Too Complicated BoB

You're listening to Beast Overburden, powered by Barbell Logic. >> We are Niki and Andrew, your personal professional coaches. >> We help you take control of your [music] fitness through hard but doable training and nutrition practices that fit your busy life. >> Build a stronger, healthier version of yourself with lifelong [music] habits. Hey, hey, welcome everybody back to Beast Overburden with me, Niki Sims, coach and chief experience officer of Barbell Logic with Andrew Jackson, the founder of Turnkey Coach. He is also a coach at Barbell Logic. >> [laughter] >> And he has really great hair. >> I'm trying to figure out how to do this. I'm not >> [laughter] >> I haven't cut the top and yikes, it can go >> Oh, don't do don't do that way. >> Yeah, it can go a lot of different directions. >> [laughter] >> I need to look kind of like a hat, but >> Yeah. >> Um >> If you have any advice for people first time cutting men's hair, uh please send them to me. >> [laughter] >> It's funny with the the when you were saying Beast Overburden, the first thing that popped into my head was the Sex Panther. Rawr. >> [laughter] >> What are we talking about today? >> Today, we're back we're continuing with our series of the reasons why you are not training. And these are com- coming from real life phrases that I hear from people. Um [snorts] And this reason that we're going to talk about today is because it's too complicated and I don't have enough time. >> Yeah. I associate that with this mental resistance that I can admittedly feel, especially lately. That I'm caught up in doing a bunch of work and I know I need to get training done. I've like we talked about last time, but I'm in this phase where it's not at the same time on the same days, and I'm jamming in usually when I have a break or an opportunity to fit it in the schedule. And a lot of times I procrastinate essentially because I I [snorts] let myself build training up to this thing that I need to be ready for. I need to have the right night of sleep. I need to uh had the right food and yeah, like energy level, time, you know, needs to be a certain amount available, and it's become lately this process of what I call lowering the standards, but really it's setting the right expectations. >> It's meeting you where you're at right then. >> Exactly. >> Mhm. >> Once I actually just finally put the shoes on and go out into the the gym and start squatting, it's really not that big of a freaking deal. >> [laughter] >> It does not take that long to complete a set of squats, and it makes everything better. I feel better. >> You like yeah, you like come back to the house like basically skipping. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, I mean >> one can in lifting shoes. >> Probably an artifact of having trained for so long, so hard, there was definitely a lot of training sessions that were a huge part of the day and took a lot of energy and were extremely difficult and pushed me to my limits and And there's times where that's the right thing for training, but uh but if it's if it but I didn't feel that resistance even when it was harder and a longer session. In fact, I was in a space where that was like the thing I looked forward to more than anything else in the day. >> Right. >> I thought about it all day long. I protected that time like it was absolutely sacred. >> Mhm. >> It was where I found more energy for life. Uh it was also, you know, a social connection for many years because I was training as part of a team. And [snorts] so that setting expectations or managing expectations or uh you know, lowering the standard was definitely not an issue. It was more just like I was pushing the standard every single time. How far can I go? How much can I get done? Which is great. But, >> [snorts] >> if the gym is this thing in your mind that you have to really gear yourself up for and all the stars have to align in order for you to make it to the gym, >> Mhm. >> it's time to revisit your mental model for what training is and what what it needs to be >> Yeah. >> today so that you actually get out and do it. >> Right. It's not like you don't have to adopt a 2-hour morning routine to perfectly time your carbohydrates and you don't have to buy a cold plunge. You don't have to optimize every single thing to go train. Just need to go touch a barbell. And by these messages we hear out there about like ways to optimize, those can actually become exact reasons why someone will decide to not train. >> It has become I In fact, I was just talking about this on a coaches call this morning and the whole optimize uh you know, optimization [clears throat] influencer >> Mhm. >> trends on social media and just in the fitness industry in general or, you know, just even just the attention of our you know, media in general is all about these hyper optimizers. >> Yeah. >> You know, Bryan Johnson >> Oh, yeah. >> know, the dude looks like a vampire and has, you know, he's spending millions of dollars uh with this slogan of don't die. He's the guy that's going to supposedly figure out how to reverse aging and live forever. And he recently posted on X a one-line I may have taken this whole longevity thing a bit too far. You know, and it's just like >> gosh. >> You know, this guy's literally spending millions of dollars. >> And he created a whole new line of supplements to sell to people. >> products, uh um >> Yeah. >> All roads lead to supplements. >> Yeah, [laughter] and you know, he's his day is insanely structured around hitting perfect sleep. He set some record, world record for the most number of perfect sleep scores on whatever app he's using. [laughter] Uh consecutive days. Uh you know, he he times his meals. He weighs and measures all his food. Constantly um tak- doing all kinds of experimentation with supplements and pharmacological solutions and yeah, all that. >> short roads. >> You know, then there's Dave Asprey. And then there's uh even Huberman goes down this route. Peter Attia. People will listen to hours and hours and hours of podcasts about some detail >> Mhm. >> that they get wrapped around the axle about as if that's the first thing that they need to be getting right. >> Right. Yeah. >> A lot of people, I'm sure you hear this or maybe I have a question back to you. How often do you hear I'll start training when >> Yeah. >> X, Y, or Z is in place. >> Yeah, it's like, well, it usually comes up with I don't have I don't have enough time. >> Mhm. >> But when you really break down how much time you need, the longest chunk might come from the commute to the gym. And so that's a variable that's going to be really different for people. Maybe you have a 30-minute commute to and from the gym. So let's say you have that. What if you do your 30-minute commute, but you get to spend 15 minutes squatting? That's actually really high impact, and it's way better than doing nothing. So time being the biggest potential, or the biggest phrase that I hear, I don't think a lot of people really come out and say it's too complicated, but that is a reason why some people will quit because it becomes too big of a list on their program for them to stick with, and like you said, they think they have to be perfect and do it all or nothing. >> That's right. >> And it's more about like, well, what can you do today? Even literally 15 minutes. >> I just had a client >> out how you can optimize those 15 minutes. >> I just had a client sign up yesterday, actually, who uh he I connected with him through a mutual friend. And it was about actually completely unrelated. We initially started talking about level how to level your garage platform, your garage gym platform. And I was, you know, just we were nerding out on different solutions, and I shared with him what I built 5 [snorts] years ago, actually. So I built my first uh platform leveling wedge. If anybody wants to see that, check out my >> Yeah, you have a great time lapse. Yeah. >> Yeah, it's fun. It's a really fun project. Um >> [snorts] >> but >> after a couple of days of chatting about platform leveling, he reached out to me separately and was like, "Hey, actually, you know, I think I could use some help with my programming because for the first time in a long in in years, I'm not looking forward to going to the gym anymore." >> Mhm. >> I'm like, "Okay, well, tell me about your situation." He said, "Well, I'm 52. Uh been doing CrossFit, but I've really gotten I've fallen in love with weightlifting and and just want to be generally stronger. Um but you know, lately, I'm just not feeling motivated to go in. I just I feel kind of run down and tired. You know, um and I've I'm I'm worried I'm kind of going down the slippery slope of you know, falling off the wagon uh from training." I'm like, "Oh, wow, jeez, okay." You know, at first, I'm like, "Well, you know, 52, training for over a decade, pretty hard. Maybe just kind of getting a little bit run down. Maybe there's some some hormone stuff going on." But he's getting his blood work checked regularly, all this stuff. We start out the call talking about sleep and nutrition. I'm like, "Okay, well, walk me through your program." "Well, let's see. One day, one day, one day, one day's Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I'm I'll do some pretty heavy snatch and clean and jerk, maybe a few accessories. I also have this 30-to-45-minute warm-up routine. Then maybe I'll finish it up with some conditioning. But Tuesdays and Thursdays are sort of like more calisthenic, body weight, maybe some weighted chin-ups, bench, >> Oh my gosh. >> And then I might go for a little run. And then Saturday's sort of like a catch-up day. I just sort of like to, you know, maybe I'll do an extra squat session and some, you know, some arm work." And I'm like, "Wait, what? You're >> Woo! That's so much. >> 52 old dropping in and out of CrossFit classes have a strength training baseline {quote} {unquote} program plus you're doing heavy full snatch and clean jerks multiple times a week. And he's like, "Yeah, I know. I'm I just >> Oh man. >> I'm really I'm I'm trying to And I'm Oh, I'm going to do three competitions over the next 3 months. So, I really want to try to optimize for that. >> Oh man, this guy is never recovering ever. >> And he's like, "I just I don't know. I just I feel fatigued all the time. I just really don't feel strong when I go to the gym." And I'm like, "You need permission to do less. That's what's going on." He's like, "You know, cuz he is self-administering a weightlifting program he found online. Uh uh a physical His knee has also been you you know, he also perfectly described uh chronic inflammation where he's like, "I don't know what's going on. Sometimes my knee just gets really pissed off and really hurts and then it'll go away and then it comes back and you know, and he he just keeps squatting through it and clean jerking and snatching through it." And uh and then he's got So, he's got this PT routine from another guy that he's following. So, he just layers that on top. Exactly. And I mean, I told told him I I we were a little bit different in age. He's you know, a few years older than me, but we are of that same what I call like Rocky generation where you grew up watching movies and inspiration where more of whatever was always better. Like the heroes were like Prefontaine and Rocky and the guys that would do just whatever insane amount of work and that's how they would win in the end or you know, be the hero was you just go or like A-Team, you know, you >> [laughter] >> You need a montage. >> You need a montage scene where you just do more work and you beat yourself up and you ruin yourself and you >> eggs. >> That's how you get better. That was That was how my mode of operation all up until about probably 15 years ago was the first time somebody convinced me that more recovery would actually help. After beating my head against the wall, squatting the same weight for a year, doing 6 days a week CrossFit and uh on a calorie deficit under 2,000 calories and that and making zero progress for a year training that hard and feeling just completely >> you'd want to do more training. No wonder you'd be like, "You know what? Training isn't for me." >> [laughter] >> Why would you do it? >> Right. Yeah, so this guy he was like genuinely concerned that this was like the end of the road for him because he could he was just felt beat up all the time and like >> And he knew he couldn't do any more. Like he found all the mores. >> can't do any more. >> Yeah. >> So what am I going to do? >> Yeah. >> And it was like he sent me a message today, "Hey, cuz I put him in his program yesterday and he's just like I'm the best part about this is I'm actually looking forward to training tomorrow. I'm so excited that I don't have to do I mean, he showed me his program. He's doing six, seven plus workouts and that wasn't even including all the PT stuff. He was like, "I'm not exactly sure how to share with you all the stuff I'm doing for the PT, but maybe I'll just add it in afterwards." And I'm like, "Bro, even just what you just sent me >> Yeah. >> is insane. Uh let's just start with doing less and we can build back up from there. I mean, I think that was going to potentially run him out of the gym. >> Mhm. >> If he kept going down that path. And I think the same in I'm giving you an extreme case, but I even think one or two lifts can be built up in somebody's mind to have that same feeling. >> Yeah. >> And like when you've been in a place where you're able to train hard and you know how much energy it takes, like you know, you talked about the times when you used to get hyped or when >> Right. >> you know, same thing with me when I was competing more regularly and it was just like, I have to bring everything that I am to this training session. And when you have more of you going somewhere else when it needs to be going somewhere else and you think you have to bring that to your training session or it's not worth it, then you're just going to be like, I'm not going to do it. >> Right. >> And it's too complicated. Yeah. >> squat and then now you're into another hole you got to climb out of, which is that first squat session is going to feel like complete garbage. Or actually your first squat session might actually feel good, but then the next 5 days you >> And then and then you start complicating again being like, well, maybe I need to do some sort of functional movement first >> Right. >> or I need to do more conditioning in order for this to feel good or shoot, now I need to adjust my whole diet so that I can recover better. And it's like, you know, minimum effective dose. Another thing you could say is, we were talking about this earlier, it's like, how can you choose the path of least resistance that actually makes you successful? >> Mhm. >> You know, like, what do you have to do today to make it easy for yourself to train? You put it in your schedule, you like, you have a short list of things to do or you in your head you think, you know what? I'm going to get through the warm-up. >> Right. >> being lazy, you're actually just setting yourself up to do to do something. >> Yeah, [snorts] the path of least resistance has sort of a negative connotation >> Yeah. >> with it for many things, but I think of it more as like a martial arts kind of mindset where you're uh you know, the Bruce Lee be like water or judo, you're letting your opponents movement be the the majority of the like you're just enabling >> Great way to think about it. >> other opponents momentum to move that kind of path of of least resistance. >> Mhm. >> Um I was there you know same call I was on this morning. Um One of the coaches was talking about an analogy to help kind of flip the mindset uh for their clients where instead of thinking you know there's this garden hose analogy where instead of trying to uh force more water out of the hose by increasing the pressure you want to open the nozzle and allow the movement allow the water to flow easily. >> Mhm. >> Um and that's what I think we're we're really kind of talking about here is it's path of least resistance by reducing the resistance. Uh >> Yeah. >> increasing not trying to force more >> Yeah. Don't If it's if it seems too hard, don't put more on your plate. >> Right. >> Take things off your plate. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. >> And some of those things on the plate might just be your expectations. >> Yeah. Mhm. >> And that's why I I kind of say lower your standards as a tongue and cheek you know as a a bit of a joke that everybody's always talking about and again this is the the influencer world the hardcore you know the Jocko the uh this is the Navy SEAL guy that's David Goggins that's always just like telling convincing people you're you're a being a >> Stay hard. >> boss yes stay hard all this kind of stuff and it's like I get it that's motivating that's inspiring. Um and then and until it's not. >> Yeah. >> Until it's making you not do anything. >> [laughter] >> Until if you then convince yourself that you're not hard if you don't go >> Yeah. >> run a marathon or lift at 4:30 in the morning. >> Right. Yeah. >> Come on. [snorts] Like, this we're lifting weights here, guys. Like >> Yeah. Like, when I think of my ideal scenario of my life, it's not that I'm getting up and like, I'm not voluntary hardshiping my way through life. No. Like, I am leisurely eating my breakfast, leisurely training, leisurely doing my coaching. Like, that works for me. >> [laughter] >> I don't need to do ice baths and sleep with my mouth taped closed to have a good training session. >> [laughter] >> I still have want fun. [snorts] Anyway. >> Yeah. >> Well, if you feel like training is too complicated and you're like spending more time in your head than actually training, you might benefit from a call. So, if you're interested but not ready to sign up, that's fine. Go to barbelllogic.com/match and we have this cool questionnaire you can take and you'll actually find the coach who may be the right fit for your for you and your goals or you can book a call uh to ask questions with me or Ian or Chrissy or Nikki to to see what could work and what it would look like without any commitment. So, if you want to check out that coach match function, it's barbelllogic.com/match. It's pretty fun. Well, thanks, Andrew. Thanks, everybody for listening. See you next week. >> Bye-bye.