Episode #27： Gym Junkies with Vic Magary
Episode Stats
Summary
Vic McGarry used to be a desk jockey as a full-time attorney but now he makes his living as a fitness trainer. In this episode, Vic talks about how he got out of shape in law school and how he managed to get back into shape.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.
00:00:20.060
Now, if you're like most men in the United States, you probably have a job where you
00:00:24.200
sit at a desk all day, either pushing papers or typing in front of a keyboard.
00:00:28.360
And if you're like the many men who are desk jockeys, you're probably feeling out of shape
00:00:34.300
Well, if this describes you, our guest today might be able to help you because he's been
00:00:39.020
His name is Vic McGarry and he's the owner of the site Gym Junkies, where he writes about
00:00:44.920
Vic used to be a desk jockey as a full-time attorney, but now he makes his living as a fitness trainer.
00:00:58.660
You started out as an attorney, a practicing attorney, and then now you're a full-time
00:01:05.100
Well, I think we have to back it up just a hair before that, and that is law school,
00:01:09.380
which got me into a ton of student loan debt, as it does many people.
00:01:13.320
And what happened as a result was I went to the Army.
00:01:16.060
I went to the United States Army Infantry for three years in a deal they had at the time
00:01:22.040
So while I was in the Army is really where I kind of developed and experienced my personal
00:01:30.460
So after I finished my duty, I came back to my hometown, Columbus, Ohio, and took the bar
00:01:37.480
Started practicing as a lawyer and just hated it, man.
00:01:41.100
I mean, it was brutal, especially the job I had.
00:01:45.340
I was a government attorney, so clients aren't very appreciative.
00:01:51.240
And the amount of paperwork, just the overall stress levels was something that was not good
00:01:58.060
for me in any aspect, mentally, physically, or emotionally.
00:02:01.780
So at one point, I just decided enough's enough, man.
00:02:05.540
I mean, I literally just snapped one morning, couldn't get out of bed, and just said, that's
00:02:11.680
And so I forced myself out of bed, jumped into my backyard, and just put myself through a
00:02:16.480
bunch of movements that were similar to what I did in the Army.
00:02:19.940
And by that, what I mean is just real-world kind of functional stuff.
00:02:23.280
I think the real light bulb moment I had in the Army was putting up this huge, I mean
00:02:29.880
I mean, it took, like, 20 guys to put this thing up.
00:02:31.900
And it was, like, the hardest workout of my life.
00:02:35.560
But that's, you know, real-world exertion stuff.
00:02:38.020
It's not doing bicep curls on some chromed-out machine.
00:02:40.860
It's, you know, moving heavy objects, and it has a purpose at the end.
00:02:44.780
And, you know, that's kind of what the body was designed for.
00:02:46.800
So whenever I got back to that style of training, I just didn't have any looking back and did
00:02:52.980
So, I mean, how did law school and the law affect your health?
00:02:57.860
Blimey law grad, but I'm not a practicing attorney because I got out before I could
00:03:04.020
But, yeah, I mean, for me, law school really did a toll on my health.
00:03:12.300
I mean, did you have that same thing, or were you able to kind of mitigate it some with
00:03:15.880
your experience in the military and kind of having a habit of physical fitness?
00:03:22.320
I definitely swung to the opposite end of the spectrum, the spectrum that you're talking
00:03:29.360
You know, certainly at the worst point of my life, you know, to give you just a, you know,
00:03:37.600
Whenever I'm in top shape, I weigh about 150 pounds.
00:03:40.520
At my worst, when I was an attorney, I was weighing in at about 186.
00:03:44.200
Definitely soft, definitely out of shape, and definitely just frustrated with life.
00:03:48.540
And I think even that is a bigger contributor to poor health than we like to admit at times.
00:03:54.100
And so, you know, I didn't immediately just quit the law job and jump into the fitness
00:03:58.000
You know, what I did was I started first training clients out of their home.
00:04:01.940
After about a year of that, then I opened my own storefront, and I would train clients
00:04:06.520
in the evenings while still practicing law during the day.
00:04:09.900
And then after about three years of that, I finally eliminated law permanently and, you
00:04:17.060
So you had to hustle a lot to get to the point you're at right now.
00:04:22.140
I mean, we're burning on both ends of the candle, but, I mean, you know, you kind of have
00:04:25.240
that goal or that drive at the end that you're shooting for.
00:04:29.440
Well, I mean, and I know we're interviewing primarily for your expertise on fitness, but
00:04:37.280
But I think there's a lot of men out there, too, who aren't happy with their jobs and they're
00:04:43.980
And I guess your experience would be a great pattern to follow.
00:04:47.900
Pick up something, moonlight a little bit, and then when you finally make enough, you
00:04:52.660
know, quit your old job and, you know, commit full-time to your new one.
00:04:57.640
I mean, there's definitely going to be a, you know, a middle ground of risk, so to speak,
00:05:02.100
where, you know, maybe the part-time income is not quite enough, but you're pretty darn
00:05:06.960
So then you have to, you know, burn the bridge, so to speak, you know, and just, you know,
00:05:12.440
But I still think that's a better method than just, you know, cutting your ties instantaneously.
00:05:16.420
I mean, especially if you're in a situation like most guys where you may have a family or
00:05:20.200
children or, you know, other people depending upon you for your income.
00:05:23.980
You know, you definitely want to gradually move into that, but at the same time, you
00:05:28.900
You know, you always have to be moving forward and, you know, maybe give yourself a goal,
00:05:31.940
but make it reasonable, you know, maybe a year to just three years down the road is whenever
00:05:35.740
you want to kind of transition permanently is what I'd recommend.
00:05:40.200
Well, so let's get back to your fitness philosophy.
00:05:43.880
It comes primarily from your experience in the military.
00:05:46.000
Can you go into a little bit more detail about what your philosophy is in regards to
00:05:53.540
To keep it kind of baseline and basic, let's just say, number one, basic movements.
00:05:59.280
Number two, always training outside of your comfort zone.
00:06:02.620
When I say basic movements, it just means what the body is designed to do.
00:06:07.120
I mean, and when I say that, I mean, from almost a survival standpoint, what are we designed
00:06:11.140
We're designed to push, pull, run, jump, throw, climb.
00:06:17.660
Definitely not designed to be strapped underneath some chrome monstrosity banging out reps.
00:06:22.780
So if you stick to those primary movements and kind of gauge your, I guess, effectiveness
00:06:27.680
level of a movement within those parameters, then you're in a good place.
00:06:33.400
But then after that, you have to continually strive to move forward and progress at all times.
00:06:39.920
You know, kind of like the classic thing is a guy will tell me, you know, every morning
00:06:42.740
I wake up and I do 30 push-ups, but I'm not getting any stronger.
00:06:45.200
I'm like, well, you know, tomorrow I'll try to do 31.
00:06:49.640
Same thing with a guy who tells me, oh, you know, I go out, I get up and I jog three miles
00:06:53.520
I'm like, well, you know, if you're not getting the results you want, then you have to change
00:06:58.540
Basic movements, always training outside of the comfort zone.
00:07:01.500
So basic movements, you're talking like squats, bench press, deadlifts.
00:07:05.500
Yeah, we want to kind of bring it back into the more common nomenclatures of exercise.
00:07:14.020
Compound movements basically means you are utilizing more than one joint at a time.
00:07:18.500
As an example, a bicep curl would be a single joint movement, okay, whereas a pull-up would
00:07:26.240
The pull-up using both the elbow and the shoulder, whereas the bicep curl only uses the elbow.
00:07:31.860
And in real-world situations, your body does not use those single joint movements.
00:07:35.600
I mean, when do you do a bicep curl in real life, whereas a pull-up, if you had to launch
00:07:39.940
yourself up on top of a wall or, you know, up to a tree, that's the movement you would
00:07:44.600
To kind of bring that back to the lower body, same thing with a deadlift, let's say.
00:07:48.720
Okay, the deadlift is going to work primarily your posterior chain.
00:07:51.920
That's everything from, you know, the top of your shoulders just about down to the back
00:07:55.820
of your ankles, but primarily the glutes and the hamstrings.
00:07:58.640
And that's just, you know, bending down and picking up a bag of mulch.
00:08:03.060
Whereas in a gym, you know, these big commercial globo gyms, you're going to see guys laying
00:08:10.820
And that is something you're definitely not going to repeat in the real world by any means.
00:08:14.760
So the compound movements are a lot more practical.
00:08:17.920
You know, kind of the big buzzword in the fitness industry is they're functional.
00:08:21.240
And, you know, I think there's a lot of truth through that.
00:08:25.060
I think, I know it's an area that there's so much information out there, a lot of it
00:08:31.320
One month will say you need to eat every three hours.
00:08:38.400
I mean, what's your, what's your philosophy on nutrition?
00:08:41.200
My philosophy for nutrition ties right back into what we just talked about on my philosophy
00:08:47.560
You know, your movement selection are things the body was designed to do.
00:08:58.720
I think there's a lot of good arguments that probably not, especially if you look at it
00:09:02.420
from a, you know, a pretty historical standpoint, basically in the caveman days.
00:09:07.620
Time and time again, particularly with clients who are looking to lose weight, body fat, a diet
00:09:14.560
that is based almost exclusively on vegetables, fruits, lean meats, small amount of nuts and
00:09:20.400
seeds, takes you where you want to go every time.
00:09:23.400
Also, you don't have the same energy fluctuation that you'll have with the kind of a typical
00:09:27.820
standard American diet, you know, where there's a lot of the high glycemic carbohydrates, things
00:09:33.040
like bread and pasta and rice and potatoes and things like that.
00:09:36.440
That's what causes that kind of a spike in your energy levels and then the resulting crash
00:09:41.540
But if you stick to lots of vegetables, some meat, some fruits, some nuts, energy levels
00:09:45.900
are constant and your body weight tends to stabilize exactly where it's supposed to be.
00:09:52.540
And in regards to nutrition, one of the articles I thought was really interesting on your site,
00:10:02.600
Intermittent fasting just is, you know, exactly what it sounds like.
00:10:05.780
You kind of take these periods where you don't eat and by intermittent, you know, maybe it's
00:10:12.040
not so, I don't want to say deliberate, that's the wrong word is what I'm saying, but, you
00:10:16.400
know, maybe one week you only do your fast for eight hours and then, you know, maybe 10
00:10:20.540
days later you go through, you know, an 18-hour fast or whatever and, you know, maybe you try
00:10:25.000
it again and your fast, you do include some fruits and vegetables, but you steer clear of
00:10:34.360
One, kind of the original theory behind it that I read about was it kind of gives the
00:10:38.360
body a break because there is a lot of energy expenditure in the digestive process.
00:10:43.540
But again, for fat loss or losing body weight in particular, I think it's very effective
00:10:48.020
because it forces your body to use energy sources that you want it to use that it doesn't
00:10:56.640
Whenever you do eat food, you know, you're putting blood sugar into your body, which the
00:11:04.540
Anything that's left over, didn't get used, gets stored as glycogen in the livers and the
00:11:09.620
And if you have this glycogen store, then your body's going to use that as its go-to energy
00:11:15.780
Whereas if you don't eat every once in a while, these glycogen stores kind of get depleted
00:11:19.000
and then your body's forced to use the body fat for energy, which is what you want.
00:11:22.580
Like I said, particularly in a weight loss or body fat reduction protocol.
00:11:27.180
And when you're doing intermittent fasting, do you continue your workouts as normal?
00:11:31.500
So say one day you're fasting for 18 hours, would you just work out as you would normally?
00:11:36.680
You would work out normally with a few exceptions.
00:11:40.100
One, obviously, if your energy levels are feeling so low, you know, you're getting the
00:11:44.980
This is an occurrence more so with people who are, for lack of a better word, addicted to
00:11:49.900
the carbohydrate diet, you know, whether you're almost having like withdrawal symptoms, you
00:11:53.680
might want to cut back on the workout that day, just more so for discomfort reasons as
00:11:57.920
opposed to any kind of health concerns or risk.
00:12:01.660
But if you are trying to pick up weight, which, you know, some guys are in that situation,
00:12:08.700
If you're just doing your fast because, you know, you want to kind of cleanse your body
00:12:11.940
or whatever, which you can kind of tell from my tone of voice that I don't know how much
00:12:17.140
I just know that it definitely works if you want to cut some body fat out.
00:12:23.580
If your energy levels feel good, then yes, exercise as normal.
00:12:27.500
Don't worry about this window after your workout where you're supposed to eat this perfect ratio
00:12:32.120
of carbohydrates and protein within a 60-minute window after your resistance training.
00:12:37.620
You know, your body does what it's supposed to do.
00:12:40.880
We're going to take a quick break for your words from our sponsors.
00:12:45.720
What are some common myths about fitness and health that you see a lot of men have?
00:12:53.000
Because I'm sure you have clients that come in and they have their preconceived notions
00:12:57.360
about what fitness programs should look like, what kind of workouts and exercises they should do.
00:13:02.980
You see a lot of men that have, you know, kind of these myths that they've heard on TV or radio
00:13:12.220
Two of them stick out, number one being the long, slow cardio training for weight loss,
00:13:19.820
number two being the direct abdominal work to get the coveted six-pack abs that you're going to see
00:13:26.140
on the cover of, you know, every men's magazine on the bookstore shelf.
00:13:30.400
To address in the long, slow cardio first, you know, sometimes I think I get a bad reputation
00:13:39.080
It's not that I'm slamming, you know, if you want to go out and do a five-mile run,
00:13:42.540
as long as you're not under the misconception that that's an effective fat loss strategy.
00:13:47.120
You know, if it gives you some sort of, you know, emotional, mental, or spiritual clarity,
00:13:52.800
But if you think you're out there doing the most efficient method to kind of get that lean look,
00:13:59.180
You know, an example or a comparison I use with clients sometimes is, you know,
00:14:03.360
I can put a nail on a board with the back end of a screwdriver.
00:14:11.560
Yeah, you can lose weight running five miles a day.
00:14:14.400
But I'd much rather use high-intensity, short-duration exercises focusing on compound movements.
00:14:21.640
So I'd say that's probably the biggest myth I see.
00:14:23.820
Clients will come in and say, oh, I've been running five miles a day, and I'm not losing weight.
00:14:27.280
I say, well, maybe you need to try something different.
00:14:29.980
The second one, the six-pack abs, you know, the thing that sells the most magazines to men probably,
00:14:38.400
Again, you know, that's not a function of your muscular strength in that area as far as getting that look.
00:14:47.240
Now, if you do want to make that area strong, even then I don't recommend crunches.
00:14:50.680
You have to think what the abdominal muscles do, and that's torso stabilization.
00:14:54.500
And your big compound movements, and particularly anything overhead, like an overhead press, military press,
00:15:00.560
also anything where the torso is forced to stabilize due to a heavy load, such as back squats or deadlifts,
00:15:07.460
those are going to be much better for conditioning what is commonly called the core than any number of crunches you can do.
00:15:16.220
And on a related note, what are some mistakes that you see a lot of men making when they're first starting out with a fitness and health routine?
00:15:27.420
The biggest mistake I see is not having a plan.
00:15:31.120
Okay, the guy will go to the big corporate gym, you know, hear the sales pitch, sign the contract,
00:15:37.680
walk into the gym and not know what the hell he's doing.
00:15:41.320
He walks around, he sees an open machine, he sits on it, he bangs out a few reps, he gets up, he walks around again,
00:15:47.560
sees another open machine, sits on it, you know, he doesn't have a plan.
00:15:51.360
Don't get me wrong, it's better than sitting in front of the couch with a bag of chips and a six-pack of beer,
00:15:55.140
but it's still, once again, not very efficient nor effective in that situation.
00:15:59.260
So you've got to have a plan, and you've got to have that plan based on your goals.
00:16:04.820
Whenever you're first starting out in a fitness program, your goals may just be to gain some sort of,
00:16:10.200
I don't want to say virtuosity, but some sort of proficiency in the basic movements.
00:16:15.480
And by basic, I mean a push-up, a squat using nothing more than your body weight, and a pull-up.
00:16:22.240
If you can't do 25 strict push-ups, in my opinion, you have no business being on a bench press.
00:16:27.680
If you can't do, you know, 25 strict body weight squats with a great range of motion,
00:16:33.980
then you shouldn't have a barbell across your shoulders, and you kind of have to dial it back to that.
00:16:38.020
And, you know, unfortunately, a lot of guys, particularly in a public environment like a gym,
00:16:43.060
you know, their ego gets in the way, and they don't want to take those steps to kind of ingrain that,
00:16:47.460
which is not only going to make their workouts much more beneficial down the road,
00:16:50.440
but it's also going to keep them safe and healthy.
00:16:52.940
Yeah, that's one thing I've seen with a lot of guys.
00:16:55.600
They start off, they want to bite off more at the very beginning than they can really chew.
00:17:00.260
And they get, I guess, discouraged, and they just end up quitting.
00:17:09.820
You know, a lot of our readers are younger men.
00:17:14.880
But then we also have men who, you know, read and listen to this podcast who are older.
00:17:19.460
You know, how should your workout routine change as a man ages?
00:17:24.640
Should you be focusing on one thing when you're 20s, and then when you're 40, maybe you should shift to another focus?
00:17:31.900
I think the shift depends on more so your familiarity with exercise than it does with your age.
00:17:40.960
And what I mean by that is if you're a beginner, like we just talked about, and let's say you're over 40, over 50, even into your 60s,
00:17:47.840
and you're a brand-new beginner, then you really are going to want to pay close attention to your recovery rates,
00:17:53.360
your range of motion, how your joints feel, things like that.
00:17:57.200
So when you're younger, you know, your recovery rate's a lot better.
00:17:59.900
You can, you know, make a little more errors in your technique.
00:18:04.420
That being said, on the flip side, if you are a longstanding fitness practitioner and you're in your 40s, 50s, 60s,
00:18:10.580
then you enter kind of the realm of mastery, you know, just like any other skill.
00:18:15.280
When you've been doing it that long, you just get such a, I guess, such a subtle perception.
00:18:20.980
I mean, you can just, you can tell that your particular body works in ways that may not be in line with standard protocol.
00:18:31.000
For example, I know that for strength training, you know, by strength training,
00:18:35.220
I mean being able to move the heaviest objects you can one time to develop that capacity.
00:18:39.640
My body works great at about the three-repetition range, five sets of three, my strength's going to go up.
00:18:47.420
Kind of common protocol for that is what's called a five-by-five program where you use five repetitions as heavy as you can.
00:18:57.680
When I do that, it just, it tears my body down, man.
00:19:00.380
I mean, my lower back is sore from deadlifts and it's, you know, my knees don't feel good.
00:19:04.200
I know that me in particular, three reps, you kind of get sensitivity that comes from experience that, you know,
00:19:10.440
it's the same thing with any other movement or practice, whatever it may be, whether it's practicing law, fitness, doesn't matter.
00:19:20.680
Now, last question, Vic, and it's related to, I saw this article on your blog and you've kind of connected to like fitness,
00:19:27.560
but I think it also applies to a lot of aspects of a man's life.
00:19:30.960
And you write about the difference between a soldier and a warrior.
00:19:35.000
Can you explain the difference in what should men strive to be, a soldier or a warrior?
00:19:41.420
Men should strive to be a soldier first, but always look in the transition to the warrior.
00:19:47.100
And it kind of goes back to what I was just talking about.
00:19:51.500
You know, it means having enough experience to make your own decisions.
00:19:54.900
And to get that experience, at first you have to obey orders.
00:19:59.180
At first you have to follow the recipe that's in the book.
00:20:02.560
But through following that recipe over time, you kind of gain your own insights.
00:20:06.300
And you realize that certain things work for you that weren't in the recipe, certain things don't work for you.
00:20:11.620
And through that experience, then you kind of discard what's not useful for you.
00:20:18.080
And you, what I like to say, you dance instead of march.
00:20:21.020
And that's really what being a warrior is to me, is to, you know, acknowledge the differences that we each have as individuals.
00:20:27.980
Not being afraid to kind of stray off the path that other people expect from you.
00:20:32.480
And kind of trusting your own instinct, your own gut.
00:20:35.240
And just going with it and accepting the consequences thereafter, you know.
00:20:39.200
So maybe it's not right, but you're going to go out there and you're going to try it.
00:20:42.480
And if it's not right, you're going to accept that and you're going to course correct.
00:20:50.600
We do have something special for those listening to this, if that's okay with you.
00:20:54.460
If people go to 31dayfatlosscure.com, and that's like the number 31, 31dayfatlosscure.com backslash manliness.
00:21:04.460
There's a free workout there for anyone listening.
00:21:09.580
There's also a 29-minute audio interview that I did with Zach Evanish talking about how to be successful both in your training and your life.
00:21:17.440
So that's just our little thank you to everyone who's listening because, you know, gymjumpies.com.
00:21:21.580
And we love the art of manliness.com, so I really appreciate the call today.
00:21:30.380
And you can find out more information about Vic's work at gymjunkies.com.
00:21:39.520
Well, that wraps up another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.
00:21:44.360
For more manly tips and advice, make sure to check out the Art of Manliness website at artofmanliness.com.