February 26, 2025 • 28 mins
Join us as we navigate the evolving landscape of fitness in this engaging episode, now renamed “In the Grand Scheme of Fitness.” Justin and Ethan delve into the pressing question: how much variation does one truly need in their exercise routine? As former gym owners, they share firsthand experiences that highlight the importance of staying grounded in effective training principles.
The discussion revolves around the complexities of exercise variation and the risks that come with random workout routines often found in boot camps and group classes. With real-life examples showcasing the impact on individuals' safety and overall progress, listeners will learn why a mix of intentional variation and consistency is crucial for achieving fitness goals. By understanding the balance between creativity and structure, you can better harness the power of progressive overload, which pushes your body to adapt and grow stronger over time.
Eager to find that sweet spot in your fitness regimen? This episode is packed with insights that will reshape how you perceive workout variety. Tune in to gain clarity on the difference between being “randomly fit” and progressively strong! Don't forget to subscribe and share your thoughts with us—how do you find balance in your workouts?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
how much variation does one need in their exercise
and fitness routine?
Welcome to episode 50 of theformerly titled podcast Coach's
(00:23):
Corner with Justin Ethan.
But we're going to do somethingdifferent for 2025.
Coach's corner with justinethan was always kind of like a
placeholder for our, for ourshow, but we we decided to
rename and we're going to becalling this show from here on
out um in the grand scheme offitness, so this title will be
in the grand scheme of fitnesswith justin and ethan.
(00:43):
And the reason why we did this,I think, is because, um, it
tends to be that we talk a lotof our own personal anecdotes
and just trying to distill downsome of the complexities of um,
exercise and fitness and just abetter lifestyle in general,
down to like just its basics andso fat exactly and so anyway.
(01:03):
So I feel like, in the grandscheme, of fitness is an
appropriate new name for what weare doing here.
But today, folks, we're gonnabe talking about how much
variation does one need in theirexercise and fitness routine.
Remember when we opened upCrossFit Gym in 2013,?
It was all about likeconstantly varied, functional,
(01:27):
movements.
And there is a movement andthere still is a huge cohort of
people who live and breathe this.
But I think it's like nowthat's all kind of settled and
consolidated and it's all evenedout.
We realize, like you know,there is a downside to too much
variation in your trainingabsolutely uh, and in fact
(01:49):
progressive overload is almostthe antithesis of variation in a
lot of ways in some, yeah, insome, capacity, I think.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Even within the crossfit realm, I realized that
there was still a library ofmovements, that primarily,
everything was built off ofthose movements with the nine
foundational.
Yeah, the nine foundationalmovements and depending on what
jimmy went to and what theychose to include.
But even then it's like thosemovements were varied and their
weight rep scheme, but it wasalmost always some form of
(02:17):
squatting pressing right and soeven there, there was still a
little hopper basket ofmovements that were returned to
over and over again.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, you know and I think and then you know, just
continuing on like the crossfittip that if you were a good gym
and you actually programmed yourworkouts, then you could take
those nine foundationalmovements through a shoulder
press, your back squat, yourdeadlift, your front squat, your
clean and jerk, all the ninefoundational movements of
crossfit, and you can createprogression.
(02:48):
Absolutely.
You know, if, like what we usedto do is we would have the, we
would do like monthly cycles, sothe month, this month it's like
squat progressions, the nextmonth would be bench press
progressions, we would still bedoing all the different stuff.
It's just the first half of theclass was always like some sort
of a strength progression.
But a lot of gyms don't do that,not even just CrossFit gyms.
(03:10):
You know, we're talking likejust your typical morning boot
camp class or just people whojust don't really understand
fitness and exercise science.
They're just like they justkind of go to the gym and
they're like, oh, I don't know,yesterday I did this, I guess
today I'll do this.
Yeah, you know, and it's just,every time you go it's just
(03:31):
something different, yep, andthere's listen better than
nothing.
But you know, if the goal is toimprove, which it likely is,
then I think the variation canbe can have a double-edged sword
in a way.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Absolutely, absolutely and without question.
I think variability offers kindof novelty, and novelty is
something that can ask the bodyto change.
So, without question, if you'veonly done the same bench press
routine rep scheme for fiveyears, there's going to become a
plateau of you know youradaptations to it.
(04:06):
Because, yeah, as arnold usedto say, your body knows what's
coming, your muscles you knowyou're going to warm up with 135
and then you're going to do itto 225, and so I think there is
some truth to that.
But to your point, it is adouble-edged sword to without
the opportunity for your body todive into the adaptations,
which is again, again, like yousaid, progressive overload, just
(04:27):
repeating the thing, seeingimprovements, repeating within
those new improvements, then youkind of are missing out on a
lot.
I know for me in times of mylife that when I was not
training with the program anddoing a bunch of cool stuff and
definitely being fit, that whenI would commit to a program,
even if included novel movements, but just continue to do the
(04:49):
same thing and got better atthose things, that I would see
much faster progress For sure.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I think that, like if you're just starting out with
fitness, like there's almostlike a badge of honor for, like
I do something different everytime I go to a gym.
I remember I used to have aclient back in the day when I
was doing a lot of in-personstuff and he would brag about me
as his trainer, Cause he's likeman, I've been coming here for
a year and every time I see you,we do something different.
(05:16):
And he thought that was there.
He found value in that Right,and at the time I wasn't that
great anyways, as a trainer.
I was just like, yeah, look athow, look at my repertoire, you
know Right, right, like I gotall the tricks.
But then, you know, as I gotsmarter and older, I was like,
ooh, that's not a good thing.
That just means I was makingshit up as we go, just making up
(05:40):
random ass movements thatactually had no impact on his
fitness, it was just killingtime.
But he didn't know any better,and so it's like a perfect combo
, because he didn't none thewiser and it just made me look
good.
But but you know, now it's likeyou know, I think if you're new
at fitness, it you can.
You can misperceive value invariation yeah, but then if you
(06:02):
are serious about it, you want,you need to hunker down with a
series of cluster of exercises,a group of exercises, and just
do them for six to eight weekswith the focus on adding more
weight, adding more reps oradding more sets each week, just
even increasing your movementquality.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, I mean, you know, but just, or just even
increasing your movement quality.
Yeah, I mean, you know, butjust some form of improvement
increasing your range of motionin a squat or just increasing
yeah, that's progression forsure.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, just any type of progression.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I think that even if you include a variation in your
training protocol, that thething is you have to repeat it.
You have to if you want to doagility drills, if we're going
to use that example that we weretalking about.
Or, if you want to incorporatea particular kind of mobility
work, you know doing FRC andcars and rails and pails and all
those things that they coined.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
You guys all know what that means.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Of course, yeah, just all these very knick-knack,
paddywhack mobility things.
I just think, no matter what, itis that being having a roadmap,
starting in an appropriateplace and repeating that
exercise.
So even if it is something new,like even if you were like I
want to learn to sprint, and youstart sprinting with a trainer
and they're teaching you how tosprint, like to just do sprint
(07:13):
work for one workout isn't goingto really have the benefit,
whereas if you had that goal inmind for just you were curious
or you have whatever reason tothen spend some type of time
where you repeat the exercises,repeat the form, actually learn
it and doing it in a way that'sboth safe and then gives you the
actual benefit of the repeated,you know, interaction with it
(07:36):
and I think that, like, like oneconcept that I kind of had
epiphany on when were when weused to own the gym, is is
variety doesn't mean random, andI think that it can be
misunderstood as just likerandom, just like like the
hopper wheel kind of idea, justlike we're just going to pull
something out of the hopper andjust so, it's this workout today
(07:59):
.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, it doesn't need to be that way.
Um, variety, uh, can beintentional, yeah, and variation
can be intentional, and so agood example would be like, okay
, let's just say we're doing astrength training routine and
there's like the core movementof, let's just say, a bench
press just for simple analogywhere every week we do four sets
(08:21):
of bench press and we're goingto either improve we're going to
every single week we're goingto either increase we're going
to every single week we're goingto either increase reps or
we're going to increase theweight, but we're doing four
sets of bench press every Mondayfor eight weeks.
Ok, so that's like the startingpoint, not not a lot of
variation there.
However, what we could do thenis each week there is a burnout
(08:43):
superset of a different chestexercise after the four sets,
and that could be yourintentional variation.
So, for example, week one, we doour four sets of bench press
and then we just do as manypush-ups as we can do in a
minute afterwards, right, like afinisher.
Then week two, maybe it's thenwe just do, you know, 30 cable
flies afterwards as a finisher.
Then week three.
(09:04):
It's dip, you know.
So there could be likesupplemental accessory work
that's like a finisher to yourcore.
That could create somevariation.
But it's intentional.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, 100%.
You can even do pre-fatigue inthe same idea, right Like
pre-fatigue your triceps, sothat when you get to the bench
they're wiped out.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Especially if you have shoulder issues.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That's a great come into play more or something.
So yeah, and I think variationis it, but I to the example
should we tell the story thatsparked?
Yeah, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So like, um, one of tanya's friends time my wife, uh
they, she goes to a boot campin the morning and for her that
just makes sense like a 6 amkind of just a classic just you
know calisthenics, you know, youknow a bunch of huffing and
puffing.
Huffing and puffing lightweight,sub-maximal, high rep stuff.
But it's fitness and it's bootcamp and I'm all and I'm all
(09:51):
listen like we've talked about amillion times in this show
anything is better than nothing.
I'm all for movement.
If that gets you going and youcan be consistent with it,
you're all.
We're all going to live to besuper healthy along a long,
healthy life.
If you can just commit tosomething anyways, whatever.
But the boot camp it everymorning is a different teacher.
Some teachers are better thanothers and there's this one lady
(10:11):
in particular who just clearlyis just like a, just just has no
real concept of you know what'sgoing on, and she had them do
at the end of the workout as thefinisher.
That's the finisher, too like aminute of lateral jumps over a
kettlebell.
So you put the kettlebell up.
(10:32):
So it's what's?
Eight inches off the groundhe's 10 inches and so after.
These are just regular people.
These aren't athletes.
They're not training forsomething in particular.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, they're just there to just be healthy.
It could be out of shape.
This could be their first class.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
So yeah, exactly, weight on the range of fitness
is all over the place and shehad him do a lateral jump for a
minute over the kettlebell.
This guess what?
Like?
Like this girl hit thekettlebell, fell like twisted
her ankle.
Now she's out for a week, youknow, at least I'm sure.
And uh, that's really kind ofwhat inspired this new name
(11:05):
change for the show, becausewhat I was explaining to Tanya I
was, like you know, in thegrand scheme of fitness that
lateral jump means nothing, likeit doesn't, it's the whatever
marginal benefit you're going toget.
Like agility wise or athleticwise means like it's not worth
the risk of having, like suzy q,accountant who works out twice
(11:31):
a week, right, her legs are likecinder blocks because she just
did squats for an hour.
And I'll try to do lateraljumps over an eight inch cut,
like that's just so stupid rightand it's like what's the intent
is it?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
is it like a cardiovascular, like hit
training style, like what youknow?
If?
What is the is?
If the intent is to just burnout the engine at the end of a
workout, you could have peopledo mountain climbers and like
quarter jump squats, high kneesyeah, you know, and do things
that would be much lessrisk-oriented.
But then, achieve the samesuccess.
(12:01):
And so, if it's not about beingagile which, let me tell you,
lateral hops over an object isquite a movement For sure, and
especially for a minute straight, repeatedly After a whole hour
of lunges and squats anddeadlifts and so maybe that's
why she was like, oh, that'sgoing to be a lot, this will get
them, but there's lots of waysto do a lot and I think, if the
intent is to, just because eventhere's a, I understand there's
(12:23):
kind of like a psycho-emotionalaspect to like a burnout at the
end of a workout.
For sure, yeah, you feel like acathartic moment yeah like you
do a strength training and allof a sudden your heart rate's
puffing.
You're like, oh, why did I dothat?
I feel great.
I mean, even with my clientstoday, we kind of we're breaking
down some movement qualitiesand really kind of diving into
form.
(12:43):
And you know, time was kind oftaken away.
And at the end of the workout Iwas like all right, you guys
are going to do like an Igo Ugo,some slam balls, great, you
know, get their heart rate up,Get the benefit of an elevated
heart rate, get that like littlesatisfaction.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Take a few minutes to do that, but that's smart
though, because think about it,Like Igo, like it's, that's
classic interval training, yeah,and that's, and it's just so
much better because there is a,there is a strength fatigue
ratio we have to manageabsolutely.
And if, if it's all justfatigue, then form and strength
just just plummets and you looklike a wet noodle, yeah, and
(13:18):
then injuries up, up, up, comingup, next, you know, and so it's
like, well, especially, themovement of a slam ball to me is
a very effective movement whereyou can.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
You can output as much as you want, you can throw
that ball as hard as you want,but fundamentally it's a very
safe movement.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Right, you know it uses the whole body, but it's
pretty straightforward, there'snot a lot of risk involved, and
so yeah, and it's like I go, yougo means that like, okay, you
do 20 reps, that means I reps,that means I get to rest for 20
30 seconds, not a huge restheart rate's elevated but just
enough to sort of like rebalancethat strength, fatigue rate,
stimulus fatigue ratio.
So when you do go now, you canactually go harder, yeah, with
(13:53):
better form, and that's theskill set that is going to
benefit you long term, versusjust destroying yourself by
going like a minute straight andby the last 15 seconds you look
like a train wreck because yourbody is just so systemically
fatigued there's no control todo that.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
That would just be crushing at the end of a workout
, and it's to the point of therisk of using that movement
alone, which I think mostpeople's ankles and like just
leg chains aren't adapted forthat metric sort of springing up
.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
The plyometrics are extremely demanding Like.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So you know, there's supposed to always be an order
in which you do exercises in thetextbook fashion of things, and
the general idea is that youalways start with, like, the
biggest, most intense movementsfirst.
So if you had deadlifts in aworkout, you wouldn't do all
your hamstring curls and youraccessory work before the
deadlift because your nervoussystem is going to be fatigued
and all that kind of idea.
(14:47):
And so in the classic textbooksense, you start with the
biggest, most demandingmovements and you move in.
If you you would do generally,unless there's other way you do
your pull-ups and your back workbefore your bicep work in a
general idea that's the generalidea, and I think especially
more towards athletic trainingand then with athletes yeah, if
you're not going for aesthetics,if it's just performance and
output, that makes sense.
And so plyometrics was alwaysput first.
(15:08):
You do a warmup becauseplyometrics are so demanding,
they have complete power output.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
They're so demanding on the joints and the tissues
that you would never do them ina fatigued state so you wouldn't
do squats and jump lunges foran hour and then finish
everybody off with 90 seconds oflateral jumps over a kettlebell
.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Only if you're running the best boot camp
around.
Yeah right, and so I think itis so.
I think what we're kind oftrying to get at with this is
that and I think it could evenbe applied to diet is that
variability and or randomnesscan be the shiny apple or the
shiny coin like so many thingswe've talked about, and that
there's a time and a place forvariability, there's a time and
(15:45):
a place for pursuing newmovements and new modalities,
but that just chucking a deck ofcards on the floor and oh Ace
of.
Spades came up.
We're doing this today kind ofan idea isn't necessarily going
to be of benefit and that whatit really comes down to is being
consistent, fundamentally rightand, in this capacity, I think,
(16:06):
being consistent one withcertain exercises so that you
get the benefit of them, you getthe adaptation, you get to live
out of that adaptation andclimb the ladder, but also just
consistency in your ability towork out and show up and in this
case, this ankle injury,depending on how severe it is
might be three weeks, especiallya boot camp situation, like if
you can't, like it's, it's notlike you're doing a strength
(16:29):
training routine where if yourolled your ankle you can work
around it and just, I mean,you're just shown up to a boot
camp where you don't really havemuch, uh, you know, say in the
matter, if your ankle's allfucked up, you're, you're out,
you know, that's it for a weekor two, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
And so on the one end of the spectrum, you know, we
have like like constantly varied, random stuff like we just
talked about on the other end ofthe spectrum we have what we
would call like just the law ofaccommodation, where you've only
ever done the exact sameworkout over and over again and
your and your body is actuallyso, um, accommodated and adapted
(17:08):
to that that you actually startto decline your fitness.
So a good example of that end ofthe spectrum would be like you
run a one mile every morning.
So it's like you're like in thebeginning.
That mile destroys you.
Your ankles and calves are sore.
For a week you're out of breath.
You can't even run the mile.
You have to stop like fivetimes.
(17:28):
After a month you're running itno problem.
After a year it's just likebarely even out of breath now.
And then what ends up happeningis a law of accommodation says
that we actually start to becomeless fit.
We've adapted so much to theone thing that we've done that
we actually can start to losefitness and gain body fat again
(17:49):
and sort of decline, even thoughwe are moving.
So you don't.
I think we want to avoid bothextremes.
Like don't just get stuck inthe same exact bench press
routine that you've only everdone 135 pound bench press for
three sets of 10 yeah, you know,that's all you've ever done for
your chest is like, actually,the law of accommodation would
(18:09):
state that you'll actually startto decline after your body.
Uh, acclimates, um.
Another end of the spectrum, youhave the constantly varied,
always random, which has its ownrisks.
If I were to choose, I'd sayprobably the constantly varied,
always random one would probablybe better.
But I think that the answer isprobably just backing off into
the middle somewhere where, likeas usual, yeah, you know, you
(18:31):
take six to eight weeks.
You pick your exercises, youpick your, you, you create your
program essentially, and then inthat chunk of time six to eight
weeks, every single week you'retrying to progress, like we
talked about earlier adding moreweight, adding more reps,
adding more sets, more range ofmotion, like whatever the
(18:51):
progression objective is.
And then, after the six or eightweeks are over, you re-scramble
, rearrange new exercises, newmodalities, new sets, new rep
ranges, all the good stuff, andyou create another six to eight
week massive cycle and then youprogress with that six to eight
week mesocycle.
And then you progress with that.
And if you want to put onmuscle and you want to get
(19:11):
stronger and you want to justconnect with your body, yeah,
and create that mind muscleconnection.
Don't bounce around so much.
Hunker down with a set ofexercises that you can progress
on for that six to eight weekperiod and then and then just
create some variety after that.
But look, think of variety moreof a meso cycle of like six to
(19:32):
eight weeks versus a daily cycleabsolutely, and it's also, I
think, true that, like you know,it's not that say that circuit
training, which you know, Iwould put most boot camps into
some form of circuit training.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I think circuit training is a perfectly fine
workout, but then the exerciseselection within I think still
has to have some type of likesound methodology in there yeah
you know, and the to just avoidinjury, which I think is
probably one of the biggestthings to think about when
exercising, especially if you'renew yeah, you're not
necessarily a hyper committedindividual is is just something
(20:05):
to really consider, because Iknow it's like when I get an
injury, it's the worst, and thenthey stick with you, they live
inside of you forever.
It's waiting, lurking, to comeback.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
And I think just that it's not to say that boot camps
are bad, but that just doing acompletely random exercise with
potential high risks within themat every time has is just not
necessarily worth it, and thenthat person could have maybe
just done 10 000 steps that dayand it might have been a better
thing, especially, yeah, notcoming away with an injury and I
(20:33):
think that, like also, if youare a person that you're not
quite at a place where you wantto like do your own programming
and you still want to um defer,to like a coach, like a class
like I agree, there are somereally wonderful classes but
also just like, be okay withwith saying no to certain things
, like I tell tanya all the timeI'm like she tweaked her back
(20:56):
because they had her in a, um, av-sit where she was kind of
bouncing her tailbones with oneof those like viper tubes
overhead.
Oh yeah, going like like lateral, lateral like, and so guess
what she like tweaked her lowerback and I was, like you know,
babe, like just tell them no,just say hey, not gonna do that,
(21:17):
like you know keep it close,yeah do something a little bit
more like, like, sustainable.
But being okay to just say hey,this one kind of gives, makes
me feel a little strange.
I'd rather just like do lateraljumps in the ground without
anything underneath my feet, butum well.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
That's just so interesting because I feel like
that that sounds like a badassmove if you were fit enough to
do it right away.
But and I think that's one ofthe pitfalls is that in these
kind of randomized situations,these boot camps, these classes
is that there's this perceptionof the craziest, gnarliest,
hardest thing is the best thing,and in some capacities there's
a part of my brain that sayswell, like yes, if you are
(21:56):
capable, you are super fit.
Doing really badass, gnarly,crazy movements could make you
super badass and gnarly in aphysical sense If you are ready
for it, if you arekinesthetically and your
movement quality is good, youknow yourself well and you're
ready for that kind of thing.
But at the same time, mostpeople don't need that, most
people aren't going to benefitfrom that, and I think it's like
(22:18):
that's kind of what I thinkwe're really trying to get at is
like doing this crazy, badasscalisthenic exercise you saw
online of benefit.
Maybe, depending on who, whoyou are, could it make you like
a super beast.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Maybe, depending on where you are on your journey.
Will you have osteoarthritis inyour?
Late 30s probably, maybe, youknow, I think it just depends on
that.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
In the grand scheme of fitness, most of that isn't
necessary, yeah, and for somepeople it might be their path,
but I think those people aregoing to be the exception, not
the rule, and I think thoseindividuals that are in a place
that are capable and going tobenefit from those exercises are
probably the people that arethinking of them or coming up
with them, and they will know it, versus kind of being in a kind
(22:59):
of a receiving end fromcoaching and just being asked to
do things that are reallyintense and extreme for the
perceived notion that they'rereally hard and therefore really
beneficial, when most of thetime I don't want to say it
again, I was almost going to sayit again In the grand scheme of
things, it's just really notthe case, and I think that's the
idea that I think we're tryingto drive home.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
When we look at like barring sort of like barring
athletes, because we like that'swe see on instagram we'll see a
reel of like a football playerlike doing these crazy agility
drills.
That is his life yeah, that isfour or five hours a day.
That's all they do.
For most folks who like have aday job and work out for an hour
(23:43):
three times a week, like don'ttry to do these crazy plyometric
uh you know explosive exercises, you're just gonna fucking hurt
yourself.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Most people see on instagram, even if they're not
like a paid athlete or anathlete in the sense that they
dedicate their life to whatthey're doing, and you're seeing
kind of this upper echelon,high percentile expression of
what the body can do because oftheir dedication to it and that,
like you said, most people areworking out a few hours a week,
yeah, not three hours a dayevery day.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
There's 17 years, you know and also, like you know,
most people at at a super highlevel.
It's pretty much the same basicroutine with slight variations
to it.
So when we see a clip of afootball player or whatever,
doing this like crazy agilityplyometric drill, they probably
(24:29):
do that same drill every singleday, yeah, and they progress by
like shaving off fractions ofseconds on that drill and that
is their progression.
And so then we see it, we try toemulate it without having done
it, and we only haven't beendoing it since high school,
right, and so it's like, justkeep in mind that, like
progression kind of, is the isalmost every you know strength
(24:53):
and performance coachesobjective, and so for most
people that might just look likeyou know, adding some sets or
reps to your strength trainingroutine in the gym, but for and
then on the highest level, likea top tier athlete.
That might be the samebreaststroke, the same agility
drill, the same ladder drills,but just timing it and trying to
shave off a tenth of a secondbecause that is their
(25:14):
progression, rotating theirthumb a few degrees earlier is
crazy.
My new changes and so it's likekeep that in perspective and
look at it like whatevermarginal benefit we think that
this, like crazy routine of allthis variation may have.
A means nothing if we're notconsistent, because that's what
most people struggle with, and bmeans nothing if we end up
(25:35):
getting injured from it, becauseif you're over 30, man injury
prevention is the number oneobjective number one.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
I mean, if you tweak that shoulder.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
You're battling that tweak shoulder for months it's
crazy how long.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
I mean I was just demonstrating a jefferson curl
which is basically like aforward folding stretch with a
little bit of weight, you know,kind of like a hamstring stretch
with with weight and I was coldand, like you know, it's not I
wouldn't call it an injury, butand it wasn't even a heavy
weight, but like yeah, there'sjust like one muscle in my back.
I was like nah, bro, I'm notdown.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
And it wasn't like I was taken out, I didn't throw my
back out, but it's just the the, the fragility because now for
the you might still be able towork your legs out for the next
couple of weeks, but you'regonna have to really tone it
down it's just so you don'ttweak it.
And so then that just just youthink about over the course of a
year, how much that sets youback in your progressions.
(26:24):
You know, like I was saying,like I did, uh, I had the knee
injury from volleyball and thenI had another knee injury from
jujitsu the following year.
So there was a solid year thatmy right knee the same knee had
sustained back-to-back injuriesthat lasted an entire year, and
so I was barely doing air squatsand body weight lunges.
For almost a year I couldn'teven really handle any weight.
(26:46):
And now that I'm not doing anylike impact sports like that, I
feel good again and I'm likeload up the squat rack and I'm
like man, I missed out an entireyear of like solid leg training
because I was battling theseinjuries, and so it's just like
maybe you've had your owninjuries, maybe you haven't.
Just like you know, heed ouradvice on this stuff.
(27:09):
Like you know, not train hard,but train smart.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
And always you know.
Yeah, that's the biggest thing.
Just train smart, have aprogression.
Yeah, if you want to dosomething different, that's fine
.
Just start from the bottom.
Yeah, do it long enough thatyou're actually getting better
at it to get the benefits.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Train smart train smart Because the downside of
all that variation is you dosomething you're just not, you
just don't have the kinestheticawareness about, and you just
fuck up and hurt yourself andyou're just like out and there
goes all your momentum.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Or you just don't get as far either.
Yeah, or you put all thateffort and work and you could
have progressed so much fartherif you just got a little simpler
.
So in the grand scheme offitness.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Consistency is king, turns out and so yeah, so that's
always your north star.
All right, that was episode 50,big 50 of uh, formerly podcast,
formerly called coach's cornerwith justin ethan, now in the
grand scheme of fitness.
We will see you guys next weekfor another episode.
Check y'all later.
Bye-bye, peace.
how much variation does one need in their exercise
and fitness routine?
Welcome to episode 50 of theformerly titled podcast Coach's
(00:23):
Corner with Justin Ethan.
But we're going to do somethingdifferent for 2025.
Coach's corner with justinethan was always kind of like a
placeholder for our, for ourshow, but we we decided to
rename and we're going to becalling this show from here on
out um in the grand scheme offitness, so this title will be
in the grand scheme of fitnesswith justin and ethan.
(00:43):
And the reason why we did this,I think, is because, um, it
tends to be that we talk a lotof our own personal anecdotes
and just trying to distill downsome of the complexities of um,
exercise and fitness and just abetter lifestyle in general,
down to like just its basics andso fat exactly and so anyway.
(01:03):
So I feel like, in the grandscheme, of fitness is an
appropriate new name for what weare doing here.
But today, folks, we're gonnabe talking about how much
variation does one need in theirexercise and fitness routine.
Remember when we opened upCrossFit Gym in 2013,?
It was all about likeconstantly varied, functional,
(01:27):
movements.
And there is a movement andthere still is a huge cohort of
people who live and breathe this.
But I think it's like nowthat's all kind of settled and
consolidated and it's all evenedout.
We realize, like you know,there is a downside to too much
variation in your trainingabsolutely uh, and in fact
(01:49):
progressive overload is almostthe antithesis of variation in a
lot of ways in some, yeah, insome, capacity, I think.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Even within the crossfit realm, I realized that
there was still a library ofmovements, that primarily,
everything was built off ofthose movements with the nine
foundational.
Yeah, the nine foundationalmovements and depending on what
jimmy went to and what theychose to include.
But even then it's like thosemovements were varied and their
weight rep scheme, but it wasalmost always some form of
(02:17):
squatting pressing right and soeven there, there was still a
little hopper basket ofmovements that were returned to
over and over again.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, you know and I think and then you know, just
continuing on like the crossfittip that if you were a good gym
and you actually programmed yourworkouts, then you could take
those nine foundationalmovements through a shoulder
press, your back squat, yourdeadlift, your front squat, your
clean and jerk, all the ninefoundational movements of
crossfit, and you can createprogression.
(02:48):
Absolutely.
You know, if, like what we usedto do is we would have the, we
would do like monthly cycles, sothe month, this month it's like
squat progressions, the nextmonth would be bench press
progressions, we would still bedoing all the different stuff.
It's just the first half of theclass was always like some sort
of a strength progression.
But a lot of gyms don't do that,not even just CrossFit gyms.
(03:10):
You know, we're talking likejust your typical morning boot
camp class or just people whojust don't really understand
fitness and exercise science.
They're just like they justkind of go to the gym and
they're like, oh, I don't know,yesterday I did this, I guess
today I'll do this.
Yeah, you know, and it's just,every time you go it's just
(03:31):
something different, yep, andthere's listen better than
nothing.
But you know, if the goal is toimprove, which it likely is,
then I think the variation canbe can have a double-edged sword
in a way.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Absolutely, absolutely and without question.
I think variability offers kindof novelty, and novelty is
something that can ask the bodyto change.
So, without question, if you'veonly done the same bench press
routine rep scheme for fiveyears, there's going to become a
plateau of you know youradaptations to it.
(04:06):
Because, yeah, as arnold usedto say, your body knows what's
coming, your muscles you knowyou're going to warm up with 135
and then you're going to do itto 225, and so I think there is
some truth to that.
But to your point, it is adouble-edged sword to without
the opportunity for your body todive into the adaptations,
which is again, again, like yousaid, progressive overload, just
(04:27):
repeating the thing, seeingimprovements, repeating within
those new improvements, then youkind of are missing out on a
lot.
I know for me in times of mylife that when I was not
training with the program anddoing a bunch of cool stuff and
definitely being fit, that whenI would commit to a program,
even if included novel movements, but just continue to do the
(04:49):
same thing and got better atthose things, that I would see
much faster progress For sure.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I think that, like if you're just starting out with
fitness, like there's almostlike a badge of honor for, like
I do something different everytime I go to a gym.
I remember I used to have aclient back in the day when I
was doing a lot of in-personstuff and he would brag about me
as his trainer, Cause he's likeman, I've been coming here for
a year and every time I see you,we do something different.
(05:16):
And he thought that was there.
He found value in that Right,and at the time I wasn't that
great anyways, as a trainer.
I was just like, yeah, look athow, look at my repertoire, you
know Right, right, like I gotall the tricks.
But then, you know, as I gotsmarter and older, I was like,
ooh, that's not a good thing.
That just means I was makingshit up as we go, just making up
(05:40):
random ass movements thatactually had no impact on his
fitness, it was just killingtime.
But he didn't know any better,and so it's like a perfect combo
, because he didn't none thewiser and it just made me look
good.
But but you know, now it's likeyou know, I think if you're new
at fitness, it you can.
You can misperceive value invariation yeah, but then if you
(06:02):
are serious about it, you want,you need to hunker down with a
series of cluster of exercises,a group of exercises, and just
do them for six to eight weekswith the focus on adding more
weight, adding more reps oradding more sets each week, just
even increasing your movementquality.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, I mean, you know, but just, or just even
increasing your movement quality.
Yeah, I mean, you know, butjust some form of improvement
increasing your range of motionin a squat or just increasing
yeah, that's progression forsure.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, just any type of progression.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I think that even if you include a variation in your
training protocol, that thething is you have to repeat it.
You have to if you want to doagility drills, if we're going
to use that example that we weretalking about.
Or, if you want to incorporatea particular kind of mobility
work, you know doing FRC andcars and rails and pails and all
those things that they coined.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
You guys all know what that means.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Of course, yeah, just all these very knick-knack,
paddywhack mobility things.
I just think, no matter what, itis that being having a roadmap,
starting in an appropriateplace and repeating that
exercise.
So even if it is something new,like even if you were like I
want to learn to sprint, and youstart sprinting with a trainer
and they're teaching you how tosprint, like to just do sprint
(07:13):
work for one workout isn't goingto really have the benefit,
whereas if you had that goal inmind for just you were curious
or you have whatever reason tothen spend some type of time
where you repeat the exercises,repeat the form, actually learn
it and doing it in a way that'sboth safe and then gives you the
actual benefit of the repeated,you know, interaction with it
(07:36):
and I think that, like, like oneconcept that I kind of had
epiphany on when were when weused to own the gym, is is
variety doesn't mean random, andI think that it can be
misunderstood as just likerandom, just like like the
hopper wheel kind of idea, justlike we're just going to pull
something out of the hopper andjust so, it's this workout today
(07:59):
.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, it doesn't need to be that way.
Um, variety, uh, can beintentional, yeah, and variation
can be intentional, and so agood example would be like, okay
, let's just say we're doing astrength training routine and
there's like the core movementof, let's just say, a bench
press just for simple analogywhere every week we do four sets
(08:21):
of bench press and we're goingto either improve we're going to
every single week we're goingto either increase we're going
to every single week we're goingto either increase reps or
we're going to increase theweight, but we're doing four
sets of bench press every Mondayfor eight weeks.
Ok, so that's like the startingpoint, not not a lot of
variation there.
However, what we could do thenis each week there is a burnout
(08:43):
superset of a different chestexercise after the four sets,
and that could be yourintentional variation.
So, for example, week one, we doour four sets of bench press
and then we just do as manypush-ups as we can do in a
minute afterwards, right, like afinisher.
Then week two, maybe it's thenwe just do, you know, 30 cable
flies afterwards as a finisher.
Then week three.
(09:04):
It's dip, you know.
So there could be likesupplemental accessory work
that's like a finisher to yourcore.
That could create somevariation.
But it's intentional.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, 100%.
You can even do pre-fatigue inthe same idea, right Like
pre-fatigue your triceps, sothat when you get to the bench
they're wiped out.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Especially if you have shoulder issues.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That's a great come into play more or something.
So yeah, and I think variationis it, but I to the example
should we tell the story thatsparked?
Yeah, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So like, um, one of tanya's friends time my wife, uh
they, she goes to a boot campin the morning and for her that
just makes sense like a 6 amkind of just a classic just you
know calisthenics, you know, youknow a bunch of huffing and
puffing.
Huffing and puffing lightweight,sub-maximal, high rep stuff.
But it's fitness and it's bootcamp and I'm all and I'm all
(09:51):
listen like we've talked about amillion times in this show
anything is better than nothing.
I'm all for movement.
If that gets you going and youcan be consistent with it,
you're all.
We're all going to live to besuper healthy along a long,
healthy life.
If you can just commit tosomething anyways, whatever.
But the boot camp it everymorning is a different teacher.
Some teachers are better thanothers and there's this one lady
(10:11):
in particular who just clearlyis just like a, just just has no
real concept of you know what'sgoing on, and she had them do
at the end of the workout as thefinisher.
That's the finisher, too like aminute of lateral jumps over a
kettlebell.
So you put the kettlebell up.
(10:32):
So it's what's?
Eight inches off the groundhe's 10 inches and so after.
These are just regular people.
These aren't athletes.
They're not training forsomething in particular.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah, they're just there to just be healthy.
It could be out of shape.
This could be their first class.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
So yeah, exactly, weight on the range of fitness
is all over the place and shehad him do a lateral jump for a
minute over the kettlebell.
This guess what?
Like?
Like this girl hit thekettlebell, fell like twisted
her ankle.
Now she's out for a week, youknow, at least I'm sure.
And uh, that's really kind ofwhat inspired this new name
(11:05):
change for the show, becausewhat I was explaining to Tanya I
was, like you know, in thegrand scheme of fitness that
lateral jump means nothing, likeit doesn't, it's the whatever
marginal benefit you're going toget.
Like agility wise or athleticwise means like it's not worth
the risk of having, like suzy q,accountant who works out twice
(11:31):
a week, right, her legs are likecinder blocks because she just
did squats for an hour.
And I'll try to do lateraljumps over an eight inch cut,
like that's just so stupid rightand it's like what's the intent
is it?
Speaker 2 (11:40):
is it like a cardiovascular, like hit
training style, like what youknow?
If?
What is the is?
If the intent is to just burnout the engine at the end of a
workout, you could have peopledo mountain climbers and like
quarter jump squats, high kneesyeah, you know, and do things
that would be much lessrisk-oriented.
But then, achieve the samesuccess.
(12:01):
And so, if it's not about beingagile which, let me tell you,
lateral hops over an object isquite a movement For sure, and
especially for a minute straight, repeatedly After a whole hour
of lunges and squats anddeadlifts and so maybe that's
why she was like, oh, that'sgoing to be a lot, this will get
them, but there's lots of waysto do a lot and I think, if the
intent is to, just because eventhere's a, I understand there's
(12:23):
kind of like a psycho-emotionalaspect to like a burnout at the
end of a workout.
For sure, yeah, you feel like acathartic moment yeah like you
do a strength training and allof a sudden your heart rate's
puffing.
You're like, oh, why did I dothat?
I feel great.
I mean, even with my clientstoday, we kind of we're breaking
down some movement qualitiesand really kind of diving into
form.
(12:43):
And you know, time was kind oftaken away.
And at the end of the workout Iwas like all right, you guys
are going to do like an Igo Ugo,some slam balls, great, you
know, get their heart rate up,Get the benefit of an elevated
heart rate, get that like littlesatisfaction.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Take a few minutes to do that, but that's smart
though, because think about it,Like Igo, like it's, that's
classic interval training, yeah,and that's, and it's just so
much better because there is a,there is a strength fatigue
ratio we have to manageabsolutely.
And if, if it's all justfatigue, then form and strength
just just plummets and you looklike a wet noodle, yeah, and
(13:18):
then injuries up, up, up, comingup, next, you know, and so it's
like, well, especially, themovement of a slam ball to me is
a very effective movement whereyou can.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
You can output as much as you want, you can throw
that ball as hard as you want,but fundamentally it's a very
safe movement.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Right, you know it uses the whole body, but it's
pretty straightforward, there'snot a lot of risk involved, and
so yeah, and it's like I go, yougo means that like, okay, you
do 20 reps, that means I reps,that means I get to rest for 20
30 seconds, not a huge restheart rate's elevated but just
enough to sort of like rebalancethat strength, fatigue rate,
stimulus fatigue ratio.
So when you do go now, you canactually go harder, yeah, with
(13:53):
better form, and that's theskill set that is going to
benefit you long term, versusjust destroying yourself by
going like a minute straight andby the last 15 seconds you look
like a train wreck because yourbody is just so systemically
fatigued there's no control todo that.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
That would just be crushing at the end of a workout
, and it's to the point of therisk of using that movement
alone, which I think mostpeople's ankles and like just
leg chains aren't adapted forthat metric sort of springing up
.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
The plyometrics are extremely demanding Like.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So you know, there's supposed to always be an order
in which you do exercises in thetextbook fashion of things, and
the general idea is that youalways start with, like, the
biggest, most intense movementsfirst.
So if you had deadlifts in aworkout, you wouldn't do all
your hamstring curls and youraccessory work before the
deadlift because your nervoussystem is going to be fatigued
and all that kind of idea.
(14:47):
And so in the classic textbooksense, you start with the
biggest, most demandingmovements and you move in.
If you you would do generally,unless there's other way you do
your pull-ups and your back workbefore your bicep work in a
general idea that's the generalidea, and I think especially
more towards athletic trainingand then with athletes yeah, if
you're not going for aesthetics,if it's just performance and
output, that makes sense.
And so plyometrics was alwaysput first.
(15:08):
You do a warmup becauseplyometrics are so demanding,
they have complete power output.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
They're so demanding on the joints and the tissues
that you would never do them ina fatigued state so you wouldn't
do squats and jump lunges foran hour and then finish
everybody off with 90 seconds oflateral jumps over a kettlebell
.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Only if you're running the best boot camp
around.
Yeah right, and so I think itis so.
I think what we're kind oftrying to get at with this is
that and I think it could evenbe applied to diet is that
variability and or randomnesscan be the shiny apple or the
shiny coin like so many thingswe've talked about, and that
there's a time and a place forvariability, there's a time and
(15:45):
a place for pursuing newmovements and new modalities,
but that just chucking a deck ofcards on the floor and oh Ace
of.
Spades came up.
We're doing this today kind ofan idea isn't necessarily going
to be of benefit and that whatit really comes down to is being
consistent, fundamentally rightand, in this capacity, I think,
(16:06):
being consistent one withcertain exercises so that you
get the benefit of them, you getthe adaptation, you get to live
out of that adaptation andclimb the ladder, but also just
consistency in your ability towork out and show up and in this
case, this ankle injury,depending on how severe it is
might be three weeks, especiallya boot camp situation, like if
you can't, like it's, it's notlike you're doing a strength
(16:29):
training routine where if yourolled your ankle you can work
around it and just, I mean,you're just shown up to a boot
camp where you don't really havemuch, uh, you know, say in the
matter, if your ankle's allfucked up, you're, you're out,
you know, that's it for a weekor two, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
And so on the one end of the spectrum, you know, we
have like like constantly varied, random stuff like we just
talked about on the other end ofthe spectrum we have what we
would call like just the law ofaccommodation, where you've only
ever done the exact sameworkout over and over again and
your and your body is actuallyso, um, accommodated and adapted
(17:08):
to that that you actually startto decline your fitness.
So a good example of that end ofthe spectrum would be like you
run a one mile every morning.
So it's like you're like in thebeginning.
That mile destroys you.
Your ankles and calves are sore.
For a week you're out of breath.
You can't even run the mile.
You have to stop like fivetimes.
(17:28):
After a month you're running itno problem.
After a year it's just likebarely even out of breath now.
And then what ends up happeningis a law of accommodation says
that we actually start to becomeless fit.
We've adapted so much to theone thing that we've done that
we actually can start to losefitness and gain body fat again
(17:49):
and sort of decline, even thoughwe are moving.
So you don't.
I think we want to avoid bothextremes.
Like don't just get stuck inthe same exact bench press
routine that you've only everdone 135 pound bench press for
three sets of 10 yeah, you know,that's all you've ever done for
your chest is like, actually,the law of accommodation would
(18:09):
state that you'll actually startto decline after your body.
Uh, acclimates, um.
Another end of the spectrum, youhave the constantly varied,
always random, which has its ownrisks.
If I were to choose, I'd sayprobably the constantly varied,
always random one would probablybe better.
But I think that the answer isprobably just backing off into
the middle somewhere where, likeas usual, yeah, you know, you
(18:31):
take six to eight weeks.
You pick your exercises, youpick your, you, you create your
program essentially, and then inthat chunk of time six to eight
weeks, every single week you'retrying to progress, like we
talked about earlier adding moreweight, adding more reps,
adding more sets, more range ofmotion, like whatever the
(18:51):
progression objective is.
And then, after the six or eightweeks are over, you re-scramble
, rearrange new exercises, newmodalities, new sets, new rep
ranges, all the good stuff, andyou create another six to eight
week massive cycle and then youprogress with that six to eight
week mesocycle.
And then you progress with that.
And if you want to put onmuscle and you want to get
(19:11):
stronger and you want to justconnect with your body, yeah,
and create that mind muscleconnection.
Don't bounce around so much.
Hunker down with a set ofexercises that you can progress
on for that six to eight weekperiod and then and then just
create some variety after that.
But look, think of variety moreof a meso cycle of like six to
(19:32):
eight weeks versus a daily cycleabsolutely, and it's also, I
think, true that, like you know,it's not that say that circuit
training, which you know, Iwould put most boot camps into
some form of circuit training.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I think circuit training is a perfectly fine
workout, but then the exerciseselection within I think still
has to have some type of likesound methodology in there yeah
you know, and the to just avoidinjury, which I think is
probably one of the biggestthings to think about when
exercising, especially if you'renew yeah, you're not
necessarily a hyper committedindividual is is just something
(20:05):
to really consider, because Iknow it's like when I get an
injury, it's the worst, and thenthey stick with you, they live
inside of you forever.
It's waiting, lurking, to comeback.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
And I think just that it's not to say that boot camps
are bad, but that just doing acompletely random exercise with
potential high risks within themat every time has is just not
necessarily worth it, and thenthat person could have maybe
just done 10 000 steps that dayand it might have been a better
thing, especially, yeah, notcoming away with an injury and I
(20:33):
think that, like also, if youare a person that you're not
quite at a place where you wantto like do your own programming
and you still want to um defer,to like a coach, like a class
like I agree, there are somereally wonderful classes but
also just like, be okay withwith saying no to certain things
, like I tell tanya all the timeI'm like she tweaked her back
(20:56):
because they had her in a, um, av-sit where she was kind of
bouncing her tailbones with oneof those like viper tubes
overhead.
Oh yeah, going like like lateral, lateral like, and so guess
what she like tweaked her lowerback and I was, like you know,
babe, like just tell them no,just say hey, not gonna do that,
(21:17):
like you know keep it close,yeah do something a little bit
more like, like, sustainable.
But being okay to just say hey,this one kind of gives, makes
me feel a little strange.
I'd rather just like do lateraljumps in the ground without
anything underneath my feet, butum well.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
That's just so interesting because I feel like
that that sounds like a badassmove if you were fit enough to
do it right away.
But and I think that's one ofthe pitfalls is that in these
kind of randomized situations,these boot camps, these classes
is that there's this perceptionof the craziest, gnarliest,
hardest thing is the best thing,and in some capacities there's
a part of my brain that sayswell, like yes, if you are
(21:56):
capable, you are super fit.
Doing really badass, gnarly,crazy movements could make you
super badass and gnarly in aphysical sense If you are ready
for it, if you arekinesthetically and your
movement quality is good, youknow yourself well and you're
ready for that kind of thing.
But at the same time, mostpeople don't need that, most
people aren't going to benefitfrom that, and I think it's like
(22:18):
that's kind of what I thinkwe're really trying to get at is
like doing this crazy, badasscalisthenic exercise you saw
online of benefit.
Maybe, depending on who, whoyou are, could it make you like
a super beast.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Maybe, depending on where you are on your journey.
Will you have osteoarthritis inyour?
Late 30s probably, maybe, youknow, I think it just depends on
that.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
In the grand scheme of fitness, most of that isn't
necessary, yeah, and for somepeople it might be their path,
but I think those people aregoing to be the exception, not
the rule, and I think thoseindividuals that are in a place
that are capable and going tobenefit from those exercises are
probably the people that arethinking of them or coming up
with them, and they will know it, versus kind of being in a kind
(22:59):
of a receiving end fromcoaching and just being asked to
do things that are reallyintense and extreme for the
perceived notion that they'rereally hard and therefore really
beneficial, when most of thetime I don't want to say it
again, I was almost going to sayit again In the grand scheme of
things, it's just really notthe case, and I think that's the
idea that I think we're tryingto drive home.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
When we look at like barring sort of like barring
athletes, because we like that'swe see on instagram we'll see a
reel of like a football playerlike doing these crazy agility
drills.
That is his life yeah, that isfour or five hours a day.
That's all they do.
For most folks who like have aday job and work out for an hour
(23:43):
three times a week, like don'ttry to do these crazy plyometric
uh you know explosive exercises, you're just gonna fucking hurt
yourself.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Most people see on instagram, even if they're not
like a paid athlete or anathlete in the sense that they
dedicate their life to whatthey're doing, and you're seeing
kind of this upper echelon,high percentile expression of
what the body can do because oftheir dedication to it and that,
like you said, most people areworking out a few hours a week,
yeah, not three hours a dayevery day.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
There's 17 years, you know and also, like you know,
most people at at a super highlevel.
It's pretty much the same basicroutine with slight variations
to it.
So when we see a clip of afootball player or whatever,
doing this like crazy agilityplyometric drill, they probably
(24:29):
do that same drill every singleday, yeah, and they progress by
like shaving off fractions ofseconds on that drill and that
is their progression.
And so then we see it, we try toemulate it without having done
it, and we only haven't beendoing it since high school,
right, and so it's like, justkeep in mind that, like
progression kind of, is the isalmost every you know strength
(24:53):
and performance coachesobjective, and so for most
people that might just look likeyou know, adding some sets or
reps to your strength trainingroutine in the gym, but for and
then on the highest level, likea top tier athlete.
That might be the samebreaststroke, the same agility
drill, the same ladder drills,but just timing it and trying to
shave off a tenth of a secondbecause that is their
(25:14):
progression, rotating theirthumb a few degrees earlier is
crazy.
My new changes and so it's likekeep that in perspective and
look at it like whatevermarginal benefit we think that
this, like crazy routine of allthis variation may have.
A means nothing if we're notconsistent, because that's what
most people struggle with, and bmeans nothing if we end up
(25:35):
getting injured from it, becauseif you're over 30, man injury
prevention is the number oneobjective number one.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
I mean, if you tweak that shoulder.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
You're battling that tweak shoulder for months it's
crazy how long.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
I mean I was just demonstrating a jefferson curl
which is basically like aforward folding stretch with a
little bit of weight, you know,kind of like a hamstring stretch
with with weight and I was coldand, like you know, it's not I
wouldn't call it an injury, butand it wasn't even a heavy
weight, but like yeah, there'sjust like one muscle in my back.
I was like nah, bro, I'm notdown.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
And it wasn't like I was taken out, I didn't throw my
back out, but it's just the the, the fragility because now for
the you might still be able towork your legs out for the next
couple of weeks, but you'regonna have to really tone it
down it's just so you don'ttweak it.
And so then that just just youthink about over the course of a
year, how much that sets youback in your progressions.
(26:24):
You know, like I was saying,like I did, uh, I had the knee
injury from volleyball and thenI had another knee injury from
jujitsu the following year.
So there was a solid year thatmy right knee the same knee had
sustained back-to-back injuriesthat lasted an entire year, and
so I was barely doing air squatsand body weight lunges.
For almost a year I couldn'teven really handle any weight.
(26:46):
And now that I'm not doing anylike impact sports like that, I
feel good again and I'm likeload up the squat rack and I'm
like man, I missed out an entireyear of like solid leg training
because I was battling theseinjuries, and so it's just like
maybe you've had your owninjuries, maybe you haven't.
Just like you know, heed ouradvice on this stuff.
(27:09):
Like you know, not train hard,but train smart.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
And always you know.
Yeah, that's the biggest thing.
Just train smart, have aprogression.
Yeah, if you want to dosomething different, that's fine
.
Just start from the bottom.
Yeah, do it long enough thatyou're actually getting better
at it to get the benefits.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Train smart train smart Because the downside of
all that variation is you dosomething you're just not, you
just don't have the kinestheticawareness about, and you just
fuck up and hurt yourself andyou're just like out and there
goes all your momentum.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Or you just don't get as far either.
Yeah, or you put all thateffort and work and you could
have progressed so much fartherif you just got a little simpler
.
So in the grand scheme offitness.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Consistency is king, turns out and so yeah, so that's
always your north star.
All right, that was episode 50,big 50 of uh, formerly podcast,
formerly called coach's cornerwith justin ethan, now in the
grand scheme of fitness.
We will see you guys next weekfor another episode.
Check y'all later.
Bye-bye, peace.
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