 Are you a high-level athlete not seeing the best results you don't want to listen to this Our next caller is mac from indiana mac. What's happening? Hey guys, how you doing good? uh, so I had some I was looking for some advice on how to combat the feeling of Not doing enough in the gym uh, so some context, uh, just started maps aesthetic and or not just started getting through a Phase two here and on these focus sessions days on my smaller muscle groups like triceps and traps I feel like i'm just not doing enough during my time in the gym So tell me tell me mac a little bit about your athletic background that I know you have Uh, yeah, so I was a d1 swimmer in college just recently graduated in may So i'm very much accustomed to the 20 hours of 20 hours a week of working out Six days a week two hours of practice. Yeah Yeah, I I've trained a couple highly competitive swimmers. I had no when I first started training one years ago I had no idea The amount of frequency and volume of training at that level. It was twice a day, right? You did like twice a day for hours in the morning Yeah, I mean it'd be yeah, it'd be a double probably twice maybe three times a week. I mean just A lot of a lot of volume. Yeah, okay. So let's so let's unpack this for a second. Okay What do you mean when you say that you feel like you're not doing enough or let's say you feel unsatisfied like What do you what do you mean by that exactly? uh like if I like if it's if i'm doing triceps it just feels like only doing three exercises of three sets just Isn't enough I guess like I just don't feel like I've I've done anything. What what does enough feel like to you? Little bit sore, uh, maybe not not like too sore, but you know, uh I guess just um Satisfied with it. I get like I feel like I've I've done a good work and I've I've put the work in Yes, but like with but what does that feel like so this is important that we know it sounds fishing for right now Well, I'm not even fishing. I just want to know what you mean because you're fishing Yeah, because I want to know what it feels like to you and and maybe you don't even maybe you haven't even put words to this but this is really important uh to break down because There's an upper limit To how much exercise your body can tolerate And then there's the best amount that's going to get you the best results And they're not the same So there's a there's a volume and intensity and a frequency that's going to give you the best results And then up above and beyond that Is what you can tolerate and you get diminishing returns, but you can tolerate it you can get away with it And so I need to know what feeling you're looking for because If it's you know, this is important because if you feel like you know, I just I feel like I can do more Well, that just means that you're used to training your upper limit of tolerance not Optimal not optimum for results Nothing necessarily wrong with that if you're willing to trade results in progress For that feeling well also keep in mind too when you're when you're a competitive swimmer You're trying to get great at the sport right like you're not trying to build the most muscle or burn the most body fat So if you're approaching weight training with that same idea Well, yeah, we could totally scale up the volume of of how much exercise you're doing if you just want to get better at exercising But I'm assuming that you have goals like I want to build some muscle I want to be stronger I want to lose body fat like if you have goals like that it's uh, there's a much more scientific approach To how you do that and what's optimal for your body to see the most amount of results Versus how much can I actually do in a workout that I'll actually be able to tolerate? Like Sal's saying those are different things and when I train Highly competitive people it's really hard for them to make that switch because That's how they have approached training for their sport for so many years And probably had success if you made it to d1 So you're you've learned to do that and push yourself to that level But when you're actually training to build muscle or to build strength or to lose body fat It's a it's a total different approach than just how much can I can I do now? Where's where's your intensity gauge through these sets? Like are you Placing more demand on the load and and After you're done you feel unsat like it feels hard on your way through But you just feel unsatisfied because you don't have that sore feeling after you get through your sets Yeah, um, I'm More putting more emphasis on the Total reps so I'm trying to hit that 20 rep range on the on these focus sessions You know what mac? Start to interrupt. Okay. So here's one of the challenges I'm gonna I'm gonna go through this because this might be something that you're thinking If not definitely people watching in the same position as you are thinking this You competed at a very high level And you trained it with an extreme volume And so the argument tends to come back and say well if it doesn't work Then why was I training so much and competing at such a high level? Well, here's why okay? Here's why swimmers and divers And gymnasts in particular Trained so much now. You don't see football players doing that kind of volume of training. It's different, but you see highly skilled sports Do incredible amounts of volume and frequency and here's why? Let me ask you a question mac. You are you're you obviously know how to swim very well How much of a difference does per does perfect technique make in your speed when you're swimming? Everything that's everything right like you could have somebody who's less perfect But way more powerful and they'll get creamed by the guy next to him who's got the most perfect technique with their swim, right? Yeah, this is true for diving and gymnastics as well Now that volume and frequency and training the reason why they're training you to the point that you can Maximally tolerate is because what they're really looking for is perfection and technique and execution And the more you practice the better your execution gets even if you sacrifice a little bit of strength and recovery and stamina That's worth it because it's all about skill and technique Now when you're working out adam said something great You want to be the best at working out? Well, then just go ahead and do as much as you could possibly tolerate But if you're looking for strength Aesthetics mobility Muscle building fat loss you're going to have to change your mentality. It is not the same Mental state as the d1 competitive swimmer that you were before now What i'm going to do is i'm going to try and help you here because it's hard to get out of that So here's some advice when you're in there doing your focus sessions Do your focus session when you're done with it do something else. You don't have to leave the gym Why not do more mobility work or technique work or skill work or stretching Or other types of activity that can help facilitate recovery Can improve maybe your skill or work on mobility But what i don't want you to do is keep lifting weights because it's just going to take away again Unless you don't care about the results as much then i'd say go and push yourself until you hit that limit But if you really care about results Don't do more but you can do other things that can help out and and to be honest mac and i don't know if you started here but Already like what we've learned about you already and if you were an actual client I would actually make your ass do maps and a ball which would really fucking drive you crazy The one to five rep range uh to really shake it up because this is a completely different pursuit And you have to kind of i mean this is this is a very challenging mental task in front of you is to really kind of shift that attention into what builds you the most strength and not necessarily What you're used to in terms of the feel of this physical activity Yeah, and you know, it's funny the irony mac is that maps aesthetic is one of our higher volume programs. Yeah, that's why That's that's why I picked it Nothing for you, so it's like you gotta do something different. Yeah, I know that's why you are you in our private forum No, i'm not okay. You're gonna need coaching. Yeah, this is not that but okay the hardest people I ever trained Were people like you so and it's hard because it's you have that mentality. It's there. It was really effective for you It's gonna be really hard to get out of that So i'm gonna bring you in our private forum give us updates tag us and give us updates so that we can keep Talking sense into you because you're gonna keep veering into the slain. It's just gonna keep happening. I promise you Yeah, I would love to see you absolutely. I would love to see you Why don't we give him maps in a ball too? Because I'd actually like to see him do maps anabolic as much as it'll drive him crazy And the thing that if you were my client, I might be too much of a jump. That's all right And if you were a client of mine, I was talking to your day I would actually be making medicine I'd want you to do long rest periods and we would just like I'd make you sit down And you'd be chalking up and we'd be talking about the squad I mean, oh, yeah, that looked really good last time now next time and like really analyzing your movement Sweating is so antsy. Yeah, and and making you sit and rest for those full three minutes You fire you and hire the crossfit But but I would I would I would make you do that and then and and Let's just let's just focus on getting stronger and stronger and giving yourself these these long adequate rests And it would I know it would drive you crazy But I know it's what's best for you and that if I could get you to commit For a couple months of trusting me I think that once you saw the strength gains and the muscle that would start to come on your body I think that I I could get you bought in but it's it's breaking that Those old behaviors that made you such a great swimmer. It's it's you don't want to be just great at working out I think you want to probably build muscle or get stronger. Those things are probably where you're I'm assuming, right? I mean, I guess we should clarify. Yeah, okay. Okay. Yeah, Mac. What when you were competitive So were you were you more of a sprinter medium distance? No, I was the distance kid Now nonetheless, so nonetheless, I'm going to say this If you got to d1 for any sport You've got better genetics than 99% of anybody watching this if you do everything right with what we're saying You're going to get amazing results. So if your results are lackluster You're probably overdoing it. That's what I'm going to guess. You're probably overdoing it I would and I would say um what I would get my my competitive athletes do is to just is uh Let's channel that that crazy discipline that you have And attention to detail to other things like the diet like let's let's get like really crazy About really tracking the food and paying attention to how your body and strength is changing and like shift that and mobility Like get really good at mobility moves. Maybe take something from like our Our maps performance program and like practice mobility moves and get really good at that like find other areas that You can get hyper focused on and and take that competitive Mind of yours and channel it where it's going to benefit you Channeling that that into more volume and intensity and training is only going to hinder you So that you've got to shift away from and find something else to to focus it on Yeah, we look forward to seeing you in the forum mac. Gotcha Right on man. Awesome. Thanks for calling in Yeah, I appreciate it. Yep In another life, uh adam was a d1 swimmer remember that time we went to the pool and He did really well against it out. You know, it's I'm telling the truth now There's obviously general categories of clients that we've worked with The most challenging were these Especially when they were only like five to ten years out highly competitive college athletes for sure because they're successful It was so hard to get them to pull back It was it was easier to get the couch potato to start moving than it was to get that person To pull back because they're in it. They have another gear. They're very comfortable in that gear It brought them success and I like to explain the whole thing about skill and technique because certain sports The goal is is to push you to your absolute limits because it's about Practicing this like you look at a diver They're going to practice as much as their bodies can handle because every little You know, if you're off just a little bit, you're you're not going to be as good It's not about getting a stronger, you know, they're refining. They're sharpening You know, that's definitely part of the process practicing these moves and really getting really good at it And so that's the difference right is to be really good at all these exercises But like if you want to make a substantial change you have to really do something different than you've been doing the whole time Yeah, totally. Look, if you like uh mind pump, you'll love mind pump free dot com Head over there and check out all of our free guides We have guides that can help you with all of your fitness goals You can also find the three of us on instagram. So justin is at mind pump. Justin I'm at mind pump. Sal and adam is at mind pump adam Hey, if you enjoyed that clip you can find the full episode here or you can find other clips over here and be sure to subscribe