Real Discipline Means Knowing When To Stop

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Welcome And Quick Sponsor Thanks

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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 Gilden of the Gilden 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. All right, what is happening, everybody? Coach Rob here getting ready to hopefully give you some information or some motivation or something to help propel you forward in the world of health and fitness because I absolutely believe that working on our physical fitness helps us with every area in our life. So that is the goal of the podcast. That and to kind of cut through all the crap and give you the real deal, which is why I call it the method to the madness, as I always say. I

Hudson Valley Travel And Outdoor Movement

SPEAKER_00 1:19

um got back from New York yesterday, the Hudson Valley, where it is absolutely beautiful year-round. Well, it gets cold in the winter, but I mean, as far as the uh the area and the surroundings, it's beautiful year-round. It's in the as it's called, the Hudson Valley. So it is in the valley of the Schwangungs Mountains, and um that's where I was born. I like to go back a few times a year, and right now it's gorgeous all the way around. I mean, the air temps were in the high 50s when I woke up in the morning and basically got to maybe 80. So it's ideal for all the outdoor activity that I like to do. We were able to work out one day inside in a gym I like to go in new palts. It's called Ignite Fitness. It's my little gym away from my gym here when I go up there. Great little place on Main Street. It's just real chill, kind of an old school environment with equipment. Uh, they've upgraded it a little bit and have, you know, 24-hour access, I guess, like everybody feels compelled to do. Um, but a great little gym. And then uh the other two full days we were there, we did some hiking, running, jogging, walking, whatever you want to call it, in the mountains and in the valley, which is absolutely beautiful. I mean, it's no wonder why when you go up to that area and then other parts of the Northeast commonly, like Boston, uh you know, New York City too, like there's just more people in shape. I mean, and I'm not trying to be judgmental, but it's just true. Like, more and more people are in shape compared to where I live here in Florida, and you can just kind of see why. I mean, it's just really conducive to being outside and walking. I mean, people walk everywhere. I mean, obviously in New York City, you kind of have to walk everywhere if you live there, but I mean, in the Hudson Valley, too. I mean, we got there pretty early in one of the trail spots we like to go to, and uh, we were maybe the second or third car. I mean, that's just typical us. We get up, we get moving early, and uh it might have been a little bit after 6 or 6:30 a.m. I don't know. That's actually late starting for us, but we had to drive a little bit to get there. And uh by the time we finished our roughly five or six-mile jog, coming back down, walking down the mountain literally to get to the car. I mean, talk about like a pretty uh difficult cooldown. Uh I mean, the whole area was just full with cars, basically people parking to go hit the trails. I mean, literally full. Like as we were backing out, somebody needed to take our spot because all the parking spots were full. And it, you know, this parking lot, it's uh, you know, not a concrete lot. That's the other beautiful thing about up that way, is that uh there's hardly any concrete anywhere you go, which is beautiful, you know. And uh, but it was full, you know, a couple hundred people or so, a couple hundred spots, I'd say. But um, you know, that was great. And uh, like I said, just people just tend to, when you're more in a you know, a rural area, I mean, people just tend to be in better shape. I guess it's just more conducive to working out and working out outside, or I don't know. Um, maybe it's just conducive in general. Not really sure, but absolutely is the case, and it's it's pretty refreshing. And there's more like healthy restaurants. Um, anyway, that's neither here nor there, I guess. But uh that's what we did.

Exercise Should Not Feel Like Punishment

SPEAKER_00 5:11

And whenever I travel, I love to exercise. I know I've said this before on the podcast, but I'll say it again. I've had, you know, friends who have said things like, you know, when you go on vacation, don't you just take a break? I mean, why do you feel compelled to exercise? My answer is always I don't feel compelled. Like, I like it. Like, I love it, you know. I mean, sure, it's hard work when I'm doing it. I mean, portions of it are. I mean, even the nice little jogs up in the mountains. I mean, there's some pretty steep climbs that when I'm going up that climb, I cannot wait until I crest that peak and get to like level out and start coming down a little bit. Of course, that's hard, and I want that part over with. But overall, I mean, I love the experience of exercise. I love how I feel afterwards. And I think most people that do it on a regular basis feel the same way. They don't want to not do it. It's not punishment. I think if you're exercising out of punishment or you feel like it's punishment, you're not doing it wrong, but you're thinking about it wrong. That's what I think. I mean, you might be doing it right, but maybe just need to gain a little bit of a different perspective and figure out why you're doing it and why it actually increases every aspect of your life. Like it's not a punishment, it's not a negative, it's making the other 23 hours of your day easier. You're sacrificing one if you look at it that way, to make the other 23 a lot better. And that includes the time you're sleeping because you are going to sleep better, and it is uh, you know, setting your body up to go to sleep a little bit better. So, anyway, that's my little rant on that. I had

The Cost Of Doing It Wrong

SPEAKER_00 6:52

some ideas as I always do whenever I get outside and clear my head. And uh, one of the ones I want to talk about today is what is the cost you pay for doing things wrong? And that could be a general statement about everything, right? I mean, that could be you do your finances wrong, you know, regardless of what that means. Maybe that means that you spend a lot of money on things you don't end up needing and put yourself in debt. I mean, I for me I would call that wrong. So, what's the cost of that? Well, I I just said it, you're now in debt and you have to fight your way out. So, what is the cost you pay for doing things wrong, so to say, or doing too much extraneous things in exercise? What's what's the cost that you pay? And I want to talk about that a little bit, or you know, a lot, or is time permitting for the podcast, because again, this podcast is about cutting through all the crap and motivating you, attempting to motivate you to exercise on a regular basis so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor. And I want to like maybe get rid of some of the crap so it makes it easier for you to do and jump on. So let's talk a little bit about that. There there are different things that we can do that are extraneous that you know I would label as wrong.

What Discipline Actually Looks Like

SPEAKER_00 8:23

So let's first start by looking at the word discipline. You know, when we think of discipline, we often think of like the drill sergeant in the military who is teaching you to be disciplined. Now, that's true. I mean, uh I I do think that's a fair assessment of discipline. So they're trying to get the recruits to do what they don't necessarily want to do. It's not just about getting them up and making them exercise, run five miles, do their jumping jacks, their push-ups, and all that stuff. Yes, it is partly about that, but it's also about making their bed and only having a certain amount of time to shower and only having a certain amount of time to eat their breakfast and eat their lunch. Like I have not been in the military, but I know many people have, and I'm not knocking that by the way. They all, the the friends that I have that have gone through that were grateful for the fact that they went through that, that they learned discipline. Again, not just the discipline of physical exercise, but the discipline of doing hard things that they didn't necessarily want to do, like making their bed instead of just rolling out of their bed and going to the next thing they feel like doing. Like only having a certain amount of time to take a shower versus sitting under the hot water and delaying what you have to do next as long as possible. Or, you know, sitting there and enjoying your meal over the course of 30 or 60 minutes, which I'm again, I'm not saying anything's wrong with that, but in the military, they will teach discipline and they only have a certain amount of time to eat because the recruits are there to eat. So it's a mindset of teaching the people to do what they don't necessarily want to do, and then that there's value in doing that. That's what is being taught with discipline. So we get that. Now, let me also take that a step further.

When Hard Work Becomes Addiction

SPEAKER_00 10:22

The key word is teaching or doing the thing that we don't want to do. So, exercise or a lot of exercise or a lot of training can be confused for discipline. You see that person that you know out on their run in the middle of the day, and you live in Daytona Beach, Florida, and it's not like in the Hudson Valley where it peaks at 80 a lot of times of the year, or in the spring and summer, it peaks at 100 here. And again, there's nothing wrong with that. I like warmer weather. I mean, that that's fine. It is what it is. But you see that person out at noon and it's 100 degrees, and you see them running down the road, and you go, man, that gal is disciplined, you know? Or you see them all the time, normal time of day for running, because that is not a normal time to be running. That is flat out stupid. I mean, there's just no way around it. That is dumb to be putting yourself in that kind of physical risk at that time of day running. Um, it is not good. So that is not discipline that is dumb. But let's say you see this person or a different person, whatever, and they're out running every day, and they're you go, oh man, they are so disciplined. You know, we see them all the time, but then you run into them at Publix or wherever you do your shopping at Aldi or wherever, Costco, Walmart, you know, this person somewhat, and you say, Hey, you know, I see you out running every day, you know, that's awesome. You know, and they say, Yeah, you know, right now I'm dealing with this uh plantar fasciitis thing and really hurts, you know, but you know, I keep at it. And last month I had this knee pain, and you know, it turned out I had a torn meniscus, and the doctor said I should cut back a little bit. Yeah, but what does he know, you know? And you leave there going, Yeah, you know, that's discipline, you know. Is it? No, that you know, that's not discipline. That that's most likely the case of a person who's addicted to exercise, and you know, an addiction basically means you're doing something that isn't good for you compulsively, whatever that might be, could be that, could be stronger drugs, could be alcohol, could be a lot of things. But basically, like that's a form of addiction. And that's not discipline. And matter of fact, that's the opposite of discipline, because discipline is saying I love the benefits to X of exercise, like I do, me personally. And I'm going to take this day off or these next few days off because I've been noticing some pain or discomfort in my ankle, and I feel like I need to give it a rest. See, that's discipline. That is discipline. I know that would be discipline for me because I like to exercise. And so, like, if I was up in New York and I was feeling something uh beyond the normal ache or pain, because look, I know we have to differentiate between normal aches and pains. Absolutely. I teach it all the time to people. I'll, you know, I'll tell them, I'll say, you know, I don't think that's really anything to worry about. And I have different ways to help people navigate that. I'll say, you know, does it get worse as you go? Yeah, okay, then we do have to rest it. Does it get worse as you go? No, it kind of goes away. Okay, most likely we don't need to rest it. So I'm not saying we need to bow to every single ache or pain, but we we know, I think most of us know, especially the exercises know exercisers know when we're pushing our boundaries a little bit. So if I went up there, we landed on Friday, and if I was dealing with like kind of a tweaky ankle or hamstring, because I get things, I mean, I'd be bummed. I'd be bummed that I wouldn't be able to do the activity that I like to do. But I would hope I'd be disciplined, and that would be discipline for me to say, you know, I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna completely not exercise because there's no point. I'm gonna go to the gym, you know, I'd rather be outside, I'd rather be in the hills, rather be in the mountains, but I'll go to the gym and I'll do some upper body stuff. Or maybe I'd say, you know, Ellen, why don't you go around the trail? I'm gonna stay back here because I want to be outside and I'm gonna do some push-ups and dips off the wall and stuff. I would have to practice discipline to not exercise. But see, that's discipline because discipline is doing for us what is going to help us in the future. Like it's gonna help us in the long run. Do we want the short-term high of, you know, I get runners high or whatever you want to call it? I mean, my my mood improves once I elevate my heart rate and hold it for a certain amount of time and finish. I mean, for sure, that works for me or any kind of workout. I mean, I get I feel better after exercise. So do I want to like get that and then I'm really not able to exercise significantly for a month or two or three because I'm rehabbing a pretty serious injury? I mean, discipline saying, No, I'll pass on that. I'd rather delay the gratification and do the smart thing here. That's discipline. So you're not always going to see discipline, okay? And I want you to understand that because we don't necessarily want to praise it in people because we don't know. I don't believe really that we need to be giving people pats on the back anyway. I think like social media has like really just created a hornet's nest for that, where I feel like maybe more than half of the people that post their workouts or whatever online on social media are merely doing it because they want the pats on the back. And we know in the sports psychology, exercise psychology world that that type of motivation isn't going to last. So I don't really believe in that anyway. I don't believe that anybody really finds it of any value. I mean, I know people that are constantly posting like their race times, their 5k times, or their one mile times, or their half marathon times. I mean, you know, there's a a place for it, I think, with some people. I think some coaches like to give props to people they work with. And, you know, if you've never done one before, and so so I guess let me jump ahead and just say there's a gray area here, because I'm not about absolutisms. I don't think it's like like never appropriate to post something. I think if you did your first marathon and want your family to know, that's great. But I think we can all agree that there are people that do it over and over and over. I know I don't my watch agrees, it just for some reason just said something about 1977 or something like that. Don't really know what it was talking about, but hey. It's just not motivating to do that. So I don't know that we need to be always praising people for what appears to be their discipline when in reality it just might be a sickness. I mean, we might just be enabling people. I mean, a lot of the people that I know that are posting their stuff all of the time for praises and likes and loves on social media are hurt all the time. That's just not a model of fitness that I like people to gravitate towards. I

Do Just Enough With Great Form

SPEAKER_00 18:20

love physical fitness, and I also believe that it does not need to be an extreme. I mean, I'm very happy with my level of conditioning and fitness at the age of 60, and I can promise you that I do not exercise hardly ever more than an hour a day. I'm not extreme by any means. I'm pretty moderate. I believe that we should do quality stuff and then leave it alone. I'm not saying be don't be active the rest of the day. I like to be active. I mean, I play softball two to three to four, sometimes times a week, depending on the leagues that I'm in. And uh yeah, I don't really call that fitness, I call that sport hobby and fun. And uh I believe in that, you know, playing tennis, golf, whatever you're into, or going for walks, walking your dog. I mean, you know, I believe that's all good physical activity. I'm talking about vigorous, strenuous, structured exercise. I really just believe we all need to do a better job of reinforcing that that is the way to go. I mean, the workouts, the strength workouts I teach people to do are going to be efficient. They're about 30 minutes. I did a workout this morning, it was 30 minutes. You know, I push myself pretty hard, I do quality stuff. So, really, what I want to talk about, what I want everybody to gravitate towards here, what I really want people to think about is be disciplined to do just enough. Because I promise you, just enough isn't less than great, because you will be able to continue to do this for a really, really long time. You know, the people that kind of are undisciplined and are doing extremes amount of exercise for whatever reason, whatever floats their boat. Maybe it's because they do have an exercise addiction, maybe they are bored and they don't have anything else to do. Maybe they're trying to prove something to somebody, or maybe it's legitimate, like they're training for a long event and they're an athlete. Okay, that's a different scenario. I would still argue that they need to be disciplined and only do that, you know, so many times a year, or over the course of a training cycle or whatever. And the ones that I know that are pretty serious about it do that. But I think if we're training for other reasons than our physical fitness, we're gonna get ourselves in trouble with extreme exercise. So, you know, I want you to think about what are the costs of that? You know, I mean, what what are the costs? I mean, there is cost. I mean, I I've named the obvious ones, like you're gonna get overuse injuries if you're going to be undisciplined and go for a run when you know you have a meniscus tear. And the doctor said the only way this tear is going to heal non-surgically is if you don't run for six weeks to two months. It's the only way it's gonna heal, but you run anyway. That's not discipline, that's the opposite of discipline. Discipline is doing what is in your best interest, it's not just doing something. So, again, hopefully I've made the point that you can't observe discipline. Only really the person knows, or if you know their motives or why they're doing things, can you know? So, what's what's the cost? That's obvious, right? That one's obvious. But what about people that go to the gym? And they're not doing it right. What's the cost of that? You know, there's different arguments. There's the argument of, well, they're going to the gym. That's better than not going to the gym. Or they're going to the gym and they used to go to the bar, and now they go to the gym and they spend time there. I mean, I'll agree. I mean, that's a good start. I'll agree that that's a good place to go and maybe get motivated to do it right. But is there still a cost to that? And the answer is yes. You end up having to do more than you need to. Someone might say, well, that's not all bad. So they exercise a little more. But let me let me let me clarify that. I have, I mean, when I teach exercise in strength training, I'm really teaching people to do it right. I'm not trying to give them an easier way out. It it's no, that's not it. I'm trying to teach them discipline, discipline with doing it correctly. Because if we do it correctly, we're going to get the advantages without the side effects. All right. He works really hard and he has a great work ethic. There's no doubt about it. And he is disciplined. He also sometimes has a tendency to get a little bit distracted. So if we're doing, say, 15 reps on something, and he doesn't go down on the exercise like he's supposed to, because he's distracted or he forgets or whatever. And I say, Oh, I'm not going to count that one. Do another one. Because I'm going to teach that. I'm going to reinforce this only counts if we're doing it right. Like when I know people can do things right, not everybody can, by the way. I mean, that's why I say when I know when somebody can do it right. Okay, there's other reasons why sometimes people can't. But when they can do it right and they're not, I'm not going to count it. I get I give them what we call a no rep. Nope, that didn't count until they get it right. So, like on their last one, and this happens a lot with this person, and I call it barn door syndrome, they kind of don't complete the rep. And the reason they don't complete the rep is barn door, meaning that if you've ever been around on a farm and somebody opens up the barn door and the horses are out, they're going to charge to the barn door because they know it's time to go in. So when somebody's getting very near the end of their set, they kind of like lose focus and they just whip it out because, you know, they saw the barn door open. Or I said 14 and they know 15's the end. And so they kind of checked out on their form. I go, nope, nope, I'm not going to count that one, and I'll have them do it over. So that's a mini example. What's what's the downside? What is the cost? Well, let's say that happens all the time on every exercise they do, and they have a trainer making them do it right, or they have a conscience that realizes they did it wrong and they they redo it. I

Recovery Diminishing Returns And Real Trust

SPEAKER_00 25:08

mean, the side effects are now you're cutting into your fatigue, you're cutting into your rest and recovery, and that is a huge part of training. And so many times people will do what I call shotgunning their exercises because either they don't have the discipline or they've been taught wrong, and so they do a lot of volume rather than do what they should have done correctly in a minimized fashion the first time. And sometimes people will say, What you only want me to do two sets? Two sets? That's nothing, man. I usually do four. And you know, a person on the outside will go, oh man, that person is so disciplined that wants to do four sets, like they're so disciplined that they want to go above and beyond what's expected. And I would go, no, they'd rather do four shitty sets than two great sets. That's not discipline. See, because you're gonna get a lot of praise for doing more. We're in the culture in the United States of more, more, more, more bigger trucks, bigger cars, bigger this, bigger that, more, more, more, more. But that's not always good. And in the case of physical fitness, doing more and more and more, especially when not done correctly, isn't discipline, and there's a cost to it. Again, the cost is it cuts into your recovery, so you're not going to be able to come back and do what you need to do the right way the next time. That's not disciplined. I will see people with moderate to shaky form, no matter how many times I've corrected them, get near an end of the set and start trying to whip out a few more because they want to be a glory person. It's like, oh, look how tough they are, look how hard they worked, oh man, they're they're gritting and gritting. I'm like, no, man, you're more disciplined to stop when you couldn't do any more correctly, because then you can come back better the next time. But if you continue to move with this crappy form, throwing it around, you're more likely to cut into your recovery. I'm gonna hear about it in two days, how this hurts or that hurts. You did this on that, you gotta back off there, and I'm shaking my head going, if you just would have been disciplined and listened, we wouldn't be there. So, again, what's the cost? The cost of doing too much bad form, too much cardio, too many sets, it affects your recovery. You're eventually not going to recover as well. As we get older, we tend to not recover as well, and then you're not going to be able to do it at all. I have some clients who, I mean, again, I have great clients. I have nothing but great clients. All my clients are great. Love every one of them. If I didn't, they wouldn't be here because I'm at the very fortunate point in my business where if I don't consider you to be a great client, then you're not going to be here. I will ask you to leave with no problem because I don't need money for the sake of money. So when I say this, I'm not saying there are some clients that suck and some that don't. Not at all. They're all great. It's just I have some that I know are extremely disciplined. And I have some that I know I have to help them be more disciplined. And only you listening can figure out who you are, because that's really all that matters, because I don't judge you for it. I just know it is the case. And by the way, it's not always a physical fitness thing. I have some of my clients who are very, very disciplined aren't nearly as fit as some that are, and vice versa. It has nothing to do with it really. But the real discipline ones, if I say we're stopping at 10 because I want you to recover appropriately, and then when you come in again the next time you come in, you're going to be able to do more. The disciplined one goes, got it. There's a trust level, of course. And I do think that's part of discipline with people. The undisciplined people don't trust. They might not trust themselves, they might not trust the universe. So they think they have to do more, more and more to overcompensate. Like they just don't believe if they do the normal amount that they're going to get what they want. I think that's a trust issue. I don't know how to help people with that other than continue to give the truth. And I'm not going to waver on that because more is not better, and we need to be disciplined. I'll finish with a famous quote by um Dr. Ken Cooper. He's the father of aerobics. Like he has the Cooper, the aerobic, the Cooper Aerobic Institute in Dallas, Texas. So like he's all about cardio. It's Ken Cooper. He invented the Cooper test, right? And he even came out and said decades ago, if you're running more than 30 miles a week, you're doing it for other reasons than physical fitness. Now, 30 miles is an abstract number, you know, but I get the point of what he was trying to say. What he was saying was there's only so much exercise a body needs to be fit. If you are doing more than that, because there absolutely is a point of diminishing returns, meaning that the more you do doesn't mean it's going to multiply your results. So if you're doing more than that, his implication was, then you're doing it for other reasons than your physical fitness. Maybe it's your lack of confidence. Maybe it's you, again, you don't trust the universe, so you don't trust yourself, and you think you have to do more and more and more to get what you feel like you want to get. But it's definitely doing it for more than physical fitness because physical fitness, we're going to improve by doing just enough at the right intensity. Okay. So next time you want to praise somebody for their discipline, I want to caution you to be careful because you don't know if they're being disciplined or not. All right.

Final Takeaways Download Request Sponsors

SPEAKER_00 31:28

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? They taste really, really good. So you can check them out on my website, fit to themax.net, or you can go right to them at prochargeprotein.com.