What Is The Future Of Fitness & Garage Gym Athlete?

Hey, Athletes! What Is The Future Of Fitness & Garage Gym Athlete?- Episode of The Garage Gym Athlete Podcast is up!

What Is The Future Of Fitness & Garage Gym Athlete?

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IN THIS 25-MINUTE EPISODE WE DISCUSS:

• Jerred talks about the future of fitness
• He gives a recap on his past fitness experience and discusses where he believes the fitness industry is heading. 
• He also gives where Garage Gym Athlete is going in the future.
• And A LOT MORE!!

Diving Deeper…

If you want to go a little bit deeper on this episode, here is a link to the study for you: 

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• What Is The Future Of Fitness & Garage Gym Athlete?

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To becoming better!

- Jerred

Podcast Transcript

Jerred: This is the Garage Gym Athlete Podcast, and we're here to build autonomous athletes and put phenomenal programming into every garage, basement, and spare bedroom out there. I'm Jared Moon, and I'm with Jill Courtney. We are strength and conditioning coaches who have turned over 20, 000 people into Garage Gym Athletes over the last decade, and we're here to reduce the information overload that exists in the health and fitness industry today.

We're going to do that by covering relevant science and give actionable takeaways, not only from the data, but from our years of experience. So let's dive in.

Athletes. Welcome to the garage gym athlete podcast. It's just me today. If you're wondering where Joe has been. He's been moving across the country. I'll let him update you, across the country, across the world. So I'll let him update you when he finally gets back on the podcast. Should be in the next week or two.

So he's still around and he will be back. I just didn't want him to have to stress about the podcast while he was traveling, poor audio quality, all that kind of stuff. We're letting him get set up and then he will be back on the podcast and you won't have to listen to just me for very much longer. But I wanted to go off the cuff today.

I know we talk a lot about science and studies and everything, but I just really want to talk about what I am thinking about fitness, where I feel like I'm headed with my own direction and journey and fitness things I want to test. And that's what's always kept me going in fitness is doing new things.

It's not doing new things so sporadically that I never see progress, but it's a new programming methodology. It's a new way to implement things. And I feel like I've dabbled in just about everything now. I've been really into bodybuilding before. I've been what I walked away with bodybuilding is a lot of, to be honest, mental health issues.

I've recovered from most of those and I'm not going to try and sit here and pretend like they were awful compared to what a lot of people face. But a body dysmorphia for sure took me forever to break free from that. It's why I stay away from that kind of training for the most part now, even though I feel like I have a healthier mindset.

Just left a bad taste in my mouth. And again, that's not anything on bodybuilding. It's about me. So I've done a lot of bodybuilding. I've done sports athletic training, especially when I was younger, like getting better at sprinting and athletics, those kind of things, very much performance based in a particular modality.

I got really into CrossFit for a couple of years. That was like right when End of Three Fitness was starting. I've experimented with basically every methodology there. I've been really into powerlifting. Seen some incredible numbers in powerlifting. While I've never attended a powerlifting meet, I was able to triple the deadlift, triple my bodyweight at the time.

Also be able to, I could throw up some serious squat numbers. I like powerlifting. I do feel like it will break you eventually. So you have to find some version of that works for you. I've been really into calisthenics training. I've been talking about that over the last couple of years, last year, I would say I've been doing a lot more calisthenics that was from my body getting broken from powerlifting training.

So I've been really into calisthenics, but not in the sense of like gymnastics training, even though I've tried a little bit of that. Gymnastics training was just too boring for me. It was like too much focus on one small movement for weeks at a time. I didn't have the patience for that. I felt like I was getting a lot less fit in a lot of other areas trying to do gymnastic training.

So the calisthenics training that I was a part of, MIRF type stuff, just being really good at pushups, sit ups, squats, pull ups, all those kinds of things. And I've done endurance training, and I've been doing endurance training more recently. I used to only use endurance training as something to push myself mentally and not something that I probably enjoy doing.

Long term, I think that's probably come across in several podcast episodes I've done so I've experimented with almost all of it. I can't think of, I've done sandbag training, odd objects. I've done some strongman stuff. Like I've just done basically all of it. And it makes me think of what the future of fitness is, not only for myself but for garage gym athlete and what I think is best for a human being.

That's what I'm always trying to think of because we started talking about zone two. Which has fully made its rounds, right? Everybody is talking about doing zone two training. And when we first started talking about doing zone two training and how it could build your aerobic base, it wasn't as talked about.

And I don't, I'm not saying I deserve a gold medal for that. I'm just saying it wasn't as talked about. It was more of, hey, we think that this is important. And now I think it's going the other direction to where people are focused too much. On that kind of thing. And I talked about this when I gave my critique of Peter Peter Atiyah's book and I got into his fitness section and how I thought he was being a little bit too compartmentalized with his training methodology.

The dude spends whatever 14 hours a week on training, thinks that this is the protocol to live longer. It very well could be, but his, there's a lot of people who lived a long time who never did that. And so I don't know if it's completely necessary. I guess if Peter Tia makes it to 150, he will have proven his point, but I'm sure I'll be dead at that point, won't really care.

So anyway what do I think from what I'm seeing is the best methodology for fitness? Like where is it really? And if I had to lean any direction It would be more of a mixed modality training. So when I say mixed modality, I'm talking about different modalities. You could think of CrossFit.

You could think of CrossFit, but not CrossFit. Like I, I have a lot of issues with CrossFit, but it's more in the execution. Not necessarily what CrossFit is. It's the high intensity. It's no work to rest ratios or intervals. Typically. I know some people program that stuff, but it's not like by definition CrossFit is.

But I think mixed modality. is going to be the biggest bang for your buck. Because when you do listen to these scientist nerds who are trying to tackle fitness, think. Peter Atiyah, think Layne Norton, think Rhonda Patrick. They're just, I don't know, they're just looking at it from the wrong angle. The wrong lens.

Even like Huberman. All these people, I've dove into what they think the best fitness protocol is. And I think Dr. Andy Galpin has some really interesting stuff that I think is pretty solid. So I'd say that. There's a lot of truth in these things, but I think when you're getting down into the weeds of, okay, I need to do this much zone two, and I need to do this much VO two max work, and I need to do this much strength training.

It's just, you can't really do it all. Most people are never going to be able to fit that into their programming. And so I really think mixed modality is where it's all at. I think that's where, I think that's the future. Whether people choose to embrace it or not, but I think that it's been done so improperly and so incorrectly.

that maybe it won't make it, maybe it won't become mainstream because CrossFit had a really good idea. They CrossFit is mixed modality training and it, I think that it's a great methodology, mixed modality in and of itself if you can program it correctly. But what they did instead of programming it correctly was stipulate that it needs to be high intensity, functional movements every day, like all that kind of stuff.

And so that was the stigma I got. It was just a huge miss, a huge whiff by CrossFit. And they had a good run, like they had a really solid run of popularity and everyone was like getting into it, but then to be honest, I think CrossFit's more or less run its course. I think there's so many other things out there that are overtaking CrossFit and its popularity.

And I don't know if that's the company leadership or if it's just the fact that most people at this point have tried CrossFit. And they know it's not for them. Like they just can't maintain the high intensity every single day. It fries their central nervous system. Maybe their hormones get jacked up.

Like something happens. Maybe they just get injured from improper. Mechanics, improper instruction, improper loading, whatever it is. Cause they're just, they're looking at the score. They're looking at the time. So that was the only missed piece. And those are a lot of, should I say missing pieces. They missed a lot of pieces, but the mixed modality nature of what they had going on, I think it was really solid.

And I've talked to a lot of coaches about this who are thought leaders in the industry and the kind of. Have the same agreement and I'm not here to talk about all the bad and CrossFit. I'm what I'm saying and the reason I'm talking about CrossFit so much as opposed to running or any other endurance training or whatever is I feel like they had a big part of the P a big part of the puzzle figured out and it was the mixed modality nature of it, but then they screwed it up with everything else.

And I've been thinking a lot about, okay, how do we, how can we take that mixed modality? And remove all the bad that CrossFit had, but then add in all the other things that we know that are good. We know the, how good strength training in general is for you. We know you do need your VO two max training. We know that's a big predictor of longevity.

We know that you need zone two training. We know that you need. All of these things, but if you were to look again, like going back to CrossFit programming, this'd be the last time I asked CrossFit is they're really only working on most of the time, like that VO two max effort and not as much okay, zone two or strength work or whatever.

And so what I've been thinking a lot about, and one, I'm starting to play with different programming frameworks for this is how can we build mixed modality, programming frameworks, systems that achieve all of those goals. Okay. So how can we have a mixed modality workout where you're getting stronger in the process, but you're not going too far down the bodybuilding path or the powerlifting path where you're focused too much on exactly what your biceps look like and the size of them, or you're not too focused, you're not too focused on the weight on the bar to where you might end up hurting yourself.

I think that we've landed in a really good spot with our body geometry framework for strength training. Now conditioning. Now, there's nothing wrong with running and sprinting and all those kind of things, but some people just aren't into it. Like some people are not going to do a couple hours of Zone 2 work every single week, frankly because it's boring and frustrating for a lot of people.

So what could we do instead? How could we Build these workouts around where they do work. Give a heart rate based mixed modality training. That's ultimately going to work on zone two. And I've been going deep down the rabbit hole here and. The guy who talks about zone two the most other than probably me is Peter Tia.

And I've listened to basically everything he has on zone two training. Again, he gets so compartmentalized. It's okay. I have to hold this much power output on my bike trainer for this long, and that's my zone two. He could very well be right. I would admit that I don't, like I'm coming from a theoretical basis of having tested my blood lactate, done a lot of zone two stuff.

Like I've been in the weeds with this stuff, but what I'm wondering is that power output on the bike erg, is that necessary to be considered zone two? It is not good enough just for a heart rate. Does it have to be like this power output? So we're under that lactate threshold to our body.

You can still utilize lactate, recycle it and not accumulate it. So ultimately my question is can we build structured mixed modality workouts that maybe last for 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 60 minutes, 120 minutes where we are doing zone two, but we're doing zone two through mixed modality and I've already experimented with this some in garage gym athlete training.

If you've ever seen our 30 minute EMOMs, 40 minute EMOMs, 60 minute EMOMs, things like that, I've been experimenting with this idea, but I've never. stipulated like some sort of heart rate or zone rating. We couldn't, we wouldn't be able to do power because you'd be switching between mixed modalities so much, but can't, is that possible?

And what are those frameworks look like? And I'm starting to test some of those workouts now I'll be at very small cause I'm still doing a lot of running and strength training, getting ready for the ultra I plan to do in April. But ultimately that's the direction I want to head after this is I really want to see.

What mixed modality training can look like if you're factoring all these things in. So can we program a zone to mixed modality? workout, maybe based off EMOM, maybe not that is zone two specific. It can move you in the right direction for building your aerobic base. Is that a possibility? I already know it's possible to do mixed modal training for increasing VO2 max, but can we do it in a better way than was ever done in CrossFit where there's a lot of work to rest ratio stuff involved?

Like we've done a lot of that in garage gym athlete training too. But now stipulating it down to the heart rate level. That's something, again, that's been the missing piece for us is I've been experimenting with these ideas. But now that I've done so much of the endurance work and I see what it really takes to move the needle It's pretty simple stuff.

It's okay. You need to do a lot of base training, but oh But if you're not like working at the top of the pyramid if you're not doing the vo2 max and you're not doing The mid level like zone 3 or upper threshold zone 2 stuff, whatever you want to call it You're not actually gonna move the needle like you do all the zone 2 work in the world if you want But you won't move the needle And so that's what I want to start testing is, okay, how can these mixed modality workouts be structured?

And again, going to the VO2max, a great protocol. VO2max sessions are always longer than people would think. It's not 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off. That might help you initially with VO2max, but it might be 4 minutes on, 4 minutes off. Eight minutes on, eight minutes off, 10 minutes on, five minutes off. These are the kinds of things that could really move the needle, but it's high heart rates.

Very uncomfortable. These things it's actually a little bit easier to do running because you could just run at a higher heart rate and it's very demanding on your body. But can you do this through mixed modality? Can I have you do something that's going to be 10 minutes in duration at your threshold?

Your max aerobic function, like threshold, like above zone two, getting into zone four, those kinds of things. Can you sustain that for 10 minutes rest and then do it again through mixed modality training? So that's where I really think that's the biggest bang for your buck in fitness. And that's the direction, like I said, I'm heading.

I'm starting to experiment with starting to write down what these workouts look like. What's the framework? How can I turn this into a system so I can teach other people? That's just how my brain works. And I'm messing around with it a lot. I'm really interested to get everyone in our community involved in testing some of the workouts, trying some of the programming, and I'll talk more about that as time goes on.

But I just really wanted to let everybody know where my head is at because it's, it can be hard. It can be frustrating to know what to do. And I get it because you're out there. There are a lot of voices. There are a lot of talking heads and. I've just been doing this stuff for a long time and I look at it, I feel like from a different angle than most people because I don't have some sort of bias of bodybuilding needing to be a part of my weekly routine or I have nothing tied to endurance where I have to be this hardcore ultra marathoner so I probably can't, I can't stop doing that.

I feel like a lot of people get like stuck. I'm not stuck. My whole thing, this, my entire time ever talking on a podcast or being a part of anything publicly has just been fitness. I'm about fitness. I'm about what it takes to improve. And I think that this might be the best way. And the reason I say the best way because you don't have to get so compartmentalized.

Like I said, all these nerdy scientists do where they're like, Yeah, this is what you should do. You're gonna have to train 27 hours per week if you want to live longer. It's just, that's not true. That's not how, that's not how it's gonna be. Two things can happen at the same time. That's something that no one's catching on to.

I don't see how it's not being caught. Two things can happen at the same time. You can train your aerobic system and increase your aerobic base while also Training a muscular system while training your bicep while training your lats while training your quads to get stronger In fact, you can do both of those things at the same time but the reason people don't focus on this they're not looking at it is because There's been no test to prove it.

That's something I have to create as a part of all this. So I have to have a baseline fitness test that can make sure that you're actually getting better. We can even test things like resting heart rate, just to see if you're actually getting fitter. But what happens, I think it was Einstein. Who's if you compare a fish's ability to climb a tree, you're going to think it's an idiot or something like that.

I may have messed up the quote, but you get the idea, right? If you're wondering why a fish can't climb a tree, it's really good at something else. It's really good at swimming. It's really good at being in the water. And if I say, hey, The best way to improve your aerobic function and get a huge aerobic base is to do this mixed modality training.

That's a lot more fun, a lot more mentally engaging. People can stick with it. It's not as hard as the high intensity CrossFit stuff that nobody wants to do. It's not as boring as an hour and a half Zone 2 run. But it's still increasing your aerobic function. It's increasing your aerobic base. Then, where that won't translate though, is one thing I know I've just learned in doing all these different types of fitness over the years.

If you go do this type of training, it doesn't mean you're going to go be this badass marathon runner or 5k like you'll be able to finish those things and you'll have the capacity for it, but you're not going to be amazing at it because what I've learned about training is training only gets you good at what you're doing.

Period. That's it. If you want to be a good runner, you have to go run. There's no doing something else. I actually tried this. I was like, I'm going to try running twice a week, but then swimming three times a week to increase my aerobic capacity and see if it helps my running. Diddly. Barely does anything.

You can increase some of your aerobic capacity, but not by much. Not by much that translates to the run. And if you want to get good at something, you have to train for that thing. But my point Ever since I've been talking about anything is I don't care. Like I don't want to go be a good marathon runner.

I don't want, I don't care about being good at a Spartan race. I want to do those things, but I'm not trying to be competitive. I just want to have fun. I want to be fit. I want to play with my kids. I want to be athletic. I want to be able to do all the things that I want to do at a high capacity without being average without.

That being like an excuse to be average, lazy, out of shape, anything like that. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is if you got amazing and mixed modality training, so you're able to string together doing something on the biker while also swinging a kettlebell and then walking with a heavy load.

And you're doing these things on repeat. What is that getting you better at? It's getting you better at living life because all of those things are living life, your ability to carry a heavy load, grip strength, just aerobic function in general, I feel like mixed modality prepares you a lot better for life than anything else.

And I've been thinking about this so much so because I've been. You probably heard me on the podcast I did with Dave who ran the 100 mile race. And I'm like, I just don't feel when I'm running all the time. I don't feel athletic. I feel like my body's getting really good at running in a straight line and it translates to nowhere else.

And that's what I'm talking about. If you want to train for something and you want to get good at it, you have to do that thing. I'm getting good at running in a straight line and it's making me feel like I'm basically good at nothing else. I don't feel as strong as I used to be. I don't feel like I'm prepared for much.

I don't feel very athletic. I'm not trying to offend any runners, but ultimately that's all. It's getting me better as running in a straight line. Now I could say, Hey, I'm, I want to, I'll trade that. I will trade the. The fact that the only thing I'm getting better at is running in a straight line, but maybe my blood markers are better.

Maybe my resting heart rate's better. My heart is fitter. My lungs are fitter. Yeah, there's a fitness element to that, but there's a fitness element to everything I'm talking about. And so I will probably run a little bit because I enjoy a small amount. I don't enjoy a large amount and I don't want to just be good at running a straight line.

I want to be good at life. I want to be good at all the things that it takes to live life. Go on a hike, carrying a load, playing sports with my kids, going skiing. Like all of these things are things that I want to be good at. And I think that there's only one way to do that. And I think it's through this very precise and meticulously planned out mixed modality training.

It's not CrossFit. I've talked a lot about it, CrossFit in this episode, but it's not exactly that. And what I want to do is publish all the protocols publicly, like garage gym athletes, test them. It's going to take me a while. I'm working on it this quarter. Hopefully we can start experimenting in the programming in the second quarter.

So the second cycle at garage to math, but that's ultimately what I want to do. And it's just where my head's been at. That's why I didn't come today with this episode, anything prepared on. What scientific study is the best or any of that stuff. I just want to talk to the garage gym athletes out there.

What I think is the best style of fitness. What I think will get you ready for things. And then you just have to know what you want. Ultimately, I think the direction I'm headed is you obviously see is I just want humans to be good at living life. And when you do this type of training, cause I've done a lot of it in the past, just not.

I don't have, I didn't have all the protocols in place. You're just good at everything, right? You're not over, it's a jack of all trades, master of none approach. You're, you can still play basketball with your kids without getting injured. You can go do a Spartan race. Yeah, you can ski, you can hike, you can do all these things and that's great, but you're not going down the lines of, I'm doing high intensity all the time.

Yeah, I'm frying my central nervous system. I'm messing up my hormones. Like you're not going down that route either. I'm getting injured. There's a safe way to do these things, and that's what I want to explore a lot more of. But if you're like, no I want to get good at running a straight line as fast as I can.

This wouldn't be it. This isn't for you. This is not where you'd want to experiment or spend some of your time. But I've talked to several people about this now. They've gotten pretty hyped up about it. People who are even running right now, primarily as their conditioning and stuff, and they're like, yeah, that sounds way better.

If you could figure this out to how we can do mixed modality training, but bring in all those endurance elements that are awesome, improving our aerobic base, improving our zone to improving our VO two max, like improving all these things, also getting stronger, fitter at the same time, let's do it. And if you want to be part of it, let me know inside the garage gym athlete community. I will be publishing this stuff. It's a lot of, like I said, I'm working on this quarter, but that's it. Those are my thoughts on the future of fitness. What I think is the best for athletes out there agree or disagree. I'd love to hear it, but that's it for this one.

All of the athletes out there listening to the podcast really appreciate you. If you could leave a five star review and a positive comment, I'd really appreciate it. It helps the show out a lot for everyone else who's interested in what we're doing. You can go to garagegymathlete. com, sign up for a free trial.

We'd love to have you as a part of the community. Lastly, remember, if you don't kill comfort will kill you.