The Art of Manliness - #199： Garage Gym Athelete

00:00:00.000 brett mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast so

00:00:18.220 last year i went and switched over to a garage gym uh in my house and it's it's been fantastic

00:00:24.440 but it's not without its problems you know for starters there's the the issue of space

00:00:28.480 how do you cram in a gym when you have to fit a car in your garage as well cutting down on costs you

00:00:34.940 don't spend a lot of money furnishing your garage you're like which equipment do you need and then

00:00:39.220 the other part is motivating yourself when you're working out by yourself there's no other people

00:00:43.040 around it's dark outside it might be 30 degrees outside that happened during the winter time

00:00:48.300 how do you motivate motivate yourself to get out down there and work my guest today uh he has spent

00:00:54.960 his career doing garage gym and helping people transition to a garage gym his name is jared moon

00:01:00.040 he's written a lot of content for our site how to make diy fitness equipment like diy prowler

00:01:05.700 he's got a new book out though it's called garage gym athlete and today on the podcast we're going

00:01:11.400 to talk about how to become a garage gym athlete the pros and cons of garage gyms the math of garage

00:01:16.780 gym the economics of garage gyms um why it might be more affordable than a regular gym and how to

00:01:22.180 motivate yourself when you're working out by yourself uh really interesting podcast if you

00:01:26.880 want to listen to the show notes with links to the resources we mentioned in the show you can go to

00:01:30.840 awim.is slash moon and as always i appreciate if you would give us a review on itunes or stitcher if

00:01:36.140 you enjoy the podcast jared moon welcome to the show hey brett thanks for having me man really glad to

00:01:48.040 be here all right so you've written some great content for us over the years about strength of

00:01:51.520 fitness uh the stuff that's been really popular is your diy gym material you know how to make

00:01:56.360 gym equipment for your garage just with some wood uh you even have like use basketballs to make

00:02:01.260 medicine balls and you've written a lot of other great content over there your site into three

00:02:05.140 fitness but you've got a new book coming out called garage gym athlete it's about starting a garage gym

00:02:10.000 in your garage obviously and how to program when you're working out by yourself in your garage

00:02:15.520 i'm curious if you can tell us your story of how you started a garage gym and why you decided to go

00:02:20.600 that route instead of going to a big giant globo gym yeah man i could definitely tell you the story

00:02:25.440 how i got there because it was kind of i mean it wasn't necessarily on purpose i was uh in the air

00:02:31.640 force and uh 2010 had just gone active duty and uh at the same time my wife and i were in a lot of debt

00:02:40.280 we were actually in a hundred thousand dollars in debt and we were really aggressively trying to pay

00:02:44.820 that off so we weren't just sitting in debt and doing nothing about it which uh all of our extra money

00:02:50.020 was going that direction so it really limited how much money we had and uh i was in pilot training

00:02:55.140 at the time and i'd been injured and i was kind of on bed rest for a little bit because i had had to

00:03:00.420 have surgery uh from that injury and so i'm just sitting around and super passionate about fitness i

00:03:06.060 mean i always have been it's not something i picked up when i started the garage gym i started a very young

00:03:09.940 age and in fitness and i decided i wanted to make a garage gym because um the my introduction to the

00:03:17.240 air force was much like anyone else um joining the workforce you know extremely busy uh you find out

00:03:24.140 what real life is kind of going to be like how much time you're not going to have and so i decided

00:03:29.580 i was going to start a garage gym to be a little bit more efficient and uh save money and just be able

00:03:35.280 to work out at home and get it done so that's kind of the the quick backstory of it i just did it

00:03:40.620 pretty much out of necessity right you say we save money because i think a lot of people hear that

00:03:45.900 starting a garage when they hear starting a garage and there's a lot of startup cost to it you get to

00:03:49.820 buy a lot of equipment the barbells the plates etc can you really save money on a garage gym compared

00:03:55.200 to paying just 20 bucks or 30 bucks a month um at a global gym yeah i mean it kind of depends on

00:04:02.220 where you're going um if you are you know like a planet fitness that costs 10 bucks a month or

00:04:07.780 something obviously uh you could save a ton of money going somewhere like that but it also depends

00:04:12.640 on what kind of fitness that you're interested in and i think that's where the the big split and shift

00:04:17.140 happens for me because i'm i'm more strength and conditioning you know is what i'll call it um

00:04:24.200 kind of similar to crossfit but not really kind of similar to strength training power lifting but not

00:04:29.600 really so just strength and conditioning in general and being able to do that stuff like

00:04:34.500 really out of planet fitness they have the lunk alarm that shuts you down they actually kick you

00:04:38.000 out of the gym if you make any noise um and so you can save a ton of money if you look at it

00:04:44.460 uh long term and something i actually break down in the book is uh there have been a lot of corporate

00:04:49.460 wellness studies done uh in corporations where they they look at uh their employees and they

00:04:56.440 they say okay for every dollar we spend on the well-being or health of our employees we get

00:05:02.260 x amount back and you know that that being them being more productive missing work less and all sorts

00:05:09.680 of stuff but what they found was uh any for every dollar they spend they were finding that they'd get

00:05:15.220 between a three to five dollars back and some extreme outliers all the way up to 13 dollars back

00:05:20.540 for every dollar they spend and so you know if you look at it that way if you're not that consistent

00:05:27.260 at actually going to the gym and you feel like having a home gym is going to make you more consistent

00:05:31.200 uh other than actually saving you money in the long term because a gym membership is forever

00:05:37.140 uh you know you kind of have the sunk cost after you spend it and then that that equipment you have

00:05:41.440 in a garage is going to last forever and so after that it's all savings it's saving

00:05:46.140 on health insurance by being healthier it's working out more being more productive missing

00:05:50.920 less days of work and all that stuff so yeah i think that a garage gym versus a commercial gym

00:05:56.140 or globo gym can definitely save you a lot of money especially if you're more into the uh i say the

00:06:02.500 fancy ones the globo gyms that actually do charge you closer to like 200 bucks a month you're obviously

00:06:06.300 going to save a ton of money uh by going garage gym route right i also feel like with globo gyms and and

00:06:11.840 for those of you who don't know what a globo gym it's sort of a derogatory term that people in the

00:06:16.440 crossfit power lifting world use for big gyms with weight machines saunas and things like that towel

00:06:22.400 service uh when you're going to a gym you're often paying for services you don't even use right

00:06:27.220 i mean you might go there but you never use the weight machine or you just use the barbell and squat

00:06:31.920 rack you don't use a towel service or their sauna so you're just paying for stuff like you might be

00:06:36.300 paying 15 bucks a month for stuff you don't even use but with your garage gym there's going to be a lot

00:06:41.280 of upfront costs but you're only going to have the equipment you actually use right it is a definite

00:06:46.700 it's a definite uh different way of looking at training i mean you really go my recommendation

00:06:51.260 for most people is going bare bones and and so we only like we really strip it down to just what you

00:06:56.620 need uh and then if you want to get crazier as you realize that a garage gym is awesome uh you know

00:07:03.260 like my my garage gym started bare bones and now i basically have my own like training facility built

00:07:08.620 into my house but you know where you go from after you start it is up to you all right so what

00:07:13.600 are the bare bones things that you would need to start a garage gym you know i actually don't

00:07:18.320 recommend a lot uh just a barbell and some plates to get started and uh you know i have a ton of diy

00:07:25.200 projects i've done and and the first one if i had to go back the very first one that i would do

00:07:29.940 is uh squat and bench stands so it's a super simple project you just buy a couple of four by fours

00:07:37.100 uh throw them in a some of those big gallon buckets you can get at home depot i think they

00:07:42.220 might be like five gallon buckets uh and then pour cement around them and then you have uprights to

00:07:47.560 set the bar on um obviously that there's a little more uh detail to actually how to do that project

00:07:53.040 um but that would be the first project so now you have barbell you have weights and you have

00:07:58.980 somewhere that you can squat off of and bench off of so you obviously need a bench if you're gonna do

00:08:02.400 bench press but you can do strict press and all sorts of stuff and i mean that that squat pro the

00:08:08.240 stands project's gonna cost you 30 bucks and then the uh barbell and plates depending on where you get

00:08:14.260 it i mean it could cost anywhere from 300 to a thousand dollars really depends on the quality of

00:08:19.900 your equipment but grand scheme of things not too expensive but that'd be my recommendation for

00:08:25.060 starting out uh very very simple stuff right there where do you suggest people go to get the best

00:08:30.360 equipment i mean should they buy new um where can they go if they want to buy used i mean one of

00:08:36.880 the things you advocate is um when if you're going to go use buy stuff on craigslist yeah so

00:08:41.980 one of my favorite things and it's still working right now it's actually how i've bought a few items

00:08:46.680 is uh have you heard of if the i-f-t-t-t yeah yeah yeah so it's if this then that and you can go to

00:08:54.880 the website uh to check them out and it basically have they have what are called recipes and it's

00:09:00.300 triggered so if if something happens then it'll do something for you and they have all sorts of

00:09:05.260 cool stuff that they do but one of the things that you can do is you can set up a search in craigslist

00:09:11.400 and uh the search in craigslist could be say for a barbell and then you can also select the price range

00:09:17.700 and your location so everything your your criteria and then um if that ever pops up in craigslist

00:09:24.400 uh you'll get an email you can set it to where if it will send you an email and then you right there

00:09:30.680 you have you'll get the the first dibs the first shot at it because a lot of people aren't doing this

00:09:35.580 uh and i originally i i saw this uh but not not for a garage gym use and so i i was like i'm gonna try

00:09:42.700 it before i write about it on my website um and i did it for an airdyne at the price i wanted

00:09:47.520 and within i think it's just a few days i set it up airdyne showed up at the price i wanted

00:09:53.360 contacted the guy he's like man i got a ton of people contacting me but you were the first so

00:09:57.920 i'm gonna give it to you um and i i got it so i think craigslist uh and letting just setting that

00:10:03.980 on autopilot is probably the best way just leave that stuff running uh because you might even want

00:10:08.120 more stuff later so i i have uh stuff that i've set up that i just keep going because i could

00:10:12.820 always use more play through another barbell if someone you know abandons the garage gym scene

00:10:16.920 or whatever so one thing i've noticed too it's just putting the word out uh just like telling

00:10:21.900 people i'm looking for certain pieces of equipment and somehow magically word gets out and stuff just

00:10:27.300 starts showing up it's kind of funny there are a ton of people who maybe thought the garage gym was a

00:10:31.760 good idea you know and and they decided not to continue maybe they did miss some of the amenities

00:10:36.680 or whatever um and so they they will sell their equipment for very cheap because it just becomes

00:10:42.040 uh cumbersome to have all that stuff and move it around if you're moving and all that other stuff

00:10:46.920 so yeah it's it's good to just put the word out and ask around what do you do about space i mean you

00:10:52.180 only have i mean if you only have a one car garage and your wife wants to park her car in the garage

00:10:56.600 how do you accommodate for that when you have limited space for a garage gym yeah man limited space this

00:11:02.560 this is a common one and that some of the struggles are they're pretty common struggles with garage gym

00:11:07.920 athletes i've actually done surveys with thousands of people at end of three fitness and space is one

00:11:14.000 of the biggest things that people are like what do i do without space but you know over the years i've

00:11:20.600 seen some really creative stuff i've uh there's actually a girl here in dallas who emailed me a picture

00:11:26.480 and they they had moved from i think somewhere in the the midwest and they moved here to dallas and

00:11:32.140 they got an apartment uh but they're on the bottom floor and it was like straight concrete floors and

00:11:36.220 stuff and uh some of the coolest stuff that she did she actually made part of her garage gym

00:11:42.680 equipment into like the decoration of her house like it would be a stack of bumper plates with a lamp in

00:11:48.480 the middle and her and her husband would like remove this stuff and uh you know work out at night and

00:11:52.980 then put it all back together but her her apartment looked amazing to me uh maybe i'm a little biased

00:11:57.760 but that was really cool that that's obviously like an extreme situation trying to turn your garage

00:12:01.880 gym into the decor of your house so you can just work out at any time um but i also know guys in

00:12:06.900 california who are killing it in really small one car garages uh but really uh just go outside i mean

00:12:13.580 unless you live in just an extremely cold climate and i'm talking about the guys who are getting below zero

00:12:18.100 anything else with i think you should be able to put up with with some extra layers of clothes

00:12:22.200 uh but go outside like i said this isn't a ton of equipment if you have a truck or a car

00:12:26.420 i mean i was like i before i had a truck i was lugging around all my stuff and uh my wife's honda accord

00:12:31.820 you know barbell will actually fit through the trunk and all the way up through the console if you uh

00:12:36.840 really want to and you could take it just about anywhere and train anywhere yeah take it to the park

00:12:40.280 or something yeah also you just said that a person um put their gym inside their apartment so this

00:12:47.240 doesn't necessarily necessarily mean a garage gym has to be a you know in your garage right

00:12:53.160 it could be in your home or anywhere else in the in your apartment no yeah i like to think of the

00:12:58.280 garage gym athlete if you will more as a mentality as opposed to just having a garage um because i mean

00:13:04.220 if you have an extra room in your house if you have a concrete slab outside if you have a basement

00:13:09.540 obviously a garage you know a park near your house any of that stuff i kind of consider you a

00:13:15.180 garage gym athlete because it's more the mentality of look i don't have a ton of stuff but i'm going

00:13:19.520 to get the work done no matter what so if you're going to have a gym inside whether you're your

00:13:23.940 garage or inside your home and you're going to be doing barbells and plates are there considerations

00:13:28.640 that you should take into account in order to avoid undue wear and tear on your space on the space

00:13:33.360 itself yeah uh yeah i would say the so the equipment's one thing but the space itself um i highly

00:13:40.900 recommend i used to i didn't i didn't say this and that's me lifting a garage for many many years

00:13:47.080 before i started giving this recommendation officially i just always deadlifted on concrete

00:13:51.720 or whatever um and to save my equipment um i didn't you know but i ended up straining my neck

00:13:58.940 uh on some heavy high rep deadlifts and it's just from pounding into the concrete so i do recommend

00:14:04.800 getting some rubber flooring the best place to do that is going to be tractor supply company they have

00:14:09.340 like horse stall mats um it'll be the cheapest best um bang for your buck because you can just get

00:14:15.940 one uh i think it comes in like a six by four or something or something like something like that

00:14:20.640 like that which is uh almost fits a barbell it'll fit where the plates sit on the barbell at least

00:14:25.040 and uh that's all you need and you go up from there they're not too expensive so i started a garage

00:14:29.440 gym and it took me a while to finally pull the trigger on it and i was thinking about it for almost a

00:14:33.540 year because i was just worried that i was going to buy this stuff and i wasn't going to use it or

00:14:37.520 i wasn't going to like the garage gym so how do you avoid buyer's remorse i mean how do you avoid

00:14:43.440 being the guy who buys the garage gym and he doesn't like it and he has to sell it on craigslist

00:14:47.600 for much less than what he paid for it you know that's that's really a mentality question and it's

00:14:53.860 something i approach in the book that's the whole first part of the book because i know that that's a

00:14:58.000 real possibility uh that people are gonna i don't know maybe you see something maybe hear this podcast

00:15:04.460 or you see something on youtube or whatever and you you get fired up for a garage gym and you want

00:15:08.400 to do it you know and then yeah a few months later you're like yeah well that wasn't working out

00:15:13.400 and it was personally for me when uh you know i'll tell this story and maybe it'll help

00:15:20.160 people relate to you know what they can do in their lives but when i started i told you my wife

00:15:26.800 and i were in a ton of debt since then we've gotten out of debt completely but we were in a ton of

00:15:30.780 debt putting all of our money towards that we did not have a lot of money and i was gonna buy

00:15:35.840 that the the first big purchase i like to call it which is going to be your barbells and plates

00:15:39.820 and that was a big decision for me and my wife at that time um so i had to i was like hey you know

00:15:47.260 are you cool with me buying this stuff uh she she was uh i have a great wife and you know she supports

00:15:53.600 me and so we did she knows how passionate i am about fitness um but that that whole you know

00:15:59.320 making this huge decision to spend that money um i kind of had a mind mindset shift for me because

00:16:06.580 i realized i wasn't working working out or continuing to do what i was doing just because

00:16:13.280 i wanted to lift in my garage it was more it was something much deeper than that it was the fact

00:16:17.900 that i did not want my wife to think that i was the type of guy because we were newly married at this

00:16:23.820 point um and so i didn't want her to think that i was the type of guy who's going to waste

00:16:27.640 our family's money i you know the guy who doesn't stick to things that he starts i didn't want my

00:16:32.600 wife to think any of that so really i i got a very big why from the get-go and that why was

00:16:37.880 what kind of man does my wife think that i am and you know having a huge why this is something i 1.00

00:16:43.660 realized after the fact isn't that something i went in like oh yeah i gotta you know do this and

00:16:48.160 that it's just kind of analyzing myself after the fact and so if you can tie anything that you're

00:16:53.140 doing to a huge huge why you know like you know i'm doing this i'm working out in my garage

00:16:58.160 because i want to be healthy for my kids or i want to be able to play with my kids when i'm old

00:17:02.560 older and i i say kids because i have two kids but you know whatever your why is um i know a lot of

00:17:08.200 people want to look good with a shirt off and and all that stuff and i i totally get that but it's

00:17:12.800 proven over and over again that those extrinsic motivators aren't going to last when it comes to

00:17:18.320 your motivation you need something intrinsic to you uh that's going to make you stick uh you know

00:17:23.760 for a long time i think if you answer that question first you'll never be the guy who's

00:17:28.100 selling your weights for pennies on the dollars on on craigslist so obviously you're the big advocate

00:17:32.620 of the garage gym you're the garage gym guy but what do you think are the downsides of it i mean if

00:17:38.480 someone's making this decision or weighing the pros and cons what are some of the things they might

00:17:42.080 miss if they go they don't go to a big gym anymore you know the two biggest things that are going to

00:17:47.740 be a huge problem for most people uh the first one's going to be weather because i know a lot

00:17:52.860 of guys out there they they live in like michigan or minnesota uh they're still getting it done by

00:17:57.780 the way but that takes a little different uh mental toughness than most people are willing to

00:18:04.040 to uh fork over if you will because i mean that's freezing cold weather or maybe it's the extreme heat

00:18:09.840 i've had that i live in wichita falls and it's 115 degrees but you really just have to adapt to that

00:18:14.660 situation and if you can't then maybe it's not a good good situation for you but uh that's the first

00:18:20.560 one you know the elements the second biggest one um and i don't know if you get this as much in a

00:18:25.920 global gym but it's going to be accountability if you do have some sort of workout partner that you

00:18:29.700 meet at the gym or if you go to a crossfit box which is just a crossfit affiliate gym um then you

00:18:36.280 know there are people there holding you accountable people you can work out with uh so the accountability

00:18:41.020 piece if you have that um and you start working out alone in your gym that's a huge factor as well

00:18:47.740 so i'd say those two are the biggest i guess with the first one you can do something right if it's

00:18:51.860 hot add a fan to your garage yeah if it's cold you know get sweats there's i mean space heater maybe

00:18:57.020 yeah i've done all all of that so like i work out in the morning so and granted it doesn't get super

00:19:03.000 cold here in in dallas texas but i do if it's gonna be cold we do have some winters where you know

00:19:08.480 it'll drop a little freezing everything i'll just turn on a space heater while i warm up and everything

00:19:13.320 and the garage will warm up a little bit by the time i'm ready to go so right so on to the second

00:19:18.320 factor the motivation because that's what i found is one of the hardest shift to make when i went to

00:19:22.740 my garage gym was that going to the gym it put you in a mindset i had to get on my gym stuff my gym

00:19:27.740 clothes i got in the car and was like this is gym time it's weird whenever you're you know have a

00:19:33.820 garage gym i just have to go down the garage and i start working out and to be honest be honest at

00:19:38.240 first it was hard to make that shift that i can just work out anytime i want and that's what's

00:19:43.080 weird it was sort of counterintuitive is that because it was so easily accessible there's this

00:19:47.620 tendency to be like well i can do that sometime later so i'd had to schedule for it and i don't

00:19:52.940 feel like i had to schedule it for i didn't feel like i had to schedule for it but i've learned that i

00:19:57.200 had to just treat like i was going to the gym five minutes away from my house you get into the book

00:20:02.260 about some mindset things you can do to yourself into that gym mindset even when your your gym is

00:20:07.440 in your house and you're training by yourself can you share some of those tips on developing that pro

00:20:11.820 mindset you call in your book yeah because that's uh that's a big thing man and i completely agree

00:20:16.780 with you when i first started the garage gym it it is kind of difficult um to make that transition

00:20:22.060 you know it's almost like pavlov's dogs you know uh with the conditioning you know it's uh you

00:20:28.120 have to train your mind that when you step over the threshold of that doorway into your garage gym

00:20:32.800 that that is that is a different place you're no longer you know you are working out you're not

00:20:37.920 like for instance i work at home so my my computer is literally 15 feet like if i just walk through

00:20:44.980 the door to come back uh there's no checking email all that stuff is gone and you need to treat it as

00:20:49.540 such once you're in the garage gym but some of the stuff that um i get into about you know training like

00:20:54.940 a pro um is there's a lot of one thing is as big as commitment and consistency and you know it's a

00:21:03.460 it's a huge psychological principle that's been researched and if you commit something to other

00:21:08.800 people um that is one way that's going to help you stick to your goals and this isn't necessarily

00:21:14.620 the pro mindset but it's just a tip that people can do that i recommend is if you were to like get

00:21:20.760 some business cards blank business cards like the templates from walmart or whatever write down your

00:21:25.880 goal as a statement say you know i will run a mile this fast i will lose this much weight i will lift

00:21:32.400 this much weight and give it to like 10 15 20 of your closest friends um letting them know what you

00:21:39.920 have like dedicated yourself towards and obviously put it in a time frame i will squat 500 pounds in the

00:21:44.980 next year or whatever and then give that to them and and let them kind of now that they know about it

00:21:50.720 it just will hold you accountable uh but a lot of other things if you are training alone on a

00:21:56.800 consistent basis and i've been doing it for years thousands of sessions in the garage gym alone

00:22:01.960 completely alone i've gotten a few uh things that i i've done over the years that have really helped

00:22:08.760 me and uh putting yourself in what i like to call like a no quit situation and one of the the workouts

00:22:15.600 we commonly do at into three fitness is called the iron mile and this one's more of a mental toughness

00:22:20.420 thing than it is like strength training or whatever but uh say you put just put weight on your back say

00:22:25.480 it's 185 pounds and i want you to walk 800 meters away from your garage so a half mile and then you have

00:22:34.260 to come back and so the the first half mile won't be as bad but you're putting yourself in a no quit

00:22:39.060 situation because if you have a barbell on your back and you walk a half mile away your only option

00:22:43.560 is to come back or you know where if you're you know you just can't handle it i guess you could call

00:22:48.260 your your spouse or whatever to come pick you up but putting yourself in no quit situations like that

00:22:52.940 is is a huge one um and then another one i have is is putting your money where your fitness is

00:22:59.440 and this is similar to telling your friends your goals but uh i have a mentor who did this i thought

00:23:06.620 it was really cool is uh write a check it could be to to your friend or to a charity or whatever

00:23:12.020 and say if i don't achieve that goal that i've told you about i want you to send this money away

00:23:18.560 and to that charity or i want you to keep it and because motive money is a huge motivator for a lot of

00:23:24.360 people uh and i would make it an amount of money that's going to hurt for your personal financial

00:23:28.720 situations just a little bit whether that's a hundred bucks or a thousand bucks or whatever

00:23:32.300 say your best friend's going to keep a thousand bucks if you don't achieve your goal that that'll

00:23:36.320 motivate a lot of people uh and then also i i just challenge people to have a mental toughness habit

00:23:42.460 that they perform each and every single day uh for me that's cold showers every single morning

00:23:47.440 um whatever it is for you something that you don't enjoy doing that you're going to do every day

00:23:52.020 that's just going to cause you to push yourself a little bit more uh but you know there's a lot more

00:23:57.640 that i get into about all of that stuff uh training like a pro i mean you need to benchmark yourself

00:24:03.500 regularly stick to a program for at least 12 weeks i mean these are just kind of some of the highlights

00:24:09.260 um you know and and holding yourself accountable um in and how much you're lifting and you know how

00:24:16.880 far you're how far how fast you're running like actually pacing that stuff out if you're going to go for

00:24:21.140 a mile run don't just jog it out like you need to you need to know your paces you need to know your

00:24:26.040 splits and then try to get faster each time be knowledgeable about your training don't just

00:24:29.700 you know be you know off the cuff training that's not going to help anyone honestly you're not going

00:24:34.900 to progress very much and you probably will quit the gym scene because you don't know what you're

00:24:39.780 doing so you just really need to benchmark yourself and keep up with with getting better yeah don't

00:24:43.920 exercise train exactly yeah most people exercise when they go to gym they go there i'm going to do some

00:24:48.560 curls maybe maybe some shoulder presses oh man that yeah that just confuses me like i don't even know

00:24:54.340 i would probably just rather skip the workout if i told i had to do right like that just do that so

00:24:59.560 have a plan have a program yeah for sure this is great uh some great ideas about motivating yourself

00:25:05.120 when you're training alone the whole paying someone i've done that before not for fitness but for

00:25:09.640 writing there's a website out there called stick that's spelled s-t-i-c-k-k and uh that's what you do

00:25:16.380 you make a bet you put money on the line if you don't completely completely um finish it then your

00:25:22.300 money can go to your friend but it can also go to a charity or you could do what they call an

00:25:26.440 anti-charity it's a charity organization that you don't believe in so if you're a republican you can

00:25:30.960 have it go to the democratic party if you're democrat have it go to the republic party the idea uh your

00:25:35.960 money is going to go to some group that you completely disagree with that could be a huge

00:25:39.800 motivating factor right i think if you that that's what i call step one kind of the the big purchase

00:25:46.980 because there's really no way around it i i'm not going to suggest that anyone and i've looked

00:25:52.860 into this stuff i've looked into every single diy option out there but as far as cast making casts

00:25:58.240 for your own plates and pouring cement and building your own barbell i don't recommend any of that stuff

00:26:03.300 it's all going to break it's not going to last so you you kind of have to if you're going to do this

00:26:06.980 the things that you have to buy and you have to buy quality are be the barbell and plate the plates

00:26:12.220 are not as important on the quality as the barbell but you're going to have to spend the money and so

00:26:18.160 that will at least hopefully get you motivated stuck in it for enough time to make it a habit

00:26:23.060 right so if you're looking for other places to buy equipment or just like the barbell and plates i know

00:26:27.740 rogue is the big company out there that they're supplying crossfit gyms as well as garage gyms but

00:26:32.180 one of the things i found with them is they can be pretty pricey so one company that i like and this

00:26:36.980 is what i've used to outfit my garage gym is fringe sport based in austin texas they've got some

00:26:41.780 great stuff at affordable prices so if any of you are interested in looking into that go check them

00:26:46.600 out uh they've got some great equipment down there yeah man i second that notion both of those uh and

00:26:51.160 completely agree rogue is uh great really high quality stuff can be pricey uh and then fringe

00:26:57.000 yeah i know peter keller as well down at uh down in austin with fringe sport uh awesome company

00:27:02.460 awesome equipment as well great places to buy from right so as as far as the plates go do you

00:27:07.460 recommend iron bumper plates or a mixture of the two uh official recommendation if you want to save

00:27:12.980 money is going to be a mixture of the two because uh you know the the bumper plates it really depends

00:27:18.560 on your fitness but the bumper plates are going to you know dampen the noise and if you're doing

00:27:22.460 olympic lifting you can drop them and whatever but if you if you don't drop weights like you're a power

00:27:27.560 lifter uh and you're doing squats and been pressed i mean the deadlift you might drop but you can get all

00:27:33.380 iron uh but how i would actually do is buy a small set uh the smallest set of bumper plates i think

00:27:39.980 you can get like 160 pound pack uh for pretty cheap and then and i actually say go to dick 0.87

00:27:47.040 sporting sticks for goods not for their barbell uh but you're going to get a barbell in the process

00:27:52.180 this is the best deal and they always have it it's 300 bucks uh for 300 pounds of plates

00:27:58.440 which comes out to about a dollar a pound and i think that's not including the barbell and so you

00:28:04.260 really get like 345 pounds of stuff for less than a dollar pound which the industry average i think is

00:28:10.080 closer to a dollar fifty if not two dollars a pound depending on where you're buying from so

00:28:14.380 i'd get that that's what i did get the iron plates um and then i have the bumper plates as well so i have

00:28:21.440 about i don't know like six or seven hundred pounds worth of plates in my garage but you never want

00:28:26.400 to be uh you never want to be stronger than the amount of plates you have that's one of my rules

00:28:30.180 so uh you know buy them however you have to right speaking of another downside you mentioned the

00:28:35.740 bumper bumper plates reducing the sound another downside you might want to take into consideration

00:28:39.740 and i found this at the very beginning of my garage gym i have a weird house where my garage is

00:28:45.840 underneath my house and it's right underneath my two-year-old daughter's bedroom so i work out at

00:28:50.400 5 30 in the morning and when i first started doing the garage gym i was doing deadlifts i had

00:28:56.220 bumper plates i don't drop the weight but i'd lower it in a controlled fashion sort of dropping in a

00:29:01.700 controlled fashion uh it makes a lot of rack in the first few weeks like i was waking her up 1.00

00:29:07.020 yeah no yeah quiet her down that's something i don't think about as much now uh i i do have young

00:29:14.540 kids i have a almost four-year-old and almost two-year-old um but our new house that we moved

00:29:20.520 into last year um my garage is almost like behind my house and then i have this huge cement slab in

00:29:27.240 the backyard so i'm almost on my own now but uh i was in the military and moved around quite a bit

00:29:32.280 when um i was having my first garage gym and had the exact same problem i lived in a really small

00:29:39.040 house in florida uh my son you know a newborn i couldn't i couldn't get far enough away you know

00:29:45.460 i was like i tried to work out like almost on the sidewalk and street now if i was doing heavy

00:29:50.540 death my wife would still be like you can still hear i can still hear you and uh you know william

00:29:56.140 is waking up because he was a really bad sleeper early on um and so definitely a huge consideration

00:30:02.000 and there's not a ton that you can do you could try getting a lot of rubber and

00:30:05.940 and bumpers but it's still going to be right my daughter's the same way she's a terrible sleeper 1.00

00:30:10.260 so you're always walking on eggshells around at the very beginning the very beginning of the

00:30:13.800 first few years of her life she's gotten better um and she's used to the garage gym so she doesn't

00:30:17.940 wake up so that's great let's talk a little bit more about your program because you talked

00:30:21.820 that your approach to programming is not really crossfit but it's a combination of strength

00:30:26.540 conditioning can you walk us through a little bit of the programming you do and recommend at end of

00:30:30.560 three of fit at end of three fitness and your garage gym athletes yeah so there's two things about

00:30:35.160 my programming and and the reason i say it differs a little bit than crossfit there's still

00:30:39.260 metabolic conditioning which are the that's kind of the typical crossfit workout you see

00:30:43.760 uh you know where you're doing a ton of pull-ups and a ton of thrusters or whatever

00:30:47.160 we do stuff like that but i want to toe the line more of balancing as much strength with as much

00:30:53.120 fitness as possible and so that's uh you know i put my myself as the human game again and everything i

00:31:00.120 i do and program and uh you know i've been able to get the triple body weight deadlift which was 540

00:31:07.580 pounds for me at the time and and still maintain a sub six minute mile so that's kind of the fitness

00:31:13.020 that i'm looking at and the aesthetics as far as how you look if you can if you achieve things like

00:31:18.920 that you're gonna look how you want to i can almost guarantee it you're not gonna you're not

00:31:23.980 gonna have a pot belly and run a sub six minute mile that's just not gonna happen but you can have a

00:31:28.480 pot belly and lift 800 pounds that's actually way more common um and so yeah i really like to

00:31:33.980 toe the line of you know strength and conditioning so how much can you balance it but at the same

00:31:39.220 time i i like to keep it realistic for the garage gym athlete the people the garage gym athlete is

00:31:46.380 not the rich fronings of the world uh if you don't know who rich froning is he's the guy who won the

00:31:51.380 crossfit games multiple times he trains like six or seven times a day so i try to break down the

00:31:56.880 training to realistic uh blocks for people to do and so that's the big thing about about the

00:32:04.300 programming inside garage gym athlete is what i've uh coined as block program block programming

00:32:10.920 and so block programming is um each block is 10 minutes and there's five blocks inside of that

00:32:19.960 window and so it's gonna it's gonna in equal an hour i know it's it the math comes out to 50 minutes

00:32:25.460 but if you add in transition and getting lazy here and lazy there it'll be 60 minutes every time so

00:32:31.040 every athlete that i train knows for a fact they'll never be training more than an hour it's like

00:32:36.020 physically impossible because if you don't complete something you have to stop and move on to the next

00:32:40.640 thing uh and so within those five areas we work uh strength and prehab stuff so you're going to be

00:32:47.880 doing you'll always be doing some sort of strength work in the first part of the uh your first block

00:32:53.200 your first 10 minute block and sometimes that can be two blocks that's going to get you stronger

00:32:57.060 uh but it's also some accessory work to make to prevent you from getting injured injured so you

00:33:03.020 know whatever accessory works that that could be for your shoulders your back or whatever just to

00:33:06.500 avoid injury and then uh you know we're also going to work on what we call the daily which are

00:33:11.960 abdominal stuff lower back stuff all the little muscles the hamstrings to make sure that you're

00:33:16.580 you know you're ready to go and then we have uh metabolic conditioning which i kind of mentioned

00:33:22.520 and then we have z stability which is basically the zurcher lifts and if you're not familiar with

00:33:28.220 zurcher lift it is holding it in the crook of your arms so if your arms are bent you're holding it in

00:33:34.480 between your elbows and lifting it there and then also general fitness and i know i just covered a lot

00:33:39.580 so we have five areas and those five blocks you're going to hit all throughout the entire week and it's

00:33:45.460 just really well rounded because you're getting an accessory work you're getting a strength work

00:33:49.200 you're getting in some general fitness stuff which could be like just running or rowing and then

00:33:55.180 you're also getting in the high intensity metabolic conditioning stuff a few times a week what kind of

00:33:59.460 metabolic training sessions are you doing are you guys doing uh it can it really varies so what what

00:34:05.320 breaks it up differently than typical crossfit training because that metabolic conditioning is the

00:34:10.800 closest that we get um sometimes we'll just do really intense intervals so some of my favorites are

00:34:16.100 six rounds of 30 seconds on followed by 30 seconds off and running or rowing but you have to have a

00:34:21.800 meter goal for those 30 seconds and that keeps people really honest and it gets really hard really

00:34:26.320 fast but then also doing stuff um like so say you sprint for a full minute and then you would uh you

00:34:36.220 know lift weight squat do 10 10 back squats at 50 of your one rep max and then rest for a minute so the

00:34:42.120 rest is kind of built in i'd say that's where we kind of differ is because if you're doing three

00:34:46.440 rounds of something and i tell you just go as hard as you can for until you're done i i like that to

00:34:52.120 a point but i i don't think it's realistic for everyone all the time maybe we do that once a week

00:34:55.820 or once every other week i like to tell you okay this is three rounds you're going to go as hard as

00:35:00.820 you can into different exercise for two minutes you're going to rest for two minutes and then we're

00:35:04.620 going to do that three times and so when you know the rest is built in there you're going to go so much

00:35:09.980 harder at the beginning part of that metabolic conditioning that you're going to get more

00:35:13.740 benefit than if you were to do the first two rounds burn out and then just kind of do a half half

00:35:18.840 effort the rest of the way so here's another question that came to my mind let's say you don't

00:35:23.320 want to train by yourself and you've got a bud who's like yeah i want to come do the same program as you

00:35:27.900 are there considerations you're taking taken to account uh whenever you start inviting people into

00:35:33.880 your garage gym i'm talking like legal or insurance implications you know obviously there's

00:35:39.960 there's going to be something there i mean do you need a neighbor waiver uh maybe it depends on how

00:35:45.720 how serious you're getting um but hopefully if they're your buddies and they hurt themselves that's

00:35:51.120 kind of they're not going to sue you for it yeah i would hope but uh i do and it all depends on how

00:35:56.380 you're doing because i i'm a i'm a coach i've coached a lot of athletes so if someone does come to train

00:36:01.740 at my house then and i know i know their fitness level asking a ton of questions and everything

00:36:06.660 i'm going to instruct them first but if you are just you know having a bro sesh you know and you

00:36:12.140 invite someone over and uh you guys are just going to work out and the guy hurts himself um because

00:36:16.620 there's no instruction there or whatever then yeah that can get a little dicey i would just to be safe

00:36:22.200 if it like i know that there are different home owners insurance out there that covers like a certain

00:36:26.260 amount right for that that kind of stuff um but if you want to put together some sort of uh i'm

00:36:32.080 obviously not a lawyer but if you want to put together some waiver that would be great just to kind of

00:36:35.840 cover your own but or maybe get umbrella insurance yeah yeah hey jared where can people learn more

00:36:40.860 about your work yeah so you can go to end of three fitness.com that's all spelled out um end of

00:36:47.060 three fitness.com what does that mean by the way so it came up with it a long time ago um i actually

00:36:52.700 thought it'd be a cool name for a band you know how the drummer's like one a one two three and then

00:36:56.880 they go yeah uh and so when i decided i was going to start a fitness website i had told my wife about

00:37:02.080 that a long time ago and she's like that's a perfect name for it because that's kind of where

00:37:05.940 the that's where the fitness happens at the end of three you know at the end of that countdown and so

00:37:10.940 that's that's what it means okay yeah i was curious about that and then it's uh garagegymathlete.com

00:37:17.440 as well it's not not a different website it's just with the book coming out you could just type

00:37:21.520 that in maybe easier to remember but garagegymathlete.com will take you to the book uh because we're giving

00:37:26.860 away uh free copies when we first uh launch it so all right jared moon thank you so much for your

00:37:32.460 time it's been a pleasure yeah man super glad to be on thank you so much my guest today was jared moon

00:37:37.540 he's the author of the book garage gym athlete you can find more information about his book at

00:37:41.700 garagegymathlete.com you can find on amazon and also check out his other site endofthreefitness.com for

00:37:47.840 more diy fitness equipment tips and plans and also make sure to check out the show notes for the show at

00:37:54.460 aom.is slash moon well that wraps up another edition of the art of manliness podcast for more

00:38:05.900 manly tips and advice make sure to check out the art of manliness website at artofmanliness.com and

00:38:10.000 if you enjoy this show and have got something out of it i'd really appreciate it if you give us a

00:38:13.260 review on itunes or stitcher as that helps spread the word about the show and also just tell your

00:38:17.240 friends about us as always appreciate your continued support and until next time this is brett mckay

00:38:21.180 telling you to stay manly

00:38:24.460 you

00:38:26.520 you

The Art of Manliness - May 09, 2016

#199： Garage Gym Athelete

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