Strength Training Solutions: Overcoming the 'Skinny Fat' Dilemma with Adrian McDonnell

Welcome to Fit meter fitness podcast. In today's episode, I have a guest, Adrian McDonnell and we are going to talk about skinny fat solutions and how to tone up without looking like a bodybuilder. So, so first of all, welcome to my soul, Adrienne. And can you tell first a little bit about yourself and your background in fitness? Hey Turo, first of all, thanks so much for having me on man. And yeah, of course, of course. So, I was kind of like a late ish bloomer to the gym, grown up until I was like the age 80. And I want to play GA back home in Ireland and for anyone doesn't know GA, it's an Irish sport, Gaelic Athletic Association. So it's I can play football, we play hurt, and the games are typically 60 minutes long. And the main form of activity or exercise is cardio. So cardiovascular Yeah, would have been quite fit grown up. And then when I turned 17, I went to college. And if you looked up the definition of skinny in a picture dictionary, you probably would have my face or my physique would have popped up at that age because I've never lifted in the gym before. I don't eat on cardio, it's quite skinny, maybe 67 kilograms, nearly six foot tall. And after my first year in college for drinking a few nights a week, you know yourself and having no salad for breakfast with freaking crackers and cocoa puffs and all the garbage food. I essentially went from being what you would call a skinny skinny fat where I had a higher than normal amount of body fat or lower than normal amount of muscle. And I guess that was my driver a call to action that at the end of first year, I wasn't very confident in myself speaking to girls or anything like that I wasn't the guy going up or leaving any conversation. I just, I felt very insecure myself. I remember at the end of my first year in college, by chance or by locker by faith, I saw an ad on Facebook for a three month gym membership in my local town for 99 Euro. So that was my call to action that okay, maybe this is something that I need to do something. And from there Turo, when I went to the gym for the first time I remember even though the day 28th of May 2013. It's weird. I remember dates. I'm weird like that. But that was my first ever gym session on whether it was true or not, I remember at the end of my first workout, and I was getting changed afterwards. And I just saw myself in the gym beer. And for the very first time, like my first home from my life, I saw a vein like a small little vein, but nonetheless a little vein, right biceps. And I was like, Whoa, I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of that. And that was like progress is addictive. And the good thing about fitness and the thing I love about the gym is you know, the pump it almost you can see changes instantly. And even if it's only something small like that, like for me that was enough motivation that you know what, I feel good doing this. So I'm going to come back and do it again the next day. And look, essentially, I got in contact with a coach, he gave me a plan to follow, follow that redundancy for the full summer and then all of a sudden you're seeing your friends back in college. And I was no longer small Adrian, which was my nickname, they're seeing me change that because they haven't seen me over three months and like you're building a bit of muscle and you're feeling more confident. And just from there that it just became an obsession, man. And I haven't looked back down for the 11 years on nearly at this stage. I mean, that's a such a motivating story. And it's that there are a few things what points out for me like it's it's that like, there is a there is always like you never know when it's going to happen like it was for you was just that one commercial what you saw and got you sign up. And then it's some kind of results like immediate progress or if it's the now you are laughing about it, that it's seeing some small vein, but it's some kind of like often like it's not that you don't get motivated that you are able to lift 200 kilos or whatever it says some small regular thing, what you probably didn't know this before and and these are just the real life examples, being able to do some tasks in your daily life like opening a jar paddle or or being able to lift your suitcase or what you haven't done earlier. And now you are able to do it or you're able to see like for you it was the kind of visible example but love to hear in these kinds of stories. So you're good because you never know how it's going to end up. It says that when you get started and focusing like I probably at that time you didn't plan to work out for the next 20 years. It was going through for a week or month and it ended up three months. And now I don't know how long time ago that was. Yeah, it's amazing. And just something small like that, like whatever you're at, and what it's also important is what editorial that. You see, I some people are kind of in the middle zone. And the middle zone is like the danger zone where you're not to displease where you're currently at, but you're also not in the best position. And that can just kind of lead us to stay in the comfort zone. But for me, I just, I'll be honest, I was very, very insecure. And like, sad if I lacked a lot of confidence. And I just didn't like, what I would seen in the mirror wasn't really and, you know, they talked about self love, I wasn't really, you know, a big fan of myself and being honest. But in one way, that's kind of a good thing, because I got to a point of pain where I had to take action. And that's what drove me to take action. So, you know, sometimes pain, of course, is bad. But sometimes it's a great teacher, and it's a call to action. And my call to action was a need to change something about it. And time three, the gym found me at that time, and I haven't looked back since. Amazing. So about skinny fat, you said that you recognize that you were kind of skinny fat. But as this is kind of like a fitness term. And maybe some people don't realize that if they are actually skinny fat or so what? What does it mean? Yeah, or what are signs that you should be able to know that you are like kind of skinny fat? Well, I'll preface this by saying there's absolutely nothing wrong with being skinny fat. Just because you're skinny fat doesn't make you a bad individual or a bad person. Or if there's, you know, you're broken or that you're not capable to change. being skinny fat essentially means you have a higher than normal amount of belly fat or body fat. But you have a lower than normal amount of muscle mass. So it's like you, you may feel like you're quite skinny and your clothes, when you take your top off, you have a bit of stubborn layers of belly fat that you just can't get rid of. And essentially, the root cause of being skinny fat just comes from having a lack of muscle across your entire body. So knowing that to be true, then the simplest and most effective way to fix skinny fat is to start strength training, doing progressive strength training in the gym, not freaking burpees, not mountain climbers, not you know, all of these kind of fat burning quote unquote exercise like just lifting weights. And what I would say for anyone, if if you have that pain point, just like I did, putting a big emphasis initially starting out on the compound lifts compound, meaning they train more than one muscle group at a time. So the tried and tested the boring and basic movements, which a lot of people tend to avoid. But you know, there is a lot to be said for doing them. Particularly when you're starting out. Just getting really good at maybe doing bench press, or doing like chin ups or inverted rolls. If you're not able to do a chin up or doing like just a hex bar or a trap bar deadlift, mastering the squat position, mastering the lunges, the overhead press, all of these tried and tested exercises. They've been around for years for a reason. And success, those leaves clues and look, there's no one single best exercises, I'm not saying there's one single best method. But I think there definitely are some good practices. And if you fall into that category, like I did, placing a big emphasis just when you're starting out, or even when you might have a few years of experience. But you're wondering, you're not making a whole lot of progress, like just progress, prioritize and getting stronger at those compound lifts. And that's when you really will really start to see changes in your body. No, absolutely. And, and this is something like I often like obviously, first of all, if somebody doesn't know what are compound lifts, so they are like, basically like what you mentioned, just regular exercises, they are not those what you are probably seeing times in Instagram on social media nowadays, but if you think like what you mentioned benchpress simply chin ups or chin ups or push ups or chin ups or some kind of throw movement. And what I what I like, like obviously squats, deadlifts, and these kind of basic compound exercises and, and those are, those are like that, as coaches, when you see so many like kind of those burn belly fat workouts. It's a lot of burpees or, or or doing kind of like it looks obviously great in social media, they get probably a lot of attention, but I feel it's, it's going a little bit like in that way that you've got to wrap around like 1000 different different times to make some regular exercise look a little bit better. And something that nobody haven't seen when you could be doing a lot more effectively with just with some basic exercises ever sent. Yeah, yeah. And look advanced people they never skipped the basics. And if we were to really simplify strain training down tour, like it's, it's just a case. Take like 15 exercises 10 to 15 different exercises or max and just get really really good and perform on those and find some ways to change them up so you don't get completely bored. So a deadlift could be a deficit deadlift for you do From an elevated position, a Eisenhower will say, like a Bulgarian split squat, you could do and I fought an available Garyun split squat or a bench press, you could go from an incline to a decline to a flat, you're still terrain with the same movement pattern, you're still doing the same exercise, you're just you're just finding a different way of doing it exactly. Or simply explain what I love to use is the month by I use it. For most of my clients, every single month, I do focus on heavy lifts on one then next to change kind of hypertrophy phase, which is six to 12 repetitions. And then maybe next month is endurance from let's say 12 to 15 repetitions. So you are working on different load different reps different rest time. So it's kind of staying interesting because you are not If you do all the timeline, even even if your goal is to build this is like one of the most common myths, myths exceptions, what I see is that when you focus, you think that you want to build muscle. So you were you have seen from internet that the best muscle building great brains is six to 12 repetitions, so you only do six to 12 repetitions. But if you let's say if you do in a three months, one month, let's say two to five repetitions, that kind of maximum strength phase, then next month, six to 12. And month after that 12 to 15 repetitions, I'm pretty sure or I'm sure you will get a lot better results instead of doing just that six to 12 repetitions all the time. Even you try to implement that kind of progress, the flow over overload and getting stronger dose in those exits. Yeah, I like I love that method of periodization. Absolutely, like just work in different rep range. And it's not to say you can't like build muscle in the one to five or you can only build I would say we're, you know optimized for hypertrophy in the six to 12. But generally, as you were saying that those rep ranges they do leave clues. I really liked that as well. Just again, to keep things interesting because you have to have a lot of fun as well in the gym. If if your goal should be never to like there's no end date with this. The End Date is I want to be the fittest man in the grave. I want to be left alone until they frickin die. So, as you were saying Turo, it's good to have find some ways to make it fun, for sure. I'm all I'm all with you in that font. So then about skinny fat, like there is always that kind of dilemma that where you should like if you are a skinny fat, so you need to build muscle lose fat. So where to get started? Yeah, it's a hard one. That's a great question, too, because there's no one size fits all answer. But what I would say is, if you were to just look at maybe your current physique, if you're more lean, and on the side, that God I have a pretty decent amount of body fat, and I am quite skinny as well. But you've more body fat would say that more. So what I would say is if you have more body fat, be in a slight calorie deficit, like not a major one only like a five to 10% calorie deficit. Whereas if your physique is you need to build more muscle and you don't have a whole lot of belly fat, but you still have a bit of stubborn bit like I did, I'd recommend either being a calorie maintenance or in a slight calorie surplus. What for a lot of people with that physique, like the good thing is you can almost do a body composition where you build muscle and lose fat simultaneously. Process being making sure your strength training, which what we're already speaking about training within one or two reps a fader, prioritizing fundamentally the compound lifts, and then making sure your protein intake is high. So like having a high protein and take about two grams per kilo bodyweight. That's a surefire recipe that if you're doing you know, train each body part twice a week, four times a week, maybe in the gym, having a good high protein diet and staying in and around your maintenance level. Some people you might be slightly above and it's like calorie surplus, while the people are in a slight calorie deficit, but if you kind of follow those metrics, it should yield good results. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And this is like what I like, I like to simplify this that basically your training never changes, it will be always pretty much saying what changes is amount of nutrition and especially for beginners, if you don't have a lot of experience with with strength training, you will see progress even you are in a deficit. So you will get those kinds of new big gains and you will make progress. So but that is usually I would say maybe around three to six months. And after that it's getting solid tendency. So if you eat all the time in a deficit, you won't get the same result. So that's why like your body's adjusting that strength training is not new anymore. So So you need to access those so your nutrition in that point like and for that I always tend to go for for most people like you said that for starting in a deficit adding that strength training, but obviously it depends on several things like there is no one solution what works for everyone and that's why we might ask some goats are someone who can give you advice where to get started. And then it's all about seeing how everything goes, if it works, and I was there is no nut single goats, we would be lying if you tell that this is the only way to do it. So there is nobody knows it for sure. But this what will work for you individually, but this is like kind of, if you get started, you get the starting point what is probably like, the best chance is to get some results. And then if it's not working based on results and how you are feeling, then it's time to make an assessment. So yeah, so it's it says to to acknowledging when it is, when it's happening and when to do and what to focus on. But it's says don't make it too complicated it basically Sure. It doesn't matter. So then, what is what I addressed and what I often get, or I'm sure you get it too is that, especially women, they don't want to look too bulky. So they are kind of scared of using weights and and they like kind of beings more but but they would like to look more told. So. Could you explain the concept? Concept of toning up without palate? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, this is such a great question again. So when people say they want to tone up? When you think about it, what gives your body that shape? And that tone? What gives your body that shape in that tone? No, it is not your bones. It's having muscle in the absence of belly fat. How do you build muscle you build muscle by lifting weights? How do you lose belly fat, you lose belly fat by being in a calorie deficit. So tolearn up is a very simple way of saying you want to pay them or something you want the job ready. Now for any female listeners out there, because I know there definitely was that misconception out. To be fair, I think thankfully, we're moving away from that I see a lot of girls are getting after in the gym and lifting good weights and barbell Glute Bridge and well over 100 kilograms, and there's no like, and their successes is really evidence of their physique. But even for any female dancer out there, if you tried to get bulky, like do you think that working out more is going to make it look worse? When you think about it like that? Lifting weights, for the most part, it's not going to make you bulky, what's gonna make you bulky is if you're eating an excess amount of calories, which is then going to cause you to gain weight. And then as a result, that's where the bulk will come next. We'll provide that your lesson weights following what you're saying there Turo have, you know, the different string phases, the different rep ranges, and you know, following those compound lifts, and you have a pretty clean Dieter, and that's like calorie deficit, you're gonna tone up, that's what's gonna give your body that shape. And that tone, if you wanted a bowl cup, it would actually be much more tiring, particularly with women again, because those guys we do have an easier time building muscle with our testosterone levels. And with women, you would just have to have a lot more input in order to get that output. Absolutely. And this is what I like you said that it's not it's it's a long process, it doesn't happen overnight. And and I think now most of the people it was back in the days like all people they were they were those magazines and looking like a women bodybuilders. And then they were looking out they are training, they are lifting weights, and now they're still like, I feel many women are afraid or maybe not using doing a weight training or strength training, but especially using heavier weights because they are like, yeah, immediately like this is in with the women who I work with they there are not there are very few women who are not afraid or who are using like heavier weights. They are very, very few. And this is often like how you get those actually results what you haven't gotten till now. Is it the secret lies in the work you are avoiding so. Amen, brother, it is sad. I'm probably an excess amount of cardio to see a lot of women do. You know, I want to lose belly fat. So they think that do not to cardio like cardio was great for burning calories. What if you just do cardio in the absence of strength train, and you're just gonna become a smaller, skinnier fat version of yourself. And when you think about it as well, like strength training, it's the single most efficient way to, you know, increase your metabolism because the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn while at rest. I'm like cardio is great for burning calories, and we'll have like more of a burden effect during the session. It's the afterburn of strength training is the after benefit where a lot of people don't realize. So if you are someone out there and you do like cardio, absolutely do it, but don't just do it on its own in the absence of strength training. If your goal is is what you were saying Turo do tell him, ya know, and this is, this is like for cardio I always like like to teach also like something like in the beginning, it basically doesn't matter back then especially later on, I like to focus it either one or the other. Because if you try to build muscle, and at the same time you want to lose fat like what most people won't. And maybe because you want to improve also your cardio and your heart health. So it's all results, all kinds of things, but they are. So you if you try to do them all the time, at the same time, you won't get those results. What do you want? So I'm trying to run a marathon. Yeah, definitely don't band together. No, but it's, it's, it's like you can have all results. But if you were on, let's say, one to three months for building, the next one, two to three months boot kind of strength on maintenance, and work towards cardio, so you can have in a longer period of time, all kinds of results. All those results were to burn it or it seemingly, but not just because if you try to do all the time, everything at the same time, you end up having a lot less results as you get when you focus only on one thing at a time. And and as building building muscle doing excessive amount of cardio is probably not the smartest strategy to do. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, you can be a jack of all but a master. It's not to say cardio, like cardio doesn't necessarily kill your gains. But if you're doing an excess amount, you're not able to recover from it like that's going to be big as well. Like I wouldn't just go from Doom for strength. And now all of a sudden you do for strength, and then three one hour runs like you're probably not going to be able to recover from that. And it's going to have a negative impact on your cardio. But there is no issue in microdose and interior training. But as what you're saying there tour, what's going to break up the year into different seasons, or maybe over the winter, when the weather isn't as good, you might prioritize your strength, whereas during the summertime, when the weather is nice and warm, maybe you want to get out for a run or get out for a cycle. As you were saying that can be a good position, because it's so much easier to maintain your strength, like you can do the minimum effective dosage strength training, which might be is endless two full body workouts a week, particularly the more advanced you are. And that's Yeah, and that's enough for you to maintain your muscle mass, it does require a lot of effort to build muscle but to maintain this not nearly as hard. So as you're saying if you'd assume I would pinch I would have a long term view and understand that differences in theory, you might have different goals, different priorities. Again, going back to what we're saying at the start, it's a nice way to keep things fun and interesting. And work towards different goals at different times of the year. Yeah, and this is this is exactly what you said that it keeps things so much more interesting when you have like that you don't always just go to gym over getting build muscle and work getting stronger when you focus on different phases like let's say three months for focusing on improving cardio next three months it's focusing more on team and then maybe next month if you have some specific sport what you want to like it could be proving your athletic performance or or anything else which is it's it's still kind of strength training it says the different strength and this is often what I what I really liked what you wrote you have by the way, Adrian have amazing website, next style fitness. And he has very good articles there. So if you go to those articles, they are very good. I really liked the one where you talked about like, how to tone up and build muscle without looking like a bodybuilder and he talked about training like an athlete. So could you explain a little bit what you mean like training like an athlete? Yeah, so look, I guess life happens three dimensionally. And with life you you don't just move in one plane or motion. Like, you know, believe it or not even for everyday gym goers or parents out there you might have children and you want to play ball with them and either the ball runs to the left or run to the lighter you have to pick up something from the floor. The life happens essentially three dimension I'm a big believer, we should train that way. And there's nothing wrong with training for a bodybuilder if you want to look like a bodybuilder but if you want to have performance based goals and you want to be more athletic, it's important to train different different. You it's basically in core important you incorporate different methods of training into your program. So for example, if you want to be more powerful or more explosive or Kobe, something like we might just start out with some basic Pogo jumps or box jumps. Okay, where you're focusing on you know, jumping as high as possible and generating a whole lot of force, or what you were saying there tour with the track med ball slams like med ball sounds are very, very efficient way or you can even do them lying down on the floor. So imagine like you're throwing a med ball, you're lining up looking at the ceiling, you're throwing a med ball towards the ceiling prone or supine or prone. Supine med ball push ups or throws are very good method there. So you're training Our it could be a jumper cobia throw a cobia spread, then maybe like an element of strength training there too. So that could be okay, we look at a compound lifts and we go for like something like a five rep max. And we'll say a trap bar deadlift, that's where you're incorporating some strength. And look, I love a good bit of pump work as well. So there's nothing wrong with doing a lot of pomp work if you want to have the aesthetics. And then there's obviously the cardiovascular element to have just been being fit. Because having competed in bodybuilding last year, bodybuilding last year, you can look fit and not necessarily be fit. And there's a big, big difference between health and being fit and health and fitness. And for me, I may have looked fat, but I wasn't very healthy because my body fat levels were so low, my hormones were all over the place, I was freaking hungry, libido loads. Whereas I feel when you have more aesthetic or athletic based goals. Like when you think about it, when you look your best as a bodybuilder, that's when you're feeling you're worse. Whereas most competitive sports people Peak Peak Performance for one event or one day like athletes after look their best perform the best thing for mixed martial arts, Conor McGregor, yeah, to be in his peak condition. For fights. Think of just, let's say, like Cristiano Ronaldo, that's when he wants to be optimized his performance for a match in the pitch so whereas bodybuilding, it's like your look, you're worse and you feel you're worse, even though you're not that healthy in the end site. So that's why I'm a big, big believer in having more athletic based goals. And that's why I much prefer them in general for everyone. Absolutely, and this is not like that, like training like because I find it for many people like so motivating like when you call that you go to gym, you have some goal what do you want to act like it's, it's a setting those goals like even if you don't play some sports, but it could be like it's we are all kind of different in setting goals for someone it could be running a marathon or entering some kind of event it could be like here in Italy, we have a lot of like kind of Spartan Races or that kind of events, like it's just some some kind of call where you work towards or if it's it could be simply just the strength bridge based call like if you want to get your first push up or pull up or or just to give couple examples. So you have a kind of performance based goal towards you are working and then you know, you are not just going to gym because you have to go to the gym and do these exercises. And, and if you have that kind of like an athletic or performance based goal, this is this is the one what keeps it kind of also interesting and keeps you going and then when you look back, you are you are you have stayed consistent, and you have complete autonomy, that goal, but also you have reached you're most likely your body will look better than ever, and you will most likely even that buddy. I know a bit older, like I don't care anymore that much. When I was younger, I was a bit insecure and wanted to look better. Now. What matters for me is all about how I'm feeling and what kind of energy levels I have. And, and that kind of aesthetic goals and is they are not any more that important for me. I just work towards my health and and kind of trying to be able to live as healthy as possible. And as long as possible. 100% Yeah, I'm really aligned with that. Yeah. So do you what what kind of course you have how you set your own goals? And how what what you're working towards at the moment. Yeah, so what I'm working towards the moment so I played GA for 25 years, and unfortunately lost every game I did my ankle to get an operation and then COVID came around and that was like delayed by like 11 months. And basically long story short my ankle injury. It then led to a like a top of my hamstring slash hip injury. And unfortunately I haven't been able to sprint like max effort sprint in over almost five years at this stage over four years. And while they have like ran a half marathon in that timeframe, I have been able to do some incline sprint in the treadmill like not at full throttle. So for me this year, my goals are purely performance based and the more you can sound like a Lockwood I just I get so much like runners like something like hey dude, but I love having run. And I really just want to get back into that good vibe of like feeling nice and strong feeling like they can, as you were saying pain free performance. The greatest ability is availability. And for me I just want to be able to do every single movement that I want to do without having any nagging injuries. So I just really want to build up my glutes I'm in a you know, a decent enough calorie surplus at the moment and I am noticing a huge difference now in my running from just doing a lot more glute work and leg work and really emphasizing like just time when you're 10 chin there. So my big goal for this year is to get back run and pain free Springfree or sprint in pain free should I say? And let's take things from there. Amazing. Oh, this is these are like testing examples because that's why I wanted to like, ask like, what what 20 I'd love to get the sock 25 K's well, because that will lend nicely to us. Yeah, I got I got 2020 20 No 2040 or 2038, I think is my record. So I want to get into 19 minute range, that would be good as well. Because, like it lends well to what I'm doing. So I want to build my glutes I want to get stronger, and then perish that would obviously be that I want to incorporate an element to rollin. So that'd be a lovely way if I can round out both them tomorrow. Oh, absolutely. And this, this is just a great example like the you know, you have a big goal in your mind, what do you want to accomplish, like, it's not always doesn't mean that you enjoy every single workout what you do, like, but then it makes you feel and you know what you are working like, you have glute strength, and, and other things that you need to be doing. But you mentioned about being injury free. So what is what are like, most obviously, this is something like what you like, especially when you are getting older, and those injuries, they always suck. And if you if you whatever you are doing, like this is something what I what I hear often, like I have I know that there are a lot of like, people who are athletes, especially here is a huge strength during CrossFit. And, and I love it. It's it's, it's, I understand why it's so popular. Like it's, it gives you that kind of feeling of accomplishing something. But then on the other hand, I hear so many people who are getting injured while doing CrossFit, they are like, every if you look, I don't know if there's any crossfitter. But if you look, if I looked at a couple of my friends who are doing CrossFit, they are every year, at least one to two months insert. Yeah. And then I'm just thinking like, is this really worth of it? Or is it are you even as it feels amazing, it feels great, you might look and feel great. But is it? Would you be able to see better or even feel a little bit differently or feel even better? If you dream a bit differently? What is kind of safer way of doing it? So how you are preventing injuries? Yeah, it's such a great question. So going back to our initial point, compound lifts are amazing. compound lifts also, because they train more than one muscle group, they do come with, let's say a higher risk of injury because you have to MercyMe when you're training in the gym, not every lift is created equal. Doing a set of bicep curls, a failure is going to have a completely different adaptation than doing the set of deadlifts to failure, which is why I don't recommend doing the set of deadlifts to failure. And this is why there's no one size fits all as well tour what we're saying because, yes, deadlifts are great, squats are great, but you have to earn the right to touch the back. Like if you were in the gym, for the first time where you don't have a whole lot of experience, I'm not gonna put you doing a max effort deadlift report in Portner, a bar in your back and ask you to squat, you have to earn the right there. That's why you have to have good progressions in place. And then just as you age as you get older, not neglect, the mobility work, like a challenge of mine in the past is I was very, very good at doing the hard work. And I love the hard work. And I love getting after it and frickin sweating and training hard. And I'm feeling Gordon and David Goggins and burn the boats and all of this. And that's great, it's good to have that mindset and mentality, but over time, that can lead to burnout. And if you do too much too soon, that can also lead to injury. So that's why you need to have like just the right amount of volume, where you're seeing the results without completely overflowing your nervous system and overflowing yourself. And that's why look, if you like particularly with the compound lifts, I always say even I was doing squats Monday, I'm like, I there's definitely one in the tank, there's probably even two in the tank, but I just want to cut it too short there. Because open back, the greatest ability is availability. And particularly for compound lifts, I just don't think the risk versus reward of training them to absolute failure is enough, you can still get the desired stimulus if you train within two, three reps or reserve. So they're kind of lifts that you have to be more careful with. And that's why CrossFit, as you were saying, I love the intensity. I love the workout the brain put like I can't think of anything more dangerous than doing a set of deadlifts to failure when your heart rates at 160 or, you know doing clean and jerks or clean and snacks and or it's clean and snatch or all of these power jacks like big, big compound movements in a highly fatigued state. That's why the risk of injury and that's why you know, hospitals that will say a higher risk of injury compared to will say just other forms election sport. No, absolutely. And this is it makes so much sense. Like you said, you said that last like kind of doing exhausted like it's it's little bit knowing actually what you're doing and why you are doing and and if you go on with the when you are already feeling tired and you are trying to max out all kinds of doing like this, what we talked earlier, kind of doing everything at the same time in the same workout, the most strength gains while improving your cardio. And while while you get obviously you get, especially if you haven't done it before, you will get amazing results in the beginning, but then at some point, you will have some injuries and what do you mentioned what I personally I wasn't even kind of aware of things called mobility workout, and how when getting older about this, it's always when when you are lifting weights and doing kind of strength training, it's it, you get a little bit more stiff. And then to put that like that, because you want to keep that kind of flexibility. And most people they think that should I do some kind of straight seats or something. And obviously stretching is not bad. But I would say still that mobility work is even is a lot better than than seeing and, and knowing like those kinds of things where why those injuries are happening is often the reason is that you are lacking some kind of movement, because when we are when we are doing regular things, if you have a desk, desk job or similar job that you are in same position all day long. So it's kind of the QRSs we are when you look small kids, we all people are born with all these abilities, they are able to climb, they are able to do handstands and now why we are losing it when we are eating. It's not that something happens. But it says the reason is that we are present we are just not using. So and this was this test, my kind of approach that I take time I get mobility work is something like that, you know, I often feel like I was talking myself out of it too, that I don't have time doing it I don't want to do was I don't I didn't I was like you mentioned I was also kind of I was chasing the feeling after workout. And if you do some mobility workout, you don't feel the same way as you as you feel after you have been for doing some cardio session or, or strength training session, you are not you are after mobility workout, you don't feel but it don't have to be full full mobility workout, it can be part of your warmup. So you're down sets the couple minutes like a good mobility workout is one to 10 minutes. It don't mean happy to set. And what is more important is that it's it's kind of more that you do have it don't get hung up don't need to be a full hour workout, it says that it's two minutes, but that several times or every single day or even throughout the day, like ghosts mobility, it's it's something that you don't need to go to the gym, you don't need to you can do it like, actually, I was talking yesterday with one of my clients who had a kind of wrist issues and as it that it's developed this artist could be a good exercise is also to do that home as that Yeah, absolutely. And, and it says that when you remember doing it, and then we come to habits, how you are going to when you are going to build those things into your work is that if you let's say you have some habits what you already have. So for example, brushing your teeth, you might not feel doing it every single day, but you hopefully do it. And if you combine for that habit what you already have and say that okay, my role is that I'm going to do one minute risk mobility exercises before I brush my teeth. So you have your mobility work, already already included a routine, what do you have? And then that's right, that's when it's getting done. 100% So are you just curious to know, are you doing mobility workouts or mobility how you are including mobility work in your own protein or for your clients? Yeah, so what I like to do is I like to do it at the start of the workout. And depending on the workout that I'm doing, I will obviously tailor it towards that. And also as well. I like to mobility, supersets. So, let's say I assume back squat on Monday, and I Super Saturday with a bar high bar hanging for your shoulders. Because doing a bar hanging it's not going to take away from your squat but it will help improve your shoulder mobility. So I think if you are someone who like a time restricted professional and you need to be in and out in the gym, but you also want to take care of your mobility work. Use your West respirators wisely. Like once a pair every upper body lifts you could do these doing something would say like a flat bench press. You compare that Jordan your two minute or 92nd Rest Wouldn't hip flexor stretch and then for your lower body that could be where he could do some shoulder mobility or band Porter pirates or face polls or, you know, just basic good mobility exercise that will help free up your shoulders. Because the three most common areas are your ankles, your hips and your shoulders. If you take care of those, you know, often other areas like your low back, you may have low back pain, but it might actually be coming from your lower back or Kobe as a result of five hips. Maybe underdeveloped glutes or underdeveloped core muscles are incorrect. Just breathe and so yeah, I'm a big, big fan of mobility work particularly microdose. And then and just like doing some basic fundamental movements everyday is your saves keeper taken over. All right, yeah, no, absolutely, these are, these are like you mentioned those archers that team getaways like how you could including them, like especially like what you mentioned, during the rest times they go, if you have if you work like let's say you work on, you have a two three minute rest between your sets, like what by the way, you should have when you have like a heavy, you're using heavier weights doing lower reps. And this period of time, like for most people, especially I work a lot with women who are and but also for men who are time restricted. And let's say you need to do five squats. But you have to rest three minutes in between, let's say that your resting time is three minutes. And then they're like that. But if I have only 30 minute time, I won't be resting three minutes. But if you, you still should dress the three minutes even you have only 3030 minutes. Because if you the reason is that if you don't rest enough, you won't be able to use as heavy weights, what you would be using otherwise. And this is a great time, like it means doing some mobility work, you know, if you know what areas are your weaknesses, if it's a hips, if it's a shoulder, if it's an angle, or whatever area it is. And then during that time, it's a great opportunity to do one, two minute mobility work. So because this is mobility is something that you can do, always I probably wouldn't do stretches between some lifts or or something. But mobility is something because it's not taxing your body. And this is something that you can do, it doesn't matter how hard your workout was, you can always do it even after your workout stretching, you can do it, it's great. Number seven, great thing to do during the warm up and something. So this was a peaceful kind of thing. So for athletic performance, I wanted to ask you a little bit how you are how you are when you are working on athletic performance. And this is something like, like how you are are you using periodization, or how you are when let's say somebody got inspired now and want to work on have some kind of goal in their mind what they want to improve, and how you plan that what kind of using periodization, or how you plan your workouts for that kind of person. Yeah, it's just really forward thinking backward planning. And there's no one size fits all approach. But again, it starts with the end in mind, I crossed the goal that we want to train for. And for a lot of people if that is the case, that will say you want to do like a sub 20 minute 5k. For instance, when I'm worried we need to be strong, we need to have a good cardiovascular base, we need to always have some good leg strength there. So that means there has to be an element of strength and also cardiovascular work included, doesn't necessarily mean you have to do them on the same day. Typically, if you can, if you can take do them on separate days, that's going to benefit you so you can maximize your performance on both ends. But again, it's just being really clear on the goal in mind. And then reverse engineering from that if someone wants to have like, would say for some of my athletes, they play GA back home and art and so they want to get faster, they need to sprint faster, they want to be more powerful. So what's the movement that could mimic that because everything in the in the gym room is general. It's basically we're doing general exercises. But again, some exercises carry over more have more of accommodation on the page. So someone wants to get faster at running. Well what's if a movement that similar to running something like a heavy sled push, where you have that forward athletic lean, you're leaning into the ground, you're driving with your ankle, your knee and your hips, whether that directly make sure you're going to run faster, potentially not but it's going to have more of an indirect effect than doing something like a leg extension. So it's just trying to meet the client where they're at look at the goals and then see what are some exercises that could at least mimic that movement or have a good correlation another one being okay you need to be exposed to Iran and you obviously need to build up your hamstring so we could do some form of direct hamstring work or Nordic hamstring curls are a great exercise. You want to be more exposed from the start. That's where Okay, Watson lift where you have to really like generate a lot of force from a certain position something like a trap bar deadlift. You Want to be faster and your let's just say you want to be faster and have more force in the ground when you're sprinting something like a Bulgarian split squat. So, it's not to say that they're like that these these exercises, basically they have more potential to have a positive carryover for someone who wants to perform better than just doing traditional bodybuilding splits or machine work. Um, simply because they somewhat mimic the activity you want to perform. Yeah, no, absolutely. This is this is a great, great answer. So basically, if you think like, this is something what I what I when I talk with athletes, I always say that I go ghostly. So my background is I used to be a professional ice hockey player and, and that's when I was it's like 25 years ago, when I started strength training. And at the time, there was not really knowledge about sport specific strength training. So, it was all about like, doing just basically some body building program or powerlifting program and and we were doing like a heavy squats, heavy bench presses, but obviously, they have nothing to do with the icop and now training how it has changed at the moment is all like, when you think your sport is played, are you using two lakes at the same time? Or are you are you skating or on like an isotropy? Or are you running so are you You are mostly you are basically never two feet on the ground. So, so exercise selection is just about it is important in your sport findings kind of similar exercises, what you need in your specific sport. And then like the most if your goal is for example, to become more explosive. So how you get more explosive, it's not only getting obviously sprints are part of it, but if you explain like how to get that strength, like you need that kind of maximum strength. So do if you look for example, athletes, who are like, let's say, some short putter, or like athletic field, like they are big guys, they are not but they are they have to be they are very strong, they are very explosive. And actually, it's a funny thing, but if you put them in a sprinting line with the 100 100 meter sprinters, if they need to run first 10 meters, those speed guys, they are not two months behind because they are very, very fast sent in those first couple of meters because they have that strength, obviously then what they are missing, they missed that endurance because they're in their sport, it's all about that 123 seconds but if you for that time period of time, they there is not big difference between athletes and so it's all about first of all retaining that maximum strength so you have those fast too. So you need to have heavier weights and lower amount of reps and then on the other side it's kind of that explosiveness and also having enough rest time so those are those are kind of principles what I what I personally struggled always and now it's kind of approach what I tried to follow for myself and then do also when when would that bring kind of the most results for my clients is that that when you focus like also when you work on toward athletic performance you work on on one single thing at a time so it could be gaining maximum strength it's it could be increasing your strength endurance it could be increasing test your speed and doing some sprints fast stops and if you have possibility like for athletes offseason is a great time to look how long you have time how what is possible to do and then then creating a plan according to that. 100% 100% Yeah, I agree with everything you said there total. Thank you, Adrian. I really appreciate it and to finish this episode thank you first of all so much sharing was a lot of fun talking with you so Yeah, awesome. What What plans do you have for your Mac life? Fitness, what are going to be the next steps what you are doing if you want to share a little bit what you are currently doing and work with? With a business? Yeah, with the business at the moment. So I'm currently I'm currently I'm actually I'm really excited about it. I'm doing my first ever in person claimed photo shoot. So I'm flying home from Dubai back to Ireland next month. So this is February 2024. We're recording this in March 2024. I'll be flying back home and resuming a group photo shoot with some of my clients and then doing a group workout afterwards and going for a bit of food. So I'm really excited about that because it's formerly your primary school teacher. He made a lot of people during the day but then when I became a full time online coach there can be days there were so see yourself in the lab. Top and sometimes miss that in person element. So I'm really looking forward to bringing the end person back online again and getting that hybrid approach. So that's something I'm very excited about. And also as well, so one of the guys was doing the photo shoots Kev, he is going to be a new my new assistant culture makeover and fitness. So he's going to be assisting me with my check in so that we can help more people I was transformed the way they look, they feel they perform. So again, I'm just training him at the moment. And he's a great guy. He's doing a great job, and it's just something I'm really excited about. So I'd say those two things decline photoshoots in the short term training Kevin in the long term, and just. I guess I lost you a little bit. Oh, apologies. My internet went there. Yeah, sorry. I might. So I just say my reclined photoshoot coming up next month. Yeah, that was the worst thing. Yeah, I'm one of the guys who was doing the claim photo shoot, he's also going to be my new assistant coach and Michael homesale. Fitness, Kev. So I'm going to be training I'm currently actually in the process of training him and as well, because the best coaches are the ones who have gone through your process and understand your process. So there are two things that I'm really excited about. And just growing the brand growing the business and continuing to make progress like everything in the gym, add 1.25 kilograms to the bar, like it's, no one will understand that but you will understand it and will make you feel much better. And the same with the same with business if I can just start seeing. And once I see progress, and once my clients are getting better results, and I'm delivering a better service, and I'm just small incremental changes every single week and has a compounding effect over time. The last thing is I want to write a book, and I'm in the current. I'm in the process of writing that note. So hopefully that will be out at the end of 2020 for all gone. Oh nice. So where people can find and how people can find you. You know if you have I appreciate that tour. Yeah, the best place to find me is just on Instagram MC lifestyle fitness. So Mac lifestyle fitness. And there you see link to my podcast to my blog which Turo alluded to and if you have any other questions, don't be afraid to reach out and pop me a message. Yeah. So if you are if you are looking skinny fat solution, or Adrienne like I got to hire him his amazing quotes. And I'm not saying it that I have followed him loop. He'd read his stuff what he's doing, obviously I haven't worked with him. But go absolutely check him out. I appreciate that Turo and money happy retired and I appreciate that. Thank you so much for coming to my soul and the optician. Awesome, thanks so much, sir.