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Ryan and Andy do some good-ol'-days-ing about their early years in Japan... BUT it's actually relevant. We promise!

Here's why:

• Moving to Japan to practice martial arts has had a huge impact on how we think about training, quality, and mastery.
• Our experience as teachers is one of the most fundamental components of the GMB Method. Every seen one of our videos and thought "that's a good explanation?" Well, this is why. 
• Part of GMB is de-culturalizing movements that are most commonly seen in certain contexts and making them available to anyone. 

We've got some good stories in this one - a couple of them are pretty embarrassing - and we also wax philosophical on what it all means. 

Without Andy and Ryan both happening to live in Osaka circa 2008, there's be no GMB, but at a much deeper level, without the experiences we talk about in this episode, we simply wouldn't have been capable of coming up with any of this.

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There’s a thousand right ways to do almost anything. I know that’s not what you wanna hear, but it’s the truth. 

For any skill you wanna learn, the right focus is gonna depend on where you’re at, what impediments you have, your natural strengths, your goals, your context, and whatever other training or activities you’re into. All that stuff impacts how your practice works, and that’s a lot of variables to balance in a master equation. So how do you choose the right details to focus on. By now you know you can’t do it all at once...

In this episode, Ryan and Andy yap about:

• What kinds of details are important when you’re learning a new skill or working on an exercise
• What we optimize for personally and as coaches in GMB programs
• Why good form is subjective and why that doesn’t stop good coaches from providing useful cues for performance and practice

In every program we’ve created there’s hundreds of details and decisions we’ve made, and we can’t explain each of those, but this discussion will give you a sense of the value hierarchy behind them and why we focus on certain things more than others. You’ll be able to look at conflicting opinions and viewpoints expressed by different teachers and understand why they differ and which side is most appropriate for you. 

Stick it in your earhole. 

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Choose the right details to focus on for your needs

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One of the key differences between training for fitness vs training for sport is the emphasis on developing capabilities vs abilities. This episode defines these similar terms in a new way so you can figure out which exercises you need to be focusing on and why.

Fact: people train for a lot of different reasons.

We know you have your own goals, and one thing we've found a massive proportion of our clients to have in common is that lifting more weight or doing more reps is not the end-all-be-all goal for them. More important is translating that strength or endurance or other attribute to performance in some sort of activity, be it a sport or just the regular daily stuff. That's not to say it's wrong to focus on reps or to add weight to the bar; we just want you to know whether or not that's your real reason for training, because it'll impact choices you make about the best path forward. 

As always, be on the lookout for stupid jokes and an invitation to really spend some time introspecting about why you're even working out in the first place. There's no wrong answers as long as you're asking the questions honestly.

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There's a lot of noise about "what successful people do" to start their days... and a thousand people trying to cash in on selling you the dream of being a better person because you drink the right kind of coffee. 

We have some experience with mornings. Between Ryan and Andy, 32,493 of them so far. We've tried just about every schedule, tool, hack, and routine you can imagine, and what we've found is that getting the most out of each day comes down to two rules:

1. Spend a bit of time early in the day on whatever is most important to you
2. Set yourself up for success in whatever activities you have planned

The specific activities have changed as our needs and priorities have changed through the years. We'll share some of our favorites and a few that didn't seem to help at all. Most importantly, this episode is about figuring out what's essential for you to get done ASAP every day so you can be effective and enjoy your life. Once you know that, you can create a clear and simple routine that gets you kicking ass.

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OK, first thing first: 40 isn't "old." Neither is 50. And for the sweet love of all the deities, I am so sick of people younger than us commenting on our Facebook posts about they think they're too old to learn new things. 

Getting a sense for the gist of this episode yet?

For our first new episode in over two years, Ryan and Andy asked our clients and followers what topics they wanted us to discuss, and the most common request was for tips on how to stay healthy and keep making fitness progress when you're not straight out of college anymore. Well, our first priority is divesting you of the idea that there's some magical age at which it's impossible to improve yourself. 

From there, we cover:

• The realities of building muscle beyond your physical peak
• Why recovery is so important (even it it's not uniquely important) as you age
• Our personal strategies for feeling good and staying happy with our bodies
• The REAL reasons people feel like they can't make progress anymore (they have nothing to do with actual biology)
• How to deal with old injuries and habits
• How to improve your mindset around training and practice

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It's been a while, but the GMB Show is back in business.

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Do you find it hard to make good decisions and spend your time wisely? Whether it’s a matter of perfectionism, procrastination or just a general state of indecision, spending too much time trying to decide what to do and when leads to wasted time. If you’re having a hard time being efficient at work or even finding a set time to get your workout in, today’s podcast can help you create a better routine.

Today’s guest is Shane Parrish of Farnam Street. Farnam Street is an online intellectual hub geared toward helping people make better decisions. Shane helps people understand how the world works and how to more effectively make decisions that matter.

Topics we discuss today include: 

• Why making decisions in the morning, before unhealthy food choices are already made, can help you reach your goals. 
• Why to-do lists are ineffective, and what a better alternative is. 
• How taking the time to evaluate and make good decisions can save you time in the long run. 
• How mentally arguing both “sides” of a decision can help you make better choices. 

Quotes by Shane: 

• “One of the ways to see the world as it really is is a concept called mental models.” 
• “Small changes make a huge difference.” 
• “If you eliminate the outcomes you don’t want, you’ll probably get the outcome you do want.” 

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Finding your way in fitness can seem difficult. It takes a concerted effort to test, experiment, and discover what works for you in order to accomplish your personal goals and ensure it fits in with your existing lifestyle. On this episode of the GMB Show Ryan welcomes Krista Stryker, personal trainer and founder of 12 Minute Athlete, where she develops and shares fitness routines that combine bodyweight and skills training with HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). Ryan and Krista discuss her path of experimentation with different systems and how she went from being bogged down by conventional fitness to discovering a combination that works perfectly for accomplishing her goals and fitting in with her desired lifestyle. You’ll hear Krista describe how she took what she liked from each system and what was working for her and adapted it to create the routines she uses now. Routines that combine the best of both bodyweight training and HIIT.

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Have you ever wished you could just get your workout done more quickly and efficiently? Today’s guest, Krista Stryker, is the founder of 12 Minute Athlete. With a background in crossfit and bodybuilding, Krista integrates a program called HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) into her workouts. What this means is that you can get your workout done in a short amount of time with a high intensity level.

Krysta is also focused on nutrition, getting a better body, getting fast results, and exercising in a way that makes her feel good, rather than working out just for the sake of getting in her exercise for the day.

Some of the topics that you’ll hear in today’s episode include:

2:40: What made Krista create the 12 Minute Athlete

6:10: Information about HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and how can it help.

8:30: How to integrate skill acquisition with HIIT.

15:10: Tips on how to keep up with workouts while traveling.

17:45: What Krista does to keep her nutrition up when on vacation.

20:50: Tips for starting out and staying motivated with this type of training.

Links

The 12 Minute Athlete

Krista on FB

YouTube Videos

Instagram

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