I love seeing how curious you are about exploring your health and fitness!
This week Coach Kevin Don answers YOUR questions about everything from the best martial arts for kids to how to increase your effort with Peloton strength workouts.
Get-Fit Guy is hosted by Kevin Don. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Hi, I'm Kevin Don, the Get-Fit Guy, and this week I’m going to answer a few of your burning questions that have dropped into the Get-Fit Guy inbox recently!
I’m so grateful to get emails and feedback from the audience! I do take the time to answer the emails every week and I love seeing how curious you are about exploring your health and fitness! If you also feel like sending me an email, send it over to getfitguy@quickanddirtytips.com, and maybe you’ll hear it in the show.
So this week, I have chosen 3 messages I’ve received to answer because although questions are always subjective, we can all learn from them in an objective way.
First up we have Jack in California, right on the beach there next to LAX in El Segundo. Jack asks: “I've been doing Peloton strength workouts at home. These are efficient workouts that tend to incorporate little rest and lots of time under tension. I have a programming length question: I was doing a program like Chest and Back for 20 minutes one day followed by some HIIT cardio bike or run, Arms and Shoulders for 20 minutes the next day, etc. Then I started doing 30 minutes of each (arms and shoulders/chest and back/etc). And now I'm wondering if I should go up to 40 minutes, but at what point is there a law of diminishing marginal returns where adding extra time to the strength workout is just not going to give me results and thus not be worth it?”
So first of all, thank you for the email, Jack. The first thing I noticed here is the expression “efficient workouts”—but also, there isn’t a specific goal mentioned in your email. So we can’t say really that Peloton strength workouts are efficient since they may actually be moving you away from your overall goal. That is, if we define efficiency as maximum productivity with minimal wastage. If you have a goal, then Peloton by definition is probably inefficient because it's a general product—the trainings are not tailored to you—and therefore will mostly be wastage of effort. I do think that efficiency has entered the fitness vernacular as a byword for getting blazed by effort in minimal time, something I don’t necessarily agree with.
To address the programming length question and if there is a point of diminishing returns—yes, eventually, the volume itself is just going to end up being impossible to recover from. I’m assuming you increased the dose from 20 to 30 minutes because you hit a plateau, but I would say that a strength plateau is going to occur because you aren’t capable of creating enough stress with dumbbells. At some point you need to get on a heavy object, most likely a barbell, maybe a sandbag. But a dumbbell isn't going to provide a meaningful strength adaptation for most people outside the novice phase. Strength endurance, yes. Absolute strength, no.
My advice in this situation, bearing in mind I don’t have the data on your ultimate goal (but feel free to ping me another email), is that you need to increase the load and not the volume. More volume MAY begin to result in overuse injuries. If you are looking for strength, the barbell is king. Dumbbells are for accessory work. If you are thinking about doing 40 mins of Peloton, you are already at the point of diminishing returns. There are TONS of really great strength facilities out your way too! I can recommend some if you need guidance.
Ok, up next is Gustavo from Brazil who writes: “I’m the father of a 4 and a half year old boy that is currently asking to start a martial art. Since jiu-jitsu is quite common in Brazil, I’m considering enrolling him at this style. Which style should be the best for kids? How old should I consider appropriate for my boy to start at a martial art?”
This is a great question and right up my alley, given that I have been practicing martial arts now for quite some time (I won’t say how long because I can be secretive about my old age).
Which style is best for kids is really the same style that's best for anyone. That is: the style that they enjoy the most. Some people really love to grapple and some love to strike. Some like to kick and others like to punch. Some want to immerse themselves in a very technical sport and others just want to smash a bag or pads for an hour. So my advice is to let your son participate in a wide range of martial arts: karate, boxing, muay thai, judo, jiu-jitsu, and see which one he prefers. The biggest predictor for success in any sport or fitness endeavor is adherence. In turn, the biggest predictor of adherence is enjoyment.
In terms of how old to start a child, well, as soon as they can learn and move their body. Motor learning is what is most important for kids, so I would say that the ability of the coach to recognize how to train youth is more important than the age of the child. We also have to bear in mind that children grow at all different rates—not so much at 4 years old, but at 12 or 13 you might have one child who looks 12 and another who looks 17. It depends on their own journey of physical development. So, definitely have a look for a coach who is more concerned with motor patterns and teaching positions and shapes than one who is trying to teach “sport,” and make sure that aligns with whatever martial art your son expressed the most enjoyment out of participating in.
Finally, we have Grace, from Lyon, France. Grace says “Hi Coach Kevin, I am a former rugby player and powerlifting champion, and last year I developed depression due to not having a sporting career anymore. I’ve stopped going to the gym. This past week my friend wanted to start at the gym so she convinced me to go too, but the feelings aren’t the same. I don’t have the same rush. I want to go back to enjoying training, how should I go about it?”
Hi Grace, firstly, thank you for the mail and the vulnerability, and also for wanting to move forwards. That's the first step—being able to be objective. I have worked with many athletes and it can be really difficult to go from training with a sporting goal or purpose to training with no purpose. I would encourage you to check out my first episodes on the show where I define coaching and also health if you haven’t already heard them.
Not having a sporting goal doesn’t mean you don’t have a goal anymore. But it could be that you need to “self-consult” and think about what is important to you now. You mentioned enjoying training, so you have already identified a metric for yourself. So what kind of training do you enjoy? Try to figure that out, even if that involves a period of trial and error. Try just training with goals or health or fun with your friend, or try a new activity like a dance class or indoor climbing and see which ones you enjoy.
Satisfaction comes from a goal and being able to check off little landmarks on the journey to that goal. With the goal no longer being performance, it's admirable to think about health, so a goal might be lowering your resting heart rate by improving aerobic capacity. It might be holding your body weight in an active hang for 60 seconds or being able to move in 360 degrees in space better.
So my advice is that it would be a good time to write down some new goals and how you might be able to achieve them. I don’t think as a former athlete, you will feel satisfied drifting along and going to a gym without that. Good luck and let me know what you come up with!
Thank you again to everyone who emails in for giving me the opportunity to serve you with my experience and knowledge. It means a lot to me! Happy Holidays to you all!