Kyle Dobbs: Principles > Systems

On today’s episode of Vital Metabolic, hosts James Wheeler and John Parker speak with Kyle Dobbs, a coach, education director, national services director, and more. They discuss Kyle’s philosophy of putting principles over systems, balancing specificity and variability in training programs, and the importance of considering the full context of a client’s environment when developing a training program for them. They also talk about expectations in the client-trainer relationship, the benefits and pitfalls of tracking biometric data, and more.

 

Episode Highlights: 

6:55 – Kyle Dobbs has been a coach for over 15 years. 7:50 – Kyle’s business was already 100% remote, so luckily it hasn’t been impacted by COVID-19. 9:43 – How has Kyle kept up with his high reps at heavy weights during lockdown, when he didn’t have access to the equipment? 10:25 – Kyle has a tendency to work himself into aches and pains, so it was probably good for him to work out from home and return to technique basics. 12:11 – Kyle started sprinting more, which he feels has helped him maintain his neuromuscular side of things rather than power and intensity. 13:11 – Kyle tracks total pounds over individual sessions and over weeks. 14:39 – How does Kyle address people saying they’re bored with lifting because they aren’t seeing progress? 15:05 – This has become a persistent issue as boutique fitness has grown in popularity. 15:13 – Kyle looks at specificity and variability in the programs for his clients. 15:59 – Specificity is probably more detrimental to a general population client’s goals. 17:25 – With specificity, Kyle looks at actual empirical data. For variability, it’s more qualitative and about sensory-motor and capacity-driven. 20:13 – Kyle mostly does individual training but sometimes consults with facilities that run group programming. 23:09 – In “Strong First” teaching, you’re not just selling a workout but training people to build strength or lose body fat. 24:35 – The ideas behind “Principles over Systems” are general scientific laws like physics, biomechanics, and how gravity affects our positioning and neuromuscular integration. 25:26 – Systems are brands and acronyms and jargon. They have value, but they’re effective in certain contexts, they aren’t a tool you can use in any context. 27:16 – You have to think about the full context and the individual environment in which the training will occur or else your program won’t work. 27:50 – The way a person performs a certain move has to be considered in the context of why that person is doing that movement. 30:32 – Kyle got popular in the powerlifting community from his prep and recovery work, so it’s been a learning curve to see how these athletes train and what movement strategies they rely on. 32:07 – Powerlifters often end up overextended because of their movements, and Kyle has seen some of them end up having impaired breathing mechanics because of it. 33:33 – In NYC, people tend to be overstimulated and under-moved, so they’re unable to regulate themselves within such a stimulating environment. 36:34 – Orthorexia can develop when using wearable fitness trackers. 37:48 – Kyle used Omega Wave personally and with his clients for almost 5 years because he loves data, but he did find himself becoming obsessive so he stopped. 38:35 – Part of why Kyle moved to the midwest was for his physical health because his autonomic systems were fried—he couldn’t sleep, he had high testosterone readings, he had no appetite, etc. 41:06 – Skipping a workout because you aren’t at your best doesn’t serve you in the long run. Better to do a less strenuous workout and adjust your lifestyle choices instead. 42:50 – James has his clients sign a contract to establish expectations and their commitment to training. 43:58 – The coach is responsible for the strategy, and the client is responsible for the willpower. 50:38 – Trainers spend more time with clients than any other healthcare provider out there. 52:15 – Kyle’s typical client is a trainer who’s going through a transition in their career. 55:10 – They work on scaling a business and helping the trainers maximize their time. 57:25 – They use some traditional tools like business models but also some behavior analysis and how to build your strategy and how to market it to the right people. 59:20 – Kyle loves finding people who think about fitness completely differently than he does but still get the same results. 59:45 – Models are completely dependent upon who they’re being applied to. 1:01:05 – Kyle predicts there will be a big fitness rebound when the pandemic ends, but with remote training and smaller facilities that allow for more private training.

 

3 Key Points:

Looking at trends is more effective than nitpicking changes in stats on a daily basis. Trainers should look at both specificity and variability in their training models and emphasize one over the other depending on the context. Both trainers and clients are making certain commitments and have to meet certain expectations to achieve goals.

 

Tweetable Quotes: 

“Specificity always has cost. If you want to be truly elite in any one bucket, whether it be strength or endurance or movement/mobility, you're probably going to be giving up something in those other two buckets.” –Kyle Dobbs “Anytime I think about group programming, I think about simplicity being my friend and complexity being my enemy.” –Kyle Dobbs “I have to understand who I’m training before I decide what tools I’m actually going to be using.” –Kyle Dobbs “Even if you’re healthy, even if you’re working out, even if you’re doing all these things, you can still suffer from that HVA dysfunction.” –James Wheeler “You can’t look at these scores acutely. You can’t look at them as a day by day proxy. You have to look at trends.” –Kyle Dobbs “You have to set the expectation but then you actually have to be true to the expectation you set.” –Kyle Dobbs “Everything works for somebody.” –Kyle Dobbs

 

Resources Mentioned: 

James: Facebook Instagram Twitter John: Facebook Instagram Twitter Email: [email protected] Sponsor: Kettlebell Gains Apparel Sponsor: Great Lakes Giriya Sponsor: Vivo Barefoot Kyle Dobbs’ Compound Performance Instagram Compound Performance Website