Decades of navigating the health and fitness terrain have taught me, Rob Maxwell, that genuine expertise is not a commodity you can simply scroll past on your feed. It's a journey of learning, application, and real-world results. Today, I'm pulling back the curtain on the industry's truths and fads, sharing insights from my career evolution alongside the sobering parallels between substance abuse recovery's hard truths and yo-yo dieting patterns. We'll explore why the no-nonsense approach that served me well in residential treatment centers is also key to making lasting changes in health and wellness.
The lure of quick fixes and influencer culture has never been stronger, but as your guide who's weathered the storms of changing trends, I'm here to tell you that the path to success isn't found in a viral post. Let's dissect the allure of 'overnight expertise' and the risks of taking advice from the unverified corners of the internet. We'll also dive into the timeless wisdom of consulting seasoned professionals who've earned their stripes, and how in the face of modern misinformation, these voices of experience are your most reliable ally.
In this heart-to-heart, I'll stress the importance of trust when it comes to the advice you choose to follow—especially concerning your health. Touching on the keto craze and other diet trends, I'll emphasize sensible, nutrient-dense eating over the seductive promise of rapid results. Remember, when you seek out guidance from the experts, come ready to act on it. Your health journey deserves the respect of authenticity and action, and that's exactly what we're unpacking in today's candid conversation.
Decades of navigating the health and fitness terrain have taught me, Rob Maxwell, that genuine expertise is not a commodity you can simply scroll past on your feed. It's a journey of learning, application, and real-world results. Today, I'm pulling back the curtain on the industry's truths and fads, sharing insights from my career evolution alongside the sobering parallels between substance abuse recovery's hard truths and yo-yo dieting patterns. We'll explore why the no-nonsense approach that served me well in residential treatment centers is also key to making lasting changes in health and wellness.
The lure of quick fixes and influencer culture has never been stronger, but as your guide who's weathered the storms of changing trends, I'm here to tell you that the path to success isn't found in a viral post. Let's dissect the allure of 'overnight expertise' and the risks of taking advice from the unverified corners of the internet. We'll also dive into the timeless wisdom of consulting seasoned professionals who've earned their stripes, and how in the face of modern misinformation, these voices of experience are your most reliable ally.
In this heart-to-heart, I'll stress the importance of trust when it comes to the advice you choose to follow—especially concerning your health. Touching on the keto craze and other diet trends, I'll emphasize sensible, nutrient-dense eating over the seductive promise of rapid results. Remember, when you seek out guidance from the experts, come ready to act on it. Your health journey deserves the respect of authenticity and action, and that's exactly what we're unpacking in today's candid conversation.
Welcome to. There is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell. I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I'm the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs and I've been in business since 1994.
Speaker 1:
The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works. To talk to you about the science, about the experience. To talk to you about the science, about the experience, so we can figure out what we all need to do to take advantage of this beautiful exercise and health and wellness industry that's out there. But how do we take advantage of it? So we're going to be doing some talking today, as usual, and I'm going to talk to you about the infamous yeah buts. Before I get to that, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group at Realty Pros. They currently have over 280 five-star reviews on Zillow. They're consummate professionals. Jonathan has a degree in real estate, lynn, his beautiful bride, has a master's of business administration. So they're true professionals that are in the business world and they're out there to take care of you. If you need any help, give them a shout. 386-451-2412.
Speaker 1:
You know, as I say in the opening, I've been doing this since 1994. That's a long time. I started out. I made some business cards. I started kind of doing what some very early on personal trainers were doing in the early 90s. It really wasn't an industry yet, but we made signs for our vehicles like magnetic signs. I had business cards. I had little clipboards and weights I took to people's houses. I met them at the gyms. Then I evolved into renting places, going to different places, having a couple different facilities now, but you know, it's essentially it's all the same thing in the personal training world for me anyway.
Speaker 1:
People contact you. They have different desires, wishes, goals. They can be anywhere from. You know, I don't want to say the most common. It may not be the most common but it's definitely up there. Weight loss slash, you know, toning up, improving their definition, having their muscles look better. You know, toning up, improving their definition, having their muscles look better. You know, that kind of ballpark could be like serious obesity. People that really, really really need to drop a lot of weight for health reasons, for psychological health reasons.
Speaker 1:
A lot of different orthopedic injuries through the years prehab, I like to call it and rehab different forms of knee injuries, hip injuries, ankle injuries, shoulder injuries, different types of handicapable people through the years, with various things that may take away their ability to walk ability to walk. Let's see cardiac disease, pulmonary disease, different illnesses, and then there's sports. There's been all different kinds of sports to train people for ADLs. Let's see senior living. I mean a lot of different areas that we all in my industry have dealt with, continue to deal with. So that's kind of like how it works as far as people reach out and I meet them depending on where I've been in my career, and we talk about whether it's going to be a win or not if it's something I can help them with and from there build a plan and get going. So a lot of experience with working with a multitude of different people.
Speaker 1:
So you know, if it were me and I was out there, I talked about this. It's going to go in an email tomorrow as the email launches. Actually, as you get this, it'll probably be the same day, but I talk about in the email going to the source. Go to the source Like go get your questions answered by the people who should be answering them. Go directly to the source. I don't want to ruin the punchline of the email because it took me a little bit to do that, but basically it's about going to the source. But today's message is a little bit different. In this podcast it's about going to the source and listening to the source.
Speaker 1:
So, like, take my business, my personal training, exercise, physiology business, like just let's use this as an example Again since 1994. So that's 30 years of doing this without having to go get another job. So that means I've been successful enough to build a strong business and maintain it. So I've got to be doing something right. Right, I mean, if I wasn't, I wouldn't be in business this long. I mean, take any business, and that's going to be true.
Speaker 1:
And you know, I've been in this facility I'm at now since I don't know. I think I've been here about 12 years now. It might be the longest place I've ever kept my business. It's worked out good. It's centrally located, it's a good little location. But you know my neighbors that I've had in here since I've been here gosh, I think it's two, I don't know how many units are in here, 60, 70, but two. So Musul Arts Karate Studio next door to me or two doors down. He's been here since I was here. And then Cheryl, who does men's haircuts up in the front, maybe Dr Lockendauer Lockendauer, I think his name is yeah, he's a good chiropractor, but anyway, he might have been here when I got here, but that's it. I mean, I've seen so many businesses in this facility come and go, like the majority. There's three or four of us out of, say, 60. I mean, gosh, just next door to my left alone, if I'm facing the parking lot, I can't tell you how many businesses I've seen in that. It's incredible.
Speaker 1:
So you know, am I saying they all did something wrong? No, not necessarily, but like if somebody stays in business a long time, they're doing something right. So that's the place I want to go, no matter where it is. Like my accountant's been doing my taxes for probably 25 of the 30 years, or something like that, that I've been in business. I mean she's great, I mean there's a reason she's been in business that long and you know she's a little bit older than me. So you know, I don't know what am I going to do when she retires? How, how do you find somebody that good, with that kind of experience? Because that's ultimately what you want is the experience.
Speaker 1:
So when we go to the sources, you know, it would make absolute sense that we listen, that we take the advice that we 80, maybe 90% of the people that I see on a regular basis that either work with me or work with Ellen or work with Angelica in the past worked with other trainers. All of them, doesn't matter comes to the gym. I would say 80 to 90% of them take the advice and do it. And then there's always a small percentage and it might be different people at different times, but there's always the yeah butters right, and I'm sure you know what I mean. It's like somebody will ask you for your opinion, your advice and, to be honest with you, you.
Speaker 1:
That is one of my more favorite parts of my job is giving advice, because we can't help somebody if they don't ask. I mean, of course, a big part of the job is simply having the workout ready and prepared for somebody and knowing their program and they meet you at the time they're supposed to be here and you go through the workout with them and you push them and you're here, so you're accountable for them and you know you handle your end of the job while they're here. Of course, that's the biggest part of the job, but there's also things that come up quite often that, if you've got your reliable source available. You know you ask to get the advice on a subject matter that's in their wheelhouse, right? So, and that's fine.
Speaker 1:
I like that part of the job because it tells me that the person cares. You know they pull me aside and they say you know, I'm really having a hard time getting my protein in. So I heard your podcast on protein, so this is what I do. I mean I'll definitely stop what I'm doing. I mean, you know not, naturally, if I'm working with a client and somebody's working with somebody else in here and they ask me, of course I'll tell them to wait for a better time, but I mean, like, if I'm not doing anything or just later on, I will answer it. Because I like fielding questions like that, because it tells me that the person really gives a crap about what they're trying to do and they're asking me for help and I don't mind that whatsoever. I mean I do it all the time.
Speaker 1:
So when I am asked, wouldn't it make sense that you don't, yeah, but but you actually do it and, at the very, very minimum, have a conversation as to why not? Now let me add this in I do this a lot. I'm going to add it in again because I know somebody's going to say I bet you it's because I asked him about this and I, yeah, butted them. No, it's probably not because you know what. I honestly don't have a specific one in mind right now. This came to me as I was doing some of my own work this morning on areas, and this came to me this topic and I was just running it by a colleague, and that's what this comes from.
Speaker 1:
And around 75 to 80 sessions come through here Monday through Friday. That's a lot of people, over 50 clients somewhere in that ballpark. And then I have my online presence and just people that I know that still stay in touch with me, that might text me here or there. So guess what? It's a very, very remote chance that this is you and you may need to hear this again. If you think it's you, I hate to break it to you. The world probably does not revolve around you, so now let's just get that out of the way. So, before anybody starts thinking this is, you know, being directed to them, it's absolutely not, because this happens very commonly, and now I can go back to the past and think of countless different examples where this occurred, but it it blows me away. Is that the right word? Blows me away? You know, let's see, you know, having a nice podcast conversation here, I don't think it blows me away. It's irritating, it's it's disrespectful. It's disrespectful.
Speaker 1:
I guess there's a really poor use of time and it's a poor use of trying to get better and utilizing the coaching that you're getting. You know, it reminds me of a story from years ago when I was working at Stewart Treatment Center before it was Stewart Marchman, and this is in the 90s, like this is literally before. I was doing personal training Actually this is probably late 80s, very early 90s, and I was working on my bachelor's degree in psychology and, you know, hadn't really thought about doing personal training yet, hadn't gotten my master's yet, and I was working as a youth counselor and I really enjoyed the job and I worked on the residential unit, the RAP unit, residential adolescent program. So we had anywhere. I guess they could have been as young as 12 and as old as 17,. Sometimes an 18 year old would creep in there, both boys and girls, and, like I said, I really enjoyed the job and I found myself to be very useful there. I saw a lot of kids get help.
Speaker 1:
You know, that's back in the, in the days when I don't know, these residential treatment centers were really, really really having huge, huge success. They were just really really great programs for people, helping people to stop drinking and using drugs. So it was a very much. It was very productive those years. It wasn't there long, probably three or four years but every once in a while you would get you know the ornery kid that thinks they know everything, I mean, and you know, in a way they have an excuse. So when you are suffering from substance abuse, I mean you really do. It's kind of a crazy thing, but you really do think you know everything. It's just funny Like somebody who, like really is on their you know, on the ropes can come back at you with you know how they know everything and a lot of it's just I say it's normal and I'm not poking fun at them and that's why, like you know, we were very compassionate and empathetic towards that.
Speaker 1:
But it was a common thing to get some pushback on things and you know, what I always found working there and I think I learned it there more than anywhere was tough love. Like you're not going to be successful in your job if you're a people pleaser. If you're, you know, if you're a pushover, you know I mean you have to have some backbone to get into the helping field industry. You know that is if you give a shit. I mean if you really want success and you know I greatly care about success I mean mean I'm at the point in my career now where you know I've done well, I've done fine. It's like taking a new client on for the sake of another. You know I don't 600 a month, whatever you know is like nah, you know I mean not unless, like I know I'm going to be successful and they're going to be successful. I mean I want wins, I want people walking around saying they're getting better. I mean mean that's what really matters to me. I don't chase the mighty dollar. I mean I want people to absolutely be successful and I take it very personal when they don't. And I think you know I actually think that's a good thing. So I learned at Stewart you have to have tough love if you're going to be successful. You absolutely can't tell people what they want to hear.
Speaker 1:
So on this given day, there was one of the kids who typically would have his version of temper tantrums and could be just a real prick and he was screaming at one of the counselors. You know, telling the counselor like you know he doesn't know anything and he's just a you know a counselor and he you know he's not a psychologist and and and no, this wasn't me I was just kind of standing back watching, you know, making sure that everything stayed relatively calm, and you know the kid went on a rant, just basically telling him how this guy doesn't know anything. You know, and I'll never forget, the counselor looked over at him. He says you know, here's what I do know, though. So you're so smart and you know everything. You know everything about what's going to get you better, and you've known this for a long time because you've been here a long time. You absolutely know what you need to do to get your life on track. You know so well about this that when I turn this key right now, I'm getting ready to leave and get into my car and go home and see my wife and have a nice dinner and enjoy the evening, do whatever the heck we want to do, and when this steel door closes, you're going to go back in your paper slippers with this door closed and be told what to do by people who don't know what they're doing for the next three months. That's how little I know and that's how much you know and pretty much you know. He looked at him with a little drop the mic moment and closed the door and you know I probably got more out of it than the kid did who I'm sure had heard it before. Now I don't know if this kid ever turned it around. I really don't remember. I don't remember which kid it was, I just remember the day it occurred. And I do remember we had a lot of success too, because we had counselors that would absolutely give it to you straight like that, counselors that would absolutely give it to you straight, like that. Unfortunately, nowadays they probably get fired, which really sucks, because he was telling that kid what he needed to hear and the only way that kid was ever going to turn it around was to hear that. Because you know life can not be overly nice and you better hear the truth or you know things aren't going to work out well for you.
Speaker 1:
So, in this same realm, you know if you've battled getting in the shape, if you've battled, say, you know yo-yo dieting, you know and that's typically more of the client that I see the yeah butts out of a lot, like the people who have gotten themselves morbidly obese and, for health reasons, decided they really needed to do something and they were willing to do anything. You told them to lose weight. It's not really them Like. They tend to do what you really need them to do in. You told them to lose weight. It's not really them. They tend to do what you really need them to do. In the same way, somebody who has injured a limb, like a knee or a hip, a shoulder, whatever ankle and they've been in a lot of pain and they trust you and you tell them this is what they need to do they tend to do what you tell them to do. So it's really more.
Speaker 1:
The people that kind of like have some minor success, but not great success, meaning that if your weight is going up and down, like if you're kind of going back and forth I don't know 10 to 30 pounds, which we'll see people do sometimes you know whether it be in the gym or just people that I know or people that I've stayed in touch with I mean that's not success. I mean studies have shown that yo-yo dieting is not healthy, like one of the better things we can do for our health is get to our ideal weight and maintain it. Like that is so important is get to our ideal weight and maintain it, like that is so important and like that's one of, like my big goals. All the time I'm like just maintain, like maintain a lot of what I'm doing Like it's so important and so many people don't understand the value of that. If you maintain what you're doing and hold on to it for weeks, months and years and look back, I mean that's one hell of a great track record right there and then all the good that comes from that because you've been able to do that, so that's huge. If that's not happening, for whatever reason, then you know you honestly have absolutely no reason to be questioning the advice you're getting.
Speaker 1:
So you know the yeah butters will say, oh, you know, I tried that, but I saw online that you know I really should be counting the amount of carbohydrates I'm doing and I'll literally just look at somebody and go so why are you here, like if you know so much? Why are you asking me? Or you know, why are you asking me this question right now? Or why are you even training, like if you know? Are you just like trying to throw it out there and see if it sticks? You're just trying to see if I'll agree with you and tell you what you want to hear. Like I don't know, you're just trying to see if I'll agree with you and tell you what you want to hear. Like I don't know. I guess I just don't understand that a whole lot and I'm just, like I said, having a conversation with you. Let's see what we can pretend.
Speaker 1:
There's just I don't know how many people listen to this. You know we get 40 downloads a week or something like that. So let's say I'm talking to 40 of you out there. You know why do we do it. I mean, if you could answer you know that'd be awesome. I could sit here and go, oh okay. So you know why do people do that? Is it? Do they really know the answer deep down that you're going to tell them they just don't want to do it? Are they like really think they know more than you? I don't know it's. Do they really think they saw something on social media that's only like a small segment of the real information and all of a sudden, that makes that person an expert and then makes the person who's talking about it an expert. I don't know.
Speaker 1:
I mean it kind of baffles me how many people have become experts in so many things since social media has blown up. I mean I don't know what year Facebook really took off. It's way different than when I first remember it coming in, where people could just stay in touch with people that they know. I mean that was cool. But like nowadays, there's livings that are made on it, there's careers of people making good money and that's all they do is influence.
Speaker 1:
But like ever since I guess social media really started taking off, I mean everybody is an expert on everything. I mean why do we need social engineers anymore if everybody completely understands how highways are constructed and you know the processes involved in drawing up new streets and traffic lights? I mean you know, talk to somebody. They know because they saw it on social media. Or you know why are there even physicians anymore if everybody knows exactly the truth behind COVID-19 and all this kind of stuff? Because they saw a blip somewhere somehow that told them something.
Speaker 1:
I mean, isn't that like kind of crazy that people just think they're like experts on absolutely everything because they saw a small tidbit of information out there that people that have had PhDs or MDs or you know whatever the degrees, are to really research topics. I mean they're not out there most of the time influencing on social media. So you know, if you really want like expert opinion, you kind of have to go to the experts. You know, which is the whole idea. So like is it that people are just like anti ask the experts anything and we just want to go and get quick information from social media. Like I'm really not sure, I don't know what it comes from and I must say this isn't news in social media. But I do think the yeah butters have come out a little bit more since because they just see so much information like all the time.
Speaker 1:
I mean, I know that the diet industry can be confusing. It's a multi-billion dollar industry that sends out new messages all the time, but that's not like the true nutritionists, that's not the doctors, that's not the people that really have the information. It's the food industry, it's the diet industry. That's different. That's not really the experts. Those are the people that are selling things to you and I get it. They're pushing new things all the time.
Speaker 1:
But you do have to be smart enough to understand that you're being sold a bill of goods, right? I mean? Gosh, 1800s, isn't that when the term snake oil first came out? I mean, this isn't new people. They've been selling stuff constantly for 100 years to people that are going to be simple solutions. Simple, easy, quick fix solutions to your problems. You have to be smarter than that. You just can't fall for it.
Speaker 1:
I mean, I would say today that you know, for dieting, keto is the new snake oil, right? I mean, of course, you do have to do a little more work with your diet, with keto, than just simply drink this. You know substance, of course, but it's still bullshit. I mean, it's still like there's no magical diet. You're just going to have to learn to eat less and eat nutrient dense foods and discipline yourself to really want to do it. I mean, there's no new solution.
Speaker 1:
So I don't know if you're one of them out there and you're listening and you go. Well, I do that. So ask yourself why. I mean to me, this is how I do things, and if somebody, like, is working with me and they don't trust what I have to say, I mean I would want them to leave. I don't want to work with somebody that doesn't trust me because my advice is just going to go on deaf ears and it's like I don't have the time and energy for that. So this is like my advice on that, or you just kind of like you know, like to argue, and then that's a waste of everybody's time too. I mean that's you know. I hope people don't go to a trainer or to their psychologist or to their nutritionist or to their MD to simply argue, because that's where they can. I would hope people don't do that. So I don't know what the reason is, but I would suggest if you don't want to take the advice of who's ever given you the advice, then either don't ask them or don't go to them.
Speaker 1:
Like I know when I pick a service, like when I pick a massage therapist, what's easy for me? Because you know Ellen's the best and you know she's here, so that's easy. So that's not a good example. If I pick a chiropractor, if I pick a dentist, if I pick my doctor, like all these things are my choices, who I go to. Like I pick them because I like them, and if I don't like them and trust them upon first meeting, I find somebody new. I'm not stuck to have to go. I mean, I just, you know, fired a dentist not that long ago for things I didn't particularly care for. So you know, I'm going to do that versus waste anybody's time. So like, if you're going to, yeah, but you're expert, then maybe you should reconsider where you go.
Speaker 1:
All right, so this is, you know, kind of just talking to you, putting a bunch of stuff out there. See what you can gain from it, see how you can become, you know, a little more knowledgeable. So first piece of advice is go directly to the source when you have questions, and second is take the advice. Simply take the advice or don't ask. You will save everybody some time and energy. All right, speaking of advice, if you need help with your garage doors, I'm absolutely going to advise you to go to Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, because they are the absolute best. I vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, who are the owners, and if you need any help, give them a shout at OverheadDoorDaytonacom.