The Art of Manliness - Forging Mental Strength Through Physical Strength

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, it's Brett. We're taking a quick break. We'll be back Monday with a new episode. In the meantime, here's a rebroadcast from the podcast archives. It's episode number 415, Forging Mental Strength Through Physical Strength with world-renowned trainer Bobby Maximus.

00:00:13.060 In this episode, we talk about the mindset of fitness, the mindset shift you got to make to make fitness a priority, how to set better fitness goals, how to nip negative self-talk in the bud, how to do things that you thought you couldn't do. A lot of great insights in this episode. Hope you enjoy it. We'll be back Monday. See you then.

00:00:30.000 Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast. When you start a fitness program, you tend to spend most of your time thinking about the physical part, what movements you're going to do, how much weight you're going to lift or how far you're going to run.

00:00:55.820 But my guest today argues we ignore the mental aspect of our training and our peril. His name is Bobby Maximus. He's a world-renowned trainer, known for his brutal circuit workouts and the author of the new book, Maximus Body.

00:01:06.660 Today on the show, Bobby and I dig into the psychology of fitness. We begin by discussing what holds people back from getting started or going further with their fitness goals and how sticking little green dots all over your house can help you surmount those barriers.

00:01:17.620 He then shares why it's important to manage expectations when beginning a training program and why there are no shortcuts to any goal. We then shift gears and get into Bobby's training philosophy.

00:01:25.600 He shares how to train to be ready for everything, why you need to do strength training before your endurance work, and why recovery is so important in reaching your fitness goals.

00:01:33.700 We enter a conversation with some examples of the Sunday sermons Bobby shares on his website and discussion of why perspective is important when you're going through a hard time in life.

00:01:41.640 After the show's over, check out the show notes at awim.is.maximus.

00:01:46.100 And Bobby joins me now via clearcast.io.

00:02:00.540 All right, Bobby Maximus, welcome to the show.

00:02:03.860 Hey, thank you very much for having me on. I'm a big fan of what you guys do, and I'm excited to get this going.

00:02:08.400 Well, thanks so much. I've been following you on Instagram and on the internet for a while. Love what you're doing.

00:02:13.840 Before we get talking about getting big and strong, and I know a lot of our listeners are probably familiar with the work, let's talk about your background because it's pretty interesting.

00:02:22.340 Right now, you're a trainer. You show people how to get big and strong, but that's not always what you were doing.

00:02:26.500 So how did you get to where you're Bobby Maximus?

00:02:28.780 No, and I've actually done a lot of things in my life. It's kind of funny. When I look at myself being in, I guess, the strength and conditioning industry, it's somewhere I never thought I'd be.

00:02:38.380 When I was younger, and I'll say this with a grain of salt because the bullying topic today, I think, is a pretty big one.

00:02:44.900 I was bullied fairly heavily until I was 15 years old. On bus rides to school, kids punched me in the face more often than not.

00:02:52.420 I got my underwear ripped out. It was actually funny. My mom used to wonder why I went through so many underwear.

00:02:56.780 Well, it's because they were the garbage from getting wedgied. Kids used to draw my face with marker. 0.52

00:03:01.320 And when I was 15, a group of hockey bullies beat me up and broke my collarbone.

00:03:05.640 I decided I never really wanted that to happen again. And so of all things, I joined the wrestling team.

00:03:11.240 I absolutely sucked. My first year, I lost every match. My second year, I won one match out of about 40.

00:03:18.340 And then a strange thing happened. I started to actually get good. I found the weight room.

00:03:22.260 I kept working. I showed up every day. And I started to get better. And that kind of vaulted

00:03:28.740 me into a university wrestling career. From there, I went on to be second in the world for amateur

00:03:34.740 kickboxing, found myself in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. And I was kind of on my way in terms

00:03:40.860 of the physical things. But along the way, I always valued education. I always valued the things that

00:03:46.920 my mother and father instilled in me. And so I ended up with three university degrees,

00:03:51.640 one Bachelor of Education, Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. And I also ended up with a Bachelor

00:03:58.020 of Arts in English. I was a teacher for a short period of time. I also worked as a police officer

00:04:03.540 for five years. And these were all things that I did before really being involved in the strength

00:04:08.960 and conditioning industry. So I got here, I think, with a much different background than most.

00:04:14.640 Yes, I have a sport background. I was a professional athlete. But I also kind of came in

00:04:19.960 with a completely different educational pedigree than most people have.

00:04:24.240 Right. You got brains and brawn here. I like this. It's a complete package.

00:04:27.740 I mean, so how did you make that shift from doing all this stuff that you were doing to becoming a

00:04:31.660 coach? Was there a moment where you're like, that's what I need to be doing is coaching other people?

00:04:37.120 Yeah. The biggest thing is, I grew up with two parents that we didn't have a lot growing up,

00:04:43.540 but they always made an effort to help other people. My dad was president of the Lions Club.

00:04:49.580 He used to deliver presents to kids at Christmas. He used to do work with homeless people. I'd watch

00:04:54.720 my mom always kind of bend over backwards, try to help people in the community. And so I grew up in

00:05:00.520 an environment where helping others was always highly valued and important. And I always knew

00:05:04.860 in some way I wanted to help other people. I mean, that's why I got into teaching. I wanted to work

00:05:09.420 with kids and shape and mold them. And it's why I got into policing, because I really felt that I

00:05:14.020 could make a difference. And along the way, I came to the realization that I wouldn't be who I am or

00:05:20.940 where I am without fitness. Like if I look back to that scared 15-year-old kid that got bullied all

00:05:26.980 the time, fitness is what changed that kid's life. And it didn't just change my life physically.

00:05:33.020 It changed my life mentally, psychologically, spiritually. And I've realized that through

00:05:39.320 the power of fitness, people can make tremendous changes in their lives. They can have better

00:05:43.720 marriages. They can be better fathers. They can be better mothers. They can enjoy things more.

00:05:49.240 They can be better at work. And I realized that that's where my talent was, that that's where I

00:05:55.160 could really help people and make a difference in this world.

00:05:57.960 Well, so let's kind of segue into the book. The book's Maximus Body. And instead of starting off

00:06:03.780 with like, here are the programs or the circuits you need to do, the first half of the book's all

00:06:08.520 about the psychology of training and what training can do to us and change us and shape us, make us

00:06:15.220 stronger, our character stronger. But also what we need to do, the mindset shifts that need to take place

00:06:21.980 in order for us to commit. So in your experience with coaching, I'm sure thousands of people and just

00:06:27.440 interacting with people online. What do you think are the biggest mindset shifts that people need

00:06:33.280 to make in order to stick with a training program and making fitness a big part of their life?

00:06:40.220 You know, number one, hands down, it's dealing with self-imposed limitations. We all have them.

00:06:47.960 And it's not just in the gym, it's in life. There's a lot of people out there who settle for jobs that

00:06:53.280 they don't want to be in and they know they deserve better, but they settle. They settle for bad

00:06:57.720 relationships. They settle for the status quo, if you will. And what we all do is we create limits at

00:07:04.340 some point. Like, I'm going to go this far. I'm going to be this successful. And you never really

00:07:09.960 outdo that, I call it a glass cage that you build around yourself. And the same thing happens in fitness.

00:07:16.980 Someone says, I want to train for a marathon. I want to finish one. Well, why is your goal just to

00:07:22.120 finish a marathon? Why not have a time goal? The next person sets a time goal of, we'll say four

00:07:26.960 hours, but who said four hours was ever fast? There's people who do marathons in 203, 204,

00:07:33.380 205. There's 30,000 people a year that qualify for the Boston Marathon every year. Why can't you be

00:07:39.620 one of them? But we all set the bar really low according to those self-imposed limitations. And if I

00:07:45.280 can get a person to believe in themselves, to unlock their potential, to see beyond their self-imposed

00:07:51.880 limitations, it can facilitate a tremendous change in them, not only inside the gym, but also

00:07:58.980 outside of the gym. Another area that really causes people problems, and it's become so prevalent

00:08:05.640 today, and it makes me angry and sad, I guess, at the same time, is the amount of negative self-talk

00:08:11.780 people engage in. I mean, the one thing that I truly believe is we were all born with a God-given

00:08:19.040 right, if you will, to love ourselves, to be proud of ourselves, no matter who we are or what we do.

00:08:24.660 And somewhere along the line, we learn to be really negative and harsh towards ourselves.

00:08:28.300 And that's the last thing we need. And it's something that really, really can hold us back.

00:08:32.620 And the negative self-talk combined with self-imposed limitations can really prevent us

00:08:37.020 from making progress in any area of life. And especially in the gym is where I see it the most.

00:08:42.140 But like I said, it does cross over to the rest of the world.

00:08:45.040 So what do you do with your athletes who come to you and you tell them, okay, here's what we're

00:08:50.860 going to do today. And they say, well, I can't do that. I mean, how do you break through those

00:08:54.600 self-imposed limitations?

00:08:56.200 The first thing is just by what I'll call ruthless honesty. I tell them that's not accepted here.

00:09:03.260 I don't let people I work with, people I train. I also do corporate training with CEOs in big

00:09:09.700 companies all over the country. And one of the things I refuse to allow is negative self-talk.

00:09:14.380 The minute I hear it, I deal with it head on. And if you think back to any conversation you've been

00:09:19.240 in, that you've been in when somebody starts to bash themselves in a way, a lot of times people

00:09:24.820 who are surrounding them just listen or they encourage it even worse. And so I don't allow

00:09:31.020 that to happen. I cut it off right away and I help them become aware of that behavior.

00:09:35.840 The second thing I'll do is I'll start to give them exercises. And there's a few key ones that I do

00:09:40.600 to help them deal with self-imposed limitations, but also to deal with negative self-talk.

00:09:45.660 Now, to get into this, there's two basic types of thoughts that go on in your brain.

00:09:50.680 Green light thoughts, red light thoughts. Green light thoughts are positive thoughts. It's positive

00:09:55.760 self-talk. It's thoughts that builds confidence. It's a group of thoughts that help us be successful.

00:10:02.740 Red light thoughts, on the other hand, are the I can't thoughts. I can't do this. I'm not good

00:10:08.500 enough for this. Those are those manifestations of self-imposed limitations. Whenever we experience

00:10:15.960 something in life, we think both green and red light thoughts, but we've got to hope the green

00:10:20.060 light thoughts overwhelm the red light thoughts. So what I have people do is take a small green

00:10:26.280 sticker and stick them everywhere. Stick them on the back of your phone. I'm looking at my laptop

00:10:30.580 right now as we record this. I've got one on the front of my laptop. And every time I see that green

00:10:36.440 dot, I have to think a positive thought. And what I'm doing is I'm training my mind to think a

00:10:43.000 different way. And when I experience a pressure-filled situation or a situation where I'm likely to think

00:10:50.120 those red light or negative thoughts, I've almost given myself a vaccine or I've almost helped myself

00:10:57.080 before by thinking these positive thoughts. And then I can win that negotiation between the green 0.89

00:11:02.440 and red light thoughts, if you will. And it can be a really, really powerful tool. It sounds hokey.

00:11:08.280 It sounds silly. Like I'm going to stick a green dot on something and I'm going to think a positive

00:11:12.100 thought. But you'd be surprised the power of mental repetition. Your brain's a muscle like anything

00:11:18.040 else. If you train it every day, it'll behave the way you want it to. The second thing I do is I have

00:11:23.220 people wake up every morning and write down five reasons why they're going to be successful.

00:11:27.180 Again, it seems too good to be true. It seems hokey. It seems easy. But all you do is you wake

00:11:32.860 up and write down five reasons why you're going to be successful. And you'd be shocked at how

00:11:37.300 powerful the effect of these exercises can be over time because eventually you start to believe this

00:11:42.440 stuff. Yeah. No, the green dot thing is not hokey at all. I mean, I know pilots, like fighter pilots,

00:11:47.700 there's this idea they want to stay in condition yellow, which is sort of a relaxed alert. So they're

00:11:51.940 always head on a swivel when they're up there. And one thing they do to remind themselves,

00:11:55.920 they put a yellow dot somewhere in the cockpit to remind them condition yellow. So it's the same

00:12:01.420 thing. Yeah. And the funny thing is, and the reason I say it's hokey is because we live in a

00:12:05.520 society today, and this is something that drives me crazy, frankly, where we'll go to a doctor and

00:12:10.660 we'll get a prescription. We'll take a pill. We'll look for some magic shortcut. We'll spend

00:12:15.680 thousands of dollars on something we don't need. And really the answer is as simple as a small green

00:12:21.940 dot and just to start thinking positive thoughts throughout the day. Truthfully, we shouldn't need

00:12:26.320 a green dot. You should think positive thoughts all day anyway. But it's funny, the people that

00:12:32.080 will go for medication, they'll spend thousands of dollars. They'll read these books. They'll try

00:12:36.100 all kinds of other things, but something that is free, easy to do, and doesn't cost you anything,

00:12:43.020 they refuse to do because they think it's silly.

00:12:45.160 So let's talk about this idea that you wrote about, the Maximus 130-hour rule. I think it hits

00:12:51.860 on a problem that a lot of people have when they start training programs or a fitness program.

00:12:56.600 Again, they have that magical thinking that I start this and right away, I'm going to be awesome.

00:13:02.620 But that's not how it works. Well, let's talk about your podcast. You guys have a tremendous

00:13:07.060 amount of downloads. You've had a tremendous array of guests. Was it like that day one?

00:13:11.980 No. No. No, it was not.

00:13:12.940 You had to work at it. And it's funny with the podcast thing because everyone tells me,

00:13:17.460 hey, Bobby, you should start a podcast. And they think it's 30 minutes a week and that's all you

00:13:22.500 do. But for a lot of these podcasts, I don't think people realize the amount of work or the time that

00:13:27.400 goes into them. Sometimes 20 hours, sometimes 25 hours per podcast. And we know this to be true in

00:13:34.260 every area of life. You don't wake up a doctor. You don't wake up a lawyer. You don't wake up the

00:13:39.020 best player in the NBA or the NFL. If people understood the work people go through to achieve

00:13:45.820 something in life, it's remarkable. So why should fitness be any different? We're bombarded these

00:13:52.240 days with these infomercials that promise four-minute abs, four-minute shoulders, the five-minute

00:13:58.560 solution, the 21-day fix. There's all these things that promise a quick fix, but they never,

00:14:03.660 ever, ever work. The gym fitness is the same as any other area of life. If you want it, you have

00:14:10.840 to work for it. And the harder you work, the more successful you're going to be. The 130-hour rule is a

00:14:17.120 way of, I guess, visualizing that. I've trained people since I was 21 in various capacities. And if you

00:14:23.300 give me anybody five days a week for six months, I can help them make a radical transformation.

00:14:29.580 They want to lose 100 pounds? Good. They want to play a professional sport? Good. They want to be

00:14:34.880 better at their job? Good. I can help them do that. But it takes six months, five days a week.

00:14:40.960 That's the equivalent of 130 hours. If you put 130 hours in, you'll improve at something for sure.

00:14:49.540 The inevitable question is, I want it faster. Six months is too long. Can I do it in three months?

00:14:55.040 Yes. You can, but now you still have to pay that 130-hour toll, if you will. The price doesn't go

00:15:03.040 down. So now instead of training once a day for six months, you're training twice a day for three

00:15:09.140 months. Does that make sense? No, that makes sense. You've still got to put in the work. So it's like

00:15:13.420 a mortgage. You just get higher payments. So take a 15-year mortgage or a 30-year mortgage.

00:15:17.920 It doesn't matter. You're going to pay somehow though. And there's no way around it.

00:15:21.960 Yeah. I'm curious, going back to this psychological, helping people psychologically

00:15:26.600 get through their limits. I imagine one thing you do in your gym to show people that their

00:15:33.620 limitations they've imposed on themselves are self-imposed is that you actually get them to do

00:15:38.100 the thing that they think they can't do, right? Exactly.

00:15:42.180 I mean, any examples of that that you've seen over and over again?

00:15:45.780 Yeah. A big one actually is the 2,000-meter row for time. And I don't know how many listeners out

00:15:50.880 there have rowed a 2,000-meter row for time, but it's difficult. And it's short enough that you

00:15:56.740 can go super hard, but it's long enough that you spend some time inside your own brain.

00:16:02.960 What generally happens for a 2,000-meter row for time, the first 500 is easy and the last 500 is

00:16:09.780 easy. Because whenever you start a journey or you're at the end of a journey, it tends to be

00:16:14.300 fairly easy. When you're starting or at the finish line, good. It's the middle where everybody

00:16:18.800 gives up. And again, not just true inside the gym. That's true outside of the gym.

00:16:24.640 Starting's easy. Finishing's easy. It's that middle part where everyone falls apart.

00:16:28.660 And so I give people a 2,000-meter row for time. The standard in the gym for men is seven minutes.

00:16:34.500 The standard for women is eight minutes. And I'm shocked at the people who will just accept a nine 1.00

00:16:39.760 minute or a 10 minute or a 12 minute 2K. And I force them to do it. And it hurts. And it's not easy.

00:16:46.740 And they're forced to face their demons somewhere throughout this effort. But by overcoming their

00:16:52.320 self-imposed limitation, by hitting the standard, it builds confidence in every area in the gym,

00:16:58.400 but also outside the gym as well. And I keep coming back to that because I really believe

00:17:02.900 what the gym can do for you in your real life is far more important than just being fit.

00:17:08.520 Yeah. It carries over to outside the gym. I've seen that in my own life with my own training.

00:17:12.660 It does carry over. You don't think you can do something, but you're able to do it in the gym.

00:17:16.880 And you're like, well, I can do that outside as well.

00:17:19.880 Well, for sure. And it's funny. I'm actually working with the people at Blender Bottle right

00:17:23.940 now, which they make the best shaker cup in the world. I mean, everyone,

00:17:27.300 every shaker cup you'll ever see probably is a Blender Bottle shaker cup. And I've been working

00:17:32.020 with their corporate team. And I'm actually working with their CEO. And it's funny because when we

00:17:36.640 started, and this just happened, he could only deadlift 95 pounds.

00:17:39.620 And that was a complete psychological mental roadblock. He was certainly capable of lifting

00:17:47.720 more than 95 pounds, but he just couldn't bring himself to. Well, just this morning,

00:17:51.920 we deadlifted 285 pounds. And this is within three months. So it's pretty incredible that someone can

00:17:58.860 triple their old one rep max, that someone can gain that much strength. And honestly, I would like to

00:18:05.600 tell you it was from some secret deadlift program that will triple your deadlift and you'd be the

00:18:10.100 strongest person in the universe. But it's not. That's just overcoming those self-imposed

00:18:14.560 limitations and gaining that confidence. And now it's transferred over to every other area

00:18:19.620 of the gym and arguably business. But things that before were an, I can't, are now an, I can.

00:18:27.720 I love that. We're going to take a quick break for your words from our sponsors.

00:18:32.240 And now back to the show. All right, well, let's get into training. And we talked about the

00:18:37.620 psychology of training, what you're trying to do mentally, emotionally with your athletes.

00:18:42.980 What's your philosophy towards training? Is it emphasis on strength, endurance,

00:18:47.200 metabolic conditioning, all of the above? Tell us about it for those who aren't familiar.

00:18:50.940 You know, I can simplify that by just saying goal-directed training. When you ask if somebody's

00:18:56.820 fit, I guess the question I want to ask is fit for what or fit compared to who? Fitness is a

00:19:02.580 relative term. So is the winner of the CrossFit Games the fittest person on the planet? Or is it

00:19:08.000 the person that won an Ironman? It's really task dependent. So everything for me is dependent on a

00:19:13.780 goal. If an NBA player comes in the gym, we've got one goal. And that is to make them better at

00:19:19.460 basketball. I don't care about their endurance at that point or metabolic conditioning.

00:19:23.660 The job is to put a ball through a hoop. If I have an NFL player come in the gym,

00:19:29.180 their goal is to be better at football. And if they're a quarterback, that means throwing the

00:19:34.120 ball further, throwing it harder, throwing it more accurately. If it's a linebacker, it means being

00:19:38.600 faster, bigger, stronger, making more tackles. On the far end of the spectrum, you could have a person

00:19:43.340 come into the gym and want to lose 150 pounds. I'm not worried about what they can deadlift.

00:19:49.220 They're not worried about what they can back squat. The goal is to lose 150 pounds. So everything

00:19:53.300 is goal directed. That said, I do put a high emphasis on what I call general physical preparedness,

00:20:01.400 which means being good at everything. You've got a good level of strength. You've got a good level

00:20:05.420 of endurance. You've got a good level of metabolic conditioning. I tend to include all those things.

00:20:10.180 But like I said, everything relates to the goal. And I mean, it's probably the best example I can give

00:20:15.740 you is do you think the world's strongest man, Thor Bjornsson won it this year. Do you think he

00:20:21.400 cares what he can run a mile in or what his marathon time is? No, no, no, not absolutely not. He's there

00:20:26.820 to do one thing and that's his goal. So everything we do, you come in the gym, we sit you down. I

00:20:32.700 believe fitness is an individual prospect. We come up with your goals and then we write a custom program

00:20:38.320 and deliver custom training to you to accomplish that goal.

00:20:41.880 It's awesome. So let's say there's an individual listening who they don't have a specific

00:20:46.020 fitness modality they're going for. They don't want to power lift. They don't want to be in

00:20:50.580 endurance. They just want to be like, as you said, prepared for anything. What does programming look

00:20:55.000 like that? Because whenever you're training for multiple modalities, it can get tricky, right?

00:20:59.200 Because when you train for endurance, you might do so at the expense of strength. If you train for

00:21:03.380 strength, you might do so at the expense of endurance. So how do you balance all that?

00:21:07.380 By honestly working everything. A lot of people are fearful and I'm glad you brought that up,

00:21:13.500 the strength endurance conundrum, if you will. A lot of people think strength will hurt their

00:21:17.920 endurance or vice versa, but that's not necessarily true. That's only true for that Thor Bjornsson

00:21:22.900 fellow who won the world's strongest man who I mentioned. Endurance will hurt his strength to a

00:21:27.640 degree. But for normal people, and it's shocking actually how high they can get in each area without

00:21:35.100 a detriment, if you will. If you look at some of the winners of the CrossFit Games, we've got people

00:21:39.760 who are deadlifting 550 pounds and running a sub five-minute mile, which is incredible. But the

00:21:47.000 key is to pay attention to all areas and ignore none. And what often happens, and it's a key mistake,

00:21:54.160 we gravitate towards what we like or what we're good at in the gym, and we ignore things. And those

00:21:59.920 things become areas of weakness. So in a week, I would have you do an endurance workout.

00:22:04.420 I would have you do a strength workout. I would have you do a circuit workout or an interval

00:22:09.240 workout that works on metabolic conditioning. I would have you do a workout that works on

00:22:14.300 what I'll call structural integration mobility. And so by engaging in all these things, we can build

00:22:20.280 a well-rounded fitness profile. Gotcha. I mean, one thing I've known you for and read about stuff

00:22:26.360 that you put out there is your famous sort of circuits for metabolic conditioning because they're

00:22:30.640 brutal. I'm curious, are there one or two that are some of your favorites to introduce people

00:22:36.400 to give a taste of what kind of things you're going to have them do?

00:22:40.460 Yes. One of my absolute favorites, and it's one of my favorites because it's two exercises that

00:22:47.920 people are extremely used to, are the bench press and burpee circuit. And what you do is you do a

00:22:56.240 bench press ladder at body weight combined with a burpee ladder. You do 10 bench presses at body

00:23:01.580 weight, one burpee, nine bench presses at body weight, two burpees, eight and three, seven and

00:23:10.120 four, six and five. And you work yourself all the way till you do one bench press and 10 burpees.

00:23:18.380 It's one of my favorites because again, people are used to the exercises. Most people bench press,

00:23:24.220 they consider themselves good at it. And when you throw something cardiovascular like burpees in the

00:23:29.060 mix, it is funny how fast the wheels fall off, if you will. And it gives them something that

00:23:35.580 I've come to call it the moment, you know, in the gym, but it's that moment during a workout

00:23:41.560 where you realize you bit off more than you can chew, that this is a lot harder than you expected it to

00:23:48.760 be. And you've either got to, you got to make a conscious decision of whether or not you're going to

00:23:53.080 persevere and push through that, or you're just going to quit. And that's a teachable moment.

00:23:58.320 That's the, that's the thing that really allows fitness to transfer to somebody's life outside the

00:24:03.820 gym. And is this like a finisher? Is this something you do at an end of a workout or would this be like

00:24:07.620 a workout? You know, it depends on your level of fitness. For some people, it's the workout.

00:24:12.480 For some people, it can be a finisher because again, you know, when you, when I ask if you're fit,

00:24:18.820 it's compared to who. So for somebody like me, who's trained his whole life, who works hard,

00:24:24.460 who's built, you know, his whole life around fitness, for me, that would be more of a finisher.

00:24:28.540 For some people, that might be the hardest workout they've ever done.

00:24:32.640 Gotcha. Whenever you're, you're training, you know, strength and endurance, I imagine you have

00:24:37.060 guys do the strength stuff first and then endurance stuff like as the end, right? Like,

00:24:42.140 so you like do all your strength in lifting first and then like run, you know, two miles or three miles,

00:24:46.900 whatever afterwards. Yes. And that's, and that's correct. And that is because when we're training

00:24:51.640 for strength, it's important to lift maximal weight. So I want people to be as strong and

00:24:57.000 I guess as, as a put together as possible for that portion of the workout. The other,

00:25:03.080 the other thing is, is safety. I don't think this comes across all the time in what I do,

00:25:07.580 but I am extremely risk averse. I cannot afford to get somebody hurt. For my professional

00:25:14.280 athletes, that can really affect their paycheck or affect their life. And for my normal people

00:25:18.740 who are just training, listen, if you come in and train with me and you get hurt, you're on a shelf

00:25:23.200 for two or three weeks. We're not going to accomplish your goals and you're not going to get anywhere and

00:25:27.500 you're going to be frustrated and have a difficult time. So I want to keep you injury free. So I don't

00:25:31.900 want you lifting weights necessarily in a, in a state of pure exhaustion. Like imagine running a mile

00:25:38.460 for time and then trying to max deadlift. I mean, that's a recipe for injury.

00:25:41.980 Yeah, that would suck. And I don't, I don't, I don't want that.

00:25:44.160 So besides, you know, you've got these monster circuits in here. You just, they just can thrash

00:25:48.600 you, but you, you're big on recovery as well. Cause I think it's often overlooked when people train.

00:25:54.620 So what's your recommendations for, how do you recover your athletes or recover yourself

00:25:59.260 from all this really hard training you're doing?

00:26:02.180 Yeah. So everyone who's listening out there, listen very carefully. There's no such thing as

00:26:07.020 overtraining. There's only under recovery. There's a cost to everything and you've got to pay. So if

00:26:14.040 you want to train every day, you've got to pay for it somehow. And in terms of recovery, the number

00:26:19.060 one way you can recover is sleep. I would ask you all out there listening, how many hours of sleep

00:26:24.080 you get a night? And if the answer is anything less than eight, you are wrong. You need eight to

00:26:28.940 nine hours of quality sleep a night. I use a cell phone analogy for people. Now let me ask you a

00:26:34.900 question. If you leave the house in the morning and your, your cell phone, your, your iPhone or

00:26:39.880 your, your Samsung galaxy or whatever you use is at 10%, how useful is that phone for the entire day?

00:26:45.560 It's not useful at all. Not at all. In fact, you're probably shutting it off, putting the battery

00:26:49.720 saver on. You can't make phone calls. You can't do text messages. Like you're, you're done. It's a

00:26:54.180 useless tool. On the other hand, you leave the house in the morning and that phone's at a hundred

00:26:59.500 percent. It's a useful tool all day. And so what people are doing, what they need to understand,

00:27:05.480 I guess, is that you're the cell phone and the bed's the charger. So if you're leaving the house

00:27:09.760 on a 10 or 20 or 30% charge every morning, there's no way you can be effective in any area of your life.

00:27:16.240 If you leave the house on a hundred percent charge, now you're effective. Now you're really capable of

00:27:22.720 doing something. You've got some real genuine horsepower behind you and you can get work done. And so sleep

00:27:28.780 is where it starts. Then I tell people stress relief and stress management is the next area you want

00:27:36.220 to attack. And I'm sure you've been through periods of extreme stress. How does everything work? It

00:27:43.740 doesn't work well. You gain unwanted weight, you lose muscle, you're miserable, you can't think

00:27:50.200 straight. So I tell people to do things to address stress. Now there's, I'll call proactive stress

00:27:55.540 management and reactive stress management. Proactive is really starting to deal with the things that cause

00:28:02.500 you stress. If you're in a bad relationship, get out of it. If you're in a job you hate, leave and do

00:28:07.700 something that you love. If there's people who stress you out, stay away from them. Those are proactive

00:28:14.900 ways to cut off stress. Reactive ways to deal with stress are what I call recovery modalities.

00:28:21.500 Get a massage, have a nap, have a sauna, go for a walk every day for a half hour with your favorite

00:28:28.220 playlist and leave your phone in the office. Those are things you can do to help deal with the

00:28:33.100 after effects of stress. But if people can focus on those areas, they'll make a tremendous improvement.

00:28:38.560 All right. So sleep and then manage stress. And for that managing stress thing, I imagine

00:28:43.500 the green dot exercise plays a role in that as well. Because when you're talking negative to yourself

00:28:49.120 and you're down on yourself, that can stress you out. I've noticed that whenever I'm sort of

00:28:53.960 negative on myself, I just feel stressed out more. But when I'm more positive, things just sort of

00:29:00.000 roll off me and I can handle challenges better. Well, absolutely. And just anecdotally, some of

00:29:05.600 the people who complain the most are the most stressed. And it creates this almost negative feedback loop or

00:29:10.700 downward spiral where the more stressed you are, the more negative you become. And the more negative

00:29:15.100 become, the more stressed you become. And you never get out of it.

00:29:18.720 Yeah. So on sleep, I'm sure you get eight hours of sleep. What time do you go to bed? What time do

00:29:23.020 you wake up usually?

00:29:24.320 Right now, I'm going to bed at nine o'clock at night and I'm waking up at 5.30 in the morning.

00:29:29.560 5.30 is far earlier than I want to wake up. But as I said, I'm training the corporate team here and

00:29:37.020 the employees at Blender Bottle. And that's the time they can train before work. So I've had to adjust

00:29:40.940 my schedule. But it wasn't hard. I used to go to bed at 10 or 11 and wake up at 7 or 8. I just

00:29:46.240 adjusted my schedule forward. And a lot of people say they can't do that. They can. And I did it

00:29:52.780 because I know how important sleep is to me. And what's the worst thing that can happen? I miss a

00:29:58.660 basketball game. I miss a hockey game. I miss my show. Well, fortunately, in this day and age,

00:30:04.200 we have something called DVR and you can just tape it and watch it the next day.

00:30:07.240 Right. Well, speaking of stress and those really high stress situations, there will be,

00:30:12.280 I'm sure, like you said, all of us have experienced times in our life where it's

00:30:14.840 really, really, really stressful. And I'm talking, you get a major sickness,

00:30:19.860 family member gets sickness, you get laid off, et cetera. You've experienced that firsthand.

00:30:25.420 What do you do to keep training and keep doing the things that you know makes your body feel good,

00:30:31.280 makes your mind feel good? How do you manage those big, really stressful events in your life?

00:30:37.240 You know, the first thing is, and I'm going to relate this to fitness because fitness is so

00:30:43.540 important to me, is it comes down to how bad you want something. It's funny that when people really

00:30:49.340 want something, they'll figure out a way to make it work. And so the first thing I do is when I'm in a

00:30:55.360 period of extreme stress, I always put fitness first. Fitness is my anchor. I am in the gym an hour to

00:31:02.220 two hours a day, every day. I mean, my slogan, my tagline is every damn day. That's my anchor. 0.99

00:31:08.320 That's where it all starts. And it's stress relieving for me. When I train, I feel better.

00:31:14.140 Even on days I don't want to train, I will show up at the gym and just sit there. Because again,

00:31:20.020 it's my anchor. It's my safe place. It is, I am so thankful for working out and training because I

00:31:26.500 think it's built a platform on which I live my life. And so I always pay homage to that and pay

00:31:31.980 respect to it. And I show up. But beyond that, in periods of high stress, I always make sure to make

00:31:38.880 time for myself. And that may be just an hour walk in the afternoon without my phone with a good

00:31:45.680 playlist. It may be meditating. It may be going for a massage. It may be having a sauna. But I really,

00:31:53.420 really strive to take care of myself during those stressful periods. And that's one of the things

00:31:58.640 I think we forget. When we are in periods of high stress, we cut back on sleep and our self-care

00:32:04.480 goes down the toilet. And we always have to make sure we have to care for our bodies. Kind of like

00:32:10.540 a car. What happens if you drive your car hard every day and you never get the oil changed, never

00:32:15.500 get the tires aligned? What's going to happen to it? It's going to fall apart and your body will fall

00:32:20.440 apart. So always make time for that self-care. Well, I mean, I don't know if you want to talk

00:32:23.800 about it. You mentioned earlier before we got on the interview that you contracted some sort of

00:32:27.740 bacterial disease where it almost killed you. Yep. And you're still dealing. I mean, thankfully,

00:32:32.860 you survived. But you're still dealing with the after effects. How do you not let that get to you?

00:32:37.880 Because I imagine that can be really frustrating. It's like, okay, well, I beat the worst of it. But now

00:32:42.640 I'm still dealing with this thing months later. I should be done with it.

00:32:46.500 Yeah. And you know what it comes down to for me? It comes down to perspective. So

00:32:51.060 the disease I had was colostrum difficile. It's a pretty bad stomach bacteria. Symptoms can range

00:32:56.720 from mild diarrhea to death. One in five actually die from it. It's really, really bad. There's

00:33:03.180 actually a comedian named Tig. There's a documentary on Netflix about her that she talks about it in and

00:33:09.520 out of the hospital that'll shed a lot of insight. But for me, I lost 40 pounds in a month.

00:33:14.220 I was bedridden for a month, almost had to get my colon removed. I ended up with an umbilical hernia

00:33:20.140 from stomach spasms. It was a really, really bad deal. But as bad as things got, I always had a

00:33:26.880 faith that things would get better. And honestly, life's not easy. The world is always going to throw

00:33:33.820 some kind of bullshit at you. There's always something that the world's going to do to try 0.99

00:33:39.460 to knock you down. And I've been through a lot. I've been through a divorce. I've been through the

00:33:43.420 death of my dad when I was 20 years old. I've been through illnesses myself. I had what was

00:33:48.640 supposed to be a career-ending injury at one point. And what I've learned through all this is to stay

00:33:54.320 positive because things will get better. And as bad as you think things are, somebody's always got

00:34:00.080 it worse. And it's important to remember that, to be grateful for what you have, and to keep

00:34:05.360 persevering because that's what it really comes down to.

00:34:07.780 Green dot. Got to keep the green dot there.

00:34:10.300 That's exactly what it is. And it's just, honestly, it's the power of positive thinking.

00:34:14.360 And like I said, as bad as you think it is, it can always get worse. So be grateful what you

00:34:19.800 have and keep pushing. And you can't let anything get in the way of your goals. There's actually this

00:34:24.540 whole theory. And I don't know if you've ever heard of this, but whenever you find your true

00:34:28.560 calling, what you're really meant to do, it's almost like the world starts throwing obstacles in

00:34:33.440 your way. And it's a common theme you'll hear amongst the most successful business people,

00:34:38.220 the most successful athletes, that when they found their thing, the world kind of rises up

00:34:42.540 and tries to stop them. And it's almost like a test to make you earn it.

00:34:45.440 Right. Stephen Pressfield, the writer, calls it the resistance. So one thing you're famous for,

00:34:50.620 I've seen on your Instagram account are these things called your Sunday sermons. What sort of

00:34:56.020 topics do you hit in these things? And have there been any in particular that have resonated with a

00:35:00.240 lot of people?

00:35:00.800 You know, the Sunday sermons, they tend to be inspirational things that extend way beyond

00:35:07.760 the gym. Yes, I am a fitness personality. Yes, I do care about the gym. Yes, I take selfies

00:35:15.300 of myself and lift weights and do all those things. But what I'm far more interested in

00:35:20.560 is helping people develop a life outside the gym. Like I said before, and I'll say it again,

00:35:26.180 I want people to be better fathers, better mothers, be better at their lives and enjoy themselves more.

00:35:30.800 And so the sermons tend to be philosophical one-liners that can help inspire people.

00:35:36.960 One of my favorites is always bet on yourself. Be confident in yourself. Always believe in

00:35:43.140 yourself. Another one, you didn't wake up to be mediocre. It's a reminder that you didn't wake up

00:35:49.700 to just do the status quo. Extend yourself, push yourself to your limits, be the very best version

00:35:56.160 of you that you can be. Another one that I like because I do believe in being a better person is

00:36:03.160 be the person you want to be around. Lead by example, treat others the way you want to be

00:36:08.660 treated. And so those are the things that I write about. And then I try to teach people about in a

00:36:16.720 paragraph or two paragraph statement afterwards.

00:36:19.720 Right. And people can see those on your Instagram account. What's your Instagram handle?

00:36:22.820 It's at Bobby Maximus. They can go there. They can also go to my website,

00:36:26.780 Bobby Maximus.com. And I always put the sermons on there, but I think it's important to be reminded

00:36:32.720 of these things on a day-to-day basis, if you will. And sometimes as funny as it sounds,

00:36:39.660 there's a lot of negatives about social media. Don't get me wrong. There's a lot of trolls out

00:36:44.060 there. There's a lot of bullying. There's a lot of negatives, but there's also a lot of positives 0.70

00:36:48.740 because there are days myself where I'm unmotivated, where I have a difficult time

00:36:52.860 moving. And I read something on Instagram or I read something on Twitter that really inspires me

00:36:57.280 and helps motivate me. And I'm grateful for it. And I want to do that for other people.

00:37:01.960 Right. Yeah. I mean, that's one thing you talk about in the book, an important part of

00:37:04.800 ensuring your success with your training is surround yourself with people who are also

00:37:09.300 striving after the same goal so you can provide some mutual support.

00:37:12.740 Well, yeah. And I always say you become who you hang around. You're the average of the five 0.55

00:37:16.940 people you spend the most time with. And you can get that through Instagram. You can be inspired by

00:37:22.340 people. And like I said, I'm grateful to have been inspired by people on Instagram. And I'm also

00:37:28.580 grateful and honored to be able to inspire other people. And really, that's what I want to do at the

00:37:34.660 end of the day. I want to make a difference in somebody's life. And how do I get paid? Well,

00:37:40.180 what really pays me is, I guess, that spiritual or that emotional feeling of when someone writes me an

00:37:46.500 email and says, hey, thank you for posting that. That really made a difference to me. Or I've

00:37:51.160 decided to be a better dad or I've decided to give up alcohol. I mean, you start to get messages like

00:37:56.120 that and see the effect you have on people. And it's quite remarkable. And that's what gets me up

00:38:02.560 every morning. And that's what makes me sleep easy at night. Well, Bobby, this has been a great

00:38:05.920 conversation. So I think following Instagram, we mentioned the website. Where can they get more

00:38:10.660 information about the book, Maximus Body? Yeah. The book itself, if you just go to Google and Google

00:38:15.480 Maximus Body, there'll be a bunch of ways that it can pop up that you can buy it. It's on Google

00:38:20.300 Play. It's on iBooks. It's on Amazon. I think Amazon is the one most people use. And it's available

00:38:25.780 in your local bookstore. You can get it on electronic and paperback now. So it's something

00:38:30.460 that I'd certainly recommend to pick up. And like I said, it's a lot more than just a fitness book.

00:38:35.080 It's something that can help you change your life. And I believe in it.

00:38:38.760 All right. Bobby Maximus, thank you so much for your time. It's been a pleasure.

00:38:41.220 Thank you.

00:38:42.420 My guest today was Bobby Maximus. His new book is Maximus Body. It's available on

00:38:46.260 amazon.com and bookstores everywhere. You can find more information about his work at

00:38:49.500 bobbymaximus.com or follow him on Instagram at bobbymaximus. Also check out our show notes

00:38:54.520 at aom.is slash Maximus, where you can find links to resources where you can delve deeper into this topic.

00:39:11.220 Well, that wraps up another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast. For more manly tips and advice,

00:39:16.280 make sure to check out the Art of Manliness website at artofmanliness.com. And if you're

00:39:20.100 looking to get started with a fitness program and have had trouble sticking with it, check out

00:39:24.480 The Strenuous Life. It's a program we developed to help you put into action the things we've been

00:39:28.240 talking about on the podcast or writing the website for the past 10 years.

00:39:31.580 Strenuouslife.co. You can get signed up to get notifications when our next enrollment goes up.

00:39:35.760 Had a lot of guys who've done the program who've, for the first time in their life,

00:39:39.220 stuck with a fitness goal for longer than three months. Guys losing weight, getting stronger.

00:39:42.900 It's fantastic. Check it out, strenuouslife.co. As always, thank you for your continued support.

00:39:47.640 And until next time, this is Brett McKay telling you to stay manly.

The Art of Manliness - March 31, 2021

Forging Mental Strength Through Physical Strength

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