My Training Program & Philosophy Revealed | EP 80

[00:00:00] Dr. Antonio Gurule: What’s up guys? In this episode, we are gonna be talking about some of the, if you wanna call it training philosophies that I use, but just kind of outlining, uh, my current kind of training plan and schedule, or lack thereof. Um, And kind of walking you through at least the thought process behind it and, and some of the elements, if you will.

[00:00:20] So, uh, if that interest of you, if you feel like if you’re someone who likes kind of generating your own programs or you’re just wanting to learn a little bit more about that, uh, I think this episode can be super helpful and handy for you. So stay tuned.

[00:00:41] Welcome back to another episode of the Live Loud Life podcast. My name is Dr. Antonio, your host of the Live Loud Life podcast. Uh, and. Uh, as in, as mentioned in the intro here, we’re gonna be talking about some training elements, uh, some of my training philosophies and principles that I follow. Um, kettlebells, of course, if you know me, I love kettlebells.

[00:00:59] Um, so on and so forth. So, before then, uh, sorry, before we get started, uh, please subscribe, uh, whether you’re watching on YouTube, following along on Apple Podcast, uh, hit notifications if you wanna, uh, get or see when these, uh, drop and if you have any topics. That you are interested in or you want us to cover or, or anything like that, it helps us generate more specific content to the needs of you, the listener.

[00:01:23] So, um, we’d love to hear those. If you’re not following us on Instagram as well, handle is @live.loud.life. All right, so let’s jump into it training now.

Seasons Of Life Philosophy

[00:01:36] Dr. Antonio Gurule: Uh, I’m a big fan of this concept called Seasons of Life, right? In the previous episode, I just shared that we’re actually expecting baby number four. So in March of 2023, the season of my life will be a little bit crazier that we will have four kids.

[00:01:58] Um, fortunately, let’s see, our kids will be seven, five, and three with a newborn. We’re currently thinking about getting a puppy too. Uh, I don’t know if we’re crazy or what, but, uh, I’ve been want a dog for a while. So , I think it fits well into this. Um, but that season of life shit is a little bit crazier than it is now.

[00:02:19] And then three kids over to two, it was a little bit crazier, right? So different elements starting different, um, you know, different side businesses or different programs and different courses and things like that. So the season of life will obviously change. Um, when I had one kid versus two kids, working out was a lot different.

[00:02:40] I had a lot more time to allocate. Now this. Has a little bit of, well, obviously, certain elements that are important to our, our, our, our life and our, and our health need to be prioritized. So it’s not just, Hey, throw this aside. We’re just simply saying, like, and if you, if this is important to you and you wanna get it in, and time is tight, or, or whatever that is, you know, this is, this is how I’m doing it right now.

[00:03:05] So there are certain days where I definitely have an hour to work out. Like there’s no, there’s no question about that. I have a, I would argue a little bit more time than my wife cur currently, obviously based on how she feels and different things like that. Um, we’re starting, um, this is fall. We’re starting homeschooling this year for our two oldest first grade and pre-K.

[00:03:27] So, you know, the school load for that is not intense, but, you know, we’re trying to set up the foundation of what homeschooling might look like for our family. So that’s different. Um, but one element that.

Family Life & Creating Appropriate Routines

[00:03:39] Dr. Antonio Gurule: That we obviously encourage and try to push is like you have sometimes you have to work out with your kids around and your family around.

[00:03:45] So encouraging independent play time, uh, safe play time around wherever you’re working out and doing, uh, is important. Now, obviously the type of training you do would. Suggest that they can be near you or not. Obviously Olympic lifting, I would not suggest your kids being around, um, heavy deadlifts, uh, heavy squats on and so forth, you know, so on and so forth.

[00:04:03] But, but what, But, but you have to be able to get it in. And if they’re around, then you can’t just say, Oh, I can’t do it cuz my kids around, I half my workouts, at least when I’m at home and not the office are with the kids around and they’re playing with themselves or doing independent play time. If they were, if we were young, if they were younger and they only had one or two, they’d be just doing their own thing.

[00:04:22] So that’s part of it. Now, with that season of life’s right. Having kids, sometimes your sleep sucks. Now, in a perfect world, we’d be able to sleep all that we want. We’d be able to eat all the right food and be able to work out as we want, as much as we’d want, and that those dials will shift and change.

[00:04:43] Right? So, you know, sometimes, uh, you know, on the weekends we’re bouncing around seeing family and while we try to control what we eat as best as possible, sometimes it’s eating out cuz it’s easier. So on and so forth. Um, uh, sometimes the kids have a crappy night of sleep and you didn’t sleep all the night before, and so your workout that was planned the next day cannot be executed, uh, to the same degree.

[00:05:04] And so those are all the things that you have to take in consideration when you’re talking about seasons of life and trying to get your, your training in. And so I, I’m, I’m ideally trying to get in five days a week. Realistically it’s three to five. Um, uh, in the last month, I would say I’ve been on a better kick about getting five in.

[00:05:25] And then on the weekends I honestly don’t get much in uh, cuz we’re both home. We’re both home. We’re trying to do more outdoor stuff, family stuff. Uh, we’re also trying to build things like chicken coops and stuff in the backyard now.

Training Adjustments for Your Life Season

[00:05:37] Dr. Antonio Gurule: We have to say, I’ve had a couple videos based on, uh, our, our new move here is looking at training in a different lens too.

[00:05:45] Sometimes we think has to be just structured in the gym doing X, Y, and Z. Like as I was mentioned on a few other things, landscaping, that is a good workout. That might be your quote unquote training day or workout of the day. If you’re outside slinging a shovel or an ax for like three to four hours, that’s a pretty good workout.

[00:05:59] So don’t sell yourself short on what you’re doing on a grand total throughout the day, but, Sum up into simplify what I’m trying to accomplish, and I’ve been very honest about this. I know I have gaps in holes. I know I have certain. Stability and mobility limitations that, uh, could be addressed. Um, that could enhance maybe some of the achy spots that I have in maybe the lower back or the shoulder or some of the tight spots that I have in the back or the shoulder.

Maintenance in Movement

[00:06:34] Dr. Antonio Gurule: Uh, some of the limitations in my thoracic spine that comes from sitting down, creating content, typing, working with patients, so on and so forth. Uh, I try to. Put in what I need, where I can, whether it’s warm up or in between certain sets to try to get that stuff in. Um, there are some days where I just call, call it, and rather than doing the thing that I’m meant to do, it’s just like, today’s gonna be a mobility movement day, cuz that’s what my body’s telling you.

[00:06:59] That’s the whole point of season of life training is listening to your body. Now some of us enjoy the structure of a program of saying, I wanna be told what to do every day and I wanna see the progressive layout in playing. Wonderful. I love that. I can’t do that because of this season of life. When things get thrown off on something like that, then it throws off the whole progression on that scale.

[00:07:21] Now you can, you can figure out how to get back on track. It’s not, it’s not impossible to do so, but I am going for maintenance in movement. Now, part of this is through my health journey. I believe that I have set up a fairly good foundation of baseline strength that allows me to do near the majority of everything that I wanna be able to do.

[00:07:42] Now, obviously, if I wanna go run a marathon, I’d have to shift that and, and create more of an aerobic capacity baseline of just running. Um, but because I’ve done enough, Strength training, mobility work, stability work and movement work. My, the base foundation of my movement pyramid or triangle is, is pretty solid, so that allows me to make shifts and move or miss days and weeks.

[00:08:10] And be able to bounce back quicker. And I think this is an element that so many people miss. We talk about training history, right? So a lot of times we’ll ask people like, Well, what are we doing for training? And we talk about resistance training. They’re like, Yeah, I’ve done resistance training. Like, Well, when?

[00:08:24] When? The last time, Oh, in college. It’s 15, 20 years ago. While that might be a foundation back then, we’ve lost that, right? That that was a while ago. We’ve lost that. But if it was someone like, Yeah, I was, you know, I was on a consistent program, you know, maybe six months to a year ago. They have a pretty good lifting and it was for an extended period of time.

[00:08:44] That’s a pretty. Good recent, um, uh, baseline program to bounce off of. Now they might ha have everything that’s associated with it, but there it’s more recent to the fact where they can extract that knowledge from that and some of the movement patterns and behaviors to catch back up. So I’m constantly trying to, in a way, in knowing my body, refine certain elements and add certain things in, but sometimes it’s just, it’s just doing work cuz I know I need to do work.

[00:09:11] I know I need resistance training. I know I need to make myself breathe hard and heavy and I’m biased towards certain movements such as kettlebell work and other things like that where I know I can get it in and I know I can get what I need fairly quickly. Now again, argumentatively. If I had a coach or someone else looking at this, you’re missing this, you’re missing this, you’re missing this.

[00:09:32] Yeah, I probably am. But again, maintenance of my baseline foundational movement capacities and patterns on and so forth, this is what’s working extremely well for me. It’s still allowing me to progress in certain areas.

Understanding Movement Pattern Biases

[00:09:45] Dr. Antonio Gurule: Uh, again, I’m, I’m trying to be better about understanding also my movement pattern biases.

[00:09:50] My long, lengthy body is very good at pulling, uh, meaning. Pull up and rows and swings and deadlifts. My body’s built for that. It’s not so strong at pushing vertical, pushing pushups, horizontal bench press, squats, lunges on and so forth. The way my body’s structured it is much harder and, and I would veer away from that from time to time, missing those elements.

[00:10:13] So now my big focus has been kind of back to like, okay, well, If, if my body naturally is good at some of these other things, I do need to work on some of the, the, um, not weaknesses, but weaker links of those movement patterns, which would be pushing and squatting to help just create a little bit more of, um, uh, a dynamic balance, if you will.

[00:10:33] So that’s again, In my knowledge of knowing where I’m at, where my past has been and everything else, I’m focusing on that now. The, the training hasn’t really changed all that much. It’s just trying to maybe add more of those movements in and or on those movements. I’m trying to be more intentional and or on those movements, I’m trying to go a little heavier, whereas before I would’ve been like, Yeah, it’s okay.

[00:10:55] I’ll go a little lighter. Right. And so this is just kind of, again, coming, coming back, uh, um, uh, I’m being honest with myself about really what those are. In the past I was like, I’m getting by. I’m getting fine by fine, right? And, and, and it just kinda let those slip and slide. So it’s, it’s trying to be progressive from a micro scale, not necessarily a macro scale, understanding that the micro, the days of the compounding interests are adding up upon each other.

[00:11:23] And that’s really how I got to where I am today. I could, I could have gotten further when I had more time and gaps by, by being a little bit more specific. 100%. Um, but right now it’s the consistency of at a minimum, three to five days, um, um, uh, of doing these types of things. So what does, what does a training day look like?

[00:11:45] Well, we’re, we’re trying to hit the big movement patterns, the big compound movements, because that allows me to get the most out of what I’m doing on each individual movement or day. So, For the majority. For the majority, I have some sort of a push, a pull, a hinge, a squat, um, squat and or lunge. I’m trying to add more carries in.

[00:12:05] Uh, but that’s, that’s the quote unquote kind of baseline of movement patterns that I’m looking for. Now, I can sometimes integrate and combine those things, right? So it might be like, Uh, a clean and press or a clean and squat, so on and so forth. But that’s why I love kettlebells. I can take one, I can take one element or one, um, one tool, one.

[00:12:29] A piece of equipment and do multiple things with it without having to transition and change. And that is what works best, again, for my season of life and for a lot of, uh, a lot of parents, uh, whether it’s a dumbbell or kettlebell barbells, just take up more space. They need more preparation, they need more.

[00:12:46] Awareness and also more foundational practice of understanding the movement principles and how to do those things in the first place. So if you have that, great, I’m not saying you can’t do that, but for the kettlebell, it makes it that much easier. So, for instance, today’s workout, Uh, I was, the, the whole purpose of today was level change is making my body go up and down.

[00:13:07] I did bento, I did a bent over row variation. I did pushups, I did kettlebell cleans, and I did squat. So I gotta push a pull, a hinge, and a squat. Um, I didn’t do a carry, uh, just cuz I was inside today, but you could simply just add in, Hey, after that last set I’m gonna carry, I’m gonna take the kettlebells and I’m gonna carry down and back.

[00:13:24] Or after that whole complex, I’m gonna do a few rounds of just loaded carries to just add that little element in. Now, within that, that was the circuit and that was a complex, That’s primarily what I do because again, I can hit all those things. It helps get my heart rate up, so on and so forth. If I wanna be more specific, I simply just break that up into, uh, like a super set.

[00:13:44] I’ll do two things paired together, or I’ll do one thing with a stretch or a stability exercise. Integrate it in. For example, it might be bent over rows, and then I might flip onto my back and do some sort of a dead bug variation or some sort of a anterior core chain movement to hit more of the anterior core, if I’m wanting to work on that.

[00:14:03] Or I might do a vertical press. I’m working on a press ladder, kettlebell, pressing overhead, and then I might drop down and do some sort of a 90, 90 or a pigeon stretch to work on loosening up my hips. So it’s a way for me to, again, sprinkle in the stability and mobility or the rehab exercises or the stretching elements that you know you should be getting in.

[00:14:23] But it, it’s e but you oftentimes will tell your body, Hey, it’s an either and, or you need to stretch or workout. You can do them together, You can combine them together.

Resistance Training for Mobility & Movement

[00:14:31] Dr. Antonio Gurule: And what most people forget is that when you are doing resistance training, if you make it intentional to elongate, open up, you’re actually providing a lot of stretching and mobility in that movement.

[00:14:45] Uh, what would be an example of that? Well, if I’m doing a trx, uh, if I’m doing a, a trx, row, right. Rather than keeping my shoulder blades pinned back the whole time and just moving my upper arm in my forearms, when I lower myself down, I could really reach my arms out in front of me long to allow my shoulder blades to wrap around.

[00:15:04] So I’m getting a good upper back stretch and my rhomboids my mid traps, my lower traps, um, so on and so forth. So, If we were able to work on depth mobility and other things like, or like that while you’re lifting, you kinda kill two birds with one stone. But sometimes we get so focused on moving faster, moving harder, moving heavy, that we forget that element.

Maintaining Mobility Without Stretching Daily

[00:15:25] Dr. Antonio Gurule: So I’m able to actually maintain a lot of my mobility even though I’m not stretching on a daily basis by simply being more intentional about how I’m moving, setting up. My technique and my, uh, in my movement patterns to allow me to move into, to, to deeper depth, such as in a squat or a sumo deadlift or using, or programming in certain movements like a cosac squat or even a lunge pattern, which would stretch and open up my hips every time I go down.

[00:15:55] So, you know, it’s looking at it from that element while we said, just push, pull, hinge, squat. And carries, that seems very simplistic, right? But based on the exercise selection, I’m able to get multiple elements out of it other than just strength training or loading, right? So let’s lay this out as another example.

[00:16:14] Let’s use a double front rack, dumbbell and or kettlebell double front rack. Rev, uh, split squat, right? So I’m in a split stance position. One foot forward, one foot backwards, and I have two kettlebells racked on my shoulders. This is a quite an extensive shoulder exercise. Depending on the weight that you’re using, you’re isolating or your, sorry, you’re isometrically, holding that kettlebell in front of you, which will require your shoulders to be a strong foundation in order for the shoulders to be strong.

[00:16:41] Your torso, your pillar has to be set. That has to be strong. And then all of that basically, More or less stabilizes and stiffens while you move your hips and your knee joints to descend down. So I’m getting a ton of stability training in my shoulders and my torso, and then when I descend down, my glutes and my quads are what’s going to eccentrically.

[00:17:04] Lengthen, right? Gives me a good stretch in both my glutes and my quads, depending, especially on my width. And then it also then concentrically, uh, contracts to bring me back up. Now on that back leg as I go down, I’m actually getting a hip flexor stretch. So if I’m actually holding my torso up nice and tall and I’m stacked on top of my back knee, I get a wonderful.

[00:17:23] Hip flexor stretch. I can enhance that hip flexor stretch by doing a rear foot elevated split squat by putting my foot up that bends my knee more, which enhances that quad stretch or that hip flex stretch. So you’re we’re seeing how we can get different elements of stretching and mobility while also strengthening at the same time.

[00:17:41] So, If you, if you really just take a second and look at any movement pattern and, and, and, and look at how it’s being performed or how it should be performed, you’ll see that there are these elements that come up quite consistently. So to recap, push, pull, hinge, squat, squat and or lunge. Some sort of a loaded carry.

[00:18:00] You could put a, you could put another element in there and say some sort of a specific core exercise if you really want to. That’s it. I rinse and repeat. I have a lot of the same movements honestly, that I do because I know they hit so many things. Right. So I’ll kind of just rattle off a few, uh, not that this is, um, Uh, uh, um, the only things that I do, uh, renegade rows Bent over rows gorilla rows incline pushups.

[00:18:25] Floor press, bench press, vertical press, uh, TRX rows, um, goblet squats, double front rack squats, some sort of a, uh, kosac squat. Um, front rack, reverse lunges, split squat. Dead lifts, uh, kettlebell swings, kettlebell cleans, kettlebell snatch, um, Turkish get ups, um, uh, split, um, split stance. RDLS um, uh, I’m just, I mean a little, just random these off.

[00:18:53] Right? So that was, what was that? Maybe 10 to 12 exercises. Now, if you were to look at 10 to 12 exercises, And run that through some, run that through an equation and see how many variations of workouts you can get. You get a lot of different workouts in that. Not to mention you can vary reps and intensity just with that and do really well with just a few basic movements and one piece of equipment, or two pieces of equipment without having to overcomplicate.

Mind Your Personal Achievements

[00:19:17] Dr. Antonio Gurule: What you’re trying to achieve, you always have to, again, keep that angle in mind. Right now I’m trying, I’m still moving the needle forward. It’s not as fast. If I was able to set five days a week progressive lifting program as far as strength, but I’m still able to move that needle forward pretty well, uh, either from a maintenance perspective, but also from a strength and mobility perspective.

[00:19:37] By running through this type of, um, uh, training cycle. So right now, I’ve been in a kettlebell complex kick. So basically, I’m doing one or two kettlebells and I basically put a circuit together. That’s all a complex is I’m picking, uh, anywhere between two to five exercises and I, and I add those in an element so that, that, that workout I just talked about today, the bent over row to pushups, the cleans, and the squat.

[00:20:01] That was a com that was a complex, five movements of each limit. Rest. Try to try to navigate and, and recover respiration and heart rate in between. Set the time for 20 minutes and just go, right. You get a ton out of that sweating heart rate up. Uh, good strength. I’m, I picked the movements out of that in which I, I needed a little bit more attention to, which was the pushups and the squats as mentioned.

[00:20:24] And, and I, I, I got a great workout that being done. Three, five days a week, four weeks out of a month, 12 months out of a year, you will be in a very, very different and great spot a year from now, even three months from now. So, uh, if you want some ideas on kettlebells complexes on posting those on Instagram, @Live.Loud.life

[00:20:46] I’m also posting those on YouTube on what they have now, which is those YouTube shorts, which is like Facebook reels and Instagram reels. Um, so we’re just putting those out if you want some ideas on some different movement patterns to do. Uh, again, this is all with the understanding though, is I know how to do these movements, so if you don’t feel comfortable yet to be able to explore those, you gotta reach out for help to understand technique and movement selection.

[00:21:09] So thanks for tuning in. Live loud.