What Is Wrong With The Fitness Industry?

Welcome to a new chapter of the Garage Gym Athlete Podcast! In this episode, Jerred Moon and Joe Courtney are joined by new team member Dave Paczkowski for an honest, insightful discussion that dives deep into what’s wrong with the fitness industry—and how Garage Gym Athlete is doing things differently.

Meet Dave Paczkowski: Physical Therapist & Athlete With a No-BS Approach

Dave isn’t just another fitness influencer. He’s a physical therapist who’s been strength training since high school, has chased wild goals like completing a 100-mile ultramarathon with minimal training (yes, really), and once lunged a mile every Saturday for 8 months. He joins the Garage Gym Athlete team with a deep respect for smart, sustainable training—especially for busy parents juggling fitness and life.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Dave’s background and his “strength coach trapped in a PT’s world” story

• Why he chose to stop his lunge challenge—and what he learned from it

• His new ambitious goal: 500 lb deadlift, 400 lb squat, 300 lb bench plus a sub-20-minute 5K—all inside 60 minutes

What's Broken in the Fitness Industry—and What We’re Doing About It

The second half of the episode is a raw conversation about the current state of fitness content. The team dives into:

• How influencers promote extreme or oversimplified approaches

• The rise of performance-enhancing drug use (and lack of transparency)

• The problem of “barbell amnesia” among kettlebell and sandbag-only fanatics

• How social media rewards extremism over truth

Jerred, Joe, and Dave pull no punches, sharing why so many fitness messages today are misleading—and how Garage Gym Athlete is committed to long-term, sustainable, science-backed progress. No shortcuts. No hype. Just honest training built to last.

Self-Determination Theory & What Really Keeps You Motivated

Jerred also teases future deep dives into Self-Determination Theory—a powerful framework for understanding human motivation—and why the three pillars (autonomy, competence, and connectedness) are the real foundation for sticking with your fitness for the long haul.

Why Garage Gym Athlete is the Solution

If you’re tired of fake physiques, gimmicky workouts, or unqualified advice from 22-year-olds on TRT, Garage Gym Athlete is here for you. This episode is a recommitment to real fitness—for real people—done the right way.

And as always…
If you don’t kill comfort, comfort will kill you.

Garage Gym Athlete Workout of the Week

Podcast Transcript

Jerred: [00:00:00] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Garage Gym Athlete Podcast. I'm here and Joe is here. Welcome Joe. It's been a been a minute. Welcome back. Hey, [00:00:10] welcome back. And we got Dave Paczkowski. How's it going, Dave? Doing good. Excited to be on. Yeah, I'm excited for you to be here. So quick announcements, we'll start with that.

Dave is officially [00:00:20] joining the Garage Gym Athlete team. Welcome Dave. And what we're gonna start with is a little bit of background on Dave. Uh, ask him a few questions, put him through the ringer, make [00:00:30] sure that he's, you know, worthy. The Garage gym athlete will vote on this and decide whether or not you can officially be on the team.

I mean, I'm cool with it. Joe's cool with it, but [00:00:40] the community's gotta be cool with it. So no pressure. Uh, but you may have already heard from Dave on, it was actually our most popular podcast. In [00:00:50] 2024 when we did the recap of Dave running the a hundred Mile Ultra Marathon with no training, right? Or basically no minimal training.

Minimal minimal training. [00:01:00] Um, and I think it's funny that there's a popular podcast episode because that means there are a lot of people out there who like really wanna do the a hundred Mile Ultra, don't wanna train for it. [00:01:10] What kind of content's out there, and they found the Garage Gym Athlete podcast and listened to your episode.

Um, I think I prefaced in there like, don't do this. But, uh, anyway, Dave, welcome to the [00:01:20] team, man. We're glad to have you. Uh, let's start with a, a little bit of an intro. Uh, just start from. Birth if you can, and bring us up to today or anywhere in between then and [00:01:30] now.

Dave: Yeah, buckle up. We got a, we got a few, a few hours here to, to cover now it's funny, the, uh, yeah, we were talking to the, uh, the Ultra podcast and it's crazy how that one's so popular, which I guess it makes sense.

[00:01:40] 'cause if you're gonna do that, you probably wanna train as little as possible. Although that wasn't exactly my goal. And everyone loves a train wreck, right?

Jerred: Oh yeah. And Ultras are just gaining all this popularity and [00:01:50] people were like. I think I ran into the same thing when I ran my like, uh, the 50 K was like, I was like, this is a lot of running for what's gonna be a day of [00:02:00] my life.

You know? Can we, can I just do less right? Like, than I do less. I think we wanna know what's the minimum effect of this. Yeah. Can I do less? I think everybody wants, wants to know that.

Dave: So the secrets in that podcast, if you wanna [00:02:10] go back and listen to it, but I'm, I'm, uh, yeah, I'm excited to be here. Uh, my background, so I got connected with Jared, uh, through, uh, the Ptbi [00:02:20] group.

So I'm a physical therapist by, by degree, um, but always been a, a strength coach, stuck in a, a PTs world. Um, like a lot of, like a lot of PTs are now. So from [00:02:30] a, uh, young age, really high school, high school sports got me into strength conditioning. I played football and baseball in high school. College football at a[00:02:40]

very. I had the, the schooling side of it. And also though a lot of it was just [00:02:50] self-learning on, uh, strength conditioning, uh, how to take my performance to next level, which, uh, got me through football and then chasing stupid challenges like a [00:03:00] hundred mile, like a hundred mile race or just picking up fun goals and um, you know, running, lifting type goals over the years.

So that's, uh, that led me to getting connected with Jared back [00:03:10] in maybe 2018. I dunno, maybe it's been, yeah. Eight, eight years or so and got connected with Garage Gym, uh, through him indirectly and been following, following along ever [00:03:20] since. So, um, that's kind of training background. We can get into a little more of the, the follow up with some of that.

Uh, currently trac chasing some, some strength and some running goals. Uh. [00:03:30] It's that kind of a fun challenge for myself. Um, maybe we can get into here a different podcast, but otherwise, uh, you know, family's a big thing for me. I, my wife Lindsay and I have been married for [00:03:40] nine years as of last week.

Jerred: Nice.

Congrats. Uh, so we're

Dave: figuring it all out. Um, three, three kiddos. Uh, our daughter Elise is, is four. Uh, son [00:03:50] Noah, just turned two. And then our little son, Caden, is four months tomorrow as of recording this. So that's, uh. If you ask like hobbies and free time and all that, that, that probably [00:04:00] sums most of that up.

It's, it's trying to fit in, fit in training, fit in work, and then, you know, the, the, you know, family takes up in a good way. Uh, most of that. So that's a high [00:04:10] level what, uh, what I'm getting to these days. Seven kids between us. That's, uh, it's a lot.

Jerred: I'm really bringing the average down. [00:04:20] Hey man, uh, you got one though.

And, uh, he's keeping you plenty busy. Uh, I so. I do wanna ask, I'm gonna, I wanna ask what your specific concurrent [00:04:30] training goal is. 'cause I think the listeners will be pretty interested in that as well. But didn't you do something with lunges like a few years ago? What's the, what was it? The, the [00:04:40] lunch training goal that you did, right?

Dave: Yeah. So I got into walking lunges. I was gonna do it for a year. Uh, the goal was to do a mile of walking lunges. That was every Saturday. I was doing a mile of walking lunges, [00:04:50] uh, once a week. I was doing some during, during the week too. Shorter distances. But the goal was a mile once a week for a year. Uh, end up making it [00:05:00] eight or nine months.

Not 'cause uh, no. So close. I know there were, there were other reasons there. So what, what was the

Jerred: cutoff? What, what was the.

Dave: What was the reason? Uh, just [00:05:10] mismanaged priorities and time really of, uh, of, that's, that's when Elise was born and, and, uh, there's a lot of other stuff going on. So, yeah, it was something that stubbornly, and that's, that's kinda [00:05:20] like some of those takeaways from the Ultra is, is I set off for some of these challenges and usually the thing I learn is not the thing that I go in thinking I'm gonna get from it or anything like that.

So what I was [00:05:30] realizing though is just things were getting, things were getting out of. Out of order in some ways of, because I was starting to do more lunges during the week and it started chasing this arbitrary goal that [00:05:40] was taken away from, from family time. So I ended up cutting it out of, uh, maturity more than anything.

I think I got my mile down to, I think my best one was like low 40 minutes. Uh, that was [00:05:50] unweighted, but damn. Seemed like it's bad. Yeah. Seemed like it was fast. Uh, I don't, I don't know. There's no standards for mile walking, lunchtime, so I dunno.

Jerred: I did the, the other day, and I don't [00:06:00] think I talked, I think I talked about this to like, uh, team members, but I don't think I talked about it on the podcast that just the other day I was like, man, I wanna do some walking lunges.

And I, I was like, we used to program these in [00:06:10] garage gym athlete all the time, and I, so I did 'em all the time and I was like, pretty sure we, we programmed half mile. I think it was a half mile. And then, so I, somebody serve Saturday, we would do, we programmed quarter miles a lot. [00:06:20]

Joe: Yeah. So that's a meet.

Jerred: So

Joe: Saturday, that's a

Jerred: half.

Well that was my, that was my, I wasn't trying to do meet yourself Saturday. I was just like, yeah, I'm gonna knock out a, because this is at the end of the workout. It wasn't like my workout for the day. Mm-hmm. And so I was like, I'm gonna [00:06:30] go do it. And so I, uh, did a quarter mile, or I did a half mile, but it was between the quarter mile and the half mile that I was like.

Pretty [00:06:40] certain that we programmed quarter miles at the end of workouts and not, uh, not full half miles. And I think, I think I was in the 30 minute range, like around that. So I feel [00:06:50] like to double that, you know, now I wasn't going the fastest pace in the world, but that just get from my own perspective, that seems, seems pretty fast going.

You say [00:07:00] sub 40 for a a mile.

Dave: It was low forties.

Jerred: It was a forties. It was 40.

Dave: But

Jerred: yeah, that's, that's incredible man. It did. And now like going back to, I'm just curious because I actually [00:07:10] wanna do a lot of lunges right now. They're just, they are helping build my legs without injuring me, which is like, uh, great.

Did you notice anything strength [00:07:20] wise, muscular, endurance wise, anything from doing that many lunges that often?

Dave: No. I thought, I thought with all the volume, my legs would grow and they really just. I leaned up a bunch, um, [00:07:30] would be a big thing. I was squatting probably a few days a week. Like I, I was squatting several times a week at that point.

Volume was really low, uh, pushing strength on that. And then using [00:07:40] lunges as more of the, the volume and conditioning side of it. I wasn't doing any other running or anything at the time, so that was kind of my, my conditioning. And then, uh, was doing a lot of like conjugate type [00:07:50] stuff for, um, like different squat variations and banded squats and trying to drive that number up.

Jerred: Nice. So your, did your body just get used to it [00:08:00] and then it was like, this is nothing, it's just fine. Yeah, it,

Dave: it, it became pretty easy at that, like eight months, nine months in doing that many, I wouldn't say it was easy, but the miles weren't, like, legs weren't really [00:08:10] burning. I, I didn't do a lot of stuff with vest.

I probably could have, I tried pushing the speed a little bit, but, uh, there, there got to a point where it was like, okay, we're just gonna do a mile. [00:08:20] It gets, it gets kind of boring. Kind of like running does sometimes though too.

Jerred: I mean, that's what happened when I did all those, like that murf, the Murph workout every single week.

It was the first, [00:08:30] I'd say, 12 to 16 weeks of me doing it ever. I was really sore every time, especially trying to go faster. But then eventually it just, it was just a workout. Like, and I, I [00:08:40] was never sore, never hurt your body. It's amazing how quickly your body can adjust to volume. Where it's just not really a factor.

Uh, I do think the only thing you could have [00:08:50] done is add a vest or go faster and see, see what happens.

Dave: Yeah. I don't think there's too much speed that, that, that one I, uh, I was cooking speed-wise. I'm like, I don't know if I can get it too much faster than that, but [00:09:00] with the vest would've been probably the next level up if I would've kept doing that.

Jerred: Did you go, no brakes, like were you able to like just basically walk. A mile like Yeah. Lunge, walk a mile

Dave: and not like step two, [00:09:10] like step stepping through. Yeah. Pretty much a mile straight. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. No church steps. Joe hates those.

Joe: Yeah. Yeah. That's when.[00:09:20]

I'm feeling it.

Jerred: Dude. I had not done it in a while. I was really sore. We talk about the different types of, uh, muscle soreness. It was the immediate [00:09:30] onset muscle soreness, not the delayed. I was like, I was a little worried about rap though 'cause I had not hit that kind of volume and I, I, I was wearing a vest.

I, I, I had a vest on. Um, [00:09:40] and. I was like, I hope I didn't just make a mistake. We'll see. So I was, uh, I was monitoring my pea color for the, the next 24 hours. Make sure it wasn't, uh, going, going to the rhabdo point. [00:09:50]

Dave: Yeah. The immediate soreness is bad, but when I visit you, you, we, I think we did a quarter mile after one of our workouts.

Mm-hmm. I. That was, yeah, that was, I think I just got off the plane. I flew [00:10:00] right over. I was intermittent fast in the time. I hadn't eaten it in like 20 hours and I think we did some heavy deadlifts and then walking lunges and got in the sauna and I felt like I was gonna die after that. But you took off on the lunges and I [00:10:10] think you were just, I was like, I don't know if you're gonna be able to sustain that pace, man.

You're, and you just like started cooking outta the gate. Like I've been doing these little longer to know you gotta pace at least the first, first little bit of it.

Jerred: I think I [00:10:20] made a mistake there too. I thought we were doing like. As you can tell if there's a theme here, I, for some reason, my judgment with lunges is pretty bad, but I, [00:10:30] I do remember that and I think I was like, I thought we were going shorter distance.

Like I thought it was like, yeah, this is fine. We'll be fine. But it's like you're like, this is a, it's a far, [00:10:40] far hike. You might wanna slow down.

Dave: We'll let you figure it out the hard way.

Jerred: Yeah. Alright man. So what's your, what are your goals right now before we jump into, uh, some other stuff on the podcast?

I know you [00:10:50] got some concurrent training goals you're chasing.

Dave: So strength is always my, my main focus. Uh, that's, I mean, that's where, what I enjoy. I enjoy lifting heavy stuff. Uh, I'd kind of gotten away [00:11:00] from some of the heavier lifting. I was more mid-range stuff. So, uh, trying to push my top end strength numbers up.

So the goal is for a 500 pound deadlift, four oh pound squat, [00:11:10] 300 pound bench, and then a sub 20 5K. And I'm trying to do all that within an hour block. Some would test. The plan would be to, I [00:11:20] haven't tested out yet, so I don't even know if this is like a three month goal, a three year goal. Um, but the plan would be to squat, bench deadlift, and then get [00:11:30] to a track and take off on the run.

Jerred: So start a running clock, boom, and then you hit lift one, hit lift two, hit lift [00:11:40] three, go for a run. So do all three of those things in under an hour. Yep.

Dave: Sound like something fun to me. Got me excited about training and running again.

Jerred: Yeah, I [00:11:50] think, I think doing it within an hour is definitely feasible. I think your time on the 5K is gonna be hard.

I think that's uh, [00:12:00] you said sub 20?

Dave: Sub 20. Yeah. We'll probably have to, I mean, I know we're not planning on covering that. This podcast, we'll probably have to 'cause. I'll have some questions back at you too on some of those things. [00:12:10] We could just talk it live on the live on the podcast of what I'm working through because it's trying to figure out what the right, like what the right body weight is for that.

Some, like those are some of the challenges. If I could, and we kind of talked about it [00:12:20] offline, if I could add 10 pounds of body weight, it would make the lifts a lot easier, but then mm-hmm.

Jerred: Makes 5K

Dave: becomes a much, much tougher goal.

Jerred: Yeah. Yeah. Well I'm sure we'll be talking about [00:12:30] it more. Well, that's awesome Dave.

Uh, welcome to the team. Welcome to the podcast. Um, everyone. You let us know if Dave can stay, think that he is got a lot going for him [00:12:40] with some of these goals and, uh, and, and ideas. Uh, but it, it is awesome to have you here, man, and, uh, look forward to having more conversations on the podcast. But let's dive into [00:12:50] the topic today.

To kind of kick things off, we wanted to just take a, a look at the current fitness industry, um, and, and kind of talk about what we're, what we're seeing, what [00:13:00] we think some of the problems are, the holes, uh, to kind of, you know. Alert the listeners to, you know, what's changing in the fitness industry because the more [00:13:10] I look at this, you know, there's a lot of things going on, and I'm sure this will go multiple different directions throughout the conversation, but I started in the fitness industry online [00:13:20] in 2011, officially like the end of 2011, and now we're at 2025.

And I can tell you for [00:13:30] 100% certainty if I was starting in the fitness industry in 2025. With my same ideals, my same mindset, my same core [00:13:40] values, all that kind of stuff. I would not have survived, I wouldn't have made it, I would not, I would not be in the fitness industry. I don't think I would've gotten a job somewhere else.

I [00:13:50] just because of the direction that it's going, especially the younger generation, uh, how much influencers are pushing unrealistic expectations. [00:14:00] Um, and no matter what you say. You know, people don't care, you know, and, um, it, it's just, it's crazy. It, it's pre pretty problematic. [00:14:10] But I think, I think one of the biggest issues is that like unrealistic expectation, and I think we could start there.[00:14:20]

I think that people don't realize how long it takes to see results in fitness. Uh, and this is something that we've talked about on the podcast for years where I'm like. [00:14:30] I probably have the worst tagline for a fitness company. I'm like, yeah, I need you to do hard work for the next decade, and then maybe you'll look how you want and.[00:14:40]

That's like, what kind of, what kind of guarantee is that? Like how that's, that's not what people want to hear. Right? But it's, it's the truth because consistent training, you have to like literally [00:14:50] change who you are, change your metabolic system, all without cheating, without taking su, you know, supplements or let's say drugs.

You can take supplements. Um, and so it's very hard [00:15:00] and, and change is slow and unrealistic and uh, I think that's mostly what I'm seeing. And one of the biggest problems, like, what do you guys think? Do you think that. There's [00:15:10] been a shift in like unrealistic expectations in the, in the fitness industry.

Joe: More noise. A lot more noise. 'cause anybody with a phone and a platform and all the [00:15:20] different kinds of platforms, you know, puts their stuff out there. And then, you know, there's the, the either successful athletes or the Navy Seals or the people that like, [00:15:30] have some sort of physical background. They think, okay, I'm, I can use that as my stepping stone and then put out.

What worked for me, but [00:15:40] not necessarily knowing what the best interest is of for, for general people or anything else because it, it worked for them. So there's just a lot more people that, that are, [00:15:50] are using, you know, all the platforms that they have for, for them. And think it creates a lot of either misleading information or over information.

Dave: Yeah. I think you get, you get that side of [00:16:00] it, you get the, Hey, I'm just gonna, because I'm successful following this program, I'm gonna put this out to the masses and. It's gonna work for everyone when it's way too much volume. [00:16:10] People don't realize how much volume they've put in to date over a decade or more, or you get the people that were from that background.

Like you get a [00:16:20] CrossFit games athlete, you get someone who's a professional athlete, someone who's built their body a certain way over again a. [00:16:30] They put together this like workout three times a week for 30 minutes and this is the picture of what you'll look like. And it's like, well, yes, if you do those other things for the 10 years before and you [00:16:40] build up a certain amount of volume and base and then like, that's, that's where there's misleading stuff is there's, there's this picture painted that you can look a certain way on three hours a week when they [00:16:50] are, are either currently putting in 6, 8, 10 hour weeks or they have at some point in their lives to build up, build up a volume to get to that point.

Jerred: Yeah, that, that's even starting to bother me [00:17:00] with, um, kettlebell people. Like I've gotten into kettlebells a lot more recently, uh, just because of working around injuries and [00:17:10] everything else. I like, I enjoy using a kettlebell. Um, and probably for that reason Instagram knows, and I get hit with the algorithm with kettlebell [00:17:20] influencers, if you will, and they are very much like.

The kettlebell is all you need, and I agree that you can do a lot of crap with a kettlebell, [00:17:30] but what they don't talk about as much is the fact that they spent 15 years under the barbell and then they started getting hurt like me or whatever. Then they switched to the kettlebell and they're like, [00:17:40] damn, this is all you need.

And it's like, wait, wait, wait, wait. You're all jacked and like you have the muscle size and volume that you do because you spent 15 years under the barbell, then [00:17:50] you switched to the kettlebell. A kettlebell cannot get you that physique. Can a kettlebell get you a good physique? Absolutely. But it, it's, um, I actually saw one guy on [00:18:00] online, call it barbell amnesia is like, 'cause a lot of people do this, they shift later on in their fitness journey to a sandbag or a mace or a kettlebell or whatever, and they're like, that's all you [00:18:10] need.

And I'm cool with it. Like I'm at that point where I could just do that stuff. But I did build up a lot of muscle mass and volume under the barbell, uh, before I did those things. And I think [00:18:20] so like hiding behind, like there, there's just, the full story is never told whether it's intentional or unintentional.

It's like that, that's what the [00:18:30] average, you know. Fitness doer, whatever you wanna call 'em. Average athlete out there is not getting from all the content that's out there online is like, what did it actually [00:18:40] take to get someone where they are? Because fitness has always been the same to where if you have six pack abs or a decent body, like that's your calling card, right?

Like and to [00:18:50] some, to some, to some degree. I get it. Because I'm not, I won't go, I, I'm not gonna listen to a trainer who's, you know, 400 pounds, you know, telling me. [00:19:00] 5, 5, 400 pounds telling me how to get fit. Like, I get it. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna take advice from that person, but at the same time, the person who's been training for 20 years looks amazing, and [00:19:10] who knows what they've done to actually achieve that, that status doesn't mean that they're necessarily the best fit for you either.

You know? Um, just, and what I mean by is just following what they actually [00:19:20] do. Like I'm sure they could be a great coach. I'm not saying that they're bad coaches, I'm just saying if they're like, here's what I do, you know. 90 minutes in the gym in the morning, two hours in the evening. You, you can do it [00:19:30] too.

It's like, no, you can't, not realistically, that's not gonna get you where you want.

Joe: That was a big, oh, go ahead Joe. Everyone wants to push you to extremes usually like, so if you take a [00:19:40] a stance any which way, then you can't just take like a partial stance and believe something a little bit. You have to like be 1000% in this is what you completely believe, but.[00:19:50]

Instead of dabbling in a couple of things. So whether it's extremely being for or against one sort of way to work out, you can't just be like, Hey, this, this is good over here and this is good over [00:20:00] here and this is so good over here. You can, you only have to like, no, you have to commit to one extreme thing and die on that hill.

And it's, it's sort of like how almost. [00:20:10] A lot of things are online nowadays, politics and everything, but fitness is definitely in that is you say one small thing, they, and people are, you know, automatically brand you extremely over there. I mean, [00:20:20] years ago it happened to, to you Jerry, when you had one or two criticisms of CrossFit, automatically you were anti CrossFit even though you absolutely weren't.

So like people just [00:20:30] automatically wanna push you into a and say no, defend that.

Jerred: And the. That was the first time I truly understood how the Instagram algorithm [00:20:40] works. And we've never really played into that. Like, just so everyone knows, like I know how it works. We could probably get a lot more followers and a lot more views.

But, uh, we talked about CrossFit and I don't know if [00:20:50] it was auto clipped or you clipped it, Joe, but there was some clip that we posted on our Instagram about, it was basically me, 30 45, second clip on Instagram, me hating on, on CrossFit. [00:21:00] And that was like one of the most viral posts we'd ever done. And we were getting so many comments.

Um, people are just upset, pissed off, like, whatever. [00:21:10] Uh, but I was like, oh yeah, this is, this is how you win. You know, and I'm like, I could just create a whole lot more of that, but like, it's just not what I'm into, you know? I'm not like, I'm not about it. [00:21:20] And, and I actually, like, I wanna argue with people, you know, like that's the, I know like the whole Instagram like thing is like, ah, well.

You're a hater. I'm not gonna respond to your comments, but I'm [00:21:30] like, no, I could convince you that you're wrong through like research. Like, let's have a conversation. But that never works. You know? That's never gonna, you're trying to prove somebody wrong on the, on the [00:21:40] internet. You're the idiot, right? So, uh, yeah, that's, that's how it works these days.

Extremism only.

Dave: Yeah. And that's where, I mean, people are trying to market things that. So [00:21:50] you get transformed to the algorithm if you're not careful. 'cause then you're like, oh, this posted well, so I'm gonna make more posts like that. And then you become just like all the other, all the other noise out there.

But the things that aren't trending well are [00:22:00] like, okay, the EEO three elements, what do we need to be doing every single day? It's like no one wants, that post isn't gonna go viral of telling people to right drink, drink water, and eat some decent nutrition and get some [00:22:10] sleep. It's like those are the things that people do need that would transform their lives over time.

But those aren't the things that are, uh. Hitting, hitting the virality or anything on, uh, on [00:22:20] social media.

Jerred: I think we should just lean into it even more for the brand as just like, just, I'm just gonna make it sickening on all of our, like on YouTube and Instagram and everything else. [00:22:30] It's just like, got 20 years joint garage gym athlete.

We'll make you fit as as hell. You know, like something along those lines. And who knows, maybe it'll be good for the [00:22:40] company, maybe it'll be bad. Hmm. What else are you guys seeing in the industry?

Dave: I think, uh, there's, [00:22:50] there's kind of the, and I say all or nothing. And, and what I mean by that, it seems like people are way oversimplifying things or people are way over complicating things.

And that's something I've noticed a lot of, of, [00:23:00] I think it's a good, you know, some of the things are good trends of like prioritized protein. Everyone's talking about protein these days and it's like, that's good. People generally need more protein, but then that [00:23:10] becomes this like. It doesn't, it doesn't paint the whole picture of what people need.

There's all these people just say like, Hey, if you just eat more protein, all of a sudden you're gonna look like this or be healthy or start feeling better. And [00:23:20] it's like, well what about the quality of that? What about like how you actually structure your meals and fiber and what's your training look like in addition to that and what's like, what's stress and sleep look like and [00:23:30] meal time?

Like there's so many other things that go into it. So I think some people oversimplify just 'cause it's like that's the, here's three things you need. Like people want this like super abbreviated list, [00:23:40] which. Is good, but if there's not the depth behind it, or if people aren't, you know, if people are totally unfamiliar to that and you're not walking someone through teaching all the things that are needed to get healthy, like [00:23:50] simply eating more protein isn't gonna do that.

It might be a, you know, kick up in the right direction. But some of those things I think get oversimplified. And then there's people out there that make everything so, so [00:24:00] complicated and, and that just makes me anxious. I follow these things because you start looking at these things and I'm like, well, should I be doing that?

Like, is that, and they're slapping science on it and research and, [00:24:10] you know, sometimes it's, it's good research. Sometimes it's just, you know. Something, you know, they, they pull outta nowhere and tie it into their point. But things get over complicated and you start getting fearful of like, [00:24:20] oh, well if I mix any fats and carbs together, I'm gonna gain weight.

So like, my meals have to be only this or that, or I have to eat these certain things together to get this chemical reaction. And it's [00:24:30] like, that stuff's not how the human body works either. So I think there's the one side of oversimplifying are the people that. Over complicated, which creates this like anxiety or worry, and then [00:24:40] people go back to following more that what they're saying to try and, you know, follow this, you know, super complicated roadmap that doesn't get people any further.

Jerred: You know who Overcomplicates Fitness, [00:24:50] Peter att like that, that book and just how he talks about fitness. Like, and I get it, he's a smart dude and he wants to bring intellect to [00:25:00] like everything that he does. Um, but damn the level of like. How insane he gets about zone two, where he is like, [00:25:10] no, you have to be a 214 watts on a bike for 74 minutes.

And it's like to, to properly stimulate the mitochondria. I'm like, dude, I don't, I don't think so. [00:25:20] I, I think if you, if we just go conversational paste on the run, I think we're gonna check the box. You know what I mean? Like, I don't think you have to go as crazy as you are. And I do think that that adds [00:25:30] that.

It's like you're saying stress and anxiety to people who are like, we already have busy lives and we're doing the best we can. And then you're like, well, you're actually doing zone two wrong. And that's also the [00:25:40] type of content that gets more eyeballs, right? Is like, forget everything. You know about zone two.

Like if I opened a hook like that for an Instagram reel [00:25:50] already, it's gonna do well. Right. Um. And it, and it's just not helpful to people I don't think. Maybe it's helpful for growing a social media account, but it's not actually helpful for the humans who [00:26:00] are our audience, people who listen. That's why I avoid those things most of the time.

But yeah, that the overcomplicating thing I see quite a bit. Um, the [00:26:10] oversimplification, you know, I can see that as well, like with some of these. Single modalities or whatever. I think there, there's always nuance right to [00:26:20] everything. Uh, you know, like I said, the kettlebell person thinks it's the kettlebell sandbag person thinks it's a sandbag.

Uh, but there's, there's a lot more personalization to those elements as well. [00:26:30]

Joe: I feel like. People like people on social media and stuff. I dunno if they just don't think about who their target audience is. Feel for, forget who their target audience [00:26:40] is. 'cause I feel like the majority of people don't know a whole lot about fitness and health and they get into a point where, I don't know if it's becomes an echo chamber, but I don't know if people feel [00:26:50] like they need to one up the other people.

In the fitness industry. So maybe that's why they go one way or the other, because you have to, you have to separate yourself somehow. It's like, okay, I'm gonna really [00:27:00] get to the particulars and nail down this, this thing, or I'm gonna really just say, Hey, you know, do whatever. Do the oversimplifications. I feel like that that could be one reason [00:27:10] why.

It's just comes down to either people marketing and not. Being who they really want to be or are attracting who they really want to be because they have to separate themselves because there's [00:27:20] just so much out there, so many people out there. And, uh, I actually just had a conversation with my dad, my dad this past week.

'cause he, he's gone up and down with, um, this, his fitness journey and stuff. And he's [00:27:30] just on the tail end of like another 80 or a hundred pound weight loss. And he sent me. Some collagen. Like, he's like, Hey, I like if I, I heard, I heard I need to get to this collagen that, you know, and you need [00:27:40] collagen because this, that and the other and, and just stuff that he was told.

I was like, dad, just, just focus on protein. Like this is how many grams you need to be taking. As long as you're, you're taking and eating like real [00:27:50] protein. That's all you're really to care about. You don't, don't worry about BCAAs, don't worry about collagen, just. Get this many grams of protein. And then from there we can talk like that's 90% of it right there.

And he is like, oh, [00:28:00] okay. That's, that's so much, that's so much easier. Because, you know, he, he goes to a gym and he might hear, hear somebody saying, oh, well I take this, or, you know, he see, he'll be scrolling on, on, um, [00:28:10] social media and, and see stuff like that. And it's just, there's just so much information to, to sift through on, on both sides.

Jerred: Yeah, I think that that like [00:28:20] single ingredient, uh, supplements that people are getting concerned about or whatever, like, like you mentioned collagen or it's like, I think I should be taking ashwagandha. And it's like, I don't know. [00:28:30] I don't know if that's what you need. Like maybe I just go for a walk, you know?

Um, but yeah, I see a ton of that as well. Uh, and then I'd say, you know, I, I've talked [00:28:40] about this a lot on the podcast more recently 'cause it's, it's just becoming more and more concerning with these. 22 year olds taking TRT right? And then trying to build up their brand and it, and it works. [00:28:50] Um, I don't have a lot of frustration with it working.

Uh, I have a lot of frustration with convincing other people to do it, you know, and everyone tries to [00:29:00] do the, I'm not taking anything. I'm just consistent and your piece of crap. And, uh, then they eventually get called out and people were just getting taken down left or right. You know, it's like [00:29:10] just things I've followed over the.

More recent history is like liver king, right? He made that persona. He invented a [00:29:20] person. He invented a character, took a bunch of steroids to do it. I was in shock that anyone even thought that it was possible for him to be natural. Like I thought, I was like, nobody actually [00:29:30] thinks that, and it's low grade beaver tranquilizer.

No, it's, it's like a lot of people believed he was natural and they were very upset when they found out he wasn't. And I was like. Well just wait till you find out about the rest of your [00:29:40] influencers whenever, whenever those get un unearthed. And I'm not gonna mention any names, but I have theories about who's doing what.

And then, um, this is not in the [00:29:50] fitness influencer world, but uh, I don't know if you guys are familiar with Tim Kennedy. Um, he's, uh, army Green Bere. Pretty cool. I liked [00:30:00] his content, uh, but apparently he lied about like half of his things, like within combat and what awards he had and decorations he had.

And I didn't follow it that [00:30:10] closely. Uh, but that was somebody who I thought was like, pretty legit. And I was like, damn. Like he, like, why, why do people feel like they have to do this stuff to [00:30:20] like, to, to grow bigger? You know, it's like. On the Tim Kennedy side, he was a legitimate Green Beret sniper who like won [00:30:30] UFC championships or something.

Like all those things are legit cool enough, right? But then he like lied about some combat experience, lied about like some, some [00:30:40] decorations, like getting a medal with Valor versus not having it, which are, those things are pretty big deal, at least to veterans who care about you lying about those things.

And then same with Liver [00:30:50] King is like, he had a good message. Like the message was fine. But he didn't think that the message could sell on its own, so he had to create that persona. [00:31:00] And it's just like, why you guys are doing great things. Like you've already done good things and you have great, like messages for the world, but then you, you get addicted to something, you [00:31:10] know, it's like getting addicted to, to gambling or booze or whatever else.

It's like for some reason you can't stop. And I don't know what that is, but it's just, it's becoming more and more so it. [00:31:20] It, it's made me a super skeptic. Now, when I see somebody online who's like jacked and selling something, it's typically supplements. I'm [00:31:30] like, 5% chance you're real, like 5% at best. And, and I mean that about just about anyone.

Like if you're jacked and not, you're not selling any supplements. [00:31:40] My, my, uh, belief, uh, chances go go up quite a bit. But if you're selling supplements, I'm already like, Hmm, I don't know. I dunno about you. We'll see. We'll see what time time [00:31:50] does.

Dave: Yeah. And social media just magnifies the, you know, problem that's been around for a while.

It was, you know, was fitness magazines for a while and like growing up in bodybuilding magazines and [00:32:00] bodybuilding.com and you just, you get this false picture of what's, of what's really. Or possible. And you get these people that, like you said, these people that get greedy about, [00:32:10] okay, I sold a little bit, but now like, how do I reach more people?

And they start what you started the podcast with, they compromise on their ideals or their, their values or those things. And then like, that's a [00:32:20] slippery slope from, you know, business standpoint. But these people following have like no idea what's realistic and they, they think if they lose, you know, because people say like, Hey, if you just [00:32:30] lose these 10 pounds, these 20 pounds, like.

You'll be there and people lose that weight and they're like, is this it? Like now? What's, what's next? And they get, they get stuck in this. It just mismanaged [00:32:40] expectations of. 'cause they think they're gonna look a certain way from what they see all over social media. And you lose maybe 10 pounds, 20 pounds, and you're like, I still don't really like the way I look.

And then you have to face, [00:32:50] face that side of it. And then where do you turn as a, as an athlete or someone who's doing that? Do you keep pushing that weight number down? Do you compromise and start taking some more supplements or [00:33:00] TRT or do you keep pushing through? Do you do the tough internal work that has to happen of like, well, why am I so worried about how I look?

Or why do I, like, why am I insecure with how I look? There's just so many layers to. [00:33:10] To that from like the people marketing and the people that are following those, those expectations out there.

Jerred: Yeah. I think, I don't know, [00:33:20] the, I used to be super optimistic with like this podcast and just like having a message that we could make an impact in changing [00:33:30] the industry.

And I don't wanna say like, uh, you know, we're screwed. It's more like my take on it has changed now to where it's like. If you wanna [00:33:40] do things the right way, follow us and we can help those who are willing. Right. As opposed to the, like you said at the beginning, Joe, there's a lot of noise, right? Like there's too much noise to push [00:33:50] against now.

I feel like maybe, maybe When we started, I felt like it was like it was, it was a possibility. Now I'm just like, you know. [00:34:00] We still have our mission, we are gonna do what we're gonna do, but it's gonna be those for those who wanna do things the right way. And like, that's just where we're gonna stand.

That's where we're gonna hang our hat and that's what we're gonna do, [00:34:10] you know, moving forward. And I've always said, you know, I want the audience to call me out if that were to ever change, but I don't think it's ever gonna change. And so I think, um, that's what we're gonna keep doing at Garage Gym Athlete.

[00:34:20] Keep pushing forward. And, you know, we didn't hop on here to just talk about. Point fingers and say, yeah, these are all problems and everyone's screwed. It's more, [00:34:30] Hey, we're aware of this. Hopefully you guys are too. As you scroll, social media or you know, watch YouTube videos or whatever it is. Like, just be aware of these [00:34:40] things.

Be a little bit skeptical about everyone. Hell be skeptical about us. Do your own research. That's all fine, but. What I wanna bring this back to is, again, I don't [00:34:50] like to just point to problems. I like to point to solutions and I feel like we are the Garage Gym Athlete Podcast. Is a solution that you can count on for doing things the right [00:35:00] way, moving forward and into the future.

So if you're new to the podcast or you know, you've been listening for a long time, that's always gonna be the expectation that you can get from us, is [00:35:10] we're gonna be diving into science and research and talking about how to do things the right way. No shortcuts might take you a decade. Sorry. If you don't like that message, you can sign off now, but it's the realistic, [00:35:20] uh, truth.

And then same thing we're gonna be di diving into, you know, Dave mentioned that internal work. Something I'm looking to bring to the podcast I talked about in the last episode when I was doing solo is just [00:35:30] more talking a lot more about the self-determination theory. 'cause we don't talk about it enough.

There's a lot of research on it. I've just been, I've been hammering like through different studies. There's so [00:35:40] much good stuff on self-determination theory specific studies. When I first started looking at that research back in. I'd say 2013 is when I started to really kind of geek out on it. There wasn't a [00:35:50] whole lot, especially in re in regards to fitness now there's just so much.

There's like, uh, coach and athlete relationship aesthetics and like professional athletes. There's [00:36:00] just so many studies that have been on, been done on STT now, and I think us diving into it. If people can understand a little bit more about themselves and how to master their drive [00:36:10] when they go through these lulls, uh, I think is gonna be huge moving forward.

So that, that's kind of what we're bringing. There are all these problems, but I feel like we are one of the solutions that you can count on moving [00:36:20] forward to do things the right way. Do it slowly and to make sure that that progress sticks. Um, and I kind of wanna leave that there before we kind of dive into some, some personal [00:36:30] updates and just, uh, you know, let everyone know what we've been up to.

So, Joe, how have things been for you, man, training wise? Lifewise. [00:36:40]

Joe: Uh, so about a month ago I went back to California again for two weeks. So I had that, you know, um, jet lag, you know, uh. That I deal with [00:36:50] quarterly. And while I was there, just because being not sleeping right and not, um, just being off my game, I tweaked my back again.

So I'm sort of still coming back from that. And it wasn't that [00:37:00] bad. I mean, it was only, only a couple of days of like really, really hurt. And then about two weeks of just rehabbing and doing a lot of hip mobility and I'm still only doing mostly unilateral work, [00:37:10] but, um, got under a barbell this past week, so doing that, um, and.

I don't really have any clear goals right now or following one of our specific [00:37:20] tracks, but I have, I am experimenting with a sort of, uh, strength strength days and on the fly programming, and it's something that I might, um, introduce either to strength [00:37:30] track or something, and I'm sort of dubbing it like a 1, 2, 3 methodology and it, it makes for a really easy.

Are good on the fly workouts. And I [00:37:40] think, you know, as I write it out, you can really string string some, some good workouts and um, probably a good wave together. And it's one [00:37:50] like compound lift, barbell lift. That's when I would lift heavy. I get that knocked out the way. And I typically pair that with a core [00:38:00] exercise because I hate doing core, so I gotta do it first, so I'm not gonna do it at all.

Yeah, you gotta start with it if you hate doing core stuff. Yeah. So I, I, I pair that with, with the barbell lift, everything is [00:38:10] four sets and typically it's between four to six reps. So that's like my heavier type lift. For number two, I do a complimentary lift, [00:38:20] uh, superset to whatever. That lift was so anywhere eight, probably 10 to 12 reps.

This is when I'm getting more into like focusing on either like hypertrophy [00:38:30] or uh, muscle endurance. So really fatiguing and adding volume through some good, uh, accessory work lunges, Romanian split squats or Bulgarian split squats, [00:38:40] dips, stuff like that. And then for three, I'll do. This is when I might introduce power.

I haven't been doing much power yet because of my, [00:38:50] uh, my back, but I think next week I'll be, I'll be fine for it. But either something explosive or more complimentary work and then just something else, maybe something that's not quite related, like a [00:39:00] pull, if it's a lower body day, whatever. Super set. But the third thing is I'll do a interval on like a sprint on the Airdyne, so sort of IWTS.

Then [00:39:10] rest. So everything's four sets. Uh, one lift, two super sets, and then three, it's two exercises and a cardio thing. And it makes for a really easy but [00:39:20] effective strength day so that I sort of balance out everything. And then the other days are sort of conditioning focused wildcard. So I'm, I've been enjoying that, that I've been, I've been messing with, it's helped me [00:39:30] for my rehab recovery too, so that I can control like exactly.

Focusing on the right things that I'm doing and, uh, get my mobility in. But now I'm just, I'm just kinda liking [00:39:40] it, uh, playing around with it. Sounds solid.

Jerred: How

Joe: about you, Dave?

Dave: Yeah, so I'm, uh, for context training for that goal, I'm about [00:39:50] maybe only four weeks into training for it. So it's a relatively new goal.

So really it's gonna be fun, like figuring a lot of it out. It's, I mean, that's a fun challenge for me is figuring out. [00:40:00] What I can do and how to, how to structure things. Uh, currently in this first cycle, I've been focused on, so early in the week, higher intensity, lower volume with both the [00:40:10] lifts and the run.

And then as the week goes on, kind of inverting that. So intensity drops down and volume increases. So earlier in the weeks, my heavy like squat and [00:40:20] deadlift bench days, uh, interval runs. And then as the week goes on, it's a little more. Uh, those days turn into like upper, lower, more some volume, building some volume, and [00:40:30] then like my long slow run on, on Saturday morning.

So that's what I'm playing around with right now. Um, I'm surprised where my run's at and I think a lot of that's just, I honestly haven't. [00:40:40] I do these running things, but I'm definitely not like a runner. Like I ran this a hundred miler as not a runner and uh, like even coming to this, I hadn't really run, probably more than, you know, a long [00:40:50] run for me on the weekend was like four miles before, and I would do that once a week.

So, um, getting into it though, like I ran three miles at [00:41:00] like 1945, so like I'm right on pace for my. The 5K side, which has surprised me. But then, uh, 'cause my weight's down, helps the running, but then lifts, [00:41:10] uh, that's, that's where my focus needs to be going forward. So me playing around with all that, how to, how to juggle.

Cranking those strength numbers up and keeping, keeping the running, doing that. But [00:41:20] like we talk a lot about, like you guys talk a lot about too on the podcast is it's managing stress too. Like I'm, I'm not immune to, to that. It's easy to write a program on paper and be like, oh, I [00:41:30] can handle all this, this volume.

I'm gonna do these high intensity runs and if like this, and then. You have a stressful week and life hits and you're like, man, I just feel like garbage by Tuesday. And like, how am I gonna, how am [00:41:40] I gonna juggle all this? So that'll be the fun thing is how to, how to manage recovery and, and see, you know, see how that unfolds over, over the next couple months.

Jerred: Awesome. [00:41:50] Yeah, I honestly, that's where I'm at right now. I want to chase a lot of things right now, but I'm like not letting myself probably until [00:42:00] January. Um. Because everyone on the podcast knows I've mentioned it, so just built a new, new gym, finish it out. But we're also remodeling the house, which is [00:42:10] going on right now.

I don't think you can hear the jackhammering outside my office right now, but it's, it's happening. So anyway, um, my family's been living in an [00:42:20] rv. There's just a lot of, lot of craziness going on in my life and what I've learned as I've aged. What you mentioned is you gotta know when the life stressors are [00:42:30] high, right?

And to, to be able to balance all these things. And I think my life stress is pretty high right now. Um, just. [00:42:40] I just in general, like the, the schedule's as busy as ever. We don't really have a place to live. Like, and, and all of it's manageable, but it's like my, my baseline day is just a couple [00:42:50] notches above normal.

It's not like pure anxiety and stress every single day of my life. It's like not bad like that. It's just like my baseline stress is, is higher than typical when, when life is normal. [00:43:00] And I'm just keeping that in mind where I'm like, okay. That's there. What, what does training realistically have to be like right now, and I'm still training, you know, five and six [00:43:10] days a week consistently, but it's just like, what level of intensity do I wanna bring and what kind of exercises do I wanna do?

So I'm staying away from, I. [00:43:20] 10 rep maxes, 20 rep maxes. I'm staying away from all out mile runs, you know, and, and all these things. I'm, I'm doing really solid training, volume-based, everything's lower intensity [00:43:30] and I can tell, I think what I'm losing in the process of doing that is that that mid-tier glycolytic, I think is like probably at an all time low for me right now [00:43:40] because the research would tell you, it's like that's two to four minutes is glycolytic.

I've always argued that I think it's goes up to six or seven minutes. You can. Or there's like a [00:43:50] long glycolytic and then switched over to high aerobic. Um, but anyway, that was normally a very strong point for me. But you also lose it kind of fast if you're not doing that stuff, [00:44:00] um, every week. And so I can tell, um, that that's probably taking as big as hit right now.

I think Mike. Long aerobic conditioning like zone two, all that stuff is good [00:44:10] and my strength is okay, but like that middle, that high intensity zone is gone right now and it's kind of in intentional 'cause it adds that additional stressor that I just don't need right now. But I wanna bring [00:44:20] it back. So that's what coming up in January, assuming the remodel is behind me by then and all those kind of things, and life starts to get back to normal.

I do have some goals I wanna chase. Um, [00:44:30] yeah, getting that mile time back down to some, you know, a solid number. I always want to get a fast murf time. That's just kind of always there, like these kind of things I want to get a [00:44:40] little bit more strategic about. But, um, I've just decided, I'm like, now's not the time.

You know, now's not the time to, to go all in. But other than that, I mean, life has been good. I, [00:44:50] the, the new gym is awesome. We'll do some content on that soon. Um. Probably post something on YouTube won't make as much sense for an audio podcast, but I'll do a quick tour, [00:45:00] um, for everybody. Uh, if you follow us on YouTube, go check us out.

Garage Gym Athlete, I'll be doing that tour and then, you know, some other stuff as well. But yeah, life is good, man. Just kind of hectic [00:45:10] and crazy at the moment as, as, I don't know, as it has been for the last decade. So, so you could sleep in your gym. A hundred percent. She don't have a house. Yeah. So she [00:45:20] throw down a, well, we, we thought about it because we actually, so we've been living in an rv, but we just moved outta the RV for the next couple of weeks.

We're in an Airbnb. The reason being is because they [00:45:30] had to, uh, they were doing plumbing work, so they had to shut off the water. Um, and so the RV is fed through the house water right through, like it's, that's how it's [00:45:40] connected. So anyway, we had to move out the RV temporarily, but we contemplated for. A few days, we were like, let's just move some mattresses [00:45:50] into like the studio, move a mattress into the office.

People can hang out in the gym during the day. Like we were that close to doing it just because, uh, with all [00:46:00] we, you know, we have three dogs, we have animals on this property. It's just easier to be here. Like, that's a big reason we're doing the RV too. It's just, it's easier to be here as opposed to like commuting here, doing all this stuff and then [00:46:10] leaving and coming back early.

But I got greater minds prevailed and we were like. How about we, we go somewhere else. So that's what we're doing now. [00:46:20] And, but we could totally live here. It's more than big enough.

Really

Joe: short K commute to work. Yeah. Rv, it'd all, all being [00:46:30] here, all being your space. Yeah.

Jerred: Yeah. RV to the gym. It's a, it's a short walk, but yeah. I'm looking forward to getting some, uh, some more. YouTube content out there. We haven't done some [00:46:40] video stuff, um, in a while and I really want to, uh, but I think that wraps it up.

Everyone, thank you so much for listening to us go on [00:46:50] and on about problems and solutions with the fitness industry. Hopefully we are your solution moving forward. As you know, we get more and more content out there for Garage Gym Athlete. You [00:47:00] know what to expect from us. And super glad to have Dave on the team.

Again. Welcome Dave. Uh, you know. Keep ringing the heat on all the podcasts. Uh, you know, Joe, [00:47:10] glad to have you back on the podcast as opposed to doing these solos. It's a lot easier to have a conversation with another human being as opposed to just, uh, talking to a microphone for 20 to [00:47:20] 30 minutes. But I do like hearing myself talk, so it makes pretty easy.

Uh, but, but that's it for this one. Uh, we'll, we'll sign off here and we'll catch you guys next week. [00:47:30] And for all of our athletes who are doing the programming, really appreciate each and every single one of you. Keep doing it. If you want to join. Solution to the problem with the fitness industry. You can go to garage gym athlete.com, sign up [00:47:40] for a free trial, and we would love to have you, but that's it.