Mind Muscle with Simon de Veer
Mind Muscle with Simon de Veer
Travis Kelce's Dad Bod , Oat-Zempic , and the Return of Hybrid Training
Ever wondered if the latest weight-loss fad on social media could be your golden ticket to dropping pounds? We're dissecting the Oat-Zempic craze and giving you the real scoop on whether it's a dietary dream or just another flash in the pan. And for those riding the fitness merry-go-round, we're offering fresh insights into hybrid training's comeback – is this the ultimate workout blend you've been searching for? Plus, we're tackling the 'dad bod' debate head-on, with a candid chat about why elite athletes like Travis Kelce don't need to sport magazine-cover muscles to dominate their sport.
As your trusty guide through the maze of health trends, I'm spilling my personal whole foods playbook – sharing how nuts, seeds, and avocados aren't just tasty add-ons but powerhouse ingredients for peak nutrition. We'll crack the code on using dietary fats to boost nutrient absorption and how complex carbs are the unsung heroes of long-lasting energy. Dining out tonight? Don't let restaurant bread be your downfall; I've got tasty strategies to enjoy it without the guilt. Let's cut through the diet dogma and celebrate the wholesome, simple goodness of real food – your body will thank you.
Join me as we take a step back to appreciate the artistry of the athletically diverse – those who dodge the specialization trap and thrive across multiple physical disciplines. From ancient warriors to modern-day CrossFitters, we explore the rich history of hybrid training and what it can teach us about our own fitness journeys. Whether you're a sports specialist, a general fitness enthusiast, or just looking to shake up your routine, this episode promises a compelling blend of historical insights, personal anecdotes, and practical takeaways to fuel your next workout.
Producer: Thor Benander
Editor: Luke Morey
Intro Theme: Ajax Benander
Intro: Timothy Durant
For more, visit Simon at The Antagonist
Welcome to the Mind Muscle Podcast. Here's your host, simon DeVere, and welcome back to Mind Muscle, the place we study the history, science and philosophy behind everything in health and fitness. Today, I am Simon Devere, and there's nothing new except all that has been forgotten. So we got some fun stories out there in the news this week, main things that we are going to dive into today, just to let you know where we're going with this whole thing. We're going to talk about the new O-Zempic Oat-Zempic I got to emphasize that Oat-Zempic trend on TikTok, new weight loss drink. We'll break that down. Give you my thoughts on whether that's going to be worth it or not. We also want to discuss today the rise of hybrid training. Anyway, you might notice that at least a lot of articles being written about it, people that are blending strength, aerobic work, mixed modality training, jumping ahead, ahead, but obviously cross training is not new. We will break down this new fad and see if there's anything worth bringing into your program or whether this is something that you should skip out on. I kind of like it. Spoiler, but last one I want to talk about too, though, is also making the rounds this week. The internet was dragging Travis Kelsey over his dad bod. I guess that surprised some people that a tight end on a football team might not be rocking a six pack. Anyway, probably surprising, but I'm actually going to be on Travis Kelsey's side. Another spoiler there, but I don't think that this should have been as surprising as the intranet found it. But yeah, we'll talk on that one last. I think it'll kind of lead in quite well if we break down our other stuff first.
Speaker 1:So, without further ado, without further ado, let's get started over on TikTok. This is kind of where almost all bad fitness ideas are really percolating and getting rolling out of my mandate, if you will, but also a lot of for me to find things that we can debunk and shoot down. But it is actually kind of startling just how quickly bad ideas seem to go viral on TikTok. So, anyway, latest one that I saw in the health and fitness space is so there's a new drink, that's all the rage, and then again, you know, let's just consider to the media ecosystem we live in. I do this often but you know, I just want to remind people I'm not on TikTok, so I don't know who's actually writing these trend pieces. This could be a real thing or this just could be a bullshit story that's getting swallowed up by everybody all the journalists who have to write trend pieces on deadlines but anyway, we are going to react to this as if this is a real thing, and so at least the trend.
Speaker 1:It's a drink. The drink that is being popularized is about a half cup of rolled outs, one cup of water, lime juice and cinnamon. Nothing wrong with any of that. It is being marketed, though, as a weight loss drink, and there are promises of losing 40 pounds in two months. But before we get into debunking it, let's actually start with some of the positive bits. So I guess people are saying that eating oats can give you some of the same benefits of ozempic, meaning appetite suppression. So yeah, we'll dive deeper into that, but sure this is kind of why I advocate.
Speaker 1:People eat whole foods all the time, so there's a half-truth there, and then they have stretched it, like I always point out, into being almost completely useless. So now back to the claims. They are promising people to lose 40 pounds in two months. Now that claim, right there, should just raise obvious red flags for anybody. Not only should you not. Well, a lot of ways to come to that. 40 pounds in two months is a stupid goal to begin with. You should go a lot slower than that. That's a nice big headline. So I see what they're doing with trying to grab attention there, but let's actually just run down real quick, as if we were actually going to do that really stupid goal of losing 40 pounds in two months.
Speaker 1:So weight loss really is all about creating caloric deficits, and I know the myriad ways that people have tried to overturn thermodynamics in nutrition. All have failed. There's no negative calories. There's no ways that you can cancel things out, or if you shift to this macro versus that one, you're just kind of outsmarting yourself. You're definitely not tricking your metabolism. So to actually lose 40 pounds in two months, we can approximate the caloric deficit you would need to have, and in two months that would need to be about 140,000 calories in deficit in two months. So we could break that down per week to about 17,500 calorie deficit per week, or that would equate to roughly a daily deficit of 2,500 calories. So if you could achieve a daily deficit of 2,500 calories and maintain that for eight weeks, then you could possibly lose those 40 pounds in two months.
Speaker 1:Truth is, though, on the other end, it actually wouldn't matter what you were eating, you just need that deficit. So the Oat Zempic drink at least has some healthy things in there. But you could do the same thing with Twinkies. You could do the same thing with Pixie Stix. If you just simply got yourself into a 2,500 calorie deficit daily, it doesn't matter what you're eating. It could be the healthiest choice or it could be complete crap, and you would still lose the weight if you had that daily deficit.
Speaker 1:I don't think I need to say this again, but why I was kind of blunt about that being a stupid goal is if you actually achieved 40 pounds of weight loss in two months, it's basically guaranteed that you lost a lot of muscle, a lot of water, maybe a little bit of fat, but mostly water and muscle. And so, yeah, if somebody actually did this, I would expect them to have a gnarly rebound. I would expect their metabolism at the end of this thing to just be absolutely crawling like molasses in wintertime, doing nothing. And yeah, if you actually did that, you would set yourself up for your next lifetime of health problems. Would set yourself up for your next lifetime of health problems. So never done this, but we will, without doing this. Give this a solid zero stars. Do not attempt, do not recommend. This is really dumb.
Speaker 1:Back to the half-truth that I think this was built on is that oats are a great food choice. I know that oats got demonized with the rise of gluten-free, paleo, some of those things. I myself got off of oats for a while following those claims to no benefit, I might add and so that's why I circled back and I can say that, yeah, oats really do decrease appetite, but not just shilling for oats here. Um, even though I am sponsored by, uh, big oats, uh, or quaker oats not, not really the quaker, you want to hit it I'll do ads for you guys. Um, no, uh, quaker oats, any oats, uh, decrease appetite just like any other whole foods. Um, there's nothing magic about oats. Unfortunately, that might undermine my attempt at gaining oat sponsorships. But no, all whole foods are great, including oats and all the other ones. And the mechanisms that whole foods decrease appetite well, there's a few, but, spoiler alert, they're not exactly comparable to how the weight loss drugs are decreasing appetite, but I guess it's still probably worth running down why they actually do this.
Speaker 1:First reason I would point to with whole foods is high fiber content In general, whole foods are going to be rich in dietary fiber. It's going to slow digestion. It's going to alter the glycemic index of whatever you're eating. So even if you're eating some sugar God forbid, because everybody thinks it's toxic right now but even if you did have some sugar with fiber, it's going to fundamentally alter the glycemic index, which is basically how quickly that sugar gets into your bloodstream. Tldr too long, didn't read. This is good.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's not only going to be oats with fiber. Fruits, vegetables, of course, whole grains, legumes all the foods that we always recommend are going to help you achieve that. Another bonus with fiber, which my daughter got quick story, sorry, already breaking off the plan here, but yeah, my daughter was being a little bit cagey about going to the bathroom for a number two. I had mentioned the role of fiber in that, and now my daughter is definitely scared of eating fiber. So the other people getting in to don't eat fruit. Obviously, we had the gluten-free movement pushing people away from oats. If you're celiac, you should. If you're not celiac, I don't know why you're doing that.
Speaker 1:All that to say, one of the least common denotatives of people who live long lives is significant consumption of fiber. So now back to the point of our discussion today. Yeah, it'll make you live longer, but it's going to make you feel fuller for longer in general. So, yep, high fiber foods are absolutely going to help with satiety, feeling full, feeling satisfied, and so, yeah, not exactly like Ozempic, but still pretty useful. Another mechanism that actually make whole foods more filling is going to actually be just their nutrient density. Whole foods are going to provide essential vitamins and minerals with fewer calories than their processed food alternatives. So the nutritional density of these foods is not only going to support your health goals but, again, is going to contribute to feelings of satiety and discourage overeating. A lot of times you are still eating because your brain is signaling that we haven't gotten enough nutrients. We need more food. So with your processed foods that are typically not as nutrient dense, you're going to find that your brain is not going to trigger in and say that's enough, we are good. Now this isn't going to directly relate to oats Lots of the whole foods that we talk about here.
Speaker 1:They'll also have healthy fats. So here we're talking more like nuts, seeds, avocados, things like that, but these also contain healthy fats. So here we're talking more like nuts, seeds, avocados, things like that. But these also contain healthy fats that delay stomach emptying Again, help you feel satisfied longer after meals. One other bonus we've talked about with a lot of these is that these particular fats are typically crucial in the absorption of other nutrients. Quickest example that we can run down on that would be why we've talked about not really choosing nonfat dairy. Most of the good things that come with dairy well, namely the calcium, is it's only going to be absorbed in the presence of fat. If you don't have these healthy fats, you also don't have what you need in order to absorb and make those nutrients bio available. So, anyway, we also like the healthy fats that come with whole foods. Good for nutrient absorption, good for making us full Again. Both of those components circle back to preventing us from overeating.
Speaker 1:Whole foods also have decent protein content. A lot of them do anyway, even these oats, believe it or not. About five grams per serving. Definitely not going to make a protein supplement off that, but if you have a bowl oatmeal, like I do, and you have to throw some berries, some nuts or some Greek yogurt or some peanut butter in there, by the time it's all done there's actually a significant load of whole food protein in a meal like that. And again, protein content is also going to help keep you satisfied, keep you full, keep you satiated for longer. Protein-rich foods do increase your feeling of fullness and reduction of appetite, so we often stress protein and whole foods here. Not a coincidence that all this stuff is popping up yet again.
Speaker 1:Another mechanism where I think whole foods are going to help you feel full and satisfied longer than their processed alternatives is actually getting down to the volume and water content. So whole foods like fruits, vegetables those are going to add volume to meals without significantly increasing the calories thanks to their high water content. Not even a ton of nutritional value in this particular one, but this really hammers some of the water content. Lettuce Not a lot of nutritional value in this particular one, but this really hammers some of the water content. Lettuce Not a lot of calories in lettuce, not even a lot of nutritional value, but you will notice that if you chew up a bowl of lettuce you're just not really going to be that hungry after, and I've never seen somebody overeat on lettuce or greens, things like that. Obviously, the fiber and the water content have a lot to do with why these things are so filling and even if you start your meal with, say, a salad, you're going to notice that you're going to eat a lot less in that meal than if you had started the meal with, you know, say, some bread, which, although it's customary in a restaurant, you know, start with your greens first, you'll notice you just eat less.
Speaker 1:One other pro tip on bread, just in case. This one's actually a little counterintuitive. But you actually want to dip it in the butter or the olive oil. I think most people know this now, but again we're getting back to slowing the release of the blood sugar. Your calories are going to be increased by dipping it into the fat, but it's going to go down a lot better, so those extra calories are worth it. If you're at a restaurant where they start you off with bread, hit the butter or hit the olive oil and balsamic. Whatever it is where you're at, it's going to be a better move to actually dip that into a little bit of fat.
Speaker 1:While we're on the topic of carbs bread, when you're sticking to your whole food options, you're mostly going to be dealing with complex carbs. Unlike the refined carbs, complex carbs are going to take longer to break down. So, again, another theme that I think is emerging in the actual mechanisms that are decreasing appetite is obviously blood sugar. When you create spikes in your blood sugar, that's also going to create a trough later. That's when you're going to get tired and hungry and unless you are frankly not human, you will succumb in that moment. You're not you when you're hungry. Good Snickers ad also just almost objectively true.
Speaker 1:So last point we'll touch on is that, obviously, whole foods are minimally processed. They, of course, then retain the fiber, the nutrients, their natural structure that makes all these nutrients bioavailable. This is going to give you all of the health benefits that are promised from all of those lovely nutrients, but also increasing your satiety. So, yeah, this one is like you know. I guess we can call it 50-50. 50% true, 50% bullshit. The bullshit part is obviously the drink. This drink for two months, lose 40 pounds. Don't even attempt that. Um, that's, that's really dumb. Uh, a way better plan would just be to commit to eating mostly, uh, minimally processed foods for the next two months. Um, we're. We're not going to go viral with this, because you're definitely not going to lose 40 pounds doing that, but you'll probably improve your measurable biomarkers across multiple domains. Great chance you will be leaner, great chance you will be stronger, all that stuff. But yeah, I would not co-sign that massive weight loss.
Speaker 1:Admittedly, this one's already kind of become a joke in my house. I've been making oats, steel-cut oats, every day, minus my paleo phase, for over 20 years, and so, yeah, my wife actually dipped into my steel-cut oats the other day and told me she was going to have some oat zempik. So anyway, we're making jokes about it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with eating oats. Since I'm doing rankings today, five stars highly recommend. But also five stars highly recommend all the other whole foods. Oats are great. So are other ones, you know.
Speaker 1:Just wrap up on Oat Zempic the Oat Zempic fat loss drink looks stupid, overpromising. Well, actually looks like these. I was curious, at least, about the flavors. It could be decent, I don't know. It might be worth a shot, but just don't do it for a 40-pound and two-month weight loss thing. Massive over-promise there.
Speaker 1:But the true part whole foods are going to reduce your hunger, are going to increase your satiety, are going to make you healthier in general. Then don't often talk about this. It's also going to give you powers to levitate and extrasensory perception. So all of those are true. I'll leave it up to you guys to suss out where I was joking there. So, anyway, oat zempic, skip out on that. You can, however, keep focusing on adding lots of whole foods to your diet. That's something that I would co-sign and support you in.
Speaker 1:So anyway, next one. Admittedly, I probably want to talk about this one more than you want to hear it, but here we go training popular again. So first, I guess, quick definition time. What the hell is hybrid training? I can't just drop that, like everybody knows what we're talking about. Hybrid training, in short, is just any training style that is using more than one modality to train or focusing on more than one one attribute of physical fitness. So the articles popping now are about the rise of hybrid training. I kind of want to point out that there's actually just like the tagline in the show. There's nothing new, and this concept of hybrid training probably demonstrates that almost more than anything else we've talked about. This is probably the oldest form of training in existence, no exaggeration.
Speaker 1:So if we go back to the ancient world, it's pretty obvious that this is going to be most of the combat and military training. They weren't working. One modality you would obviously be working for endurance, strength, speed, strength, endurance, a number of different skills, and to actually be a good soldier you can't push too far in any one direction. To be honest, if you're taller than average, wider than average, any outlier things in the field of combat make you an easy target. So, in general, where I think a lot of this really comes from actually is military and martial arts training and unlike modern sports out in the field, if you will, you're not really going to see specialist outliers succeed in that kind of environment. Their specialist things actually might become maladaptive in that context. Maladaptive in that context.
Speaker 1:But anyway, jumping forward, I think too that the circus performers and the strongmen of the 19th and 20th centuries, those were usually combining weightlifting with acrobatics, maybe gymnastics, typically striving for either remarkable feats of strength, body mastery, flexibility, things like that. But to achieve any of that kind of circus act performance level, I obviously took the training of multiple modalities. I think the most common form is obviously going to be triathlon, which emerged in the late 20th century, around the 1970s, by the way, I'm just having fun. Saying it that way now ages me up too, but you know, sorry if late 20th century makes it sound like ancient history, but that that's where it's headed. So anyway, triathlons popped roughly in the 1970s. I got a little bit of experience with that, um. And then crossfit, also late 20th century um, combining weightlifting, calisthenics, plyo, gymnastics, other disciplines, um, you know, obviously cross top level crossfitters wouldn't be able to compete in powerlifting events or in running events, um, their their times and numbers would be unimpressive versus the specialist, but they actually have a very impressive all-around fitness level. That, I think, is one of the best examples of modern hybrid training.
Speaker 1:But even say mixed martial arts, which I think is also really available today. Modern mixed martial arts itself is a hybrid training style. Obviously, martial artists used to specialize in one discipline. Mma, mixed martial arts has now emerged as its own discipline and style. The boxing gym I go to it's not uncommon to see guys that are training for MMA fights come in and then again, similar to the CrossFitters, you're not going to watch an MMA guy step into a boxing ring and impress you in a boxing gym, then leave the boxing gym, go out to the street and then you guys fight there without the context of boxing and the rules and the ring and all of that. My money would actually be on the MMA fighter stomping the boxer all over the sidewalk. So, anyway there. Oh, last one, we'll get into divisions here in a second. I'll save that for because obviously the generalists and specialists have really strong opinions about each other and, yeah, we'll get into that in just a second.
Speaker 1:One other permutation that I for people to adopt hybrid training. I haven't done one, but this is something I've actually found interesting. Yeah, I've always been interested in triathlons, these ideas of trying to find the fittest all-around person. I have done triathlons. My personal opinion on that is they're great, they're fun, but they don't really test strength or combat in any way. So I whatever this is probably just me thinking of my own stuff I did pretty well in the triathlon that I did.
Speaker 1:I top 10 out of the field, but admittedly I'm cocky and I think highly of myself. So part of me thought that had we had a fight at the finish line, that I would have destroyed the other top 10 competitors and it wouldn't even have been close, and so they beat me. But I definitely didn't feel like I was inferior to the people who ran a little faster than I did. I felt that they should be a little bit faster. If they wanted to get away from somebody like me, that might be their only chance. Anyway, all that to say, I am really really open to the idea of creating new events that test multiple modalities and we kind of see who's got it.
Speaker 1:I don't think we have a perfect test to say who is the fittest, but between the obstacle races, crossfit, mma, triathlon, any one of those to me is a great way to kind of go about at least attempting. You know, or at least having some shot of saying you are that guy. If you don't have a mixed modality ability, it's actually going to be pretty easy to get you out of the context that you're good and, quite frankly, humble you. I've seen that happen way more times than I can even count. But take great athlete out of their world, put them in a new world and, you know, watch them go from world class to sucking um that quickly. But um all I'd say. So why? Why is it popular again, obviously, we've had a few different training styles, but they, they ebb and flow in their popularity and I don't. Well, I think it's fair to say that you know, particularly like the obstacle races and CrossFit were definitely more popular a few years back. I think that they've definitely maintained some of the market, but obviously people have kind of migrated away as it isn't the newer shiny thing. The latest resurgence that I am actually seeing, at least online, with uh.
Speaker 1:Hybrid training is typically like bodybuilders, people like that that are bringing back running that have stopped running for quite some time. Um, okay, so why is it popular again? First guess it never goes anywhere. It's it's always here in the the background. If you will, I was actually listening to a finance podcast about fashion, where I'm definitely out of my wheelhouse, but to me, hybrid training is almost like the style they call Ivy, which I guess is that preppy, buttoned up look. It never really goes out. It definitely comes back in at times and all the major brands start pushing out that same look, but it never actually goes anywhere. Even when it's not quote unquote in. Hybrid training is a bit like that. It kind of can't really go anywhere.
Speaker 1:Another explanation I see, at least with the cohort I'm seeing push it is that I myself have fallen into a camp or a group that I now like to call team no sweat, and that is when you maintain a physique with you know, let's say, sub 10% body fat. You look pretty lean, you definitely look like somebody that works out, but you've almost completely stopped doing any athletic things. You lift and you eat well, at least within the confines of supporting the physique that you're going for and you do almost no conditioning at all. When you first discover this, it can kind of feel like a cheat code, because you look the part of fitness and everybody thinks you're fit. But what at least pushes me out of this mode is that you'll you'll go to like a pickup game and then not actually play as well as you think you could in your head, or you'll. You'll go actually happen the same thing with basketball, but you have this memory of being able to play at a certain level and then a buddy calls you up to go run one game and you're dead by the second half. So every time I have fallen into the trap of doing team, no sweat, just maintaining my physique, not doing any conditioning, whenever I circle back to my athletic goals or get back out into the field, so to speak, that's where the gaps in that training style happen, and I almost always well, best case scenario bruised ego. Worst case the gaps that you've allowed to form in your conditioning, actually, that you get hurt.
Speaker 1:Recently, one of my pushes and maybe this is another driver out there in the market and recently one of my pushes and maybe this is another driver out there in the market. Reading Peter Attia's Outlive kind of reminded me of things that I already knew about the value of Zone 2 work and VO2 Max work. I was well, I am a parent, but I was starting to say things like I'm tired in the afternoon, and so I actually started to realize that, oh, you've actually stopped doing cardio and your mitochondria are getting inefficient and stuff like that. So maybe it isn't a birthright that you're getting tired in the afternoon. Now. Maybe that is actually reflective of the choices that I started to make. Don't think I was alone in reading that book, so I do think that that's maybe a driver, just as somebody who's worked all different programs.
Speaker 1:Another thing that I think is just that this is something people like about hybrid training in general is often it's just more fun and mentally stimulating than doing the same workout, even a very well designed one, over and over again. Since we're talking about oatmeal, to me, doing a really well-designed strength program over and over again, admittedly can be a bit like eating plain oatmeal day after day. There's nothing wrong with it. It is good for you and it totally works and it totally sucks after a couple of weeks and most people will totally burn out. So one of the things that I see or at least why I think real people are interested in hybrid training is that it really can kind of act as a safeguard against burnout, both mentally and physically, not overusing joints, et cetera. Some of the lack of motivation that can happen when you are doing a repetitive workout can really be mitigated by just having or integrating different forms, modalities or working at different attributes, which is what hybrid training whatever you want to call it is really all about.
Speaker 1:You're always going to have new challenges, new things to learn. It's typically going to be a little bit more mentally stimulating and rewarding. Your programs are just going to feel a little bit fresher, because you are going to get to see new things popping up with a little bit more regularity. I don't want to make you go crazy with that, though, because we still got to focus on one or two things. Let's not try doing too much, but I got notes on you guys for that in just a second, but yeah, so what I do see from some is this idea that, oh, is this just a new fad? So I'm going to be quick to say no, that this has been around longer than just about everything else. So hybrid training is absolutely not a fad, and the people that are even talking about it and you know, some of these folks are now almost being viewed by the fitness spaces if they are pioneering a new space or something like that. Absolutely not. There is no fitness revolution going on forever.
Speaker 1:People have been doing this, but even if you look at the most popular sports in a way like football, football, players basically have to do some form of concurrent training weight room sessions, on-field drills. You need muscle to hit hard, but you also need endurance. To break off a long play, you need to be able to recover quickly, and so almost every sport, in a sense, is going to require some hybrid training. To get there Football, basketball, boxing you all need a mix of strength and endurance, other traits as well agility, coordination. You're not going to get there, or at least to any decent level of performance, by pure specialization, to any decent level of performance by pure specialization. Which now brings me, though, because there really are two major camps discussing hybrid training and again we kind of got the specialists and the generalists Like almost everything. We're probably going to split the difference between the two camps if we are committed to getting to the truth. That being said, if the short version of all this is that it kind of depends on what you want and only you can answer that, but anyway, let's actually at least assess their arguments. We'll see what's right, what's wrong and hopefully come up with something a little better than what the people on the extreme say.
Speaker 1:But first, our specialists. I think they rightly criticize the fact that if you train a multiple disciplines concurrently, you're not going to make as much progress in any one domain than if you focused on that exclusively. That is true, that is a valid critique. So if you decide, like I, want to work on my endurance and get stronger, you're not going to get as strong as if you had just focused on strength alone. That's a fair critique. But we'll just get to the point that not many people are only seeking strength. Those are typically the power lifters and the people that are already doing that. But no, I don't want to backtrack on something that I wind up saying all the time. But the specialists to me rightly point out that if you shoot at two birds you're probably going to miss. If you shoot at one, you drastically increase your chances. That, to me, is probably the most valid critique of hybrid training is don't get yourself split off in too many directions. But now that's kind of it for the terrible parts on the specializing. Now that's kind of it for the charitable parts of the specializing.
Speaker 1:I think the generalists rightly point out that there is very little relevance to what specialized elite athletes do and what real people do. The demands on their lives are not the same. And whenever you chase one domain, no matter what it is, it is going to come at a cost of other things. Matter what it is, it is going to come at a cost of other things. So just in my own training career, when I pursue, you know, say, muscle mass, I've had this happen many times in the past. But it is going to come with a decrease in my performance, in endurance, in sport or even just out on the trail.
Speaker 1:Also, if you get really deep into, you know, adding muscle, I'm not going to have time to develop any of my athletic skills or even maintain them. So if you wanted to catch a game of one on one. You should probably ask me after eight weeks of hypertrophy training, because I will have no jump shot. You can't really be good at sports if you're not practicing them. So every time I push hard into the muscle gain, my sports skills tend to drop. Similarly, you can sometimes discover that you've either developed redundant or counterproductive muscle mass.
Speaker 1:So same thing when I step into the boxing gym after a lot of weightlifting. It's not like I come in there and suddenly I'm wowing people with my power. Actually, the truth is you look slow. You don't move fluidly or quickly. Nobody is scared when you step into the ring If you are looking like a weightlifter. To be honest, most people in that context kind of see you as an easy mark In the gym. We call it bro science. I don't know what we call this in a boxing gym, but one of the little tells, at least for boxers. If you will, I'll give you guys a tip.
Speaker 1:But anytime you see a guy with big biceps you don't want to grapple necessarily with someone like that, but you do want to strike with them. The bicep articulates the wrist to the shoulder and so big biceps equal slow punches you do not have to worry about somebody with big biceps blowing you away with speed. You might be trying to think of a counterexample right now, like, oh wait, mike Tyson, he was pretty big. Yeah, I hear you, but there's dudes at Planet Fitness with bigger biceps than Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson's not a bodybuilder. He's in great shape and he's got some decent biceps, but that is objectively not what I mean when I say big biceps. We're going to hit this a lot harder later. But athletes don't look like bodybuilders and there's a reason. But anyway, I don't want to get sidetracked. I do want to just weigh in on this.
Speaker 1:So, hybrid training I'm going to come out and say it is not a fad. That being said, I don't actually think it's right for everyone. I want to try to give us a sober and rational breakdown and then, frankly, you'll decide for yourself whether specializing or doing a mixed modality approach is right for you. So, again, hit it already. But most sports are multiple aptitudes the military, tactical operations, stuff like that. This is why I really don't think it's a fad. This is going to be absolutely required for a lot of people with a lot of different goals.
Speaker 1:Back to what I think is the most valid critique from our specialists, though training for multiple aptitudes simultaneously absolutely does require more attention to program. It is not as easy, it is not as intuitive, and if you are going to commit to this path, you're probably going to want to be a little more organized and a little cleaner with your planning and programming than if you were only working on one domain. It is simply a lot easier to work on one thing than to work on multiple things. That should go without saying, but I'm saying it because that's the most common error of my hybrid athletes is trying to do too much, if you will. But yeah, I do think that it's fair to say that most everyday people really don't want to be a powerlifter, a bodybuilder or a marathon runner. Even people who decide to run marathons often don't actually care about winning. They want to do it, and then, when they're done with the marathon, they want to do other things.
Speaker 1:The general public, in my experience, is interested in looking good, moving well, having fun and feeling good. Did I say that? But yeah, to achieve that, a lot of times you are going to have to focus on more than one thing. I think for the vast majority of people, hybrid training is probably going to be a net positive. I'm thinking back to Outlive right now that most people are not going to be assessing the effectiveness of their entire fitness regimen on just their deadlift alone. So it probably will be beneficial to have some time for most people to focus on some other things. So here, admittedly, this could be a terrible source, but I just went into some forums to just find the comments and so yeah anyway, this one comes from a running forum, so somebody who takes the running very seriously said zero snark.
Speaker 1:I just don't understand what would compel someone to want to perform mediocre at two things rather than excel at one thing. Is there some other benefit I'm missing? So again, here is a specialist who is kind of speaking to what I think on some level. Again, valid critique that you're splitting your efforts. You're not going to get as good. But I also kind of want to point out I actually think this is kind of a false distinction. The truth is that for most people, the reality isn't a choice between excelling in one thing and being mediocre at two. Brutal but honest. The choice for most real people is the choice of being mediocre at one thing or being slightly more mediocre at two things.
Speaker 1:I don't think that most people are sacrificing being an elite athlete by choosing hybrid training. Parents typically are the ones that don't like this the most when you're talking about their children, but there are some pretty obvious markers of elite athleticism and if by 18, nobody's come up and said that you look like you might be an elite athlete, it ain't going to happen. So this forum I was on is mostly like older runners. It's pretty fair to assess that there were no elite runners in that forum at all. None of those times would be considered world-class. So even Mine is actually zero snark too. But the guy who didn't understand why is that? Well, there's a lot of common injuries and things that people that run come up with.
Speaker 1:So if you're not world-class and you're not actually winning the Boston Marathon, what are you doing? Not being mixed modality because you're not actually a competitor. That's why you're an anonymous name on a message board, not a name that I could read and study. I'm not saying the guy who's winning races is better. I'm just saying be honest about where you're at. If that's really your goal athletic performance and you want to win races, then yeah, you're going to make a lot of sacrifices in life to try to bring that about. The vast majority of people are not in that boat. This is not diminishing anything. It's actually just setting people up to get better goals and also getting the results that they frankly want. Getting the results that they frankly want. But again, I just want to talk on this idea of mediocre, or why would you want to become mediocre at two things. The truth is that there's a huge gap between where most real people are at and where world class occurs. And so, again, if you're not achieving world class, I don't want to diminish that, but I also just want to inject like some sanity and rationality.
Speaker 1:So you know, take like a 225 pound bench press. That is objectively a very unimpressive lift. I don't care how you feel about that, listening in, whether that sounds heavy or light. In the realm of strength sports, that is very unimpressive 225. That being said, in the entire planet right now, about 0.75% of men worldwide can even bench 225. If you have attained this objectively unimpressive and, as our commenter might say, mediocre lift, the truth is you are absolutely nowhere near being world class is and let's say that you're my age or you're younger, you're in your 20s and you just hit 225, I could pretty much bet right now you are not going to win any medals in a strength sport. You are nowhere near world class. But that unimpressive lift just remind yourself over 99% of the world can't do it.
Speaker 1:So this is where I actually want to give people a pass to be mediocre, in a sense. If you can bench 225, you're doing a lot of things right. You're doing pretty damn good and you're nowhere near world-class and that's all okay. One of the things that I at least think about with hybrid training is that if you can be decent in multiple fitness domains, you actually are elite. There's multiple paths to being elite. You can either be the best in one domain or you can be pretty good to decent in multiple domains. They both have their place. But if you instead go after that being decent or good in multiple domains, what you're going to find is you're actually going to outperform most specialists in pretty much everything, except for the thing they specialize in. So if it's important to you to specialize in one thing, do it, but if it isn't, don't. This really is a personal question.
Speaker 1:I don't think that either camp has it right that generalizing or specializing is better. Objectively, I know where I sit on this and where my goals are. But if I felt like it, I can make an argument for what anybody's doing. But if I felt like it, I can make an argument for what anybody's doing. That being said, I have my biases.
Speaker 1:I grew up in Montana and biological fitness has kind of beaten into me and I at least think about this one often when you're hiking in the woods. There's the old story about outrunning, that you can't outrun a bear, and one of the things we learned is, of course, you don't need to outrun the bear, you just need to outrun the person standing next to you. So anyway, where I grew up, definitely generalists tend to live a bit longer than specialists. But yeah, if you're a specialist and you get the right event, you're good. But there's a lot of things out there the chances that a challenge in life if you're a specialist, comes out of your specialty really good. Outside of your sport, you're probably going to find that there are a lot of gaps from specializing. So anyway, I don't want to take aside that hybrid training is better than specialized training or vice versa. I do think that this is something that you got to kind of honestly answer amongst yourself first, but admittedly I do like hybrid training and you know what we'll quote was Emerson or Thoreau. I mix them up sometimes, but simplify, simplify.
Speaker 1:The most valid critique again of hybrid training is, quite simply, people trying to do too much. There is a bodybuilding equivalent for my specialists out there, but that's like when a guy tries to bring up every single muscle group at the same time. You're going to have to make some choices, pick some things, and this is where I just want to remind everybody that decision in Latin literally means to cut off. So when you decide, when you choose to do something, what you are doing is cutting off the other things. Just keep that in mind Every decision.
Speaker 1:I'm American I don't know where everybody listening in, but here in America we like to think about the positive aspect of our freedom all the time. We don't like to think about negative stuff ever. And so, um, with our choices, just remember that actually, every choice there, there's a giant negative that comes with every single choice, and that means all the other things that you are not doing. Um, you know, I I have a series, uh, of behaviors, whether it be morning workouts or things that, once I have made that choice, it also dictates a whole bunch of other things that I am not doing. There's a negative component to your freedom as well, and yeah, anytime we decide, you're cutting things off.
Speaker 1:And then also, I want to own up front that we are with hybrid training in general. We're being complex individuals here. We're holding two contradictory ideas in our head simultaneously by even trying to improve multiple aptitudes at once. So the thing I want to caution and push against is don't go out on your little workout Shangri-La quest trying to find the perfect program. You know, the one that you can get bigger, faster, stronger, leaner, run longer. Um, that program doesn't exist. Uh, but if you're interested, I could give you years of my own workout logs trying to find that. But no, it actually doesn't exist.
Speaker 1:You are still, even though we are committing to a hybrid form of training, you're still going to be choosing one attribute to improve at a time, but we're not going to break the rule about trying to shoot at two birds at once. You simply choose one thing that you want to improve and now that takes priority. That's the one that we will work to a level that we can progress. All the other modalities that are important to you are going to scale down to a maintenance level. You will do the minimum to maintain where you are at while you are focusing on bringing up your other attribute. You will only use established principles from each domain. We're not going to go invent a whole bunch of new stuff. No Piggyback on all the people that came before you and just go into.
Speaker 1:If you're working on strength, use legitimate strength programs. If you're working on endurance, use legitimate endurance programs. Don't start merging and trying to throw all this shit together. Pick one attribute, work on that. You're going to tailor the program to whatever your current goals are. So, again, you need to do this work yourself.
Speaker 1:I can tell you the process. I can't tell you exactly what it looks like. One example let's say that you're strong with your endurance right now. You train it regularly and you want to develop some strength. So you would actually do the bare minimum to maintain your endurance and then you would take that time you freed up to throw that into your strength program, or vice versa. Yeah, and actually there are benefits that are going to come from this, even if you're a bodybuilder back to a theoretical specialist. But a bodybuilder who incorporated a little bit of cardiovascular elements would be able to potentially unlock some advantages of like getting some fast twitch muscle fiber activation. If you were adding in some sprints the hormonal response, the calorie burning, could be helpful for a bodybuilder. On the other end of the spectrum my runners never want to touch weights they could actually gain, believe it or not, from some bodybuilding by reducing their injury risk, getting some hypertrophy, getting some stronger bone density. All that pounding away on the pavement isn't really helping them stay out of PT. Quite frankly, Some quads might help. There really can be benefits from the hybrid training style. Yes, you're not going to be the strongest or the fastest that you could be, but there's a strong argument that you're bringing together a better total package.
Speaker 1:Back to sort of organizing your training, though the balance is always going to shift. So from time to time you reassess, you refocus, you circle back. But again, we're going to focus on attributes in training, improve the attribute and then use whatever tool is appropriate to improve that attribute. So if we're talking strength, it's probably going to be barbells, kettlebells, stuff like that. If we're talking endurance, it might look like hills, sand, I don't know. But pick the right tool for the attribute and again, pick to improve one attribute at a time. Scale everything else down to maintenance level. While you're working on it.
Speaker 1:Recommended this nutrition a lot, but you guys know I'm a big fan of logs. I would say, with hybrid training, definitely keep logs. This is just a relatively unestablished field that there's going to be so many variables going in your program that you're not going to be able to go and piggyback off of other people's work as much as if you were powerlifting or if you were doing something. That's a little more established. So I just want to remind you that your own records are going to be the best information that you can get. Nutrition I'm not going to dive deep on other than the whole foods we already talked about. But eat to fuel your performance, train to improve your performance, do your strength and your conditioning as your performance improves. Everything else is going to fall into place. The health aesthetics this is kind of what I like is that I don't think that they're Well. I spent a lot of time and energy trying to figure out an intuitive program that I could just plug and play, and I still haven't found it. But it winds up looking like this, if you will.
Speaker 1:Again, this is a pretty unestablished field, but people have been working on this for a long time, so I just want to give you guys a few books if you want more reading on the topic. The Hybrid Athlete Alex Vita, that's a good one. Power Speed Endurance a Skill-Based Approach to Endurance Brian McKenzie that's also a good book. Tactical Barbell by Kay Black that's a pen name. There's some good stuff in there and if you're in the tactical world, that language is probably going to speak to you a little better. And then I already mentioned it, but I actually think that it's not a hybrid training book. But if you read Outlive, dr Peter Attia, the kind of workout he describes really is a hybrid training. He doesn't call it that in the book, but he's going to try to convince you to do some strength training, some zone two work and adopt a mixed modality style of training. So anyway, four books there that I think are good, that if you want further reading, and also each one of those appeals to a really different demo. So, depending on who you are, one of those will speak the language that you like.
Speaker 1:Last one for the day I actually saw that Travis Kelsey was getting dragged on the internet for not looking like a fitness influencer, but I want to just scream back at the internet that that shouldn't be surprising. Many athletes don't look like influencers and flip it around, most influencers aren't actually athletic. They probably tried out for sports at some point, got cut, didn't make it, and then they pushed in this direction, if you will. I know there's some influencers who had their little day in sports. But I am here in Hollywood, my wife is in casting. We've done a lot of these over the years and in general those are different bins. When we're doing Beachbody, that's when we go get actors and we go get influencers. When we're doing athletic spots, that's when you actually go get real athletes. Actually funny story from the casting studio. So there's actually one time where our client wanted elite runners and admittedly I don't.
Speaker 1:If real america knows how entertainment products are actually built, because I hear a lot of narratives about well, basically they like or don't like shows, or they like this celebrity who don't like it, and they don't get how it's made. It really is a sausage factory. But broadly, I don't think people realize how so much of what happens on television is downstream from the things that you guys are clicking on and talking about. So pro tip if you don't like something, don't, tweet about it, don't watch it. Nobody cares whether you're happy or mad when you're watching. These are vehicles to place ads, understand? So even if you're angry and tweeting about it, you're actually telling them make more of this, not don't.
Speaker 1:When you don't like something, don't talk about it. And then also, people always think like we have an agenda or that we're doing something. I don't get to pick anything when I'm running a casting. Yeah, the agenda is downstream from the people advertising. So yeah, nobody really gets to pick anything. Guys, it's about target, demo and market and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:But anyway, funny spot, because our client wanted elite athletes. There's a few acting services where people can either submit through their agent or through self-submission. Obviously, from our standpoint, we just want good talent. We'll take agent submissions, we'll take actor submissions. In general, agent submissions tend to be a little bit higher quality but every now and again a diamond in the rough. For this particular job we actually did accept some actor submissions and, not kidding, I literally had this one guy in and stock question that the client had me asking was tell me a little about your athletic experience.
Speaker 1:And first, dude, I have in talks about running in the London Olympic Games, national champion, all that stuff Literal. Next guy in my room ask the same question Tell me about your running experience. And he tells me about being from Minnesota and how in the winter time it's really cold but that doesn't stop him. He puts on his gloves, his hat and then he heads out for a run and then he's actually like miming running but not moving. He's, he's just literally standing in place mim a run and then he's actually like miming running but not moving. He's just literally standing in place, miming running. And yeah, all that just to.
Speaker 1:Athletes and actors are a different breed. So I know that the internet was surprised that Travis Kelsey is running around with not a six pack. That's not actually that surprising for a tight end, particularly if you're going to go over the middle, catch a pass and get tackled, really isn't important if you have abs under the shoulder pads and actually the weight, the cushion there, there's a lot of reasons why. Actually a little bit of extra weight you know, even God forbid some extra adipose tissue could actually be beneficial for Travis Kelsey. But no, I guess this one just slightly relates to the larger topic we're having today of, you know, generalizing versus specializing. You know, obviously your influencer in general is going to be a specialist.
Speaker 1:This is somebody who has specialized on their physique and, in a way, sports and influencing. Neither one of them is about health. They're about the task at hand, but influencing is about the look and the look of six pack abs, even though, if that's a goal of yours, I want to be honest as well and I fit this bill. So maybe I'm talking bad about myself, but that has nothing to do with fitness. It has nothing to do with health. It has everything to do with an aesthetic, that's it. Everything to do with an aesthetic, that's it. But I'm going to confess this, and anyone who's ever done it is also going to know that if you've ever been really, really lean, it really really sucks. You're going to be tired all the time. Your lifts are not going to be as good. Yeah, it just isn't super fun.
Speaker 1:You're optimizing for a picture typically, but it does come with compromises to performance and health. It's a personal decision whether you decide to go all in on performance or all in on aesthetics or neither, but I do think that we should be really honest about either. End Visible labs just mean works out and lives in a caloric deficit is probably hungry right now. On the other end, good at sports just means good at sports. Neither one of these things has to do with health. In pursuing either one of those pure performance, pure aesthetics, you will actually compromise your health at many, many junctures. There's going to be many choices where you can either choose health or aesthetics, health or performance, and if you're an influencer or an athlete, you make that choice accordingly.
Speaker 1:But again, I don't think that the majority of my audience is influencers or professional athletes, and I don't think that the majority of my audience is influencers or professional athletes, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. What I don't want is my audience or people that I believe in would be a part of my audience believing that the influencers or the athletes have the programs or ideas that they should be gravitating to. Um, and my work as a trainer. Admittedly, it isn't my job to decide for people what goals to chase. Um, whatever their goal is, I'm going to organize a plan that most efficiently achieves that there's. I'm not telling them that their aesthetics need improvement or their performance needs improvement. What I program is downstream from what they tell me their goals are. I honestly don't think there are right or wrong answers. I just want to help people see, through these varying claims for their attention, their money and their time, that some things might not be consistent with your goals, and again, I think this is going to kind of wrap up my thoughts on hybrid training. Dad bod, all of that, your fitness journey is your own. Make sure you are making the choices that are consistent with your values, and then someone like me can help you find the programs that will most efficiently get you there. It doesn't actually matter to me what your goals are. Whatever they are. There's going to be a better way to go about doing it, and that is essentially what we're always trying to communicate here.
Speaker 1:But anyway, guys, last one, I'll be quick. You've been with me for almost an hour, but I've been watching this show on Netflix, physical 100, actually, I just got through the second season and I just want to actually comment. I like the show. I'm not going to spoil it for you guys. Go out and watch it.
Speaker 1:There's a couple of things that I want you to pay close attention to, though. One thing I like 100 contestants. You're going to see a lot of different body types. What I think is cool about that is, a lot of people have one idea in their head that this is what a fit body looks like, or this, that or the other. Cool thing about the show is you're going to see a lot of really fit, really athletic people with a lot of really different body types. It's even then just interesting to get to see hey, what happens when an Olympic wrestler goes up against a rugby player. I don't know, but you get a bunch of fun matchups like that. So at least in one sense you do get to see a lot of what we talked about today. But specialists versus generalists. You're going to find Olympic athletes in one domain who get thrown into a challenge that isn't their thing. Not going to spoil the show, but one thing you'll notice is that generalists in general do better in a format like that.
Speaker 1:Last thing I want to mention about the show the show is from Korea, so I actually just noticed some big cultural differences between the American reality show and the Korean reality show, and I'm all in on the Korean style guys. I'm done with American competition reality shows, and mainly because to me, american competition reality shows are almost like an inversion of Darwinian evolution. It isn't the strongest survive on most shows. The only exception I would think would be like those ones where they go out and survive, where you can't really carry baggage around. But any show that has any political component. What you'll notice is that people who don't think that they have strong packages or attributes tend to ally together and vote out the people who are strong show it basically presumes, and the intuition is, that you should get rid of strong competitors because I don't want to run against that person in the final and that's gotten to the point where we consider that to be the right and good choice. What I found really interesting watching now two seasons of Physical 100. So I don't know if this is the producers pushing them to this or if this is just how the contestants really view it On that show.
Speaker 1:People don't go that way. I've literally seen it's like they're more Greek in the classic sense, in like the Achilles sense, in that nobody wants an easy victory, people want the grand victory. So often somebody could select like, let's say it was a challenge where there was some grappling involved. Then you would expect all the people from combat sports to pick the people who were not in combat sports and just take an easy win. But what you notice is none of these Korean competitors will ever take that easy way out. They'll almost always go up the chain. If it's a, you know, they might go pick on the guy who won the gold medal, because, boy, if I win this, this would be just a grand victory.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, fun show to watch, check it out. You're going to see different body types going at it, you're going to see specialists versus generalists and you're going to see a competitive spirit that I don't think you get on a lot of American shows. And it ain't written in stone that we have to be this way. So I just want to hopefully push that out there. Let's be better, let's try a little harder, let's get a little bit of that. Yeah, anyway, I think the Korean shows are kind of kicking our ass on that and we should take a page out of that book at least. If we got any american reality tv show contestants in there. Um, you know why are you guys so scared to compete? You went on a competition reality show, let's see some competition, but anyway, um, that's it guys, that's all I got for you today. Um, remember, mind and muscle are inseparably intertwined. There are no gains without brains. Keep lifting and learning. I'll do the same.
