You’re Not Too Busy to Train: Here’s Why You Keep Skipping Workouts

You're listening to Beast Overburden, powered by Barbell Logic. >> We are Nicki 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 everybody, welcome back to another series of Beast Overburden. Really hope you enjoyed our previous interview series. We got to hear from a lot of our clients and coaches. And we're going to bring it back to something that Andrew and I really like to help people with with our new series here is the reasons why you are not training. We just talked to a lot of people in our previous series about the reasons they are training. Now we're going to talk about what we hear from potential clients, former clients, clients who start to disappear about why they're not training. >> Yeah, it's about how you keep rolling, rolling, rolling. >> Rolling, rolling, rolling. Like Limp Bizkit. They're still >> he's hot and his 16-year-old daughter >> loves Limp Bizkit. >> She wants to go to a Limp Bizkit concert. >> Limp Bizkit [laughter] concerts. >> Best of all. A Limp Bizkit for Limp Bizkit's going to be >> fly down to Sacramento. >> Ugh, the butt hole of California. Sorry everybody in Sacramento. >> [laughter] >> You're not sorry at all. We just listened yesterday or earlier this week to like a five-hour podcast on a uh serial killer from Sacramento. Uh >> The Golden State Killer. >> [laughter] >> Favorite plate place to hate in California. Like the only place in California that you like to hate. >> Yeah, it's the one that comes to mind. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Although there's also some mild trash talk about uh the beaches of >> Oh, LA. >> Not LA LA and um >> [sighs] >> Uh, just up the street from Newport. >> Huntington Beach. >> Huntington Huntington Beach, yes. Yes. >> I wouldn't but still I would way rather hang there than Sacramento. For sure. Yeah, not even close. >> bad date experience in Huntington kind of spoiled it. But that's where I don't I don't really think about that. I think you're the only one who thinks that. >> [laughter] >> Um, so yeah, how to keep training and I the reason it's I think interesting topic personally is that I am sympathizing more with what I perceive in the behavior of some of my clients who struggle or kind of fade out with their training. >> look like? >> Well, the experience that I have with most of my clients or many of my clients who end up fading out or or going through rough patches of training and what I'm also currently personally experiencing is that you start out with a very high initiative and motivation to train. There's something some sort of goal that you are very attached to accomplishing that training and that you're able to connect the dots between training moving you towards that goal. And consistency is very high. There's usually like a very particular time in your calendar that it's blocked out. I for example literally had it block a calendar block. I use calendar blocking to manage all of my time. And I would have a two sometimes three hour chunk of my day four days a week, sometimes 5 days a week. That was no questions asked, no decision made. That's where That's training. >> And that was there for years, right? Basically, like >> Yeah. >> even before calendar blocking, that time was there. >> years >> Yeah. >> was like that from 2011, 2010 even maybe, to really just earlier this year it kind of I would say started to to fade a little bit. >> Mhm. >> of shift. And I always talked about how training was just like a non-negotiable. It wasn't It I never had to think about when I was going to train. It was just part of the day and often it was the part of the day where I felt most like myself. I was most excited about what was going to happen that day. I thought a lot about my training. Uh very similar to how at least I perceive training is for you. Um now, yours, when you train and what day you train, that you're very flexible in that sense. But the fact that you're going to train is not a question. It's just like, is it going to be today or tomorrow or this time or that time, but you'll map out weeks into the future taking into account where you're training, what equipment you're going to have, what your schedule's going to look like, what else is going on in your life, but it all kind of anchors around training. And that's definitely how training was for me for most of my my life. And what that looks like behaviorally is basically 100% consistency uh or very close, 95 to 100% consistency. Uh proactive communication, like to be able to plan to that level of detail, you've got to communicate with your coach and let them know what's happening, what's what's changing, um how you're feeling, all these variables. Um and then what I notice is that at some point in time, and it tends to be people that are in that 6 to 9 month range, maybe 3 to 9 month, somewhere in there, something happens. Whether it be um work change, spouse change, kid change, priority change, goal change, whatever. Something happens where it sort of it starts out like one workout gets missed. And you're like, okay, that's that's all right. I mean, you can work around that. We'll shift a day over. And then the next week maybe it's like two. And then you kind of have this month or so where it's like sometimes you're 3 weeks, sometimes you're 4 weeks four sessions a week, sometimes you're two sessions a week, sometimes you're one session a week. And then all of a sudden then maybe you get 2 weeks where you're like, I'm back. And you get 2 weeks >> three or four for four. >> Mhm. >> And then it's and then it just it seems to be kind of in that phase, you're they're still training, but it has now shifted into a an era where they're having to consciously choose to train. And every day it's a trade-off calculation as to whether or not training is the priority today or whether something else is taking the priority today. >> Yeah. >> And you you kind of get into this slippery slope initially of like, well, I can still get my workouts done. I'll shift it over a day. Shift it over a day. Well, I'll combine two workouts. And now you're kind of like back bunched in. This is happening to me this week. I'm bunched up to doing Thursday, Saturday. And it it's going to be fine. Like, I'm still training, still getting all my lifts done. But uh when it shifts into that requirement where training has to be a conscious decision decision every single time, that becomes unsustainable, in my opinion. Or or extremely hard to sustain, especially if you're only accountable to yourself. >> Yeah. >> Because it's very hard for I think a I think even for myself to prioritize my training over a thing that I feel responsible for uh that's be outside of myself. >> Yeah. >> Especially as a parent. >> Right. >> a leader in the business. It's very easy to come up with a list of things that are like, I got to do this, and then I'll train. Then I'll figure out how to train. >> Yeah. It's these if I were to consolidate this to the observation is the observation to me is something or some other things have become more important than training. And that's not at all a judgment to those other things. They are more urgent, there's more on the line. There's a health thing. But, you don't have the time anymore to train as much as you did, and also during these times there's a limited amount of energy that can go towards looking ahead. Because people tend to be, when I see this, there's a survival mode, where you're instead of thinking about weeks, you were like today. I need to do all of these things today. So many people need me to do to do things things today. I cannot stop until I do these things today. So to have any concept of a four-week training block, it is so not important. >> Yeah, and even if I'm going 100% all day long, I still don't get all the things done that I think I should do. Right. Uh and and some of those things are even like oh, I should be spending more time with the people that I love or you know, the uh doing the things that I it's not all just work. It's just that they're all very high priority things high on the importance scale. Um and I lost and I've lost and you lose or my clients have lost the structure. That's another often >> Well, it's okay to talk about what it's been looking like for you cuz it has been looking that way for you. >> Yeah, I mean it's just that like structure's kind of gone out the window lately for the last couple of months. So, and really most of this year, there's just been a a lot of variables even week to week, even day to day. It's pretty rare this year that I've had two weeks in a row that look the same. Um and which was another reason why my my training was a lot more consistent in the past is that I had even if there was a lot of change or variety, it was the structure was pretty consistent. >> Mhm. >> Um >> We're talking like structure really down to the bare bones of like eating time, waking up time. >> Waking up time, going to the office, you know, for most of that 15, 16 years I was working in a corporate job and even though those were long hours, they were the same hours. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, for the most part. I mean, sometimes you work on a weekend, sometimes you work later. But my training for a lot of that time didn't even start till 7:00 at night. >> Yeah. >> So, I'd work like a 12-hour day. I'd go home, eat dinner, maybe do bedtime routine or you know, hang out for a little bit. Clare would go to bed and then I'd start training and the training would go for two to three hours sometimes. >> Yeah. >> Um but it was like this protected special time that you know and this is another component that I've noticed for me personally is that for a lot of that time training was the place where I got to go be what Clara calls Andrew Maxin. >> [laughter] >> And you know she was just recently talking about how we were looking at actually an older picture of us together actually when she was first born. >> Mhm. >> And she was like wow dad you really uh you've really gone through a glow up apparently is the phrase. And even though I'm looking at a picture of me 15 or 16 years younger cuz it was Clara as a newborn >> Mhm. >> she thought of she thinks of me today as being more Andrew than in that picture. And you know Andrew Maxin. So and I you know I think it's true like I at this point in my life 47 years old doing work that I love being with people that I I love being around feel like I'm more myself more of the time and I fewer of my needs are met by going to training. If that makes sense. Um and again I'm not saying I'm stop training it I'm not saying I don't love training it's just training was like the place to get this huge need met. >> Mhm. >> And I have less of that pull into the gym to get that met cuz I might get it by working on problems in the business or hanging out with you or Clara you know or hanging out with friends. Um >> What Where do you get your And and you like I know you said before like days where you're are more active you sleep better. So how do you feel when you don't have that physical outlet as regularly? >> Definitely not as good. I mean I'm I don't want to be in this phase and I know it's on the agenda to build a more structured day-to-day life. I mean, I this last 2 months in particular has been um it's >> abnormal. Yeah. >> abnormal. Um and then the 4 or 5 months before that was definitely also uh a bit strange for for me um in terms of workload. But I don't feel as good, for sure. I um I know I've lost some strength. I don't sleep usually as well. Um I generally don't feel as good. So, you know, it's definitely has a cost to it. >> Yeah. >> I think actually we started this conversation to some extent of around the idea of the cost of not starting. >> Yes, that's actually exactly where I came from. >> [laughter] >> Cuz I was speaking to someone who was training and then they stopped for a while and I was curious about getting him back into training and he's like, you know, it's really more about the cost of not doing it. And >> [clears throat] >> I was like, I completely agree. You know, what is that cost? Um And that will be different for each person. >> It's a little bit of a mixed uh experience for me because I've also I I I'm also noticing I think my body getting a chance to take a break a little bit. Like, my back is feeling better, actually. Um and again, let's put this in context. I'm squatting twice a week. I'm usually deadlifting every other week. I'm benching usually twice a week. I'm pressing once a week. So, you're looking at me like I'm this fat turd who never trains, but I'm lifting more than most people. You're giving me dirty looks. >> [laughter] >> I was saying >> me dirty looks. >> Let's be careful with suggesting people don't lift. >> [laughter] >> Because their backs will feel better. >> Well, that's what I'm trying to say though. It's like you're >> [laughter] >> you're talking I'm talking even as if I'm not lifting. I'm still lifting. >> Yeah. >> [laughter] >> It's like I'm It's just that my lifting's all over the place and sometimes I lift I do two lifts a day, sometimes I do one lift a day, sometimes I do Tuesday, Thursday, sometimes I do Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. So, you know, it's just like and it's definitely less weight and lower volume and less priority and my back is feeling better. Um because I'm not redlining it all the time. I think that's totally fair to say. And we talk about that all the time that sometimes it's okay. We talked about this with Nick Horton in that series. Like he'll take two, three weeks off with literally zero training and then ramp back up. And I think that's fine at times and what uh what is I think different about probably both Nick and myself and what I see with some of my clients which becomes the slippery slope into just stopping training, which is not not where I'm at and not what I'm suggesting people should do is when you lose that sense of accountability. >> Yeah. And I think you also lose the optimism that there's something on the other side. The belief that there is an end to this stretch of time where something else has it to become more important. And it's really had to change how you structure things. I have a client who just knows there's a certain busy point in every year, and we know his training during that time is just totally not what it looks like the rest of the year, but with his schedule, we know there's another side. But sometimes you have no idea. Like with big life changes and work changes, you have no idea when there's another side. And so, but you also, you know, we get a lot of people who come to us because they've just been buried in this like stressful urgency for so long that their health has significantly declined. And they're finally on the other side of it. So, it's like when like how are people able to find the opportunity to create some oppor- or to create time to train or change expectations. You know, it doesn't have to be exactly what it was like when you had all that time for 15 years, but what does it look like for people who are just like, man, I just I know I need to get back, and I know the cost is that I will lose more muscle, and I will gain more fat, and I will feel worse. >> There's three things to me that >> Yeah. >> are simple but effective. Lower your exper- expectations for what the workout is, number one. So, and this is true for whether you're you've never trained or you've been training for 20 years. >> Especially if you've never trained for 20 years. >> [laughter] >> If you've never trained, it could be it might feel like a bigger thing than even somebody who's been training for 20 years. >> Mhm. >> Cuz starting feels like this big new scary thing. >> Yeah. >> But if you can let go of that, and up and recognize and appreciate that doing anything is going to be better than nothing, uh then you can get started. And you've got to make it easy to get started psychologically. >> Yeah. >> Two, almost 100% of the time, working out first thing in the morning is going to be the better time to do it. >> Good one. Yeah. >> Almost always. The only time I The only carve out I'll leave is somebody who's got some sort of shift work situation where first thing in the morning is terrible time. But, the vast, vast majority people, if they get up uh before most of their universe, where uh wherever that is, their first in the house or >> Before everybody else starts needing you. Yeah. >> Mhm. And and on That was actually my training for 3 years was a 6:00 a.m. class that I would go into. So, I'd wake up at 5:30 and go train. And for a long time, that's all I knew. Um That gets a lot harder when you start training in the afternoon or whatever your optimal time is, and then you try to go back. That's why I go back to number one being lower your expectations, because I can train first thing in the morning as long as I don't expect to be hitting a bunch of PRs. >> Yeah. It's >> And I just think about >> 5:00 a.m. heavy squats, that's different. >> just think about this is like warm-up and stretch time. >> Oh, yeah. >> And I'm using incremental weight to make this more effective. >> Mhm. >> And then number three, I would say, find something to be accountable something or someone, ideally, to be accountable to outside yourself. >> Mhm. >> Like a coach. >> [laughter] >> Sounds like it'd be really useful if that coach also you could communicate with them really easily, they were understanding of your situation. So, like, you know, I have a client who's a doctor. When he misses a workout, I know it's because he was on call. I'm not going to be like, "Hey, man, are you missing workouts now?" Like, that's just not uh going to >> That's not [laughter] tough love. You're not going to be the tough love coach. >> Yeah, it's like, "Okay, I know you would have trained if you wanted to. Let's just move that around and everything's going to be fine." >> Yeah, yeah. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. Do you think there's ever a time when the priorities or like training could fit if someone became more stubborn about it? Like if they were just like, "You know what? I I'm going to start nudging in 30 minutes four times a week during those crazy times." Or like when it's Is it Do people ever say they're too busy and they're not actually too busy? Actually, I know the answer. I think some I think some people are say say they're too busy when they're not actually too busy. I brought myself to the obvious answer. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I don't want to get people out of that story that they've told told themselves. >> I I of course you can. It's just that I believe that will always be a short-lived way to drive your training. The That's sort of like saying That's a motivation solution. >> Mhm. Oh, yeah, we're going to talk about that. >> "Why not just be more motivated?" >> Right. >> Okay, well, what's motivation? Motivation in my is being like stubborn. It's like pushing yourself against resistance to get started. Yes. There are times when that that needs to happen. But what I started out the episode talking about was when you fall into this situation where it's not in your day and you're trying to figure out how to get back into it being part of your rhythm. Like I the only reason I was as consistent as I was for 15 years was because I did I required no stubbornness. I required no motivation. >> Right. >> It was it was like brushing my teeth. It was as effortless as you know, taking a shower. You know, it was just like you know, it's not something I would even brag about because you know, I enjoyed it and it was fun. You know, so I I agree with what you've said. I you know, I think you posted about it like it's not that you don't have time. It's just it's not high enough priority. >> It's not what you're making time for. We all have the same 24 hours in the day. >> Right. >> We just have a lot of other things we have to do during those 24 hours. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. >> Yeah, there is for people. >> The maybe the maybe the question that you're asking though is and what people listening are trying to weigh out is whether prioritizing your health and your fitness, which is ultimately what we're talking about, >> Mhm. >> is being given an adequate level of prioritization. >> Yeah. >> And when you say, oh, are they really too busy? The answer or really the real question is what are you choosing to prioritize over training? >> Yeah. >> And I was just talking to with the CEO of another company today about the situation he's in where he's unable to do the things he knows are more important for him to be working on in the business because he's time is maxed out with these other things. >> Yeah. >> And of course the obvious answer is >> Do less of these. >> less important things and do the things that only you can do that are more important. But getting that done is harder and sometimes you just need like I'm about I'm going to send him this message back later today. And I'm going to start with you know what I'm about to tell you is what you need to do. But sometimes you just need to hear it and make the conscious choice like okay I need to build my schedule from the bottoms up with the most important highest priority things on the calendar first and let the lower priority things be the ones that overflow and don't get done. And my experience has been that the benefit of highly structured environments like when I was in the corporate world and I had a relatively routine schedule is that there are a lot of decisions that you don't have to make that drive your day and kind of create these um big rocks in your schedule that you can kind of hang other habits off of. >> Yeah. >> So like my factory would shut down at a certain period of time or there would be a shift change. And that was my kind of end of day. And so I could just hang training on the end of the day or I would hang training on the end of bedtime or I would hang training on uh being have to having to be at the gym at 6:00 because if I got done at 6:00 then I could be to work by 7:30 and start my day. But then when structure is completely blown out now you're having to make decisions um [snorts] or if that structure's like in transition now you're kind of having to consciously rebuild and put the big rocks in to use that analogy. >> Mhm. >> So, that's my advice back to him. That's my advice back to myself. It's obvious. It's simple hard and effective, but build your calendar with the the high priority things first and then let the lower priority things be the ones that >> Mhm. >> run out of time on and ultimately ends up being the same thing that happens with your training that I was describing, pushing one more day, etc. >> Yeah. >> That just happens with the lower priority tasks. >> And maybe you find out they actually weren't as important. And then maybe you will find out that they were important. >> Well, they weren't because you because you decided they weren't. >> Right. >> You know, um but what I've noticed with a lot of that that uh those type of tasks, both personally and in others is that they're the ones that tend to give you some sort of quick win or dopamine hit essentially of feeling like you're making progress and they're usually things that you can do indefinitely. Um like for you it might be shopping. Uh for organizing something. You know, it's like there's never an end to building the number of features that I want to build or something like that or uh questions from customers or things that I could do to help somebody else out and or answering an email or answering or clearing a notification. Like a lot of those things I can find keep me on this treadmill of doing um without stopping to prioritize. >> Mhm. >> I think those are the insidious ones and and they come in all the different shapes and sizes and flavors depending on who the person could be. Social media scrolling for some people. >> Mhm. >> I think some people, if they stopped and paid attention to their screen time, would be shocked how many hours a day they're scrolling and then telling somebody else that they're too busy to train. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, definitely. >> But that's just one version of dopamine hit. Somebody else might be watching TV. Somebody else might be, you know, >> Yeah. >> fill in the blank. Yeah. >> Yeah, there's a lot of there are a lot of things that take time, but you don't realize it cuz you're just in some zone of continuous dopamine hit or yeah. Or kind of project, yeah. >> I mean, there's a whole can of worms that in today's air availability of, you know, high-tech dopamine Pez dispensers. >> Mhm. Yeah. >> Like you you actually have to go out of your way not to get caught in those loops cuz >> Yeah. >> everything is grabbing for your attention. >> Yeah, totally. >> Uh to to deliver you the little little dopamine hit. >> And you'll pay for it. Like physi- I mean, financially. >> training. [laughter] >> Yeah. Oh, right. Yeah, you'll pay exactly. Yeah, you'll pay pay for the video games. >> I will subscribe to that, yeah. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. >> For sure. I'm starting to believe I'm starting to think that's what these LLMs, this AI, is really just the greatest dopamine delivery system ever created. >> Yeah. Well, that is when things started to change for you is when you realized how much more you could get done. >> Yes. Um it created a sense of infinite productivity of particularly of things that I've wanted to be able to do for years. Now all of a sudden I can do them. >> Mhm. >> And the the is no longer dependent on somebody else's expertise because I've access to essentially infinite expertise. Which is a little bit It's a It's a different version of having no schedule constraints, which I you know, in large part I don't in the sense compared to like the corporate world where I had to be the office for certain hours. Which simply means that I would I would previously run into natural stopping points because a task was handed off to an expert. Um I no longer have that stopping point. >> Mhm. >> I I now have an army of people that I can always give more tasks to and will instantly give me >> When he says people, he means agents. >> Yes. Uh and they will they will almost instantly respond with the next question, >> Mhm. >> complete the task that I gave them, ask for and prompt me to give them the next task. Um and so it's just a never-ending cycle. So, for me personally, what I know is clearly the answer once I can get on the other side of some uh significant changes uh that uh I need to do that same big rock exercise. >> Mhm. >> And that you know, that's actually what I was talking about with you yesterday that I want to sit down and be like, "Okay, well, what's the When I say, "What is the life that I want to build?" it's what are the big rocks that I want to put into place first? >> Mhm. >> And do those and then let this infinite stuff be the thing that spills out into the future or take longer than I than it could and >> Yeah. >> get the big rocks actually done. >> Yeah. That's cool. >> That's me is the build your life exercise that is always worth checking in on whenever somebody's feeling that I'm too busy feeling. >> Yeah. >> It probably means >> What are you busy actually doing? Do you want to keep doing those things? >> I think what that really means if you peel the onion back is you know, when I say the big rock first, for those that haven't seen the demonstration, taking a glass jar put the sand in first then try to put the medium-size rocks in and then put the big rocks in, you get nothing, it just all overflows. Put the big rocks in and then you put the little rocks then the sand then the water, it all fits. >> Mhm. >> Um and that's kind of the the analogy here. So I think what a lot of people and myself included at times and sometimes you have to do it, you're putting the sand in first and the big rocks are spilling out and you're feeling busy. What busy really means for a lot of people I think is >> You're like, where's my big rock? I miss my big rock. >> I'm not doing the things that I really want to be doing and it's because I'm doing all this other stuff that >> Right. >> you know, and I can't get out I can't get done with all this stuff to do the things that I really want to do. That means I'm busy. >> It's a really hard feeling. >> Of course I'm obviously oversimplifying, there's many different you know, situations where it has to be a certain way, but busy busy is also I think over you know, glorified in our culture right now. >> Yeah. >> The thing people feel safe when asked how they're doing, busy is acceptable. It's rarely I got you rarely do you hear it's it's lazy. You know. >> [laughter] >> I don't know, I'm just sitting on the couch. I'm doing nothing. >> [laughter] >> Well, if you need some help talking through training being maybe not the biggest rock but one of the big bigger rocks in your glass jar of life hit me up. Go to barberlogic.com/experience, talk to one of us and we'll talk you through what that would look like. Thanks for sharing all this Andrew. >> Sign up. Think of that block experience call not just as feedback on a workout, but as a life consultation coach conversation. >> Yeah. We really do end up talking about that. >> Yeah, like the conversations you have aren't Well, actually, what I think you need to do is push your knees out and add 5 lbs. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, done. We're Yeah, that's how long we're going to take. Yeah. >> think through trade-offs and priorities and schedule and limitations and injuries and goals. >> Yeah. >> These are judgment calls and and things that having somebody with as much experience as you do and and having solved the big rock problem as well as you do, better than anybody I've ever met in the face of an extreme amount of variables um you can definitely give people some insight that is a lot more than what you'd get from just trying to do some program on your own. >> Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, loves to talk to people about that. All right, everybody. Catch back here next week. We're going to talk about another reason why you're not training. Bye-bye. >> Bye-bye.