Uncovering the Simple Truths in a Sea of Fitness Fiction
May 21, 2024
Rob Maxwell
Ever feel like you're drowning in a sea of fitness fads and fallacies? Your captain, Rob Maxwell, is here to navigate you through the choppy waters, smashing the so-called "secrets" of exercise and nutrition. We're getting back to the bedrock of health, stripping away the noise to remind you that a banana here or an oatmeal there isn't what's sinking your fitness ship. Instead, set your sights on the horizon of daily fruit quotas and the solid land of effective cardio and strength workouts.
This episode isn't just about debunking myths; it's a celebration of fresh starts and the power of simplicity. For you, the fitness initiate, it's about arming yourself with questions that spark motivation and accountability. With a nod to the need for credible, certified guidance, I'll share insights on the influence of genetics and the underappreciated force of community in your journey to wellness. After all, it's not about being self-made, but about being community-shaped.
As we explore the historical tapestry of physical education, you'll hear my transformation from an overweight teen to a fitness aficionado. This personal tale isn't just for show – it's proof that the ripple effects of fitness extend far beyond the gym, elevating moods and behaviors across society. So, join me in championing the fitness crusade, one that promises not just personal health but a collective leap towards a more vibrant, harmonious community.
Ever feel like you're drowning in a sea of fitness fads and fallacies? Your captain, Rob Maxwell, is here to navigate you through the choppy waters, smashing the so-called "secrets" of exercise and nutrition. We're getting back to the bedrock of health, stripping away the noise to remind you that a banana here or an oatmeal there isn't what's sinking your fitness ship. Instead, set your sights on the horizon of daily fruit quotas and the solid land of effective cardio and strength workouts.
This episode isn't just about debunking myths; it's a celebration of fresh starts and the power of simplicity. For you, the fitness initiate, it's about arming yourself with questions that spark motivation and accountability. With a nod to the need for credible, certified guidance, I'll share insights on the influence of genetics and the underappreciated force of community in your journey to wellness. After all, it's not about being self-made, but about being community-shaped.
As we explore the historical tapestry of physical education, you'll hear my transformation from an overweight teen to a fitness aficionado. This personal tale isn't just for show – it's proof that the ripple effects of fitness extend far beyond the gym, elevating moods and behaviors across society. So, join me in championing the fitness crusade, one that promises not just personal health but a collective leap towards a more vibrant, harmonious community.
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 dispel myths, to talk about why things work and to simply give you the science on exercise and training. Speaking of that, I got a really good one today on all of that, did some great research, went over some things. This is really going to be a great show. I really think you're going to enjoy it. I'm going to enjoy making it. I'm going to talk about all these people arguing over optimizing and what it really does in the grand scheme of things. Before I get to that, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group at Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service and home selling and they have the absolute sales and reviews to back them up. If you need any help selling your home or buying a home, please give them a shout at 386-451-2412. All right, so let's get down to the nitty gritty. What do all of these optimizers do online messing with people constantly giving me questions that I have to field all the time because these people are so worried about trying to get everything perfect in the exercise world. But what are they really doing? What are these people really doing?
Speaker 1:
When I was in graduate school and this was in the 1990s, my friends and I used to kind of sit back and laugh. Then I mean this is in the 90s, kind of sit back and laugh. Then I mean this is in the 90s. We would laugh then at some of the studies that would come across our desks that we had to review. And we're looking at this, going who cares? Like what does this even matter about? Like why are we even looking at this? I mean it was just the most ridiculous things that clearly people were trying to get their dissertations done or they're working on their grad thesis or whatever, and I guess you have to pick up something that really hasn't been covered too much. But man, do you really? I mean, do you really? I mean, do you really? I mean, do we really think that that much has changed in the last hundred years? Really? I mean this show is going to tell you not really. But let me give you some of the things that I've come across just this week, and then I'm going to give you some cool statistics on why it is so ridiculous.
Speaker 1:
So here's one Don't add bananas to your smoothies because they're actually taking away some of the other amino acids and some of the other healthy nutrients of the other berries in the shake. Yeah, that was a study done. Now, for the most part, the meta-analysis on that found it not to be true, but they found, or they did one study, or some idiot did one study that had eight people in the control group, which technically shouldn't count, but they obviously published the results on social media and it got everybody freaking out about bananas. Why? Because social media is like weeds. You put it out there, somebody sees it, somebody that hates bananas, or a low-carb guy or whatever, and they share it. And the next thing, you know, everybody's running around saying don't eat bananas. All right.
Speaker 1:
And then here's the real deal on that. According to some research I did this morning, only 12.3% of the United States population eat the recommended amount of fruit per day, which is only two pieces, by the way 12.3%. So I tried to break that down even further to find out the actual percentage of people that actually eat at least one banana a day, and I could not come up with anything reliable on that. But let's just say, if 12.3% are eating enough fruit, the likelihood of all of that fruit being bananas is pretty poor. So I don't know 2% or 3% maybe. So we're doing a study on something that might affect might affect two percent of the population. How stupid is that? This is just one example, because I want to open up your eyes to see what are we doing here, like, what are we really trying to do and what do we need to do? Here's another one Don't eat oatmeal.
Speaker 1:
Now they have Two reasons to state this. One, none of them have been confirmed. One simply spread like weeds across the internet that oats are some of the most polluted with GMOs of all of the plants. That has not been substantiated. And number two, because they're not of the proper glycemic index, people should not eat them. Now, this is coming from people that you're kind of supposed to trust, but I don't know why you're supposed to trust them, because they're just people on the internet. They're just people on social media. The real deal is that there is no truth to any of that and, if we want to look at this a little bit further. Only 24.2% of the people are actually doing enough cardio strength training and trying to eat properly. Yet we're worried about oatmeal. Well, who's worried about it? Well, I'll get to that in a second.
Speaker 1:
More studies this week the old fasting cardio bros have been going at it again. You know God, I'm not going to name their names because actually some people that listen to the show are fans of them, and I think they're fans because they're so opinionated and people tend to be drawn towards opinionated people, and you know a couple of these folks really do know their stuff. But the stuff they spend their time on is ridiculous. But they do that on purpose. I mean, they're paid by clicks. So if they get enough people talking about stuff they can remotely understand, then they're going to do it.
Speaker 1:
But these dudes love to fight about fasting cardio. So what, in case you don't know what that is? So fasting cardio is the belief that if you do your cardio fasted meaning when you first get up in the morning that you're going to burn more fat. So there have been the counter belief of that, which is it makes no difference, so that these boys are going at it all week, from what I saw, and man have been the counter belief of that, which is it makes no difference, so that these boys are going at it all week. From what I saw and man do I stay out of that one. But sometimes I do like to read the thread because it's entertaining, and it's also entertaining to see how triggered some of these guys are when there's a somewhat intelligent statement back to them. But in any event, it is not true and it doesn't matter. That's more importantly. You know more important. I don't want to get into what's true and not true, although most of this isn't, but what really is true is it doesn't freaking matter.
Speaker 1:
24.2% of the population are doing enough exercise and we're worried about fasting cardio. Like you really think your grandma, who needs to move a lot more and you really want to keep her alive a lot longer, cares or needs to worry about fasting cardio. So we're worried about like 1% of the population that would actually argue about this stupid shit. About this stupid shit, and most people like are just we're at. Me, as a person in industry is trying to get more people to fall in love with exercise and proper eating because of the benefits it's going to have in their life, and I spent very, very little time trying to convince people who are already doing enough to change what they're doing. I mean, that's just stupid. But the reason why these people do this is because that's their audience on social media and they're sitting behind their little desk and they're sending this out and people in other countries and states are reading it and they have a huge audience and it is the audience that would rather argue about this stuff than to go out and simply, as Arnold Schwarzenegger says, go be useful. A cool point on that. I listened to Schwarzenegger one time on his podcast and he's entertaining, I like Arnold, and he was talking about how he went on Instagram and he saw somebody doing this ridiculous exercise and his comment was do you really think? I haven't seen any exercise that's beneficial through all my years of training and I never saw that dumb exercise you're doing so like. Why are we reinventing the wheel Like? We've known how to exercise forever, yet we're trying to worry about like the perfect exercise. So here's a cool one for you. A little statistic A guy by the name of Jarek J-E-R-I-C-K Ravella don't know where he's from, but he is credited to inventing the modern day push-up.
Speaker 1:
He did this in 1905. That is well over 100 years ago. And now, in 2024, we're going to now invent the absolute best pec shoulder and tricep exercise known to man, because we just know so much more Like we've learned so much about physics and kinesiology and biology and anatomy and physiology that we have suddenly learned. Now, what we have learned is we've learned how to create social media I shouldn't say we, somebody else did it and now we know how to spread things that are going to get people to do them, because people love curiosity and people hate boredom, even though most of the time, boredom is best and boredom works. So there is that All right. So here are a few other things that have been floating around, all right. So I already told you the percentage of people that are actually on the journey trying to get better is only 24.2 percent. Like that's not enough.
Speaker 1:
And so what we have in this country as far as our fitness culture goes, is your usual American feast or famine, right? I mean, when you go to other countries, that's like what we're known for. People are either all in or they're all out. They're super fit or they're obese. Like we have very little in the middle and we want more in the middle I used to say all the time people looked at me funny, I'll just say things that I know exactly what I'm talking about and then I just assume everybody else does. It's like, oh well, if you really wanna know, you could ask me. But I'd say more moderation, which, of course, is an oxymoron. How can you have more moderation? But you can Like, how do we get more moderation? Like, how do we get more moderation?
Speaker 1:
Like the fitness people that are arguing over fasting cardio and whether or not to put a banana in their smoothie, who gives a shit? Like you know, I'm kind of in that group a little bit, but I don't know, I've been around enough to not fight over that dumb stuff or I know it doesn't matter. I think you know you reach a certain point where you're like you know there is like such a thing as knowledge saturation. Like that's just ridiculous, right? I mean so yeah, I'm in the super fitness and all that stuff. But like we're not worried about what those people think. We're trying to get the people who aren't doing anything to do something, because I am a big believer in that. The you know, the weakest link is going to affect everybody, right, I mean it affects healthcare, it affects our strength as a nation, it affects the world. I mean, I do believe that and I think the more we can get people on board doing things, bettering themselves, the better we're all going to be.
Speaker 1:
And I wish, like these people who do have these like enormous platforms, would quit arguing about these dumb things and make things more fun, easier to understand for people that maybe just log in because they've heard this person's decent and want to know how to start, like, how do we help those people? And the more we argue about this dumb stuff, the more of a turnoff it is, or it trickles down into the people who aren't eating right or exercising enough and then they get the old paralysis of analysis so they don't start. How do we get useful instead? I mean, how do we think about that? How do all of us that have some understanding Because if you're listening to this, you do have some form of understanding how do you carry that message to people who need to hear it and get them moving, like they're the people that, honestly, are the most joyous to work with?
Speaker 1:
I mean, when I get some people who have retired from their careers and they've been busy and they haven't been very active. They aren't necessarily athletic but they're. You know they. They reach a certain point and they're like you know, my doctor said I really need to start exercising and they suggested you and I was love to hear that I. I kind of love physician referrals because usually they're coming in with the right mindset of what we got to do, but they're like among the best because they don't worry about this stupid shit. Like they'll just say okay, so I've never done this before. Like what's a good way to strength train? And we teach them and they start getting better, they start getting stronger.
Speaker 1:
If they have dietary advice, you know they've maybe already spoken to their physician. Or they start asking me talk to them about like what's true and not true, whether it be shakes afterwards or whatever the nonsense they've heard. You know you can talk to them and they don't argue about it, like they don't get caught up in the whole. You know well, I heard I should do this, or I heard I should do that, or you know I heard multiple sets is better than less sets. And I heard you shouldn't go to failure. I should heard you should go to failure. I heard 20 reps is best, or I heard 12. I mean, it's like who cares? Like who are you talking to? They don't do that stuff Like, so I love that. And then, very simply, they get better. Right, I mean, that's the key.
Speaker 1:
We want people to get better, and they do get better because they're asking the right questions. The right question shouldn't be I heard this, maybe I should do that. The right question should be I'm not doing enough. What is your advice, input or motivation to help me do more? Because I think at this point we all know exercise and eating right is good for us. I don't know anybody that doesn't believe that at this point, and usually the issue is they're not doing it. So I have clients that have been traveling. They travel this summer and they want to stick with the routine. So they don't ask me like you know what's this perfect advice? They say can you write me up a plan and keep me accountable? That's the right question. And the answer is yes, because the problem isn't the perfect way to work out or eat. The problem is you're not doing enough. Look at the numbers. We are not doing enough. The question should be how can I improve? What is holding me back? Am I not motivated enough? Am I burned out? Am I confused? Am I going through paralysis of analysis? Those are the questions we need to be asking ourselves and asking people who have inquired.
Speaker 1:
If you're working out, you might have people you work with or friends you hang out with and they might say, hey, you know, you've done really well what are you doing? And just say, well, I do this and how can I help you get going? How can I like, minimize all of this stress you might be feeling in starting, instead of making it more confusing and difficult? So here's a cool statistic. I've been looking for this for a while and I finally found it, and I have to admit I used the Meta AI, which seemed to work really, really good. Got to give a shout out to my boy, harpreet, who works with Meta. Anyway, less than 20% of fitness influencers have the minimum of requirements to be a personal trainer or health specialist Less than 20%, and this is like reported. So if they're reporting that, it's probably even less than that because it's not verified. Most reported they did not have any professional training.
Speaker 1:
Yet we're listening to them, right? I mean, we're listening to them, and I'm talking about an industry that doesn't even have licensing. Licensing is even more difficult to obtain than certification. So if they're not even willing to take a voluntary certification exam, which most of them don't require a college education, why are you listening to them? Like number one they probably don't know what they're talking about. Number two they're telling you to get motivated. They're telling you to get busy. They're getting all over you because you know you're not doing enough and they're too lazy to get the proper education and certification they need. I have no respect for that. Respect for that. I mean. I mean, what a hypocrite right. I mean they're like you know you need to get busy, you need to walk every day, you need to run every day, you need to cut all these sugars out of your diet, you need to cut all the fat out of your diet. Oh, okay, sir, I'll do that. And so, like are you going to ever take your certification exam? Oh, I don't have time for that, I already know enough.
Speaker 1:
I mean, think about that, think about the arrogance in that, think about the stupidity in that Stupidity of that. I mean, to me it goes beyond knowledge, it gets into arrogance. It's like oh, because you know people will pay you, because people are so desperate, they'll give you clicks because you look good. Well, look, here's something I learned long ago. You never ask the racehorse how it got fast, because I tell people all the time I mean, yeah, I'm 58. I know I'm fit and all this, but you know what Great genetics I mean? I never discount that. I mean sure, I have to work at it, there's no question about it. But I also have good genetics.
Speaker 1:
So I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, all of this is hard work and self-made. Okay, there's no self-made. That's another thing I love about Schwarzenegger. There's no self-made. There's tons of help along the way, tons of guidance along the way, tons of support from my parents along the way, tons of support by friends, tons of support by training partners, tons of support from people who went before me and got educated, wrote proper books and got an exercise physiology. There's no self-made. Sure, I did my part. My third right. My third was put in the work. The other third is genetics. The other third is help got you know so absolutely.
Speaker 1:
But see, most of these influencers would just tell you they did it on their own. It just drives me nuts. I mean, none of us like like working with somebody like that, because they're usually never going to get better because they, they absolutely think that they know it all. So I want you to remember that less than 20 percent. The next time you see something and you're wondering, like the dumb banana study, if you're like reading that, just just go a little further. Go to their bio and go who is this person? Like what? Do they have? Dm them if you're really that curious, you know, just for fun. They're probably not going to reply back if they don't have any certification. If they do, they might, but if they don't, they're just going to ignore you and probably block you. But you know that's our defense to this is simply learn where to tune in and learn where to tune out.
Speaker 1:
But I do want to give you a couple more cool statistics. So the very first gym membership came out in 1848. It was started by a retired circus strongman by the name of Hippolyte, and I thought that was a joke. Hippolyte Triat, all right, t-r-i-a-t, but Hippolyte, think of that. Can you imagine? Hey, what's your gym name? Hippos? Whatever, he did it 1848. That's a long time ago, right? That's a long time ago. Can you imagine if there was social media back then? You know that would be something right.
Speaker 1:
So 100 years ago people did five times the amount of activity and exercise that we do today. Worried about oatmeal, bananas, fasting, cardio, 12 reps versus 20, like all these things that were totally micromanaging and overthinking. Do you not think there were people fit a hundred years ago? I ask people that question a lot and they look at me funny like, of course, and then I'm hoping I'm jarring their brain as to what I'm trying to get them to think about. So if there were fit people 100 years ago I mean obviously centuries ago right, I mean we've seen the statue of David. I mean look how they made this right. Look how they made the statue. They made them with chiseled abs and pecs. So clearly they saw that somewhere. Somebody had that kind of dynamic physique back then. Right?
Speaker 1:
So a hundred years ago as well, I mean if somebody had muscle, which you're going to have muscle, if you're working like, if you're actually working in the fields, if you're actually working in your yard, if you're building your own houses, I mean a hundred years ago times were different. We worked. What was your workout? I worked, I went to work, I did physical labor from 9 to 5 or 8 to 4 or whatever. And when I got home, I did more. I shoveled snow, I mean, I could go on and on right. 100 years ago they worked and they didn't have the processing that we have today, so it took them longer to prepare food, so naturally they ate better because of that. But any event, whatever they did, if you had muscle and you didn't have a lot of body fat, you had a good body. I mean, we're humans. We've looked the same for a very long time, we've just gotten bigger. So if we did all that without all these ridiculous hacks, doesn't that tell you that these hacks are bullshit? Like, if they did all of that, then why do we think we have to be so unique today? We're really really, really weird species, you know, when you come to think of it.
Speaker 1:
So, speaking of way back, so in 386 BC was credited to be the invention of physical education. Invention of physical education. Physical education was thought to be very needed in 386 BC, doing it a long time. And of course, our famous friend Hippocrates, in 1460 to 370 BC, was the first person to knowingly write an exercise prescription. Now, I doubt he put that on Twitter back then, but somewhere there is documentation of a written prescription from Hippocrates. So we've been doing this for a really really long time.
Speaker 1:
I'll stop the statistics right now, but I just found these to be really, really interesting. But what does this all tell us? It tells us there's nothing new under the sun, my friends, like now, we have to figure out how to do it. And if we are in that feast or famine and we're at where the feasting side, where we're, you know, doing our work each week, you know, maybe we need to stop being such buttholes and confusing people by arguing with each other whether or not we should be drinking or eating any kind of dairy products. Maybe we should think okay. So how do I share how much better I feel now from working out than I did prior to working out? And then how can I get my friends who maybe haven't fallen in love with this yet, to do it? And a lot of the times the answer is to share our stories.
Speaker 1:
You know I've shared before when I was a adolescent, in my early to mid teens, like I was overweight. I mean, I ate all the time my father died when I was 12. I went through all these, you know, stress responses of eating. I suppose, looking back on it. I think that's why I did it, but I got overweight and I felt like shit about myself. Back on it, I think that's why I did it, but I got overweight and I felt like shit about myself. And it wasn't until, like, I lost the weight at 17, became thin and then started working out and I was like, oh my God, like this feels so much better, like everything in my life is better, and so it's kind of like you fall in love with it and then you just start to do it. And there's a million stories that I've heard similar to this whether people have come off of addictions or whether people just got tired of being overweight, whether people got tired of being sick. But they've changed their ways and I don't know if enough people talk about why they changed.
Speaker 1:
I did a poll the other day on Facebook. It actually wasn't meant to be a poll. I asked a question. I said you know, everybody hit me with like a question and one of my clients said so, health or fitness. And I thought he meant like, ask me one about health or fitness. But he went which is more important and I reflexively said fitness Cause I thought he was talking about you know what type of question I wanted. But he was like no, which one do you think is more important? So then I clarified I said health, but he came back and he said fitness. I said, explain that to me. And he said it was really cool. He this is just the other day. He said, well, like I found that me working on my fitness really improved my health. I thought, oh, that's really cool, and I know his story and he talks about his story. So like, maybe that's what we spend our time on on the Internet, like doing useful, productive things.
Speaker 1:
All right, speaking of that, will you please share this with other people? Like let's not get so caught up in our bubble. Like a lot of people, I send these to people that I know listen, I'll send it to them. Other people already have it downloaded. Other people are just listening. But you know what? It's easy to just hit, share and send. I mean, if we get more people exercising, the world is going to be a happier place. I mean, if you've ever noticed the people who kind of the snottiest and rudest out in public? I mean they're usually not in overly great condition, they don't feel good about themselves and then they take it out on everybody else. So you know, maybe we can share this. All right, speaking of sharing, I'm going to share a factual advertisement. Overhead Door of Daytona Beach is the best garage door company in the area. I can personally vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. They will do anything they need to do to make their job right, to make sure you get the right product. So give them a shout at overheaddoordaytonacom.