Episode 177: Training Principles from Gonzo Grip Strength with Adam Glass and Dr Mike T Nelson

Today’s Flex Diet Podcast episode includes a couple of short clips from the Gonzo Grip Strength product with the one and only Adam Glass. We talk about basic training philosophy, which can be applied to grip or all of your training. I guarantee that this will make a huge difference and dramatically reduce your potential for injury.

Listen in to hear:

• [2:20] Why grip training is important

• [7:41] Defining your goals and writing them down
• [10:18] Determining the roadmap
• [12:11] What happens when training to failure
• [16:06] Adam defines a key marker for performance

Find Adam

• Instagram
• Gonzogripstrength.com

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This conversation is brought to you by my Daily Fitness Insider newsletter. Sign up at www.miketnelson.com for daily insights on health, nutrition, training, and much more. For more on my new grip product with Adam Glass, go to www.gonzogripstrength.com to find out more.

Rock on!

Download the transcript

[00:00:00] Dr Mike T Nelson: Hey, welcome back to the Flex Diet Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Mike T. Nelson, and today on the podcast we’ve got a special treat for you. I’m gonna have a couple short clips from the Gonzo Grip Strength product with the one and only Adam Glass is is from Class one and class two. We will have four classes.

[00:00:27] We’ll also complete demonstrations of some grip exercises and much more. This is from the paid product, which you can find more information@gonzogripstrength.com. And if you’re listening to this when this podcast was released on this Monday, then you can still sneak into the product. Go to gonzogripstrength.com.

[00:01:00] If you’re listening to this. After, uh, the doors will be closed for a period of time. We wanna get the product done and finished up everything solid, uh, with it. And then we will re-release it once again. So go to gonzogripstrength.com no matter when you’re listening to this to get all of the great information.

[00:01:22] And the reason I’m doing this is I just wanted to give you some, uh, short. Into the product itself. You can find the two other, uh, podcasts that I’ve done with Adam here also, and to note that even if you are not a grip competitor, I think this course will be super useful for you. You’ll notice in some of the clips here that we’re talking a lot about basic training philosophy, and this can be especially applied to grip.

[00:01:54] But it can also be applied to all of your training, and especially for performance. I can guarantee you that this will make a huge difference and will reduce your potential for injury dramatically. Now, of course, nothing is going to protect you from all injuries at all costs, but I do believe this will accelerate your performance and all aspects of training, especially with.

[00:02:20] and reduce the risk of injury. The reason I think grip training is so important, even if you are not a grip competitor, is that you are almost always using your hands to interact with your environment. Whether you’re trying to get better at lifting weights itself, Olympic weight lifting, power lifting, Brazilian Jesu, maybe you wanna do a lot of kiteboarding like I.

[00:02:46] Anything where you’re holding on to another opponent, an implement an object grip strength is like the tires on your car. It is your interaction with the environment and if it is better, stronger, more robust, and just better prepared to handle the stressors coming. Your entire performance will be elevated.

[00:03:11] So think of an example of a high performance car that you put really crappy tires on. You may have the best engine, you may have the best chassis, the best driver, tons of extra horsepower that if you can’t apply it. To the road, your performance is gonna be greatly limited, even if you’re looking for true longevity changes.

[00:03:34] Uh, grip strength is also a marker for longevity, as I’ve talked about a lot in the past. The other two, primarily being lower body strength and muscle mass. And also VO two max or aerobic capacity. So I think if you want increases in longevity, I do believe that grip strength is most likely a two-way street.

[00:03:56] Meaning that if you are increasing your grip strength, odds are, I think that is going to make you a lot more functional as you age in life. So listen to these couple clips, uh, from Adam and myself and some of the people who are live in the class. For more information, go to gonzogripstrength.com. As always, thank you so much for listening to the podcast and enjoy these clips coming up here.

[00:04:25] Thank you.

[00:04:29] Adam Glass: Oh man, this is so exciting, especially with when you first brought up this whole idea of what it could be, it really captivated my imagination in a key note for the people that are starting this module. When we lay this out as a course, the things with every lesson, there are going to be things to do, and the way that I think you’re going to get the maximum results of this is to take a given module, do that work, and then come back to the second one.

[00:05:02] Then do that work, come back to the third. I would be worried that if someone just tries to power. All the Zoom lessons you’re gonna receive, all the videos you’re gonna receive, try to read all the transcripts in one day. Now we’re doing that thing where we’ve just thrown you far too many options to choose from in the beginning.

[00:05:19] I think you’re really gonna get a ton out of this by working through all of the things that are going to be

[00:05:26] Dr Mike T Nelson: assigned. Yeah, I think of it as like a progressive disclosure, right? And I know you think the same way when you’re creating courses. Okay, here’s all the things I want to get through here is like the point that I wanna reach at the end, and then it’s like playing the game of backup.

[00:05:41] Okay. What do they need to know before that and need to know before that? Need to know before that, and so that you’re all the way back at a decent starting point. Where I think the mistake a lot of people making courses and just YouTubes in general is that it’s just this onslaught fire hose.

[00:05:58] Information without any thought put into the temporal or the timing or the structure of how to best consume it. Oh

[00:06:08] Adam Glass: man, it’s, there’s that false idea that more equals better every time. Yeah. And concerning information, having just a ton of information thrown at a person at one time is rarely the better way to do it, because you get that whole analysis by analysis paralysis.

[00:06:25] Now you got all these things you’re thinking. So the very first thing that I wanna open with that is going to be so important for every single person who’s working through this material is let’s talk just a little bit to start with your goals, how you define them, and if you define them in a way that makes actions appear that are achievable.

[00:06:49] Mike, generally speaking, in the realm of fitness and exercise and these kind of ideas, we can talk. Someone wants to look a certain way, so they’ve set some aesthetic goals for themselves. They may have things they want to be able to do, they have being performance goals, and then they have how they want to feel, and that gets into what their pain levels look like, how healthy their body is.

[00:07:17] And the, it’s one of those things, why do we have to talk about it in three different areas? That’s because how you execute your pro can give you more or less of these three things. And I know everybody in, in, in America, we want this. Well, give me the best answer that gives me all the things. Fortunately, that only can be reached by understanding what a given individual really wants.

[00:07:41] So guys, the very first thing that I want you to think about, and it’s something that I really wanna encourage you to write down in a place that you can see it. What are my goals? If I’ve set aesthetic goals for myself, I wanna look a certain way. What exactly are you talking about? If it is a performance goal, not just what is it that you want to do, but how do you wanna do it?

[00:08:06] Well, Mike, so somebody might say, Hey, I wanna bench press 300 pounds. Great. But then again, the guy who says, I wanna bench 300 pounds and I want to do it in the next six months, that can be a very different result than a person who maybe wants to get there in a year. And for pain management, especially if you are working to either recover some range of motion, or if you are working to maybe get out of a situation where you’ve been experiencing pain, you have to get very specific in understanding how that process looks over.

[00:08:38] And that’s why it can be so important to understand what the goal is. And I’ll key that into a topic that we will be discussing quite a bit through this course. Resolving things like elbow pains, getting out of pain is only the beginning. What we really want is to be able to get it where you are out of pain and now can return to what whatever you previously were unable to do, which is a, it is just a different kind of goal.

[00:09:02] Guys. Mike, share some of your experiences you’ve seen with people that have really. Excellent in achieving the goals that they’ve set and some of things we might be able

[00:09:12] Dr Mike T Nelson: to learn from them. Yeah, I agree with that. And the other way I phrase ’em too is to make the goal part of your identity. Because a lot of times I find that from a mindset that’s the right limiting step.

[00:09:28] So for example, when I write out my goals, I write them as I am someone who will double overhead deadlift on an axle 300 pounds for a single. Right? So I write it out as I am someone of who does whatever. The thing is, because, and we’ve talked about this before, is I know I’ll get there. I don’t know exactly how long it’ll take.

[00:09:53] There’s still a good idea, like you said, of having some timeframe in. So that’s what I find having to be part of your identity or it’s just something that you do. And then beyond that with clients, then I back up in, okay, so what is the process then? So everything becomes less output focused. Granted, they’re paying me for the output, and that’s the goal, which I get.

[00:10:18] It’s like the destination. And then now we need the roadmap and what is the day to day activities. And knowing that there’s gonna be some variability in those day to day activities. And that’s fine, right? If I refuse a bench press example, I did the math one other day. I’m like, even if you started at just bench pressing the bar, right?

[00:10:39] And people are like, eh, bro, just add five pounds to the bar every week. Like everyone would be de you could see people interesting, 400 pounds raw in the gym like all the time. And it’s just not that linear of a process. So I think understanding what is the goal, writing it in terms of an identity, having some timeframe you wanna do, I think is a good idea, but being a little bit flexible with that.

[00:11:03] As you mentioned, getting out of pain would be step number one, which is why we’re talking about it now. We talked a little bit about like

[00:11:09] Adam Glass: injuries and whatnot, and I know like for myself, when I start to really push grip work, I can like my, I can tell my wrist and my elbow can start to bother me. So I don’t know, later.

[00:11:22] We can chat a little bit about, you talked, Adam talked a little bit about stopping before failure, which is probably a huge help in that area. But if there’s anything else, any other types of things you can suggest around just general maintenance and prevention that’s worked for you in the past, that would be, I think, an interesting topic for people to hear too.

[00:11:44] Obviously not right now, but like to the next three weeks or so, there’s one thing I’m gonna give you right. That that will be observable and demonstrateable. Okay, so if you look at what is happening when a person is failing in any motion, there’s going to be several things that happen and one of the things can happen before the other, but they eventually are always gonna be moving in a sequence.

[00:12:11] The first thing that happens whenever you’re about to fail is you’re gonna slow. From whatever the beginning was. Okay, now there’s a speed that you might be able to lift 50 pounds, and then there’s a speed that you lift 500 pounds. Failure is approaching as you’re slowing down from there, what you’ll see next is you’re going to see a change in their breathing.

[00:12:36] That may happen first, or it may happen concurrently. Flow down, and all that means is however they were breathing when they began, the pattern has. You’re going to see unintended changes in their structure. So as a given piece of tissue is losing mechanical advantage, they’re shifting, attempting to find leverage anywhere else, and then you’re going to have the onset of painful sensation.

[00:13:09] But the observer knows that because you can see it in their face, you can see it in their eyes, you can see it in their jaw, in their. So here would be how to train and to give yourself the highest percentage of safety, no matter how dangerous the thing is. Number one, stop before you slow down if you won’t do that.

[00:13:35] Number two, definitely stop when you know you’re slowed down. If you won’t do that, stop when your breathing sh shift. And if you won’t do that, definitely stop. When you start changing position, moving out of the form, you begin with. And if you won’t do that, that may stop when it hurts cause the people will won’t listen to.

[00:14:02] That will be stopped. Something will. You know what I mean? It’s very rare that, okay, you ask, go ask a hundred people that have hurt themselves while lifting weights. I’m not talking about work accidents, and I’m also not talking about like over a process of time. They had some kind of repetition injuries, like acute phase injuries that are basically non-contact.

[00:14:29] They did it to the. They’re never surprised. They might be surprised at how bad it is, but when you, if you ask ’em, did you think something was gonna happen? You’re the highest percentages. They’re gonna say yes. And a lot of times, how do you know someone is about to get hurt? You’re basing that off of the last attempt you just saw.

[00:14:50] It’s the terror of watching high school. Kids go try to deadlift heavy. They looked like a bunch of dogs taking a shit in the backyard, and that was on the warm. Yeah, and add another plate and another plate. And in your mind it’s, man, it’s not that round. Back deadlifting is bad. It’s the way that guy’s round back deadlift right now looks really bad.

[00:15:10] So that process guys, ideally stop before you slow down, resume as soon as you feel ready, so you get a lot of quality work or stop when the slowdown occurs. And understand that your quality is dropping and then everything from there is gonna be observable. So you’ll be able to see it like, man, I keep leaning all weird on that third rep.

[00:15:37] Yeah, because you’re outta leverage. It’s time to stop the set. Doesn’t mean it’s time to stop exercising yet, although it could be. But that is the most repeatable and reliable way to stay extremely safe in the. Ryan, what do you think about that? No, it makes completely

[00:16:00] Dr Mike T Nelson: complete sense. I think the problem for anyone who’s lifted is their ego.

[00:16:06] Yeah. No, that wasn’t that bad. That was fine. I can throw another, I can do one more, bro. Yeah, I think I, one

[00:16:11] Adam Glass: more renate. It’s okay.

[00:16:15] Dr Mike T Nelson: And in this section Adam is talking about one of the keys to performance, which is probably not what you are thinking, and this comes straight from the second class of the Gonzo Grip Strength product.

[00:16:33] So listen in. Thank you. I have

[00:16:37] Adam Glass: a really hard time keeping my face relaxed, doing really hard. And . Cause it was hard. That’s super common. So Mark, let’s talk about that. Take me through what you were doing. I didn’t have a lot of time and I was doing some weighted pullups and I was going like, I think 80 to 90% of my one rep max.

[00:16:59] But just for, I think I was doing, my plan was to do five by one with long rest. But then the power started to go, I started to move slowly. So in the spirit of the. Of, of last week’s session, I, I just dropped the weight down and did it at a weight that I could move quickly and confidently at and with good form.

[00:17:19] But when that speed started to go in the video too, I start to like, Grimes. Yes, this is key band be especially with you having that recorder on so that you can really go back and see what exactly happened. Just now, one of the things you’re gonna. Is that there? So there’s a loop in our bodies. The way that we are built.

[00:17:44] We have sensations and then we have actions, sensations, guide better actions, produce more accurate sensations, and it becomes an upward expanding spiral. In the beginning, you may not be aware of certain things were happening, was the biggest reason being it’s not been brought to your attention. That matters.

[00:18:07] But as time goes on, you become more sensitive to those things that you need to make a change on. So facial tension can be a very good example. I will give you guys an experiment at the, there’ll be a video included when this block gets sent out on the channel, and it’ll be an experiment you can run for yourself, but most of the time it seems a very heavy activation of all your neck and face muscles that’s not related to moving.

[00:18:36] Yourself or the implement from point A to point B will produce a measurable decrease in performance. And that’s very contrary to most of us that were brought up with more of that kind of hardcore training.

[00:18:59] Told so many times, you get angry at the bar, blah, blah, blah. There’s a cost associated to that. There is a chemical electrical, there is a toll that you are going to have to pay when you’re getting into that realm of emotion. And the big question becomes, is that actually necessary for me to have a productive session?

[00:19:19] So what you’ll find is that with each coming session, You’ll be a little bit more in it. And the great thing is, as far as what do I do with it, it’s stop the set. Collect yourself. Begin again. Stop the set, collect yourself, begin again. And it’s just a game of man, can I knock out high quality work with all of my working sets?

[00:19:44] And where that shows up is, especially in the training log.

[00:19:50] Mark. Any commentary on it, buddy? No, that makes a lot of sense to me. It seems like you should also have the flexibility to like lower intensity or volume if you just to maintain that sense of ease or not ease, but comfort, the sensation being, creating positive feedback. And one of the, one of the ways that you guys can use as a, as a handy measuring stick here when you are.

[00:20:19] The optimal sensation is no sensation like op. It’s if we were playing basketball and as soon as you stepped out on a court, you’re like, man, my ankle feels real stiff. My knees lugging me. I don’t feel like I’m warmed up enough. And you got all these internal thoughts. You’re running this internal inventory, you’re not gonna enjoy yourself in the game.

[00:20:43] Now the flip end of that is you step out in a court and the only thing you’re thinking. Is, where are my teammates? Who’s got the ball? Who’s got the next shot? You’re externally motivated on winning. That’s the zone. That’s what you hear pro athletes talking about. Every great game, they do a post game interview and they’ll ask a guy, what were you thinking at this time?

[00:21:03] And a lot of times you see it in their eyes. They’re struggling to come up with an answer. And I believe that’s because they weren’t thinking about anything. They were executing their game plan, whatever it was. There’s a lot of people that if you talk to, At that time, they were in that high level performance situation.

[00:21:21] And this includes firefighters, it includes, uh, people who had an important job they had to get done. Man, the best sensation to PO to possess at that time is no sensation. It’s no internal thought. It’s no feeling inside of yourself, just getting things done. And the amazing thing is it seems like the more often we put a person in that state of.

[00:21:46] The easier they get there. And you guys have probably seen this in your life. You’ve seen somebody that they were able to approach a task and it’s almost like a switch flips and they just go into perfect execution, even when maybe something wasn’t so great. Um,

[00:22:06] Dr Mike T Nelson: thank you so much for listening to the Flex Diet podcast this week.

[00:22:11] Really appreciate it. If you enjoyed these short snippets from. Gonzo Grip Strength Course with Adam Glass. You can go to gonzogripstrength.com. Like I said in the intro, it may be closed for a period of time, but there’ll be a way to get more information there. And you can also listen to the other two podcasts I did with Adam Glass also.

[00:22:36] Those would be hyperlinked here below. Or you can just search on your favorite podcast player here under the Flex Diet Podcast for just the name Adam. And they will show up. I’d highly encourage you to check out the product, super happy with how it’s been going, and I do believe it will change your philosophy for training, for performance to get stronger and to do it without breaking yourself in the process.

[00:23:06] And of course, the product is geared more towards grip strength, which as we mentioned in the intro is. Whenever you are interacting with your environment from whatever sport you’re playing, golf, tennis, kite boarding, weight lifting, power lifting, just lifting to be more generally healthy, stronger, add muscle, et cetera, your hands, your arms, your wrists are what is interacting with the environment and what I’ve noticed over the past two decades, Is that for many people this is actually a rate limiter.

[00:23:45] The great part is it doesn’t take a lot of additional work in order to shore up some of those instances, and especially if you have any pain or dysfunction, getting a greater strength in the correct manner in your hands, your elbows, your wrists, etc. I’ve found can be extremely beneficial. So check out gonzogripstrength.com.

[00:24:10] Thank you so much for listening. Really appreciate it. If you can give us whatever stars you feel is appropriate or even drop us a short review, that goes a long way to help out the podcast. Thanks again and look forward to talking to you next week.