May 2, 2025 • 24 mins
Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness.
My name is Rob Maxwell and I'man exercise physiologist and
personal trainer.
I am the owner of Maxwell'sFitness Programs and I've been
in business since 1994.
The purpose of this podcast isto get to the real deal of what
really works and, mostimportantly, why things work.
Hence the name there is aMethod to the Madness.
(00:23):
Before I get started today, letme thank Jonathan and Lynn
Gilden of the Gilden GroupRealty Pros.
They are committed to providingthe highest level of customer
service in home sales.
Why don't you give them a shoutand figure out what your home
is worth?
386-451-2412.
(00:44):
Hello everybody.
886-451-2412.
Hello everybody.
Rob here and I'm here to talkabout some fitness.
I hope you are caught up on allof the past podcasts and if
you're not, you know, go backand listen to some.
Go back and pick out titlesthat you might really like.
(01:06):
But I've got a pretty goodcollection of them now.
It's hard to believe I've beendoing this for a little over
three years now.
I look back at all thedownloads and I think, man, that
is.
You know, that's pretty cool.
I think I enjoy doing this.
I think it is a great way tospread the positive message of
physical fitness and giveeverybody the science behind
(01:29):
things, because it is soimportant to kind of hear what
we really need to do, becausethere's so much chatter out
there regarding health andfitness, really everything I
mean.
Everybody has, you know, anopinion on so many different
things that they often don'tknow anything about.
So you know, people can do whatthey want, right, live and let
(01:50):
live.
But at the same time, we needto educate ourselves and you
know, probably most importantly,know where to look.
Today I'm going to talk aboutthe balance between qualitative
and quantitative measures, andyou hear that don't get bored
and go, oh, math or all whatever.
(02:11):
No, it's not that.
I'll explain what it meansBasically.
It's simple, it's both.
So now I know I got youguessing.
So what I mean is very simple.
The last podcast I talked abouthow there is that great long
(02:45):
what works for someone and howto, how and what to focus on.
That always brings about goodquestions, and I mean that like
really good questions.
So some of it that came up or Ishouldn't even say good
questions, I should say greatstatements People like trying to
(03:08):
now figure out how to make thiswork for themselves a little
bit better and the feel of themuscle.
You know, maybe I should notcount or not keep track and all
this and those are argumentsI've heard in the past and let
(03:36):
me just say don't do that.
One of the tough things forpeople to grasp, I've noticed,
is things can be both.
Both things can be true.
Two things can be true at onetime.
I go back to my teaching dayswhen I had a little side hustle
(03:59):
of teaching trainers how to betrainers, teaching trainers how
to be trainers, and I reallylike I shouldn't say liked,
because I believe I still teachand I still do workshops and
things like that.
But the thing I like aboutteaching is explaining these
concepts.
New learners want to know theblack and white answers and I
(04:23):
think a lot of people want toknow black and white answers,
but it's rarely black or white,it is often both.
So that's what I want to talkabout today.
How do we dance the dance ofqualitative and quantitative
measures when we are trackingand or following our exercise
(04:46):
program?
Well, when it comes to strengthtraining, if you remember from
the last one and if you don't,don't worry about it, but
remember that volume is theamount of exercises and the
total number of sets perexercise and then, to an extent,
(05:07):
the repetitions.
Those are all like quantitativemeasures, that's how many,
right?
So a lot of clients will sayhow many, how many, how many?
And yes, they might repeat thatbecause they want to know, or
each exercise might be a littledifferent, but that's the
(05:29):
quantitative is how many.
Now, if quantitative measuresdidn't matter, then why would we
have them?
So they do matter.
We just have to be able to lookbeyond them into the
qualitative portion of it.
So that would be the intensity.
(05:51):
So how far into the set do youreach momentary muscular failure
?
That's intensity.
Let's say you stop and you hadfive more repetitions in you, so
we would measure that asintensity minus five.
(06:11):
In other words, you had fiverepetitions in reserve.
But it's things like that thatbecome a lot harder to measure,
that that become a lot harder tomeasure.
So that is more of aqualitative function that we
want to try to teach trainees oranybody really that is trying
(06:33):
to work out appropriately.
So we need to consider thequalitative factor how many is?
How many repetitions are youdoing, how many sets are you
doing and what load are youdoing?
Qualitative is how close tofailure are you and what is your
(06:54):
form?
Those two things are harder togauge.
They are far more subjective,they are far more gray,
especially when it comes tointensity.
You would think that failure isfailure meaning that.
Well, isn't failure a failureLike if a person can't do
(07:17):
another rep, they can't doanother rep?
Yes, but there is a hugepsychological component.
I did this the other day with aclient that I know pretty well.
I lied to them as they're inthe middle of their set and of
course I did this to help them,not hurt them.
But they kind of wanted to knowwhat they did last time.
(07:42):
So they hit momentary muscularfailure on these exercises and I
finally told them about, afterfive exercises, what I was doing
which I should know, becausethen I can't use that tactic
again but about three reps lessthan what I told them on most
(08:02):
exercises, because theirquantitative brain wanted to
improve.
That's a good thing and that'swhy we don't throw the baby out
with the bath water regardingthe quantitative brain, meaning
their quantitative measurement,meaning we don't just go okay,
so just go to failure and nevercount.
I mean, you could, and I doknow some people to do that, but
(08:24):
I think it's a little bitbetter to do both.
So anyway, their brain wasfocused on improving Again.
That is a good thing and that'skind of what the quantitative
entity brings to us.
We know how many we did and aslong as we keep our form
consistent, then doing moremeans we're doing more certain
(08:54):
exercises.
Let's I'll just give you anexample.
Let's say they asked how manymore or how many reps did I do
on this chest press exercise?
And I said oh you, I lookeddown at their chart and I said
you did 15.
Well, in reality they reallydid 12 the last time they worked
out.
So they said okay and theygeared their brain up and they
did 16.
Amazing, one more than what Itold them they did last time.
(09:17):
The problem is the last timethey really did 12.
So they did four more and Itrained them the time prior to
that.
So I know they hit failure.
So the brain will do that.
The brain will protect us.
In fact, most of the newresearch in exercise physiology,
(09:38):
and especially in the enduranceside, in the cardiorespiratory
or aerobic side of conditioning,is focusing in on the brain and
fatigue, what they call therate of perceived exertion.
So if a person thinks they'retired, their body starts acting
(09:59):
tired.
The body starts acting tired,the person starts feeling more
tired and the next thing youknow they are no longer holding
their ideal pace.
So now they're doing differentstudies, while they've done a
ton of studies.
I shouldn't say this is likebreaking news yesterday.
I mean, this has been whatthey've been working on for the
(10:21):
last few years is knowing thisinformation?
How do we then train athletesto trick themselves into not
feeling tired, because thatfeeling is going to make them
tired?
And not to get off on a tangenthere, but some of it has been
literally what you tell yourself.
(10:42):
But they know that those kindof affirmations don't work very
far or for very long.
And some of it's been onglucose.
Putting a little bit of glucoseunder the tongue, giving you a
little bit spark of energy, kindof motivates the person and
makes them go a little faster,or at least temporarily.
(11:02):
So these different factors tomake somebody think they're not
as tired as they are.
So that's one of the reasonswhy failure isn't always so cut
and dry.
Another one is is everybody's alittle bit, or I should say a
lot, different in their painthreshold?
And I know it's often beendiscussed that, the difference
(11:25):
in genders.
And you know, even in poppsychology and self-help books
and things like that, they talkabout how women have a greater
threshold for pain due to thenatural biology of giving birth.
So there is something in thegenes I don't know, because I'm
(11:46):
not a physician that works onthose types of things but I do
know this, I've seen the studiesthat state it and as a trainer
for the past 31 years that hasalso been my experience.
Now I know that's ageneralization, but from my
experience, for the most partwomen have a higher tolerance of
pain.
As far as the clients I've hadbefore, there are some that I
(12:09):
know like I just use the legextension as a great example
because it burns.
The quads are among the largestmuscle groups in the whole body
and it really, really burnswhen you're doing them
appropriately.
And I've seen some women, youknow, I know it's burning at six
, like I can just tell it'sstarting to burn already at six
reps and just grind it out tolike 15.
(12:32):
And I'm like, wow, and I'veseen others, when it starts to
burn, they stop.
They might rub their thighs outa little bit, you know, and
guys have more of a tendency tostop earlier.
So for those that are guysright now that have worked out
with me, don't get your pantiesin a wad and get all mad at me.
(12:53):
This is a generalization andremember, I'm a guy, so, look, I
can own that too.
I mean, when it hurts, it hurts, and if I'm not like overly
feeling it that day, I'm goingto take a mini break too.
I try to gut through itsometimes, but sometimes it
hurts, right, it burns, and somedays I have more motivation to
(13:15):
fight back harder, and some daysI don't.
So that's normal.
And that's pretty much provingmy point that failure can be
kind of subjective sometimes.
So you know you think it's cutand dry, but not always.
You know I will say this thatwe typically have more in the
tank than we think we do and Ibelieve not to get off the topic
(13:39):
here but I do believe, as longas you're really doing your best
, you're doing your best andit's absolutely fine.
But it can be slightlysubjective.
So we want to make sure we doboth qualitative and qualitative
that and quantitative measures.
And then, finally, the otherqualitative portion is form.
Now, I'm a stickler for form.
(14:00):
I always say form is everythingand I just think it's other
than showing up.
It's the most important part ofyour strength training workout.
If you're going to do it, youmight as well do it right, and
not necessarily because youcould get hurt doing it wrong.
You could, but mostly becauseit's not going to be as
effective if you don hurt doingit wrong.
You could, but mostly becauseit's not going to be as
effective if you don't do itproperly.
(14:22):
So I want, I really stress,people to use less resistance,
whatever it takes, to get theform down, because form is the
most important thing.
But form can be slightlysubjective, also based on the
person, and I know that may notmake complete sense, but let me
make it make sense for you.
(14:42):
So one of the factors of formis tempo, that is, the speed of
the movement.
Now, if we're really going bylike textbook quantitative
learning, then a perfect repwould be like a six second
repetition.
That would be a two secondconcentric, which is the hard
(15:03):
part, with the slight squeeze atthe top or bottom, depending on
which direction you're goingwith the four second, eccentric
or negative.
So that's a six secondrepetition.
That is great and that's ideal.
Some people actually can't keepthat tempo very well.
So they everybody's a littlebit different with that.
(15:25):
So there's not this perfecttempo with that.
So we have to say, okay, so forthis person their form is ideal
(15:47):
at a two second repetition andfor this person maybe a seven
second repetition.
So you might walk into the gymand go.
Well, that guy's going a littleslower than I think he should
go.
Well, you know, you don't knowthat.
Or they might be going a littlebit faster.
So it's slightly subjective,based on what is best for the
individual, and the only way youreally know that is you
(16:10):
yourself have worked out andexperimented with different
tempos.
Or a trainer with a verytrained eye can watch and figure
out where their client tends todo their best.
But those are the twomeasurements of qualitative
performance in the gym your formand how close you get to
(16:30):
failure.
Quantitative is your exercises,your number of sets, your
repetitions and your load.
We have to think about both.
In my gym and ever since I beganbeing a personal trainer, I
have kept charts.
I keep a nice workout chart oneach client.
(16:51):
It's printed out.
Of course.
In the old days I used to haveto go to the old UPS store and
make like 100 copies of generalcharts and then I would pick the
exercises based on the client'sassessment, what's best for
them, and also based on theirassessment.
I would have their beginningweight loads and it would be on
(17:11):
the bottom, and then I woulddraw a line over the top of that
and that would be how many repsI wanted them to do.
And typically we would go, or Iwould go, with between an 8 and
15 rep range, initially tryingto figure out where that person
is best, again based on how fastthey do the repetitions will
also base how many repetitionsthey should do in total
(17:38):
repetitions they should do intotal.
So I would figure that out aswe go and have a generality in
mind in the early stages oftheir personal training and I
would write in their reps overtheir load and then when they
would hit the top end of theirload like let's say they did 15
reps at 60 pounds on the legextension the next time they
(17:59):
come in I would increase theirweight a little bit, so say 65
pounds, and we would keepstriving for 15 reps or whatever
the top end was, and we wouldkeep increasing that way and
that is overload and, mostimportantly, I would be focused
on making sure that they weredoing it correctly.
(18:20):
So I kept that qualitativefunction in there and I would
make sure they got as close tofailure as they could.
Now if they had a conditionlike a joint injury or soreness
in the joint that we had to becareful with, then maybe we
wouldn't approach failure, butagain, that would be logged and
(18:40):
that's still gauging intensity.
So it's a dance of both.
We have to pay attention toboth.
Sometimes clients will say didyou lose count?
And I'll say yep, and then themost important thing is I'll
remind them it's like it's okay,we got a few more in us.
(19:01):
The most important thing iswe're getting close to muscular
failure.
So we want to focus on both.
I know people some people notall people hate to hear that
because we live in a society nowwhere everybody wants things
black or white.
They look on the internet andthey'll hear from somebody a
(19:24):
trainer I'll just keep it to myfield and they'll learn that 8
to 12 repetitions is the idealrep range.
They'll come in and they'll askme about that or I'll see
comments and if I don't know thepeople I totally stay out of
the comments.
I don't get into these wars onthese different social media
platforms.
But if it's somebody I knowthat asked me, I'll say look, 8
(19:46):
to 12 is a good rep range butit's not for everybody, it
depends.
And that gets back to my lastpodcast when I was talking about
the difference between lowvolume, high intensity and high
volume, and low intensity orlower intensity, and they'd say
so.
You're telling me that like oneset is best and I'll say no,
(20:07):
like I don't know.
I know for some clients one setper muscle group has absolutely
been ideal for them.
And then I know for otherclients who can't seem to get
close to that intensity markerthat I'm looking for, or I can't
get them to slow down as muchas I want them to on the
(20:29):
repetitions I'm going to have tohave them do more volume so I
can get more inroads or morefatigue to the muscle.
So there really isn't thatideal set number, ideal rep
number, the ideal load number,like any of those things.
It's both.
But as long as we keep strivingto get better and that's why
(20:51):
the quantitative thing isimportant as long as we are
striving to get better.
I have a client who we do higherrep numbers now than like he
used to back in his college dayswhen he would go to the gym and
try for PRs every time he wouldlift.
You know I'm not a big advocatefor that, so doing like one
(21:12):
repetition maxes or whatever,but like a lot of us guys and
maybe some of us gals when wewere in our 20s or teens, you
know that would be the way wewould work out.
We would try to do as heavy aswe could on the bench press
every time we went in or on thesquat or on these different
basic exercises.
So that's not overly safe, butdoing that PR personal record
(21:36):
with higher repetitions on someof these exercises is a great
way to kind of stay focused andzeroed in on what you want.
So I train this individual twotimes per week and I know that
he looks at each workout like hewants to attack the leg press
or the chest press doing a newPR.
So that's a quantitativemeasure.
(21:58):
That's very important.
And if every time he came in Isaid, well, I'm not really sure,
mr Jim, but I know we hitfailure, he wouldn't stay as
motivated.
He'd say, well, I know we didtoo, so I'm getting the benefits
, but I really would like tokind of see if I'm getting
(22:18):
better, and to him that's goingto keep me more motivated.
And then my job, of course, isto get him as close to failure
as I can safely, which meanswatch his form, and he does a
good job of both of that as well.
He pushes himself hard and heknows when he's sort of getting
sloppy on his form and hecorrects it.
So it's a perfect marriage ofqualitative and quantitative
(22:43):
measures.
All right, most important thing,ladies and gentlemen, please
get to the gym.
Please value strength training.
Please do whatever works thatkeeps you going to the gym and
progressing safely.
Thank you for listening totoday's show.
I ask you to please follow thisshow on wherever you get your
(23:07):
podcasts and also please hitautomatic downloads.
It really helps me and it helpsthe show.
Now I want to thank OverheadDoor of Daytona Beach, their
premier garage door company inVolusia County, with the best
product with the best service.
I can vouch for Jeff and ZachHawk, the owners.
They are great people.
If you need any help with yourgarage doors, give them a shout.
(23:30):
386-222-3165.
Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness.
My name is Rob Maxwell and I'man exercise physiologist and
personal trainer.
I am the owner of Maxwell'sFitness Programs and I've been
in business since 1994.
The purpose of this podcast isto get to the real deal of what
really works and, mostimportantly, why things work.
Hence the name there is aMethod to the Madness.
(00:23):
Before I get started today, letme thank Jonathan and Lynn
Gilden of the Gilden GroupRealty Pros.
They are committed to providingthe highest level of customer
service in home sales.
Why don't you give them a shoutand figure out what your home
is worth?
386-451-2412.
(00:44):
Hello everybody.
886-451-2412.
Hello everybody.
Rob here and I'm here to talkabout some fitness.
I hope you are caught up on allof the past podcasts and if
you're not, you know, go backand listen to some.
Go back and pick out titlesthat you might really like.
(01:06):
But I've got a pretty goodcollection of them now.
It's hard to believe I've beendoing this for a little over
three years now.
I look back at all thedownloads and I think, man, that
is.
You know, that's pretty cool.
I think I enjoy doing this.
I think it is a great way tospread the positive message of
physical fitness and giveeverybody the science behind
(01:29):
things, because it is soimportant to kind of hear what
we really need to do, becausethere's so much chatter out
there regarding health andfitness, really everything I
mean.
Everybody has, you know, anopinion on so many different
things that they often don'tknow anything about.
So you know, people can do whatthey want, right, live and let
(01:50):
live.
But at the same time, we needto educate ourselves and you
know, probably most importantly,know where to look.
Today I'm going to talk aboutthe balance between qualitative
and quantitative measures, andyou hear that don't get bored
and go, oh, math or all whatever.
(02:11):
No, it's not that.
I'll explain what it meansBasically.
It's simple, it's both.
So now I know I got youguessing.
So what I mean is very simple.
The last podcast I talked abouthow there is that great long
(02:45):
what works for someone and howto, how and what to focus on.
That always brings about goodquestions, and I mean that like
really good questions.
So some of it that came up or Ishouldn't even say good
questions, I should say greatstatements People like trying to
(03:08):
now figure out how to make thiswork for themselves a little
bit better and the feel of themuscle.
You know, maybe I should notcount or not keep track and all
this and those are argumentsI've heard in the past and let
(03:36):
me just say don't do that.
One of the tough things forpeople to grasp, I've noticed,
is things can be both.
Both things can be true.
Two things can be true at onetime.
I go back to my teaching dayswhen I had a little side hustle
(03:59):
of teaching trainers how to betrainers, teaching trainers how
to be trainers, and I reallylike I shouldn't say liked,
because I believe I still teachand I still do workshops and
things like that.
But the thing I like aboutteaching is explaining these
concepts.
New learners want to know theblack and white answers and I
(04:23):
think a lot of people want toknow black and white answers,
but it's rarely black or white,it is often both.
So that's what I want to talkabout today.
How do we dance the dance ofqualitative and quantitative
measures when we are trackingand or following our exercise
(04:46):
program?
Well, when it comes to strengthtraining, if you remember from
the last one and if you don't,don't worry about it, but
remember that volume is theamount of exercises and the
total number of sets perexercise and then, to an extent,
(05:07):
the repetitions.
Those are all like quantitativemeasures, that's how many,
right?
So a lot of clients will sayhow many, how many, how many?
And yes, they might repeat thatbecause they want to know, or
each exercise might be a littledifferent, but that's the
(05:29):
quantitative is how many.
Now, if quantitative measuresdidn't matter, then why would we
have them?
So they do matter.
We just have to be able to lookbeyond them into the
qualitative portion of it.
So that would be the intensity.
(05:51):
So how far into the set do youreach momentary muscular failure
?
That's intensity.
Let's say you stop and you hadfive more repetitions in you, so
we would measure that asintensity minus five.
(06:11):
In other words, you had fiverepetitions in reserve.
But it's things like that thatbecome a lot harder to measure,
that that become a lot harder tomeasure.
So that is more of aqualitative function that we
want to try to teach trainees oranybody really that is trying
(06:33):
to work out appropriately.
So we need to consider thequalitative factor how many is?
How many repetitions are youdoing, how many sets are you
doing and what load are youdoing?
Qualitative is how close tofailure are you and what is your
(06:54):
form?
Those two things are harder togauge.
They are far more subjective,they are far more gray,
especially when it comes tointensity.
You would think that failure isfailure meaning that.
Well, isn't failure a failureLike if a person can't do
(07:17):
another rep, they can't doanother rep?
Yes, but there is a hugepsychological component.
I did this the other day with aclient that I know pretty well.
I lied to them as they're inthe middle of their set and of
course I did this to help them,not hurt them.
But they kind of wanted to knowwhat they did last time.
(07:42):
So they hit momentary muscularfailure on these exercises and I
finally told them about, afterfive exercises, what I was doing
which I should know, becausethen I can't use that tactic
again but about three reps lessthan what I told them on most
(08:02):
exercises, because theirquantitative brain wanted to
improve.
That's a good thing and that'swhy we don't throw the baby out
with the bath water regardingthe quantitative brain, meaning
their quantitative measurement,meaning we don't just go okay,
so just go to failure and nevercount.
I mean, you could, and I doknow some people to do that, but
(08:24):
I think it's a little bitbetter to do both.
So anyway, their brain wasfocused on improving Again.
That is a good thing and that'skind of what the quantitative
entity brings to us.
We know how many we did and aslong as we keep our form
consistent, then doing moremeans we're doing more certain
(08:54):
exercises.
Let's I'll just give you anexample.
Let's say they asked how manymore or how many reps did I do
on this chest press exercise?
And I said oh you, I lookeddown at their chart and I said
you did 15.
Well, in reality they reallydid 12 the last time they worked
out.
So they said okay and theygeared their brain up and they
did 16.
Amazing, one more than what Itold them they did last time.
(09:17):
The problem is the last timethey really did 12.
So they did four more and Itrained them the time prior to
that.
So I know they hit failure.
So the brain will do that.
The brain will protect us.
In fact, most of the newresearch in exercise physiology,
(09:38):
and especially in the enduranceside, in the cardiorespiratory
or aerobic side of conditioning,is focusing in on the brain and
fatigue, what they call therate of perceived exertion.
So if a person thinks they'retired, their body starts acting
(09:59):
tired.
The body starts acting tired,the person starts feeling more
tired and the next thing youknow they are no longer holding
their ideal pace.
So now they're doing differentstudies, while they've done a
ton of studies.
I shouldn't say this is likebreaking news yesterday.
I mean, this has been whatthey've been working on for the
(10:21):
last few years is knowing thisinformation?
How do we then train athletesto trick themselves into not
feeling tired, because thatfeeling is going to make them
tired?
And not to get off on a tangenthere, but some of it has been
literally what you tell yourself.
(10:42):
But they know that those kindof affirmations don't work very
far or for very long.
And some of it's been onglucose.
Putting a little bit of glucoseunder the tongue, giving you a
little bit spark of energy, kindof motivates the person and
makes them go a little faster,or at least temporarily.
(11:02):
So these different factors tomake somebody think they're not
as tired as they are.
So that's one of the reasonswhy failure isn't always so cut
and dry.
Another one is is everybody's alittle bit, or I should say a
lot, different in their painthreshold?
And I know it's often beendiscussed that, the difference
(11:25):
in genders.
And you know, even in poppsychology and self-help books
and things like that, they talkabout how women have a greater
threshold for pain due to thenatural biology of giving birth.
So there is something in thegenes I don't know, because I'm
(11:46):
not a physician that works onthose types of things but I do
know this, I've seen the studiesthat state it and as a trainer
for the past 31 years that hasalso been my experience.
Now I know that's ageneralization, but from my
experience, for the most partwomen have a higher tolerance of
pain.
As far as the clients I've hadbefore, there are some that I
(12:09):
know like I just use the legextension as a great example
because it burns.
The quads are among the largestmuscle groups in the whole body
and it really, really burnswhen you're doing them
appropriately.
And I've seen some women, youknow, I know it's burning at six
, like I can just tell it'sstarting to burn already at six
reps and just grind it out tolike 15.
(12:32):
And I'm like, wow, and I'veseen others, when it starts to
burn, they stop.
They might rub their thighs outa little bit, you know, and
guys have more of a tendency tostop earlier.
So for those that are guysright now that have worked out
with me, don't get your pantiesin a wad and get all mad at me.
(12:53):
This is a generalization andremember, I'm a guy, so, look, I
can own that too.
I mean, when it hurts, it hurts, and if I'm not like overly
feeling it that day, I'm goingto take a mini break too.
I try to gut through itsometimes, but sometimes it
hurts, right, it burns, and somedays I have more motivation to
(13:15):
fight back harder, and some daysI don't.
So that's normal.
And that's pretty much provingmy point that failure can be
kind of subjective sometimes.
So you know you think it's cutand dry, but not always.
You know I will say this thatwe typically have more in the
tank than we think we do and Ibelieve not to get off the topic
(13:39):
here but I do believe, as longas you're really doing your best
, you're doing your best andit's absolutely fine.
But it can be slightlysubjective.
So we want to make sure we doboth qualitative and qualitative
that and quantitative measures.
And then, finally, the otherqualitative portion is form.
Now, I'm a stickler for form.
(14:00):
I always say form is everythingand I just think it's other
than showing up.
It's the most important part ofyour strength training workout.
If you're going to do it, youmight as well do it right, and
not necessarily because youcould get hurt doing it wrong.
You could, but mostly becauseit's not going to be as
effective if you don hurt doingit wrong.
You could, but mostly becauseit's not going to be as
effective if you don't do itproperly.
(14:22):
So I want, I really stress,people to use less resistance,
whatever it takes, to get theform down, because form is the
most important thing.
But form can be slightlysubjective, also based on the
person, and I know that may notmake complete sense, but let me
make it make sense for you.
(14:42):
So one of the factors of formis tempo, that is, the speed of
the movement.
Now, if we're really going bylike textbook quantitative
learning, then a perfect repwould be like a six second
repetition.
That would be a two secondconcentric, which is the hard
(15:03):
part, with the slight squeeze atthe top or bottom, depending on
which direction you're goingwith the four second, eccentric
or negative.
So that's a six secondrepetition.
That is great and that's ideal.
Some people actually can't keepthat tempo very well.
So they everybody's a littlebit different with that.
(15:25):
So there's not this perfecttempo with that.
So we have to say, okay, so forthis person their form is ideal
(15:47):
at a two second repetition andfor this person maybe a seven
second repetition.
So you might walk into the gymand go.
Well, that guy's going a littleslower than I think he should
go.
Well, you know, you don't knowthat.
Or they might be going a littlebit faster.
So it's slightly subjective,based on what is best for the
individual, and the only way youreally know that is you
(16:10):
yourself have worked out andexperimented with different
tempos.
Or a trainer with a verytrained eye can watch and figure
out where their client tends todo their best.
But those are the twomeasurements of qualitative
performance in the gym your formand how close you get to
(16:30):
failure.
Quantitative is your exercises,your number of sets, your
repetitions and your load.
We have to think about both.
In my gym and ever since I beganbeing a personal trainer, I
have kept charts.
I keep a nice workout chart oneach client.
(16:51):
It's printed out.
Of course.
In the old days I used to haveto go to the old UPS store and
make like 100 copies of generalcharts and then I would pick the
exercises based on the client'sassessment, what's best for
them, and also based on theirassessment.
I would have their beginningweight loads and it would be on
(17:11):
the bottom, and then I woulddraw a line over the top of that
and that would be how many repsI wanted them to do.
And typically we would go, or Iwould go, with between an 8 and
15 rep range, initially tryingto figure out where that person
is best, again based on how fastthey do the repetitions will
also base how many repetitionsthey should do in total
(17:38):
repetitions they should do intotal.
So I would figure that out aswe go and have a generality in
mind in the early stages oftheir personal training and I
would write in their reps overtheir load and then when they
would hit the top end of theirload like let's say they did 15
reps at 60 pounds on the legextension the next time they
(17:59):
come in I would increase theirweight a little bit, so say 65
pounds, and we would keepstriving for 15 reps or whatever
the top end was, and we wouldkeep increasing that way and
that is overload and, mostimportantly, I would be focused
on making sure that they weredoing it correctly.
(18:20):
So I kept that qualitativefunction in there and I would
make sure they got as close tofailure as they could.
Now if they had a conditionlike a joint injury or soreness
in the joint that we had to becareful with, then maybe we
wouldn't approach failure, butagain, that would be logged and
(18:40):
that's still gauging intensity.
So it's a dance of both.
We have to pay attention toboth.
Sometimes clients will say didyou lose count?
And I'll say yep, and then themost important thing is I'll
remind them it's like it's okay,we got a few more in us.
(19:01):
The most important thing iswe're getting close to muscular
failure.
So we want to focus on both.
I know people some people notall people hate to hear that
because we live in a society nowwhere everybody wants things
black or white.
They look on the internet andthey'll hear from somebody a
(19:24):
trainer I'll just keep it to myfield and they'll learn that 8
to 12 repetitions is the idealrep range.
They'll come in and they'll askme about that or I'll see
comments and if I don't know thepeople I totally stay out of
the comments.
I don't get into these wars onthese different social media
platforms.
But if it's somebody I knowthat asked me, I'll say look, 8
(19:46):
to 12 is a good rep range butit's not for everybody, it
depends.
And that gets back to my lastpodcast when I was talking about
the difference between lowvolume, high intensity and high
volume, and low intensity orlower intensity, and they'd say
so.
You're telling me that like oneset is best and I'll say no,
(20:07):
like I don't know.
I know for some clients one setper muscle group has absolutely
been ideal for them.
And then I know for otherclients who can't seem to get
close to that intensity markerthat I'm looking for, or I can't
get them to slow down as muchas I want them to on the
(20:29):
repetitions I'm going to have tohave them do more volume so I
can get more inroads or morefatigue to the muscle.
So there really isn't thatideal set number, ideal rep
number, the ideal load number,like any of those things.
It's both.
But as long as we keep strivingto get better and that's why
(20:51):
the quantitative thing isimportant as long as we are
striving to get better.
I have a client who we do higherrep numbers now than like he
used to back in his college dayswhen he would go to the gym and
try for PRs every time he wouldlift.
You know I'm not a big advocatefor that, so doing like one
(21:12):
repetition maxes or whatever,but like a lot of us guys and
maybe some of us gals when wewere in our 20s or teens, you
know that would be the way wewould work out.
We would try to do as heavy aswe could on the bench press
every time we went in or on thesquat or on these different
basic exercises.
So that's not overly safe, butdoing that PR personal record
(21:36):
with higher repetitions on someof these exercises is a great
way to kind of stay focused andzeroed in on what you want.
So I train this individual twotimes per week and I know that
he looks at each workout like hewants to attack the leg press
or the chest press doing a newPR.
So that's a quantitativemeasure.
(21:58):
That's very important.
And if every time he came in Isaid, well, I'm not really sure,
mr Jim, but I know we hitfailure, he wouldn't stay as
motivated.
He'd say, well, I know we didtoo, so I'm getting the benefits
, but I really would like tokind of see if I'm getting
(22:18):
better, and to him that's goingto keep me more motivated.
And then my job, of course, isto get him as close to failure
as I can safely, which meanswatch his form, and he does a
good job of both of that as well.
He pushes himself hard and heknows when he's sort of getting
sloppy on his form and hecorrects it.
So it's a perfect marriage ofqualitative and quantitative
(22:43):
measures.
All right, most important thing,ladies and gentlemen, please
get to the gym.
Please value strength training.
Please do whatever works thatkeeps you going to the gym and
progressing safely.
Thank you for listening totoday's show.
I ask you to please follow thisshow on wherever you get your
(23:07):
podcasts and also please hitautomatic downloads.
It really helps me and it helpsthe show.
Now I want to thank OverheadDoor of Daytona Beach, their
premier garage door company inVolusia County, with the best
product with the best service.
I can vouch for Jeff and ZachHawk, the owners.
They are great people.
If you need any help with yourgarage doors, give them a shout.
(23:30):
386-222-3165.
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