How To Keep Momentum When Life Gets Loud

Ever have a week so loud your gym bag turns into a car pillow? We’ve been there, and we built a playbook for it. When life goes redline—travel, hospital visits, new jobs, weird sleep—you don’t need bigger workouts, you need smaller frictions. We walk through a practical system to protect momentum on your worst schedule: short, repeatable sessions, smarter hydration, and recovery nudges that actually fit into the noise.

We start by reframing success: maintenance is a win. From Don’s rough stretch to John’s lunch-break routine, we show how to train in 20–35 minutes without burning out. You’ll learn a color-coded template for chaotic weeks—green, yellow, red—so you always know what “enough” looks like. Green gets two 30-minute lifts and a gentle cardio day. Yellow compresses into two brisk 20-minute “2-2-2” sessions and a sleep wind-down plan. Red strips to three short walks and a mini bodyweight circuit to keep the habit alive.

To make it measurable, we share a simple dashboard. For strength, hold one lift steady. For conditioning, aim for smooth pacing, not a finish-line sprint. For recovery, rate sleep 1–5 and notice how fast your breath calms between efforts. Track non-scale wins like belt notches, clothing feel, and weekly weight averages. Sprinkle in micro-moves—elevator calf raises, terminal walks, light mobility after long drives—and resist the urge to “double up” after missed days. If nothing shifts after two weeks, adjust one lever: nutrition, movement, recovery, or training density.

Listeners are already turning small steps into real change, from first-mile walks to major health milestones. Join us, pick your chaos color for the next seven days, and hold the line with us. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s in a loud week, and leave a review to help more people find the playbook. What color are you running right now?

Transcript

Setting The Theme: Life Week Playbook

John 0:01

Ever have a week so loud your gym bag just becomes a car pillow? That's why today we're going to help you win Life Week by learning to hold the line.

Don 0:10

Every rep counts, and so does every step you take toward a better you. Welcome back to Every Rep. I'm Don. And I'm John.

John 0:18

Today's theme, the Life Week Playbook. What to do when travel, stress, or wilt. Well, weird. Right there, right there, Donovan. Weird, weird sleep patterns ruin your routine. You'll leave with many sessions, no gym options, and a simple checklist so you can hold the line and keep momentum.

Don’s Rough Week And Getting Off Track

Don 0:39

And I needed this last week. I had a life week and a half, maybe even two life weeks that were rolled into one. So I needed this episode, and we need to do this before I ran into this because this would have helped me hold the line. I I gotta admit, I got off track. Well, we're here to get you back on track.

John 1:03

Yeah. But what what happened that got you offline? And so we can talk about it because other people that are listening right now probably got offline too.

Don 1:12

Well, I mean, it it's gonna happen, right? My my sister had some health issues, and we she was in the hospital for the week, so I spent a lot of time on the rot road working, then driving down to see her, and then driving back home and is back back and forth for for a solid week. So it was very difficult for me to find time. To find time to do anything. My most physical activity is I cut some wood for my dad.

John 1:41

Okay.

Don 1:42

And then I also tried to make sure that when I parked at the hospital, that I made sure I parked under a street lamp, but uh a little bit further away from the entrance.

John 1:52

So you get a little walk in. Yeah. Yeah. Was there stairs in the hospital?

Don 1:56

There were stairs, but she was on the seventh floor. And you know, I wasn't even sure where the stairs were. Right.

John 2:02

So And you're you know, you're going through life stresses and it's just you're yeah.

Don 2:06

Yeah, and after the drive, I I just wanted to get up and see her and see see what her state was. So I think you get a pass. I appreciate that. Thank you.

Sleep, Caffeine, And Recovery Wins

John 2:16

But I will say this for people who get into those life messes. When that happens, a lot of things can spiral, right? Stressful eating, stressful sleeping, or not sleeping. Not sleeping, not sleeping, not get your drinking coffee, energy drinks, soda, you get off kilter. Yep.

Don 2:36

Did you do that or did you kind of maintain I I I maintained for the most part um the I I had more coffee than I should have because we had done our recovery episode. Because we had done our recovery episode, I had started a new sleep routine. Okay, good. And I started taking magnesium.

John 2:54

Yes, I heard that's good. You couldn't rub it in your feet. Did you know that? No, I could rub it on your feet. I'm not sure how that pill would be. No, no, no. There's a go ahead.

Don 3:02

Okay. But but I started taking the magnesium, and man, uh, you know, even when I wasn't getting a full night's rest, you know, I was only getting my five, five and a half hours. My recovery was in the green. It was fantastic.

John 3:15

Okay, awesome. However, when you're getting that five, five and a half hours of sleep, why are you still texting me at 5 a.m.?

Don 3:21

Because she told me I could.

John 3:23

Well, I'm I want you and everybody on this podcast to know that that needs to stop.

Don 3:28

All right. So who sent who the last text last night at 1130?

John 3:32

Well, that was that was because I was responding to your text that you sent me at 1015. And I just kept on texting because I couldn't fall asleep. Okay. So so who's at fault? Me, because I didn't take my warm shower. I drink drink my glass of milk, and I looked at social media on my phone.

Don 3:53

Man, you just committed like all the all these sins right there.

John 3:57

I need to repent. Well, that's what this episode's about, Donovan. We're repenting.

Don 4:01

Yeah, we're going to talk about how to how maintenance is the win when you hold that line.

Lunch-Break Training And Holding The Line

John 4:07

You gotta hold it. Real quick, I ventured off into a new fitness industry gym this last week.

Don 4:15

Fantastic.

John 4:16

This is this your weekly win here. This is my well, it's kind of talking about holding the line. Okay, I like that. So I I didn't I wasn't going through the traumatic stuff that you were going through. However, when you start a new job, no matter what, you know, like for people who have like real jobs, not like me, who works at a gym doing training and managing gyms.

Don 4:39

And and mopping floors, mopping floors, cleaning, cleaning toilets. I mean, I mean, that sounds like a real job to me.

John 4:45

But it's you know, whenever you get a new job, you know, your your day changes. So instead of having an hour to work out, because now my my I'm working from 8 30 to 6, 6:30, uh-huh. And then I gotta get home, gotta walk the dog, gotta make food, all that kind of good stuff. So I get an hour lunch at my new job. Okay, but that's really 35 minutes of workout. So I had to streamline it in order to still hold the line, which we're gonna talk about. I'm just gonna give everybody a teaser. I I'm running a mile and a half, and then and I'm knocking that out. How long? How fast do you think? How long is it taking me to run a mile and a half?

Don 5:29

I would I would say for you, probably about 15 minutes.

John 5:33

13? Oh, wow. So you're you're looking. I well, you know, I gotta tell you, I've been doing this now for about three weeks, this running thing. So it's getting easier. So it's I'm knocking out about 15 minutes of cardio, and then I'm just doing I'm this I'm just hitting three machines. Well, that's awesome. Like a bench, a leg press, a leg curl, whatever, or curls, and I'm done in 35 minutes because I gotta hold the line. That's right. And I did a scan. Oh. You saw it. Yeah, you saw my numbers. I saw your numbers. Yeah, they're looking good. So and that and I've cut my workouts. Yeah.

Big Health Win: 83 Pounds Down

Don 6:09

And I'm still eating cookies. Yeah, you know, you talked about Girl Scout cookies, but they never came out of that uh Oh, they came out, and they've Yeah, not while I was here. They're gone now. So I I my fitness win is kind of uh a little bit different. It's more of a report than we've already talked about how crazy my week was. But I actually had a doctor's appointment earlier this week, and my doctor came in and he said, Wow, congratulations. I said, Okay. For what? He said, You've lost 83 pounds. Stop. We're doing a high five, people. You can't see it. I just high-fived him. So he said, You've lost 83 pounds from your your high weight. He said, That's fantastic. He said, You are my star of the month. So yeah, I I got my picture up on the board and everything.

John 7:01

No, it's good. You know, it was pretty awesome. And that's again, everybody, if you haven't been following along on the podcast, that's what generated this brainchild of Donovan's for Better Every Rep, was Yeah.

Don 7:18

My journey from from where I was to where I am today. And and we're still making, we're still on that journey. We're not finished.

John 7:25

No. Nobody's ever gonna be finished.

Don 7:27

You're not finished till Well, you're not finished until you're finished. Yeah. Yeah.

John 7:32

I'm gonna be the best looking corpse ever.

Don 7:35

I think you're I think you're gonna be a great looking corpse, John. Congratulations.

John 7:39

Thank you.

Don 7:39

Yeah. I want to be I want to be like you one day.

John 7:42

So can we talk about some we talked about the wins? I want to talk about Shirley from Lincoln, Nebraska. Shirley chimed in to let me know that she started walking one mile after she started listening to our Better Everywhere. Oh, that's fantastic. I knew Shirley. We used to work together, Lord, how long ago was this? Years ago. And so Shirley started listening to Better Reb. And because of that, she started walking a mile, and now she's up to two miles, and she just wanted to let everybody know that she's being motivated by our podcast.

Don 8:19

That's fantastic. I love it. That's fantastic. That that's you know, and and that's kind of why we started this, to to let everyone know that we're all starting from somewhere.

John 8:32

Oh, yeah. It's beautiful. I mean, I every week we missed last episode, but every week somebody lets us know that their journey is is growing because of some of the things we're talking about because it's real life.

Don 8:47

Right.

John 8:48

From Robert, Brenda, Shirley, Walter, Frank, and Jill.

Don 8:52

And I and you're a guy in Charlotte. Yeah, and and Paul, he said that he's he agrees with almost everything that we've said so far. You know, he's like, yeah, getting in the gym that first time is kind of scary. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So and and it's great. It's great hearing for everybody. Now, I have a extra special thing that we're gonna talk about at the end of the episode where people can write in and give us some ideas. Okay. And we're gonna give away some swag. Whoa.

John 9:23

Okay, I like the swag. I got some of it right here too.

Core Idea: Maintenance Over Records

Don 9:26

Yeah, yeah, and that's one of our giveaways. Don't okay. I'm not gonna tell you. Don't give it away. It's called a teaser, I think. Yeah, it's a teaser. Let's get them to the end. All right. So let's talk about our main topic, John. What is it this week? Well, I'm John. Oh, wait.

SPEAKER_02 9:41

Yes, we are. Okay.

John 9:43

Congratulations. And welcome to today's podcast. Hey, life's weeks aren't for records, they're for momentum. So we want to keep that momentum going. Does that make sense, Donovan? Absolutely. If you hold that line, which you should have done last week. Yeah, I struggled. You will win. All right. That's okay. You we're gonna we're gonna work through it together.

Don 10:03

Absolutely. Well, John, what are what are some things that I could have done?

The Dashboard: Strength, Conditioning, Recovery

John 10:07

All right. So make sure you're getting lots of water. Yep. You said you have been drinking coffee, so you want to make sure you're staying hydrated.

Don 10:14

That's right. But you know, and especially guys that are 61 or older, they probably want to watch when they they are drinking that water, right, John?

John 10:22

Yes, Donovan. Okay. I'm gonna tell you like a I I swear if I swallow the water after I brush my teeth at 10 o'clock at night, an hour later I'm getting up. You don't even know at the struggles. All right. So then also you want to do three 10 to 15 minute walks this week. Okay, that's part of your workout.

Don 10:46

Okay.

John 10:47

All right. And then one to two short lifts. That's it. It's still progress.

unknown 10:52

Yeah.

John 10:53

It's not, it's not, you know, you're not setting any records. You're maintaining, kind of like we've been talking about the last couple episodes.

Don 11:00

I was not sending any records last week. Maybe, maybe for the least activity in a week, that that may be it. Actually, I think I was setting the act record for the most miles-driven.

John 11:11

Yeah, that doesn't count. No, I don't think it counts at all. No, it doesn't count. It's kind of like watching Ferris Bueller's Day off when the kid puts the car in reverse. Remember that? It's like you're taking the miles off the car. You know, by you driving the car, you're not putting any miles on your feet. No, I'm not. You're right. It's okay. It's stop beating yourself up. Okay. People do not beat yourselves up. We're starting it's a new week. That's right. It's a new episode, it's a new week.

Busy-Week Workouts And Stretching First

Don 11:37

And and and get get back on the bandwagon, hold the line, and get back to it. So and hold the line means keep the habit alive so next week you can build again. No overhauls, one lever at a time. So let's talk about our dashboard. Remember our dashboard, John? It's a yes or no question. Yes, yes, I remember our dashboard. So strength. Just keep one lift steady. Keep those loads and the reps the same. Don't try and push it. You're just trying to maintain and hold that line. Right. Conditioning smoother. Same effort or same work. Just do it in a little less time. No all-out finish. You know, I I like when you were talking about your runs and stuff. I like the last 15-20 seconds, I like to sprint. Sprint, yeah. Just to try and finish it hard. You know, and and of course I'm trying to set you know a new PR when I'm when I'm on the uh the treadmill. Recovery. This one I actually won last week.

John 12:44

Well, because you you you won 100 miles an hour for 18 hours at a time. I did. You hit the couch, there's a boom.

Don 12:51

Yeah. You're you're you're not wrong there. So make sure you're rating your sleep. Remember, we talked about that last week. One to five. How fast do you catch your breath in between steps? And then your favorite and mine is those non-scale benchmarks on our dashboard. Yep. Are we how's that belt notch? Did did your week of maintaining did you go up a belt notch or did you maintain clothing fit? Is it the same or is it better? And then you like those optional photos two to four times a week.

John 13:26

So Well, if you would become my Facebook friend, you'd notice I actually I don't take really pictures of myself. It's always my dog.

Don 13:34

Yeah, you and your dog doing something. Yeah. Right. Or you and Annette, you and your son.

John 13:40

Yeah, but I'm always behind the camera.

Don 13:42

There's no pictures of me and you.

John 13:44

Besides the one we have on our I I try to take one every day and we're doing the podcast. Oh, yeah, that's right. For historical purposes.

Don 13:51

When people look back and hysterical, probably better.

John 13:55

Like, remember?

Don 13:56

Yeah. Those two guys when they first started? So you've given us what we need to do. We've talked about that dashboard. What are some things that we can do to apply this to busy weeks?

John 14:08

Yeah. So I I I'd mentioned like this week with my new job, I was just doing like a 35-minute workout. If it's if it's 20 minutes, right? If you just have 20 minutes to get in there and hit it, I you you go to a lot of gyms and I call it it's a hit workout, right? I I did a hit workout. So I hit a body part, but again, I'm gonna go back to stressing, and I don't care about what your stressful workout time is. I need everybody to always do what before you start working out.

Don 14:42

Is that stretch, John?

John 14:43

Yes. I I cannot, if anybody gets anything out of this podcast, and people out there who have had me as a trainer, Brenda, Robert, I could just go down the list because you're about the only people that listen to this. Stretching.

Don 14:57

That's sad, John.

Chaos Colors: Green, Yellow, Red Templates

John 14:58

Well, there's I've maybe more people will listen and want me to become their personal trainer. Sure. But stretching is key. So let's say you have 20, 30 minutes to work out. Stretch for five minutes. Because just think about it. You're coming from your desk, you're coming from your car, you're coming from a situation where your body has not had time to limber up. So I'm gonna get hydrate. If you're gonna work out, drink a bottle of water 30 minutes maybe before you work out. You know, like, all right, I'm gonna work out at one o'clock. All right, it's 12:30. I better, okay, I better eat. I better, is there something I should eat? Do I need something in my stomach? Protein. Right. And then I'm gonna hydrate, and then I'm gonna one o'clock comes, I'm gonna get in my gym clothes, whatever I have, I'm gonna stretch for five minutes. I'm gonna do cardio for let's just say 10. So now we got 15 minutes in. I'm gonna hit some jumping jacks, I'm gonna hit some push-ups, I might hit the bench press, whatever it is that you want to hit on that day. Great, do that in 30 minutes. Now, on day two of that, five minutes stretch, 10 minutes of lifting, and now you're gonna hit another different body part. Does that make sense? Yep. So that's what I would encourage people to do as far as a workout goes. If you've got to get into it quick and quick and in and out, but you're maintaining that holding that line.

Don 16:24

Holding the line, maintaining. We're not going for PRs here. No. We're just just maintaining what's going on. This is the week of stress.

John 16:32

I'm on the road, whatever. Yep. I don't want to fall back of everything that I've built up.

Don 16:38

So one one thing that I like is, you know, I read where if you're in the airport, you're standing in line, waiting to get on to the airplane. You can take that suitcase and just kind of go ahead and and and and do some.

John 16:57

Yeah, do it. Yeah, I've seen people do that kind of stuff.

Don 17:01

Do it in a corner by yourself.

John 17:03

Right. Like you can even do squats on the chair, you know, but make sure it's Yeah. You know what? Some body weight fun. Again, remember, like we talk about nobody's really watching you, and when you go into the gym, that was like episode three or four.

Don 17:16

Yeah, yeah, but they are in the airport.

John 17:18

In the airport, they're going, okay, that person's waxed.

Don 17:20

Yeah. Yeah. The nice thing about the airport is they'll call the police on you and escorted off the plane.

John 17:25

You'll never see these people again. You're in Atlanta, you're in Boston, you're in LaGuardia. They'll never see you again.

Don 17:32

Yeah, if you get a LaGuardia, they may never see you again, for sure enough.

John 17:36

But no, it's a good, that's a good point. And same thing as remember I said when you're in an elevator, what should you be doing? Calf raises. Calf raises. Yep.

Don 17:44

And the other thing that's super important, especially if you're traveling, especially if you're doing airline travel, is make sure you're hydrating. Yes. Because it is amazing how dehydrated you can get traveling.

John 17:58

I'm going to get a, you know me, I get on tangents. No. Do you? So I noticed. When you're in the airport again, and you have a 30-minute layover, 40-minute, whatever layover, let's say it's an hour. Why not walk the terminal? I do, because I I can't sit still.

Minimal Markers And Non-Scale Wins

Don 18:15

Usually if I get a 40-minute layover, I'm doing more than walking. Are you? Yeah, I'm I'm hustling fast.

John 18:22

No, not no. I'm talking when you're at your terminal getting ready to get on the plane, but you gotta wait.

Don 18:27

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. I'd usually walk. I usually just keep moving.

John 18:32

Yep. Stretch.

Don 18:34

And and constantly checking my phone because they'll probably change my gait.

John 18:37

Oh, geez. Okay. That's a okay. Stay focused.

Don 18:41

Okay. I'm sorry. So we've talked about some things that you can do to help maintain and hold that line. Let's talk about some life week adaptation. You've come up with this really cool color chart that you're really fond of. Chaos color. So I'm gonna pick a chaos color.

John 19:02

Yep. All right. So chaos color would be green, which is mildly loud. So here's what I need you to do. Two 30-minute lifts, one 20-minute easy cardio. So where are we at? 50 minutes? 50 minutes. And then we have like two 10-minute walks. And then guess what?

Don 19:23

Does it have something to do with our episode last week?

John 19:26

Yes. Something that we Yeah.

Don 19:28

So go to bed. Go to bed earlier.

John 19:30

Earlier. Yep. Set that alarm, remember? We talked about that.

Don 19:33

And this is what I'm doing for the week. So uh two for the week, I'm doing two 30-minute lifts, one 20 minute easy cardio in the gym. Just a walk. And then two 10 to 15 minute walks.

John 19:45

Yes. Now, and the bed bedtime 15 minutes earlier. All right. So our our number one fan, Brenda, wrote in after last episode. She wrote me, wrote me and said, Hey, tell everybody. That almost every phone now has an app that you can put on there. And she also brought something else up. There's these sleep apps with it that have like sound, music. You know, she said she said you guys didn't talk about the sound or the music.

Don 20:17

Yeah, the the white noise.

Don’t Double Up After Missed Days

John 20:19

Yeah, the white noise, all that little wow.

Don 20:21

Well, you we did talk about it, Brenda. John said to listen to our podcast.

John 20:28

I did. But that's like you know, you don't know. It's it's too much energy.

Don 20:33

Yeah, I well, that's true. That's true. All right. I got another chaos. Energy is affection infectious. Right. Yeah.

John 20:40

That's what Erica said. Yep. All right. Ready? Yes. Chaos color template. Let's go with yellow. We're going to say it's loud. Yellow's loud, right? You see yellow is like whoop.

Don 20:52

Yeah, and and that's that's what the kind of week you're having, right? If it's really loud. Go ahead.

John 20:58

So yeah, yellow, loud. So this time I need you to do two 20-minute 222 sessions. So what am I what's the two two two? So 777. That's right.

Don 21:09

It's it's just a a uh two times two times two.

John 21:14

Yeah. So two 20-minute, like maybe a walk.

Weekly Challenge And Swag Teaser

Don 21:18

So two minutes on the treadmill, two minutes on the stairmaster, two minutes lifting. Boom, fast.

John 21:23

Yep. Hit it. Earlier hydration. Remember again, before you get into that workout, start drinking. Then you're gonna wind down with a hot shower. Hot shower and that warm glass of milk.

Don 21:37

That warm glass of milk for sleepy time.

John 21:40

Make sure your phone timer is set again. All right, you're ready for the next and final color?

Don 21:46

I'm gonna guess it's going to be chartreuse.

John 21:50

Really?

Don 21:51

No?

John 21:52

I don't even know what chartreuse is. I didn't think I didn't think. Listen, I got the last time I got Egypt's in Africa. That's right.

Don 21:58

And you're like, oh. I know, that was impressive.

John 22:00

Geography I'm up on. Chartreuse is kind of a purple pink purple color. Yeah. Okay. Well, we're going with red.

Don 22:09

Oh, oh, well, that's obvious.

John 22:10

All right. Green.

Don 22:12

Very loud.

John 22:13

Very loud. This time we're going to do three 10 to 15 minute walks total for the week. One mini body weight circuit. So I'm not a big fan of this one purple gym, but they have a little 30-minute workout inside there. Should we say the name of the fine? If you know, you know. If you know, you know, there's a one one little gym, then they have a little 30-minute workout circuit. Yeah. A lot. And if they don't have it's a good model. So it's a good red, loud. Get in there, do a little body circuit. And then again, we want to stay hydrated. We want to stay eating our protein. And then we want to get that bedtime 10 to 15 minutes earlier when possible. Okay.

Don 22:58

And even earlier if you can do it, right? Right. Listen, last week mine was a very bright red. And I I'm going to admit it, I did not hold the line. I wish I had this. Because then it gives me it gives me a checklist.

Sign-Off, Energy, And Running Jokes

John 23:14

I don't want to get off of hold the line, but you know, we've all had those weeks where we fall down. It's we ate we needed an episode. Once you fall down, how to get back up.

Don 23:26

Yep.

John 23:26

Because you almost have to day one into the gym after being seven days off is almost like the first time in.

Don 23:33

In a lot of ways it is. You just don't you have the knowledge that that you didn't have on your original day one, but you still have. Well, I didn't go for seven days. What's an eighth day going to matter?

John 23:44

Oh, it's going to matter a lot. Yeah, it will. Absolutely. That bench, you know, that you were doing 145 pounds now. It's just lifting the bar is enough.

Don 23:54

And so whenever you whatever color you pick, this kind of is really nice because it says, okay, well, these are the things that I can do to help me hold the line. Right. And it's important. Maintenance is so important to keeping your momentum strong and going forward. And I I admit, not holding the line last week, I know that my maintenance has fallen off and I got to pick it back up.

John 24:21

I guess I mean, you, the guy who looks at the scale. Yep. Every day. So let me ask you this for the listeners. Did did you have a scale drop-off too?

Don 24:34

No. I was still weighing, and but did not have any weight gain. Okay. Yeah.

John 24:40

That's what stress will do for you.

Don 24:41

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

John 24:45

So we don't want to encourage everybody to just go have stressful weeks and think that's a good way to lose weight. Stick with holding the line and maintain the gym and use the gym to avoid stress. It's too bad you didn't get a chance to get to the gym to relieve some of that escape.

Don 25:03

That would have been great. That absolutely would have been great. So John, what what are let's talk about. We've talked about in the past about logging, how we're doing, how we're feeling. What are some of the minimal markers that we should be in these loud weeks, whether it's a green week or a yellow week or a red week?

John 25:28

Well, you talked to really just a scale. Okay. As a marker. I would say if you're, you know, X, make sure you're X and you didn't drop to O or you didn't go up to double X. You know, like you just said, you maintained that that weight. So I consider that a win. You know, if you didn't go up, you held the line on the on your waistline, because that's what we're all doing this for, really, right? Yep. Or to tone up. Because none of I don't think a lot of our listeners, we're not really pushing the the the big gains as far as muscle. We're trying to maintain. No, we're just trying to maintain. So yeah, I think if you're you're maintaining that weight line, you're doing great. If you're getting enough sleep, if you're not finding yourself overtired, you're not getting to the gym on those on those days, and you're going, geez, even this 10-minute walk is making me exhausted.

Don 26:23

Right.

John 26:23

You know, those are those are big gains. Those are things you want to watch.

Don 26:26

Yep. So so some things to to look, and remember we talked about rating your sleep one to five when you get up in the morning. How how was your sleep? How do you feel when you wake up? And you've talked about this strength. One uh one lift held or another additional rep, and just very simple. I I held one additional rep or I did an additional rep. Yeah, I like that.

John 26:50

I like that a lot.

Don 26:51

And then on your conditioning, was it smooth or were you not feeling it quite yet?

John 26:59

Yeah, would you or did you have to like really push through? That's right. And then you're like, Yeah, we're not we're not to that level. Go ahead.

Don 27:05

And you were talking about, you know, the the non-scale markers like the belt notch and the clothing feel. Writing those down. Hey, look, you know, my my pajamas was fit better, you know, and that helps you maintain that. Also, uh we've already talked about ad nauseum that I weigh every day, but it's really key that you're looking at that weekly average, even more so on these loud weeks. So direction over over perfection. Maintain and hold the line. Say that out again. I like that direction. Over perfection. Did you just make that up? Mostly. I like it. Yeah. Direction over perfection. Yeah. Because we're always want to move forward, right? We don't have to move in a in a perfect straight line. So I remember when I was in high school, I did a college football camp, and one of the coaches said, practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

John 28:14

Right. Just don't go through the the motions.

Don 28:16

Yeah.

John 28:17

I like, yeah, that's very true. Yeah. And that's something do it with a purpose. Don't just Yeah. No, that's that's very true.

Don 28:25

Yeah something you said something about motion in the ocean or ocean in the motion uh last week. So something like that. I don't remember.

John 28:32

So that's okay. You can forget that one because I I don't even know where I was going with it.

Don 28:37

But it was awesome. Okay. It was in the moment. Direction with perfection. Yeah, it was in the moment and I enjoyed it. So so everything I do is in the moment. Yes. It is. So let's just kind of let's answer a question that some of our listeners might might have. If I miss the gym entirely on a travel day, should I do or should I double up tomorrow?

John 29:05

No. I'm gonna say no. Because you you're just gonna force you just said purpose with direction. Right. Okay? That's what you want to do. Stay with your purpose, do your 20 minutes cardio, do your 20 minutes of weights, do your da-da-da, and make sure it's quality. It's not about quantity.

Don 29:27

Right.

John 29:28

That's perfect. Unless somebody in Oreos, then it's about quantity.

Don 29:32

There's double stuff, man. Yep. So let's talk about our challenge of the week, John. Two steps that are doable. Pick your chaos color, green, yellow, red, and run that template for seven days. Number two, log your sleep one to five each morning and write smoother or not yet after your conditioning.

John 29:58

If after two weeks nothing's moving, Donovan.

Don 30:00

We got to tweak that lever, right, John?

John 30:03

Yes. Nutrition, movement, recovery, or training, and then reassess which one you got to change. Perfect.

Don 30:11

So, John, earlier in our episode, we teased about some swag giveaway. So, what we're going to encourage our listeners to do is to share their weekly win or even their chaos color for their week with us at better every rep25 at gmail.com. Nice. That's better every rep. The number is 25 at gmail.com.

John 30:32

Send in your win and mailing address to better every rep25 at gmail.com for a chance to snag some better every rep stickers, and we'll pick a few winners each week.

Don 30:46

Remember, John, every rep counts, even the ones that aren't an UPR.

John 30:50

Hold the line and wipe your bench. I got off on a tangent. Okay, cut that out. You ready? Yeah. You just do what I say. I'm the trainer. Yes, coach. On these prizes, can I if they if they send in and we pick them, what if they want to see us in person? Could that be some serious swag right there?

Don 31:15

That would be serious.

John 31:16

I will pay for us to fly to see those people in Germany that are listening to us.

Don 31:21

What about the ones in Singapore?

John 31:24

I'll have to look at flights. See what the cost is.

Don 31:28

Sweden would be better. Better Asia. Our listeners will share their weekly win or their chaos color with us at betterrep25 at gmail.com.

John 31:39

I'm pretty sure it says betterrep25 at gmail.com.

Don 31:43

Yeah, is that the numbers 25, John?

John 31:46

Yes. BetterEveryrep25. Cool. What did I say? Yeah, that's not what you said. Oh, cool. Well, there you go. We hit it home now. Start over. All right. No? No. That's two over the top. My new boss said that she goes, she goes, I really like you. You're going to take this position to new heights. She goes, your energy is infectious. Ooh. Nice. You're looking at me. Yeah, that's good. That's good.

Don 32:21

I'm infectious.

John 32:22

Yeah, you guys can't read my mind.

Don 32:24

I've heard that, yeah.

John 32:25

So I just want you to know in 1983, I was thesbian of the year from my high school.

Don 32:31

I don't doubt it. I don't doubt it.

John 32:34

Thesbian of the year. That's awesome. Do you know what a thesbian is?

Don 32:38

I do, an actor. Okay, good. Yeah.

John 32:40

Because I say that every once in a while and people go, What?

Don 32:42

What?

John 32:44

Yeah. Okay. That's why today we're going to help you win life's weeks by Woe Startover.