Bobby Maximus is a world-renowned trainer known for his brutal circuit workouts and the author of the new book, "Maximus Body." In this episode, Brett and Bobby discuss the psychology of fitness, why it's important to manage expectations when beginning a training program, and why there are no shortcuts to any goal.
00:07:11.200But we all set the bar really low according to those self-imposed limitations.
00:07:15.820And if I can get a person to believe in themselves, to unlock their potential, to see beyond their self-imposed limitations, it can facilitate a tremendous change in them, not only inside the gym, but also outside of the gym.
00:07:31.860And another area that really causes people problems, and it's become so prevalent today, and it makes me angry and sad, I guess, at the same time, is the amount of negative self-talk people engage in.
00:07:43.760I mean, the one thing that I truly believe is we were all born with a God-given right, if you will, to love ourselves, to be proud of ourselves, no matter who we are or what we do.
00:07:55.720And somewhere along the line, we learn to be really negative and harsh towards ourselves, and that's the last thing we need.
00:08:00.720And it's something that really, really can hold us back.
00:08:03.700And the negative self-talk combined with self-imposed limitations can really prevent us from making progress in any area of life, and especially in the gym is where I see it the most.
00:08:13.120But like I said, it does cross over to the rest of the world.
00:08:16.440So how do you, what do you do with your athletes who come to you, and you tell them, okay, here's what we're going to do today, and they say, well, I can't do that.
00:08:23.880I mean, how do you break through those self-imposed limitations?
00:08:27.240The first thing is just by what I'll call ruthless honesty.
00:08:34.240I don't let people I work with, people I train.
00:08:37.040I also do corporate training with CEOs in big companies all over the country.
00:08:41.840And one of the things I refuse to allow is negative self-talk.
00:08:45.540The minute I hear it, I deal with it head on.
00:08:48.340And if you think back to any conversation you've been in, that you've been in when somebody starts to bash themselves in a way, a lot of times people who are surrounding them just listen, or they encourage it even worse.
00:09:02.860I cut it off right away, and I help them become aware of that behavior.
00:09:06.180The second thing I'll do is I'll start to give them exercises, and there's a few key ones that I do to help them deal with self-imposed limitations, but also to deal with negative self-talk.
00:09:16.880Now, to get into this, there's two basic types of thoughts that go on in your brain.
00:09:21.740Green light thoughts, red light thoughts.
00:09:24.280Green light thoughts are positive thoughts.
00:09:40.680Those are those manifestations of self-imposed limitations.
00:09:45.980Whenever we experience something in life, we think both green and red light thoughts, but we've got to hope the green light thoughts overwhelm the red light thoughts.
00:09:54.340So, what I have people do is take a small green sticker and stick them everywhere.
00:10:00.740I'm looking at my laptop right now as we record this.
00:10:03.100I've got one on the front of my laptop, and every time I see that green dot, I have to think a positive thought.
00:10:10.540And what I'm doing is I'm training my mind to think a different way.
00:10:14.720And when I experience a pressure-filled situation or a situation where I'm likely to think those red light are negative thoughts, I've almost given myself a vaccine or I've almost helped myself before by thinking these positive thoughts.
00:10:31.240And then I can win that negotiation between the green and red light thoughts, if you will.
00:10:35.500And it can be a really, really powerful tool.
00:11:32.760Yeah, and the funny thing is, and the reason I say it's hokey is because we live in a society today, and this is something that drives me crazy, frankly, where we'll go to a doctor and we'll get a prescription.
00:11:46.320We'll spend thousands of dollars on something we don't need.
00:11:50.020And really, the answer is as simple as a small green dot and just to start thinking positive thoughts throughout the day.
00:11:56.340Truthfully, we shouldn't need a green dot.
00:11:57.920You should think positive thoughts all day anyway, but it's funny.
00:12:02.640The people that will go for medication, they'll spend thousands of dollars, they'll read these books, they'll try all kinds of other things, but something that is free, easy to do, and doesn't cost you anything, they refuse to do because they think it's silly.
00:12:16.580So let's talk about this idea that you wrote about, the Maximus 130-hour rule.
00:12:22.160So I think it hits on a problem that a lot of people have when they start training programs, sort of fitness program.
00:12:27.400Again, they have that magical thinking that I start this and right away, I'm going to be awesome.
00:13:09.040You don't wake up the best player in the NBA or the NFL.
00:13:14.020If people understood the work people go through to achieve something in life, it's remarkable.
00:13:19.300So why should fitness be any different?
00:13:22.520We're bombarded these days with these infomercials that promise four-minute abs, four-minute shoulders, the five-minute solution, the 21-day fix.
00:13:31.600There's all these things that promise a quick fix, but they never, ever, ever work.
00:13:36.420The gym fitness is the same as any other area of life.
00:13:40.460If you want it, you have to work for it.
00:13:42.940And the harder you work, the more successful you're going to be.
00:13:46.060The 130-hour rule is a way of, I guess, visualizing that.
00:13:50.600I've trained people since I was 21 in various capacities.
00:13:53.940And if you give me anybody five days a week for six months, I can help them make a radical transformation.
00:14:53.720I'm curious, going back to this psychological, you know, helping people psychologically get through their limits.
00:14:58.980It's, I imagine one thing you do in your gym to show people that their limitations they've imposed on themselves are self-imposed is that you actually get them to do the thing that they think they can't do, right?
00:16:17.780And they're forced to face their demons somewhere throughout this effort.
00:16:21.360But by overcoming their self-imposed limitation, by hitting the standard, it builds confidence in every area in the gym, but also outside the gym as well.
00:16:30.920And I keep coming back to that because I really believe what the gym can do for you in your real life is far more important than just being fit.
00:16:39.320Yeah, it carries over to outside the gym.
00:16:42.020I've seen that in my own life with my own training.
00:17:27.920So it's pretty incredible that someone can triple their old one rep max, that someone can gain that much strength.
00:17:35.100And honestly, I would like to tell you it was from some secret deadlift program that will triple your deadlift and you'll be the strongest person in the universe.
00:20:35.900You know, a lot of people are fearful and I'm glad you brought that up, the strength endurance conundrum, if you will.
00:20:41.580A lot of people think strength will hurt their endurance or vice versa, but that's not necessarily true.
00:20:46.360That's only true for that Thor Bjornsson, you know, fellow who won the world's strongest man, who I mentioned.
00:20:51.640Endurance will hurt his strength to a degree.
00:20:53.820But for normal people, and it's shocking at actually how high they can get in each area without a detriment, if you will.
00:21:02.340Like if you look at some of the winners of the CrossFit Games, we've got people who are deadlifting 550 pounds and running a sub five-minute mile, which is incredible.
00:21:11.700But the key is to pay attention to all areas and ignore none.
00:21:16.760And what often happens, and it's a key mistake, we gravitate towards what we like or what we're good at in the gym and we ignore things and those things become areas of weakness.
00:21:27.100So in a week, I would have you do an endurance workout.
00:21:30.200I would have you do a strength workout.
00:21:32.140I would have you do a circuit workout or an interval workout that works on metabolic conditioning.
00:21:37.540I would have you do a workout that works on what I'll call structural integration mobility.
00:21:42.480And so by engaging in all these things, we can build a well-rounded fitness profile.
00:21:48.340I mean, one thing I've known you for and read about stuff that you put out there is your famous sort of circuits for metabolic conditioning because they're brutal.
00:21:57.000I'm curious, are there one or two that are some of your favorites to introduce people to give a taste of like what kind of things you're going to have them do?
00:22:05.960Yes, one of my absolute favorites, and it's one of my favorites because it's two exercises that people are extremely used to, are the bench press and burpee circuit.
00:22:19.400And what you do is you do a bench press ladder at body weight combined with a burpee ladder.
00:22:24.980You do 10 bench presses at body weight, one burpee, nine bench presses at body weight, two burpees, eight and three, seven and four, six and five.
00:22:37.800And you work yourself all the way till you do one bench press and 10 burpees.
00:22:43.880It's one of my favorites because again, people are used to the exercises.
00:22:48.620Most people bench press, they consider themselves good at it.
00:22:51.680And when you throw something cardiovascular like burpees in the mix, it is funny how fast the wheels fall off, if you will.
00:22:59.440And it gives them something that I've come to call it the moment, you know, in the gym, but it's that moment during a workout where you realize you bit off more than you can chew, that this is a lot harder than you expected it to be.
00:23:14.640And you've either got to, you've got to make a conscious decision on whether or not you're going to persevere and push through that, or you're just going to quit.
00:23:58.260And whenever you're, you're training, you know, strength and endurance, I imagine you have guys do the strength stuff first and then endurance stuff like as the end, right?
00:24:07.540Like, so you like do all your strength in lifting first and then like run, you know, two miles or three miles or whatever afterwards.
00:24:15.080And that is because when we're training for strength, it's important to lift maximal weight.
00:24:20.240So I want people to be as strong and I guess as, as a put together as possible for that portion of the workout.
00:24:28.160The other, the other thing is, is safety.
00:24:29.840I don't think this comes across all the time in what I do, but I am extremely risk averse.
00:24:36.620I cannot afford to get somebody hurt for my professional athletes that can really affect their paycheck or affect their life.
00:24:42.540And for my normal people who are just training, listen, if you come in and train with me and you get hurt, you're on a shelf for two or three weeks.
00:24:49.980We're not going to accomplish your goals and you're not going to get anywhere and you're going to be frustrated and have a difficult time.
00:25:08.140And I don't, I don't, I don't want that.
00:25:09.540So besides, you know, you've got these monster circuits in here, you just, they just can thrash you, but you, you're big on recovery as well.
00:25:17.420Cause I think it's often overlooked when people train.
00:25:20.040So what's your recommendations for, how do you recover your athletes or recover yourself from all this really hard training you're doing?
00:26:00.760If you leave the house in the morning and your, your cell phone, your, your iPhone or your, your Samsung galaxy or whatever you use is at 10%, how useful is that phone for the entire day?
00:27:23.320Proactive is really starting to deal with the things that cause you stress.
00:27:28.600If you're in a bad relationship, get out of it.
00:27:30.360If you're in a job you hate, leave and do something that you love.
00:27:35.580If, if there's people who stress you out, stay away from them.
00:27:39.660Those are proactive ways to cut off stress.
00:27:42.320Reactive ways to deal with stress are what I call recovery modalities.
00:27:47.520Get a massage, have a nap, have a sauna, go for a walk every day for a half hour with your favorite playlist and leave your phone in the office.
00:27:56.240Those are things you can do to help deal with the after effects of stress.
00:28:00.180But if people can focus on those areas, they'll make a tremendous improvement.
00:28:49.620You know, right now I'm going to bed at nine o'clock at night and I'm waking up at 5.30 in the morning.
00:28:55.1205.30 is far earlier than I want to wake up.
00:28:58.580But as I said, I'm, you know, training the corporate team here and the employees at Blender Bottle and that's the time they could train before work.
00:29:05.600So I've had to adjust my schedule, but it wasn't hard.
00:29:08.440I used to go to bed at 10 or 11 and wake up at 7 or 8.
00:29:33.500Well, speaking of stress and like those really high stress situations, there will be, I'm sure, like you said, all of us have experienced times in our life where it's like really, really, really stressful.
00:29:42.600And I'm talking, you get a major sickness, family member gets sickness, you get laid off, etc.
00:29:50.920What do you do to keep training and keep doing the things that you know makes your body feel good, makes your mind feel good?
00:29:57.580How do you manage those big, really stressful events in your life?
00:30:02.680You know, the first thing is, and I'm going to relate this to fitness because fitness is so important to me, is it comes down to how bad you want something.
00:30:13.580It's funny that when people really want something, they'll figure out a way to make it work.
00:30:17.140And so the first thing I do is when I'm in a period of extreme stress, I always put fitness first.