Pete Wright:
I just got back from two weeks of vacation and I went to the gym. Voluntarily. Every other day. And nobody made me. Now, if you heard our episode from a couple of weeks ago, before the vacation, I was a different man. I stood right here and I told our guest Devon Castro and Srdjan that I misbehave on vacation. That vacation is, for me, the fitness witness protection program. New city, new me, no squats. And then I got to Chautauqua, New York, and I found the Turner Community Center, which for the record was not the sad travel gym I predicted. The one with the elliptical from 2003 and the TV on cable news just looping on mute.
It’s a real gym with real equipment, and in July, a truly staggering number of people who all seem to know each other. So this week is report card week. Srdjan is here. He’s gonna grade my homework. And I should warn you, there is an item on my transcript we need to discuss, because he and Devon gave me exactly one instruction: big compound movements on vacation, don’t isolate. And I did isolation workouts for two weeks on purpose. It’s great. We’re gonna find out how much trouble I’m in.
We’re gonna figure out how to behave like decent human beings in a crowded gym, and we’re gonna talk about what the first week back is supposed to feel like. I’m Pete Wright, he’s Srdjan Injac, my trainer, my judge, and today, my jury. This is Build for Health.
Srdjan Injac:
Oh wow, what did you do?
Pete Wright:
Oh man, hi, how are ya?
Srdjan Injac:
Hi. I’m doing good.
Pete Wright:
First things first. Before I tell you what I really did — what did you expect me to do for two weeks in New York? You can be honest about your expectations for me specifically.
Srdjan Injac:
Maybe work out once or twice a week. Find a way to maybe not exactly go look for the gym, but go for a walk, or something like that. A hike, things like that.
Pete Wright:
Okay, you think of me as a fragile flower. I get it. I get it.
Srdjan Injac:
But that’s kind of — it’s kind of what most people do. I mean, I’m sometimes guilty of that too. I don’t always go to the gym. Depends where I am.
Pete Wright:
It was nice. The routine was nice. Get up early in the morning — it was wicked hot. We had a heat dome over most of western New York while we were there. And so getting up early in the morning and heading to the gym was actually not the worst thing I could do. I went in myself thinking, okay, twenty minutes twice a week is probably gonna be plenty. And I overshot my own expectation. Who knew I was a guy who vacation gymmed?
That felt pretty good. So, every other day. Is that actually — I mean, that’s kind of what we do right now. Is that a smart split when you’re traveling, or did I just get lucky that it maps onto a reasonable recovery pattern?
Srdjan Injac:
No, that’s good. You did great. A lot of people don’t do that much. The only thing I’m usually concerned with when people go on vacation is that, finally, they’re getting into the habit when they’re here of coming in and working out regularly. Doesn’t matter how they feel, they have a routine, and they come in. So you lose that momentum, that routine. When people go on vacation and come back, it’s hard for them to get back into that routine. But if you establish some kind of routine when you’re gone, that means you’re keeping that momentum, and it’s a lot easier when you come back to get back into that.
Pete Wright:
Mm-hmm.
Srdjan Injac:
Because you kept that habit, that routine.
You’re gonna lose that habit of coming in, even when you don’t feel like coming in. So that’s the only thing that I usually am very concerned with when people leave on vacation — coming back, waiting for them, when are they gonna come in, when is it gonna be their first day, or is it gonna take another three or four days before they come in.
Pete Wright:
I’ve gotta recover from my vacation. I need a vacation. I just had a vacation.
Okay, so I didn’t have — I had my phone, and when we worked together you gave me a bunch of Trainerize exercises. And there I go, I walk into Turner, and it is full of things that don’t match. So I think my biggest challenge — and this is our first major topic — is improvisation in the gym. I don’t think I improvise well.
Srdjan Injac:
Yes.
Pete Wright:
And so it ends up being hard for me to count, and to track what does count, and figuring out what machines do what muscle.
And this thing is full of machines. Full of machines. We do a lot of free weight based stuff, and I didn’t have a lot of choices on that. It’s ropes and pulleys and pushing and pulling.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
And so I would like some guidance from you on how to conceptualize improvising when I don’t have a map.
Srdjan Injac:
See, it’s hard, and you have to work with what’s there, what’s available, and knowing how to modify some of the exercises and how to put the workouts together. How to go maybe do a push-pull exercise — or sometimes you can’t even do that, because things are taken. So you have to figure out and do things that are available there. So it’s really hard. I can write the workout for somebody, and they go there and they don’t have that available. So I have to teach you how to modify certain stuff, how to put those workouts together, that will make sense to you.
So you don’t end up doing random stuff, because most people, that’s what they do.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
They just randomly do whatever is available.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
But I’ve been in those situations before.
Pete Wright:
I tried to go by muscle memory. Like, if it was leg day, I just found everything that looked like legs and I just did it over and over and over again.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
If it was shoulder day, I tried to do everything that sort of felt like it was doing my shoulders, and I think I got away with it. But you’re right — there is a certain amount of randomness that I felt like I was carrying around. And it gets into our next major area, which is gym etiquette and navigating a really crowded gym. I don’t want to get there yet, that’s a whole different thing. So I don’t know that I was entirely random.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
I think I can say you’ve taught me something. I didn’t feel totally desperate when I was in there. I guess I’m paying attention. But it did feel a little bit like — that’s the one side, just doing random things. The other side of that coin is I’m way overdoing one muscle group.
Srdjan Injac:
Probably. And that’s probably maybe what you did. When you look at machines for shoulders or legs and stuff like that, maybe you did four different exercises for quads, and maybe just one for the hamstrings.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
Or when you did shoulders, maybe you did three different exercises for your front delts, but you only did one for the mid delt. And maybe none for the rear delts.
Pete Wright:
Mm-hmm.
Srdjan Injac:
So that’s kind of what happens in those situations. I’ve been in the situation when I go somewhere on vacation and find the gym, go there, and it’s just packed.
Every machine. So whatever machine you get, you stay on that machine. You can’t really move. As soon as you get up and leave, someone else gets it. So that’s when you grab some dumbbells, right? And you go to whatever machine is available. If you have a back machine that’s available, great, you grab that one. And then you grab some dumbbells, so you can do one exercise on that machine and then one with the dumbbells, but you’ll be standing right next to that machine, so you won’t have to leave.
Nobody’s gonna grab it.
Pete Wright:
Oh, that’s smart.
Srdjan Injac:
So that way you go back and forth and you do two exercises at the same time.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
With the dumbbells, you can do a shoulder press, or maybe you do triceps or biceps, and you turn around and you do a back row on the machine. So that’s how you work with the gyms that are busy, when you don’t have things available to do.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Srdjan Injac:
So you grab some dumbbells and figure out what you’re gonna do with the dumbbell exercise, and then you find the machine that does maybe the opposite, or something else. That’s how I used to do it all the time.
Pete Wright:
As a gym owner, that is great. I have a feeling that’s answer number one of what I’m about to ask you. If you had to give an etiquette starter pack to your new gym members — what are the top three rules that, if everyone followed them, would make every crowded gym totally livable?
Srdjan Injac:
Well, the thing is, they have to know that sometimes you have way more people than the equipment, so you have to share the equipment. You can’t just sit on a machine, do a set, and just stay there and be on your phone and things like that. There’s somebody else who can use that machine. So you either get up and go do something else, or find somebody that you can switch back and forth with. You just gotta communicate with the people there. And a lot of people actually don’t mind at all. They actually like that they get to do something else, and then you work with somebody else.
So that’s what I tell all my clients, because I have a smaller gym. I don’t have a lot of equipment. There’s a lot of members that come in, and I just let everyone know.
Pete Wright:
Especially during those peak evening hours, yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
Those are the rules. Exactly. And there’s like five of us, five trainers, training at the same time. But we know how to work with each other, and then we’ll let the members know also — people that are coming in to work on their own. You can’t really just grab the machine and stay there and we all wait till you finish your four sets, or five, however many sets you do.
Pete Wright:
Mm-hmm.
Srdjan Injac:
So that’s the major rule.
Pete Wright:
Is there language — if somebody is sitting on a machine that I need, if they’re resting between sets, like you set up the example — what do I say? Is there like a code word that regular gym members know? Oh, this person, I understand, I’ll get up and go do something else.
Srdjan Injac:
No, you simply just come over and ask them, hey, while you wait, can I do a set? And most people are like, yeah, definitely, go ahead, do a set.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
They’re resting there. They just did the set. So they’re probably gonna go get some water, or maybe go do a set of something else.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
Or if they’re just sitting, and they’re just gonna do that one exercise, then they’re gonna get up. And everyone seemed to be always pretty nice about it. They get it. They understand that we all came there to work out. So they’ll stand up, we’ll do a set, they’re like, all right, great, thank you.
And then I’m like, I’ll come back later.
Pete Wright:
Yeah, yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
So it works. No one ever complained about that.
Pete Wright:
Do you have any rules around — like when I was a kid, I would go to the arcade, the video game arcade. And if I wanted to get in line, I would just take my quarters and put your quarter on the deck of the video game, and then you know that when it’s your turn to play Joust or Galaga, you’re up.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, you can’t do that.
Pete Wright:
When they lose, it’s your quarter. Where do you stand on the towel and water bottle reservation system? Because there’s a lot of that going on in this gym.
Srdjan Injac:
Oh yeah, people do that on purpose. They leave a towel, a bottle of water. It’s like, that’s my machine.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
And they’ll sometimes go do something else. I’m like, you can’t reserve the machine. It’s not your machine.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
Once you get up, it’s free, it’s available for somebody else to work on and do a set. So usually, if the towels are on the seat, I’ll put a towel somewhere else on the machine and free up the seat so I can do my set.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
And then once I’m done, I get up and I do something else. But I’ve seen people do that a lot. They’re putting their stuff, a towel on one machine, a water bottle in the next one, their keys and wallet next to the other one. That’s not how you do it.
Pete Wright:
Well, that’s it.
Srdjan Injac:
It does not mean it’s yours. It’s not yours.
Pete Wright:
I’m telling ya. I physically can’t sit there and look at my phone between sets. I feel like a monster. When I’m done with my set, I want to fall off it as fast as possible. And there were fewer people like that than I would have expected.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, you’re always fine.
Pete Wright:
There’s a lot of, like — yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
In those busy gyms, big corporation gyms and stuff like that, you’ll find that.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
Smaller private gyms, you won’t find that. They all know. They understand. Every owner has probably talked to every single individual that comes there, and they all know the rules.
Pete Wright:
Okay. There is a standard in this gym. They say up front, we want you to grab — they have these giant bins of moist towelettes, sanitary towelettes. They say, please wipe down the equipment before and after you use it. And that felt like overkill for me. I’m curious what the etiquette is around cleaning your equipment.
Srdjan Injac:
I have the spray bottles all over the place. So I tell people, once you’re done, just clean the machines. Clean after yourself, pretty much, and wipe the bench or whatever.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
And people do that all the time. So if somebody really wants to wipe it again before they sit on the machine, they can do it if they want to. I won’t. But I tell them they don’t really have to wipe before and after. It’s just too much. So a lot of people — there’s some people that don’t care, so they won’t wipe it after themselves.
So that’s why they probably said wipe before and after.
Pete Wright:
Yeah, because the last person maybe didn’t.
Srdjan Injac:
A lot of people, yeah, they’re not gonna do it.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
So if I come and I see somebody really used it and there’s still a little sweat on it, I’m like, they probably didn’t wipe it.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
I’ll wipe it off, of course. But yeah, that’s about it. It’s just to let everybody know how to.
Pete Wright:
Okay.
Srdjan Injac:
Just take care of the machines.
Pete Wright:
Okay. In the relationships between brief encounters in the gym, what is the etiquette around asking strangers who appear to have all their stuff together for advice during a workout? Like they’re doing something, you want to learn to do it better, or they’re doing a new exercise.
Srdjan Injac:
[unclear]
Pete Wright:
I’ll tell you, there was a woman doing an exercise that I had never seen before. I mean, it took me great practice to demonstrate it for my family after the fact. It was a mystery to me. And I didn’t ask her what she was doing, but I feel like now I should have, because it plagues me. What is the etiquette around interrupting somebody between their sets to ask them what they’re doing?
Srdjan Injac:
Well, once they’re done with the set, you can ask. I’ve been in gyms before and I had people come up to me and ask me, hey, I see you do this and that, and I don’t mind.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
I’ll explain right away. I’m glad to help them out and explain in a lot of detail. I mean, maybe just because that’s what I do for a living, so I don’t mind doing it.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Right, right.
Srdjan Injac:
And it doesn’t really affect my workout that much. They’re usually just like, I just want to take a little bit of time, I don’t wanna stop you completely from your workout. So they understand.
They’re just asking, and if you give them a quick answer they’re fine with it. So you don’t spend five, ten minutes just talking to somebody. But I don’t mind at all. And actually, if you see anybody at the gym who seems like they’re really in good shape and serious about their workout — trust me, they’ll be happy to explain what they’re doing. So we don’t mind being interrupted. It’s kind of like a compliment. You’re doing something really well, they like what they see, and they would like to do the same thing. So don’t ever feel afraid to ask for advice, because we always love helping new people that are coming in, that are trying, that are doing the workout. We respect that.
And we just want to encourage them to come and do even more. So educate them, teach them. We don’t mind at all. I think more people should do that. I wish more people would come and approach me and ask me questions.
Pete Wright:
Yeah. Well, I think it goes to my last thought about gym etiquette, which is, I was a visitor.
Srdjan Injac:
[unclear]
Pete Wright:
In a seasonal community gym where everyone else seems to know each other. And it feels like that mentality, like just being open —
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.
Pete Wright:
— and curious goes a long way to being a guest in someone else’s gym culture. That’s what I am. I’m a guest in their gym culture.
Srdjan Injac:
Yes.
Pete Wright:
And things are heavy and dangerous, and just sort of being open and kind can go a long, long way.
Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, definitely. I go to so many gyms and I know everyone, and as soon as somebody else walks in, we all know that they’re not a regular.
Pete Wright:
Yeah, yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
They just came in. Maybe it’s their first or second time. But we always welcome them. We always help them out. If they need a spotter, they don’t even have to ask. We’ll just jump in.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
Right away, and be like, come on, you got two, three more. I got you.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
So just make them feel welcome.
Pete Wright:
Well, that’s a great part. I’m glad you brought that up. Etiquette around asking for a spot — what are you agreeing to if you ask for a spot?
Srdjan Injac:
Mm-hmm.
Pete Wright:
Are you now spotting that person? Are you now partners forever? I know the real answer for that.
Srdjan Injac:
No, it’s just helping each other out, because you both are working out, so you wanna get the most out of that workout.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
So I go to other gyms all the time, and if I see anybody that needs a spot, I’ll jump right in. And they’re glad that I did. They’re like, oh man, thanks, I appreciate it, I needed that. Those last two reps and stuff like that. And if I’m struggling, people will jump in too, and I’m glad they did. So we don’t mind. We’re looking around nonstop. Where I go to the gym, we’re all —
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
— kind of watching each other, kind of help each other out.
Pete Wright:
Yeah, yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
So we don’t mind at all.
Pete Wright:
Well, I’ll tell you, I lived up to Devon’s daily deposit rule. I did eat my ice cream. I definitely drank my wine.
Srdjan Injac:
Okay.
Pete Wright:
But I feel pretty good about staying pretty centered around lifting heavy things and getting the cardio in.
In fact, I was back at the gym with you the day before yesterday. How would you grade me? I mean, did I lose a lot? Do you feel like I really failed myself?
Srdjan Injac:
No.
Pete Wright:
I did all right, right?
Srdjan Injac:
No. No, you did all right. It doesn’t seem like you lost any strength or size. You look great. It’s like you never left.
Pete Wright:
I gained three pounds.
Srdjan Injac:
Hey, maybe you gained muscle, we don’t know that.
Pete Wright:
That’s right. Oh God, you’ve just totally reframed my vacation. I need to vacation more often. Oh man.
Srdjan Injac:
Well, let’s take the measurements today and check it.
Pete Wright:
Okay, fair enough. That’s fair. This is great. Any final words on re-entry from the big vacation workout?
Srdjan Injac:
Just go slow. Don’t jump in right where you left off.
Because maybe you didn’t lose any muscle mass — it takes a little bit more to lose the muscle mass. When you go on vacation you feel a little flat, like your muscles are shrunk and stuff like that, which is not true at all. When you train regularly, your muscles are constantly storing that glycogen, which is basically the stored carbohydrates, and with that comes water and all that stuff.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
So you feel a little bit more pumped and full. And then you go on vacation, and of course a few things change. You’re probably not training the same way, or eating the same, and your routine is off. So the body stores less glycogen in the muscle, and you lose some of the water.
So that’s why you visually feel like you look flatter and smaller. But you don’t really lose the muscle tissue — that takes a lot longer, and especially if you’re not active. So there’s all these other things. But when you come back, don’t right away jump in and try to pick up the same weight. Start slowly. Do your warmup weight, see how that feels. Stay on that one for like a week. Slowly introduce yourself back to that routine, because you might try to go too hard and hurt yourself.
Pete Wright:
Yeah, yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
One week, two weeks of a little bit lighter weight, and not going right away where you left off, might actually help you, so you don’t get hurt. Start slow, and then you’ll see, in a couple of weeks, third week, maybe fourth, you’re gonna be lifting the same amount of weight that you were lifting when you left. So it comes back pretty fast, especially if you already worked out when you were on vacation.
Pete Wright:
Yeah.
Srdjan Injac:
You’ll see you didn’t really lose much at all. So you might even see the strength come back faster than that, like in two weeks.
Pete Wright:
You are already mulling over next week’s episode. Do you want to tell me what it is?
Srdjan Injac:
Oh yes. I wanna talk — I’ve been getting a lot of questions, even from my members and other clients, talking about peptides, because that seems to be a really hot topic these days, and a lot of people have been talking about it.
I see a lot of videos on social media, and everyone’s saying different things and talking about it, whether it’s good or not, should they do it, and how should they do it, and things like that, which is very interesting. So definitely gonna talk more about that, and we’re gonna go into a little detail. I wanna definitely do more research and stuff like that. So it’s gonna be an interesting topic. I’m excited about that.
Pete Wright:
I don’t even know what it is. It’s gonna be fantastic. Peptides, next week on Build for Health. Hey, check out the gym. Follow the links in the show notes.
Srdjan Injac:
[unclear]
Pete Wright:
They’re right there. Just swipe up in your podcast app and tap the links. Check out ELEV8 Fitness. We want you to come join us. The gym’s great, and it’s never as crowded as it was at Turner Community Center, because it is fantastic and all the trainers there are great.
You gotta come check it out. And you can meet the aforementioned Devon Castro. Handsome. Fine bone structure. A lot of fun to be with. Great taste in clothes. So there you go. Thank you, Srdjan. It’s good to see you again. And I’ll see you in a little bit in the gym.
Srdjan Injac:
Yes.
