Milo of Croton, Adductor Brevis & Qualified Personal Trainers Community

What can ancient Greek wrestling teach us about modern strength training? In our first "Muscle of the Week" episode, we uncover the extraordinary story of Milo of Croton, whose legendary feats like carrying a growing cow up hills have fascinated historians and fitness enthusiasts alike. Join Professor Chris & Travis as he intertwines history with practical programming advice, emphasizing how Milo's training methods provide valuable insights into strength development today. We also highlight the transformative power of our Qualified Personal Trainers Community on Facebook, where ongoing support and enriching discussions await.

In the second part of our episode, we tackle the nitty-gritty of fitness training adaptations for various environments, from home gyms to commercial setups. Travis shares his expertise on tailoring exercises to fit equipment availability and client needs, especially for those dealing with injuries. Get ready to break down effective shoulder exercise strategies, understand the importance of scapular movements, and implement the Core, Circuit, Accessory (CCA) method for well-rounded workouts. Finally, we shift focus to personal growth in the fitness industry, discussing how to leverage your introverted or extroverted tendencies for success and the importance of networking with local professionals. Follow Professor Travis on social media under TravXFlex and join our Facebook group for more insights—don't forget to leave us that five-star rating!

Want to ask us a question? Email email info@showupfitness.com with the subject line PODCAST QUESTION to get your question answered live on the show!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast, where great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry one qualified trainer at a time, with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showupfitnesscom. Also, make sure to check out my book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. Have a great day and keep showing up.

Speaker 1: 0:29

Howdy everybody, and welcome back to the Show Up Fitness Podcast. Today we have Professor Travis, and him and I are going to start a short series within the podcast Muscle of the Week. We'll give you a little bit of history lesson, talk about some programming, answer some questions. Make sure that you have now joined the new Facebook group, which is going to be Qualified Personal Trainers Community. Get in there and that's where we're going to be answering questions you may have, whether it's injury related stuff about your clients, business, weird stories, whatever it may be. Get into that group so we can continue to spread the word of what it's like to be a qualified, certified personal trainer. So thanks for showing up today, big T.

Speaker 2: 1:18

Yes, sir, always a pleasure.

Speaker 1: 1:20

We were hanging out not too long ago having a couple of beers at the Sacramento Seminar. Next we're going to be in Jersey Tomorrow. I'm flying out, be back on Monday and then we will be in Chicago as well as Dallas, and we're really excited to continue with our lifetime tour. I will be on their national call. I'm a little nervous. Not going to lie. They want the best, so the belt buckle hunk is going to lie. They want the best, so the belt buckle hunk is going to show up and talk to their trainers. They have 3,500 trainers, 170 gyms. They want to show up to get more involved and that's what's kind of inspired the instructors and show up to continue to produce great content.

Speaker 1: 1:57

When we're doing a swift, looking over our podcast, which we're coming up on one year, over 45,000 downloads, how can we make them better? I know the audio, phil, you were giving me shit earlier. They need to improve, we will. That's why we do the Swift, and so we're going to talk about the adductor brevis later on. I'm going to give you a little history lesson, real quick, and one of my favorite people when it comes to exercise would be the story of Milo of Croton, and if you're not familiar with Milo. He was a sixth century, I believe, wrestler and he won four or five Olympiads. He was a great athlete. Travis, do you know why they even started the Olympics and what they were doing them for?

Speaker 2: 2:43

No, I'm going to teach you something today?

Speaker 1: 2:46

yes, make a mount olympus. Where does that go up to? The highest mountain in greece I don't know about that geography lesson but I was talking about the folklore goes up to where the gods are yes so they have these olympics to appease zeus, and so they've had these every four years.

Speaker 1: 3:06

It's like these big games that we're just going to say, hey, zeus, you're awesome, look at the best in the world that are doing cool shit. And Milo was a badass and he did some cool things. But if you've read my book and if you haven't, it's going to be out. I will have the copy in my hands. Volume two on Friday. We will be releasing it, probably within the next seven to 14 days, which we will use at all the seminars. It's going to be the backbone for our continued success. And my favorite word in the English dictionary, ubiquity, because that's what show up fitness needs to be known as If you want to become a qualified personal trainer, you got to level up, get that show up in a CPT, which is a level one certification.

Speaker 1: 3:48

But the cool thing about my book cover is you'll see the picture it's a very famous photo of this jack dude walking with a cow, because the folklore said that he would in the off season. So every four years they have these events. He would take this fricking cow, walk up and down the hill and grab water and as the cow grew into a two-ton bull. Milo's all jacked up and so the idea was that he would carry this. And that's how he got all jacked up. He had some crazy feats of strength. He was known for holding a pomegranate in one hand and he would challenge villagers to pry off a finger. No one could do it. And he was recognized by ancient philosophers. Epictetus he's a stoic philosopher talks about how badass he was A hero I'm going to screw this one up, heroductes, I believe but he was like the father of history. He mentions him a lot, but the ironic thing was his death. And so Milo was walking through the park hanging out, and there was a villager who had his hands. He was trying to break apart this giant tree. There's a famous statue in Holland Park in London representing this. And so Milo's pulling these wedges apart as the villager went to go get food. Milo's yanking this fucker apart. As the villager went to go get food, milo's yanking this fucker apart and he slipped and his hands fell in and it trapped him. And then there's another really famous photo of his death Benoit Joseph Benoit and it shows Milo getting eaten by a wolf and a lion. And the irony of this photo you have to check it out.

Speaker 1: 5:22

Take Milo of Croton by Joseph Benoit, because the lion is on his back and his balls are hanging out and you're like what the heck? This is a weird photo and I think the irony behind this is Milo took that bull and, before one of his big Olympic events, killed him, ate it and ate his testicles. And you may be thinking that's a weird fucking story. How do you know that? But that's why we have professors who educate us on all the great things, and Doc was the one who told that story when we were doing an in-depth bioenergetics for the level two instructors. So I think there's a lot of irony behind that photo. But now you know a little history lesson on Milo of Croton and why I have him on the cover of my book. Are you impressed, travis?

Speaker 2: 6:04

I am. I didn't know a lot of that part of the story. I had no idea it was killed by a statue. That's crazy.

Speaker 1: 6:11

He wasn't killed by a statue. He was pulling apart a tree trunk. Oh, the tree trunk, and then it fell on him Pulling it, and then the wedges that were holding him. They fell out. And so then it smacked them back together, oh shit. So his hands are like his secret weapon, but now he can't use them, and so animals of the town the wolves and the lions came over and fucking ate him.

Speaker 2: 6:36

Oh, my God.

Speaker 1: 6:37

That's pretty crazy right Now after we want these little 10, 15-minute segments to be education history, make it kind of fun, but we're also going to educate you with some programming and every week Travis has a call where he trains a client and you get to see an instructor an experienced trainer taking someone through the CCA. He has a really cool story how he met this client because he's implemented the words that I talk about in my book. So talk about how you got this client, take us through the workout and then we're going to get into the muscle.

Speaker 2: 7:10

This client is, in fact, my bartender. She was pretty messed up. She got really sick in the hospital and then she reached out to me and she's slowly been building herself better. She's been with me for over a year and is a completely transformed, different person Now. The number one person you should be training is definitely a bartender, because not only do you get cheap drinks and also heavy pours, but you also get recommendations for other clients. So she has been definitely a fountain of wealth for my business and I definitely let her know. Yesterday I made sure she was out of protein. I went to the store, got her a tub of protein, delivered it with a nice card and she was more than thankful. She had no idea that it was coming. So make sure you also give those clients gifts. Let them know that they are cared about, that they do support your business.

Speaker 1: 8:05

How much money did she refer?

Speaker 2: 8:07

you last month Between 18 and two grand.

Speaker 1: 8:09

It's not about the money, right, but we want to make more so we can help more people. That's why we're doing this, and I make a joke saying bartenders are great to train. You can put that as a lawyer. You can put it as a physician Find your maven, because they're in front of a ton of people and he would never have that opportunity to help other people if he wasn't training her. Students can watch you not only train her, but you get to see your personality and the banter you guys have, because you've been training her for a long time and she's definitely more of a intermediate to an advanced client and that's the program that you guys did. Can she do pushups? Can she do pull-ups?

Speaker 2: 8:48

Tell us a little bit more about her so that people who are listening can get a better idea of what she's capable of no-transcript core exercise, which is a lying down abs with balls and you're pushing the ball up and keeping it static in the same place. The question I had for the students was about doing a trebar deadlift and a pull-up. What would the limiting factor be? Phil was correct. He said grip strength. I would not do this on a beginner client, usually an intermediate to an advanced client, and I also would probably use straps for the client. That way it kind of takes out the grip on the deadlift which would be a limiting factor on a lot of people and I also don't like that's a lot of posterior chain to work. So as long as we're not going too crazy, the rest of the CCAs completely fine, as long as your client it's within their specifications.

Speaker 1: 10:12

Some of the great things about these calls and watching them is you get to understand the practical aspect, because if you go into the toxicity of social media, you're going to have people bitching and complaining. You can't use straps, you can't use trap bar, you have to back, squat. You are literally talking to a bunch of mongrels and you don't know what's right or wrong. So trying to navigate through that space can be very challenging and frustrating. So when you actually see it being done, it's like is she competing in a powerlifting contest? No, she just wants to be able to get stronger, move better. And the cool thing about watching Travis is you can then ask questions on how you would adapt that to your environment.

Speaker 1: 10:54

Travis trains out of his garage in San Antonio, outside of San Antonio, so he doesn't have to worry about the economy, because if you were at a lifetime at five o'clock in San Antonio, it's going to be a whole different scenario where you might not be able to get to that pull-up. So you need to be able to have that conversation and say hey, travis, what would I do if I was at lifetime and the trap bar is taken? Well, you just regress it back to what are we doing? We're doing a hinge pattern here, so you can do kettlebell RDL and we're doing a vertical pull. Well, you could just do a horizontal pull and do a kettlebell row three stance position, and then you do your ab exercise, so you're able to take what the program says on the wall, or what you wrote down, and adjust it to the environment that you are in. So what'd you guys do next?

Speaker 2: 11:42

And then we went into her favorite exercise, bulgarian split squat. She loves this one, it's her favorite. She really doesn't, she actually hates it. I can only give it to her once a week or once every other week without complaining, but she does it no matter what. So she did bulgarian split squat, she did a half kneeling landmine press we don't do too crazy on the overhead pushes because she was a baseball player, she was a pitcher and she has trashed shoulders. So very cautious of what I'm doing with her shoulders, making sure that she has her scapular movement proper and she's driving through her elbow on that vertical push.

Speaker 1: 12:23

Educate us real quickly on those eight scapular actions, professor Travis, because I was just going through a free e-book that we're going to be putting out there to pass any textbook certification. And ACE only has six, nasm only has four Elevation, depression. We have protraction, retraction and anterior tilt, posterior tilt, upward and downward rotation. And that's important to know because you could be having a conversation with a therapist and maybe they're referencing the serratus anterior and they're talking about protraction, which a lot of these books will have, but they don't have upward rotation, which it helps synergistically. And so then if you say, oh, what's upward rotation, the therapist can be like, oh shit, another one of these trainers. I don't want to work with trainers because trainers typically hurt people. Trainers don't know what they're talking about. So you can just erase that doubt by being a qualified personal trainer knowing your anatomy. So finish up that workout, travis.

Speaker 2: 13:23

We went into a caustic squat with a thoracic rotation reaching into the inner side of her foot, with the opposite hand that she is lunging with. Then we went into a TRX row foot elevated so she had to have her feet elevated, which makes it a little bit more challenging and then went into a skater ball slam. So kind of a transitional workout. She's got to skate from each side. When I say slam, she has to stay stable on that one leg and slam the ball Kind of reaction training, get her engaged and finish her off.

Speaker 1: 13:58

I love how you get that trainer engagement in there, and one of the things that we saw some confusion on and that's why we constantly talk about it is how you implement and design and see firsthand the CCA. So the CCA, you do your warmup, hit your 10 checkpoints, then when you're done with that maybe it's five minutes or so you get into the first circuit. So you do a core movement pattern. A core movement pattern, then the accessory, you rest, and during that rest period, what are you doing? Travis, with your client.

Speaker 2: 14:25

Chatting, making jokes, building that rapport, getting her water if she needs water, get her a towel if she needs a towel. Just let her rest for a minute and ask her how she's feeling. Just kind of get a sense of where she's at and how difficult the last rep was.

Speaker 1: 14:41

And then we listen to Milo and you make it more challenging with the overload principle. So maybe add a little bit of weight on the first one. Add a little bit of weight or make it more challenging on the second one. If it's body weight, you can have them lift up their legs. She was doing pull-ups. Maybe you have her pause isometrically and then you do that accessory Rest, rinse and repeat. So then you do the first exercise, the second exercise, the third one and then you're done with that. First CCA that's what we call it a CCA one. Now that circuit is done, you move into the second one. Once you do three rounds of the second one, you move into the third one. These are not straight sets. These are optimizing, hitting all of your client's main muscles, but also taxing enough to give them that workout where they feel fulfilled. And can you just explain quickly the Cossack squat? And then we're going to get into the muscle today.

Speaker 2: 15:31

So Cossack squat is going to the frontal plane just kind of lunging to the side driving your butt back.

Speaker 1: 15:49

I use the opposite hand that you're lunging with to kind of reach through, grab and get a little rotation through your thoracic spine, touch your arch of your foot and then explode back out of it of any certification that has the opportunity to watch trainers do their trade. And that's what we focus so much on at Show Up trade skills, business skills and the people skills, so you can see how Travis interacts. And then in your mind you may be thinking, well, shit, he's funny or he has a great personality. He's an extrovert. I'm not. Well, there's an opportunity for you to ask questions afterwards and say that's not my personality. How would you encourage me to get involved? Blah, blah, blah. And you have that conversation and now your anxiety comes down. But, most importantly, you get to see a full session in action. Versus what does the average level zero trainer do? They write out a program, they take it from one of these shitty textbooks they don't know if it's good or bad and they go out there and try it on air trial and error. It's like that's so crazy. It's the blind leading the blind. How do you expect to become a great trainer if you don't have someone giving you feedback, someone asking well, travis, why did you do that Cosec squat right there? Why did you decide to do the trap bar? Having that conversation challenge you to critically think.

Speaker 1: 16:58

Listen to that last podcast I did with Coach Q. We need more critical thinking. What we see on social media, monkey, see, monkey do. Let's go do a bose two ball exercise, let's go do this, let's go do that and it's just a bunch of fucking exercises. You don't have the fundamentals, the principles. That's what's really going to separate you from the masses out there. Understanding programming, anatomy, and that's what we're going to talk about next with mr or mrs I don't know if we're going to call it a guy or a girl but the adductor brevis. Let's learn about the adductor brevis. Professor, adductor brevis, we have three muscles to your adductors.

Speaker 2: 17:31

We have the adductor brevis. We have three muscles to your adductors. We have the adductor magnus, adductor lungus and the adductor brevis. Brevis is the shortest one of them. The origin is going to be the body of the pubis Inferior to the pubic ramus. We have three portions to our pelvic area.

Speaker 2: 17:49

We want to think about the ilium, the ischium and the pubis. So you want to think of the ischium as the ischial tuberosity, that's, your sits bones. If you sit straight up you're going to feel those kind of dicking in to a hard chair. The pubis is going to be on the front portion and the ilium is going to be on the upper portion. If you reach down and you feel the side of your body, you're going to feel that alien and you feel the side of your body. You're going to feel that alien. The next part is going to be the insertion point that's going to be the proximal one-third of the lip of the linea spira. The linea spira is just kind of the back portion of your femur and it's kind of rough edge that a lot of different ligaments and tendons attach to the actions of your adductor breathes is going to do hip flexion, external rotation, adduction, and it's also going to stabilize your pelvis in the frontal and sagittal plane.

Speaker 1: 18:48

The word brevity means short. It's one of the smaller adductor muscles. There's also the gracilis and pectineus. Those are the five that will adduct the femur. We will highlight one muscle per episode and really try to make it fun but at the same time, help you understand the importance of it, because most trainers will just skip this part of it. Because most trainers will just skip this part Proximal one-third of the linear spare. What the fuck does that mean? I don't need to know. My client doesn't need to know this. I'm just going to skip it, and that's exactly what you shouldn't do.

Speaker 1: 19:23

What's challenging, what's hard, is what's going to make you more successful. Part of our book club we're finishing up deep work by Dr Cal Newport and he talks about why we are addicted to social media and a lot of this technology. Today you get that little release of dopamine. You don't get the real good neurotransmitter, the catecholamines that help with neuroplasticity. When you have to overcome something, when you challenge yourself, that's how you're going to develop and become better.

Speaker 1: 19:56

Most people don't challenge themselves with anatomy. They come up with excuses like it's boring. You know, what's not boring is when you talk to a doctor or a physical therapist and you can have that conversation on the same level. And when they say things like a doc said to Travis are you a med student? Talk about leveling up the industry. People look at you as a professional because we are medical professionals. Level zero trainers aren't. They're influencers. They're doing this for fun. You have 15 acronyms behind your name, but you can't even have a conversation with a medical professional. Where's your physical therapist? Where's your registered dietitian, your psychologist? Those individuals should be on your team and if you want to become a successful personal trainer, you need to level up your anatomy, which will make programming so much easier.

Speaker 1: 20:49

The number one complaint I hear from people. I'll say two how to work with clients who are in pain and how to get better at programming. And when you understand anatomy, you're hitting both of those and then you can learn more from your therapist. And so anatomy you got to switch your mindset. You got to think of it as this is the coolest shit in the world. I want to become the best at anatomy.

Speaker 1: 21:12

I want to know everything about the adductors, the fibers and if you're listening to this, go check out the YouTube because we're going to post these so you can see a little eye muscle guy. And when he says that ischium, the ischial tuberosity you can see on the bony protuberances, obviously, if you had a skeleton, I highly suggest ordering one of those. We're going to be releasing our flashcards, our muscle posters, which are really great for you to put into your gym or have, because, again, you're separating yourself from the red sea of mediocrity. When a client comes in and they see medical posters on the wall, they're thinking am I in a gym or am I in a physical therapy office? And when they say that, oh, you know, I strained my groin, which groin muscle is it? What do you think they're going to say, travis, when you pose that question?

Speaker 2: 22:01

I don't know how many are there. I thought there really was a muscle.

Speaker 1: 22:05

No, you got a bunch of cool ones in there. Obviously, we're not going to be palpating that as the trainer You're going to go to prison, but you can at least educate them that you have longer adductor muscles. You have shorter ones. You have one that goes down close to the knee. That's the most distal region. The proximal regions are usually the more problematic when it comes to a strain.

Speaker 1: 22:24

Let me pull out the Prehab Guys app. Show you some exercises that we can do that are safe and appropriate. If you don't have that, you are missing out. We have a $50 discount code. Just email info at showupfitnesscom. So the app and the exercise library together for a year normally 350, but we get it for 300. And just having that, you show your clients wow, you're different.

Speaker 1: 22:47

I like this environment. How often should I train with you? And then you give your prescription Well, what can you do? Where are you trying to go with this? And that's where the sales comes in. It's fun because you showcased your professionalism. You are a knowledgeable trainer. That's the trade. Your people skills are being highlighted on how you are in your natural environment. I know numerous successful introverts. I know a lot of successful extroverts. It's not better or worse. It's just who you are. And then the business skills. That's networking with people in your area Bartenders, doctors, reaching out to a doctor trying to find someone who is prescribing Ozempic so you can learn more about it. We talked about that in our last level. Two call All things that you should be focusing on leveling yourself up to turn your passion for fitness into a career. Thank you for today's episode, professor Travis. Where can people find you?

Speaker 2: 23:46

TravXFlex on all socials Instagram, youtube and TikTok.

Speaker 1: 23:52

Make sure to join that Facebook group. Give this a five-star rating. Share in your story where great trainers are made, and remember big biceps are better than small ones, and keep showing up.