EP21, Moving Intentionally with Michael Rosencrum

In this episode of 'Unstoppable by Design,' host Matt Terry discusses the importance of intentional pacing in fitness with special guest Coach Michael Rosencrum from Juggernaut Fitness. They explore the concept of moving intentionally, the risks of redlining during workouts, and the difference between random sweat and real progress. Key insights include learning from workout failures, the importance of tracking workouts, and how to set proper pacing strategies based on workout intents like sprints, grinds, and skill practices. The episode also touches on scaling techniques, the value of recovery, and how to maintain fitness goals over time despite changing life circumstances. A challenge is issued to listeners to engage with their coaches to understand the intent behind their workouts and ensure their training aligns with personal fitness goals.

00:16 Introduction to Unstoppable by Design 
00:30 Understanding Intentional Pacing 
01:02 Moving with Control and Purpose 
02:20 Finding Your Limits and Redlining 
04:00 Training with Purpose and Reflection 
06:15 Adjusting Workouts for Different Goals 
08:35 Scaling and Pacing Strategies 
13:31 Personal Training Insights 
15:29 Keeping Pride and Ego Out of Scaling 
16:19 The Importance of Scaling and Movement Quality 
17:02 Effective Pacing Strategies 
18:31 Using the Talk Test for Pacing 
20:07 Coaching Round Management 
21:50 Ideal Pre-Workout Warmup 
23:50 Training Mature Populations 
26:34 Recovery and Deload Weeks 
28:44 Encouraging Former Athletes 
32:27 Myth Busting Fitness Beliefs 
33:25 Unstoppable Challenge and Conclusion 

Transcript

Matt: Let's Goooo. Welcome to Unstoppable by Design, where we talk all things fitness mindset and what it means to truly be unstoppable inside and outside the gym. I'm Matt Terry, and today we're dialing in something that separates random sweat from real progress, intentional pacing. My guest is Coach Michael Rosencrum, one of our full-time coaches here at Juggernaut Fitness, with a knack for pushing people just outside their comfort zone where growth happens.

By the end of the episode, you'll start looking at every workout and asking, what's the intent? How do I pace or scale to match my goal? Let's grab a whiteboard marker, and let's dive in. So, Mike, how are you doing? Good morning, Matthew. I'm all right. Good morning. All right, so Mike, when you think of move intentionally.

What does that mean in plain English for a group fitness class? So 

Mike: as we, uh, probably talked about before here and there is very much dependent on the workout and what we're trying to do for that workout. I think it's a central tenet for fitness in a very general sense there that we think, um. Or should be training core to extremity.

Mm-hmm. So, when we see move intentionally, depending on that movement, we wanna make sure we're actually moving with control and purpose, intentional movement as opposed to just kind of flinging your body through something. Like hip hinging for example. We wanna make sure we're not like collapsing our midline and letting ourself flap ourself around like a, like a blanket.

We're trying to snap out. To put on a blanket. We want to actually have some engagement and control through our body so that we move effectively, but also without the risk of injury. 

Matt: Yeah. What I'm hearing is don't believe everything you see on YouTube. Yes. There you go. Yes. The guy strapped to the bands on the rig Yes.

Is that is not actually what we do.

Mike: No, it is not. The guy strapped in multiple bands with no actual like surface structure to actually move from. Yeah. No. Yeah. That's ridiculous.

Matt: Uh, you coach with a marine vibe, you push the edge, not over it. How do you help athletes find their line without red lining every time? 

Mike: Honestly, sometimes I let them red line. There are definitely, sometimes you have to learn by the hard way as we put it. Um, I think a thing I like to say sometimes, sometimes the best lessons are the ones that will learn the hard way. And uh, sometimes you have to go a little too hot and be like, okay, that didn't work the way I wanted it to.

Especially say like, we have a 20 minute AMRAP. If you're finishing your first round of something, say like 10 meter, 10 calorie bike sprints in. 15 seconds. You have three movements. You get back on the bike and all of a sudden that next effort takes you triple the length and then you look up the clock, you's like, I still have 18 minutes left.

Oh no. Hey, you probably have come out a little too hot and I'm gonna let you crash and burn a little bit. And we're like, Hey, guess what? Like I told you, had you hit the bike pace at 60 RPMs as opposed to 80 RPMs. You might be moving much more consistently, which means you'll get a greater volume of work in.

As opposed to being hard Yep. Early you actually get a lot less work done in that time domain if you had actually paced yourself a bit more 

accordingly.

Matt: Yeah. I mean, one of the things we talk about is intensity. Mm-hmm. And I don't think it's a benefit to anybody to approach every training session with a hundred percent mm-hmm.

Intensity. Mm-hmm. And you're right, sometimes you have to, to red line to find that data point on where that failure is. But then you gotta reevaluate afterwards. Yep. And be like, alright, I went too hot here. Yep. Next time I see a workout like this, I'm gonna pull back just a little bit. Yep. And keep some in the tank for sustainability.

Yeah. Uh, for listeners who only chase the clock, what's the first mindset shift to train on purpose, not impulse? 

Mike: Mm. I'll go back to my previous answer then again. Hey, guess what? Sometimes you gotta find that red line and be like, Hey. That isn't sustainable for that kind of a time domain, a time period.

Um, I would example would be Mike Yeager and I recently partnered up for a workout, like earlier this week, I wanna say Monday, where there was biking and calorie, uh, ski, like calorie repeats. And like it went down and then went back up and we thought about it afterwards because it was like a 30 minute clock or like a 39 minute clock, I wanna say.

And. We compared, like our first round of it to our end round where we were. Mike was hitting a pretty high number. I was hitting a pretty high number. And then later on when we got towards the end of it, we looked back and like, Hey, did we hit the same intensity at the beginning as we did at the end? And the answer was like, yes, but also no.

So finding and like making sure we, we track our notes, we track our scores and our workouts, not because we want to have. The leaderboard chase, but because we want to have that information for the next time, we have a similar workout where we can, Hey, that was a little too much, or, Hey, that wasn't quite enough.

Yeah, I can actually push this boundary a little bit more. Or That was beyond my boundary for that long of a workout. Where can I adjust accordingly? Yeah, because that also gives you then the same intel to make the inverse to be like, Hey, now I have a shorter, more intense focus workout. I know that I can hit this pace.

For that kind of a shorter domain, like I should be hitting it here. So bracketing, right? Too much, not enough, just right. Yeah. Is exactly how we kind of figure out where we can, but also how to find and. Get just a little bit better the next time we do a workout like that. 

Matt: Yep. I like that. So there's a lot of like reflective Yep.

Like, think back on it, log your workouts. Yeah. Which you said, which is, is really, really important. Yeah. I think we also do a good job of talking about the workout, uh, at the whiteboard. So like every, the workout has a reason why it's written. Mm-hmm. Uh, we do a good job explaining, Hey, you guys really want to be here?

Yeah. Aim for this. Mm-hmm. And then whatever happens, reflect afterwards. Yep. And then start training with, with purpose. Yep. Yep. Which is good. Yeah. Group workouts at juggernaut Fitness are written with intent. What are the common intents for something like a sprint, a grind, a skill practice, or a heavy day?

And how should athletes adjust the pace for each? So basically, how is it different? 

Mike: How's it different? Yeah. Again, depending on the workout, right? Yeah. And which is such a common theme here, which is why, you know, tracking is such an important thing. So you have reference points because. One of the tenets there, especially CrossFit is constantly varied.

Yep. Right. So you can't always expect for like three weeks we're gonna have the exact same style workout. 'cause it's not how that works. It's also not how training progressively works. You need to have that variance. So depends on you too, as an athlete. Are you good at a skill? Are you good at. This movement?

Or are you working on this kind of movement? So there's a difference between training for fitness and then conditioning, right? Yeah. Are you good at this movement? First, can you repeat this movement with intensity? Now we work on the conditioning piece of it, so, development and then improving that too.

A conditioning piece is. A thing that people kind of overlook. It's like, Hey, I am getting good at this skill. I need to go hard at this skill. It's like, actually, you probably should learn how to move it correctly first, and then you can move it with intensity. 

Matt: Yeah. 

Mike: I had like a workout where a a a Saturday workout two weeks ago where we did the handstand walking drills and I literally had like, people go through five different progressions and then it was like, Hey, where did you feel comfortable at?

Where you can move with some kind of intensity and. We did the workout accordingly, so it kind of set itself up for that kind of athlete success where, hey, we have these supported elements to it so that you can practice it any workout without necessarily having the, the pressure of making it feel like it needs to be more intense.

Yep. So that development 

Matt: and growth can occur. Yeah. That's awesome. Or sometimes mixing things. Mm-hmm. So if you're, if you're working on a to bar but it calls for 15 to bar, maybe you start the first five with your practice reps and then you switch to something else. You could still do both. Yeah. You did development and the practice at sometimes that's good.

Yep. Mixing and matching perfectly fine. Uh, if the workout calls for a two minute sprint stimulus but your fastest round is closer to six minutes. What are some of the ways you would help someone so they stay more on track? Mm. Again, depends 

Mike: on the workout, right? Um, so for example, if like we are having some kind of barbell cycling thing, hey, guess what?

Take some weight off the bar so you can move it much more intensely, correctly, right? As opposed to muscle in your way through it. Things that are more mono structural like bikes runs jump roping, even cut some of the volume down so that you feel like you can move much more intensely, but you still have adequate rest to repeat the intensity you want to achieve for that workout.

Uh, a good one is usually like 50 double wonders, right? That's usually a number that people who are working on getting better at double lenders want to get that, that number, they chase that number. Where a lot of times when we scale things. We don't just go right down to a single and say 32nd effort or like a 22nd effort, something like that where you can not necessarily have to count the reps, but get the desired intensity for a time domain.

So it makes it a little more simple and feels a little bit more achievable. Yeah. So you feel that success? 

Matt: I like that. Yeah. Can you walk us through how you'd explain the intended stimulus for a workout and how you would help people find the correct pacing? 

Mike: So central theme we're talking about here, it depends on the workout, right?

This week, for example, we have been doing a lot of testing with our one rep maxes for thing like deadlift, back, squat, clean, and jerk. I've been encouraged people, Hey, don't be afraid to and try to fail a rep here and there, even early on. If you're nervous about bailing out of a back squat, for example, do it once with a lightweight on just so you feel it, and they have the confidence to make those bigger jumps and try those heavier weights.

Conversely, uh, if we have shorter sprints. Efforts like that, that first round, heck, even during the warmup, I'd be, Hey, just send a max effort and pay attention to how high you get the cadence or the RPMs on the bike. For example, if you were able to hit a hundred on the RPM, hey, guess what? That's your max effort.

Now let's do a little bit of math. You wanna 70% effort? Let's see you hit 70 RPMs and hold onto that for 20 or 30 seconds. And that way we can see if you can maintain that over several rounds. Um, now you're training with some more purposeful intensity and you have some objective data to go off rather than, ah, that felt hard because subjective data like that is exactly that subjective.

You don't really have a barometer to gauge whether that was accurate or not. Um, barbell cycling and like run repeats or other things like that, jump rope work, all that kind of stuff. What are you able to consistently repeat and then maybe add or up or two or add a few pounds here and there? And adjust accordingly.

Maybe also take off a few pounds if you're a, not able to be snappy or consistent with your movements. Those little micro adjustments really help us dial in and stay a little more intense to training cycles that we want to achieve. 

Matt: Yep. Or maybe even individual goals. 

Mike: Yep. Individual efforts as well.

Matt: Uh, what are your favorite scaling levers? We're talking about load reps, range of motion, movement, swap. How do you pick the right one for that person? 

Mike: Yep. And again, it depends on not just a workout in this case, but the individual there too and what their skills are like. Something I had talked about before is like, hey, do you pay attention to what your canes on the bike is?

When was the last time you actually looked up your percentage of cleaning jerks, for example? We just tested that. What, what'd you hit? Did you track it? Help us to help you a little bit there. Right. For example, we often talk about, Hey, these barbell weights today should be like 50 to 60 ish percent a moderate weight.

It's like, well, I don't know what that means for me. It's like, well, we just tested it. We go, did you retract that weight? Did you put it down somewhere? Do you know what it is? Even somewhere, even in your head, even if you don't use our, our app, did you write it in your notes somewhere? It's like, no. It's like I Help me to help you a little bit on that one.

Right. Going off of those kind of little objective measures really help us dial in and stay a bit more focused and training more purposefully in our workouts. 

Matt: Yeah. Yeah. And I, I wanna go back to something you said in the last question. Mm-hmm. Uh, you're like, if they're working on barbell cycling, maybe we would scale back the load Yeah.

And not swap out the movement unless, you know, outside of any other considerations, like Right. An injury or. Something like that. But ideally, if it's a power clean and a workout, we wanna keep the power clean. 

Mike: Yeah. 

Matt: And scale back the load a little bit so they can keep doing the movement. Yep. Yep. That's cool.

Mike: If you have to think about the weight to do the movement, it's probably a little too heavy. If you wanna think about what the mechanics, the weight's probably right there. Yep. And that's usually where we wanna really be training at. You shouldn't be having to think that's too heavy. Or this is really heavy.

I need to be much more aggressive here. You're probably missing the point of the movement just a little bit. So it's never a bad thing to put some weight down on some things and try to move a bit more, as we've mentioned very early on in this intentionally. Yep. As opposed to overtly aggressive. 

Matt: Love it.

Uh, for personal training clients. Mm-hmm. What's a good question? They should ask their coach to understand the why behind their day's program. 

Mike: Um, that's a good question. Why? Um, and it'll depend on the athlete there though again. Right. So many of these questions and. But yeah, so many clients that we work with here, they initially come in us like, ah, I just wanna be more fit.

What does that mean for you? Yeah. And usually when I go through some questions and usually a training session or two and be like, Hey, did you like this? Did you not like this? Do you wanna move better here? Do you want to get heavier here? Those kind of things. And then we can start to find some more objective data.

Like they, they like to back squat and, you know, if they're weird, they like the bike for example. Hey, we will take you through a little bit of like a three rep max test and like maybe a, a bike talk test a little bit and we can get some more objective measures so that you can see tangible progress rather than just like, ah, I think I'm more fit, which usually is people feeling frustrated and unfulfilled.

It doesn't really get you anywhere you want it to. So I feel like I, I feel like many members here would reinforce this is when I talk about some of these workouts I a bit of a stickler on like, Hey, what was your RPM on that bike? Or, Hey, how much weight did you cycle through? Or, Hey, how many weight, uh, reps did you get with this volume or this weight?

And how did it feel? Did you hit it consistently well? Were you having to break it up more? More or less. And where can we make those little, again, micro adjustments so that you feel a little more complete in your workout. 

Matt: Yeah. Or even I, I like, I like what you said, like they could just ask why would be like, how does this help me get towards Yeah.

My goal. Yeah. And that way you feel better about the training session and you understand, okay, he wants me to get four rounds in this. Yep. AMRAP. I'm gonna try to pace for this. Yep. And it helps them kind of take control of their fitness too, which is good. Yeah. Yep. Feel much more involved in it. Yeah. Uh, how do you keep pride and ego out of scaling?

So athletes see it as a strategy instead of a step backwards. Sure. So,

Mike: I think a lot of times it's important for us as coaches to work out in a class every once in a while and, and scale some workouts.

Yep. Also it kind of depends on that person and how they're feeling that day. For example, we've had some pretty good leg workouts this previous week. Yeah, while maybe I'm capable of using dual 53 kettlebells for some front rack walking lunges, my legs are pretty smoked from an earlier session earlier in the week, guess what?

I'm not gonna use that much weight, especially if I want to actually hit it within that intended time domain. So yeah, I'll put the weight down a little bit so I can move much more consistently and controlled rather than trying to, as I've said before, muscle my way through that workout. Yeah, I, I think a lot of people, unfortunately, they have a tough time wanting to make sure they're always r xing things.

And that's not always beneficial, especially if your movement quality suffers a lot. You're just risking injury and you want talk about stepping back a little bit. Wait until you pull a muscle that you're down for six weeks, that's gonna set you back. So, I think a lot of people sometimes.

They need to crash and burn a little bit to eat that humble pie. But we need to make sure we kind of let them do that in a much more safe way. So like taking weights off the bar sometimes is a tough one. You need to let them fail. Rep or two. It's like, Hey, guess what? That might be a little out of your depth at the moment.

Nothing wrong with that. But also conversely, sometimes, hey, a 20 minute workout you guys this first round. Set your pace for yourself and don't come out too hot. Don't be hitting 70 RPMs on the bike when you should be hitting 60 RPMs. And then, I'll let a person, uh, no, I got this. Oh, okay, let's see how it goes.

And I'll check back with him five minutes later into a 20 minute workout. I was like, Hey, those RPMs are like 47 now. What's going on? It's like, I'm really tired, man. I'm like, it came out a little too hot. You can't maintain your intensity. So, sometimes people need to learn the hard way. 

Matt: Yeah.

You know, and I think, I think a really good whiteboard, uh, or I shouldn't say whiteboard, but even like a debrief or a huddle before the workout Yep. And explaining what they should be looking for kind of helps. Yep. 'cause, uh, for a lot of people, myself included, I just wanna show up and I want to think as little as possible about the workout.

Yeah. And so I might make bad choices if the coach is not like, Hey, this workout you're supposed to be. You have 15 minutes to get these five rounds. Yeah. If you're only hitting four, you're actually missing a good portion of the workout. You're missing a fifth of the workout and volume that's not gonna help you.

That's not the reason the workout was written. Yep. And so it's like having that good, that good huddle and that good explanation of exactly where they should try to pace and hit Yeah. Uh, sets 'em up for success. 

Mike: Yep, 

Matt: absolutely. Uh, thinking about pacing tools that anyone can use, what's your simple go-to guide for somebody?

Uh, we're thinking about stuff like. In a pacing talk test or think about RPE or heart rate zones. Mm-hmm. Uh, which one's your favorite? 

Mike: So, uh, I like a talk test here. That's something I do with quite a few clients that I work with one-on-one. When I get to work one-on-one with people, that's usually a good measure 'cause it gives them some really good firm objective measures that we can retest in a controlled way three to five months down the road.

I recently had Anna do one, which I'm sure she enjoyed immensely. For those of you who don't know what talk test is, it's kind of very simple and not as accurate, but simple way to test a VO two max. Essentially, how much people can control the volume of their breathing under stress and duress. The simplest way to do it is basically take a timed interval and just kind of slowly increase the intensity until you can no longer maintain that intensity for that interval.

Usually like a two minute every two minutes, you go five RPMs faster. So you start out really light like 30 RPMs on a bike, and every two minutes on those two minutes you go just a little bit faster, a little bit faster, and you ask them, Hey, how are you doing? How's it feel? Right? So like, Hey, I'm.

Michael Rosencrum, this feels like a two out of 10 on a rating of perceived exertion. But then by the time up to like 65 RPMs, 70 RPMs, I'm like, this is an eight out 10 and I am not having a good time anymore. I'm not having a good time. Yeah. Um, until you literally fail and now you have some really good data that you can test again down the road with some purposeful training.

Um, yeah. I like that one quite a bit actually. As much as it hurts to do it, it's a. It's 

Matt: a really good one. Yeah. It helps, uh, like some self-awareness too. Absolutely. Yeah. Uh, how do you coach round management, think about starting pace versus maybe that finishing kick in a workout so people don't blow up in minute three.

Mike: Mm. So a good example of that would be the workout that I mentioned earlier yesterday, workout with the rowing and the lunging. Especially, it's easier usually too with, it's a decreasing rep scheme that'll help people a lot with that. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel and you have to do less work, a little bit less work, a little bit less work, so you can really start to kick it up a notch.

So I think the big cue that I used for the classes I coach was, Hey, these first like two rounds, start a little more on the conservative side, right? Let yourself settle into a pace. Pay attention to how long it takes you to hit that calorie on that row, how long it takes to hit those reps or those lunges.

And then the next time we have a few less reps. Maybe just a little bit faster. Just a little bit faster. And then before you know it, you've ramped up your intensity. Probably a good 20% in that last round compared to that first round. So people yesterday did a great job 'cause it was like an 18 minute cap.

We were looking to get people done in 12 to 14 minutes and most people picked appropriate weights, but they got objectively faster each time. Not just because the reps went down, but because they felt confident. To start pushing their pace even harder, getting a better workout out of that. And a lot of people were finishing either well under or right under that stimulus, that intended time, which was fantastic to see across the board.

So having those kind of successful little workouts right there where people hit themselves hit their pace well initially and then are able to see that, okay, I have a little bit less work to do, I can get a bit more into, and finding that that stride really helps 'em out. 

Matt: Yeah. Yes. Uh, what does an ideal pre-workout warmup round contain Thinking like a, a pre-WOD?

Yeah. Guess what? 

Mike: Depends on the workout. Yeah. Right. If we're doing a lot of posterior chain movement, for example, you know, uh, hinging our hips a lot. Yeah. You know, you gotta make sure you get those hamstrings, those glutes of fire up bridges, um, some rolls and reaches. If we're doing a shoulder intensive workout, a classic one, we do the bandit sevens a lot of squat work.

Hey. Some hip prep with the mini band, getting those glutes and those hip abductors, adductors start to fire appropriately. It depends on what's going on in that workout, what's coming on with it, but also the individuals and where they have some, maybe some minor muscle imbalances or limited range of motion.

Are they stretching appropriately, passively, actively dynamically and taking it sequentially like that so that they feel safe to move. But also reducing that risk of injury going into a workout. Also, you know, barbell movements. Are we using some empty bar warmup movement first or are you thinking you're gonna throw 40 fives on right away and start slinging 1 35 around like it's a play thing, you know?

Is it a low percentage for you? Do you know what you wanna rep Max? Is are you starting at like 30, 40% and then actually building up to that 60 ish percent? Or are you just trying to go ham? Are you. That's gonna help you warm up appropriately. So, you don't pull your hamstring or throw your shoulder out in the middle because you just went too hot too quickly 

Matt: there.

Yep. Yeah. And I think we do a good job as a gym for like our pre wads, making sure the movements match what they're gonna see in the workout. So, yes. So that way we get warmed up and then we, we try some of the movements before we actually dive into the workout itself. 

Mike: Right. Yeah. We don't do a workout, we don't do a warmup where we are doing.

Walking around and then, oh, by the way, here's a 40 inch box jump on top of that. We haven't jumped once yet to warm up with this. Like, no, we should do at least a couple of squad jumps, maybe some pogo hops even. Just to kind of start warming 

Matt: up that jumping movement. Uh, you've worked with some mature populations.

Uh, what pacing or scaling habits protect joints and keep folks training for decades. What do you mean by mature, sophisticated? 

Mike: That's legends. That is. Very much a subjective term right there, because age does not matter for maturity in my humble opinion there. But uh, yes, I did used to work in geriatrics for a long time at skilled nursing facilities, um, helping those who are definitely well into retirement, recover from like broken hips, uh, knee replacements.

Those kind of issues, learning to get back on their own feet and walk again after a fall, but also after just a lot of muscle loss from some kind of illness or even just unfortunately becoming sedentary after they retired. I think a lot of folks, unfortunately, once they hit that retirement, they're so tired from the grind of their job for 20, 30 years that they just wanna sit around a lot.

They don't have any, they wanna relax. They don't have like, well also they don't have the motivation. Or structure in place to keep themselves moving. Again, working for nursing facilities for over a decade. Most people just have, the reason they're in nursing facilit is 'cause they just can't stand up on their own power.

They'll, they have lift chairs that help get them 80% of the way back on their feet, and they need to have three different handles and rigs to help them get off the toilet. And it's really unfortunate because again, some people, they, it's not that they're. Bad or lazy. They just work so hard. They work themselves to a point of exhaustion.

They want to do less now and that they've retired. And I don't blame 'em for it, but unfortunately that does set them up for failure. So it kind of goes back here when we go talk about scaling. The fact that you're moving at all is going to help make sure that you don't end up in that nursing home. I feel like I do a good job without this, and I feel like many of us do here is we preach.

Controlled range of motion over heavy weights or volume first. I think is a good way that we talk about not just how we have our bootcamp kind of set up and getting some new workouts in there, but also how we have and try to make sure we transition those foundations and have people go through quality movement patterns first before we say, okay, slap some 40 fives in that barbell.

Let's give it a whirl. It helps people feel more confident and control their movement patterns so that they can develop them appropriately so that we don't risk injury over it. 'cause that's not the point of this. The point of this is to make sure that we're moving well for longevity, not moving well To chase a leaderboard for that one day.

A 

Matt: hundred percent. Yeah. How do you define a win on recovery or deload? Weeks? So goal getters, uh, don't feel like they're losing ground.

Mike: So, gosh, depends on the workout, right? And all that kind of stuff. And that kind of comes back to taking pride and ego out of it sometimes is when we're training to develop strength, especially if you don't give those muscles the adequate recovery to actually rebuild, you're not getting any stronger.

You're just constantly breaking down. So it's important that every once in a while your body gets that deload, it gets that break from higher intensity, higher weights and those kind of things. 'cause our muscles need the actual quality recovery time. A lot of people kind of overlook the fact that sleep is probably more important than the actual weight you lifted that day.

Yep. I think there's like a, there's. An unwritten rule out there that's like, Hey, 70% of working out is your diet. Are you eating well? Do you eat well? Do you try to make sure you eat consistently well? Because yeah, you may have lifted really heavy that previous day. How did you, do you feel really sore still?

Why did you not let yourself recover? Did you mobilize afterwards? I made this joke with Deirdre the other day that you know. We should know that we should stretch out after we work out. Like yesterday, we did a lot of squatting, rowing, and lunging. Hey, guess what? You guys, everybody should do some couch stretching.

Some of you're not going to, and that next flight of stairs you take are going to feel way dicey because your legs are so sore from the workout you just did. And, uh, I think that discourages a lot of people, unfortunately, unless part of it is like, Hey guys, here's some like mobility homework. You should do it because you won't feel as sore afterwards.

Also, that's why deload weeks are important. The muscles need the recovery time. Mm-hmm. If you're just constantly training with high, high intensity, your muscles never recover from it, therefore, you don't actually improve. 

Matt: Uh, we got a, a viewer question for this next one. Mm-hmm. How do you encourage people who have peaked through some kind of rigorous training program in their past and are keenly aware of it? Uh, this person's gonna use himself as an example. Uh, when I was training to be a gay morden, I was doing nothing but working out 24 7.

Now I have a desk job again. I try to maintain a high standard of fitness, but it simply isn't possible for me to achieve my initial level when I was dedicating my life to training. How do you encourage, celebrate people like me who say, yeah, that run lift, et cetera was fine, but I used to do it so much better.

And unless I quit my job to train 24 7 again, I'm never gonna beat my pr. My 

Mike: first question would probably be like, why are you trying to beat your pr? Uh, do yourself a favor primarily is don't try to compare yourself to who you were 10 years ago. Unfortunately a lot of us hit like a biological physiological prime earlier than we want to in our life.

And as we continue to age, unfortunately, um, there are some physical limitations that start to come up. We just don't recover or grow as much as we did in our forties, as we do in our twenties. So. Making peace with that in and of yourself in and of itself is, you know, an important part that's maturing, right?

Don't always compare yourself to your previous self. Also for all you know, um, you may have been getting away with it then, but maybe now we can actually reframe that and look at it in much more of a positive light. It's like, okay, well you did X, Y, Z when you were in your twenties. Hey, let's see if we can get even closer to that now that you're in your forties.

Looking at how humans age gracefully, some more than others. If you're even close to what you were doing in your twenties, honestly, that's pretty impressive in its own right. Yeah. So don't sell yourself short just because when you were able to train at such a frequency and intensity that you're no longer do it, of course you're not gonna match what you were doing before if you don't have the same time.

I think a lot of professional athletes kind of fall into that trap accidentally where. They think that they can still do the things that they were doing when they were much younger. And well, the ravages of time and injury unfortunately don't always allow us to kind of get back to what we were doing when we were quote unquote at our peak.

And if you're not able to maintain the same kind of level of training and frequency as you were when you were at your peak, why would you try to hold yourself to the same level when you're not even able to train like that? So. You know, I think my first thing would be like, cut yourself some slack, man.

Mm-hmm. You're probably doing way better than most people out there as it is, so try to reframe it for yourself. Don't always hold yourself to an impossibly high standard, but a high one as an individual would be a much more appropriate way to look at that. I think. Yeah. Life and circumstances change.

Mm-hmm. Uh, time waits for no one. Seriously. You know, I, uh, I wouldn't hold myself. To the same standard of running as I did when I was 20 and weighed 20, 25 pounds less than I do nowadays. You know, as safely, like I'm not gonna fit into a t-shirt that I have when I was 20 and I rabbit starved Marine running around constantly 'cause I was 150 pounds.

So I shouldn't expect that same t-shirt to fit me now that I am 20 pounds heavier per se, because I can actually eat food and sleep well. 

Matt: Yeah. Or even, I mean myself. Last year I was training a little bit harder than I was or I am right now. And I could do more, I could do bigger set of pull-ups. I could last longer in workouts.

Mm-hmm. But like my goals have shifted. Yeah. Like now I'm not doing that. I'm trying to get better movement quality and take care of myself Yeah. For longer. And that's perfectly fine too. Absolutely. It is. Yeah. Uh, alright, so myth busting questions. So some rapid fire ones. Okay, so myth number one, harder is always better. False. Moving on. Myth number two, if you are not wrecked, it didn't work. Also, very false. Uh, myth number three, walking or slowing down between sets is cheating. How I, I don't understand that whatsoever. How is that cheating? They're like, oh, you're not keeping the intensity.

No, it's, no, it's sometimes you need that active recovery going to your next move before 

Mike: you, pass out. I don't know, a hundred percent. Yeah. All those questions can be very much like, hey, uh, depends on the. For example, if you're trying to rehab your shoulder with an orange band, you'd better not be feeling that sore after that.

Yep. Conversely, did you just one rep max your back squat? Yeah. You're probably gonna be a little sore. So I think some, um, situational awareness would be very helpful in those kind of situations. 

Matt: Yeah, a hundred percent. That's it. So unstoppable challenge this week before one of your workouts. Ask your coach what the intention is for the workout and what the ideal target is upon completion.

Remember your goal and try to scale to match the intention of the workout along with whatever personal fitness goal uh you have for yourself. Remember, progress isn't about going harder. It's about going on purpose. You're unstoppable by design. If you wanna help aligning your training plan to your goals, schedule a goal review session with Sara Fogg We'll map out your personal targets and ensure every session drives meaningful progress. Hit follow drop. A quick review if today's convo sparked an aha moment and keep notifications on new episodes land every Tuesday and next week we're going of our clear guide to body composition, what skeletal muscle mass and body fat percentage really mean, and how to use those numbers .

Until then, be well, be unstoppable.