#29 How To Make The Most Of Your Workouts

Are you working hard but not getting the gains you want? Feel like you have hit a plateau?
JT & Joey break down exactly why having a good plan of attack will set you on track to improvement and steer you off the path of plateau.

What is your Program and are you sticking to it?
Are you Consistent or Random with workouts
The Difference between Testing and Training
Why Warm Ups and Intention are key to improving
Get your Central Nervous System primed!

Many people are trying their best to improve but wasting a lot of energy and time by missing key actions. In order to go to the next level and enjoy greater strength, athleticism and energy follow these key steps to get more out of your workouts.

Speaker 1: 0:04

Very careful a good martial artist does not become tense, but ready, essentially at this point, the fight is over. So we pretty much flow with the goal who was worthy to be trusted with the secret to limit the spot.

Speaker 2: 0:29

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Bulletproof for [inaudible] podcast. And I am JT. Hey guys, I’m Joey. And today we are discussing how to make workouts more effective. Plenty of people out there busting their chops, working hard, getting it in, but not necessarily getting the results they want. And today we’re going to address the key things that you need to make sure you do to get the bang for your buck. Just briefly to give a bit of quite to this conversation. Do you reckon we could tell people about how many times we’ve visited other gyms and we’ve looked at people training at the outdoor parks and just doing. And you’re like, man, if you just did a couple of things like, well, yeah, all of, or even like, okay, yes. All of this effort you’re putting in would be like way more effective. Yeah. Like you’d be getting so much more out of it, but instead you’re just grinding it away year after year and nothing’s changing. Yes. And I think this is something we need to be aware of. And when I actually ask people, oh, you know, like speaking to that very quickly, I know we’re going to dig into this. Do you write it down? Do you have a program? Like, do you know how you are improving? 90% of people do not have a journal or they have no way to kind of keep account of their progress or even a program, right? Like even a pathway. No, it’s just, I go on , I just do some exercises to kind of pick some off the top of my head and look, that’s not to detract from the fact that, you know, people are out there trying, right. Um , I’m out there at the park and I’m saying it was sometimes trying. It’s just not enough. I went , look, I’m , I’m the first one to want to punch someone in the throat for doing some kind of gym fuckery. But the thing is like credit to a human for making the effort to get out of the park and do something. But for you, our people, we want you to get the most out of it. So I think what you’re talking here, Joe is 90% of people without a plan. They are also not using effective exercises. And if they are picking exercises, which are good, they’re not executing them well. So let’s talk about how people can change this so that they make the most out of their effort. Alright. First cab off the rank. First one for me is to follow up program. Yes. So have a process that you’re following now, the beauty of a program is that it gives you guidance. So what you’re going to do over the next 60 minutes here in the gym, but it also gives you enough consistency. Hopefully if it’s a half decent program that you can get some good results from this training process, right. Obviously we’re big fans of the Bulletproof program, but even if you’re following something else, just follow it. Don’t jump around between things. And it’s exactly the same as like going and asking your coach, Hey, where am I going wrong? Like, what’s the best way for me to use from this God that I love. And they say, I’ll use this week , the next day you go and ask another coach like, Hey, what do you think I should do? And then they give you different information and right , right. Like it’s like, no , no, no, no, you don’t need more information. You just need one set of information and follow that, stick to it, stick to it. The second sort of part of that point is that consistency really is the thing, isn’t it? Yeah . So, you know, it’s, it’s nice to go in and do different things in the gym. And yes, there is an element of shocking the body, which we do want to change things up periodically. But that doesn’t mean every day or every week. No. And look a great saying that I heard many years ago, which was a poor program done well is better than a great program. Executed poorly a hundred. You know, you can, you can have like all the best exercises and the periodization and everything, but if you’re not, if you’re not actually sticking to it and you’re not actually executing it the way it’s been made, then what’s the point of the blueprint. You just freestyle. And you’re just throwing up a shack, you know? But if you’ve got somebody who’s maybe got a very unscientific program, but they’ve really adhere to it and they are very consistent and they chip away, these people are more likely to get the result. So let’s separate those two things. One, which is the plan we’ve spoken about this before, Joe, because everybody gets very inspired, like, oh, new workout challenge, a new new workout. Yeah . Workout Instagram and. Classic thing like, oh, just going to try and do a hundred pushups , just kind of. Just because like, don’t worry about the fact that you’ve got bursitis in your shoulders or nothing just , but it’s like, once I’m there, I will beat Jason Statham . Like if I can do a hundred pushups , Eagle rock , you know what I mean? Yeah. If you got that receding hairline, YouTube can be chases site . You just got soul pecks . Yeah , exactly. So I think there’s a big difference is where we got to delineate between a workout because people go, oh yeah, but I’m just doing this workout. Why ? Like what, how does that relate back to you and what you need? Right. That’s where the idea of a program is most important because it’s structured over time. And this is also the difference between testing and training. Training is moving you towards an end goal. Testing is just telling you wherever you’re at that day. And I’m going to tell you right now, wherever you’re at today is not where you’re trying to be. It’s not as mobile as you want to be. It’s not as strong as you want to be. Therefore there is a specific way to attain that. And that’s where a program guides you. And that’s what we need. It shouldn’t just be based on, oh , how do I feel today? Because how you feel today might be like doing nothing. Yeah. You’re not responsible to make that decision. No , definitely not. And I think the next thing on this, I wanted to say before we even get to the workout piece , uh , people are not really warming up or prepping their bodies before they work out. They’re just not, I would add this in that I see people, you know, doing the classic kind of Merv Hughes or like the , just tip the head. Yeah. A bit of hip circles usually do that. The foot easy . Do that. Either grab the foot, stretch behind one. They usually do that one when they’re like kind of scoping everyone else at the gym. [inaudible] yeah. Like a little bit like, oh, I don’t know if I should be here. I don’t know that one. Yeah . Just stretching. And then the thing about this is like, you should be there, your gym, it’s your place own it. Be there a hundred don’t don’t go in meekly, go in with an intention and a goal for the day. Yeah. Um , I’m here to get better. I’m here to get stronger. And this is for me, you don’t worry what other people are doing. And the truth is having lived in gyms . My whole life, people get very self-conscious there’s a lot of anxiety around the gym, like , oh , but people are looking at me. People are going to judge me. It’s like, look, society, judges, people, you know, everyone judges everyone. But in truth, when you’re in the gym, people just focus on themselves. You know, the , the people who are the most narcissistic or vain, they’re not standing there looking at you like, oh, you’re crap. They’re look in the mirror, got harm. Great. You know, so essentially if you have anxiety around people looking at you, it’s not going to happen at the gym. People are looking at themselves. So don’t, don’t worry about that. And if you’re not at the gym, if you’re at home and you’re trying to get the most out of workouts because you’re at home and it’s not a formal place of training, that’s fine. You still need a warmup . It’s still important for you to prep your body because now more than ever, we’re sitting down, we’re doing less and our bodies are not ready. And I was actually just saying this to Dylan earlier , earlier today in passing , um, you know, he is warm. He does like, almost like an hour’s worth of activity before he’s doing the zoom class. And then, you know, he’s doing his teaching, the online class , teaching the online classes here at young brothers. And I say , yeah, man, the first thing I do, I get up in the morning. I dream, I want to do my mobility. You know, I might roll out in the tight spots. Like I’ve done half an hour of prep before I leave the house before I come and do anything. And this is something people are not in the habit of. And basically what this means is their first couple sets. So . And, and that’s a waste you’ve wasted, possibly a third of what could be giving you benefit, just adjusting to these movements where if you actually spent 10 to 15 minutes warming up properly, you’re getting max benefit out of those lists . You’re getting the best recruitment. You’re not just adjusting to what the thing is. That’s what I’d say. Agreed . Um, now the , the other thing I wanted to say about this guys is something I do myself when I’m warming up is not only just increasing my body temperature. So I’m not doing star jumps. I’m not running around, I’m doing my prep. I’m also getting my nervous system excited. So what I mean by that is if I’m doing deadlifts , I will do single leg deadlifts light, and also kettlebell swings. Why? Because these are more demanding than the actual exercise. Even though I’m not lifting heavy with the kettlebell swing, I’m being explosive and trying to get my nervous system fired up. And then by doing the single leg deadlift, I’m taxing my ankle and my hamstring and my back way more than a normal deadlift would. So when I come to do the normal, you know, two legged deadlift off the ground, it’s easier in a way it’s , it’s simply a movement. It’s a simple movement. Even I’m going to load it up more. And that keeps me safe in the same way. When I’m going to squat heavy, I’m going to do some jumps, some squat jumps, and I’m also gonna do some hopping, the hop and stabilize. I find the hop and stabilize is actually a huge win. It seems really simple. But if you do like 10 hop and stabilize on each leg that does so much for your ankles and your knees and your hips. So when you do finally either rack the kettlebells or put the bar on your back, your body is very much ready to go. So that is a piece that I would add once you’ve warmed your body and you’re prepared, get your nervous system geed up from the feet up. Yeah. A bit of activation work. Yes. And I think if folks are like, oh, what can I do there ? Like one of the things that stands out, the exercise choice that JT is using is really something that just demands a little bit more like Brian Palla and a bit more coordination. And that is in effect what excites the nervous system, because you got to think about it, you got to become very present and your body has to work hard to stabilize, right? Yes. So that’s the beauty of it. Then you go to your exercise, which is a deadlift or a squat. It’s more simple. So you don’t have to use the brain power , but now you can start to load that sucker up. Yes , sir . Talking about like how people can make workouts, more efficient, something that, that I noticed . And I even noticed this for myself, happy to be talking about today because it will bring me back to it, but that is using a timer. Yes. To time my workout into time, my rest periods. Yep . Now, depending on the day, I don’t always have to time my workout. I trained for 60 to 90 minutes. It’s there and in my schedule, it’s good. I know that I can just manage that time and get what I need to do done . However, on the days where I’m more stretched for time, and this is what we’ve been doing, particularly with the new Bulletproof standards is I will time , uh, H superset , which is H block of work, usually two exercises into a 15 minute window. So I’ll set a timer for 15 minutes counting down. And then I know that I’ve got that 15 minute period to get whatever, three to four to five sets, depending on the prescription of those two exercises. Now, the beauty of that is that I know that in 45 minutes, I can get my workout done. Yup . Or an hour if I want to add some mobility in there or some extra mobility. And I also know that for some exercises, I’m going to get a bit more rest. So I’m going to get a bit less. Yeah . The other approach, if you don’t like blocking out time, like that is just to measure your rest periods and for what majority of what we do, I would say, correct me if I’m wrong, but you know, unless we’re training like super heavy where you want, like those long sort of three to five minute rest periods. Sure . Uh, it’s generally around 90 seconds. 60 seconds to 120 seconds. Like one to two minutes. Yeah . Yeah. I w yeah, I would say 60 to 90 seconds. Definitely. And look, I would go so far as to say, if you have to rest anything more than 90 seconds, one either you possibly going too hard or you’re possibly being a little bit lazy and that’s practice, don’t get me wrong. I like a good long rest break, but really don’t shy away from the discomfort guys. I’ve been trying to say this to all my people on zoom. You’ve shown up, you’ve warmed up. You’re there brought your drink bottle. You’ve done everything you need to do now it’s work time. So that 30 seconds you’re delaying the inevitable really. Like if , if it means your next set isn’t as comfortable. That’s okay. Because this level of accountability guys is that your energy is only going to restore so much in the given time. And based off how conditioned you are, it’ll restore better, or it won’t. But that doesn’t mean that you should shy away from that work. So yet setting your rest break and keeping your rest break at a certain time, whether it’s 60 seconds or 90 seconds is key to doing the workout properly. Yeah . And just on that I use, I like to use this. I’ve got a little gym boss timeline , so good. You can get them online. We don’t have any affiliation with them yet. Um , but they’re, but they’re really good. They look like a pager. They’ve got a little clip that go into clothes . Anyone remember that got that nineties vibe back in the day. Um, but the beauty of the mirrors is that they don’t have apps. They don’t have text messages , simple. They don’t have all the that you have on your phone. And when you’re looking at your phone and using the time of there , and then you get a notification easy to get to. Exactly. And I do it , I do it myself. So going back to something like this, simplifies it and I just use the countdown timer feature. I just go , all right, 90 seconds. And then I finished my set and I click it and then it beeps. And I’m like, start again. Yup . Yeah. I think that’s great. I think the timer is great. And also what you do between sets are breathing is really important. So if you know that you’ve only got so much time and you need to bounce back really quickly. I mean, this might be something you can elaborate on Joe . Cause I don’t know much behind it relevant to like shaking or whatever. But , um , my old Russian coach, if him, he would make me walk around and like shake my , he wouldn’t let me stand still on my rest breaks. Wow. He’s like, you’ve got to keep moving. He’s like deep breaths . He’s like, you gotta get that oxygen in big nasal brass . Like in, through the nose, out through the mouth, when he would make me shake my arms and shake my legs. Anyway, he didn’t explain the science behind it, but he’s like, basically you have to make sure you’re keeping your blood circulating. If he’s like, if you just squat down and just stay in spot, he’s like, actually your circulation gets worse and he’s like, stay moving. You don’t feel like it. But he’s like, your next set will be better if you’ve got more oxygen in your blood. So he would always push me to do that. And truth is it did take a little bit more effort to kind of wander around and move my body. But the next set did come out better. Makes sense. Yeah. I think there’s a lot of benefits to lymphatic drainage as well with that. Isn’t there the shaking. Yeah. Your body just getting rid of the waste byproducts that are accumulating, you know , um , from the training and that’s, you know, if you can, if you can get that stuff moving around, then it’s going to light to perform a bit better on your next set. Definitely. And I think it is also a good habit. I mean, think about relevant to jujitsu. You know, if you’re competing or even if you’re just rolling hot, you’d never really have the opportunity to stop. However long the round is five minutes, 10 minutes, whatever you’ve got to keep going. Yes. Even when there’s little break . So just so I think it helps to build a bit of discipline around that. Definitely. And around that idea of timed windows guys, I think it’s really good because I have people all the time saying to me, oh , what should I do for fitness? Yeah. We’ve talked about this many times guys, but what I say is what will surprise you if you are used to taking longer rest breaks, shorten them up. Like Joe is talking about a 15 minute window, and this is relevant to the new standards program. But even if you were to take , uh , the exercises that you’re doing currently and you go, right, I’ve got 10 minutes. That means I’ve got two minutes per se , superset . So as long as it takes you to get those two exercises done, the whatever you’ve got left within the two minutes is your rest time. If you take longer, you’ve got less rest. If you go a bit harder, you might need more rest, but eat is structured. You’re going to get five sets and you’re going to do it in 10 minutes. And that lasts. It’s going to be way tougher than the first and that is going to drive your fricking heart rate up guys. So look, don’t get me wrong. There’s plenty of things that we can go into around conditioning. We’re not doing that today, but if you want to make your workouts more bang for buck, shorten the time up and get it done. Yep . Alright . Next things. Next guys, I’m going to save ramping up. So a lot of people will go straight into, I see it all the time. People, they might do a few of those kind of, you know, ineffective , uh, kind of shoulder stretches, whatever, not even stretch , just move their body and then like, right. Let’s load up the bar, which is Chuck the weight on, I usually do whatever hundred Chuck, Chuck, a hundred on there do a hundred talk about someone dead lifting or whatever. Yeah. Or whatever. It might be, whatever the structure is, people just don’t allocate enough time to their workout and they don’t factor in any kind of a ramp up. So I will always treat my first set as a gauge on the subsequent set . So if I know I’m doing, you know, I’m , I’m a little bit different to you guys. If you only work with three to five sets, sometimes in my workouts, I have eight sets. There’s less repetitions, but there’s eight sets. My first three are ramp up. You know, they are building me up to the weight that I’m working with that day. And it’s like a little check in with myself. It’s also a little G up, like, get ready, come on, buddy . Next set. Next set. Okay. Now, and it’s really important for me psychologically to prepare for a very heavy weight or just a really hard thing that I don’t necessarily enjoy whatever it might be like. Maybe it’s a certain , uh , mobility drill or something which really kills me. I have to really zone my mind in and building into it. And having that ramp up is an important part. Not just going straight to the heaviest weight and do it . When I tell people that, you know , when I’m training folks, I have heard a lot from people over the time. It’s like, you know, say we’re going to be doing four sets of dead lifts , uh , just to pick a scenario. And I say , all right, well, you know, let’s get a good kind of handful of warm-up sets done. And you know, let’s make those warm sets sort of ramp us up towards the first working set progress , the wait . And sometimes you’ll get people that are like, yeah, but isn’t this gonna make me tired? And I want to do four sets. And you’re like , none , man. Well, one, if that is going to make you tired, then you probably shouldn’t have come to train today should be a slate . Yeah . So , um, but no, that’s actually going to help to prepare your nervous system better so that you will be able to perform better right now. Yes, indeed . So that ramping up that gradual thing is really important. And look, the simple rule that I use is the stronger you are and the more you’re lifting, the more of that you have to do. Yeah . Like as an example, if you’re going to go deadlift , whatever, if you’re working sets are at like 150 kilos. Sure. Well your first walk warm up is going to be with the empty bar and maybe you’re going to do, you know, I don’t know , 50 kilos and 70 and nine , you know, like, yeah, yeah . You got to take that time. Right. Cause things are getting more intense. It’s getting more serious. Whereas when you’re a bit fresher to it, if you’re working sets are only going to be 60 kilos and maybe it is just three warm-up sets. Sure . But the ramp-up idea is still there. Yeah, definitely. And the more advanced you get, you do need a little bit more prep and it’s also skill practice. And I think this is something that we can’t forget guys, and this is something that we have incorporated into our programming, whether it’s the current program for kettlebells or our home gym or anything, we’re hitting you with some, some movements that aren’t in normal training, it does require more skill. So even when you do it with not much load, you’re practicing the skill, therefore you are getting better skill mastery. And that is an inbuilt part of the way we program for Bulletproof, for BJ accuse me for being a cliche trainer. But when my client goes , uh , how many, how many reps? I’m probably not counting. I’m just looking at their form. Like, okay, that was okay. No , that’s a terrible rep. That’s okay. So in my head I’m like, man, they’ve only hit five good reps out of 10. Look, I’ve done 17. And I’m like, do two more. It’s always two more because okay, whatever your goal, you want to get stronger, you want to lose weight or whatever you’re doing. Or two more apps to be a problem. You’re here to do the work. So in the name of improving and I’m not talking about doing endless reps, it is worthwhile doing some lighter reps just to groove those movements. Yeah . Now I’ve got a point on this subject. I generally would like to see people train slower rather than faster. Now of course, anyone out there listening who has any kind of understanding of athletics or strength and conditioning will be thinking. Yeah, but don’t, I become more powerful when I try and faster. And yes, that is true. If you want to be fast and powerful, you need to train fast. Right? However, for the majority of people listening for the majority of people, we coach for them , the majority of jujitsu players, it is not power that they lack it is strength and coordination and mobility. Great . And these things form the base of the pyramid to which power is then layered on top of a great . So if you don’t have good quality strength, coordination, and mobility, you’re never going to be powerful anyway. Right. You’re just going to be moving with bad technique and probably going to hate yourself. Yeah . So look, this is me as well. Like , uh , you know, in my training, I still train very slow. A lot of the time I might do a couple of faster exercises maybe in the Wal-Mart , but maybe at the end. But in essence, when I’m doing my strength training, I’m moving slow because I want tension the whole way. I want to load the body. I want tension as I go into the movement. And then as I pull out , uh , and I’m, I’m trying to work with that tension. That tension is what allows my connective tissue to become stronger. It’s what helps your muscles become bigger and become stronger. And it’s also what gives your brain a chance to process what’s going on proprioceptive feel right . Ending of the movement. Yeah, exactly. So if it’s a choice, go slower, you will get more from it. And then obviously for the more advanced lifters out there. Yeah, sure. Add some power stuff, add some speed stuff, but you’ve done the work to be allowed to do that. Definitely. And I would actually go further to say that only really those who are truly strong, do slow eccentrics and do paused repetitions and stuff like this. Why it’s so hard like guys, you know, if you’ve never done it, I’ve just put it out to you right now. Let’s say you can do five pull-ups, five chin-ups, whatever it might be. All right . Let’s do a five second east centric. So what that means, guys is you do your pull up or your chin up, you hold at the top and you take five seconds to come down to a point of full extension. How many of those can you get? Because you’ve just your time under tension, which is like , what Joe was talking about has dramatically increased. You actually don’t need to do as many reps. And it is significantly harder. So developing that control is actually a really good safeguard to stop you from kind of progressing too soon. Like people apply metrics because they look sick and I’m doing a box jump and you got the guys on Instagram, on the plyometric thing. And then the guy punches him in the abs, then the thing and then abs and then the backflip . Yeah. The punching Mazda dial does find knees , bro. It’s like, yeah, sure. I mean, that’s, that’s all good. But I totally agree with Joe that what you guys should know is there is a hierarchy of movements and strength as a skill and a coordination. If you can’t do it slow, you do not have permission to now go do it fast. That’s what I would say spot on. And here’s the other thing I would say. We had a question about this relevant to intensity before. I mean, everybody’s different. I’m a bit more on the side of ultimate warrior. I intensity is my passion. Passion is my passion. I like to get geed up. I consume lots of caffeine and maybe it’s because I have a fairly boring lifestyle, but I get excited when I could potentially break my back at lifting a weight. Obviously I know I never really lift anything. I can’t pick up. You know, I don’t, I don’t put weight on me that I know that I can’t tolerate, but it’s the mental thing about getting really kind of sight to a point of like, this is it let’s go. I can’t do jujitsu right now. So, but I’m talking about relevant to you guys getting stronger or the effort you’re putting in really getting yourself mentally prepared to put in your best effort, whether that is doing the reps slower with greater control and greater focus or lifting harder or moving faster , whatever the requirement of the exercise is to do it with the best quality. Because like I was saying before, sometimes I watch my clients. I’m giving feedback going. Nope, Nope. Like no rep, no rep just do five good ones. Don’t give me 10 crappy ones. Yeah . Just, just do five good ones, breathe, focus, and make it count. This makes a huge difference to the effectiveness of the workout. That’s often the mindset between, I’m trying to just get through this. I’m just bashing out these reps so I can get it done and call it a day versus I’m going to do my best at this right now. And I think it’s really important. It’s the same as how you drill in jujitsu, like bring awareness to it, bring some intention. And like, I’m going to try and map because when you bring that awareness and that intention to training, you get more from it and you are that person that is constantly getting results and making gains. And that is, you know , really satisfying. And that’s why we’re all here. Whereas when you’re the person that’s just trying to get it done so you can tick the box, go yeah , exercise today. You’re the person that’s at the gym year after year and nothing changes. It’s a degree of self-awareness and honesty. Like if I don’t hit a rep, I will. Right . I missed it. You know, even if in a red texter, bad, wrong. No, it’s, it’s one of those. Cause I don’t really work out with people. Like I usually work out by myself anyway and that’s fine. I have myself for accountability, but if I don’t make a rap , I write that because the next time when I come back, if I get it, then it, that shows improvement. And it’s , it’s that level of honesty to know if you are actually getting better guys. And if you’re not really keeping yourself to account, it is worthwhile getting a coach or getting somebody who can help you with that. If you struggle with that. Yeah . One of the big things where I see people fall off and lose effectiveness in their training is not tracking their workouts. So you’ve done all the things. You’ve got the program, you following good thing, Tommy, rest periods, doing all that. But you come in and it’s like, oh, you have today, I’m doing my four sets of Turkish get-ups and you ask yourself or your trainer, oh , what did I lift last week? And it’s like, man, if you who remembers that, right, you’re doing a lot of that as a trend . I don’t remember what you lifted last week. The chances then of you progressing because there is this basic concept in strength training, progressive overload. Yes, sir. Which requires that you progressively overload the body by doing progressively more and that could be in weight or in volume or in total work, more reps of the same thing, right. Or a heavier kettlebell or a heavier barbell. But the important thing is, is that it’s there. And if you’re not doing that, then you really just in a maintenance sort of phase. So simply writing this down, having a diary, having a piece of paper, you can even put it in your phone. I’m not a huge fan of it, but you can, you can totally put it in your phone, just tracking it and say , so you get to your workout. And you’re like, oh, well last week I did a 14 kilos for the first three sets. And then I did 16 for the last two. I’m going to try and do 16 for all my sets today. Yeah . You know, and it’s just these small incremental gains that , uh , cumulatively equal much progress in the gym. That’s right. And even though you might go, oh, that’s not me. I don’t do that. Well, I’m going to say that you are then not to do that. That’s not a success . You’re not a successful person. It’s actually hanging out with successful people. I think it’s one of those things. No, we w we are hanging out with you right now and you might not be very successful, but by hanging out with us, you will get more successful. Now . I think it’s, I, it was funny. So my partner was , uh , she’s studying right now and they had a zoom chat. I’ve worked with my she’s, my fiance. I should say fiance. We have worked on her diary, keeping and journaling, but she doesn’t keep it every day. But she does write stuff down every day . You know, she has her own process. She writes her workouts down. It’s really good . I’m proud of how she’s cultivated that they’re talking in this group chat and there’s one guy on them . They’re all studying marketing. And he has come from a trade background. I don’t know what he does, whatever. He’s not an old guy. He’s like in his twenties. And they’ll like, he always forgets something. And sometimes I overhear what they’re saying. And he’s like, no, I don’t write stuff down. Nah , I’m like , this is a majority group of women. It’s like a , probably a class of 30 women and maybe two guys. So it’s , it’s just not, it’s not what I do. Like write stuff down. And I just looked at her and she looked at me and we’re both like, oh , this is someone who’s going to really struggle. Because if we look at anyone, however you do it, guys, your ability to reflect on your activities is what helps you learn if you can’t reflect. Or if you have no point of reference, you cannot improve. If you just leave it to emotion and memory, it’s so easy to just lose it. Cause there’s so many other things at the top of your mind. So when it comes to these workouts, I’m totally in agreement with you, Joe , if you guys want to be more effective and more successful, you must write it down on that. We’ve got a video on our YouTube channel, which is journaling for success, where I believe JT, you detail how somebody can just write down on what their workout is and track it in their diary. Right? Yeah, definitely. I actually just go through when I’m doing Bulletproof workouts. Exactly how I write it down. It’s very simple. You can choose to do it that way. You don’t have to, but it’s a very easy a model to copy. Now, are we at question time yet, mate ? We have questions. Yes. We’ve had a few come in this week. We’ve got two questions from the people Mr. Greg brown, Gregory Brown.

Speaker 3: 30:20

Hey JT. Hey Joey. My question for you guys is just concerning around how to use the Bulletproof for BJJ workouts in conjunction with adding rehab exercises, to them. I’ve been dealing with shoulder issues for quite some time. And I feel I can’t really do much in terms of getting a proper workout in because I’m stuck doing banded rehab exercises to improve my shoulder stability. And they’re wanting to know what would be the best way to use the Bulletproof workouts. And in conjunction with the rehab weather needs to try and meld the two. It won’t be the best way to do that, to make it feel like I’m getting the benefits of rehabilitating and getting stronger there to progress to the harder exercises, such as a shoulder press, without marrying of issues of hurting my shoulder again and make it still feel like I’m actually doing some work and getting away, getting to get stronger and other areas. Thanks for everything you guys do.

Speaker 2: 31:15

Greg brown. Thank you. My man, my guy, I think this is, I think this is a good friend of mine, Gregory Brown, who I know I , if it’s not , uh , I don’t wanna overseen , uh , Greg brown. Who’s a good friend of mine had shoulder issues and we’ve had a few questions around this before, haven’t we? Yeah, we’ve spoken about it a bit. And again, we have a video exactly on how to do this on our YouTube channel, but essentially what you want to do in this situation is you want to take any of the offending movement, movement patterns, and you want to take them out of your training , uh , out of the program. And you want to put your rehab work in its place. Yes . So generally speaking and Greg alluded to this pressing is tricky for him. Yep . Majority of the time, oftentimes when people have shoulder issue pressing or pushing in any pattern does become challenging, but pulling is often okay. Yes . And it might not be like vertical point , like chin-ups and pull-ups, but perhaps like bent over rows and rows , that kind of thing. Right? Like they, they feel fine. So what the session would look like, then if you look at the Bulletproof program, you’ll see that workout one and walk out to a split between a squat and a pool and then a push and a hinge. Yep . So what that means is that the squat and Paul are most likely going to be fine for Greg , nothing to change there. Yeah . I would definitely add in some rehab work in the warmup and perhaps in the rest periods. Yes. And then for the , uh , press and hinge day, that is where the rehab work is going to take more of a bigger position. He’s going to take the pressing work out of the program completely. So he’s left with his hinge work, which is the deadlifting and the jumping varieties and that kind of thing. And he’s going to put a shitload of rehab in there and he’s going to run with that until he’s out of pain. And then when, once his physio says, Hey, you’re good to go back to whatever. Then he can start to revisit some of the pressing staff and , and get back into it at full intensity. Yes, indeed. And I believe that we did have this question relevant to legs the other day, someone saying they had an injury, but the alpha, what he was fine, exactly. The same deal guys, whichever it is that you cannot do substitute the , uh , rehab work in, but do your best to be able to complete the rest of the program in the way it is laid out. And sure enough, once you’ve overcome that initial period of struggle, you will be able to start to get back to full workouts. Love it. Uh , next question comes from white belt for life.

Speaker 4: 33:28

I just wanted to say, I really love the content. My question for you is the way that one should train in terms of intensity. So one being slack and five being high powered, what sort of intensity should one train whilst doing your program? Thank you.

Speaker 2: 33:51

Y bell for life. Thank you for your question. First came off the rank, that background tunes, man, I didn’t know. He lives with Alicia keys that I’m just jamming out while you talk to you digital friends. That was so good. I was , I was just, I was heading out into those tunes, white belt for life. Thank you. Great question. We actually kind of touched on this in the episode. Didn’t we? We did. And , and I would go so far as , as go the , the idea of the warmup and the ramp up bringing your best intensity and quality for when you go to work. Yeah , I agree. Here’s the one thing we’ve got to understand is that there is for most people, our relationship between intensity and technical execution. So as your intensity goes up, your technique goes down. And I say for most people, cause , um , cause most people aren’t advanced when it comes to strength training. So for a lot of people and you can see this at any CrossFit gym, right? As soon as the intensity goes up and people start chasing the hardest possible effort they’re murdering their form. Looks like. Yeah. So , uh , for the majority of people listening to this and white belt for life, for you at the early stages of this thing, you want to keep the intensity towards the lower side. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be ramping it up. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be getting after it when you’re feeling it’s the right thing. But your main priority should be doing the movements correctly. Yeah. And often that’s harder often when you say to someone, no, no, no. Tuck your hips. Bring your ribs towards your hip. Keep your midline tight. Yeah . Oh , but that’s harder. Yes. thinking now because you , you would , that is the work same thing. Like when we do our, our push up like a protracted pushup , really stretching those shoulders at the top and staying tight as you come on the way down, keeping the , like all these things. Actually, if you want to make the workout more intense, do the technique. Well, it may not be as satisfying is just going absolutely ballistic. But that is where you need to bring your energy and your focus in terms of intensity. Yeah. And actually a really interesting thing that makes me think of when you focus on doing the movement really well, the movement becomes really intense. Oh yeah. Right? Like you’re like, that pushup was so hard. Cause I was really trying my hardest to do all the things that you guys are telling me to do. It’s like, all right , well now we’re ticking all the boxes. Yeah . Whereas when you’re like, I’m going to kill these pushups . They tend to go too fast, tend to break form a whole . There’s a whole cascade of things that go wrong guys. Um , if you have questions, send them to us. You can record a voicemail for us. We’ll feature it on the show, go to the website, Bulletproof for bjj.com and then click podcast . And you’ll see a little box down the bottom of the page there . Perfect. Is that us? That is us guys. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Appreciate you guys. And we look forward to seeing

Speaker 1: 36:37

[inaudible] .