The Science of Fitness Podcast
Welcome to the Science Of Fitness podcast where we aim to inspire you to live a healthier and more fulfilling life as we share evidence and anecdotes on all things health, fitness, performance, wellness and business.
Hosted by Kieran Maguire, Co-Owner and Director of Science Of Fitness with an Undergraduate degree in Exercise Science and Masters degree in High Performance, the podcast includes guests and friends of SOF from all walks of life sharing their knowledge and stories within their field of expertise.
Join us as we provide listeners with digestible and relatable educational tools and entertaining stories to inspire a healthier and more fulfilling life.
The Science of Fitness Podcast
The SOF Monthly: Industry Trends and Training Talk With Directors Kieran & Joe
The fitness landscape is constantly evolving, with trends rising and falling at lightning speed. In this inaugural episode of our new "SOF Monthly" series, we dive into two significant movements capturing attention right now: the hybrid athlete phenomenon and the growing focus on menopausal women's fitness.
What exactly constitutes a hybrid athlete? We break down this increasingly popular approach to fitness that balances strength training, running capacity, and high-intensity work. It's not about excelling in any single domain but maintaining competency across multiple disciplines. We explore why this resonates with so many people who've grown bored with traditional strength or endurance training, the social benefits it provides, and the considerable time commitment required to maintain this versatility.
The conversation shifts to the welcome evolution in how the fitness industry addresses menopause. After decades of limited solutions, there's finally recognition that appropriate exercise strategies can dramatically improve quality of life during this transition. We dissect common misconceptions, emphasising that while hormonal changes influence training responses, the fundamental principles remain consistent – master basic movements first, then add complexity and load.
We also share personal insights into our current training regimens. Joey details his intense preparation for jiu-jitsu competitions and an upcoming boxing match, averaging 10-12 sessions weekly across multiple disciplines. Meanwhile, Kieran reveals how he's adapted to a busy schedule by implementing ultra-efficient 30-minute strength sessions, maintaining his fitness despite dramatically reduced training time.
Whether you're considering becoming more versatile in your fitness pursuits or navigating physical changes during menopause, this conversation offers practical wisdom to help you train smarter, not just harder. Connect with us on social media with your questions for future episodes!
Welcome to the Science of Fitness podcast, where we aim to inspire you to live a healthier and more fulfilling life, as we share evidence and anecdotes on all things relating to health, fitness, performance, business and wellness Radio. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to the Science of Fitness podcast. This is the first of a new little series Joey and I are going to be working on. We're calling it the Soft Monthly and we're essentially just going to catch up every month and talk about a couple of things that have been going on, from within the business, uh, through to the industry, our clients, our training and everything in between. So, uh, not too long an episode, but hopefully insightful for those out there. Um, and, and more than anything, I think, the lessons and trends and things that we see and learn, and hopefully people can sort of absorb information from us so that they don't make the same mistakes. So, to kick things off today, joey, how you going? I'm well, brother.
Speaker 2:How are you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, very well, mate, full of beans as a structure. The first thing I want to always talk about, which I think we get questioned a lot about, is trends within the industry. So you know, we can probably talk about 100 different trends. You're going to pick one and then I'm going to pick one and let's unpack it as to why it's trending and whether it has legs, whether it's worth worrying about, whether it's going to be put in the bin in a couple of months or whatever else. So, matt, you're going to kick things off Of late. What's the big trend you've seen? And let's unpack it.
Speaker 2:Hybrid athlete Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's been going for a little while. Let's talk through that First of all. How would it be defined in accordance with the trend? How would you define it, at least?
Speaker 2:I would define hybrid athlete as literally being athletic, and I would define being athletic as being able to lift something, run half well and generally be able to lift something, run half well and generally be able to step in at any activity at a semi-mediocre level. So, for example, I can lift, I can go for a run, I can go for a swim and I can do it any day of the week.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool. And so you say you know lift and run half decently. Um, let's put a few numbers behind what would probably be considered appropriate from a lifting perspective, for example. So you know what do you mean by that, in terms of strength and numbers that someone might be, let's say, a male pushing in the weight room or a female in the weight room yep, okay.
Speaker 2:so let's say a bloke who's around 80 or 90 kilos, they can squat their body weight 10 times. So it's not super heavy, not super strong, but strong enough. I would say they can run, give or take 445 to 515 pace for 5 to 8K and then they can, you know, perform a high-intensity class and come, you know, first to fifth in the class without completely gassing themselves with the carry on at the end of the class. So they can hit their strength anaerobic work, they can hit their volume work running and then they can form a hit based session all throughout the week without being completely wrecked at the end of the week. Okay.
Speaker 1:So you know, it takes a little, takes a little bit to sort of get to that level from a training perspective. What type of you know person is getting into this position? You know why are we seeing this trend exist?
Speaker 2:in your opinion, In my opinion. I think a lot of people go through weight training and get to a point where it becomes boring, and I believe the reason it becomes boring is chasing either the bodybuilding route so as much muscle as possible and an aesthetic outcome An aesthetic outcome. Or the powerlifting route as much weight on the bar as possible becomes almost daunting and unachievable and somewhat boring. Yeah, anesthetic outcome. Or the powerlifting route as much weight on the bar as possible becomes almost daunting and unachievable and somewhat boring.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. There's a lot of risk involved with really going after a heavy, heavy, heavy deadlift, squat, bench press, a lot of injury associated with it for those that have pushed that envelope. And you know, if you, if you just want to be fit and healthy, probably at some point when you hurt your back six times or you know you blow a peck, you're going, maybe this isn't quite worth another 1.25 kilos on my max, yeah 100%.
Speaker 2:And then, on the other side, running three times a week can be quite boring in itself and I think people just want to be able to say they can do anything, having that freedom, that variety, to be able to engage socially with whatever activity their friends are saying let's do it. So you know, from a traditional sense, lifting gets boring after a while, particularly for a guy who's going through their twenties, thirties, forties, and socially a lot of friends are looking at different things. For a guy who's going through their twenties, thirties, forties, and socially, a lot of friends are looking at different things for a lot of different reasons, and our social interaction is often linked with exercise, particularly for us. So I don't want to say no to a mate catching up over. Call it a run. So by default, I have to get better at running.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, off the back of covid and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, people want to spend more time in person and together, and that just happens to be running, swimming, those sorts of things. So you know, fast forward a few years. What have we done? We've gamified it. We've we've added money to it, we've created sponsorships around it. People earn income from it now and it's just the next trend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that's sort of where it's at. Yeah, I think it's interesting to sort of see, as you said, there's that degree of anyone who's kind of active. There's ceilings everywhere in terms of what the body can handle. And then when you get kind of for lack of a better term humbled back to something like I've been really strong and I didn't really run that well, um did a lot of you know our primal and conditioning work and whatever else, and then went back a couple, about three, four years ago, just got back into running and the first run I did was a 10k run and I was in bits and it was super hard and I was just so annoyed that I'd let myself get to that point, because you, I used to do a very fast 5k at one point in my life and um, and that was it. For me it was enough information to go okay, don't ever lose this again, you know. And so, worst case scenario, I'll run once a week. But yeah, it's interesting that a lot of people have moved in that direction.
Speaker 1:I think other things that have brought it um to the light sort of the forefront in terms of the healthy populations the forefront in terms of the healthy populations, um. And then our industry in general is the zone two information. People want to get that aerobic fix, but they don't want to be the skinny marathon runner, um. So you know there's that element. And then I think we come at it with a biased lens, from a male perspective.
Speaker 1:But you know, if you look at the female population, what's motivating them? I think there's a big shift to women being strong and females being stronger. So they've probably, you know, dominated the aerobic type training for 20 odd years and all of a sudden, you know, since 2020, literally, there's been that shift of let's get stronger and actually have a sense of physicality and be proud of being strong and having muscle, and it's not going to make you look like a bloke and too bulky, but balance it, you know, with the aerobic stuff as well. So I guess pros and cons really quickly for this hybrid athlete trend you know you mentioned gamifying it. I'm sure you're referencing a high rocks as a, as a, as a competition, but removing the competition, we can talk about high rocks in its its own right and at some point, um, in terms of pros and cons about the hybrid type training and athlete, as you're saying, uh, what are. What are some of the cons?
Speaker 2:Some of the cons around. The hybrid is like triathlon is it takes a lot of time and you can't avoid the time, Unfortunately. You have to lift weights three to four times a week. You have to do your running you know one to three times a week. You have to do your hit base stuff you know one to two times a week. So just by nature that's already seven to nine sessions a week, full stop. So if you're only training one to three times, you're just not going to cut it.
Speaker 2:Usually that means that the gym that you go to needs to have all those services available or if they don't, you need to find alternates to that run clubs, social clubs, equipment so that can be costly or timely or both. There's the skill element involved, where, if you haven't, if you're not capable or competent enough at the skill so in lifting it might be a technical thing, it might be time under a certain weight, or sets and reps If you haven't run at a certain speed for X amount of time there's all the injury associations. There's the weekly combination of all the things put together over time which often causes breakdown when you do all those things for a long period of time. You need to eat more food, sleep a little bit more, decrease your stress to be able to handle the tolerance and the load, and it's just more taxing. I mean, they're all good stresses, but it's still just more taxing, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's probably something people don't consider when, when they're training um. That last point that you raised, that pretty much contributes to the other two or three cons. As you mentioned, you know time being a big thing, skill being able to handle um and I suppose, execute the complexity of a 10k run from a skill perspective. And you know lifting a heavy weight, um, or you know even smashing yourself in a high-intensity interval training class. And then, even before that, as you said, it's that how much is in your cup already? If you're working a lot, if you've got other family commitments and other stressors in your life and then suddenly you go and train like this, something's got to give. So it's either one of those factors, but you try and squeeze the lemon. You might just squeeze it too hard and end up breaking it.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's a very important point that I think people need to consider when they are trying to cover all bases. Is one, why? And then two you know what are you committing to it? And then you know three, are you managing your load? And it's something that people often forget about is you can't just go up and up and up and up and up and up in 12 weeks and 24 weeks and 32 weeks, just keep putting more stress on the system. You need to have that deload, which is probably the number one recommendation From a pros perspective. What would you say the pros are of, I guess, this being a trend and influencing people's decision when it comes to training?
Speaker 2:You're going to feel a lot better, and that can be because of confidence, that can be because of self-image, that can be because of all the physicality and the physical improvements that you have, whether it be body fat, muscle mass, weight, whatever it might be. So there's a lot of pros there. Usually, when you do a HIIT-based or a aerobic-based workout not usually, but most of the time it times associated with being with friends, so is that social interaction which increases heaps throughout the week. It can be a much cheaper way to train. Running is free. Hit training can be free to inexpensive. Most gyms do Saturdays for free and then do that style of session anyway. And then you can go to a gym jets, snap, whatever and pay the gym membership 20 bucks a week to do your weight training. So you know, versus coming to someone like us, it can be a lot cheaper. If you just want to do all three of those things, um, it can virtually just cost you $15, $20 a week, which is a massive pro and lowers the barrier for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I agree, and I think you know, at the same time, it's sort of it's also you know from, as you mentioned, the social connection, but it's that sort of mentally, when you are doing these things not a single one of them are easy to do, and particularly in a combination to get through a tough week of training where you are doing seven, eight, nine sessions, as you mentioned there's that sense of accomplishment which is probably the biggest thing that I know, I feel if I've had a really good training week and that, you know, I'm sure most people, when they do a week, a second week, a third, a fourth, a fifth week, consistently, they're going to feel that same sense of accomplishment.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, very interesting, cool. So I guess, from my end, from a trend perspective, I want to jump into the other end of the spectrum and go into, I guess, the menopausal woman, and there's a lot of noise in the internet right now around muscle mass and bone density and then supplementation and you know the hormone changes and all that sort of thing. A lot of our clients are in this age category, if not, you know past it. So what are some of the things that you think you know are getting said that you find yourself debunking in terms of the myths within it, and then what areas are pretty truthful and valuable?
Speaker 2:One of the ones that I've had a lot of conversation around is frequency of training, and people always ask how often should I train?
Speaker 2:And for me that is a two-part question or a two-part answer.
Speaker 2:Rather, it is what are you currently doing and what is appropriate for right now? And then, what is your actual goal? So, if you can logistically, with a family and all those things only train twice a week put the menopause and all those things aside because lifestyle wise, that's all we can do right now and then the thing that we prescribe is based on your current state and what we're going to do as step one or baby step one, rather than what's best practice, because we still have to factor in the human first. So I really like going back to frameworks all the time, and when someone comes in and says my bone density or my muscle mass and they freak out and all those things, I'm like I hear you, I agree fully, but you haven't exercised in six years, so we've got to start with learning to do a dumbbell bench press for two sets of 10, irrespective of what your goal is. I would say that's the most common thing I hear and I see over and over and over again.
Speaker 1:And it is, and it's sort of you know, I hear and I see over and over and over again and it is, and it's sort of you know, the fear of God's thrust into their mind all of a sudden, where it's like I haven't done this and I'm going to have this and I might just fall and completely shatter every bone. If I do fall because of my bone density, it's like whoa, okay, hang on, slow down. One, that probably won't happen. Two, yes or no, you may or may not be at risk.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, you need to start in the very same place that anyone would start, no matter where they are. You know you could have a young 20 year old male that has never exercised. What would you start them with? The same sort of thing.
Speaker 1:So you know it doesn't need to be a complete new set of exercises, sets, reps and different names in a different language, because you're in this category as a human being in terms of your life cycle.
Speaker 1:You got to just go back to, as you said, the simple frameworks and tick the right box at the right time and it sort of again links back to that skill element that you know we mentioned in the in the hybrid sort of running, strength, everything, load management, that there is still the skill of lifting weights and moving your body really well. And that is, for me, what strength training is. It's not getting stronger, it is first learning skills and then being better and better and better at that skill so it can be done in a more complex scenario velocity, um, load volume, regardless of whether you're an all-black or you know, 55 years old doing your first workout in 10 years. So when the industry and when the internet thrusts a bunch of noise and concern in people's head, I'm going to love it because it promotes action. But that action doesn't need to be niched into a little nuance of not doing the basics well and just trying to pick up a deadlift.
Speaker 2:And it's silly. I had a lady who I did a consult with yesterday and, for context, we had started in November and the first program was decreased pain, increased function, return to running, and we smashed that that was a really good milestone. And we're in April now and you know, starting to get up from races and everything. And she said, like, what exercise am I doing next and next? And I said, well, I'm not going to pull out this brand new set of exercises I've been reserving for this moment. Yeah, we're just going to keep doing what we're doing, a little bit better. Yeah, and it was just, you know, haha, moment.
Speaker 1:but it is and and that's it you know, as um, um, when, when you know we've said it all the time if you look look at a strength program for a range of elite athletes, they're going to be doing very similar exercises as what we might be doing in our fit over 50s class. The variation comes in to the set, rep, speed and volume with which they do it, and that's what a lot of people need to realize. I think you raised a good point there, though for a lot of people in this population, pain is a factor that is inhibiting them from training and almost, you know, contributing to a fear of I might make it worse, and with a valid reason you might, and that's where leaning on a practitioner that understands what they're doing and understands pain, um, to a certain degree is is really important, because pain needs to guide what you do. You know, if you get back pain doing that squat movement or that deadlift movement, you probably don't want to double down on doing it. You want to make sure you're executing it so that you don't get pain.
Speaker 1:How often do you sort of see that hold people back? And how do you think you know people that have this sort of generalized lack of confidence. Pain rather than a pure diagnostic. You know injury. How do you deal with them? How do you approach the framework, for example, the client you just saw yesterday?
Speaker 2:Baby. Step one for me, is getting a quick win. And if we talk about let's call it, any site, call it a knee, and we're trying to either extend or flex the knee or pretty much get your leg straight or bend your leg and something causes a pain or painful position, how can you find a position that doesn't cause as much pain? And you're using a rating 10 being excruciating, one being low, and you know, ballpark two to four is like, okay, we're heading in the right direction, right, and if you can get a moment where they have a quick win, you're not changing their life, but a quick win. You're not changing their life, but a quick win. It lowers barriers, it builds a bit of trust and it opens that door to go Okay, now I'm in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a solution, there's something guys. Yeah, how you find that quick win is like just building your toolbox up with a series of what is the hardest variation of this thing. And let's talk about the knee. It might be, for example, let's say we're doing a Nordic that could be most extreme end of like a, you know, a hamstring based exercise, right into a, lying on your stomach, bending your knee, feeling your hamstring, something like that, and you just over time, build your toolbox up with which one you pick, at what time, yeah, what layer?
Speaker 1:of difficulty intensity do you want to take at the joint of the situation? I think, as you said, that positioning element is really important because how someone hinges at the hip might make them feel their back extensors and therefore I'm worried about my back pain. And if we can position them correctly to hinge at the hip and make them feel their back extensors and therefore I'm worried about my back pain and if we can position them correctly to hinge at the hip and feel more hamstring, that's bang it sort of. As you said, it gives them that confidence. They sort of, you know, light up, um, and and then they build their movement and their capacity and suddenly they're doing a deadlift of their body weight in six to twelve months and they could never have imagined being in that position. You know, for 10 years they dealt with back pain and it's just it's understanding those little nuances which is so valuable and it's taking that small step. I think.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, from a pros and cons perspective, a couple of the notes I had had in terms of pros of this. As I said, these will always outweigh the cons. It's making people take action. You know this sudden understanding of longevity and you know particularly females' health going through this period of time. For a long time there was no solution. It was you're going through it. We're just going to kind of leave you guys there and let them get through the hot flushes and the mood changes and then hopefully they come out the other end and they're a bit more chill, which isn't a very, you know, good way to approach it. And now it's like let's sink our teeth into it, let's get the moving, let's get active, let's deal with the um, the, the, the potential side effects of this sort of change, hormonally and um, and then move into the confidence area of I'm physically strong and sound and safe and all that sort of thing. So the action it's promoting is really positive.
Speaker 1:I think the other side of it is the connection in the community. Through our women's health program. We've seen it already they're actually stepping back into one gyms and social environments where they actually have a bit more of a senior role and you know they can actually share their lessons with the younger woman, from relationships through to, you know, their body and their physical changes and seeing them connect and actually have that sort of role within female communities and male communities. I think you know we've got probably about eight gym mums within SOF that are going through this period. You know, in their life and in some way, shape or form, they have that role with us, with our other staff and, you know, with the rest of the members here. They make sure everyone has a coffee and they ask those questions, which is really unique to the culture and the environment. So having them involved is really special for us. And then I think the other one is the rest of us are talking about it from a pro. We're all understanding that this is a very important part of life and we can have a better understanding and therefore a better respect and ultimately help and have a better connection and community with the women in our lives that are going through these physical changes.
Speaker 1:And then, from a con perspective that I'd say I think it's just a big one is, I guess the fear that can be, it can trigger and that sort of you know evolving anxiety of I'm not strong enough, I've got bad bone density, I haven't taken care of myself and I need to buy all these supplements and all of a sudden it becomes a bit of a marketing ploy in terms of let's leverage on the vulnerable and the weak and you know, here's a population that are going to buy and say and do anything. As we said, from a strength and a training perspective. It's very basic. That, for me, is probably the major con. Outside of that, I don't really have too many others. I don't know if there's anything that comes to your mind.
Speaker 2:No, I genuinely can't think of a con and I know I'm biased when I look at it. But you know, the programs get such good feedback, irrespective if we ran the program or anyone around the program. It's just the fact that there's around people three, four times a week they're training three, four times a week they're having coffee, like there's so much good stuff in that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's totally worth investing in and and just taking that plunge for any any you know woman that's in this situation in your life. If it is scary, go and do it. You know, go and just take that plunge. Go in gently, don't expect too much of yourself and also stand up for yourself. You're going. Hey, that looks a little bit out of my comfort zone. Can we regress? That be it in a class or whatever situation, and the practitioners generally will go. Yeah, no worries, and they'll be able to cater for you. Cool, let's mix it up and we'll roll on your current training mate. You've been doing a a bit of bloody everything. If anyone follows joey on social media, um, talk us through the last kind of four weeks. What have you been? What have you done? What are the big ones you've done? And then, what does the sort of training schedule look like?
Speaker 2:yeah. So for a bit of backstory, I always like to start the year intense with training. I always try and choose a little event to do. This sort of happened two years ago and I've just liked to roll on from there. So this year I decided I wrote out my goals for the year and what I wanted to do and I don't normally write physical ones down because I always do something. But I said, no, this year I'm going to write some physical goals down. So you know, I wrote down I want to do four jiu-jitsu fights, matches, tournaments, whatever. I want to do one boxing fight, which I've always wanted to do, um, and in the back end of the year there's like some running stuff that eventually that I'll get to. But I wanted to tick off the martial arts ones first. So so far I've done two jiu-jitsu comps came second, both first, first time loser on both of them but in that second second both times, which is cool.
Speaker 2:I've got a boxing match in a fortnight now it's on the 23rd of april which I'm seriously worried and excited about at the same time, and that's my sort of q1 q2 goals, and then, once that finishes up, I'm gonna tone it down a bit and try and eat more food and put on some more muscle mass and become a hybrid become more hybrid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, all right, that's uh one pretty ambitious and pretty big, that you've ticked those one, two, nearly three things off. What does the training look like and how much has your training changed, uh, in shooting for those?
Speaker 2:training changed in shooting for those, yeah. So normally I would do three weights a week, sometimes four. I would do a class or two and I would do a jiu-jitsu session and a boxing session. So call it six sessions a week pretty religiously. At the moment I'm doing three jiu-jitsu, three, boxing one to two, running one to two classes and consistently two gym, sometimes three. So call it 10 to 12 sessions a week, um, plus a yoga or something else in there.
Speaker 1:So you know, a decent increase.
Speaker 2:The only catch to this is all the martial arts sessions are hard. There's no, there's not that there's no technical element. There's a tremendous amount of technical, but every session finishes with 30 minutes of hard work. So it's kind of like you're, you're, you're almost redlining six to eight sessions a week.
Speaker 1:So fatigue element is unreal yeah, I was gonna say how's that feeling? What are you noticing? So?
Speaker 2:before the first match about a month ago on top of the world, amazing, like genuinely amazing. After that had a week of semi soreness, like a six out of ten soreness. After the week ate more food went away, no dramas and the gear up to the second comp. I had to drop a little bit more weight, so I normally sit about 83. I went down to 78 for the first one, I went down to 77 for the second one. Only a kilo, but two weeks I've just been like so sore, so tired, demotivated to train all those things. But like I know that the thing's coming up in a fortnight, so it's like I just got to keep chipping.
Speaker 2:I've increased my food. I've taken two sessions down a week. I'm eating like heaps, I'm eating the most amount of protein I've ever eaten and I'm still just dropping body fat, you know. But the motivation isn't there to do hard stuff but because it's in the schedule, locked in it's, and I've got the fight like it's, it's happening. You know there's, no there's. If I wasn't, fighting.
Speaker 1:There's no backing out.
Speaker 2:So that's been a really interesting thing and it's given me a much bigger appreciation for training for events. I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago on Instagram. Training for events I've never really been a huge fan for, but it's been, you know, 12 sessions a week since January, hard, and you know, visually I'm in one of the better shapes I've been in in some time.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, yeah, yeah, a bit of a lesson in that. That's interesting. Yeah, yeah, cool. Well, I guess from my side, training-wise, I've been I wouldn't say polar opposite to that, but certainly, by my standard, nowhere near where I guess I've typically trained at. So you know, my typical breakdown would be one primal class zone, which is really hard, high-intensity, bodyweight-only session that we run here on a Monday. I'll generally try and lift three to four times a week, strength sessions, and then another, hopefully another, high intensity interval that's variable, same as the fourth, strength one and then at least one run, preferably two.
Speaker 1:Since the start of the year just loaded myself up with work which is, you know, one, an excuse. Mainly it is an excuse. You can always find time to train, is my rule, but yeah, it's sort of been okay. Sneak in a primal if you can. There's been occasions where I've had, you know, other sessions on and whatnot, but managed to maintain that that's a gun to the head and I love it and it's never going to go away. And then navigating getting the strength training in has been really interesting. Um, because one, you know, you do a primal on a monday night, you're sore, tuesday, it's easy to say I'm sore. I trained last night. It's fine, and generally on a sunday I'll go and you know, really cash in as much time strength training as I can because I've got time, um, but yeah, just having to change that.
Speaker 1:So in the last month I've really gone with this approach of let's stick with that monday high intensity exposure and then I've shifted to 30 minute strength sessions because I found 60 minutes was kind of just a waste of time and one so then if I didn't have the time I wouldn't fit it in. So then I was missing sessions and then you feel like a piece of shit for missing sessions. So then I was like, okay, let's double down on making sure I get these strength exposures in, and I've just dialed in on what is now a 30-minute strength session and it's crazy the difference it makes. So I'm doing two, if not three, of those a week and then making sure I run at least once a week, because you know, last year I ran two and a half marathon, as you said, training for an event, and just took running to a whole other level for myself, where I'm like I'm never going to go back from that, and that for me is being able to do a 10K at a you know, 445, sub that pace. And so you know, for me the goal now is to, whilst I'm really busy, not get worse. And that's kind of been my attitude this year is I was in a really good place last year from a training perspective. I haven't got any worse and I've been training a lot less, which has been really interesting. So you know I can still go out and you know I'm not going to do a 420 10K, which I once did, but sitting under that 445 threshold if I need to.
Speaker 1:From a running perspective, and then from a lifting perspective, my key numbers are being able to back squat about 1.75 body weight for 10. That's kind of my goal. And then it's the same as a bench press being able to do, you know, again about 1.2 of body weight for 10. There's just a couple of basic numbers which I'm making sure I don't let slip and, as a result, the high volume, high intensity strength training that I'm doing has had a really amazing influence on kind of how I'm feeling from a soreness perspective, when last year or the year before I was really trying to hit the maximal strength stuff but I found my body just didn't love it. I was aching in the knees and the shoulders and probably in the place that you're in now.
Speaker 1:But as a result, I've dialed back on the load, kept the volume, kept the intensity to 90-second rest maximum between any set and, yeah, you can just churn through your 30-minute strength session. So I'll do a full breakdown of what that looks like in an episode at one point. But for particularly the male out there, that is busy kids, family, whatever else is going on and you only have a small window to do your training kids, family, whatever else is going on and you only have a small window to do your training. This for me is the secret sauce because it's kept everything where it was at its peak for me and I haven't gotten much worse and I have not trained half as much as I typically would and I'd typically like to. So, yeah, really interesting sort of period from a training perspective, but got some things in the pipeline to see if that changes soon.
Speaker 2:It's really interesting, I think, from experience training people. Guys, once they hit 30, right up to probably about 50, respond really well to the intensity and less so, the volume. And you know there's someone out there smarter than me. You can, you know, back that up with something? I'd'd love to see it. I'm sure you've got something banked up and you know you mentioned the accomplishment factor of feeling good. You've mentioned the volume factor of, you know, walking around with your bum being a bit sore from, you know, bulgarian spots, split squatting or something, um, but I do find that a set of 10, 8, 6 will work a lot better than 5x5 or something like that. In this period where work's busy, life's busy. You know people might have kids, family, whatever. So just a bit of food for thought there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's very interesting and more than anything like 30 minutes is enough. You can find 30 minutes, anyone can find 30 minutes. A couple of times a week, that's pretty easy, particularly if you just put your iPhone down Righto Cool. To wrap it up, mate, let's bring it home. One big lesson from the last month could be in business, could be in training yourself, could be in training your clients. What's the big one for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, look, I'm going to go staff for this one, and where we're currently at is we've got a lot of really good people in our team and what I often forget is a lot of us are trainers, first managers, business people, you know, marketers, marketers, whatever. That's not our primary role and I always have to catch myself thinking that, because training people for me is, I love it, it's it's second nature. I could look at the whiteboard once and be like cool, I remember everything. Let's roll. But setting direction, following up, giving advice, giving feedback is is still something I need a lot of work on and the entire team does so for me. We're the team of younger staff, staff who are newer to the industry. There's a few people who aren't born in Australia, so culturally there's some differences. There's people who have come across from different companies is making sure that we are clearer and clearer and clearer and clearer all the time, which has been my biggest lesson, and clear in particular, to who we are, what we do, why we do it as a brand.
Speaker 2:As well as this is how things should be done. This is how the session should be delivered, this is the music that is most appropriate, using parameters or brackets. So you know, here are some options to choose between. And just giving more direction before you give creative freedom or creative license. If you rewind a few years ago, I always thought, no, give them creative freedom, they'll love it. But analysis, paralysis went on and you thought overthought, overthought, overthought, when a lot of the feedback I'm getting personally is give me direction, give me parameters and give me things to play between, which has been a really interesting lesson for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's a big lesson and stuff.
Speaker 1:I think for me and it references back to my training it is in training and it is when you're busy.
Speaker 1:You don't have to let the physicality or the training element go to the side and, as I said, it's just reconsidering what you're doing and there's so many other levers you can pull on, particularly in a training sense, that you can get as much value out from your zone to to your cardio, to your strength and to everything else.
Speaker 1:I'm almost annoyed at how inefficiently I trained for the last three, four, five years, because what I'm doing in a third of the time is getting very similar outcomes, so that, for me, is going okay from an efficiency perspective. There is a lever there that you can pull. And then, if you do have the luxury of training and having time with your training, what are you doing? Because if it's not making significant improvements, you need to be considering your work and how hard you are working when you are working and don't waste time, because that's the commodity that is more valuable than anything else in the world. Be more hard on your time when you are training so you can get more out of it. That's probably my main lesson for anyone. That's, that's uh, that's keen on the odd training side of things.
Speaker 2:No that's good, I fully agree. For people who don't know your training cycle, I think you've been mr consistent for a long, long long time, so you do have to earn that right. But where you're at now, you've got a position where you can really turn up the dial and essentially get the same benefits. So it's a good lesson in being committed and being consistent and then having the luxury of going not luxury having the ability to dial it up.
Speaker 1:Dial it up, yeah, in a shorter timeframe, which almost sounds contradictory, but yeah, it's possible. Awesome, sweet mate. Thank you very much. Well, I'll put this out to the listeners. Jump on our social media if you've got any question that you want to ask into these.
Speaker 1:We'll start doing a little bit of a Q&A in and around these podcasts here, just both within the business business lessons and then obviously training, which is the thing we're most stoked about, or most into um, and then the other thing, which is a sort of new project that we've been working on for a little while now, is the science of fitness school program, um. So, for those that don't know what school is, it is an online learning platform, um, and we essentially just have, you know, have had people move away and train with us and observe us from, you know, other states, cities and whatever, and they just wanted to know a little bit more about what we do, why we do it, how it all sort of works, from exercise prescription to injury and all that sort of thing from a programming perspective. So we've got a range of content up there and available, but if you just jump on the soft school program, you can look us up online. You can go to our social media and, yeah, just jump on. We've set that up to be now free to anybody, so anyone can sign up, join the community, interact with the community, send us messages.
Speaker 1:We're doing, as I said, a whole lot of online learning content. We're doing online sort of workshops and that sort of thing as well. So a really exciting space that's coming up for us and something to keep your eyes out, joey. Thank you very much once again, mate. We'll catch you in four weeks time, mate, and we'll go again See you in May, brother Beauty. Thanks, mate. Thanks for listening to today's episode. For more regular insights into SOF, be sure to check us out on Instagram or Facebook or visit our website at scienceoffitnesscomau. Once again, we thank you for tuning in to the Science of Fitness podcast.