Paul Hanton joined me to talk about different types of training and how to be consistent and get the most enjoyment from your workouts so you can reach your fitness goals.

Paul is the owner of Hydra Fitness, a personal training company that helps career-driven men lose weight without giving up spending time with family or friends. 

He is also the podcast host of the Healthy Fit Life podcast, which is focused on educating listeners on how they can improve their health through quick and easy tips to implement in their life.

As a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach, Paul has helped numerous busy men lose weight and improve their health. Paul was also diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in 2014 but has not let that stop him from his fitness goals or enjoying life.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Paul’s background as a coach/trainer and what inspired him to get into fitness

• Why people might not enjoy their training

• Why people slog through workouts if they don’t enjoy them

• The importance of doing some sort of activity for optimal health

• What people can do if they don’t enjoy their current training

• Alternatives to strength training and ranking those activities

• Whether training is required for a specific goal (even if you don’t like it)

RELATED LINKS

• Find Paul on Instagram

• Find Paul on TikTok

• Watch the episode on video here

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Transcript

Philip Pape  00:08

Welcome to the Wits & Weights podcast, where we discuss getting strong and healthy with strength training and sustainable nutrition. I'm your host, Philip pape, and in each episode, we examine strategies to help you achieve physical self mastery through a healthy skepticism of the fitness industry, and a commitment to consistent nutrition and training for sustainable results.

 

Philip Pape  00:30

Welcome to another episode of Wits & Weights. Joining me today is Paul Hanten. To talk about different types of training, how to be consistent how to get the most enjoyment from your workouts, so you can reach your fitness goals. Paul is the owner of Hydra fitness really cool name. They're a personal training company that helps career driven men lose weight without giving up spending time with family or friends. He's also the podcast host of the healthy Fit Life podcast, make sure to subscribe, which is focused on educating listeners on how they can improve their health through quick and easy tips to implement in their life. As a Certified Strength and conditioning coach, Paul has helped numerous busy men lose weight and improve their health. Paul was also diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2014, but has not let that stop him from his fitness goals or enjoying life. Paul, it's good to see you again. Thank you so much for joining me on the show.

 

Paul Hanton  01:24

Yeah, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. I enjoyed our previous conversation on my own podcast. So thanks again for inviting me.

 

Philip Pape  01:29

Yeah, we just we just met, maybe I think it was last week, we had a conversation, a lot about body composition. And today we're going to talk specifically about training. You're an experienced trainer, a coach. And there's kind of a cool angle we're going to take today, which is having to do with people's inspiration and motivation for training, whether they enjoy it different modes of training, all sorts of cool things that I want to get into with you. Before we dive into those, though, just if you could give us a little bit of your background relevant to this as a Coach and Trainer, what inspired you to get into fitness?

 

Paul Hanton  02:05

Yeah, no, that's a great question. So I've been in fitness in some capacity most of my life. So I did sports growing up. And then I joined the Marines. And then of course, in the Marines, fitness is a really big part of being in the Marines and being a military period. In the Marines. That's when I started working with a trainer actually, and gotten to bodybuilding. And that's when I started to really learn more about fitness and especially nutrition and started actually having a training program and a nutrition plan. And following that, and so ended up over the over the course of several years have done well for bodybuilding competitions. And then I've also because I had such a good experience working with my own trainer, and how much he changed my life. And I was still working with him today. I wanted to give back and help others accomplish their goals. And so I started to be started to training others as well just on the side, giving, you know, free tips and tricks here and there. And then I started personal training as as a business as well later on, but it's really just about help trying to help other people accomplish their goals, like my trainer helped me because he changed my life.

 

Philip Pape  03:12

Awesome. So the value of coaches and accelerating your learning from that point. Sounds like the bodybuilding background, I could believe it, you know, you seem like extremely fit guy knows what you're talking about. And we have that conversation the other day about the importance of strength training, not only building muscle, but body composition and other things. But not everyone enjoys that mode of fitness, which is hard to believe. It's hard for guys like us, who probably can't get enough where like, I go into the gym eight days a week if I could, right. But so why is it then helped me understand why do some people just dislike or even hate their training?

 

Paul Hanton  03:51

Yeah, and you brought up a really good point. When I first got into bodybuilding, I loved it, I dove, my my trainer gave me a five day a week program and said eat these things at this time is great. I loved it. I still love it. And but when I became a trainer, that was my thought process, well, strength training is great for you. It's really beneficial for you. Why doesn't everybody do it? And so, but as I started training or clients, I realized I had to make an adjustment in my training methodology that not everyone wants to go to the gym and strength train five days a week, right that and I had to incorporate other methodologies of training because what I'm more focused on is long term health and so I've had to adjust my my mindset around training. I've been putting a lot of thought towards what to do with clients who maybe don't aren't as passionate about strength training as I am but they still want to be active and accomplish their goals or lose weight. And so that led me to this topic we're gonna talk about is why do people hate their training and then what what to do about it?

 

Philip Pape  04:55

Yeah, and you touched on a point there which strikes me it has to do with consistency. adherence, right? If you don't like what you're doing if you're not going to come into the gym, is, is that worse than, you know, not doing the optimal program? Should we should we come in and be active in some way shape or form versus just sitting around and not doing something simply because we don't enjoy it?

 

Paul Hanton  05:18

Exactly. That's exactly it activity is beneficial for you. And that's, I'm not going to go into all the details of why being active is so beneficial for you. Right? That's, I think a lot of people, most people understand that conception, right. But I think there's a gap between, okay, you understand that activity is beneficial for you. But then a lot of people just don't do enough activity. And I think a large part of that is because I think especially in the fitness industry, we talk a lot about how beneficial strength training is, which I 100% agree with. But then there's a lot of people that don't enjoy strength training, but they enjoy other things like riding a bike or, or running or swimming. And so I think we're, there's a lot of people that kind of just quit after a month or two months, because we push strength training so much when they don't like it, when it when we really shouldn't be doing we should talk more about is looking long term and trying to incorporate ways that they can have some sort of activity that they enjoy, that they can consistently do it over a long period of time.

 

Philip Pape  06:20

So before we get to that aspect, you know, you mentioned people will will do it anyway. Maybe they think it's the right thing to do. Or maybe they have a coach that is just kind of stubborn and saying this is the way it is right. Why do people? Why do people push through anyway, they slog through they grin and bear it when it comes to the workouts that they don't enjoy?

 

Paul Hanton  06:38

Yeah, so I think there's a couple reasons for that one, I think that and especially the social media, or maybe our culture, we kind of push suffering and sacrifice, I see those words tossed around a lot, you got to make sacrifices, you got to suffer through this or you know, you got to show pain, no gain, right? Exactly. No pain, no gain slog through it, just get it done, like all these other words and mantras, etc, etc. And so I think that people take a look at that. And they think, Okay, well, that's what I need to do, right, I need to give blood, sweat and tears in order to accomplish my goals. But the problem is that, if you're not passionate about or you don't enjoy what you're doing, you're not going to do it for a long period of time. And the other aspect is I think we so I'll read a quote from Muhammad Ali that I thought was very, very relevant to this discussion. And so it's a very famous quote, probably heard it before, but he said, I hated every minute of training. But I said, Don't quit suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion, right? And so I think people, people look at that, or professional athletes and say, Okay, well, Ramona, Lee says, I have to suffer through and I hated every minute of training, right? But in reality, Muhammad Ali is a professional, but was professional athlete, right, best of the best a champion. But what people also need to understand is that Muhammad Ali loved boxing, right, he was very passionate about it. And so yes, he may have hated some aspects of training and suffered through it. But he's also very passionate about what he was doing, and he enjoyed it. And I think that's the disconnect a lot of people have is that they look at, you know, professional athletes, or people who take things to the extreme and think, Okay, well, no, they're suffering through that. So I have to suffer as well. But they're ultimately the aspect of will they enjoy it? Right? Just like I enjoy strength training. So I have no problem with going to the gym and going through a workout. Do I enjoy it every single day? No, but I enjoy it overall, most of the time.

 

Philip Pape  08:34

So what about that initial that initial hesitance? When you're not familiar with the mode of training yet? Right? It could be strength training, it could be anything really, where there's a hump you have to get over there's like that initial motivation or maybe maybe even willpower, that initially right? And it helps to have a coach. How soon do you make the determination that you truly don't enjoy something? When you when you talk to a client? They say, I'm not really into this, and it's their first session or second session? How do you approach that? Knowing that maybe they will enjoy it once they build some momentum?

 

Paul Hanton  09:07

Yeah, that's a good that's a good another great question. Right? And so if I if I have a client who might not be enjoying going to the gym or strength training, or I will say doing, like working out, doing a push workout or post workout, one of the things I want to know is why is it because they feel uncomfortable going to the gym? Is it because they don't feel uncomfortable doing the movements? Is it because they truly just don't enjoy strength training? That's one of the things that I tried to dig into and I would encourage anyone listening who was also having those same thoughts is to ask yourself really why why why don't you enjoy strength training or why don't you enjoy going to the gym? And and sometimes it's just familiarity thing, right? They just need a little more time to get familiar with the workouts and other times it's because they just really just don't enjoy it have zero motivation to lift weights and that's okay.

 

Philip Pape  09:58

Okay, so there's a We see multiple possibilities you have to attack you ask the question why that's a great question is a code great is understanding the root cause? So, you know, from one angle I see is an educational angle, right? You want to educate your clients on the importance of activity, specific types of activity and activity in general. So how do you do that? How do you raise awareness, which then may reduce the friction of why they think it's not enjoyable? How do you raise awareness of why we need to move and train?

 

Paul Hanton  10:29

Yeah, so one of the things I do is depends on the client. So I think that a good trainer is going to treat each client individually. And that's one mistake I made when I first started training is I treated each client as the same, right? If that, okay, you're gonna go, you're going to the gym five days a week, or three days a week, or four days a week, right? And you're gonna, here's a nutrition plan. But then over time, I started to realize that I had to treat each client individually to take into account their previous training history, what they like to do, what their goals are. And so your question, one of the things that I do is, I make sure to understand their previous training history, right. So like, I had a client who had a really bad experience working with the in person trainer, right, which which happens occasionally. But her issue wasn't that she didn't like strength training, she just had a really poor experience working with a personal trainer. And so I had to kind of coach her through, okay, I'm here, have any questions and concerns. And we kind of walked through a program with her to help her understand the movements a little better and get her more comfortable. And the other thing I realized is, I can't just throw someone off in the deep end and say, Okay, you're gonna go squat, bench deadlift, and there you go. And so I make sure to incorporate movements that they can accomplish, and they can actually do that build momentum that builds momentum over time and builds confidence. And so they feel more confident going the gym, doing the movements, and ideally, they'll enjoy it, which is the end goal, and they'll want to do it consistently for a long period of time. But it's about starting where someone's at, and then kind of building off from there to build momentum with what they're doing.

 

Philip Pape  11:59

I love that idea, Paul, because I people will hear me on on the podcast talk a lot about the importance of compound lifts and barbell work and cotton. You know, yeah, in a perfect world, I could just drop you in and you go to town, great. But you might be 72 year old female with a lot of strength, maybe can't even squat, you know, not even down to quarter depth. Where do we start? That's, that's where we have lighter implements, and exact leg presses and boxes and things. So that that's a great idea. So for this, this initial assessment, how does that how does that look for in your particular coaching business with your clients? Is this a form they fill out? Do you come in and assess their mobility? How does that work?

 

Paul Hanton  12:38

Yeah, no, that's a good question. So I have a form that they fill out when they first start before they started working with me. And before I started even creating their training program. But like, like most most trainers out there, I'm a, again, a big proponent of strength training. And I want to emphasize that I think strength training is fantastic for multiple reasons. And there's multiple research that backs up how important training is not just from a weight loss perspective, just from, you know, healthy overall life perspective. However, one thing I try to do is to make sure that I incorporate activities that I know that they can do one and another actually going to enjoy. And so in the formative fill out, they do list out if, for example, if they enjoy working on certain body parts, or if they have a body part that they want to improve or work on, or if there are some sort of activity that they're already doing that they enjoy. And so I take all this into account and build a program around what they're currently doing, what I know they can they can accomplish. So for example, I have a client who started work with me and he loves, He loves cycling, right? I hate cycling, but he loves it, right. So I incorporate cycling into his training program, because I know he enjoys it. And so he does a hybrid approach of cycling and strength training. And he's been able to consistently do that he's been with me for I don't know, six or seven months now. But he really is he really enjoys that hybrid approach, because you can do cycling, which he loves, also do a little bit of strength training to help out with his cycling. So works out pretty well. But it's really just comes down to understanding the needs the goals, and then creating a program around those goals and needs, but also making sure that somebody they can start and accomplish because again, if you throw someone off in the deep end, you know there's gonna sink or quit immediately.

 

Philip Pape  14:24

Yeah, so it sounds like you're you have an excellent process to set people up for success success from the beginning, understanding them as individuals, as opposed to here's a template cookie cutter, right? Oh, templates are terrible. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And so what you get them going, what if then after a while there, then they're still not enjoying their training and so they don't show up on Wednesday and then not being consistent. It's no longer fun for them. What do you do then?

 

Paul Hanton  14:52

Yeah, that's when a good trainer start digging into why. And what you don't want to do is jump to jump to a conclusions or make assumptions for what's going on. Because there could be outside factors that you're not even aware of. Right? They could be going through a tough time at work that could be really busy with kids with life. And a lot of different factors you have to take into consideration but it's always just starting a conversation. And again, you don't want to jump to conclusions and assume, okay, well there, there's going to quit or it can do the workout, it can be a lot of other factors. So that's the first thing I do is to make sure that I start asking questions and trying to really dig into what's going on. So So for example, if a client like they missed a full company to workout workouts, right and a week, back to back consistently, that's, that's a yellow flag, right? Okay, something's off, something's something went wrong if they make a system for the last two months, but now the sharp nose slide. Okay, we need to have a conversation. So that's when I'll just reach out and ask, Hey, you know, I saw you missed a couple workouts, what's going on? How are things going with you? And again, it could be a wide multiple due to factors. But it's always it's always just a conversation that a good trainer is going to have with that client to better understand what's going on in their life that would that would force some sort of change in so in their behavior.

 

Philip Pape  16:11

Now, are you monitoring real time? Not real time, like with a wearable? But are you monitoring things like biofeedback with these clients, as you go along to get ahead of that?

 

Paul Hanton  16:20

Yeah, so they have the option of of connecting their Apple Watch, or Fitbit or whatever, where they have with the training app, so I can see those stats. But I can also, I can also track how their workouts are going in real time. So they'll put in their how much weight they're using. So for example, I have a client who I need consistently, I tell him to lift, lift, heavier, right, add more weight, add more weight, add more weight, but I can see that in real time how they're doing it, I give them feedback, after every workout. So I can see if they miss a workout instantly, then I can reach out instantly to find out what went wrong or why they missed work. And again, sometimes it's just life, they got busy. But you don't want that to turn into a snowball effect to suddenly they're missing, you know, a week's worth of workouts or a month worth of workouts, right?

 

Philip Pape  17:07

Yeah, absolutely not. And that's where a coach comes in, right to give you that extrinsic nudge for consistency. You've mentioned some you might actually I like the thing you said about progressive, basically progressive overload, ensuring that the client is actually adding weight over time as one of the metrics, as opposed to just showing up. I think that's really important that you do that. So So that's cool. For people listening, you know, that's one of the keys to actually building muscle and strength, right is increasing the load over time.

 

Paul Hanton  17:35

Yeah, I want to, I'll touch on want to touch on that. Really Sure. Because when it comes to progressive overload, we talk a lot about strength training. But there's also ways to progressively overload for any sort of activity right? In point oh, if someone wants to go cycling, do cycling, well, there's ways to progressively overload in cycling as well, by increasing the amount of time trying to go faster. If same thing with running or walking, you can increase the amount of distance you run or walk. And so when he talks about progressive overload, you got to make sure and again, I don't think anyone should, you know, pour their blood, sweat and tears into every sort of workout activity, but you do want to make it challenging and hard. Cuz that way your body will adapt to whatever you throw at it. And so if you consistently challenge your body when ever you're doing, that's the way to go, rather than just lollygagging through workouts. I want to emphasize that that whatever activity you do, you do want to make sure you're challenging yourself appropriately.

 

Philip Pape  18:32

Yeah, that's a great point. And the lollygagging thing is I'll say it's a little bit subjective for some people because I went through eight years of CrossFit and didn't get super strong. I felt like I was working out really hard though. But there's these kind of subjective definitions if you know sweating, and soreness and heart rate versus, you know, challenging yourself to muscular failure or to spray it on the bike or whatever, metric. Hey, this is Philip pape, letting you know that applications are now open for one on one coaching. If you're a busy working professional, who has tried dieting and exercising for years, with little in the way of results, and you want to lose fat, get lean or feel confident in your body without excessive dieting, cardio or restrictions. Just go to wits & weights.com/coaching to apply. Go back to if somebody just doesn't want to lift which again boggles my mind, Paul, but if so he just doesn't want to lift what would be the next best type of training for them. Yeah, so

 

Paul Hanton  19:35

I think we talked about when we talk about strength training, the first thing that comes to mind for a lot of people is going to the gym and lifting weights, right like barbell dumbbell, maybe maybe even kettlebell, maybe not. But that's what people think when they when they think about strength training. And so what I like to do is offer different training modalities when it comes to strength training. So for example, I tell all my clients to invest in resistance spans. And I encourage every single listener listening to invest in resistance bands, because they're really cheap on Amazon. But you can do so many different things with resistance bands. And I found a lot of clients may, they may not want to go to the gym consistently, but they'll they love resistance bands because they can take them with them on the road, they can easily transport them anywhere. They're very cheap and easy to use. And so that's one aspect I look at is okay, maybe they don't want to maybe they don't enjoy lifting weights, or maybe they just don't want to do it, you know, three days a week, well, how else can we challenge those muscles, right. And resistance bands are a great way to do that. I even have clients that just do Bodyweight Workouts, because that's where they're at right now. And, and they they don't, they can't really handle anything more than just bodyweight. I think that's fantastic, as well. So when it comes to strain training, there are different avenues, you can go with strain training. So like resistance bands bodyweight, we can also look at different types of strain training to you can do powerlifting strongman CrossFit has aspects of training training in it as well. And so it's trying to just trying to figure out, Okay, what's a good fit for that client? Because they don't like just, you know, don't go to the bodybuilder approach of five sets of 10, or five sets of eight per body part. That's fine. What else can we do to incorporate strength training? Because again, I want to emphasize, strength training has many, many benefits and everybody, ideal world, everybody would love to do it. But that's not that's not reality, but want to try to incorporate some sort of train training in their programming, if possible.

 

Philip Pape  21:28

Yeah. So those are great examples of many different modes of training, it still involves some load. Exactly. And the resistance bands are great. I heard I think it was stronger by science the other a few weeks back talking about the the ongoing debate about how much work you need to do to maintain your strength. Yeah, once you have it. Good. I know, we're talking about development of strength, but even maintaining it's something like 1/8 to a quarter of your typical workout and just having bands, and doing that for a while. could maintain strength that you develop with barbells. Right. Right, you know, yeah. Right. So that now what if so, have you ever met somebody who just doesn't want to do any form of resistance whatsoever?

 

Paul Hanton  22:09

I've not encountered that yet. All my clients do some sort of resistance training, whether it's bodyweight resistance bands, or going to the gym. And I think a large part of that is, I do push it early on to especially if they have no training experience to start, you know, bodyweight resistance bands, and doing lightweight at the gym, like machines, something easy, and then kind of build on from there. Yeah, I've yet encountered anyone who doesn't want to do any of those things. Like usually, you can kind of get them to do bodyweight at least. Or resistance bands. Those are pretty easy cells in lieu of going to the gym. But yeah, I've encountered anyone that just outright does not want to do any sort of bodyweight resistance band or strength training.

 

Philip Pape  22:56

Yeah. And the fact that they want the fact they walk through your doors, probably they know they have a goal want to get fitter and healthier. And you know, you're an expert. So right, if one of the first things you say is, hey, we've got to, we've got to incorporate this. It's like your nutrition coach saying, you know, we've got to eat more protein, like we just do it. It's what we do, you know, to get healthier. Yeah, the other

 

Paul Hanton  23:18

thing I'll add is that I don't there, I have clients who do all sorts of other activities, and I make sure not to take those away, I make sure that they enjoy playing soccer, they still have time to play soccer, and they enjoy walking with their kids, that walking is fantastic. And I make sure that they still have the ability to do that. And so part of it is just incorporating things that they like, and interfacing that with resistance training so that way, they get a hybrid approach, but which I still I still think is fantastic. So again, like a good trainer is going to work with you on your goals. And I try not to take away things too much, right? Yeah, I can.

 

Philip Pape  23:55

Yeah. So it's it's the goals, the goals drive behavior. Exactly. What if What if a client has a goal to be a, as you mentioned, powerlifting strongman, things like that. What about endurance training athletes? Marathon or ultra marathoner? Or, like obstacle course race?

 

Paul Hanton  24:11

Yeah, so I still think there's benefits to doing strength training for endurance running obstacle course, you know, whatever, whatever running. So in that, so like, going back to the my client who loves cycling, like he did, and he, he got these cycles a lot goes far way farther than I could probably go. And he's in his 60s to it. He's phenomenal. Right? But what I what I tried to do, I did a lot of research in terms of okay, what are some strange hanging activities that are beneficial for cycling? And that way I can I can kind of I sold it as hey, you know, you're you're doing some strength training was gonna be beneficial for those long endurance cycling, runs your cycling, cycling races, yeah, coming up. Right. And so there are same thing is still very important for endurance athletes or, or athletes that are more We're focused on like cardiovascular or endurance type sports. But it's all about just understanding the types of string chain that they should be doing. Right. So if you're, if you're a marathon runner than I was, you know, you don't have to go in the gym and do heavy squats, right, probably do maybe do like lighter weights or do other sorts of activities or walking lunges. And so it's really just about understanding the goal that they have and what they want to accomplish, and then devising an effective training program around that.

 

Philip Pape  25:27

And so speaking of goals, then I imagine you have a lot of clients that come in that want to lose weight, or lose fat, that's probably probably the maybe the number one goal I'm gonna guess. Probably, yeah. And how would you prioritize activity? If they just put their trust in your hands? They said, Okay, I'm gonna listen, I'm going to do what you're telling me to do. And tell me what the best thing is to do? How would you prioritize our activity?

 

Paul Hanton  25:49

Yeah, what I always prioritize strength training, if I can, and then I interspaced that with some cardio, I'm not a, I don't enjoy cardio. So I personally don't do it all that often. But I still think it's good. And one reason I think is good is because well, one cardio a lot of benefits for you, but also it gives that my clients something else to do other than go in the gym and lifting, right, so kind of breaks up the monotony a little bit. And I found that a lot of people, they like that, that hybrid approach of okay, they're gonna do strength training, they're gonna do some cardio and strength training. Now, they're not doing the same thing over and over again, but they are but it doesn't, it doesn't feel that way to them, right, because they got their kind of weak broken up. Whereas someone else, they, it really depends on their goals, right? Like, if they want to do they want to become a bodybuilder, then I'll put them in the gym five days a week, purely strength training, you know, a lot of calories, and they're fine, but for most of my clients, so it's always a hybrid approach of finding out what works best for them. And I found a hybrid approach of incorporating strength training and emphasizing that, but also incorporating cardio or other forms of cardiovascular activities to give them something else to do throughout the week. So that way, they're not just bored and, you know, hitting hitting life every single day.

 

Philip Pape  27:00

Yeah, and that's a good point about using cardio as a form of enjoyment if you like it. Not because you have to not because it's it's a great way to you know, burn fat or anything. And you said you don't enjoy it too much. I'm kind of in that club a little bit. So we have to get creative. It's okay, though. What, just on a tangent. What is? What are forms of cardio that you enjoy?

 

Paul Hanton  27:22

Yeah, so I'll give you a little backstory, my cardio history. So in the marine when I was in the Marines, we ran a lot, right. So we had our three mile run as our physical fitness tests. And I hated it. I hated running hated, every second of it hated it hated every step. But when I was preparing to go to off of the candidate school, I was on a training program to improve my runtime, and I ran six days a week. Now, do I run six days a week now? Absolutely not. I haven't rancid I left the Marines, right because I don't enjoy it. And that goes back to my point of yeah, you can suffer through something short term, but long term, there's no way I'm going to go back to running. But what I do now is I do a lot of Stairmaster or short hit style workouts or just walking on incline on the treadmill for a short amount of time. Just something and it's more just to kind of break up the monotony so doing something different but also just kind of getting some cardio extra cardio in. I'm not a huge proponent of doing a lot of cardio but I still think it has its place in time.

 

Philip Pape  28:23

Yeah, like that. Just making it fit. I know people that go they love to lift the big weights and like okay, go push the Prowler right because that's you know, big manly thing gets a push this heavy sled you know, you're like a football player. Guess what? You're getting cardio. So and you probably get a lot of cardio just doing heavy deadlifts, let's be honest. Right?

 

Paul Hanton  28:46

Yeah, yeah, you can incorporate typing, you know, Carson's types of cardio weight and your strength training as well. That's the beauty of it.

 

Philip Pape  28:53

So continuing on the theme of with a client who has a specific goal, and you mentioned a bodybuilder, for example. Do you encounter situations where they're maybe doing too much of something they shouldn't be doing? And you have to have to coach them to back off on that?

 

Paul Hanton  29:08

Yeah, I think what I think commonly, and probably other trainers experienced this as well as people doing too much cardio and emphasizing that, and some part of that's just education. Right. And I think I think, I think in the fitness industry, we're doing a really good job of that of emphasizing strength training and coming around to emphasizing that over you know, hours of cardio. And so when it comes to someone who has a very specific goal, it really depends on what the goal is in crafting your training program around that goal. But in the case of a bodybuilder, obviously, you're gonna have them lift heavy and in the gym and lift weights because no other way around that. And I think that's a really key consideration if someone has a very specific goal in their training is going to be have to have to be very specific to match that specific goal. And there's really no there's no way around that Right, if you want to run a marathon, what what do you what are you going to what sort of training are you going to have to do? Right, you're gonna have to go run a lot. If you want to be bodybuilder, you have to lift a lot. And so I think for anyone listening, if they had, do you have a very specific goal in that in that training is going to be very specific, and then they're going to have to kind of suck it up and go do it or just not do it at all.

 

Philip Pape  30:20

And is there a way to, is a way to change it for the individual with things like your programming, your periodization, mezzo cycle, so we don't have to get too technical, but things like that.

 

Paul Hanton  30:30

Yeah, there are ways to do that. And I think that if they have a specific goal, especially if they're wanting to do a competition, and that that periodization periodization is very key, and then crafting a really solid training program around that goal. And again, we keep talking about goals, because that's, that's extremely crucial, because your training has to help with that goal, in terms of what you want to accomplish. And nutrition is a whole another another thing that also has to be aligned with your goal. But it all comes back to your goals and what you want to accomplish. And even for someone who just wants to lose weight or improve their health, that's still a goal, and your training has to match that goal. And it may not be you know, extreme amounts of training, but there's still gonna be something involved there any good training program in order to accomplish any sort of goal?

 

Philip Pape  31:19

Sorry, good training program. So if they're reaching out to you, Paul, are you in person online? Both? What's your mode of operation here?

 

Paul Hanton  31:27

Yeah, no, I'm online. I do occasionally in person here and there. But most of my classes are online around around the US,

 

Philip Pape  31:34

and how to how does someone get feedback from you on for example, their form and technique, which is really important when you get started?

 

Paul Hanton  31:41

Yep. Format technique? So that's a really good question, especially when you're training online. So there's a couple avenues. tools that I use one, I'll have them record themselves, especially if there's a technique that they haven't done before. So for example, deadlift or squat, right, or even a bench to have them record themselves and send me the video, that way I can critique their critique their form. However, I always make sure to if they're new to a lift, I always kind of progressively get there. So for example, if someone's never, never done a squat before, I don't automatically say okay, here, go to your classes a 10 on the squat rack, try to work their way up, even if I have to start at okay, you're doing air squats first, right? And then and you may be Oprah will progress up to even a smith machine. And then we'll do just a bar, right. And so we'll kind of work build our way up to that to that point, depending on where they're at. But always start with where they're at first. And then kind of build my way up from there on where they need to go.

 

Philip Pape  32:42

Yeah, makes sense. And I imagine even once they get to the full movement, you know, it could take weeks or months for people to really nail down the forum. Yeah. Cool. All right. I like to ask this question of all guests. But is there a question you wish I had asked? And what is your answer? Yeah, we

 

Paul Hanton  32:59

talked about someone hitting their training or not liking their training. One thing that people may be thinking about or wondering is, well, I've tried all these things, right. And I still haven't found anything that I liked. And I would say to them, I don't believe you. But let's say for argument's sake that they tried every single activity, I would say that they start with walking. And I think, again, a lot of people underrate walking, but walking is still a fantastic can be so fantastic activity to do. You could throw on a podcast or music or even, you know, watch Netflix and go for a walk. But that's, that's a really good starting point, if there's nothing else out there that you feel like you enjoy. And you can even progressively overload on walking to an extent, right, you can challenge yourself to go farther, you can go faster, you can hop on a treadmill, and just up the incline and start doing treadmill walking. And so I would just say if there's nothing out there at all, and they've tried everything else, just go for a walk right and started going for walks, you know, 30 minutes, maybe three times a week and four times we can build on from there. But the end of the day, you want to be active, right? Our bodies are made to be active. And it's important to be active for a numerous amount of numerous amounts of reasons, but it's just finding out again, one activity is something that you can enjoy for a long period of time. And if once you find that activity, it's life changing, right? And then you'll be doing that activity for the rest of your life. I

 

Philip Pape  34:30

do. So there's something for everyone when it comes to movement.

 

Paul Hanton  34:33

I think there's something for everyone. I think there's something for everyone. Yes, he's got to figure out what that is.

 

Philip Pape  34:38

And the talk of you being in the military and walking makes me want to grab my rucksack because there's another way to load you're walking.

 

Paul Hanton  34:45

You're absolutely right. Yeah, you could grab a backpack, throw some weight in there and then take off right and hiking and hiking is a great activity as well and truly want to go for hikes and make you can make that challenging. You can make any activity challenging enough. But you're just finding out what works best for you, for me is strength training, right? I fell in love with it on day one. And I see myself doing that doing strength training in some capacity for the rest of my life. And I'm glad I found my my activity or my thing that I like to do and, and then again, once you find that activity, it's life changing, right? It will change your life once you find that activity that you enjoy you want to do for the rest of your life.

 

Philip Pape  35:26

Yeah, it's about consistency. And guys who are listening, ladies, if you want a great trainer, Paul's your man. And I'm just gonna ask him Paul, where can listeners find out more about you and your work?

 

Paul Hanton  35:37

Yeah, no, thank you. So I'm on Instagram and Tiktok at Paul fit prime. Again, that's at Paul fit prime. Also check out my podcast, the healthy Fit Life podcast. So on any podcast platform you can think of so. And again, one thank you again for having me on your show. Really appreciate it.

 

Philip Pape  35:57

Yeah, no apps. Absolutely. Likewise, and I'm gonna add all that info to the show notes, of course, so people can find you. It was fun talking about kind of a different angle. When it comes to mindset, the emotions goals, individuality with training. I think a lot of people listening, you know, wonder where to start and where to go and how to make fun and not making a chore. Right. You just gave them a bunch of great answers. So I appreciate you coming on the show.

 

Paul Hanton  36:20

Yeah, thank you. Great conversation.

 

Philip Pape  36:23

Thanks for listening to the show. Before you go, I have a quick favor to ask. If you enjoy the podcast, let me know by leaving a five star review in Apple podcasts and telling others about the show. Thanks again for joining me Philip Pape in this episode of Wits & Weights. I'll see you next time and stay strong.