December 31, 2020
###### Devin Lopez: [00:00:00]
So I think working on things like strengthening your lower body through lunge variations. Single leg squats, split squats. You can do things like single leg and bridges and stuff like that for posterior. There's a lot of things you can do to still make sure, especially if you're a runner, you know, keeping the lower body strong
, in terms of core exercises, body, weight exercises, Those are going to be something that are hard to exhaust really, there's going to be a lot that you can benefit from with those exercises.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:00:30]
hello and welcome to the race mob podcast. This is episode number 29.
I'm Kevin entrepreneur technology and fitness nerd, and the founder of race mob. I'm joined by master motivator, founder of two legit fitness co-chair of the Taji 100, our RRCA certified coach, USA track and field certified official the incomparable Bertrand Newson.
Hey team race, mob. We have a real treat for you today. Devin Lopez is my CrossFit coach. And while you may associate CrossFit with those incredible athletes on TV, most gym goers are friendly everyday people who just want to add a little variety to the routine. And this episode you'll learn how Devin became a coach and his impressive athletic feats, how he assesses beginner athletes and the body weight, strength exercises.
He recommends runners. Try out. Plus we get into a conversation on weight loss and his approach to helping clients. You can find all of the show notes online which include links to crossfit san jose's youtube channel where they demonstrate most of these [email protected] slash podcast.
This episode is brought to you by race, mob, and inclusive community for endurance athletes. If you like our podcast, you'll love our YouTube channel, where we keep you up to date with news for the running world and give you tips that will help you improve your running. Check us out by searching race mob on YouTube and subscribe today.
and without further ado here's our conversation.
One of my personal coaches, Devin Lopez to the race mole podcast. Welcome Devin.
###### Devin Lopez: [00:02:05]
Good to be here.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:02:06]
Fantastic. So Devin was one of my CrossFit coaches, even as recently as a couple of months ago and will soon be a, another, uh, coach of mine in, in a couple of months when some shelter and places is over and whatnot.
So wanting to welcome Devin to the podcast, because he has such a wealth of knowledge about. Putting together strength programs, helping beginner athletes get into , CrossFit, cross functional and functional fitness training. Devin. Tell the audience a little bit about your background, how you found fitness.
###### Devin Lopez: [00:02:37]
My fitness journey, I'd say started pretty far back. I was always into athletics growing up. So I think since like elementary school time, I've been doing things like soccer and baseball, um, playing football as I got older. So that's kind of what definitely, I think nudged me towards this field, in this career path, probably wasn't until like high school time that I actually participated in doing some coaching, helping like youth groups and stuff like that.
With wrestling and football. And then the camp. So we would hold how my high school in Los Gatos. So after that, I eventually started working at a gym, doing some front desk duties, and that's kind of what ultimately like kind of hooked me in there as I was working there, I eventually became a trainer, started teaching CrossFit classes and working with PT clients there.
When I was back in probably like 2009, at least when the PT journey started and the, uh, the group fitness classes started at that point ever since then, it's kind of been a history, but my specialties and kind of where I've put a lot of focuses a little more into like strength, sports. Um, obviously I coached CrossFit by do a lot of work with powerlifters and Olympic lifters, but also train, you know, just your everyday person as well.
I mean, I have clients that are, you know, working for Apple or working for their own, uh, their own house, cleaning business and stuff like that. So kind of spins know across a wide spectrum. Um, so I've had all these opportunity to work with a lot of different people and, you know, see a lot of different issues and hopefully work on fixing a lot of these different things that come with it.
So a lot of runners as well. So we just have some experience with running and, and as someone who has never been a great runner myself, I have tried to put some time to learn a little bit so I can improve my own running abilities. Um, as best as I can think, probably losing some way would probably be the most helpful thing right now,
###### Kevin Chang: [00:04:27]
bit
###### Devin Lopez: [00:04:27]
more, uh, size when you're doing the strength stuff.
So it's that give and take, but, but yeah, and then that shell, that's kinda my background. I've always been someone to tenue, to education and continuing to try to learn along the way. I just got certified in nutrition as well through precision nutrition, so, but yeah, that probably sums it up.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:04:46]
Yeah, . So, I mean, I guess when you were in high school and you started realizing that you had a knack for helping people, coaching people, how has that kind of progression into becoming a coach
###### Devin Lopez: [00:04:58]
did go to Valley Allie. I was pursuing, um, sports medicine at West Valley college. I will say I didn't end up finishing my college degree. , but I pursued a lot of, um, a lot of classes in the field for sports medicine. My goal is to be more of like an athletic trainer and work with athletes kind of more on the sports medicine side and helping them, you know, heal up and rehab and things like that.
But I think as I started to work, um, with athletes and being an athlete myself, I wanted to work a little more in that side of making people stronger and more fit and performance wise. So not to say that the education journey stopped, you know, at that point. So I've definitely continued to, you know, work on getting more credentials.
And then I'm usually always reading the least one or two books at a time to, you know, continue to work on getting better in that respect to make sure that there is no deficit of knowledge,
###### Kevin Chang: [00:05:47]
I mean, I think the incredible thing, and you touched on it is you're incredibly knowledgeable in the field of powerlifting Olympic lifting in . So you don't always need to have a degree from a college to become knowledgeable. I mean, so much information can be had online through certification in person through certification.
There's so many different programs where you can get this knowledge. And especially in this field of health, it's always a moving target. Things are coming out. There's always new stuff coming out. And so being on the forefront is oftentimes better than, than just going through, um, a collegiate program or getting a degree.
###### Devin Lopez: [00:06:20]
I mean, it helped me get to where I am now. So absolutely in this particular situation.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:06:26]
It's partly knowledge, but also personality and knowing how to get the most out of people. . Talk to us a little bit about, I mean, I know that you've done a lot of powerlifting. You've done a lot of Olympic lifting over time.
Have you competed in these sports? Give us some background into how you got into those sports in particular
###### Devin Lopez: [00:06:44]
with my background, at least in football, growing up that. Definitely drew us to a powerlifting and Olympic lifting those kind of the backbone of our strength program. So I'd had some, some exposure to those lifts.
There will be a, probably a little bit haphazardly on in terms of coaching for technique and everything like that, but not to get a stronger, but once I started stepping into the PT realm and as I really dove into CrossFit, actually, because of the constant exposure that I get through the barbell work that we're doing CrossFit that highlighted a lot of power lifting, a lot of Olympic lifting that kind of.
Really set me on the path to get better at those exercises. I already kind of had a little bit of a knack for them just being naturally kind of strong and explosive, but it wasn't until CrossFit. I'd say that really kind of started to make me more passionate about wanting to get better, you know?
Cause I could see that my, my strength and my explosiveness was not being utilized effectively. So there's definitely some things that needed to be learned there. And then that kind of set me on the path to pursue more education there, start to get certified within Olympic lifting specifically. I haven't done any power lifting competitions, but I have done a number of Olympic lifting competitions.
Um, I've done done a number of CrossFit competitions as well since that's kind of where the competitiveness started, I would say first, and then as I was. Pursuing, you know, better technique in my lifts. That's when I started also want to dive into the competitive field there, you know, I feel like as a coach, too, you, you know, you really got to immerse yourself in the sport fully to really understand and to kind of be well-rounded.
So, you know, what best way to do that then, and then get in there and compete. So, especially as I was beginning to train athletes in competitions themselves, You know, it's hard to kind of know what to do if you haven't competed in the competition on your own. So that was a big part of it too, but, you know, I definitely fell in love with it, with those sports and weightlifting power lifting is just something, I just really enjoy the programming aspects.
You know, I think there's a lot of science that goes behind getting stronger and, you know, maximizing or optimizing rather that process, you know, for me, it's just a lot of fun and I enjoy that stuff as well. And then obviously the participation aspect is always great too. So trying to get stronger every day.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:08:55]
Incredible. What are your one rep? Max is
###### Devin Lopez: [00:08:57]
so like all time. One rep maxes. Yeah. Well, we'll start with the powerless. So all time best. Deadlift right now is five 30, four pounds. I'm done. I'm four 50 for back squat for single bench, three 30 for single. That was probably my most recent one in high school. We never did maxes in high school cause they're always afraid of injury.
We always did like multi maxes. So. You know, it was hard to gauge where I was at then, but it's probably pretty big back then too. Um, I was able to do multiple reps for three 15 when I was in high school. What's Valley training over there. So just never actually maxed it out at the time. Um, and then, uh, let's see for the Olympic lifts, my best snatch is, uh, 280 pounds.
Wow. So battling some injuries along the way, you know, it was kind of. Probably hinder that process. So, but who knows? We're, we're, I'm still hoping that there's a chance. I could PR that even in my older age now, but, um, my best clean and jerk is 332 pounds. And I've cleaned about three 45, 45 before.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:10:12]
I mean, just for our audience, these numbers are just astronomical.
I mean, these are pretty astounding numbers, especially. I mean, I think for first time, gym goers. We're talking that barbell feels pretty heavy and that's a 45 pound barbell for a lot of these lists. So, um, kudos to you, man. That's insane. That's pretty fantastic. Talk to us a little bit about, I mean, you've trained a number of beginners, new people coming into the gym.
If somebody knew where to come into the gym, what are some of the first things that you try to assess? And what are the first things that you try to teach them or, or get them comfortable with?
###### Devin Lopez: [00:10:47]
Um, yeah. Good question. So probably one of the biggest things right away is like mobility. Especially if you are going to start stepping into that, like, uh, Olympic lifting around, or even if you're doing CrossFit, I mean, even with powerless, you know, there's going to be a base level of flexibility.
That's needed to perform that stuff both effectively and safely. So usually we'll run through some quick movement tests, like air squats, overhead squats, lunges, do some plank variations and just kind of see where general stability and strength sat in the body. You know, before you start trying to hand someone in any way, you know, that's just kind of like critical parts to make sure they're, they're not going to hurt themselves.
So once, you know, kind of get that out of the way, obviously you're not going to change the flexibility right off the bat, but at least knowing what you're going to start working towards. And getting those areas, uh, better. But after that stability is kind of a big one too. And it's one of those things. I see a lot of people kind of overlook that, especially as you're learning how to do like heavy lifts or something that eventually will be a heavy lift.
So Olympic lifting power lifting really rely heavily on your ability to brace your core. No breathe correctly, brace your core tightly so that you're stiff and rigid through the trunk. So those are actually probably the two areas that we focus on the most. I do like to get people moving on the basic movement patterns with like a dollar and empty barbell, just depending on how they look and what we're working on.
Exactly. You know, it all depends on kind of what they're stepping into strength, sports, and that's where we're going to start. But yeah, I'd say the, the core aspects, um, the flexibility. You know, and then even something like a scapular flexibility, like posture, those kinds of things. So, you know, that's kind of where we would start.
You can certainly put a little bit of time, like I said, drilling and doing some level of the exercises themselves, but working on those things right off the bat is kind of where I'll start my focus, you know, and then just building up the foundational movement patterns, like squatting hinges, pushing, pulling, You know, so it kind of depends if that's someone brand new, you know, that's probably going to be where we're going to start that path because there's some coming in with a little bit of background is in those exercises already know you can certainly skip past some of that stuff, but when it comes down to fundamentals, you know, I think things like just basic flexibility, training, learning how to use your core correctly.
You know, go a long way and to be an efficient mover. So, so that's usually where I'll start.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:13:07]
It's fantastic. And I think our audience should realize that CrossFit sometimes gets this name of like ultra competitive, really fit people, being, doing the sport, but people of all sorts come into the sport and it's very scalable.
And you and the team at CrossFit San Jose does a fantastic job for people that are not in shape. Out of shape getting the first steps in getting just into the door. And as you talked about, you know, assessing mobility, assessing a stability, getting them just through the movement patterns with dowels and, you know, sticks and broomsticks sometimes what we're doing right now.
Um, and just, just getting them that first step. So that's. Incredible. That's fantastic. Talk to us a little bit about, okay. If a runner. So as somebody who has some running backgrounds, training walks into the gym, you know, we know that from our, from our surveys, that not a lot of runners are actually incorporating strength training, even though strength training has huge benefits to runners, both in injury prevention, in efficiency and in helping them in their runs.
So, I guess, what are maybe a couple of things that you would a try to assess from somebody with a running background and B what are some of the movements or what are some of the exercises maybe that a runner should be incorporating
###### Devin Lopez: [00:14:21]
had a few new runners, had some people with the marathon backgrounds and triathlon backgrounds.
And you know, a lot of times when those people come in right off the bat, like you said, they don't do a lot of formal strength training. So you can tell there's a lot of muscular imbalances going on there and a lot of instability, you know, which puts you at risk for injury and Jordan injuries. So kind of assessing, you know, again, kind of like roads start.
Like I mentioned before, to some degree it's going to be pretty similar assessing like flexibility. You know, certainly seeing if there's any past injuries going on and checking some movement assessments, probably more particularly within the lower body to see like where they're going to have some muscular imbalances.
I think a lot of times there's also going to be some pretty tight ankles, priests, tight hamstrings that come with it too, you know, so doing a combination of flexibility training and. And strengthening of those areas of the body can be helpful too. Um, a lot of times when you have a tight muscle, it is because it's also a weak link in the chain tends to be like a weaker muscle as well.
So strengthening those muscles can oftentimes be a really good thing to work on. You know, seeing where those things are at first, if there's going to be some sort of movement limitations, and if there's going to be some sort of muscular imbalances and then taking that information. You know, and then kind of creating a prescription to hopefully address both of those things.
But yeah, doing some basic leg strengthening is going to be probably like one of the first things to start working on. So just like some squatting, you know, maybe some basic lunging patterns to give some variation and get some different muscle activation going on, but just by strengthening your legs and hips alone, that will be huge.
And. Increasing output and what they're going to be able to do. So
###### Kevin Chang: [00:15:57]
you're assessing flexibility. Do you have them on the ground trying to touch their toes or in certain like positions? How are you kind of assessing flexibility, mobility, that sort of thing.
###### Devin Lopez: [00:16:09]
So I'll have them do certain exercises and overhead squats, kind of a really good one.
You'll see a lot of things like ankle flexibility, hip flexibility. Thoracic and shoulder flexibility. A lot of those things will, will kind of rear their ugly. Yeah. Ahead. When you're doing something like a dowel, overhead squat, and you can even do it. We're just simply having arms above your head and performing, you know, like in squat that way as well, that can be quite telling and also seeing how they work unilaterally between like a forward lunge, reverse lunge sidelines, and kind of noticing what's going on there.
So a certain inflexibility is you're going to see some type of movement compensation. That'll come with it. So for example, like if someone has really tight ankles either, but usually it goes really far back in the squat and then their body kind of hinges forward a lot more since they don't have the range for their knees to pass over their toes a little further.
You know, so things like that, we'll be telling of where there's going to be some issues and where you might need to start right there. A lot of times too, they'll just be like, Hey, like my hamstrings are tight. Like, like I can feel them and they're very tight. So things like that are going to be a little bit more obvious people.
I would say almost a hundred percent of everyone that comes into is going to be suffering from some sort of like postural issues. You know? No one these days typically has. Good posture. You know, we spend a lot of time sitting, so that's almost always a given as well. I usually almost don't even spend too much time, like assessing that unless someone comes in there have like a yoga or maybe like a gymnastics background or something like that, where, you know, flexibility is typically maintained much better.
Um, but yeah, otherwise, like there's going to be a lot of common things that come with it. And especially as it relates to running, you know, there's going to be some very sports specific things that you can kind of expect that are going to come with those athletes. So, you know, so it makes it a little bit easier in that way too, but squatting, uh, patterns, lunging patterns, and even things like, um, Plank variations and stuff.
All those will kind of tell you a little bit about mobility and general strengths.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:18:10]
The physical therapist said that I don't use my hips enough. I guess I'm like a hip flexor mobility, which I think is probably common if you're sitting, sitting at a desk all day or I'm sitting around all day. So yeah, it's always good to figure these things out.
The mobility thing is quite common. I think. All across the board.
###### Devin Lopez: [00:18:28]
Yep. For sure. Can't escape. But if you're sitting down for long periods of time,
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:18:32]
Devin, I've heard from runners who are looking to cross train it specifically with strength training as relates to
CrossFit, the apprehension or anxiety with technique, especially when, you know, with up cumulative poundage.
The importance on, you know, again, somebody's first time into a CrossFit gym and taking through the various lifts, kind of talk to that from a, a novice perspective and the importance on quality techniques.
###### Devin Lopez: [00:18:59]
You know, I think a lot of times I think people, their expectations of what they're stepping into are probably a little bit more than what's actually gonna happen, you know, on day one, at least the first thing is.
You know, there's going to be some level of assessment and we might run through some basic movement patterns, but usually we're not touching any kind of weight until at least maybe like a week or two into learning the basics of the movement patterns first. So, you know, like I was mentioning the squatting, the hinges and the pushing and the polling and we'll we'll work on basic body weight type exercises.
A lot of those things can be worked on with like a dowel. So you don't necessarily need to do anything with, uh, with a weight right off the bat till we start to gain, you know, the movement patterns, um, to learn the technique for those. So, you know, that's kind of a nice spot. I mean, at least if you have someone that knows what they're doing, you know, it's going to be very different from gym to gym.
But I think when you step into a place where you have trainers that are. Good about the progressions and how you're going to learn that. You're not really sure we're going to see too much resistance being used initially. So like I said, we'll spend at least a couple of weeks kind of working on those basics before I'm ever comfortable with trying to teach someone more complex patterns like Olympic lifts and stuff like that.
I want to make sure that they have proficiency in the basic positions that they're going to be spending time in with those lifts. So. You know, I want to make sure someone can front squat or overhead squat efficiently, or at least professionally before I'm going to have them start trying to do like a clean or a snatch or anything like that.
You know? So I think when you have someone that's doing it correctly and it could be done a number of ways correctly, but there's going to be a logical progression. You know, you're going to start from light to then starting to add weight over time. But those kinds of things, Lisa's where, you know, like our gym, where I work across with San Jose and I've been to other gyms where we've worked as well.
And that's. Typically the process is always going to learn the basics of your kind of foundational movement patterns. More complex patterns will be built on that, you know, and as someone stepping into it with hesitations, you know, I think it's a good thing to know as someone that's like paying for the service to one, you know, always communicate with your trainer.
I think Sometimes there's not enough communication in terms of like, Hey, this makes me feel uncomfortable, you know, or, Hey, this kind of hurts a little bit, things like that. I think when you have a really good line of communication open and both parties know that keeping that line open is good and kind of critical to the process.
That can be helpful too, because. I think people get a little nervous, you know, there's a little bit of pressure to do some things when coaches like, Hey, like this is what you're doing. So, you know, those kinds of things I think are important. And if you're working with a good trainer and you're at a good program, I think there's going to be, you know, they smart, safe, logical progression with that.
If there's issues with like injury or severe like mobility issues, then you can still work on those things. But, you know, dial them down in terms of maybe you're shortening range of motion, making the complexity of the movement a little bit easier. So there's always something that you can do in some way that you can regress that as well.
If there's limitations of going into it in know. So I think no one should hopefully ever have too much hesitation in terms of like, they won't be able to be serviced as long as their coach knows what they're doing. And that's why I keep kind of saying as long as their coach knows what they're doing, because that is a big thing in this industry.
And there can be quite a large spectrum of experience levels with the people that you're going to be dealing with. So, or at least learning from. So hopefully, you know, that can be a little bit of a sigh of relief, you know, as long as you just talk to the people first, you know, make sure they kinda know what they're doing and have some understanding of what you're trying to learn from them.
I think. Kind of easy sometimes to get us a sense of, as someone is full of crap, or if they are truly knowledgeable about the subject
###### Bertrand Newson: [00:22:42]
separating some myths versus facts, from your perspective, being a strength, training athlete, and overall a wellness athlete, training, multiple body parts, you know, hitting the same body parts with, uh, strength training or varying him, you know, or is there some right way to go about that. Some people say, you know, don't hit the same body part twice within a week. Is there a typical educated school of thought there?
###### Devin Lopez: [00:23:07]
Yeah, definitely. It's definitely a little bit more complicated than just like, you know, one simple answer. It really does come down to like training age.
How long have you been lifting or how long have you been exercising and also specifically to like resistance training as well? So it can range, you know, depending on, um, if you're like a beginner, you don't really need to do a whole lot of training to get some sort of adaptation from it. Cause you're relatively.
Untrained, your body's very sensitive to any kind of stimulus that it's going to get. So like the amount of training actually doesn't need to be quite as much in order to still see some good progress. It does depend, but maybe a little bit on what you're doing. If you're doing something a little more complex, like Olympic lifting versus like bodybuilding or power lifting.
But yeah, in general, if you're, if you're a beginner, if you're a novice, you don't probably need to train more than, yeah. Maybe like once a week, maybe one or two times a week for some of like your upper body muscle groups, but typically like squatting, dead lifting those lower body muscle groups can, can go probably about once a week.
But as you do get more experienced, your body does need to have greater levels of stimulus in terms of continue that adaptation process and continue to move that lineup. Um, so really does start to depend on like where you're at. So everyone's going to be a little different women. Typically tend to need more volume than men.
If you're a more power, like fast Twitch oriented athlete, you usually need less volume than someone that's a little more like endurance oriented or recovers very quickly. You know, so there's going to be a lot of factors that, and even like life and stress factors that kind of come into play. So it's hard to give like a correct answer, but I'd say for a lot of muscles, they can be trained more than once in a week, for sure.
You know, and a lot of there's a lot of total body programs out there. I think as long as you're. Variating levels of intensity correctly, you know, that's kind of the biggest thing, you know, you can't come into the gym and do squats every day at like maximum intensity and expect not to get injured at some point.
Right. You know, so you got to vary those levels of intensity volumes weights. Being lifted. So those kinds of things are going to start to, you know, make a big difference if you have like a heavy day and then you have a light day where you're hitting the same muscle group right after, you know, that should be okay.
And then maybe you get a rest day after that. Uh, I would say that certain muscle groups are going to be a little more, need a little more time for recovery versus others. So, you know, it's going to depend on that as well, but yeah, definitely not a simple answer, but to be sure you can certainly train the same muscle group multiple times a week.
I think the easiest way to gauge that is just how you feel, right. If you have a training session and the next day you feel great still, there's probably not a big issue with you training again, even if you're working similar patterns or similar muscle groups, but if you're coming in and then you're very sore, something like that, you know, your body will tell you a lot when it comes to those kinds of things as well.
You know, when I do work with athletes and I'm delivering them volume for certain exercises, you know, those are the things I look at through the training, you know, making sure that they're feeling like they're getting worked out from it. And if not, then I can give them a little more volume. If they're feeling a little overworked, maybe we dial that volume back, you know?
So those kinds of things, you kind of like, it's a touching go. You kind of feel it out to a certain extent and you learn. More about yourself, you know, each training cycle and where those limits are going to lie. So I think that's a big miss that people have. Like, you can only train upper body, you know, or your pecs once you're back once.
And, you know, doing that alternating, there's a lot of, uh, ways to train out there, but you certainly don't have to limit it to once a day. You know, one muscle group
###### Kevin Chang: [00:26:44]
that gets into a little bit into programming. Which I think is something interesting that I'd love to dive into a little bit, you know, CrossFit is kind of known for having programming.
You're kind of coming into the gym, not knowing what to expect, something a little bit different day to day, either, you know, something that's a little bit more high intensity interval training or something that's a little bit longer or a 20 minute or 30 minute type of workout. And I know that you were involved pretty heavily with CrossFit San Jose's programming.
So get us kind of behind the scenes. Like how do you start programming? Workouts. How do you vary the types of workouts? What were the things that you were thinking about when you were coming up with all these workouts?
###### Devin Lopez: [00:27:23]
CrossFit programming, definitely a tricky one, you know, that can do CrossFit programming and do it well, you know, they got to know a little bit of what they're doing and you know, my hats off to anyone that can do it effectively.
But for me, a lot of what I'm trying to do starts with some sort of like, I want to have a backbone to the program. So we're going to be focusing a little more on strength, then that's going to kind of be the backbone. So I'll typically let that guide where it's going to go and the strength will be the focus.
So I might have more of a strength program in mind. And then I'll start to construct the, the wads, the Metcons kind of based around what that stuff is to make sure that I'm. Not taking away from their ability to improve those strengths numbers. If that's our focus, you know, and throughout the year we might go through phases of more strength, focus.
Maybe it's a little more like Olympic lifting focus. Maybe it's a little more like skill or endurance focus. So we'll kind of like flow through different stages kind of, depending on where we're at in the year. But usually that focus is the backbone of what I'm doing though.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:28:27]
For our non CrossFit athletes, usually a CrossFit session is broken up into kind of a main session, maybe a strength or technique or skill session where you're getting stronger or working on certain technique.
And then there's a Metcon section or wide section water standing for workout of the day. Metcon. For metric conditioning. So that's more of the anaerobic or the, you know, 10 minutes, a 20 minute kind of workout to get. Right. I don't know how you would put it, but blood flowing or he gets your workout and get those endorphins going and of that piece of the workout going.
So I think what coach Devin was mentioning as backbone focusing on the technique or on the strength portion of it. And then. Tying some metric conditioning that won't tax those muscles that you've already taxed during the, the strength portion
###### Devin Lopez: [00:29:10]
Well, some cases, if it's like, say we're doing like a back squat day, I might have the workout be still lower body oriented, but there might be a little bit of focus on adding some unilateral lower body exercises, like doing some lunges.
Doing some step ups, you know, maybe even doing some more squats, but at a lighter weight. So you're kind of continuing to at least, and get a little bit more emphasis on that spot than say like the next day it might be a little more like upper body focus and then maybe the workouts, a little more aerobically biased.
So it's not quite as taxing on the body overall. So that way, the next day after that, there'll be a little bit, at least recovered for when we then go back to legs and we do some more lower body training. Maybe it's like deadlifts that time. Or something like that or Olympic lifting. So there's definitely a fluctuation of, of different things that you're hitting on.
So reliably the body will have some level of, um, predictability, you know, with how it's going to recover. When you squat. Typically you're going to want like a day of rest between a squat session. Dead lifting might require like a few days, you know, especially if you're going heavy things like upper body exercises as sometimes can be done, like back to back, you know?
So certain things are going to have a certain amount of recovery time needed before you're then going to want to try to like really re-stimulate it again. So understanding that side of things can be really helpful in terms of like your weekly structuring and making sure you're not overloading one side of the body or the other.
Or one system or the other. So those are the kinds of things that like, I'll look at as a whole, when we're looking at like the weekly overview. So taking that backbone, focus into mind, you know, that lays out that strength skill portion, where we start. And then as we get into that workout metabolic conditioning, or that.
Or just the wad is as everyone calls it, the CrossFit, you know, hopefully that's going to at least compliment what they're doing that day as well. Sometimes those workouts will vary in terms of like how tense I make them as well, because depending on what you're doing for the strength or skill session prior, you're going to have a certain amount of energy then in reserve for that workout that comes after.
So if you do like a super hard deadlift, heavy deadlift session, not going to have a lot of coming in to like a water, right? If you try to do something very explosive and hard, probably going to be very painful and your outfits are actually going to be pretty low. Right. You know, so doing some level of, uh, like having workouts that are going to compliment the strength or skill also is another thing in terms of intensity.
So if you have an intense strength session, Dial back the intensity of the Metcon. If you have like a light strength session, maybe it's more gymnastics movement oriented, which isn't going to be quite as taxing as resistance training, then maybe have like a really hard and fast, intense workout, you know, because you're going to have the energy to really push harder within those efforts.
You know, so those are the kinds of things that you can kind of get, you know, a little bit more smart about and get hopefully better performance out of each of those things that you're doing too, by managing those factors. And that's just scratching the surface
###### Kevin Chang: [00:32:08]
for those people who haven't done a CrossFit session or cost of workout.
I'm in a highly, highly recommended. These folks have been programming these workouts, you know, and we've been going to the gym for hundreds and hundreds of workouts. And we know what we like, we know what works, we know, you know, how it affects. Our body is crazy. I mean, it's, it's a lot of fun. I think they get the max out of that hour, that you're in the gym, both from a, you know, strength, skill session.
But I mean, you, you end up with a fantastic overall just, you know, sweat, endorphins are running is a really, really fun and great time. Devon, talk to us a little bit about, I mean, with shelter in place happening, I know that, you know, the gym has been shut down for a number of months. But you guys have continued to do a lot of at home programming, a lot of stuff that people can do with minimum equipment.
How did you go about programming some of those workouts and what are maybe some of the things that our audience can take away if they can't make it to a gym? What are some of the types of workouts? That they should be incorporating or thinking about
###### Devin Lopez: [00:33:09]
definitely when we made the move to virtual, we had to adjust our programming a little bit.
So we started offering some options that are just really minimal equipment, body, weight. I think a lot of people probably underestimate and even just things around their house that they can use for exercise too. You know, you can do a lot with probably. Very little something as simple as a chair can conserve a lot of purpose in terms of like using it as a weight to, to hold and squat with are doing things like elevated push-ups or dips off of it, you know?
So there's a lot of variations of just general movements that we would do in the gym that we can then adapt to a minimalist kind of situation. So can't bench press, you know, you got pushups, you can't overhead press. You got. Handstand pushups, you know, and if you can't do things like hip weighted movements, you got hip thrusts and you know, there's a lot of different things that you can do in place of just the normal resistance.
And I think if you have some guidance along the way, some coaching, you know, with that kind of minimalist environment, Well, you can really get a lot out of it still, you know, and one of the things that we do at our gym is cause we kind of have like a, um, a guided approach with, with our clients now. So we offer a little bit of check-ins monthly check-ins and things where we can kind of help, you know, in that area, if that's what they need and stuff like that.
So, yeah, I mean, I think bodyweight exercises is a great place to start for most people, you can really progress those exercises quite a bit in a way that's going to still be quite challenging. So I think there's, you know, probably a ton of untapped movements, even just in the body weight category alone.
So I think working on things like strengthening your lower body through lunge variations. Single leg squats, split squats. You can do things like single leg and bridges and stuff like that for posterior. There's a lot of things you can do to still make sure, especially if you're a runner, you know, keeping the lower body strong things like step ups as well.
So, I mean, there's quite a bit of things that you can do, you know, there's going to be some things that might be lacking, but in think, in terms of core exercises, body, weight exercises, Those are going to be something that are hard to exhaust really, you know, unless you're a very high level gymnast or something like that, there's still going to be a lot that you can benefit from with those exercises.
You know, and even if you have things like just a light dumbbell or like kettlebells, you can continue to use those weights, make them more difficult by adding things like tempo and pauses with your movement. Stuff like that, you know? So there's a lot of ways isometric holds, you know, there's a lot of, kind of little things you can do to make lightweight, feel a lot heavier, you know?
So if you get clever with it, you can certainly maximize what you can do with the even lightweight. So if you have even something like that, that can certainly go a long way from having nothing. So. There's there's plenty to do out there, but if I was to make a recommendation, you know, especially for your audience, I think doing lots of different ones, variations, single leg squats, split squat variations would be really good.
Hip bridges, hip thrusts, single leg variations of that as well. Um, if they have any kind of weight, single leg, Romanian, deadlifts things like good morning, staggered stance. Good morning. So a lot of these variations will still. Be pretty potent, you know, and strengthening the lower body at probably like higher reps.
And again, adding things like tempo and pauses into there. So at least as a starting point and always strengthen the core to, you know, work on core strengthening, everyone can benefit, even if you're a runner, you know, that will make you more efficient.
###### Kevin Chang: [00:36:33]
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I'll make sure to link to a lot of these workouts, a lot of these types of movements.
On the website I know across the San Jose also has their own YouTube channel. Oftentimes you guys demo some of these workouts and whatnot, so we'll try to make sure that our audience has these resources available to them. Maybe even some example, workouts that they can go through, just so they can realize what a, every minute on the minute type of workout looks like.
What as many reps as possible and AMRAP type of workout looks like these different types of workouts, different types of variations that we can bring people through, even at home. There's a lot of research around low intensity, steady state workouts versus, you know, more high intensity interval training types of workouts as well.
I know within CrossFit, usually the workouts are, you know, confined to within an hour. Maybe even less than that for the majority of the workouts. Have you run across any research that says to favor one over the other, have you taken a look at anything that a lot of our audience might be going for these like longer.
Types of events. Are there any thoughts on kind of those two incorporating those two types of workouts or just general?
###### Devin Lopez: [00:38:00]
Yeah, absolutely. You know, it kind of just goes back to fluctuating intensities. It's a really important part of keeping you able to like continue progressing over the longterm. There's obviously has been shown to see really good growth within high interval training, like explosive growth.
But when you look at like the body's ability to maintain that kind of training over a long period of time, that's where things start to break down. And that's where there has been some level of research shown that. That it can start to be detrimental. I mean, if you're continued to be smart in terms of how you juggle those things great, but you're not going to do it by doing always high intensity interval training.
If that's 100% of your training base, it's going to have its pitfalls eventually. I mean, Either way, you're going to train some sort of adaptive resistance over time. If you just keep doing the same thing too, you know, so novelty is a big part of like keeping the body guessing, you know, as well. So that does also incorporate like the energy systems that you're training or kind of biasing with your training.
So, yeah, I think, you know, steady state training. Definitely has a place in the greater scheme of things I think for CrossFitters. And I've told this probably to a number of people. I think that there is too much focus on every workout being maximal intensity, because that's a big downside where you will start to see some diminishing returns.
Your performance is going to start to be hindered. You're just not going to be able to give the same amount of effort within your continuing day after data, like go to 100%. Cause I I've been there before. I started learning a lot more about proper programming and recovery and everything that goes with it.
I was a very aggressive CrossFitter with my training, you know, so I wanted to be competitive. I wanted to try to go to regionals and make it to the CrossFit games. So I made it to regionals a couple of times, but never to the CrossFit games. So with our team team effort,
###### Kevin Chang: [00:39:58]
That's still incredible