Hey, Athletes! Do you think carb rinsing can improve your strength? Tune in to this week’s episode to find out!
Episode 83 of The Garage Gym Athlete Podcast is up!
Carb Rinsing For Strength
On this week’s episode of the Garage Gym Athlete podcast Jerred, Joe, Ashley, and Kyle are back! After they give us their updates and announcements they talk about this week’s study. It is on carb rinsing and if it can improve your strength. For this week’s topic the coaches review The Art Of Resilience by Ross Edgley. They give their favorite parts, takeaays, and dislikes in the book. Finally, this week’s Meet Yourself Saturday Workout is called the Confused 2K!
If you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to the Garage Gym Athlete podcast either on Stitcher, iTunes, or Google Play by using the link below:
IN THIS 59-MINUTE EPISODE WE DISCUSS:
- Confused 2K
- Carb Rinsing
- Ashley’s Birthday Party
- The Art of Resilience
- Jellyfish Stings To The Face
- Tips For MYS
- Updates and Announcements
- And A LOT MORE!!
Diving Deeper
If you want to go a little bit deeper on this episode, here are some links for you:
Study of the Week
Garage Gym Athlete Workout of the Week
Be sure to listen to this week’s episode:
Related Resources at End of Three Fitness:
- Carbohydrate Rinsing, Why We Don’t Do CrossFit, and Stairway to Heaven
- Does Glycogen Depletion Impact Lifting?
—
Thanks for listening to the podcast, and if you have any questions be sure to add it to the comments below!
To becoming better!
Jerred
Transcript:
Jerred Moon
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the garage you mathlete podcast Jerred Moon here with Joe Courtney. What’s up, Joe?
Joe Courtney
Hi. Oh, we’re getting individuals today.
Jerred Moon
Yep, Ashley Hicks Guten Tag. And Kyle Shrum.
Kyle Shrum
Hey, what’s up?
Jerred Moon
Not much. And kill matching killing comfort shirts with Ashley and Kyle. It looks awesome if you’re watching on the YouTube,
YouTube, so
the almost
Joe Courtney
almost only buy one of them. Right? Yeah,
Jerred Moon
we really should measure with actually war, but we just don’t I blame myself. All right. So anyway, getting into the overview of the show. Again, no sponsors, you are the sponsor. If you’re listening to this, and you are doing the programming consistent, Lee earning those killing comfort patches and PR shirts. Those are the sponsors. We do not have any sponsors to the show. And we’re going to keep it that way. Except for this one sponsor we just brought on I’m kidding. Okay. So no sponsors. I’m just going to make sure I start mentioning that more often. Now, today’s show, we are doing carbohydrate mouth rents, improves resistance exercise capacity and glycogen lowered state. This was done in 2020. Now if you go back to the very first episode, not of the garage mathlete podcast, necessarily, but the first episode of this format, where we did a study a topic and then we covered meet yourself Saturday 01 was carbohydrate mouth rinsing, but more for endurance based stuff. So now we’re talking about it in relation to resistance training, which is really cool. Then we have a book review after that the art of resilience we’ll be talking about today. And then the workout is the confused to k. We’ll give you our best tips and tricks on all of that. But before we do, gotta hear what’s going on with Ashley. How’s life? Life is good.
Ashley Hicks
This is my birthday week. It’s your birthday. Week two. We share a birthday week. Typically
Jerred Moon
we do.
Ashley Hicks
But my birthday presents are on point this year. Last year I asked for a rower on the podcast and literally showed up on my doorstep seconds. After this year. Scott is making me a bed. So he’s like he’s already made the headboard already made the foot board and he’s gonna make the side slats. So it’s a like farmhouse style bed. Pretty cool. And I got some new, some kicks from my mom, which always makes me want to work out more when you get workout gear. You just want to like oh, let’s let’s go out. Let’s test these. They are probably the most comfortable met cons I’ve ever owned. And I’ve owned almost. I’ve owned a lot of met cons. So Nike met cons.
Jerred Moon
So they change the formula.
Ashley Hicks
Yeah, and I like it for the better of comfort, of comfort. formula of comfort. But speaking of birthday, my update is I am taking myself back to my middle school years. And my birthday party is going to be at a skating rink on Saturday. Yes, and I will be rollerblading. And I’m really excited about it. So it’s gonna be a bunch of 30s for five year olds, skating. The middle schoolers, it’s gonna be great.
Jerred Moon
Falling hurts a lot worse. Just throwing that out there.
Ashley Hicks
I’m not gonna go crazy, like,
Joe Courtney
next week.
Kyle Shrum
Can’t wait for that. Yeah.
Joe Courtney
Literally brace
Are you gonna wear
Kyle Shrum
pads and knee pads? No, I’m
Ashley Hicks
not gonna be that person. I mean, no, I’ll probably wear like tights in an oversized shirt. So that way you don’t like the risk. All right.
Joe Courtney
Gotta go like colorful ladies. Like scrunchies and Absolutely.
Ashley Hicks
Okay. That’s what everyone said like tutus and like,
Joe Courtney
I don’t know teaches that’s just weird.
Ashley Hicks
Okay. No, I don’t want to dress in the 80s I want to rollerblade but yeah,
Jerred Moon
the owner would be offended if you did that.
Ashley Hicks
What Justin?
Jerred Moon
Yeah, he she would be like, this is a good business idea. No matter what. Okay, it’s not it doesn’t matter. Like if this was popular 3040 years ago, like
Joe Courtney
mad cuz you’re doing it ironically.
Jerred Moon
Yeah. Why are you making fun of my business model?
Ashley Hicks
Yeah. Okay, so serious question. I’m assuming you all skated. Can you skate with the force gates? Are you an in line person?
Kyle Shrum
I cannot do it all I can do both.
Joe Courtney
Balancing my thing. Why is it be that much different?
Jerred Moon
It is different. Have you not done both though?
Joe Courtney
Are you just doing like what like okay, the for the ones in the square. The regular skates are just a lot heavier. I used to rollerblade more though.
Jerred Moon
Well, yeah,
afford more with the four.
Jerred Moon
I don’t know why. Well, you’re supposed to stop by tilting your foot forward, which is just not
Ashley Hicks
the Michael Jackson. Yeah,
Kyle Shrum
not a good
Jerred Moon
stop. Yeah.
Glad glad this.
Kyle Shrum
This is a
Jerred Moon
just in case anybody needs some tips that they’ll never use. Well, we got it.
Kyle Shrum
Hey, skating actually, I think like skating like in public. It’s like, trending back up. Like that’s becoming more of a thing. Wait, what do you mean in public, like in parks and stuff like that? We got it. We go to parks.
Jerred Moon
He lives in Chattanooga,
Kyle Shrum
guys. And people skate around the park and stuff. I just I’ve been seeing it more often. Alright.
Joe Courtney
rollerblading here, but that’s just nice weather. So
Jerred Moon
yeah, there you go. People don’t use those kinds of modes of transportation in Texas because everything is 40 miles away. No,
Ashley Hicks
not flash. If someone rollerbladed on your street, they would die.
Jerred Moon
They would die. I almost died just running on my street. So rollerblading skateboarding all bad. All right, actually, you have to pick who’s next. Oh, yes,
Ashley Hicks
I forgot about this. All right. We’re going with Kyle. Oh, yeah.
Kyle Shrum
Get some of that Joe. date is pretty amazing. I’m gonna read it the way I wrote it out. still playing disc golf. still suck at it. There we go. That’s it.
Jerred Moon
You’re not getting any better, huh?
Kyle Shrum
No. Well, maybe I suck a little less. Maybe. That’s how it works, man.
Jerred Moon
You just gotta suck a little bit less until eventually you’re okay. And after that, you’ll be good. After that. It’d be great.
Joe Courtney
What I say every day when I wake up just a little bit.
Suck a little bit less today.
Joe Courtney
That’s it. Get a coffee mug with it and everything.
Ashley Hicks
Is that gonna be like your motto when you have kids hate just suck a little.
Joe Courtney
There. Yeah, that that probably is writing that one down.
Kyle Shrum
Like the motto.
Joe Courtney
You are the motto for them. Like you’re gonna say to them.
Kyle Shrum
Hey, good morning. I mean less today.
Jerred Moon
The motto with my kids is try harder, which is basically the same thing. Yeah, I’m just a little bit more force just a nicer way to say, No, no, I’m all for that. I think that’s great. You should do it.
Joe Courtney
Absolutely. I’ll beta test it on the athletes.
Jerred Moon
I’m gonna work that into athlete briefs,
Joe Courtney
per se at the very end, just guys get out there and suck a little bit less today.
Kyle Shrum
We’ve been beta testing that on athletes for a while now.
Joe Courtney
The gifts were like a more subtle version of it. But
Kyle Shrum
we’re just throwing subtlety out the window now. All right,
Joe Courtney
my updates done Joe, your turn. Like you guys are picking up some recreational sports. I got nothing. There’s nothing in my life that has changed in the last week.
Kyle Shrum
His life does not suck a little less. Right. Yeah,
Joe Courtney
I mean, I have I guess I can say one thing is that we both upped our calories this week. So we’re actually been eating more. And strength has been a little bit heavier that we live in heavy lifting heavy and doing some weighted carries. And both of us have been like dead to the world these last three nights sleeping for some reason. I don’t know why we just been sleeping so hard. And like this morning, normally I wake up at about six o’clock. Lizzie’s out of bed at six, I wake up at six when she does and I roll into my back. And like usually at that time for like 30 2030 minutes. I’m like half asleep half awake, because I need to get up yet. It’s just that in between, like fading to wake up. Today, I will roll it in my back. dead to the world again at seven o’clock. She comes in to wake me up and I freak out because I’m like, it’s almost like half half sleepwalking kind of thing half. Like when you’re just like really confused and somebody wakes you up. And I was like, What the hell you do and I was punched you? And she’s like, sorry, I’m just saying buyers like Alright, bye. And then I was still like, I don’t know, like, what the hell is going on? What time is it? Yeah, I was dead to the world. So eating more lifting heavier and sleeping harder. That’s my up.
Ashley Hicks
Do you feel safe at home?
Joe Courtney
Like knock on the door next?
Kyle Shrum
in her own house?
Joe Courtney
Yeah. You come in your own bedroom.
Kyle Shrum
Awesome. This is the most entertaining non update.
Joe Courtney
I think. Yeah, it’s
Kyle Shrum
the pocket all things
Joe Courtney
in my life. I’m glad I’m glad to bring them to you.
Jerred Moon
Well, my my update is a tribute to Joe. So I this past weekend. I wanted to throw in some extra training. And I was like, you know, what would Joe do? Yep. What would Joe do? And so I did sexy Saturday, not a full like sexy Saturday. Not a full on like this is all I’m doing today, but it was I’m going to add some sexy Saturday movements into the ladies. Part of my workout.
How many girls did you do?
Jerred Moon
That’s a story. So I was going back and forth on, I’ve just, you know, I’m always reading research and whatnot. And there’s a lot of research coming up and about time under tension with hypertrophy. Specifically, we’ll probably cover this on podcasts simply because I’ve been reading these studies in my own free time, she probably force other people to read it too. And time under tension is important. But volume is important, the two most important things when it comes to hyper hypertrophy, but the the issue that people get wrapped incorrectly with like trying to build muscle, sometimes and just following rep schemes, as if I’m, you know, if it’s three times 10, and you just knock out 10 reps, but it wasn’t heavy enough or you didn’t, you know, control the weight enough, it’s not going to actually help you gain any muscle. So you you’re supposed to have time under tension from 40 to 60 seconds. So I’m trying to make this an educational update as well. So think about how long that is for a set. And so I did 62nd single arm bicep curls. I don’t even know how many reps I did it. I mean, it probably was only about six or seven reps per arm. So it wasn’t like I’m just doing them as fast as I can. Because I’m trying to go really slow on the way up really slow on the way down. I did four sets. 60 seconds. 62nd reps, right arm, left arm. But I had no idea what was coming for me after that. And that was the ridiculous level of Dom’s, like, stupid level of sore. I woke up Saturday night. Yeah, to use the bathroom and just say yes, because Joe did his arms to end like, it’s the middle of the night. And it’s already like, I can’t open my arms to go use the bathroom. I’m like, Oh, no, this is bad. And so and then Sunday, it was it was okay. I mean, it was all right, yesterday was the worst of it, it was just like my arms were in pain the whole day. So if you want to execute proper bicep training, try some 62nd sets. And this brings me back to an even bigger story update because I shared the how I started fitness, which was like benchpress until I would fail, throw the weight off me and then like, go run up my stairs. That’s how I started my fitness journey. And the first real bicep workout I did like at a gym with somebody who knew what they were doing. And I didn’t. I remember, I actually couldn’t open my arms. And so I was in high school, I think I was like a freshman or something like that. You know how you can like put your arms on your backpack and your arms are kind of bent. I just like wore my backpack all day. So I wouldn’t look odd. And like held on to the straps, where I’d like have a reason to not open my arms all day. I didn’t want to because if I just I actually had to walk around with my arms up like this, like when I was in my house trying to put on my shirt and stuff is all hard. So anyway, it took me back to those days. And it was it’s brutal, but but worth it. That means you’re making progress, right? So
Kyle Shrum
that’s nothing weird about front loading a backpack all day.
Joe Courtney
I mean, he couldn’t wear suspenders.
Jerred Moon
That would have been perfectly acceptable as well. But then when you sit in your desk, you can kind of keep your arms bent and on your desk the whole time. So I got away with it. Nobody knew anything was different. T rex Dom’s. Yeah. So learn how to train your arms. I’ll probably do that again this weekend. But it will probably won’t hurt as much the second time. Alright, let’s get into study. Again, I mentioned the name of it already carbohydrate mouth rants, improves resistance exercise capacity in the glycogen lowered state. And we also covered this, like I said for endurance. So there were 12 healthy resistance trained men think they needed. What was it a couple years, minimum of two years lifting experience form squat and bench press, at least weekly. And the big picture here is carbohydrate rinsing is relatively new. And all it is is you put some sort of carbohydrate solution in your mouth, you rinse it around, you spit it out, so you don’t drink it. Which is i what i think that you should do that with Gatorade. I mean, I think that should be on the instructions with Gatorade is just swish, swish it around, spit it out, it’s not worth drinking. And they had people I’m kind of confused about why they did some of this stuff. But I get it. They made it super specific, but they had people come in do some sort of aerobic bike work to try and deeply some of their glycogen and they feed them a meal and then they come in the next day. And then they would do max reps of like bench press and squat right at I think it was 40% of their one rep max
Kyle Shrum
calculated one.
I was like not Yeah, not true.
Jerred Moon
And so that’s the The big thing here the let’s see, the main thing I wanted to read, because that part’s easy is how they did the carbohydrate rinsing, because I think that’s a bigger takeaway, because it’s proving carbohydrate rinsing is effective. And we could talk about that. But the participants rested two minutes between sets and five minutes between exercises 30 seconds before each set began, they rinse their mouths with either a 6.4% maltodextrin solution sweetened with sucralose or a taste mat, sucralose solution, devoid of carbohydrate. So they, that’s how they did that. And you just rinse, rinse it around, spit it out, and then they want to calculate, who could do more, more reps in everything. So the big takeaway for me is this stuff works on a lot of other notes on just having read through the study and everything. But I don’t want to steal too much without you guys chiming in. So it looks like it’s effective. What do you guys think about carbohydrate rinsing and strength training?
Joe Courtney
I’m gonna try not take too much. I have way more to say about this one than I thought I was going to. But yeah, just as I was going through it, I think it was really cool that they had the carb, the glycogen depletion test, that was pretty interesting, because it puts everybody on this equal playing field of, you know, to get rid of your storage, and then we can test it versus it kind of removes outside factors, something that they could kind of control. But then it was weird, because they fed them again, and then they put them to sleep. And then they fed them again. So I like
Jerred Moon
that’s what I didn’t like, again, a bunch of chocolate milk after they rode the bike, right? Like,
Joe Courtney
yeah, what the heck, why would you even deplete it, if why not just come back fasted, they’re pretty much depleted, say that they haven’t eaten in 12 hours, and then begin your thing, what you want to do. That was weird to me. But the loads as well. So they did do the resistance training, they were doing 40% of their max. But as I was going through this, I looked at their body weight of what the the people that were doing it there were about 174 pounds, the average and 40% of the load, what it would be for mine is pretty much would be like max reps, push ups max rep air squats, almost what the load was close to. And I’m just thinking about when doing those types of tests. It’s not really strength that there’s I mean, yes, there’s resistance to it. But it’s, it’s getting your heart rate up for a lot of those. And that’s, I think why some of the carb routine helps. And you already saw it with endurance, and it’s Tesla with endurance and conditioning and such. So I think for this tour, sort of resistance tests because their heart rates are getting up. And because the the squats, you have a whole lot bigger results than the bench presses. And I think the reason why the squat did was because when you’re squatting, your heart rates getting a lot higher than it is when it would be for bench pressing, at least I know it is for me, there’s a lot more going on, there’s a lot more moving. So I think that’s that was a big reason why squat had bigger benefits than the press. And I think it’s because the heart rate, if they were tracking heart rate, they would probably probably notice that the heart rate was higher during these moments as well, that makes sense. So those are the two of the bigger ones that I was they kind of stood out to me. So any kind of movements or things that were your heart rates are getting elevated, I think the more elevated it is or if you’re in the those, you know, zone threes and fours carbon teen is great, but it would be interesting to see how it would be for other loads. And I’ll pass it on now. And then we’ll circle back of it.
Jerred Moon
I have a quick comment on that because I agree with you 100% like they gave him a bunch of carbs after they trained but apparently not. I mean, to me it was a lot. And I think to their defense I think that they were just trying to mimic more of a real life scenario in which you would eat like what it would be like for an athlete. But I do think like a proper scientific experiment to test carbohydrate rinsing would be completely no carbohydrates after training, go to sleep, wake up train fasted even don’t give anybody anything and only do carbohydrate rinsing. Because if you are completely fasted and glycogen depleted, strength training gets really hard, especially this kind of strength training. So I do think I get what they’re trying to do they it seems like they made it more realistic, which might be a better takeaway for athletes who aren’t, you know, depleting glycogen at night and then train fasted. But you know, this it could have been different maybe a little bit more dialed in, I think,
Joe Courtney
yeah, I actually have one more quick thing and that was the artificially the the placebo and the carbons part. Now we first did the carb rinse I think it was because we found out that it’s because your taste buds tasted a sugary something sugary. So you’re it kind of tricks your brain into kicking it into thinking it’s going to get more fuel, but it’s not actually getting fuel. It’s kind of tricking your brain. Well, they’re placebo was an artificial sweetener and that’s exactly what artificial sweeteners do. It was correct What I’m both things that I’m saying
Jerred Moon
I can’t recall the the mechanism behind it. I don’t know if they fully understand it yet I do think that your brain gets tricked is part of it. I also think that, you know, some of your very quick entry into the bloodstream is right under the tongue. Right. So it could, you could actually utilize some of that as well, the carbohydrates. So I think it’s kind of both.
Joe Courtney
Okay. All right.
Jerred Moon
But I think that answers your question to that. Yeah. Because the the carbohydrate group outperformed the other one. So that would be a no, you know, I think the the sweetness is not doesn’t actually trick the brain, it has something to do the sugar or carbohydrate itself.
Joe Courtney
Actually, what you got?
Ashley Hicks
I don’t have too much to add. I think. So I think the bicycle, like depleting the lower part of the body is what is what seemed to be most effective? Well, obviously, because the benchpress wasn’t very effective. And then I was a little confused about the nutrition, but we talked about that, especially with a low carb breakfast. I love how they called having toast low carb, like, sure. It’s says it’s 14 grams of carbohydrates. But what does that actually do to your glycemic level? But let’s not get too much into that. And then my question is, I wonder why they didn’t test a true one rep max, they used a four rep max, and then took that four rep max, and we’re like, Okay, well, then your one rep max is probably here. And so I wonder why they didn’t do that, whether they didn’t feel comfortable doing that, or whatnot, but kind of made me think about the Spartan beast. Granted, we didn’t really rinse. But that’s what it made me think of being depleted. Because I’ve never really felt super depleted of, I don’t know, anyways, but that’s pretty much what I got. Kyle, do you got anything.
Kyle Shrum
So I’ll just kind of echo some of the things that both of you already said, like cycling, that during the cycling test, and before, I think that was a great idea, you know, to deplete glycogen levels and things. But that doesn’t really tax the upper body that much. And so I feel like maybe that played a role in the benchpress test, not seeing as much result as the squat test. And so I think it would have been cool to see, either to do a separate study, where you, you only focus on the upper body, you do something that’s that’s taxing of the upper body and see if you can mimic the same results that the lower body saw on this test, or to do something simple, like do the same test over but do something that taxes both at the same time and see if you can have, like, gains in both right? Yeah, yeah, like, yeah, like a fan back or something like that, and where you’re where you’re using both, and you have to use both, and you have to tax both. So that’s, that’s something that I would like to see. Done. Also. Like what Joe said, I’d like to see a similar squat test at higher loads. Because this just kind of seemed like it just it seemed like another endurance test is what it seemed like, to me, it’s a it’s a super light load. So how, you know, how long can you keep it up? How long can you keep doing reps, and it didn’t really seem like much of a string test. To me. So I would like to see something that at higher loads, where it’s going to be more taxing on you to do each rep, and see if it makes a difference. But my big takeaway is need a boost, switch the juice. Just throwing, throwing the little little catchphrase out there, put it in real nice, short, simple terms, I think it’s, I think it’s something that we can absolutely use as garage gym athletes. Especially, you know, sometimes people are training first thing in the morning. And, you know, a lot of us train fasted as well. And so this could be something that we could really utilize no matter what type of training we’re doing, whether we’re doing strength or conditioning, just doing the car berentzen we so we’ve covered a study now that that says that it’s beneficial for the endurance type training and also for strength training, so it’s pretty much to me for garage mathletes it’s beneficial no matter what training you’re doing, so if you feel like you need it, then start utilizing it.
Joe Courtney
Yeah, I think we just I just feel like boxers and heavier heavier spit bucket in your gym.
Kyle Shrum
Yes, there you go.
Jerred Moon
I can imagine like, like, I’m okay with a garage gym athlete do it but I could see being in a Globo gym and somebody’s like catching wind of
Joe Courtney
a bucket man. They
Jerred Moon
have like, Oh, I have like a Gatorade bottle with Gatorade and then the other Gatorade bottle is just what they’re spitting into. I could totally see that happening. And then the guy like telling me about all the science behind it. You know, cute, but you’re spitting this over and over. Anyway.
Joe Courtney
Rosa science.
Jerred Moon
Yeah. So this is a garage gym thing from most likely. I mean, I would you can do whatever you want. But I think I think the big takeaway for our athletes, yes, it works, I think it would work with almost any track that you’re training with just how its programmed in the biggest way I could see you using it as if you’re just trying to remain fasted, I think is the, there might be some sugar that enters the blood, but I don’t think it’d be enough to technically break a fast. So if you are trying to, like we teach in the fuels course, and a lot of different areas, if you are trying to fast in the morning, but you feel like you don’t quite have that energy. Maybe try some carbohydrate rinsing, and they’re doing it in between sets. It’s not like this. It’s not like a pre workout where you’re, you do carbohydrate rinsing right before you start, and then you’re good for the training session. It’s something that you have to keep doing. So swishing it around for about 30 seconds and then spitting it out, is what you’re going to try. So I would just try it with Gatorade or you can make your own solution. And I do think that would be the best use case here. And if you drink Gatorade during training sessions, I would say just stop. There’s most likely No, nothing that you’re doing that requires drinking Gatorade during a training session, especially a training session is only gonna be an hour long. Now to the overall point, just energy systems. I don’t think and I know this is that. You mentioned it, I want to see like heavier strength and stuff. I don’t think it would help. I just don’t think that it would because you when you’re going pure strength explosive and you’re only lifting for whatever, 10 seconds, right? The that’s creatine phosphate, right? So the supplementing with creatine is what would help that. So I don’t think they haven’t done it yet. But I think even if someone comes out with a study on carbohydrate rinsing and lower to rep three rep ranges, I don’t think it’s going to help because I just think you’re at a different energy pathway there. But when you move into just slightly beyond that, which is a lot of our programming, and then into further endurance. In my work, I also would like to see fat rinsing is the more
Joe Courtney
just throw out all the butter.
Jerred Moon
mouthful of olive oil. Yeah, you just like swish it around. No part of me actually thinks that would work in any capacity. But I would love to try it out. Maybe on a long endurance run, you could switch a little switch a little fat. So the first place we heard this was injured by Alex Hutchinson, which is a great that was the first place I heard it and why we ended up covering it on that podcast. So yeah, carbohydrate rinsing works. Give it a try. And speaking of books that are good. We can move into the topic.
Kyle’s favorites. Yeah.
Jerred Moon
So art of resilience by what’s his name? Ross
Joe Courtney
edgley. Edge Lee.
Jerred Moon
And this is a book about resiliency. No, I totally read it. I’ll give you guys i’ll give you guys my, my, my points after after you guys do yours. But ultimately, the big story behind the book. He swims a very long distance around some Island thing is Australia. And oh my goodness, he he works in this this idea of stoicism and a lot of sports science, like we cover a lot of the studies that he actually does in the book, which I think is cool. And he works it into you know, very practical, useful tips and makes entertaining in the process. So it was a really good book. I’ll go over my favorite parts and my least favorite parts. But I was just trying to give a intro there. What do you guys what do you guys think of this book?
Joe Courtney
So the island that he swims around is the UK is Great Britain. That’s the island. It’s the
Jerred Moon
Oh, not near as impressive as I originally thought.
Joe Courtney
It sound like the colonel in the beginning. That’s a bit shit, isn’t it?
Jerred Moon
Great. That’s it. Yeah, just kidding.
Joe Courtney
It’s only happened like three years ago. So it’s pretty recent and pretty crazy. So the one that I wanted to bring up and I wanted to make sure I jumped in it before anybody else took it is it’s been burned in my mind since since that since it happened on on the book. And then since I finished it, which was about three or so weeks, three weeks ago, and I almost said it last week when we were talking about the self compassion and such like that. And my favorite part of this book is when he talks about controlling the controllables I think that was fantastic and a great tip and outlook to have with fitness with goals with everything and coming in boils down to you know, you need to focus on what is actually in your hands, what you can do and what you can’t and not worrying about what you can’t do, you know, things are gonna happen. Everybody runs into wented issues that just is out of their hands, you know, Jim shut down and stuff like that. But you need to control your own controllables and just and to overcome certain situations. So that chapter that part was was really, really cool. I think if, you know, just looking back to just personally me that this past year and a half, or since we were recording the podcast, I’ve had bruised ribs, I’ve had a partially torn hamstring. And I was a homeless Nomad living on a couch for like four months. But during the whole time, I still average four to five training sessions a week, you know, it’s just one of those where, you know, just because you get, you have to pivot away from, from certain things you just mentioned opens you up to do some other stuff, if you’re training wise, and that can go with a lot of things that happen in life to, you know, take what you can actually control and don’t fret and worry about what you can’t control, because I think that could just push down to a rabbit hole, and it’s hard to climb out once you’re down there. So control the controllables was one of the biggest things that I that I really liked about it and took away. Just do my to do one at a time. But Kyle, what’s one of yours?
Kyle Shrum
Oh, one a month? Okay, cool.
Joe Courtney
I don’t know. You can just go.
Kyle Shrum
Okay, I’ll just go. Yeah, actually, what you’re talking about is something that I that I took away as well, a couple weeks ago, I think I don’t remember which one it was. But I brought up that Dune quote that I’ve saved from, you know, the Verizon killer fears, oh
Joe Courtney
my god, that’s the one thing you read.
Jerred Moon
It’s like on the third page,
Kyle Shrum
it’s the only that’s the only part of doing that Jared read. But the last line of that whole quote is where the fear has gone, there will be nothing, only I will remain. And that’s kind of what he’s talking about with like stoicism is. And that’s what Joe was just talking about. Controlling the controllables focusing on what you have at hand that you can influence. That’s exactly what stoicism is all about. It’s focusing on what you can control and, and making sure that you’re focusing only on the tasks, there’s other things that are going to try to distract you and just focus only on the task. So I would I would echo that and agree with that. So are we only doing one not moving around,
Jerred Moon
or not how I prep for this. So now Okay,
Kyle Shrum
perfect. Cuz I didn’t want to do it that way. All right, perfect. This was not my favorite book ever. But it might be my second favorite book ever. I really, what’s
Jerred Moon
your first book?
Kyle Shrum
I don’t. I’m not going there right now. Because I can’t I would have to think about what my favorite book ever is. Oh, so you don’t even know. Okay, anyway, cool. That’s not what?
Joe Courtney
I don’t know what number one is.
Kyle Shrum
It’s not what I prepped for here.
Jerred Moon
I thought you were gonna put it under like the Bible. So I was gonna say it’s definitely
Kyle Shrum
under the Bible. Okay, the Bible is. The Bible is number one. I’m gonna have to rethink this whole thing because this Yeah, this will be number two, if not second to the Bible. Okay. Anyway, man, all right. It’s not how I imagined this going. Okay. I think that, that I have my new life motto, from this book. Oh, it’s fast, can be fragile, but slow can be strong. Right? So it’s like, I’m just thinking like, slow and strong. That’s my jam. I’m cool with that. Let’s, let’s do it. But he he, he talks about how strength builds the foundation for everything. It’s the base for everything. And it reduces being being strong and strength training, it builds you up to a point where you’re more resistant to disease and infection, your reduce, it reduces your injury susceptibility. I mean, you think about how far this guy swam over 1700 miles, and he didn’t get injured. You know, I mean, and he’s not just swimming like in a pool or in it like he’s swimming in open ocean. And like some of the most treacherous waters on the planet. Like there’s portions of this swim that he did, where like, boats don’t even go there at certain times a year, because like, even a boat can’t make it through, but like he was swimming through obviously wasn’t swimming during that, that time where it was really, really super dangerous. But anyway, swimming for that distance. Even though swimming is a low impact activity, like swimming in open ocean for 1700 miles for over 150 days straight, like, Dude should have broken at some point. And he didn’t. And it’s because and he makes the point. He attributes that to having been involved in strength training for a long time. And so just kind of reinforces the point that strength training builds the base for everything else for all of your athletic endeavors, any any kind of exercise that you’re trying to do. You need to be doing strength training. And that’s why all of our tracks at garage gym athlete, incorporate strength training, no matter which track you’re on, you’re going to be doing some strength training, because it’s that important. So I thought that was really cool. Also something that the book talks about a lot that we don’t talk about much on the podcast, is how your mindset affects everything that you do. Obviously sarcasm obviously sarcasm We talked about mindset all the time. I mean, Ashlyn are both wearing killing comfort shirts today, you know, that’s what killing conference all about. But as, as I’m listening to this book, like my mind can wrap around, like the physical side of what this guy did write, like, getting into the sports science, I still think it’s an amazing feat, I think it’s incredible that he was able to do it physically. But my mind can wrap around, like all the sports science behind it, you know, the strength training to build that foundation of, you know, the recovery, you know, the recovery, that he engaged in the food that he had to take in, you know, the the caloric intake he had in order to recover all that, my mind can wrap around that, it’s still incredible that he did it, but my mind can wrap around it, my mind cannot wrap around the mindset that this dude had to swim in the open ocean for 12 hours a day, every single day, for 157 days straight, like, my mind can’t go there, I can’t fathom, having that kind of fortitude, that kind of dedication to something just from a mental standpoint. And it just reinforces what we talked about all the time that your body really is only limited by what your mindset allows you to do. Your mind is what holds you back, it allows you to either achieve your potential or not achieve your potential, I mean, this guy swam over 1700 miles, his body was physically capable of doing it, he never got injured, he never got sick, you know, his body was physically capable of doing it. But the reason he was able to do it was not not just because of his physical capability is because of his mental fortitude. Because, to me, that’s the most incredible part and unbelievable part of this whole story. And in this, this whole thing, and really just the human experience, like the the human body is capable of things that we haven’t even reached its full potential yet. But we can only achieve what our minds will allow us to achieve. And so to me, that was the that was the biggest takeaway from the book was being mentally resilient in allowing that to help you reach your full potential physically.
Ashley Hicks
Yeah, and the dedication, he had, like not just swimming for the 12 hours a day, but he never went ashore if they were going places. And so and his reasoning was, like, you know, I can’t put any more stress on my body than I am. And like having that dedication, I’m going to basically be an open water the entire time that I’m doing this like that. I mean, that was crazy. I loved this book, because Kyle kind of touched on it, but I hate saying self help, because it makes it put it like in a negative thing, but most like self help, or I don’t know how to sit. Basically, sometimes it can be a little dry. He is hilarious. Like, if you can listen to the audiobook is what I’ll say like cuz he’s
Joe Courtney
a nerd.
Ashley Hicks
Yes. And he tells his story, and it’s his, it’s like, the good, the bad, and the ugly is what I wrote. And he tells you about, you know, all the things that sucked, but then all the things like, how he took what sucked and then turned it again, he flipped it on its head and was like, Okay, I’m gonna make this a positive like that. Again, this dude killed the ultimate comfort. But yeah, he makes you laugh. One of the funniest things I think I was actually like eating I almost spit some food out was he talks to a specialist and the guy’s like, Oh, you have a big head like you swimming around UK is going to be terrible for you because of the size of your noggin. Like, that’s literally what this person told him. And I was like, Oh, wait, but then you’ve got childbearing hips, and thick thighs. And all I kept thinking was man, I’d be a fantastic swimmer, then cuz he’s up, super boy up because of that. But, um, yeah, he talks about all sorts of stuff, but my tooth. So the book breaks down in 11 lessons, essentially. And so my two favorite lessons are five and eight. And five talks about make your body an instrument and not an ornament, I think is what this one’s titled. And it’s, um, he uses a method the Is it the said method? I forget what it stands for us. Yeah,
Joe Courtney
specific adaptation to impose demands
Ashley Hicks
perfect. And he just basically talks about putting your body under stress. And the more times you’re putting your body under that stress, you will not get used to it, but basically, like your body is going to adapt, and then get better at it. And so I really liked that and then the last one was eight. And the reason why to eight. Again, we’re talking about strength here and it’s just strength, improve stamina, and stamina, improve strength. So like the training went hand in hand. with each other, which was super cool, but, um, and then I have to bring up the jelly fishes to the face. Oh my gosh, like he this dude gets stung in the face. And like, just let’s What did he say got 25 jellyfish things in the face and just kept
like it was not.
Ashley Hicks
And he couldn’t even talk because he was so like, sore, swollen shut. Yes. Anyways, this book, go read it, go listen to it. It’s, it’s great. It’s very entertaining. And you’ll have a few takeaways as well.
Joe Courtney
I’ll just I just realized that that same chapter. And I laughed again out loud because the captain wanted to give him a gift mask. Like how ridiculous that is. And then he’s narrating saying that, like they were disappointed at the lack of sex shops in northern Scotland. Yeah, so things like that happen in the book club.
Ashley Hicks
Yeah. And Kenyan men, if you’re a Kenyan man, dude, I won’t bring it up. But you just read the book. And you’ll know what I’m talking about. Kudos, kudos.
Jerred Moon
All right, my turn. Well, I guess I had to bring some negative to the book, or else people are gonna think Ross paid us to do this review with how glowing would you have, have painted the picture. So I will start with a negative that way I can end with positive. And my only negative was I do think that he had some pretty gross misinterpretations of studies, not like, not like he read it. And like, God got it wrong on accident. It sounds like he was trying to use some of them to his advantage, but probably knowingly misinterpreted, some of those, specifically the J shaped curve and the immune system. He got concurrent training pretty wrong. I talked to you guys about that. And there are a few others have us just having covered these studies. I didn’t like go look at them. After the fact already having dove into some of these. It’s not that the studies are bad. It’s just I think he tried to. And you have to know that this is true. He did not come up with this like, ridiculous plan, and then go execute it. Some of this had to happen after the fact right? I’m sure he read a bunch of studies. He swam across great around Great Britain. And then he was like, Okay, I need to fit in some other stuff to make this apply make the story a little bit better. And I do think that some of them just didn’t work. So that was the only part I did not like, was some of the misinterpretations of the studies. But other than that, that was only a handful of them of the like, 100 studies that he probably mentioned in this and that it was good. So the the big picture why I liked the book, because I’ve only ever seen one other author do it and it was Alex Hutchinson is making a, let’s just say a fitness related book with science in it entertaining, that is a very hard thing to do. I’d like to challenge myself to be able to do that one day. But that that is I just think is very difficult. But he had an amazing story about what he did what he accomplished. And then he worked science into it so entertaining, and educational is a very hard thing to pull off, and he did it great. I do think that there is a ton of overlap. I’m talking about direct overlap with this book and Alex Hutchinson’s book, and you’re from the studies from the people they talk about. So if you want I mean, I put Alex Hutchinson book quiet above this book. So if you if you do like these types of books, I would go Alex Hutchinson read in here first and after him here, I would read this one if you guys like want to back to back because I think Alex is also it’s all endurance, right. And so he’s gonna go a lot deeper on the things that this guy mentioned. And that’s why I say hit hit it there first, because he only mentioned some of these, like models of fatigue and endurance and stuff. He just barely touches on them and Alex goes really deep on them and why they matter and how to utilize them. But then Ross brings in a lot more of the science and strength training stuff and resilience in the mindset piece that I don’t think Alex does as much I think it’s a great combo to listen back to back. I love stoicism in general if you do like stoicism, read what’s his name? The stoicism dude. He lives on holiday. Yeah Ryan Holiday read anything by Ryan Holiday. All of this stuff is stoicism. You could get the daily meditations one’s another great one if you if you enjoy his Sport Science, stoicism whatever the hell he called it you like the idea of stoicism and being resilient definitely check out almost anything Ryan Holliday has has written and you’ll get a lot of good stuff from from that. My favorite big takeaway actually kind of mentioned it was his reframing. I didn’t write down what the lesson was or for which chapter but it was towards the end when he does talk about reframing all of these things like he they didn’t allow any negative. Like conversation or talk while he was out on the water, right. They it was if he got stung by a jellyfish. He was wasn’t allowed to say got stung, he got hugged by jellyfish, those types of things. And I think that those kind of those things go a long way in any kind of situation that you’re in, no matter what it is. So I think if you could learn to do that in your daily life, always having a positive reframe of, you know, Thomas Edison was like, I didn’t, I found like, 1000 ways to not like make a light bulb, right? He didn’t call them failures, necessarily. I think reframing is, is the way that you have to look at it. So that was my, my biggest takeaway, I think, was awesome. Overall, like I said, incredibly impressive. I’m impressed by the dude. What he did is impressive. But I’m talking more about the actual writing of the book, I’m really impressed because of the combination of being able to do science and an entertaining story at the same time. I’ve only ever seen it done one other time. And that was Alex Hutchinson. So I’m very impressive looking. Two thumbs up, think that you should definitely read it.
Kyle Shrum
Yeah, I think that’s something that I enjoyed about it, too, is like, if he had just written the book about the story about the swim, like that would have been an entertaining book, you know, and he could have just done it that way of just really just telling the story, and just like diving into the whole experience, but then he brought the sports science into it as well. And kind of, as you said, he didn’t go super deep, you know, like other authors have. But at the same time that I don’t think that was the entire point of the book, the book was meant to tell the story of the swim, but also to bring in the science behind it as well. So mixing the two, otherwise, it would have been like, oh, and would have been like, two or three times larger if he didn’t try to dive deep into everything.
Jerred Moon
Which reminds me asterisk on a lot of the things that he does mentioned from training protocols, I wouldn’t trade I wouldn’t try almost any of them. Just so if anybody’s thinking about it, like even the basic strength methods, he’s talking about everything he selected and did was incredibly hardcore, is worn out, not something most athletes should do. He does, he does list some of these things in like a, here’s how to do it, which I think is a dangerous game, even if you preface it with, you probably shouldn’t do this. But here’s exactly how to do it. So anyway, yeah, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t follow most of his training protocols. They’re very hard. They’re not going to be magical for you. And he had a lot of training experience going into it. So know that if you’re trying to take practical, like, what should I do with my training applications from it, you should be pretty well trained, seasoned athlete if you want to do anything that he was doing?
Kyle Shrum
Yeah, keep in mind that this kind of swimming around Great Britain, like, this is not, you know, that’s what he was preparing to do this. Most people are the vast, vast majority of people are not preparing to do something like that. So like, yeah, don’t don’t take this as as gospel of how to actually train just for GPP.
Joe Courtney
Yeah, great. There’s even there’s like a full on Instagram story about the entire thing, because it only happened like three years ago. So I just watched that earlier today. And when I first finished it pretty cool.
Jerred Moon
I knew I had to be recent, some of the studies that he mentioned, we’re not that old. Cool. Anything else about the book?
Joe Courtney
I don’t think so.
Jerred Moon
All right, who’s got the workout?
Kyle Shrum
I will in a second. All right, Kyle. So the workout is the confused to k. And there’s some funny stories that go with this one. But I’m not going to go any further than that. This one is 10 rounds for time of a 200 meter row or run. And then a front rack barbell hold for the duration of the 200 meter time. So however long it took you to run or row your 200 meters, you’re going to then front rack barbell hold for that same amount of time. Now, that changes each round. So however long it takes you on each round, you don’t just set the first time and then you have to increase it each time. If you’re increasing if you’re decreasing each round props you you’re a beast. The weights for this one, competitor weight his body weight on the barbell established is 65 to 75% of body weight on the barbell and recruit is 45 to 65% of body weight or less on the barbell. That’s it. My tips would be I did this with Hannah. The only time I did it is with Hannah, and we did it out in front of our house and it was spicy. I guess it gets spicing as you go. My tip would be don’t pace the runs or the row. Go fast. Because you I mean, I know that I know that you want to kind of take a break especially you get into the later rounds and you’re dropping that barbell and you feel like you need to take a break. But the longer you take on that run, the longer you have to hold that barbell. So just don’t pace the runs go really They’re really fat or the run or the row. I say runs because we had to run it. So go really, really fast on those runs. Don’t try to pay some just go with it. Also, I said no music on this one. Just embrace it. Embrace the suck. That is evil. Yeah, yeah, just, you know, every now and then I throw that in there. You know music to see if you can see if you can take it to the next level. When
Jerred Moon
did you handle yourself?
Kyle Shrum
Yeah, that next level of No, no distraction. Just you so
Ashley Hicks
I said the actor ask. I said be actively engaged during the hold. So like, Don’t slouch. Don’t hunt, like Engage your core, engage your glutes during that hold. And this workout will always be remembered as the workout that Jared lied to me.
No, I didn’t lie. Yeah, you faked it motivated, motivated,
Ashley Hicks
he thinks I would go faster. Anyways, um, yeah. I could go fast on the row or the run, because it’s gonna suck the longer you keep holding it, but sustainable and repeatable, right, that’s what we always talk about. So
Joe Courtney
this is a great time to work on your front rack. We’ve been put into the condition and we put it in a program every once in a while I know I have a strength rack for front rack holds and just be able to hold on the on the front, you’re not going to be able to hold as much weight for as long if you’re crossing your arms in front of you. So this is a great time to work on that front rack and your elbows high stretch out your lats, and your triceps, that’s a lot of times a limiting factor. It’s not your wrist that can’t bend backwards, your wrist can only bend backwards so far. So stretch out your lats, smash them, smash your triceps, get those elbows up high. And really lock that in, squeeze your butt, even when you’re holding holding the front rack, it’ll make all that makes a difference for that front rack position. And it’ll you know, working on that will pay off on your front squat and such down the road. So get that front rack dialed in.
Jerred Moon
This tip is so important. I put it in the actual athlete brief. Don’t lock your knees. If you not, if you lock your knees you will pass out and I don’t know what happens if you pass out with a barbell with round your body weight on it, but it’s probably not good. And your time doesn’t stop. Yeah, and it’s not going to work out faster.
Kyle Shrum
So that would be a main next barbell hold.
Joe Courtney
Remember where you were you still have to finish your hold and then get back.
Jerred Moon
Oh, yeah. So don’t lock your knees. You You could pass out sustainable and repeatable is really what you should be aiming for on the the conditioning efforts if you are on the rower if you’re running whatever. And I would just go ahead and pick that out ahead of time knowing that you’re doing it 10 times, right. So we have 2000 meters. So if you are on the rower you probably have you know what a 2000 meter row pace is for doing it all at once, right, I would probably actually maintain that pace. Okay, so a 2000 meter row pace, but only 200 meters at a time is different than a 2000 meter row pace all at once. So you might think it’s fast, but it’s not fast when it’s 200 meters only. So that is the pace I would be shooting for if you have a 2000 meter row time and you are on the rower, that’s what I would shoot for if you’re running, you probably don’t have a 2000 meter runtime. So I can’t help you as much. But you do want to keep pace, probably probably whatever your mile and a half pace would be if I had to guess, and keep it consistent there as well. So that’s what i would i would not go out of the gates and treat it like a true 200 meter row where you go as fast as you possibly can. And I don’t say that often. Right. And and the only reason being is because I think the first couple rounds, it doesn’t hurt the holding the barbell on the front rack. But the last four do. I think four is where my memory kicked in there and told me that’s where it sucks. So yeah, so it’s a fun one. But that’s all I got you guys Anything else? Nope. No, we should just do a book review every podcast, we’d have to read a lot more in the non fantasy world, though.
Joe Courtney
I mean, I read about a buck or five books a month, so but it’s not the books you want to talk about. I can tell you all about the books I’ve read.
Kyle Shrum
We’ve read a bunch already that we haven’t covered. So yeah, we could just go back and do some refreshers.
Jerred Moon
Yeah, well, we’ll get a team vote. After the podcast see what you guys want to do the 52 books a year that of of the self help nature,
Ashley Hicks
self development, whatever.
Jerred Moon
Yeah, I always say self help. I don’t know. Really no.
Joe Courtney
does come with an asterisk though.
Jerred Moon
What is that?
Joe Courtney
Like? The Self Help is just so broad and like, it’s just the connotation to it, I think to actually kind of lean on it before. But yeah, it’s just hard to. I don’t know,
Jerred Moon
just so self development is better. you’re developing the self. But I think that help has a negative connotation, but I look at it the same way. Like you’re helping yourself. Like, if someone has cookies on their table, and I say Help yourself. It’s the same. It’s all good, right? You just do. You’re helping yourself.
Kyle Shrum
Cool. That’s right. self compassion. Talk from Listen, what’s
Joe Courtney
always happened at the end?
Jerred Moon
Yeah, okay, let’s just go ahead and end it here. Well, this is the garage, gym athlete podcast brought to you by you, the athlete. And if you’re not one of those athletes, you can go to garage gym, athlete.com, sign up for a 14 day free trial, we would love to have you. The best thing about our let’s say service in general garage, gym athlete in general, is not the programming, the programming a second place, the first place is going to be the community. So each and every single Joe thought it was him. He thought I was gonna say, Joe, it’s close, but it’s actually the community. That’s really like, we’re just getting more and more feedback. I mean, we had Chris Morgan on the podcast he talked about that that’s becoming a lot of people’s best advice on the on the podcast is getting more ingrained with the community. And I think the pandemic has really revealed that especially, you know, garage mathlete training is kind of pandemic proof training. And it always has been, we just happen to be in the position to facilitate that for some people. But a lot of us had been training this way, a long time before pandemic pandemic rolled around. And so we know that community peace is very important. And that’s why we work so hard to create an awesome, we also had an interview this morning with Darren gaunt, and he mentioned the importance of the community and how it just keeps you going. And I think now more than ever, it’s really important. So if you want to see some results, you know, maybe get a faster mile time lose some weight, look good naked, all those things. That’s great, the programming help you do that, but programming alone is not gonna help you stick to anything, the community having an accountability partner, those are the things that are going to help you stick to your training for a long time and see the results that you actually want not just the programming by itself, and that’s hard for me to say guys, I mean, I love the community, but I am just such a nerd when it comes to programming. It’s hard for me to be like nah, but it is it’s it’s like an art and a science, right? You have to blend them together to be good at Fitness. And so find that community. We could be it for you. If you’re not already a part of it, go to garage method comm fix that problem for everyone who is thank you so much for being a part of the community listening to podcasts. That’s it for this one.