Autonomy by GMB Fitness

Ask a question Tendinopathy is the injury most people quit on. Recovery takes months, progress feels random, and there's a billion-dollar market selling miracle fixes to people desperate for relief. Jarlo has been treating it for 28 years and has dealt with it personally for years at a stretch. In this conversation we get into: Why getting stronger and feeling better don't track as clean...

Ask a question Two ways people get it wrong with training around injuries: rest until everything feels perfect (three weeks becomes three months becomes deconditioned and afraid to start), or push through and hope (which usually extends the flare).  Both worked when you were 22. They don't anymore. Jarlo Ilano (physical therapist, GMB co-founder) and Andy Fossett walk through the framework Ja...

Ask a question In this episode, Andy and Ryan explore the concept of bottlenecks in training, emphasizing how identifying and addressing the main limiting factor can accelerate progress. They discuss practical methods for assessment, common misconceptions, and real-world examples to help listeners optimize their fitness routines. Key Topics Theory of constraints in training Identifying bottlenecks...

Ask a question Sleep Is a Practice We've talked about sleep before — our PM routines, keeping it dark and cool and quiet, putting down the phone, all the adulting 101 tips that every Instagram account and bestselling book has been yelling at you for years. You know all of it. So we polled 119 members of our coaching community about their sleep. A third of them are struggling, and the comments...

Ask a question Most people think training is about constant progress. Getting stronger. More flexible. Better conditioned. Always moving forward. And when that’s not happening, it feels like something’s gone wrong. But that idea falls apart pretty quickly when you look at how anything actually develops over time. Athletes don’t train at peak intensity all year. They periodize their with pre-season...

Ask a question Most people know when to back off their training, but only once something already hurts. That’s the problem. In this episode, we break down why pain and fatigue are lagging indicators, and how to start using earlier signals to guide your training instead. You’ll learn how to recognize when you’re actually ready to push harder, not just when you need to stop, and how to adjust your s...

Ask a question Many people think progress only happens on the days when they push themselves to the limit. Everything else feels like falling behind. In reality, most productive training happens in the middle. The grey zone between maximum effort and total rest is where you can practice skills, build muscle, develop endurance, and accumulate consistent work without constantly needing long recovery...

Ask a question This episode is a rambling and unfocused mess. OK, so it's a little better than that, but the truth is that "how do I integrate more training into my life" is a really broad question, and any focused, succinct answer would be incomplete. What you'll actually get is Ryan and Andy working through the tension between movement snacks and real training sessions, why 1...

Ask a question Andy and Ryan discuss the use of timed sets vs rep counting in the Praxis Protocol, emphasizing the importance of quality movement over quantity. The conversation covers the significance of adjusting intensity, the idea of mechanical drop sets, and the distinction between time under tension and time under attention. They also address how to measure progress without relying on numeri...

Ask a question If you’ve been training for years but still feel like you're not sure how to keep progress going, have random aches hanging around, and every new “must-do” tip online is somehow making it worse. Then this episode is for you! Jarlo sits down with Dr. Jason Silvernail (DPT, DSc, U.S. Army Colonel, strength coach) to talk about the problem most people don’t realize they have: it’s...

Ask a question Osteoarthritis is often blamed on “wear and tear,” but the truth is far more empowering. In this episode, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Howard Luks joins us to break down what’s really happening inside your joints — and why movement, not rest, is the key to healing and longevity. We talk about: •Why osteoarthritis isn’t caused by using your joints too much •The link between metabolic healt...

Ask a question The most requested topic from a recent round of surveys, how to train around minor injuries is a real and pertinent issue for all of us at some point or another. Whether you wake up one morning with a crick in your neck or you twist your ankle while running, learning to train with limitations is a skill that can be learned. In this episode, we dive into what constitutes a minor inju...

Ask a question "It's time to make the Donuts." In a few recent polls, we found that about half of you say you move on from a training program when it gets boring. Given that repetition is basically requisite to any physical training, we thought we’d tackle this topic and vouch for the grind of donut making. Boredom is part of the process. Whether you learn to get interested in the d...

Ask a question On any given day, we get dozens if not hundreds of questions on our YouTube videos, social posts, and via email. And we enjoy answering them because we never want you to get stuck or give up. Most of our answers have carry-over to whatever situation you find yourself in, so we thought we'd share the love. In this episode, Ryan and Andy answer a handful of commonly asked questio...

Ask a question Nike says that "if you have a body, you're an athlete." That's BS, and it can lead to poor decisions and wasted energy that don't benefit you. Of course, you may be an athlete. We've worked with clients competing at all levels in just about any sport or activity you can name. But the vast majority of people we work with are definitely not athletes. What...

Ask a question Play is a topic that is often left out of the conversation in fitness. This is in spite of the fact that experimentation, exploration and going off script is at the core of many physical training disciplines—dance, martial arts, acrobatics, any sport you play . However, play is not just free form improvisation or what children do on the playground; it requires a foundation in what y...

Ask a question Chances are if you like what we do at GMB, you don’t want to spend hours each day working out. Like us, you want to focus on just the essentials in order to help you better enjoy the things you love to to do like practicing your martial arts and being active with your families.  In this episode, we were happy to be able to chat with Philip Chubb, otherwise known as the Mindful Mover...

Ask a question Martial art has its history in combat, so as a company founded by three martial artists, Rule #1 (Don't Die) is fundamental to GMB.  If you die, you don't get to do anything else. It's over. That's the end. It might sound dramatic but self-preservation is key to making any kind of progress. While this seems like a fairly basic and obvious fact, it is one that oft...

Ask a question As a company founded by three dudes, GMB might seem like a very male centric company. But about half our team is women. The three dudes are married. Two of us have daughters, so raising strong girls and women is something we actually care about deeply. So we got in touch with one of the coolest, most successful and badass women we know: Juliet Starrett . She’s the CEO of TheReadySta...

Ask a question As a company founded by three dudes, GMB might seem like a very male centric company. But about half our team is women. The three dudes are married. Two of us have daughters, so raising strong girls and women is something we actually care about deeply. So we got in touch with one of the coolest, most successful and badass women we know: Juliet Starrett . She’s the CEO of TheReadySta...

Ask a question We get it - you were born before the turn of the millennium, so much of your knowledge of health and fitness comes from the Jane Fonda Workout VHS and watching interviews with Arnie in junior high PE class. But you’re a grown-ass adult, and you’re still capable of learning new things. It’s time to learn how to prepare your body for a productive training session. “But I heard warming...

Ask a question Why buy a program when there are 50 billion free workouts on YouTube? Precisely because there are 50 billion free workouts to parse through. In this episode, we talk about the good, bad, and ugly of the free content on YouTube. We cover: what YouTube is useful for and its limitations the appeal of fitness videos how we learn by mirroring what we see  how that differs from training a...

Ask a question "Just squat!" "Just do intermittent fasting!"  As sentient beings in the 21st century, we all have pretty solid bullshit detectors by now, but when we're facing challenges, it's still tempting to believe the easy answers. And why not? Mostly, they're offered in earnest from friends with the best of intentions. But sometimes, there's an insidio...

Ask a question It's easy to get overwhelmed by all the possibilities out there. Decisions are hard, and we can't make them for you. We can, however, show you how we make a lot of our decisions. In this episode, we revisit the framework "Hell Yes or No," give examples of how to apply it in both your life and training, and explain how it can free you up from indecision, inaction,...

Ask a question "Boredom, I think, protects the individual, makes tolerable for him the impossible experience of waiting for something without knowing what it could be." Here's the deal: you will get bored. We all love that new-car smell and sense of novelty when we start something new. The first couple of weeks on a new program or routine usually feels like you're really making...