told me, well, actually, what she did was she told me and she showed me at the same time. She pulled out this magazine cover of I don't even remember what magazine it was. It could have been a fitness magazine like Shape, or it could have been a cosmopolitan or some fashion kind of magazine. Whatever the magazine was, it had a model on the cover, and um, you know, not a lot of clothes on dress, but not a lot of clothes to show off the uh very thin body. And she goes, So I want to achieve this. And she handed me the picture and I looked at it and I said, Okay. And I'm not going to, you know, um right away shut somebody down or whatever. And uh I want to hear them out a little bit first. And uh so I I inquired more. I I I'm a big believer in the old Socratic method, you know, ask a lot of questions before I give any information. And uh she sat down and I said, Hey, you know, when when you were in high school, college age, I began, what was your physical fitness like then? How much did you weigh? Would you say that you were thin? Were you heavy? Were you obese? Like, and and she was, you know, she was definitely very overweight, if not obese. Again, it was a consultation, didn't do measurements and those kind of things. And she said, Well, from the time I can remember, I've been very, very heavy. And I said, Okay, so around 18, 19, 20 years of age, you know, what would you say your body weight was? And how close was it to the ideal you're showing me right here? So I've got to tell you, my listeners, that I don't necessarily see that as the ideal. Her ideal was that very thin model-esque body. All right, model-ish body. So she went on to tell me that she was overweight and basically has always been overweight, and at that age she was very overweight. So, you know, that puts me in this pickle, you know, and I continued to ask a few more questions. I don't remember what it was, but I had kind of like gotten all the information I needed at that point. Because I was trying to basically see what her genetics were like, maybe what her somatotype was like, um, you know, growing up, lifestyle, you know, all these things. Because before I go on with this story, I will say this that um, you know, sometimes you see people who have really gotten out of shape for whatever reason. And again, I have to continue the preface this with I don't see body shapes and all that as the epitome or the low of fitness. It depends. It really, really depends. But I have seen people that you would say you would look at and you might go, well, I don't know, you know, genetically, maybe they can't be very thin. But that's not true. Just things have happened and they put on some weight. Um, maybe there's been some trauma, maybe there's been a lot of different things that could happen. Maybe there's been some drug use, but it can happen, and I've seen it happen. And so, one of the questions I typically use with people who have a certain body type in mind that they want to get to, whether it be men or women, is what were you like around that age? Very late puberty into your early 20s, because uh you're gonna be almost at your uh peak weight and metabolism at that age. Like you're gonna be very close at around 18, 19. So if you suffered from obesity from your early ages, you know, through your adolescence into your twenties and and yada yada yada, the likelihood of achieving what the world might call the thinnest look is very slim to none and potentially very unhealthy. So I explained that in the kindest way that I could, because I did want to explain to this young lady that, you know, that's not necessarily the epitome of fitness, that, you know, body composition is just one of the five health components, with the other four being muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and cardiorespiratory. So it's just one piece of the pie, uh, albeit uh a kind of important piece of the pie for many, many people. And I do think everybody can achieve their best version of themselves. And I think even if you have genetics that maybe encourage you to gain more body fat, you can still be at a very healthy body fat level. You just might not ever reach what the world might call ideal. Genetically, it's gonna be very, very tough. But then I went on to explain that. So, you know, what if you thought about just being the best version of you and work on the other components of fitness? Because in my belief that you're going to be like super healthy and happy with yourself if you do that. Well, she really didn't want to hear any of that. And I wasn't going to work with somebody that I was going to lie to. Like, I'm not going to just go, oh, yeah, babe, we got this, man. We're going to start you on like a bodybuilder, a women's physique workout routine. We're going to do different types of body uh or different types of diets and macro planning. So you're eating ideally for this and this. I mean, there are trainers that would do that. And I think it's very, very unethical. And it's also a disaster for their business because they're not going to reach that ideal. And eventually their client is going to realize they were lied to. And, you know, the word will get out. So for many reasons, that's a dumb thing to do as a trainer. I honestly don't know what happened with her because, again, I wasn't going to work with her, and I just had to tell her the truth on that. But I I've kept this in my brain because it's a story to talk about the reasons why we have to be very careful with those kind of expectations. I was working with a client this morning, Lois, and I love Lois. She's been with me for a lot of years, and we're talking about different kinds of uh frame structures and things like that, because we're talking about some orthopedic issues and whatnot. And I told her, you know, well, you know, you're kind of more ectomorphic. And she says, What's that word? And I guess I was kind of surprised and taken back that all the years I've known Lois and trained her, that we haven't had a conversation on somatotypes before. So that kind of got me a little excited because I'm like, oh wow, you know, I love talking about this stuff. So I went on to explain that there are, you know, somatotypes, and it's not a perfect science, and there is some flaws in it and all that. And no, from what I've seen, there's not really a perfect example of any one of the somatotypes, but they're very useful and they help in conversations like this. So essentially there are three somatotypes. There's an ectomorph, which is smaller boned, tend to be on the thin side most of the time. Think marathon runners. There is mesomorph, which are kind of medium boned and tend to be more muscular, can get lean, can put on a little body fat, but tend not to get obese. Everybody can get obese to the point where they're gaining body fat to the point where it's unhealthy. So that can happen to any somatotype, up or down. And then there's an endomorph, which tend to have larger bone structures and tend to be a little bit more towards obesity, lean towards obesity. Now there are other factors with genetics and body composition. There is hormonal factors in this, there are metabolic factors which are largely driven by your muscle mass, but also can be driven by hormones and things like that. So there are a lot of factors, a lot of physiological factors, and a lot of genetic factors that go beyond just somatotype. All right. But we are having the conversation about somatotype. And I would say Lois tends to be more of an ectomorph, and we were talking about that. You know, she has a smaller bone structure. And the pros and cons to that, because there really are pros and cons to each of the different somatotypes. So looking back on it with this woman in the consultation who wanted the bikini body, basically, you know, she was probably more of an endomorph. Um, and you know, that we really don't change our body comp well, we change our body composition, excuse me there. We don't change our somatotypes so much, you know, like our bone structure kind of is what it is, and we do tend to go more towards the ideal than the other. We can all go up and down, and you know, we don't get this information early in life so much, like not really when you're a kid. I mean, typically people are very different from when they're kids to older. I mean, I went through a stage when I was probably I started hitting puberty around 12, I guess, until I was around 16 or 17 where I was overweight. I was chubby. I had on, I put on more body fat than I wanted to, and I was very active and I played sports and things, but you know, I was overeating and I hit puberty, but really I'm more genetically a mesomorph. Like I have a tendency to grow muscle pretty well. And if I eat well and clean and do what I'm supposed to do, I tend to keep a pretty low body composition. So, you know, that's my body type. We are all different in that. Rarely do you see people that are pure mesomorphs, pure ectomorphs, pure endomorphs. And again, there's more to this science than just that. There's a lot of factors, but that is a factor, and the moral of the story is my opinion is this. I'm not gonna preach to you, but I guess I am. We should all be searching to be the best versions of ourselves because there are other factors that we may not have any control over. We can't change our bone structure. You know, there there used to be, well, there's plenty of bodybuilders like this, but there used to be this one guy, and he was a professional MPC bodybuilder. So that was like the elite that would compete in the Mr. Olympia title. So the big boys, the real big boys like Arnold Schwarzenegger and guys like that. His name was Rich Gaspari. His name is Rich Gaspari. Believe he is still with us. So when he competed, he was ripped. Now, this guy was shredded. You can see every muscle fiber of his abdominals. I mean, he was famous for doing a side pose and where even the glute muscles that which were poking out behind his little uh, you know, suit he was wearing was striated and ripped. I mean, this guy was shredded, right? Now, all of these guys took steroids, which helped them lean out and that. So don't get me wrong, I'm not glorifying this because personally I don't think the professionals at that level look overly great. I think they look a little too big and freakish looking, but they are the epitome of body composition and muscle when it comes to that. Now I bring him up because he didn't really have an ideal bone structure for bodybuilding. He was definitely a mesomorph, but he had like really big hip bones. And you're not going to change that. He had big hip bones. So when he faced the judges, when he was in the front pose, we call it, it didn't look like he had a very narrow waist. Although his stomach had like no, I mean, not like, it had no body fat. I mean, he was probably what the rest of those pros are when they compete, the pro bodybuilder, some around 3% body fat. He had no fat. He was ripped. You could see every muscle of his eight-pack, and it's not a six-pack, it's an eight-pack. You could see every muscle of it. But he had these blocky hips. So from the side, he looked amazing from what the judges wanted to see. He had the very sinewy look that way. But when he faced the judges, he had these big hips, you know, that probably, I mean, probably honestly, were just normal, but in comparison to what he was competing with, his symmetry just was not very good. They want in bodybuilding the symmetry to have like really broad shoulders, big lats, and then swoop down into a tight-looking waist. Now, for example, Arnold Schwarzenegger was really, really elite at symmetry. Now, he had like a 33-inch waist when he was competing. Some people say it was even bigger. And you think, well, that's kind of a that's big for a bodybuilder, you know. It is, but the thing is, is he had like a 50-inch chest and lats spread. So I mean, take 50 down to 33, and you're seeing quite a V-tapper. So he was able to compensate, and he was tall, so that helped him where Gaspari was not very tall. I don't remember what he was, is maybe 5'7, something like that. So he was basically very, very blocky. He probably was leaner than Schwarzenegger. Matter of fact, I'm sure he was, because he competed about maybe 10 years later than Arnold, and unfortunately, they got their drugs doweled in even more. They were even able to get even more ripped than they used to be. But, you know, so physically speaking, he was in better condition. Symmetry-wise, he never looked as good. So I don't believe he ever won a Mr. Olympia. Matter of fact, I'm almost certain that he did not. And Arnold won like seven. So he couldn't change his bone structure. He didn't give up. I mean, he kept competing at the professional level, but you're not going to change that. You're he was gonna get beat by guys who were not as lean, but had more ideal bone structure for what they for what they were trying to do. So when we want a certain look, there are so many different considerations we have to think about. We we have different bone structure, which for the most part is just our somato type: the ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph. We also carry body fat in different areas of our body, and it's not all universal. I'm sure you've heard of the apple shape and the pear shape. Now, in my world, we use a little bit better language, and it's android or gyneid obesity. Android obesity means all of the fat is stored mostly in the stomach area. You see that more with men, and that's the most unhealthy pattern there is of the two. Then you have gyneid obesity, which means all of the body fat is stored in the hips, and that's the pear shape. That is a lot healthier. You do tend to see that more in women, although, again, it's not totally gender specific, but it is more common one way or the other. You're not gonna change that. Like if you're an apple, you're an apple. And if you lose weight, you're gonna be a smaller apple. If you gain weight, you're gonna be a bigger apple. If you're pear-shaped and you gain weight, your hips are gonna get bigger, your stomach may stay the same. If you lose weight, your hips are gonna get smaller and your stomach may stay the same. So there is a fat-patter, uh fat-patterning genetic component as well. So there are a lot of things. So when people want to look better, that's great. We should all, well, I don't know if we should all look better, but most studies have found and polling that everybody wants to feel better and look better. Better than what? Better than they used to. And that's really what it should come down to. But the method to the madness states that we really have to understand what is in our control and what is not in our control. And I'm a huge believer. Like, I'm an optimist, I'm not a pessimist. And the reason why I said there was in the beginning of this, I end I went into my introduction with this talking about some like um, you know, debates that go on, because some people are like, well, that's pessimistic thinking, thinking that, you know, people are stuck in the certain body types, or you know, not everybody can get lean enough or have the right symmetry to get on a bodybuilding stage or whatever. See, I don't see that as pessimistic at all. Number one, I see that aspect as realistic. I think pessimism would be. I can't get better. You know, the old Schleprock mentality, I can't get better. It's a physiologist's job to basically tell people the truth, what they can do physiologically speaking. It's a psychologist's job to help people accept that. But it's not pessimistic at all. Like I'm a huge believer that if people put all their energy into what they can control, like if they say, I want to look better, I want to feel better, and I want to do better physically. Do better meaning they want to be able to run events or whatever with better cardiorespiratory endurance. They want to be able to lift more weights. They want to be able to pull their body more in pull-ups or push-ups. You know, they want to play their sports better. So that's the do better part. Feel better is obvious. They want to feel better. They want to feel more energetic. They want to feel more confident in themselves. They want to feel overall better about themselves and have higher self-esteem. That's the feel better part. Look better, you know. I want to look better in my clothes to where I feel like I look better. I want to look down and see some tonicity in my arms. I want to look and see more tonicity in my legs. I want my jeans to fit better. I want my shirts to fit better. Whatever that means. Some people are going the other way with that. Like I know plenty of guys that want to fill out their shirts a lot better. It can happen, but we have to be realistic as how much it can happen and what the changes are going to be. We cannot change our fat patterning, meaning where we store the fat. We can change whether or not that fat goes up or down. We cannot change our bone patterns, our somatotype. We cannot change that. We can change whether or not we want to look more symmetrical. For example, maybe you have thicker hips and you want to have more of a V taper. If you're a guy that's, you know, tends to be more common for guys to want, whatever, then they can improve the muscularity of their shoulders and lats and give more of the illusion of a V-tapper because the waistline is probably not going to shrink any. As a matter of fact, bodybuilders know this pretty well. And a lot of bodybuilders, or if not most, if not all, bodybuilders are more fast twitch muscle fiber. That's another genetic component you can't change. So they're used to gaining muscle pretty easily and pretty readily. So a lot of times they stay away from training their obliques because they don't want their obliques to get a little bit bigger and blockier. So that's another way somebody can improve their symmetry if that's the case. Don't train the obliques if that is the case. So I want everybody to understand that there are things that are within our control. And us physiologists and biologists and many others like know that. If you don't know, ask. Like, ask a qualified trainer, ask a qualified physiologist. Say, you know, so I want to do this. Is this in my control or out of my control? For example, the uh I'm not even gonna say his name because his name's been smeared a little bit on certain lists, so I'm not even gonna give him any uh, you know, credit. Uh well, I I never really did anyway. I never was a huge believer in this uh health and fitness influencer that was going around. But on 60 Minutes, not that long ago, he did this big thing on VO2 Max. Everybody became fascinated with VO2 Max because he was talking about how the um studies show that somebody with a higher VO2 Max basically lives longer. So there's some truth to that, right? But he goes on and on and on about this, and everybody became obsessed. I had people reaching out to me because I used to test for VO2 Max, and they're saying, hey, do you still do that? I want to be have my VO2 Max tested. I mean, it's kind of too bad I sold all the equipment because after this 60 minutes, I probably could have made a quick few thousand bucks. But in any event, I told him no. I sold it. And you know why I sold it? Biggest reason was because our VO2 Max only increases by about 15 to 30 percent our entire life. Think about that. That is not a great rate on return. Our VO2 Max is highly, highly genetic. You can look it up, 15 to 30 percent maximal swing in VO2 Max. There are other numbers I'd rather chase than one I don't have a lot of control over. So your VO2 Max is highly genetic. Does that mean you don't do cardio? Screw it. No, there are other variables to cardio. You can raise your anaerobic threshold, you can raise your onset of blood lactic acid accumulation, you can improve your running economy or swimming economy, like there are other variables. You can lower your blood pressure, you can lower your resting heart rate. There are other variables. So, you know, uh the best thing you can do when you have goals is to get with a qualified person and say, hey, what's in my control and what's not? That'll really help you get in the right direction. All right. So with that, head out there and remember, you're only trying to better yourself. And that is one hell of a great goal. All right, thank you everybody for listening to today's show. I really appreciate it. I want to remind you to please hit automatic download. It really helps me and it helps the show. And now I'd like to thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, the area's premier garage door company. They have the best product and the best service. I personally vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. They are great, they're going to get you exactly what you need. So if you have any garage door needs, give them a shout at 386-222-3165. And now I'm very excited to add another sponsor. Procharge Liquid Protein Enhancer has joined the team. And let me tell you, they are a great product. I pop one after a workout. Each container has 40 grams of protein, so that's two servings. I take 20 grams after I work out. What's really cool about them is it's portable. You can throw them in your suitcase. You don't have to worry about mixing powders and making a mess. At least that's an issue I've had with some of the protein powders through the years. And you know what? 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