Rest Between Sets: Move or Stay Still?

Rest Between Sets: Move or Stay Still?

Ever wonder what’s best between sets—sit down and chill, or stay moving? Jerred, Joe, and Dave from Garage Gym Athlete took on that question this week, digging into a new study comparing active vs. passive rest during strength training.

They also shared how they personally recover between intervals and heavy lifts—and what actually helps you perform better next round.

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What the Study Looked At

Study title: Effects of Active vs. Passive Interset Rest Intervals in the Bench Press Exercise in Resistance-Trained Men.

What they did:

• 14 trained men

• 5 sets of 8 reps on the Smith Machine bench press

• 52.5% of 1RM (their “max power” load)

• 2-minute rest periods

• Rest options:

  • Passive: Sit and do nothing

  • Active: Perform one set of 15 light reps (5–10% of 1RM) on the vertical chest press

Results:
No major statistical difference—but active rest showed some promising trends:

• Lower blood lactate levels (less “burn”)

• Better maintained bar speed across sets

That means keeping your blood flowing lightly might help you recover faster and stay more explosive.

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What It Means for Your Training

1. Intervals vs. Weightlifting

Jerred pointed out that the benefits likely matter more for interval training than lifting. During sprints or bike intervals, light movement between rounds may help you bounce back faster than sitting still.

2. Training Goals Matter

Joe’s takeaway: think about what you’re training for.

• If your goal is power or speed, stay active between sets.

• If you’re chasing muscle growth or volume, it may not matter as much.

Dave added that for most lifters, light movement feels better—especially when workouts get lactic. He avoids sitting between heavy sets and walks instead, keeping his muscles “primed.”

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The Science Behind Lactate Clearance

Lactate buildup causes that burning feeling in your muscles. Fit athletes clear it faster.
How? Blood flow.

Jerred’s advice:

“If your muscles are burning, move. Even very light movement helps clear lactate faster than sitting.”

Think slow walking, easy cycling, or gentle mobility drills between sets. Too much movement, though, defeats the purpose—keep it easy.

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Practical Takeaways

✅ Between intervals: Try light walking or spinning instead of sitting.
✅ Between strength sets: Move around. Do mobility work, walk, or stretch.
✅ Feeling the burn? Move lightly to clear lactate.
✅ Training for Murph or Hyrox? Sometimes practice not recovering perfectly—train your body to move through fatigue.

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Athlete Updates

Joe: Realized his heel pain came from how he walked—literally. After retraining his stride, pain’s gone.

Dave: Cutting back on running a bit to build muscle for the 5K + lift challenge. Finding that gaining quality weight takes patience.

Jerred: Hitting new pull-up PRs but starting to plateau on bodyweight work. Time to switch it up—maybe bring kettlebells back in.

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Final Thoughts

If performance matters in your next set, move.
If you’re training for endurance under fatigue, maybe don’t.
Either way, remember: blood flow is recovery.

Move smart. Train hard. Kill comfort.

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Garage Gym Athlete Workout of the Week

Podcast Transcript

Jerred (00:00)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Garage Gym Athlete podcast. Dave, Joe and Jared here bringing you the heat today talking about resting in between sets. So I'm going to start with a question and I will then answer it myself. Joe, you first, if you're doing hard intervals, let's say on an air dyne or a rower. So it's actually going to two questions for each of you. This is just hard intervals, conditioning intervals, sprint. Do you prefer to sit and do nothing or

Walk, light spin, whatever. What do you like to do in between intervals?

Joe (00:34)
Vomit.

Jerred (00:36)
Vomits and then after the vomiting, what are we doing? Are we sitting or are moving?

Joe (00:40)
Um,

so study we did five years ago, four years. haven't known how long it was hands on knees. Like I do that all the time now for in between catching my breath and I'll do that for, I don't know, 30, 40 seconds until I'm down like zone two below zone two. And then I'll stand and kind of walk around. Cause I, again, I think we've gone over studies to where it is a bit better intervals. I really, really try not to sit down or rest in between. Um, if I'm on the rower.

Jerred (01:05)
So you're a little more

active rest, but if it's a really hard interval, you're recovering in the hands on knees position, which Joe is right. We did a study forever ago that is like, other than laying in the fetal position, which I think was superior. Um, and I'm not joking. Like they, they assessed all of these laying in the fetal position was like the best mode of recovery, but no one's willing to do it from what I've seen. It never caught on. Um, this is, this is the best way to do it.

Joe (01:27)
I do it after my mile and a half running and they're always running over like hey, you okay? You fine like I'm good. It's good for my recovery. It's okay. Science says I'm fine

Jerred (01:35)
Yeah, maybe in that circumstance or some Crossfitters, you know, they might do that. Okay, so we got it for intervals. How about for weightlifting? If you're doing heavy sets, moderate loads or whatever, what are you doing in between sets? Scrolling Instagram? Are you texting friends? Are you doing other movements? What are you doing in between weightlifting sets?

Joe (01:54)
Luckily in Spain, nobody's awake when I'm working out. ⁓ it's, it's, it's an in-between. typically I, again, I still try to walk stand sometimes I'll sit or I'll do a little bit of stretching the limbering up, but, ⁓ yeah, I might pick up my phone and look at some stuff, but I really avoid sitting unless I am trying to like do some sort of stretching mobility. Cause there are times during squats where I'll, ⁓ do some stretches on the bench in between. ⁓ just like kind of active stretching, but.

Yeah, standing walking around mostly.

Jerred (02:26)
All right, same two questions for you, Dave. So for hard intervals on whatever, running, bike, whatever, your medicine would be there. And then also during weightlifting sets, does it differ and what do you do in between rest sets?

Dave (02:39)
Yeah, for me, ⁓ hard intervals, I tend to feel better just moving to some degree. If it's, if we're talking like eight, nine RP, like walking around, if it's like full empty, tank, usually it drops me down to like a squat after that, like down to the ground, out on my knees or something, not kneeling on the ground, but hands on the knees. ⁓ yeah, usually, usually feel better with movement if it's getting close to that. But if it's like all out empty, the tank, guess is a little different on that. But for.

If I'm doing like I did six by hundreds the other day, like the first five, I'm going into a walk right away after it. then then into maybe even a jog is like, I'm depending on how long it is in between to if I'm trying to keep heart rate up a little bit, but, ⁓ yeah, but the last rep then if I'm like, okay, I'm, I'm giving down this one. Usually that, drops me to a, to a squat or something, at least until oxygen returns to my brain. And then I can get up and walk shortly after that, but I'm usually not one that's like laying there.

I know people post like sweat angels and all those things. That's never, I've never like, that's never been a default for me. weightlifting wise, yeah, I'm, I'm usually trying to move, move quite a bit as in even just like walk around. Like Joe was saying, if I'm doing heavy lifting, like if I'm trying to, if I'm doing say like a five by five heavy squat or something, I'll just kind of walk around in between and, but don't like to sit either. But most other workouts, usually it's super setting something, even if it's, ⁓

You know, so usually it naturally bakes it in. even if I'm resting, resting for a chest exercise and doing a back exercise in between, ⁓ just for efficiency sake, I like to structure most things like that anyways.

Jerred (04:13)
Nice. Okay. So for me, it is different between the two. If I'm doing hard intervals, and that's the reason I asked because it's different for me. If I'm doing really hard intervals on air bike or rower running, whatever, I want to do nothing. Absolutely nothing in between sets. I don't want to do my favorite recovery position. If I could just sit there or lay on the ground, that is my go-to. And I don't know why it always has been. like, if I do an all out 400,

I'm fine to lay on the ground until the next 400. I don't typically ever actually lay down, but like I would be fine to do that. Um, and I don't know why I don't know. And because it's completely different when I do, when I lift weights, when I lift weights, even if it's a really hard set, like it doesn't matter what it is. I want to move around. I want to be more active. I'm not typically doing other exercises or anything, but moving around, have a treadmill in my gym and have for the last several years, I might walk for a little bit, something along those lines. Um,

And this study that we're covering today kind of drew some attention to that. So it had me really reflecting on what I do. And so the study that we are covering today is called the effects of active rest, of active versus passive, intercept rest intervals in the bench press exercise in resistance trained men. And pretty simple here. They had 14 resistance trained men.

The exercise was the Smith Machine Bench Press. They were doing five times eight reps and the load was 52.5 % of their one rep max, which was their max power load. And then they would rest two minutes between sets. And so there were kind of two controls, right? They would either do nothing for two minutes during the rest period or they would have active rest activity, which was a one set of 15.

vertical chest press at five to ten percent of their one rep max. So incredibly low load. And I'm going to get straight to kind of what the findings were. There was no huge statistical difference between the two. ⁓ That's ultimately like the big takeaway, the sciencey takeaway, if you will. But what was trending in the right direction was the fact that blood lactate, which accumulates when you're doing hard stuff,

⁓ was trending downward in the active rest activity. And then also the velocity was better maintained ⁓ in the active rest group as well. So if you didn't know, we've done a lot of these studies where velocity is a major measure of recovery. And so your ability to be quick, powerful, move fast indicates that you're more recovered.

And then also you don't want a ton of lactate accumulated because that's what can make it a little bit more uncomfortable to exercise and can impair further set performance. Now there is some research out there that says that your body can utilize lactate for energy as like a energy substrate. But in order to do so, in my opinion, you'd have to get the blood circulating. So anyway, that is kind of the takeaway, the whole study like in a nutshell, but I figured we could talk about it a little bit more and how we

think athletes should utilize this information. So Joe, what are your thoughts on the study and how athletes can start to apply something like this in their daily life or training?

Joe (07:38)
Yeah, that was kind of my thoughts when I was going through is what, are you training for? What's the intent of the workout? And that's sort of what you would need to use this for. Um, they also, it seemed like they went a little bit lighter than I thought you might want to go. I know they used maxed power outputs. So guess they just wanted to see how long you could stay at your max power, but I think it might've been better. I wish they would've went a little bit heavier or didn't like a max, um, uh, as many reps as possible. Cause then I feel like that would include a bit more of how you can use it. So.

To me that the kind of takeaway or uses would be if you're training power or wanting to change power, strength, speed, or speed, strength, something like that to where you need to stay fresh. You need to stay primed in your muscles. But if you're just want overall volume or like a perjury, I'm not sure if it would make a huge, much, a huge difference to, know, maybe you could, you can try this out. Like, ⁓ trial and error on your own of, know, you're to do some hypertrophy sets to eight to 10.

kind of fatigue and then do some light sets and then do some no sets in between or whatever it is and see if there's much of a difference. I don't know. And it could be for Aperture because usually that's when your muscles are sort of tensed up when you can really feel ⁓ things building and maybe that can help clear it away, but you'd have to test it out. But speed stuff. think if you are doing speed, it would be smart to stay. It could be good to stay primed and moving and versus doing absolutely nothing. That was kind of. Yeah. So specifically.

Maybe that's what the study was sort of aiming for, but I don't know if there was other applications of you might've had.

Jerred (09:10)
Yeah, I might have a couple, I think, honestly don't think this matters a whole lot in resistance training unless you are doing something that's like fairly demanding. Like if you're doing high rep sets, like, I don't know.

sets of 70%, 15 reps, like crazy stuff like that. I could see this being very beneficial information. really feel like it applies more for what we were talking about at the beginning and what I asked you guys is like intervals. What are you doing in between intervals? Because what I'm doing is probably the worst thing, or what my preference is. It's just like sit and do nothing between sets. so yeah, think the application is way more in interval-based training than it would be resistance training, because I can't see a whole lot of benefit there unless you are doing something that's incredibly taxing.

⁓

on the muscle. What do you think Dave?

Dave (09:59)
Yeah, I agree. I think it may have showed more if they would have taken something more to failure or more of that hyper-trophy rep range that Joe was mentioning, just because you're going get more of the lactate buildup. I think, mean, anecdotally for me too, that's always just felt better of moving around versus, and I know if I've done some track workouts with friends that are training for a specific speed goal.

And it's like, all right, now we're going to sit for seven minutes in between and like, you know, I'm just like, I feel so stiff coming back into it. And, ⁓ yeah, that never seemed to really help me. So I think, ⁓ there's, there is some preference with it, but I think it's going to be probably more applicable to, ⁓ stuff where you're going to be getting a big, a big lactate buildup. Like the intervals we're talking about, ⁓ if you're doing some super sets that are like agonist muscle groups of like, say like bench press into pushups into.

you know, something else for the arms. Like I think it's gonna be more applicable if you're stacking a lot of those things together versus if you're doing like, you know, if you're doing a bench and a row exercise or something, like you're gonna naturally be recovering while you're doing the other one anyways, but probably more applicable if you're like, if you're doing Ag and a superset or more high perch free type stuff.

Jerred (11:11)
Yeah. And I think my takeaway for all the athletes out there is like, okay, when could I utilize this and why would it matter? If, if performance is important in your next set, which is in all honesty, let's just say it always is because we can act like, you're not, you're not training for anything serious. Don't worry about it. But we all want performance, right? We want to be able to have the best performance possible. So if performance in the next set is something that you want, ⁓ which you should most of the time, and you are feeling anything that like indicates

Lactate build-up which is like that muscle burn and all of that discomfort if you feel that in your muscles know that you can clear it and a Sign of like higher levels of fitness is your ability to clear lactate Organically naturally whatever you want to say like the fit of the athlete the better they clear lactate just Moving or not moving their body like knows how to utilize it knows how to recycle it quickly That's a sign of fitness in general. And so if you want to clear that lactate

You got to move lactate doesn't like to clear it. Like it can clear itself, obviously. ⁓ but you want to clear that out as much as you can. And it takes incredibly light movement. I think is the, the other part of this story. and from this study is like, okay, well, if I want to move during the workouts, what should I be doing? Again, it's like, if I'm doing a leg workout and I'm like, man, I'm doing these like hard sets and my, my, my legs are really burning. Yeah. Hop on the bike.

in between sets and just do a very, very light spin. Nothing to where if you start to feel that accumulation again, then you're going too hard and whatever it is. So like, think the intensity level is something that you should mark. Like they're doing five to 10 % of one at max that I've never even heard that used for anything like other than like a warm up, you know, so that that is incredibly low. So even if you're utilizing it in track workouts or whatever, it's just got to be very, very light movement, I think is the big takeaway. And so if you're feeling that burn,

Just know that you can clear the lactate, the lactate doesn't want to clear itself if you're just sitting on the ground doing nothing. But I like to challenge the system and be like, do something with it, body. Do something with that lactate while I sit here and do nothing or stand here and do nothing. I don't know why that might, that's my preference. And what's funny about it too is like, it's like a mental thing for me too. I'm like, why don't you, why don't you like move around? I'm like, no, I'm working real hard. I want to rest when it's time to rest.

I will work really hard when it's time to work again. I'm like having this internal battle with myself when I'm ⁓ not moving around during my rest sets of hard intervals. Maybe I'd be fitter if I changed that approach.

Dave (13:49)
I think I have a similar mindset. I don't see walking at like 1.2 miles an hour as like a high degree of work though either versus like laying down.

Jerred (13:55)
No, it's, it's too much. It's adding

too much to the, another, another reason I've done this in the past is like, if I'm measuring distance, ⁓ in a workout, like, ⁓ like sometimes I'll do a minute hard, a minute off on the treadmill or something. Let's say I do that for 30 minutes or an hour. The benchmark, what I'm measuring in that workout is the total distance. Like that's what it is. And I'm like, I don't want me walking at three miles per hour versus four miles per hour versus one mile per hour.

to be the difference in what that outcome is on the workout. ⁓ So anyway, that's another thing. I'll justify this all day. What else you got? Just kidding. Ultimately, at end of the day, you should be moving around. I think that's the biggest takeaway.

Dave (14:39)
Do you guys think there's any other object like looking at heart rate or any of those things of like is really selective clearance like anything people could be looking at that you know, like if they want to test it to be like, I want to try doing I'm doing a 400 or 800 like are there any other things that people can look at aside from just like time or distance to be able to track?

Jerred (14:58)
Joe, was the protocol we did when you came over to my house, I guess probably like a year or two ago, I think two years ago, like, yeah, what were we doing to clear lactate? We were measuring lactate, but then we, guess we just technically stand around after the fact, right? It was like.

Joe (15:03)
the zone two one.

Well, we know you're just, we were running in 15 minute intervals and every 15 minutes you get off, your finger, measure the level and get back on. And then it was, uh, like, depending on what the reading was, the, the, uh, whatever the minimal, think, um, yeah, you would either have to increase your pace or decrease your pace or whatever. like, and then you would find your pace or your heart rate. It was, it was the pace based off of your heart rate. like, I would shoot for like one 45 at first. Okay. Up at one 50. Okay. Up it. And then it was like, okay, maybe the.

Jerred (15:28)
Millimole? Yeah.

Right.

Joe (15:43)
155 is too high. So we had to bring it down like 152 and I was like, okay, that's your, that's your zone two right there.

Jerred (15:50)
Yeah, speaking of protocol, the reason I said that when you asked that question is because we did a YouTube video on this. we actually, it was me, Joe, and Mark Bishop, and we were actually trying to find out where that zone two is. But also part of that is once you go over this threshold for accumulating too much lactate, you're no longer in zone two. That is the truest form of zone two, the most individualized approach to zone two as well. People talk about conversational pace. People talk about. ⁓

you know, slow within a certain heart rate, but ultimately it's, you accumulating lactate? And if you're not really, then you're most likely in zone two, or if it's within this, this threshold that we had in that episode. So we do know that clearing lactate is probably zone two or lower typically. So I think anything, if we're looking for like a prescription and be like, I would make sure I'd want to be in like the very low end of zone two.

So if like my upper end zone to say is 150 beats per minute. I am I lower is like 117 I would want to be in like a 117 to clear but maybe Maybe the intensity should even be less than that don't know but that's where I'd want to be if I'm actually like, okay I need to I need to clear some lactate right now

But where this, I think this would be most helpful is like in the middle of like a Murph workout, but you know, there's no time to waste. can't. So it's like, it's like, I think you, it's better just to train in these fatigued positions. ⁓ which is only my counter argument to all of this is, and Joe, you kind of mentioned it's like, what are you training for? Like, I don't always want to be in a perfect position for my next set, depending on what I'm training for. Like if I'm going for max sets.

Joe (17:13)
No.

Jerred (17:35)
A max, a one rep max or 20 rep max or anything, five rep max. I want to rest 19 minutes between sets. I want that next set to be the best possible thing that it can be. That's what I'd want in that condition. But if I'm training to get better at something like Murph, um, you know, and they talk a lot about this in high rocks training, like I want to be in compromised positions constantly. Like I want to know what it feels like to run a mile after I've done 500 squats.

Like these are the positions I want to put myself in to be better. Like I want, I want to accumulate as much lactate as possible and keep moving. And I think that might be, again, not speaking from a scientific perspective, just an athlete's perspective right now, that might be what causes the body to figure out what to do with lactate in those positions is like, okay, hey body, here's a bunch of lactate. I don't plan on stopping. What are you going to do? And fine, we'll use it. You know, that's what I think that's the body will do eventually. Like you'll train yourself to be able to.

continue to move in these fatigued or compromised positions.

Joe (18:36)
I just think about that first quarter mile of the second mile of Murph. It's like a crawl. Like I feel like I can walk almost at the same speed as the slow jog to get that first quarter mile go. And then it's like, okay, I can actually get up to my, my jogging run speed, but that, yeah. And I did like a mock, high rocks workout last year or something earlier this year. And yeah, just starting off that, like getting up the driveway and up and around the corner a little bit. was just like, my God, I'm at a crawl right now. But then after.

Jerred (18:51)
It's all that clearing. It's like clearing is happening. Yeah.

Joe (19:05)
By the I got to halfway, I'm like, okay, this is fine. I'm already gone way through. So yeah, practicing, you know, get yourself a ⁓ full lactate and then train that way. Don't do this.

Jerred (19:18)
Yeah, that's all I'm saying. Like what do you want?

What's the goal? You know, if the, if the goal is to like, see how your body continues to move lactate, ⁓ try it out, but it's also how you make people throw up. I can tell you that from a coaching perspective, you want, you want someone to throw up, just take someone who's fairly trained, moderately trained and fill their body with lactate. I don't know what the mechanism is exactly, but it will make them throw up nine out of 10 times. You know, it takes a very trained athlete to not throw up.

not throw up from massive amounts of lactate accumulation.

Dave (19:52)
And there's a practical side to all this too. That's where we can look at some of these studies and it's like, like you said, 19 minute rest time between if you're going for max performance. And you could find a study that shows that, but it's like, okay, do you have 20 hours to train during the day where you can rest 19 minutes between each set? Like, what are you giving up by, okay, I'm getting a little more bar speed on this, but my volume decreases by 40 % to get you there and all the benefits that come with more volume based on what your goals are. Like,

Jerred (20:04)
Exactly.

Dave (20:18)
That's are the trade-offs that always come with these studies that people don't look at. They're like, okay, well, I'm to start resting the longer. I'm going to go find a bike in between my squats or go do some chest press in between. it's like, are you missing out on more volume or intensity elsewhere by, know, by trying to optimize this, this one thing.

Jerred (20:34)
Yeah, I think everything always comes back to blood flow and Dave, I'm sure you can agree, like, if you have an injury.

One of the major goals is movement. And a lot of that movement is like the reason why is because of the blood flow that's going to come to that part of the body. You know, if I hurt my shoulder or whatever, it's like, well, I don't want to sit around and do nothing. I want to continue to move so blood can get in and out of the area and heal that area. It's the same with recovery. Like if you're really sore, it's better to move, get blood flow throughout the body. Blood flow helps the immune system. Like blood flow, blood flow helps a lot of things. Like blood flow even helps.

pre-workout if you're trying to target a specific muscle group. Like I think, you know, like one thing that I do to like trying to prime my legs for a leg workout is I'll sit on the air dyne. I'll do, I mean, not like a max set, but I'll do two or three minutes. I'll start really light. And then by the end of that, like say I'm 45 seconds out to being done, I'm starting to push it up to like 80 % intensity.

Um, you know, 70, 80 % then by the last 20 seconds, I'm going 90 % intensity. This is like right around where, um, you know, it would become a really tough workout. And then I stop and it's just like, I'm barely like, I'm just starting to like have to breathe a little bit harder. But what I feel is a bunch of blood rushed to my legs. And then I'm like, okay, now I'm ready for a workout. And that's the best position you could prime yourself into any workout is getting a ton of blood flow to that area before you even start the training.

Alright, gentlemen, let's get to... Well, Joe, you had a question. You want to surprise me with a question on the podcast? Let's hear it.

Joe (22:16)
Yeah.

So you've had your gym equipment for your gym up running for like two months now or something.

Jerred (22:23)
Yeah, I think so.

Joe (22:24)
Yeah. So you were body weight for awhile. Then you have your gym, you're set up. You're, you're happy with all that. Has there come a time during your workout where you didn't have a piece of equipment that you did before you missed a certain piece of equipment or you've since ordered like a one-off piece of gym equipment from the, your original bulk holder.

Jerred (22:44)
No, so if anybody wants to hear everything I ordered I did a podcast episode on that I don't know a few months ago on like everything that was in the Garage Gym order. I don't think anything has come up. I'm trying to think ⁓ Because I have a barbell with plates I have dumbbells I've kettlebells ⁓ Rings pull-up bar like I have everything that I need so nothing's come up the only thing I didn't order that I had previously that I will eventually order just hasn't been a priority is that Freak Athlete

thing.

Joe (23:15)
That's what I thought that was like your newest thing that you got and you loved

Jerred (23:17)
Yeah, I

had purchased that recently before it went with the last house and I would order that again. Now, what I liked about that thing and how I primarily use it, even though it's like a whatever, 97 machines in one or whatever they claim, I really use it primarily for two things. And that was GHD sit-ups, because I really liked those. ⁓

Jury's out on whether or not that's bad for your back. Maybe Dave, you can talk more about that. But sometimes I feel like my back's in a lot better position since I started doing fewer GHG sit-ups. So who knows? ⁓ So maybe I should stop that altogether. But the Nordic curl, I just don't feel like there's a great way, ⁓ I'd say as a minimalist equipment athlete, to train the hamstrings in any significant way. Like, yeah, you can.

You can deadlift and everything else, but that comes with trade-offs and it's still like there's a lot more muscle groups involved. like directly training the hamstrings, I find to be fairly difficult, but also incredibly important. And so I was doing a lot of Nordic curls even before I had the freak athlete thing. I had that thing that attached to your door, like underneath your door, to where you could do it that way, but I have a great setup in this gym for, for something like that. And so that is the only thing that I want. And it's primarily for let's, let's call it one, maybe two exercises.

possibly back extensions. I'm trying to think if I use that thing for anything else. I mean, that ended up being like, I tried a lot of the different things that it had on there. Like, ⁓ I even bought the leg. I didn't. Yeah, but I didn't find that. Like I've never been big on the split squat thing. Like I don't, it doesn't bother me my foot's on a bench. You know what I mean? Like those specific, like rounded, they rotate a little bit. I've never, I don't know, maybe I have good ankle mobility. I have no idea. It's like,

Joe (24:43)
You could use it for split squats, right? To put your foot on for rear elevated.

Jerred (25:03)
That's never been helpful for like, yeah, this made a split squash so much better. It's like, yeah, I could just do it on a bench. But yeah, I would say that primarily is I wish I could get some Nordic Curls back in the program.

Joe (25:15)
I will say what it, cause I've never had a Nordic anywhere to do with Nordic curls, but shout out to Matt silver. ⁓ I, he had me doing. BOSU ball, hamstring curls, either single or double. So those, those are hard. Those are real hard, especially if you go slow.

Jerred (25:27)
Hmm, yeah. Those are, those are brutal.

Yeah. Those PTs, man, they know how to get in those really annoying... It's like, I've been training my whole life. Throw anything at me. They're like, how about this with a pink weight and the light band? You're like, damn it, that's hard. Yeah. How did you find my weaknesses so fast? it was improper mechanics for 20 years. This is easy. Yeah.

Joe (25:35)
Right?

Yeah, demoralizing and it hurts. Yeah.

Dave (25:42)
Instant cramping.

Joe (25:48)
Yeah

Yeah.

Jerred (25:54)
Alright cool, let's get some quick updates from everyone. Joe, how are you doing? How's training?

Joe (25:58)
Well,

uh, speaking of improper mechanics, um, a of weeks ago, I mentioned my heel, my issue and, um, Dave, you mentioned this like off-handedly because obviously you wouldn't know without assessing me, but like that my form could be off in something that I'm doing. And I'm like, what the heck can my form be off on it? I'm like, am I walking funny? Am I walking wrong? And so one day I was like 30. Yeah. What do I do all the time? So one day I'm in the living room in one evening, like for 30 minutes, just doing like.

Jerred (26:20)
You're like, yeah.

Joe (26:27)
really, really slow steps doing circles in the liver room. Like am I, I, what am I doing? If I'm walking, it's funny. And I was, I was, yeah, right. Like Liz just like peeking around the corner of me video and just like, ⁓ cause I think it's just, my 10 and 90s in my right Achilles and like my right hamstring would be really tight and sore a lot. So when I was taking steps and walking,

Jerred (26:34)
I wish there was a video of this.

Yeah, what's he doing?

Joe (26:54)
My heel wasn't coming off the ground. My heel was staying on the ground as I would step. So that would put a lot of stretch and strain on that heel at the bottom of the Achilles. And I was realizing that and I'm like, okay, so when I step, I actually have to like, think about flex my calf, flex my hamstring. And I did this for like 20 minutes of like learning, like relearning how to walk. ⁓ and I'm fine now. I mean, I'm, I still have a bone spur, but like the very next week I got on the treadmill. Yeah.

Jerred (27:21)
You just fix your walk in, you're better. That's

incredible.

Joe (27:24)
Self-assessed. Yeah, so the very next week I went on base I did a One one minute sprints on the curved treadmill because I think I do think because of my heel running on the curved treadmill just way better and I just feel like Yeah, and like I think my body just runs better fast than slow like it hurts more to run slow. Yeah, SR 71 yeah, because everything just comes together when you go fast, but it's when it's just sitting there It just doesn't work. So I think I just can just run sprints

Jerred (27:36)
that forces it,

We've talked about this with me. You called me the SR-71 or whatever.

Joe (27:53)
Uh, and then I also played soccer last week, which it was fine, but like going into like dead sprints from the 50, uh, for a 60 minute game. I was, I was sore as hell for three days afterwards, but that's just normal. That's just fine. Um, so yeah, I forgot how to walk on one foot and, uh, now I'm pretty much better. Thanks Dave.

Jerred (28:14)
So you think the,

it's not like you've been walking incorrectly your whole life, you think it's the injury caused the improper mechanics for walking. Okay.

Dave (28:15)
Good.

Joe (28:18)
No. Yeah. It's just like,

had a really, cause I've 10 nights there. So I know I've gone in spats of like really tight, sore Achilles. And after whenever I would do long zone two runs, my right hamstring would be a lot more sore than the other side. So I think I was just, as I was stepping nursing that side and just, it just caused me to step weird. Then that just compounded and then my heel was just unhappy with me. and then once I figured that out,

It's all better.

Jerred (28:52)
Well, way to go Dave. Look at you. Dave's like, I think you're doing something wrong. And he's like, what could it be? Dave, how's training for you going?

Dave (28:55)
You're welcome. guess. Yeah. You fix your walk in. It's like, just walk around the living room for a half hour.

Joe (28:56)
Send me the bill.

Yeah.

Dave (29:08)
Good yes mentioned so I think last update so trying to cut back some of the runnings I think my runs in a pretty good spot for the the 5k and lifting challenge. I'm going for Definitely still weighs on the on the numbers and a of that's coming down to I don't see body weight and I've it's weird cuz I've never had too much of a problem gaining weight in the past with like football career and those things and I feel like I'm a Easy gainer not a hard gainer, but just with more more running volume and some of those things and eating cleaner. It's like it's actually

surprisingly hard to, and I know how to gain weight if I was like, could go put five to 10 pounds on over Thanksgiving weekend, but like to, to put on actual muscles. When I, when I say that people are like, yeah, I know. Like it's easy to gain weight. like, I could gain a lot of weight quick, but to actually put muscle on is like just an incredibly slow process. So that's where trying to play with that right now and figure out what I to be doing to, to get some more weight on. Cause that's gonna, that's where I'm, I know if I could add five to 10 pounds of muscle.

Even just wait, all that bean muscle, but the lifts are going to be a lot easier. So I will be testing out. think we're planning to, you know, buddy of mine are going to test out the challenge sometime here in November. So we'll get a, initial baseline. I've been training at it for about 10 weeks now or so, 10, 11 weeks. So it'll be fun to see what the, uh, what the baseline is. Cause I said going into it, I'm like, I have no idea if this is a, a six month goal or a 18 month goal or a three month goal. So it'll be fun to see, uh, what that baseline is at.

Jerred (30:33)
Should have

taken a day zero baseline. it's motivating to see the progress, you know, like from, Well, cool. You'll have to keep us updated on that. But you feeling good? No aches, pains, injuries, nothing? Good to go.

Dave (30:37)
I should have, yeah.

I bet there's been a lot already that I won't see.

Yeah,

mostly good. With a little more bench in my right shoulder, that's something from football that I've had for, I don't know, 20 years at this point. So it kind of comes and goes, but bench is probably the only thing that I need to be a little cautious with, which I don't love flat benching, but trying to figure out ways to work around that.

Jerred (31:08)
Yeah.

Joe (31:09)
Were you ever an athlete if you didn't ever have a shoulder issue or if you don't currently have a shoulder issue? just anything.

Jerred (31:13)
from bench press, yeah.

Dave (31:14)
Yeah, not possible. ⁓

Jerred (31:17)
I think a bench press might be one of the most like.

I don't know. It's like, I'm OK with a squat being like something, but the bench is so stupid. ⁓ It's just, I, yeah.

Dave (31:27)
Mm-hmm.

Joe (31:29)
Every time I bench,

I'm like, I lifted off the rack. I'm like, this could go wrong. This could just go wrong for no reason.

Dave (31:32)
You

Jerred (31:36)
Well, people die every year doing it, which I think is crazy, but also it's just such a weird position. Like, I've never really found myself in that position and like, it's not, it doesn't feel very functional, but training your triceps and your chest is pretty functional. And I think, I think a closed grip bench press makes a lot more sense than a typical bench press.

Joe (31:58)
That's why I always love dumbbells.

Jerred (32:00)
Well, that's what my oldest he's 13. They're starting to in the weight room and stuff. They're about to start off offseason because football season is winding down for them. And the questions come like how much do you bench? And I'm like, oh, that's still a thing. Dang it. OK. And there's no way no way I can convince him that is not important. You don't need to worry about it. Like, we're going to we're going to have to bench press. Right. So I think it's just a thing. It's a thing. Always will be how much you bench, bro.

All right, for me training wise, it's been good. I need to change something. I am starting to plateau a little bit. So I've been doing the strike zero program. and here's how I've been measuring those things. Like, so what you do in the strike zero program, you pick an exercise and then you pick an reps. Okay. So example, I will typically do like a hundred pull-ups. There are, are more than one exercise, but

I'll typically do a push, a pull, and a lower body. So for the pull, I'd pick pull-ups, I would, 100, you're supposed to do it in as few sets as possible, right? So every set is a max set, should be. And the two things I'm tracking are my opening set, like how many reps I get, and then also ⁓ the average reps per set. So the opening set is the first set rep, like what is your max? And then after that is how many, like,

how quickly did you finish it? Like did you finish a hundred in four sets, three sets, five sets? So just averaging that out. The two things I'm tracking and those things have been steadily climbing, but I'm starting to plateau in that regard. And I'm also starting to plateau on the conditioning side. I've been testing, I've mentioned this, Murph broken down into multiple rounds of 160 meters, then five, 10, 15, pull up, up squat. And so I've been doing,

Not only that, like, as an entire workout, but I've also been doing a 10-minute AMRAP version of that, just at how far can I go in that, and I keep, I'm like barely able to PR. I'm like able to get back on the treadmill and get like additional 10 meters or something like that, but then the next time I try it, you know, four days later or whatever, I might fall back 10 meters. It's like I'm really, I'm edging, ⁓ like on that line of being able to see progress. And then same with the pull-ups.

But I'm pretty proud of myself. think my last opening set of strict pull-ups with a vest on was like 24 reps. So I don't know how many strict pull-ups I can do right now with a vest off, which should be something I'm going to test. But I also got sick last week. And so I'm not going to switch anything on the program yet. I'm probably going to push it through another two weeks because I started to see a little bit of performance, like degradation.

If you will, but then it was like, then I was sick, like within 36 hours of that. And I'm like, well, your body's normally sick before you know, you're sick, you know? So part of me is wondering if it was just that. So I'm going to let everything shake out over the next two weeks, but it's been fun. It's been fun to see the progress because I'm testing everything so frequently. ⁓ like I'll do that 10 minute AMRAP probably twice a week. I'll do the pullup workout once or twice a week, just to see those things move up, ⁓ over time. Cause it's got, I think it went from like 17.

reps with the vest to my opening set to 24 in, I don't know how many weeks I've been doing it, but not a super long amount of time. But I also, I'm starting to feel like the workouts not really kicking my ass anymore either. It's just, that's, that's kind of to be expected with body weight stuff. It's hard for it always to be challenging, but I'm getting to the point where I'm like, the first time I did that and you do like five sets to failure with the vest on you like toast. And now I'm like, I'm finishing faster. I feel fine. I'm not sore the next day.

⁓ which you don't have to be sore for it be good workout, but I just, could tell like I'm really adapting to the training. So I gotta, I gotta decide what's next within this, this program to keep progressing.

Joe (36:03)
What could you do the strike zero day with kettlebell?

Jerred (36:06)
Yeah, I've thrown that idea around, but I don't know if I want to go. I like taking things to failure with body weight and a vest, but I don't like taking things to failure as much with any kind of instrument. Yeah, like especially kettlebell, like kettlebell swings to failure. I don't even know what that would be. That's a lot. That's like, that would be measured in minutes, not reps and depend, depending on the weight. And anytime I've done that with kettlebell stuff, that I do end up getting hurt with kettlebell stuff. If I like, I did a

Joe (36:16)
Because of power.

Jerred (36:36)
I myself twice over last year. These were very minor, ⁓ not chronic injuries, but I think I did like three minute snatches, something like that, with a kettlebell. ⁓ Or several sets of that, and my shoulder ended up being jacked up. I did way too many kettlebell swings. My lower back ended up being messed up. ⁓ So anyway, I love the kettlebell, but it's like trying to find out where it would fit in. But I need to bring that in. I feel like my legs just aren't getting any...

anything like they're just I don't I can do I can do the craziest body weight stuff you've ever seen and they're not sore they don't care and I feel like they just they're not getting any work I'm like what's wrong with you legs like why don't why won't you get better you know yeah well I feel like I could do that I feel like I'm primed for something like that right now just like a quarter mile walking lunges without stopping let's go you know and didn't take long to get back up to speed and that kind of stuff either

Joe (37:21)
bring out the quarter mile lunches.

Jerred (37:38)
Cool. You guys got anything else? Throw rocks at the fitness industry next week, I'm sure.

Joe (37:41)
No?

Jerred (37:44)
But we'll round this one out. I appreciate all the athletes out there doing the training. If you want to see what our training looks like, just head over to garagejimathlete.com. Sign up for a free trial. We'd love to have you. But that's it for this one. Remember, if you don't kill comfort, comfort will kill you.