August 31, 2020 • 34 mins
A training program it is an essential tool that you can use to achieve your long term goals. When designed by an experienced trainer, a program will build from workout to workout, day to day, week to week and month to month; each workout having its big-picture purpose. In this episode, Tom breaks down some strategies to help you stay focused on your plan so that you can experience your best results.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland and this its Fitness Disrupted. Back
when I lived in New York City many years ago
and was training for endurance events Marathon's, Ironman triathlons, which
(00:26):
by the way, it's not easy to do in New
York City. And what actually was amazing was there were
many top endurance athletes that actually lived into the city.
And it just goes to show you that it doesn't
matter where you are, you can get your training in.
(00:46):
You know, people are doing a hundred mile bike rides
in Central Park long runs. Not the ideal place. I've
always said, you know, I'd rather be in California or
a place like that training for an endurance event. But
it was done, and and there were a handful of again,
top top athletes who also full time jobs. It kind
of goes with the territory as well, type as living
(01:09):
in Manhattan. But what would happen frequently was, let's say
I would be doing a twenty mile run in Central Park.
Central Park, for those of you who don't know, it's
if you do the full loop, it's about six miles
a little bit more depending on your route, but roughly
six miles, So if you're doing a twenty mile run,
(01:31):
quite frequently it would be three loops of Central Park
that was either good or bad for you, depending on
what you enjoyed. Some people like doing loops, some people
don't like seeing the same thing over and over again
when it comes to longer, you know, training days. But
here's what would happen quite frequently, and it goes to
this whole topic and a great way to get us
(01:52):
started about sticking to your plan, and it's so important,
so important. So inevitably, let's say I was doing that
twenty mile run, and quite often it would be you know,
in the summer, getting ready for marathon season, and it
would be hot out, it would be challenging, and I'd
(02:14):
be on mile eighteen, let's say, of my twenty mile run,
and I'm beaten up. It's been a long day, couple
hours into the workout. And those of you who have
been in Central Park now that it's usually packed almost
any time of day. You know, walkers, runners, bikers, rollerbladers,
(02:34):
you name it, it's going on in Central Park and
lots of people working out. And so at mile eighteen
or so, there would be someone who would just blow
by me right, or two people, three people, whatever, and
sometimes they look back at you right, kind of give
you a look like I just passed you, and you
(02:57):
have that moment of I'm gonna pick it up. I'm
gonna try to catch that person. I'm going to deviate
from my plan. And that is what this episode is
all about, how crucial it is to let that person go,
to put on the blinders as I call it, and
(03:18):
stick to your plan, because let's be honest, that person
has no idea that I am eighteen miles into a
twenty mile run. They have no idea, and you just
want to yell out, by the way, I'm eighteen miles
into my twenty mile run. But the bottom line is
(03:39):
who cares? Who cares? And far too often we care
and we let other people take us off our path,
deviate from our plan, and it happens all the time.
I'm gonna talk much more about that when it happens
and why it happens, and you will get greater results,
(04:03):
avoid injury, and actually enjoy your workouts more when you
let those people go literally and figuratively, right, just let
them go, because it doesn't matter. They are actually going
to take you off your plan and prevent you from
(04:27):
seeing results. And this is one of those shows. We're
not going into the studies on this one. This is
just anecdotal and sports psychology, and every single one of
you will be able to relate. Quick break when we
come back, we're getting into it. How about the treadmill.
When that person gets on the treadmill next to you
and starts running faster, what do you do? We'll talk
(04:49):
about that when we come back quick break. We'll be
right back talking about sticking to your plan, putting on
the proverbial blinders as I call them when you are
(05:10):
doing your workout. And I'm also gonna talk about with
your nutrition because it's a huge part of this too,
but sticking to the workout for now. I talked about
the treadmill. How many of you are guilty. You get
on the treadmill, you've got your pace, you're you're you've
got your you know, your normal pace that you do
and it's probably comfortable. And then that person gets on
(05:31):
next to you and they're going a little bit faster,
and that's annoying you, and you turn it up. You
turn it up, you kind of go well, they're not
going that much faster. I think I can keep up
that pace, and you change your workout. Now, I have
to say competition is good. Did a whole podcast about that.
(05:53):
If you want to get better, what did I talk about?
You train with people who are better than you are,
not way better, just enough that they push you. But
here's the rub. You don't train with that person every
single workout because you can't go hard every single workout
(06:15):
or you'll get injured. That's not how the body works.
Professional athletes, runners, you name it. Generally speaking, the breakdown
is it's just like eating healthy. About of the time,
it's endurance. It's based training work of the time, it's
going hard. And for those of you who think you
(06:39):
should be doing much more hard stuff, you're not going
hard enough because if you're going hard enough, you need
those rest days. If you're going hard enough and you're
doing too much, you're gonna suffer from overtraining syndrome because
we need the recovery days. We need the recovery days.
So even though competition is awesome, I mean the first,
(07:01):
like the the one of the first sports psychology studies,
so simple it was, let's have cyclists bike a certain
distance as fast as they can by themselves. Then let's
have them bite that same distance together and see if
that affects how fast they go and their perception of effort,
(07:25):
Shockingly or not not shockingly, people go faster when you
compete with other people. But that is a good thing
and a bad thing, and a huge part of my success.
As I talk about frequently, I've done a ridiculous number
of races. It's my job. It's part of my job
(07:47):
all over the world. I'm injury free because during training
I stick to my plan and I'm gonna talk more
about that. And when it comes to ego, that can
be difficult to do. And that leads to let me
just talk about when you're doing an event like an
(08:09):
iron Man, what often happens to men because men are sexist.
Not everyone, but there is a term. I'm not going
to use it because it is sexist, but those who compete, no.
The bottom line is a guy will be biking the
bike leg of the iron Man, which is the second leg.
You swim first, then you bike, and a woman will
(08:32):
go flying by. And there are those guys who go, oh,
I can't let that happen, and they will chase that
woman down. And what often happens is that woman is
a better athlete than the guy, and they expend so
much energy, wasted energy in an endurance event, and this
could be it's often at like the start of the bike,
(08:52):
which is a hundred and twelve miles. And back when
I was coaching people, depending on the client, we'd have
to actually have this discussion focus on your race. And
it's humorous yet totally applicable anecdote to what I'm talking about.
When you start and a race, like an iron man,
(09:13):
you have a plan, Here's what my pace is gonna be.
Here's what my You should have a plan. I say,
I should say, and especially if you had of a coach, Uh,
you have a plan, and that's pacing and time, miles
per hour, heart rate. And so let's say this this
guy he's biking and and his coaches said, hey, keep
your heart rate and at ont just throwing stuff out there.
(09:34):
Could be power, could be uh, speed, could be heart rate.
And that woman goes blown by and the guy goes,
I'm gonna catch it, I'm gonna pass her. And now
it's hard. It's he's deviated from his plan. And this
just doesn't apply to women. By the way, guys get
passed by other guys and do the same thing. They're
just even more stupid in my experience when it comes
(09:56):
to women. And do you think they're gonna have the
same result when they do that? And that many people
don't do it just once, they do it several times.
At the beginning of the bike, Ego gets in the way.
They let people other people's performance take them off of
(10:17):
their plan, and that person is gone, by the way,
and now you're gonna suffer. It is the perfect analogy
for what I'm talking about in this show. When you
are doing a race, when you are working out at
the gym, when you are eating and you have a
certain nutrition plan you're following, you put the blinders on
(10:40):
and you don't care what anyone else is doing. They
are not trying to achieve the same thing you are
in the same way you are, and they don't have
the history that eighteen miles maybe behind them, that you
do in your workout and you're plan, and so much
(11:04):
of it is about ego. I will go to the
gym totally fatigued. Right, Let's say I did a huge
workout and now this is a recovery workout, but maybe
it's doing squats whatever, and people will look because I'm
not using a lot of weight, or I'm stumbling because
I'm sure, And again they have no idea that I'm
(11:26):
coming into that workout beating up already, And so so
many people go, I don't want to stumble, I don't
want to not be perfect in the eyes of other people,
and they go too hard, they deviate from that recovery workout.
Far too many people almost never do a recovery workout
because they are focused on what other people think or
(11:51):
they think they think. By the way, because what people
think is rarely what we think. They think. How's that
it's so important and goes for everything I was talking
about the treadmill. You know your plan is your plan
when you get on the treadmill, who cares what? What's
the person next to you is doing? Swimming. I used
to experience this all the time. I'm not a great swimmer,
(12:14):
as I've talked about all those iron Man's, all the coaches.
That's why I love iron Man Like you just have
to bike and run faster, but I would be doing
and you swimmers out there know this, and many of
you are guilty of doing it. Let's be honest. Uh,
the person next to you on either side of you,
you try to go faster. You care what that person
(12:36):
is doing, and maybe it's a recovery swim for you.
Maybe you did your hard intervals the day before, and
maybe you're just starting out. Maybe you have you know,
you're not racing, You don't care, and the person on
either side of you is affecting your swim. It's affecting
your workout. It shouldn't happen. It's human nature, and it
(13:02):
takes training. It takes a lot of training to get
to this point. I understand that I competed, although not
as long. You know, during training for a while, t
I learned that it wasn't gonna get me to the goals,
and then I realized I really couldn't care less. And
(13:22):
what we're talking about here, the real simple way of
putting it, as well, is if you want to call
it losing, fine, You're gonna lose the battles to win
the war, to win the war, and I'm gonna close
with an example of that specifically, But that's one way
(13:44):
of putting it, and I don't like to lose. Use
the term lose because you're really not losing. But yes,
you're gonna you're gonna lose that sprint. You're gonna lose
that treadmill pace. And by the way, let me tell
you this, it's really interesting and I've never seen it videotaped,
and I'm gonna have to do it to show you.
I can be running, you can be running next to
someone on a treadmill. Your foot strikes can be the
(14:07):
exact same. I can be running a seven minute mile
and you can be running a ten minute mile or
vice versa, with the exact same foot strike. You go,
how is that possible? The person who is running faster
is pushing off harder, and especially when it comes to
the treadmill, it's also the time you're spending in the air. So,
in other words, if you don't see the pace that
that person next to you is running, but do you
(14:29):
think because they are using more foot strikes they're running faster.
Not necessarily the case, and oftentimes completely the opposite foot
strikes does not equal speed, not on a treadmill, and
it depends. So just to give you a little, you know,
excuse to really let it go. It doesn't matter unless
(14:49):
you're staring at that treadmill, And let me give you
a little trick that I use. I don't get into
the gym and get on a treadmill as much as
I used to. I'm outside or I'm at home. But
back when I would, I would throws how over the
display because I don't want I just wanted to run
my workout. And yes, people are gonna look and stuff
(15:11):
like that. I just wanted to do my workout. I
didn't care throw it over. I don't want to know
where I am. You know, I set my pace, I go,
and then for me, it's the music and just getting
into the workout. And that leads to another great way
to do this. As I said, competition is good and
(15:32):
you're the more you want to get better, the more
you actually should use other people to help you get there.
So here's a very simple takeaway. On your days that
you want to push yourself, do that with other people.
Don't have to, but many people find it extremely helpful.
(15:54):
So that may mean going to the track with a friend,
you know, training partners, and it can also just me.
That's when you take a class virtual or in person,
because you're surrounded by other people and they're gonna make
you go a little faster or harder, or with a
little bit heavier. And then on your days when you
need to recover, you do it by yourself. Those are
(16:17):
the days you go out by yourself. If it's a
walk or run, or a bike ride, whatever it's going
to be. So in other words, use those different scenarios
to your advantage physically as well as psychologically. I will
jump in different situations depending on what I want out
(16:38):
of that situation. Okay, competition is good, but recovery is
good as well. It's necessary the easier days, the enjoyment factor,
and a little aside. When it comes to heart rate monitors,
for me, one of the major ben fits of a
(17:00):
heart rate monitor when you're coaching people, it's not the
hard days. It's not the sprints. You know when you're
going hard, you know when you can't breathe. The heart
rate monitor is actually quite often in top coaches will
use it for the easy days to say you are
not allowed to get your heart rate above this number.
As I was saying earlier in the show, you're generally
(17:22):
workouts like your long distance your l s D run.
When it comes to marathons, because when you start pushing
too hard into those upper zones, you're not recovering. Now,
you're stressing your body when it needs to be recovering
in a different way. And when you're around other people
(17:43):
and they're like, wow, you're going really slowly, you're like, yeah,
that's this workout. And over time, as you get more
and more into your exercise and workouts, they should have
a purpose. You should start each one saying what's my goal?
(18:04):
And quite often the goal could be I just want
to go improve my mood. I just want to feel better.
I mean that could be going out with your dogs
for a walk. But as you are trying to make
greater improvements to your health. I've done the shows about
running hills and doing intervals. When it comes to cardio,
(18:27):
and then with strength, is it upper body is a
lower body? Is a full body? Are you improving your strength?
Are you rehabbing an injury? Are you prehabbing? But stick
to that workout pre habbing? You know, you go into
the gym and you're doing your internal external shoulder rotation
type exercises and then you see someone doing push ups
(18:47):
and you go, I want to kind of compete with that.
I can do more than that or whatever, and again
it takes you off your plan. Stick to your plan,
to your plan, have clarity of purpose. And that's why
goals setting is so important. What is your goal, your
(19:08):
long term goal, and then your short term goals to
get there, and then what's the goal of every workout.
It could be super specific depending upon your goals, and
it can be as simple as as I love to say,
one of the greatest goals for so many of you
is just frequency. Just frequency. But don't let other people
(19:29):
push you too hard when frequency is your goal. In
other words, I'm just going to get three sessions in
this week, going to go for three walks, Okay, another
quick break, and then when we come back, I want
to talk about the nutrition side of this because it
is a huge part. There's a huge part, and unfortunately,
(19:51):
when it comes to your goals, many people will try
to sabotage them. I don't like to go there, but
unfortunately it's human nature as well. There are people that
won't like it when you start an exercise plan or
a nutrition plan. Let's be honest. You can hear many
of you nodding your head as I say that final
break when we come back. We're got to talk about
sticking to your plan, not only exercise, but nutrition as well.
(20:14):
We'll be right back talking about sticking to your plan.
Yet another concept that seems so simple, but it's so powerful,
(20:36):
just like everything else I talk about here on Fitness Disrupted,
when you take all of these component ports, all these
little things that seem little, but they're not. Consistency, you know,
simplicity of exercises, progression, your mental state, yourself talk, sticking
to your plan. And you know, it's so interesting from
(20:59):
this is my third heard show I've had, and when
I've interviewed top athletes, performers, they all talk about this.
Dean car Nazis Ultra Marathon I just interviewed for I
think the third time for this show, my third time
interviewing him, first time for this show. And Bas routin
(21:21):
UFC fighter m M a guy amazing And what we
talked about, and it's so freeing, is letting what other
people think about your performance go and that goes for
training as well as your performance. And we talked about
things it's not a matter of if things will go
(21:42):
wrong during your performance. And when I say performance, that's event.
You know your race, your your goals. Things will go wrong.
And what they talk about and I experienced as well,
is when you go I don't give a expletive what
anyone else thinks, then the enjoyment is exponential. I talked
(22:06):
about being in you know, China doing the Iron Man.
Things go wrong, the jellyfish to the face, my nutrition
before the race, getting confiscated. Just things go wrong, and
you're writing that race report or email to friends and
think about what you're gonna say, and sometimes that's going
on the entire race, but generally speaking, that's what you
(22:31):
do when you first start racing, and then hopefully you
get to the point where you go, I don't care.
This is about my experience and my enjoyment and my
hard work and my outcome, and it's not to be
judged by anyone else, especially people who aren't doing it.
So that comes to what I was talking about before
(22:52):
the break. There will be people who will try to
sabotage you, and often times many and unfortunately sometimes it's
it's close family and friends because they're not doing what
they're doing. And misery loves company. And this is why
when I was a trainer, I really didn't want to
train couples because they weren't always on the same page,
(23:16):
and there was jealousy, and some would experience results more
than others because not what they did during the session
with me, but outside. And so when it comes to
your exercise plan as well as your nutrition plan, there
will be people who will try to sabotage. Everyone has advice,
everyone's an expert. You're doing it wrong, you gotta do
it my way? Why are you doing it that way?
(23:38):
And you need to have clarity, as I said, and
this is why you need hard, specific goals and if
you want one way to make it exponentially easier on yourself,
that's when you get a coach or a plan and
you say to people, here's what I'm following, and you know,
buzz off, I'm eating this because this is part of
(23:59):
my program. Now I'm not talking about I don't like
fat diets and I don't like extreme anything. I want
health and I want balanced and I want whole foods,
and I want hard workouts and easy workouts. Still want
you to challenge yourself, but know that those people will
come at you. And one way I have lived my life. Listen,
(24:22):
if if you know obesity and all all the things
that are going the wrong way are happening. Be a
salmon another way, swim upstream. If you're going the opposite
way that most people are when it comes to fat
diets and crazy workouts, you're doing the right thing, and
(24:42):
therein lies the problem. Great way to pull this all together.
That's one of the huge challenges with sticking to your plan.
When you pick a plan like I put out here
on Fitness Disrupted, people say it's too easy, it's too simple,
it's not it's not an enough. That has been my
(25:02):
major critique of my whole philosophy since I started, because
it hasn't changed. People would read my books and say,
this isn't enough. These aren't enough miles to run a marathon,
and even to not not only to finish, but or
to have a great performance, but just to finish. They
are So you're gonna get criticism when you stick to
(25:28):
your plan, and you have to be strong and you
have to say this is what I'm doing, and you're
free to do whatever you want. And I've had that
conversation a thousand times plus in my career when it
comes to my work, as people say, come on, do
do this with us and I go, no, here's my
(25:48):
workout today, and you know that's probably gonna get me
hurt regardless of what my workout is today. And so
that's the huge challenge for exercise and nutrition. You know,
it's someone reach out and say, I talked about this
in a listener mailback show that they had they had
made incredible change. They were walking an hour to start
(26:10):
their day, and their numbers, their cholesterol, all these things
had been super positive. They made incredible changes, you know,
cut out uh meat or cut way back, just great changes.
And what this listener wrote to me was, but my
friend says, I'm better off running rather than walking, and
I said, better off. You're making incredible changes. Everyone has
(26:33):
advice better better off. Sure there's differences between running and
walking and time and a place, but this person was
doing it perfectly. And that person was trying to take
them off their plan, and their plan was working. And
that's often the problem too. I hate to say that,
because you know, I'm a positive person, but human nature
(26:54):
is again, people don't necessarily like to see people achieve
even things that they have not, And holy cow, if
that doesn't apply to fitness and wellness, I don't know
what it does, all right, so simple yet super powerful concept.
(27:15):
Put the blinders on. Believe in your plan. Have a
plan first and foremost a good one. By the way,
I don't want you're sticking and you can't to these
fat diets and things like that. Have a plan, have
a long term goal, have your short term goals to
(27:35):
get there, and I'll be talking much more about goal
setting in subsequent shows. And then have your plan for
every single workout or meal. And and I'm not talking
about being regimented by the way, overly regimented. Absolutely not
the way I live my life. I don't count calories,
I don't do things like that. But I'm gonna eat
(27:59):
healthy scent of the time. I'm gonna have my treats
of the time. I'm gonna do my base type workouts
of the time. I'm gonna go hard about of the time.
Have clarity of purpose. And I end every show almost
by saying, you know, we control what we eat, how
(28:22):
much we move, and our attitudes. And this goes to attitudes.
And it's not easy. I get it. I get it.
When I was coaching people, I would often have to
go against all the bad coaches or bad advice that
these clients had already had believe in your plan and
(28:44):
start with the right plan. That's why it's so crucial
that you start with the right advice. All right, quick
final story. Talk about losing the battles to win the war.
So back when I was competing, you know, at a
er level for iron Man's and marathons and races like that,
(29:04):
I would do the local races. That was one great
way for me to do my speed work. By the way,
this is a great way to bring it all together.
I'm not a fan of going to the track and
don't enjoy it at all, and truthfully doing it by
myself that was challenging and and there's benefits to that.
By the way, there's getting mentally tough. Separate episode. But
my point is I would do as many weekend races
(29:25):
as possible, and that was my speed training. There's other
people around, that's good competition. That was once a weekend,
it was perfect and then during the week were my
easier workouts. But there was a younger guy, super competitive
also doing iron Man. And you know, even though I
was going fast at these races, some races, especially the
(29:48):
longer ones, if I was doing a half marathon, you
know the eight team mile runs, and even some of
the shorter ones they may be recovery runs, or quite
often what I would do is if there was a
five mile run, I would make it a fifteen mile
or and so what I would do is maybe run
five miles before, I'd run the course before. Then I'd
run the race, and then I do a five mile
(30:09):
cool down along. I know, work out, but in other words,
I wasn't sprinting every race, and this other competitor would
just love to tell me how he beat me all
the time. I beat you, I beat you, I beat you,
and I go. My goal wasn't to go all out
for this race, or sometimes I would even do the
ten miles before and then the five mile race would
(30:32):
be a cool down. But it worked psychologically amazingly. The
last five miles of a long run so boring and
more challenging, so to do it with a large group
of people in time it great trick that I used
for myself and my clients. So my point is again
that I would lose the battles, but then we would
both be doing the same major race, the same iron
(30:52):
Man race, and this person who had absolutely beaten me
and most of the training races because we had different
goals for those training races, but we both had the
same final goal was to go as fast as we
could at the major race. It's called the a race
if you're you know, training hard and competing and suffice
(31:14):
it to say, I would beat him handily because I
let the ego go in the shorter events in my training.
I stuck to my plan and the battles, sure, I can,
let you go go the war I won. And it's
all about you achieving your goals. Okay, And that's just
(31:38):
an extreme example, but it goes to letting it go.
You know, if you're trying to lose weight, everyone's gonna
give you advice. People are gonna tell you what to eat,
what not to eat. You have a plan, you have,
you know, a bunch of episodes of this show and
listen you could say too. I love it's me, you know.
(32:02):
I listen to Fitness Disrupted. Tom Hollins says, do this.
Let them tell me I'm an idiot, but stick to
the plan and win the war. All right. God, I
love the sports psychology I do. And by the way,
I start my Harvard Extension course this week the program
I enrolled in. I haven't been nervous to do something
in a long time. I brain and behavior in the
(32:25):
extremes and to get a certificate in human behavior, and
it goes to everything we're talking about now. It's all
about not just the physical, but the mental. All right.
I hope you enjoyed this, and please rate the show.
If you haven't rated the show, you gotta take two seconds.
Rate the show and subscribe to the show wherever you listen.
(32:48):
I'm goal oriented. I want this show to just continue
to grow and I need that couple of seconds of
your health. Rate the show, subscribe to the show. And
if you want to reach out to me, and I
love it when you do. Tom h Fit is my
Twitter as well as Instagram, tom h Fit, Fitness disrupted
dot com. You can reach out that way as well.
(33:08):
I love what I do. It's challenging to give you
the correct advice, all right. It's easy to give you
the extremes. It's easy to stick to the the fat
of the day. That's not what I do. I've never
done it that way. I will never do it that way,
but I will never steer you wrong. My goal is
(33:29):
to help you have your best life, and there's not
one way, but there is science behind it. We will
have heavy science shows, not heavy but you know, studies,
and we'll talk about that. And we'll have shows like Today,
and I'll have inspirational shows with celebrity guests and people
like that. But I will only have on this show
and only talk about stuff that I went. Believe it
(33:51):
and sticking to your plan is one of them, and
that's how I have lived my life, and that is
why one of the major reasons I am injury free
a fifty on. That's what I'm most proud of. Thank
you for listening. I am Tom Holland this is Fitness Disrupted.
Believe in Yourself. Fitness Disrupted is a production of I
(34:17):
heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland and this its Fitness Disrupted. Back
when I lived in New York City many years ago
and was training for endurance events Marathon's, Ironman triathlons, which
(00:26):
by the way, it's not easy to do in New
York City. And what actually was amazing was there were
many top endurance athletes that actually lived into the city.
And it just goes to show you that it doesn't
matter where you are, you can get your training in.
(00:46):
You know, people are doing a hundred mile bike rides
in Central Park long runs. Not the ideal place. I've
always said, you know, I'd rather be in California or
a place like that training for an endurance event. But
it was done, and and there were a handful of again,
top top athletes who also full time jobs. It kind
of goes with the territory as well, type as living
(01:09):
in Manhattan. But what would happen frequently was, let's say
I would be doing a twenty mile run in Central Park.
Central Park, for those of you who don't know, it's
if you do the full loop, it's about six miles
a little bit more depending on your route, but roughly
six miles, So if you're doing a twenty mile run,
(01:31):
quite frequently it would be three loops of Central Park
that was either good or bad for you, depending on
what you enjoyed. Some people like doing loops, some people
don't like seeing the same thing over and over again
when it comes to longer, you know, training days. But
here's what would happen quite frequently, and it goes to
this whole topic and a great way to get us
(01:52):
started about sticking to your plan, and it's so important,
so important. So inevitably, let's say I was doing that
twenty mile run, and quite often it would be you know,
in the summer, getting ready for marathon season, and it
would be hot out, it would be challenging, and I'd
(02:14):
be on mile eighteen, let's say, of my twenty mile run,
and I'm beaten up. It's been a long day, couple
hours into the workout. And those of you who have
been in Central Park now that it's usually packed almost
any time of day. You know, walkers, runners, bikers, rollerbladers,
(02:34):
you name it, it's going on in Central Park and
lots of people working out. And so at mile eighteen
or so, there would be someone who would just blow
by me right, or two people, three people, whatever, and
sometimes they look back at you right, kind of give
you a look like I just passed you, and you
(02:57):
have that moment of I'm gonna pick it up. I'm
gonna try to catch that person. I'm going to deviate
from my plan. And that is what this episode is
all about, how crucial it is to let that person go,
to put on the blinders as I call it, and
(03:18):
stick to your plan, because let's be honest, that person
has no idea that I am eighteen miles into a
twenty mile run. They have no idea, and you just
want to yell out, by the way, I'm eighteen miles
into my twenty mile run. But the bottom line is
(03:39):
who cares? Who cares? And far too often we care
and we let other people take us off our path,
deviate from our plan, and it happens all the time.
I'm gonna talk much more about that when it happens
and why it happens, and you will get greater results,
(04:03):
avoid injury, and actually enjoy your workouts more when you
let those people go literally and figuratively, right, just let
them go, because it doesn't matter. They are actually going
to take you off your plan and prevent you from
(04:27):
seeing results. And this is one of those shows. We're
not going into the studies on this one. This is
just anecdotal and sports psychology, and every single one of
you will be able to relate. Quick break when we
come back, we're getting into it. How about the treadmill.
When that person gets on the treadmill next to you
and starts running faster, what do you do? We'll talk
(04:49):
about that when we come back quick break. We'll be
right back talking about sticking to your plan, putting on
the proverbial blinders as I call them when you are
(05:10):
doing your workout. And I'm also gonna talk about with
your nutrition because it's a huge part of this too,
but sticking to the workout for now. I talked about
the treadmill. How many of you are guilty. You get
on the treadmill, you've got your pace, you're you're you've
got your you know, your normal pace that you do
and it's probably comfortable. And then that person gets on
(05:31):
next to you and they're going a little bit faster,
and that's annoying you, and you turn it up. You
turn it up, you kind of go well, they're not
going that much faster. I think I can keep up
that pace, and you change your workout. Now, I have
to say competition is good. Did a whole podcast about that.
(05:53):
If you want to get better, what did I talk about?
You train with people who are better than you are,
not way better, just enough that they push you. But
here's the rub. You don't train with that person every
single workout because you can't go hard every single workout
(06:15):
or you'll get injured. That's not how the body works.
Professional athletes, runners, you name it. Generally speaking, the breakdown
is it's just like eating healthy. About of the time,
it's endurance. It's based training work of the time, it's
going hard. And for those of you who think you
(06:39):
should be doing much more hard stuff, you're not going
hard enough because if you're going hard enough, you need
those rest days. If you're going hard enough and you're
doing too much, you're gonna suffer from overtraining syndrome because
we need the recovery days. We need the recovery days.
So even though competition is awesome, I mean the first,
(07:01):
like the the one of the first sports psychology studies,
so simple it was, let's have cyclists bike a certain
distance as fast as they can by themselves. Then let's
have them bite that same distance together and see if
that affects how fast they go and their perception of effort,
(07:25):
Shockingly or not not shockingly, people go faster when you
compete with other people. But that is a good thing
and a bad thing, and a huge part of my success.
As I talk about frequently, I've done a ridiculous number
of races. It's my job. It's part of my job
(07:47):
all over the world. I'm injury free because during training
I stick to my plan and I'm gonna talk more
about that. And when it comes to ego, that can
be difficult to do. And that leads to let me
just talk about when you're doing an event like an
(08:09):
iron Man, what often happens to men because men are sexist.
Not everyone, but there is a term. I'm not going
to use it because it is sexist, but those who compete, no.
The bottom line is a guy will be biking the
bike leg of the iron Man, which is the second leg.
You swim first, then you bike, and a woman will
(08:32):
go flying by. And there are those guys who go, oh,
I can't let that happen, and they will chase that
woman down. And what often happens is that woman is
a better athlete than the guy, and they expend so
much energy, wasted energy in an endurance event, and this
could be it's often at like the start of the bike,
(08:52):
which is a hundred and twelve miles. And back when
I was coaching people, depending on the client, we'd have
to actually have this discussion focus on your race. And
it's humorous yet totally applicable anecdote to what I'm talking about.
When you start and a race, like an iron man,
(09:13):
you have a plan, Here's what my pace is gonna be.
Here's what my You should have a plan. I say,
I should say, and especially if you had of a coach, Uh,
you have a plan, and that's pacing and time, miles
per hour, heart rate. And so let's say this this
guy he's biking and and his coaches said, hey, keep
your heart rate and at ont just throwing stuff out there.
(09:34):
Could be power, could be uh, speed, could be heart rate.
And that woman goes blown by and the guy goes,
I'm gonna catch it, I'm gonna pass her. And now
it's hard. It's he's deviated from his plan. And this
just doesn't apply to women. By the way, guys get
passed by other guys and do the same thing. They're
just even more stupid in my experience when it comes
(09:56):
to women. And do you think they're gonna have the
same result when they do that? And that many people
don't do it just once, they do it several times.
At the beginning of the bike, Ego gets in the way.
They let people other people's performance take them off of
(10:17):
their plan, and that person is gone, by the way,
and now you're gonna suffer. It is the perfect analogy
for what I'm talking about in this show. When you
are doing a race, when you are working out at
the gym, when you are eating and you have a
certain nutrition plan you're following, you put the blinders on
(10:40):
and you don't care what anyone else is doing. They
are not trying to achieve the same thing you are
in the same way you are, and they don't have
the history that eighteen miles maybe behind them, that you
do in your workout and you're plan, and so much
(11:04):
of it is about ego. I will go to the
gym totally fatigued. Right, Let's say I did a huge
workout and now this is a recovery workout, but maybe
it's doing squats whatever, and people will look because I'm
not using a lot of weight, or I'm stumbling because
I'm sure, And again they have no idea that I'm
(11:26):
coming into that workout beating up already, And so so
many people go, I don't want to stumble, I don't
want to not be perfect in the eyes of other people,
and they go too hard, they deviate from that recovery workout.
Far too many people almost never do a recovery workout
because they are focused on what other people think or
(11:51):
they think they think. By the way, because what people
think is rarely what we think. They think. How's that
it's so important and goes for everything I was talking
about the treadmill. You know your plan is your plan
when you get on the treadmill, who cares what? What's
the person next to you is doing? Swimming. I used
to experience this all the time. I'm not a great swimmer,
(12:14):
as I've talked about all those iron Man's, all the coaches.
That's why I love iron Man Like you just have
to bike and run faster, but I would be doing
and you swimmers out there know this, and many of
you are guilty of doing it. Let's be honest. Uh,
the person next to you on either side of you,
you try to go faster. You care what that person
(12:36):
is doing, and maybe it's a recovery swim for you.
Maybe you did your hard intervals the day before, and
maybe you're just starting out. Maybe you have you know,
you're not racing, You don't care, and the person on
either side of you is affecting your swim. It's affecting
your workout. It shouldn't happen. It's human nature, and it
(13:02):
takes training. It takes a lot of training to get
to this point. I understand that I competed, although not
as long. You know, during training for a while, t
I learned that it wasn't gonna get me to the goals,
and then I realized I really couldn't care less. And
(13:22):
what we're talking about here, the real simple way of
putting it, as well, is if you want to call
it losing, fine, You're gonna lose the battles to win
the war, to win the war, and I'm gonna close
with an example of that specifically, But that's one way
(13:44):
of putting it, and I don't like to lose. Use
the term lose because you're really not losing. But yes,
you're gonna you're gonna lose that sprint. You're gonna lose
that treadmill pace. And by the way, let me tell
you this, it's really interesting and I've never seen it videotaped,
and I'm gonna have to do it to show you.
I can be running, you can be running next to
someone on a treadmill. Your foot strikes can be the
(14:07):
exact same. I can be running a seven minute mile
and you can be running a ten minute mile or
vice versa, with the exact same foot strike. You go,
how is that possible? The person who is running faster
is pushing off harder, and especially when it comes to
the treadmill, it's also the time you're spending in the air. So,
in other words, if you don't see the pace that
that person next to you is running, but do you
(14:29):
think because they are using more foot strikes they're running faster.
Not necessarily the case, and oftentimes completely the opposite foot
strikes does not equal speed, not on a treadmill, and
it depends. So just to give you a little, you know,
excuse to really let it go. It doesn't matter unless
(14:49):
you're staring at that treadmill, And let me give you
a little trick that I use. I don't get into
the gym and get on a treadmill as much as
I used to. I'm outside or I'm at home. But
back when I would, I would throws how over the
display because I don't want I just wanted to run
my workout. And yes, people are gonna look and stuff
(15:11):
like that. I just wanted to do my workout. I
didn't care throw it over. I don't want to know
where I am. You know, I set my pace, I go,
and then for me, it's the music and just getting
into the workout. And that leads to another great way
to do this. As I said, competition is good and
(15:32):
you're the more you want to get better, the more
you actually should use other people to help you get there.
So here's a very simple takeaway. On your days that
you want to push yourself, do that with other people.
Don't have to, but many people find it extremely helpful.
(15:54):
So that may mean going to the track with a friend,
you know, training partners, and it can also just me.
That's when you take a class virtual or in person,
because you're surrounded by other people and they're gonna make
you go a little faster or harder, or with a
little bit heavier. And then on your days when you
need to recover, you do it by yourself. Those are
(16:17):
the days you go out by yourself. If it's a
walk or run, or a bike ride, whatever it's going
to be. So in other words, use those different scenarios
to your advantage physically as well as psychologically. I will
jump in different situations depending on what I want out
(16:38):
of that situation. Okay, competition is good, but recovery is
good as well. It's necessary the easier days, the enjoyment factor,
and a little aside. When it comes to heart rate monitors,
for me, one of the major ben fits of a
(17:00):
heart rate monitor when you're coaching people, it's not the
hard days. It's not the sprints. You know when you're
going hard, you know when you can't breathe. The heart
rate monitor is actually quite often in top coaches will
use it for the easy days to say you are
not allowed to get your heart rate above this number.
As I was saying earlier in the show, you're generally
(17:22):
workouts like your long distance your l s D run.
When it comes to marathons, because when you start pushing
too hard into those upper zones, you're not recovering. Now,
you're stressing your body when it needs to be recovering
in a different way. And when you're around other people
(17:43):
and they're like, wow, you're going really slowly, you're like, yeah,
that's this workout. And over time, as you get more
and more into your exercise and workouts, they should have
a purpose. You should start each one saying what's my goal?
(18:04):
And quite often the goal could be I just want
to go improve my mood. I just want to feel better.
I mean that could be going out with your dogs
for a walk. But as you are trying to make
greater improvements to your health. I've done the shows about
running hills and doing intervals. When it comes to cardio,
(18:27):
and then with strength, is it upper body is a
lower body? Is a full body? Are you improving your strength?
Are you rehabbing an injury? Are you prehabbing? But stick
to that workout pre habbing? You know, you go into
the gym and you're doing your internal external shoulder rotation
type exercises and then you see someone doing push ups
(18:47):
and you go, I want to kind of compete with that.
I can do more than that or whatever, and again
it takes you off your plan. Stick to your plan,
to your plan, have clarity of purpose. And that's why
goals setting is so important. What is your goal, your
(19:08):
long term goal, and then your short term goals to
get there, and then what's the goal of every workout.
It could be super specific depending upon your goals, and
it can be as simple as as I love to say,
one of the greatest goals for so many of you
is just frequency. Just frequency. But don't let other people
(19:29):
push you too hard when frequency is your goal. In
other words, I'm just going to get three sessions in
this week, going to go for three walks, Okay, another
quick break, and then when we come back, I want
to talk about the nutrition side of this because it
is a huge part. There's a huge part, and unfortunately,
(19:51):
when it comes to your goals, many people will try
to sabotage them. I don't like to go there, but
unfortunately it's human nature as well. There are people that
won't like it when you start an exercise plan or
a nutrition plan. Let's be honest. You can hear many
of you nodding your head as I say that final
break when we come back. We're got to talk about
sticking to your plan, not only exercise, but nutrition as well.
(20:14):
We'll be right back talking about sticking to your plan.
Yet another concept that seems so simple, but it's so powerful,
(20:36):
just like everything else I talk about here on Fitness Disrupted,
when you take all of these component ports, all these
little things that seem little, but they're not. Consistency, you know,
simplicity of exercises, progression, your mental state, yourself talk, sticking
to your plan. And you know, it's so interesting from
(20:59):
this is my third heard show I've had, and when
I've interviewed top athletes, performers, they all talk about this.
Dean car Nazis Ultra Marathon I just interviewed for I
think the third time for this show, my third time
interviewing him, first time for this show. And Bas routin
(21:21):
UFC fighter m M a guy amazing And what we
talked about, and it's so freeing, is letting what other
people think about your performance go and that goes for
training as well as your performance. And we talked about
things it's not a matter of if things will go
(21:42):
wrong during your performance. And when I say performance, that's event.
You know your race, your your goals. Things will go wrong.
And what they talk about and I experienced as well,
is when you go I don't give a expletive what
anyone else thinks, then the enjoyment is exponential. I talked
(22:06):
about being in you know, China doing the Iron Man.
Things go wrong, the jellyfish to the face, my nutrition
before the race, getting confiscated. Just things go wrong, and
you're writing that race report or email to friends and
think about what you're gonna say, and sometimes that's going
on the entire race, but generally speaking, that's what you
(22:31):
do when you first start racing, and then hopefully you
get to the point where you go, I don't care.
This is about my experience and my enjoyment and my
hard work and my outcome, and it's not to be
judged by anyone else, especially people who aren't doing it.
So that comes to what I was talking about before
(22:52):
the break. There will be people who will try to
sabotage you, and often times many and unfortunately sometimes it's
it's close family and friends because they're not doing what
they're doing. And misery loves company. And this is why
when I was a trainer, I really didn't want to
train couples because they weren't always on the same page,
(23:16):
and there was jealousy, and some would experience results more
than others because not what they did during the session
with me, but outside. And so when it comes to
your exercise plan as well as your nutrition plan, there
will be people who will try to sabotage. Everyone has advice,
everyone's an expert. You're doing it wrong, you gotta do
it my way? Why are you doing it that way?
(23:38):
And you need to have clarity, as I said, and
this is why you need hard, specific goals and if
you want one way to make it exponentially easier on yourself,
that's when you get a coach or a plan and
you say to people, here's what I'm following, and you know,
buzz off, I'm eating this because this is part of
(23:59):
my program. Now I'm not talking about I don't like
fat diets and I don't like extreme anything. I want
health and I want balanced and I want whole foods,
and I want hard workouts and easy workouts. Still want
you to challenge yourself, but know that those people will
come at you. And one way I have lived my life. Listen,
(24:22):
if if you know obesity and all all the things
that are going the wrong way are happening. Be a
salmon another way, swim upstream. If you're going the opposite
way that most people are when it comes to fat
diets and crazy workouts, you're doing the right thing, and
(24:42):
therein lies the problem. Great way to pull this all together.
That's one of the huge challenges with sticking to your plan.
When you pick a plan like I put out here
on Fitness Disrupted, people say it's too easy, it's too simple,
it's not it's not an enough. That has been my
(25:02):
major critique of my whole philosophy since I started, because
it hasn't changed. People would read my books and say,
this isn't enough. These aren't enough miles to run a marathon,
and even to not not only to finish, but or
to have a great performance, but just to finish. They
are So you're gonna get criticism when you stick to
(25:28):
your plan, and you have to be strong and you
have to say this is what I'm doing, and you're
free to do whatever you want. And I've had that
conversation a thousand times plus in my career when it
comes to my work, as people say, come on, do
do this with us and I go, no, here's my
(25:48):
workout today, and you know that's probably gonna get me
hurt regardless of what my workout is today. And so
that's the huge challenge for exercise and nutrition. You know,
it's someone reach out and say, I talked about this
in a listener mailback show that they had they had
made incredible change. They were walking an hour to start
(26:10):
their day, and their numbers, their cholesterol, all these things
had been super positive. They made incredible changes, you know,
cut out uh meat or cut way back, just great changes.
And what this listener wrote to me was, but my
friend says, I'm better off running rather than walking, and
I said, better off. You're making incredible changes. Everyone has
(26:33):
advice better better off. Sure there's differences between running and
walking and time and a place, but this person was
doing it perfectly. And that person was trying to take
them off their plan, and their plan was working. And
that's often the problem too. I hate to say that,
because you know, I'm a positive person, but human nature
(26:54):
is again, people don't necessarily like to see people achieve
even things that they have not, And holy cow, if
that doesn't apply to fitness and wellness, I don't know
what it does, all right, so simple yet super powerful concept.
(27:15):
Put the blinders on. Believe in your plan. Have a
plan first and foremost a good one. By the way,
I don't want you're sticking and you can't to these
fat diets and things like that. Have a plan, have
a long term goal, have your short term goals to
(27:35):
get there, and I'll be talking much more about goal
setting in subsequent shows. And then have your plan for
every single workout or meal. And and I'm not talking
about being regimented by the way, overly regimented. Absolutely not
the way I live my life. I don't count calories,
I don't do things like that. But I'm gonna eat
(27:59):
healthy scent of the time. I'm gonna have my treats
of the time. I'm gonna do my base type workouts
of the time. I'm gonna go hard about of the time.
Have clarity of purpose. And I end every show almost
by saying, you know, we control what we eat, how
(28:22):
much we move, and our attitudes. And this goes to attitudes.
And it's not easy. I get it. I get it.
When I was coaching people, I would often have to
go against all the bad coaches or bad advice that
these clients had already had believe in your plan and
(28:44):
start with the right plan. That's why it's so crucial
that you start with the right advice. All right, quick
final story. Talk about losing the battles to win the war.
So back when I was competing, you know, at a
er level for iron Man's and marathons and races like that,
(29:04):
I would do the local races. That was one great
way for me to do my speed work. By the way,
this is a great way to bring it all together.
I'm not a fan of going to the track and
don't enjoy it at all, and truthfully doing it by
myself that was challenging and and there's benefits to that.
By the way, there's getting mentally tough. Separate episode. But
my point is I would do as many weekend races
(29:25):
as possible, and that was my speed training. There's other
people around, that's good competition. That was once a weekend,
it was perfect and then during the week were my
easier workouts. But there was a younger guy, super competitive
also doing iron Man. And you know, even though I
was going fast at these races, some races, especially the
(29:48):
longer ones, if I was doing a half marathon, you
know the eight team mile runs, and even some of
the shorter ones they may be recovery runs, or quite
often what I would do is if there was a
five mile run, I would make it a fifteen mile
or and so what I would do is maybe run
five miles before, I'd run the course before. Then I'd
run the race, and then I do a five mile
(30:09):
cool down along. I know, work out, but in other words,
I wasn't sprinting every race, and this other competitor would
just love to tell me how he beat me all
the time. I beat you, I beat you, I beat you,
and I go. My goal wasn't to go all out
for this race, or sometimes I would even do the
ten miles before and then the five mile race would
(30:32):
be a cool down. But it worked psychologically amazingly. The
last five miles of a long run so boring and
more challenging, so to do it with a large group
of people in time it great trick that I used
for myself and my clients. So my point is again
that I would lose the battles, but then we would
both be doing the same major race, the same iron
(30:52):
Man race, and this person who had absolutely beaten me
and most of the training races because we had different
goals for those training races, but we both had the
same final goal was to go as fast as we
could at the major race. It's called the a race
if you're you know, training hard and competing and suffice
(31:14):
it to say, I would beat him handily because I
let the ego go in the shorter events in my training.
I stuck to my plan and the battles, sure, I can,
let you go go the war I won. And it's
all about you achieving your goals. Okay, And that's just
(31:38):
an extreme example, but it goes to letting it go.
You know, if you're trying to lose weight, everyone's gonna
give you advice. People are gonna tell you what to eat,
what not to eat. You have a plan, you have,
you know, a bunch of episodes of this show and
listen you could say too. I love it's me, you know.
(32:02):
I listen to Fitness Disrupted. Tom Hollins says, do this.
Let them tell me I'm an idiot, but stick to
the plan and win the war. All right. God, I
love the sports psychology I do. And by the way,
I start my Harvard Extension course this week the program
I enrolled in. I haven't been nervous to do something
in a long time. I brain and behavior in the
(32:25):
extremes and to get a certificate in human behavior, and
it goes to everything we're talking about now. It's all
about not just the physical, but the mental. All right.
I hope you enjoyed this, and please rate the show.
If you haven't rated the show, you gotta take two seconds.
Rate the show and subscribe to the show wherever you listen.
(32:48):
I'm goal oriented. I want this show to just continue
to grow and I need that couple of seconds of
your health. Rate the show, subscribe to the show. And
if you want to reach out to me, and I
love it when you do. Tom h Fit is my
Twitter as well as Instagram, tom h Fit, Fitness disrupted
dot com. You can reach out that way as well.
(33:08):
I love what I do. It's challenging to give you
the correct advice, all right. It's easy to give you
the extremes. It's easy to stick to the the fat
of the day. That's not what I do. I've never
done it that way. I will never do it that way,
but I will never steer you wrong. My goal is
(33:29):
to help you have your best life, and there's not
one way, but there is science behind it. We will
have heavy science shows, not heavy but you know, studies,
and we'll talk about that. And we'll have shows like Today,
and I'll have inspirational shows with celebrity guests and people
like that. But I will only have on this show
and only talk about stuff that I went. Believe it
(33:51):
and sticking to your plan is one of them, and
that's how I have lived my life, and that is
why one of the major reasons I am injury free
a fifty on. That's what I'm most proud of. Thank
you for listening. I am Tom Holland this is Fitness Disrupted.
Believe in Yourself. Fitness Disrupted is a production of I
(34:17):
heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit
the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.
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