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Online Strength Coaching: Convenient, Personalized, Effective - #451 Jan 24, 2023

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Online strength coaching provides the most value, flexibility, effectiveness, and personalization of any coaching method. It enhances the quality of life of coaches and clients.

This is a rebroadcast of episode 408.

Online Strength Coaching Provides More Flexibility

Online coaching allows someone seeking high-quality coaching to find the coach that's right for them - not the coach or personal trainer that's simply close.

It allows clients to continue when they vacation or travel, and it allows coaches to continue to coach their clients when they vacation or travel.

Online coaching allows lifters to still receive coaching if they're unable to train during the scheduled time block. With in-person coaching, if something arises that prevents the lifter from coming to the gym at the normal time, that lifter typically still has to pay, doesn't get the coaching, and might not be able to lift.

Modern life comes with moving for many people. You can keep the same coach if you move or your coach moves. This enables coaches and clients to have 5+ year coach-client relationships, which is extremely rare and challenging with in-person coaching.

Are you sick and can't come to the gym but still want to get something done, albeit at a reduced difficultly? No problem - your online strength coach can modify your program, and you're not at risk for getting anyone else sick.

Online Strength Coaching is More Effective

The primary value of in-person strength coaching that we and others have stressed is how fast the coach can get the client lifting with correct technique.

We get lifters moving correctly under the barbell quickly and in less time investment by the coach than in-person coaching.

The typical initial session is 90 minutes and requires the travel time and other inconveniences of meeting someone at a certain time and place.

Through a series of roughly 5-minute videos the professional barbell coach can get you moving correctly, and almost certainly in fewer than 18 videos. This amounts to less time than initial 90-minute session.

Also, this assumes the client leaves the 90-minute session with perfect form and does not return with the almost inevitable form creep.

It simply is not that critical that the client's technique is perfect within the first couple sessions. Furthermore, changes made through online strength coaching seem to stick and last longer.

Online Strength Coaching Provides More Value

A professional barbell coach can deliver high-quality coaching with multiple touchpoints each weeks at a much lower cost to the client than in-person coaching. Likely, it will be 25% or less of the cost of in-person coaching.

Even though the coach charges less, the coach makes more money more minute or per hour. This enables the strength coach to have more clients and coach more people - ultimately providing more value to more people.

This can be done from where the coach wants to live, whether that be sunny southern California or in a small town in the midwestern United States.

Online Strength Coaching Improves Quality of Life

Online coaching increases compliance because of its flexibility, reduced cost, and convenience. This ultimately mean it produces more lasting changes. These changes improve clients' quality of life.

For the coach, the convenience and flexibility of coaching from home improves their quality of life, allows them to deliver more value to more clients, and is a win-win.

GET STARTED with one-on-one online coaching FOR FREE! Get your FIRST MONTH FREE on all strength and nutrition coaching plans. There's no contract and you can cancel anytime. Start experiencing strength now: https://bit.ly/3EJI18v

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The Wonders of Walking - #450 Jan 17, 2023

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Walking seems so simple and easy, so mundane and pedestrian (literally) that it couldn't constitute an important part of your overall health and fitness plan, right?

Wrong. Walking provides innumerable health and wellness benefits. These benefits include physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. Don't pooh pooh walking. Whether you're tracking your steps, hiking, or going for short walks throughout the day, consider adding walking to your routine.

The wonders of walking abound. Get out there and walk!

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page for free resources, recent offers, & more.

Physical Health Benefits of Walking

As walking is a physical activity, the most obvious benefits, like other forms of physical activity, are physical health benefits.

More walking every day - more steps - is correlated with better health outcomes.

It may seem obvious, but humans aren't meant to sit all day in front of some type of screen.

The low level physical activity fits solidly within the aerobic energy system, and unless you're walking briskly or up a steep incline, you shouldn't have to exert yourself too much.

In addition to simply more activity, walking typically happens outside, which provides vitamin D from the sun, something that too many of us are lacking.

Looking into the wonders of walking? Start with the benefits to your health and fitness.

Mental Health Benefits of Walking

You can't talk about walking without mental health. Physical activity and exercise, of course, improves mental health.

Walking for most people doesn't induce the same stress that a hard conditioning or lifting workout does. It can get us out in nature, under the sun, and can be done alone, with someone, or with the accompaniment of a podcast or audiobook.

Some people meditate when they walk, as opposed to the more traditional form where you sit and meditate.

Whether you're looking for some alone time, some time with your partner or friend, or some time to listen to a podcast or audiobook, the wonders of walking include mental health benefits.

Wonders of Walking - Time to Think

Related to the above but deserving of its own separate mention, is the ability to think and have thoughts arise.

Many artists, writers, and important figures have sworn by the benefits of walking. It can be an opportunity to do some deep work, away from the distractions of the home, the phone, and the computer.

Have something that you're worried about? Think about it during a walk. Or, avoid thinking about it, and you might find that solutions and ideas occur to you, even though you weren't actively thinking about the challenge.

Wonders of Walking - Ease, Simplicity, Availability

Maybe it doesn't need to be said, but maybe the primary beauty of walking is how almost anyone can do it.

It doesn't require hardly any equipment at all. You should probably have some shoes and weather appropriate attire, but really you can walk barefoot if you have to.

Just walk.

Start to develop different routes, so that you have a variety of lengths and scenery to choose from. Pick easier, shorter routes around your neighborhood, and maybe some walks further away in nature, when you really want to get away.

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Strength & Endurance: You Can Do Both - #449 Jan 10, 2023

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Strength and endurance - can you do both!? Yes, in fact, you can.

While the adaptations and strength and endurance conflict, you can reach high levels in both.

CJ shares his story of ruck marching, voluntary hardship, lifting, and joy. He describes how he balanced life, lifting, and rucking and realized he needed aerobic endurance events to be part of his life.

He also shares how you could add endurance training to your program if you miss it (or want to try it out).

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page for free resources, recent offers, & more.

Joy Lost but Rekindled

CJ enjoys rucking. He had a background of aerobic endurance events in the military and his free time.

During a particularly busy time in his life, he did not realized what he had lost and how he had repeated a foreign narrative of strength exclusivity that left him cold. Strength and endurance are mutually exclusive, right!?

Then he injured himself on what should have been an easy event, that he could have crushed a few years ago.

He did not want to be that fragile and remembered he enjoyed long, slow, endurance events.

He evaluated his priorities, preferences, and available time, and decided to start rucking again.

Rucking as Lifter - Strength and Endurance

What's rucking?

Rucksack is the German word for backpack. Its background comes from the necessity of Soldiers to move from one place to another with the equipment they need to fight.

More recently, civilians seeking voluntary hardship have begun to ruck by themselves or in group events.

Strictly, it's an endurance event, but strength and endurance benefit performance, as rucksacks can be heavy, and having a muscular frame helps.

The other aspect of rucking, especially considering its martial history, is the communal aspect - this was something Soldiers did together.

Shared Suffering

Unless you train in a great black iron gym or have some good training partners, lifting is a solitary exercise modality.

GoRuck and other organizations bring shared suffering into the event. You have to work together with other people to accomplish the event.

This is something CrossFit gets right. The community aspect maybe more than anything else may be what keeps people coming back to CrossFit gyms.

If you're looking to pursue strength and endurance events and looking for more social time, why not combined them?

Suffer with your friends.

Strength and Endurance

It is true that you cannot pursue maximal strength and endurance. These adaptations limit each other.

You can, however, pursue high levels of adaptations in both areas (as in better in both areas than the vast majority of people).

This requires time and commitment, but it is possible.

Ultimately, you need to decide on what matters to you - how much do you care about pursuing or excelling in a certain modality.

If you've deadlifted 550 lbs, how much work are you willing to do to hit 600 lbs?

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Conditioning for Lifters - #448 Jan 06, 2023

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What does conditioning for lifters look like? Do you need to do "cardio"? We examine conditioning & cardio for strength athletes. This is a re-release of episode 396.

Conditioning vs Cardio

"Cardio" is a nebulous and negative term, like diet.

I need to go do some "cardio." What's the best "cardio" for fat loss?

The term "cardio" comes from the word cardiovascular as in the cardiovascular system of the heart, lunges, and blood vessels that pumps oxygen and nutrients to your organs.

Conditioning for lifters comes with the implication of a goal. You need to complete conditioning for health, or for your sport, or for general physical preparedness.

Conditioning for Lifters - Fat Loss

Why would a strength athlete include conditioning in his program?

There's generally 3 reasons why someone would consider doing "cardio" or conditioning:

Weight loss / fat loss
Being "in shape" or general physical preparedness (GPP)
Cardiovascular health / energy systems efficiency

Lots of people think they need to do cardio for the first reason, and it's really the worst reason to "do cardio."

Why? Because cleaning up nutrition habits far surpasses the impact of conditioning. Often times, people increase their food intake after cardio, as their appetite increases as well.

This doesn't mean that conditioning cannot help in the calorie burning side of the calorie equation. But it's not the first MED step to take.

Conditioning for Lifters - GPP

People have an intuitive sense of being in or out of shape, and they're not wrong.

This often comes from a suddenly more rigorous physical event, such as a hike or sporting event.

You find yourself out of breath and hating life, and feel out of shape.

This is really recognizing the inefficiency of your energy systems, and that you're cardiovascular systems is delivering oxygen poorly.

Life can throw us unexpected challenges, and being prepared for them is a good thing.

Conditioning for Lifters - Health

As the previous reason started to lead into, conditioning helps improve the efficiency of the body's energy systems: phosphagen, glycolytic, and aerobic.

Training these systems improve your cardiovascular health and is correlated with longevity and overall health.

Just as stressing the muscles helps improve strength and effects hypertrophy, and these are correlated with health, stressing these energy systems is good for them and for your health.

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High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)- #447 Jan 03, 2023

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HIIT is the best way to improve your conditioning and health and help with fat loss. Consider high intensity interval training for your conditioning.

Energy Systems Overview

HIIT's benefits come from how it uses and benefits the body's energy systems. Let's quickly investigate the body's energy systems.

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the energy currency of the body. ATP breaks down into adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and a phosphate group. This reaction produces energy that the body uses.

For low intensity, long duration efforts your body pulls energy from its aerobic energy system. This is likely the energy system you're using now, and the one your body uses most of the time.

When energy requirements increase, however, the body has two other energy systems to meet its energy requirements.

For extremely short duration, high intensity efforts (such as HIIT), your body uses its phosphagen system. This takes advantage of the ATP readily available in your muscles. It also benefits from creatine phosphate (CP). Creatine phosphate adds its phosphate group to ADP to produce another ATP and produce more energy.

This system only lasts about 10 seconds.

For high intensity, medium duration efforts, the body uses glycolysis. This is the breakdown of carbohydrates that produces energy less quickly than the phosphagen system but more quickly than the aerobic system's oxidation.

This system lasts for maybe a couple minutes.

HIIT: Why & What?

High intensity interval training involves high intensity, low duration efforts with rest to allow for recovery in between intervals. During the interval, you will be using your phosphagen and glycolytic systems, but during the recovery both the glycolytic and aerobic systems will be providing ATP to replenish the ATP stored in your muscle.

Because high intensity training requires all your energy systems when you consider recovery, it improves all your energy systems.

Low intensity, long duration efforts do not provide the same benefits to high intensity.

This is similar to how strength benefits endurance but endurance does not benefit strength.

If you can do 40 push-ups, doing sets of push-ups will provide little to no benefit to your bench press. Improving your bench press, however, will help increase your push-up numbers.

High intensity interval training helps your heart health and prepares you for potential events in life that require heavy breathing efforts that are longer than a 5-rep set of squats.

How to Do HIIT

High intensity interval training exercises should be low skill and low impact.

This is where CrossFit often goes wrong, as they often perform high impact and high skill movements, such as high repetition, heavy Olympic lift variations for conditioning workouts.

When and how often should you perform high intensity interval training? How long should your work to rest ratio be? How many rounds should you do? The general guidelines are below:

15-20 seconds hard effort
1:3 to 1:4 work-to-rest ratio
5-10 rounds
2-3 times per week
perform after your lifting

The above are rough guidelines. When you begin, just as with lifting, have your rest periods be longer, perform fewer rounds, and begin with only 2 times per week.

Some examples of good exercises or machines to use include sled pushes, stationary bike, or rower.

HIIT for Fat Loss

Why does high intensity interval training help improve fat loss?

These intervals don't take much time to do, which is one of their benefits.

After you perform one of these workouts, however, your basal metabolic rate (BMR) will increase for about 24 hours after the workout.

What does this mean? You will burn more calories performing the same amount of activity after a HIIT workout than after an aerobic workout, even if the aerobic workout burned more calories.

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Wearables for Health: Why Wear Wearables - #446 Dec 27, 2022

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Wearables for health abound. They can track lots of different metrics for health and can help gamify the pursuit of your goals. Matt & Niki explore why you might consider wearing wearables & how they use them.

Wearables for Health

What are wearables?

Wearables are devices that you wear (duh) that can track various data.

Some of the things they can track include: calories burned, steps walked, heart rate, body temperature, and sleep quality.

Wearables for health have grown more accurate in their measuring, but the primary reason for wearables is not accuracy but precision. You can compare different points in time and recognize trends (e.g. in general my sleep quality has improved over the last year as I reduced my alcohol consumption).

Some things they track directly, such as heart rate and movement. Others they track indirectly, by combining and analyzing various pieces of information they record directly.

For example, sleep quality can be assessed by recording heart rate and movement.

Why Wear Wearables for Health?

Wearables provide various metrics that you can track. So why wear them?

As Dr. Sullivan, Niki, and CJ discussed in this podcast, if you're gathering data, you need to know why you're gathering that data. This does cost some money, attention, and time to record and observe these metrics.

Wearables for health help gamify the pursuit of your goals. Anyone who has ever measured their daily steps has noticed that if they're close to a big number, such as 10,000 steps, they will typically do the extra work to hit the daily goal.

This incentivizes you to push a bit harder to hit certain markers. These markers do not necessarily equal better health, but they may correlate with improved health. Thus, this gamification can lead to improved results toward achieving or crushing your goals.

What wearables for health should not do is add stress. If you find missing a certain goal stressful, or you're worried about what your wearable will tell you about your sleep quality, then you're missing the point.

These should be tools for improving health and accomplishing your goals, not another stressor (as if we need more).

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2022 Holiday Message - #445 Dec 20, 2022

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Matt and Rachel Reynolds bring you this special edition of the Barbell Logic podcast, holiday edition. Matt & Rachel share their 2022 holiday message of gratitude, joy, anticipation, and reflection. Thank you for being fans & clients, coaches & clients!

This time of year is a time of reflection and joy, gratitude and anticipation. Families and friends gather, erect decorations and lights, and break bread together.

Matt, Rachel, and all of us at Barbell Logic thank you. We are grateful for all of you.

Barbell Logic turns 6 years this December and remains committed to its core values and doubling down on what we do best.

In 2023, you can look forward to some of the following and more:

More Barbell Academy courses & content (included at no additional cost if you've already signed up)
TurnKey Coach, with out web application and backend support to you coaches who provide (or want to provide) online coaching
A 2023 fitness challenge

In this 2022 holiday message, we look back, look forward, and most especially thank you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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Helpful Health Markers with Dr. Sullivan - #444 Dec 13, 2022

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Sully joins Niki & CJ to discuss health metrics that matter. Sully's biggest question is why do you think you need the test or data point? How will this information change your behavior?

Check out the Grey Steel YouTube channel here.

They refer to a red flag article a few times in the podcast. Read that article here.

Drowning in Data - Helpful Health Markers

It's easy to drown in data. One can wear wearables and get up-to-date health markers. We bombarded with inputs, news, sensory data, videos, podcasts, pings, updates, notifications.

Going with the current, sometimes bolstered by financial incentives, means gathering more data.

This data can give a blanket to client and practitioner of objectivity. It also allows delay.

What to do with the patient? Let's get more data. Administer these tests (oh, and I paid more when I prescribe more tests).

For coaches, it can be things like the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) and other tests.

Complication's siren call can obfuscate the reality that we haven't moved the patient or client any closer to their desired outcome.

What are helpful health metrics? Ones that drive decisions and behavior - pieces of data that will make you act differently.

Data Should Drive Decisions - Health Metrics that Matter

Gathering a host of tests & metrics provides the illusion of understanding and objectivity. It's mostly noise, and you might miss the signal.

Coaches should know red flags, when training is contraindicated. The lifter and client should understand baseline, and when something changes that indicates something is off and further digging into the problem may help.

What are some typical important health markers for coaches? Having an understanding of what the client does outside the gym (other physical activity, sleep, nutrition) & when that changes drastically (e.g. someone who is mostly sedentary goes for a long hike and then misses their squats).

Pain matters too. Some pain seems to come with being a human (low back pain). Still, the type of pain, what movements cause it, how severe it is, and if modifications in dosing (intensity, exercise selection, volume) decrease or eliminate the pain.

Health metrics that matter drive decisions.

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Helpful Strength Gear: Problem-Solving Equipment - #443 Dec 06, 2022

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Matt & Niki explore helpful strength equipment that helps you solve problems, make strength training more fun, and build your home gym. They share specific pieces of equipment and for whom this gear might help the most. This isn't equipment to get started or gear 101, but rather equipment and gear for those who are continuing on the path of strength and voluntary hardship. Helpful Strength Equipment You need a few items to begin strength training properly, though you can also start exercising today. As you progress and build the habit of strength training (and simultaneously get older) some equipment can help solve common problems you will likely encounter. Some of these items help add variety and make training more fun. Other gear helps deal with common injuries or pain points. Regardless, this list of items can help you build compliance and improve your training. If you use it, it is ultimately an investment in yourself and your health. Accessories for Accessory Work Accessory work can get repetitive if all you have is a barbell. A few pieces of equipment can multiply the potential hypertrophy and accessory work you can program. Adjustable dumbbells allow you to add dumbbell variations and accessory lifts without taking up a ton of space (and saving money compared to a full set of dumbbells). Not only can you perform dumbbell variations of the main lifts, you can also perform more accessory work that you simply cannot perform with barbells (e.g. dumbbell flies or lateral raises). A similar example of helpful strength equipment is a pulley system. This enables lat pull downs as well as using the pulley system for hypertrophy work (triceps, biceps, etc.). The last helpful items that focuses primarily on the upper body is getting a dip attachment to your power rack or an adjustable bench. They allow variation for pressing movements, and you can also perform accessory lifts on the bench. Enabling lower body accessory work comes in handy as you become more advanced, as deadlifts and squats don't only get repetitive but if you face a big injury, you might not be able to perform one or both of these lifts for awhile. Some helpful strength equipment for this area are a reverse hyper, glute ham raise, or leg extension/leg curl attachment. Some of these take up a lot of space, but getting just one of them can provide additional leg stress and make a big difference in your lower body training. Supplying Supplemental Lifts This might be the widest area, as we're talking about different types of barbells and other items that can modify the main lifts. A deadlift bar can really help your deadlift 1RM, as it has a smaller diameter and more whip (which reduces the range of motion). An axle bar for the press or bench press reduces your ability to grip the bar but enables good pressing variants. It is also necessary if you're considering Strong Man training. Getting a slingshot or board attachment can help overload the bench and work on the top portion of your bench. The slingshot can also help if you have shoulder pain. Bands and chains are helpful strength equipment that enables accommodating resistance. The safety squat bar and football bar (and variations of both) not only add supplemental variations to the lifts but can also prevent pain for the shoulders and wrists specifically. Convenience & Climate The last area of helpful strength equipment includes items that add convenience to your lifting or improve the atmosphere of the gym. The monolift attachment allows you to not have to take a step bar or move the bar from the pins to the shoulders on the bench. It provides the most benefit to the most people for the bench press, as many find it reduces or eliminates shoulder pain. Niki also uses it for the RDL. A deadlift jack makes loading and unloading plates easier for any lift that has the barbell on the ground, especially the deadlift. A 1-arm deadlift jack is smaller and more mobile - you can put it in your gym bag. A 2-arm deadlift jack makes more sense if you have a decent amount of space in your home gym or for public gyms. Wrist wraps & lifting straps help with wrist support or grip support for compression or tension grips. Ammonia or smelling salts help bring focus and intensity to big attempts. Clothes help you feel and perform better. Clothes really are helpful strength equipment. A timer or watch can ensure that you don't waste time in the gym between sets and make the rest time consistent. This is especially important at a public gym or if you're a coach, because the lifter isn't paying you to tell them stories. Last but probably not least for most people is something to help with climate control, specifically heating or cooling your gym.

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Thanksgiving Q&A - #442 Nov 29, 2022

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Matt Reynolds, Niki Sims, and CJ Gotcher join up to answer your lifting and lifestyle questions. They cover wrist wraps and wrist straps for deadlifting, upper body pulling exercises for novices, BJJ, hiking & rucking, stuffing or dressing, and more in this fun but informative holiday Q&A. Wrist Wraps & Lifting Straps for Deadlifts If you're having wrist issues, don't hesitate to use wrist wraps for your lifts. Wrist wraps for deadlifts, however, should not really help. During the deadlift your wrists are in tension, not compression. Use the wrist wraps on all your lifts where your wrists are in compression, even the squat. Lifting straps, however, are fine if you're having grip issues. Upper Body Pulling Exercises for Novices Our Best Exercises for Strength video discusses the main 4 lifts to get stronger. We still stand by this. Lifters, however, add some type of upper body pulling exercise early on as a lifter, some adding them as they begin their novice program. It partly depends on their goals and current situation. Some people may really want to get their first bodyweight pull-up. There is no reason to weight, and this may be a good situation to have a lifter move to a 4-day split routine as a novice. Others may be in the military or a similar situation, and may need to maintain or improve their chin-up or pull-up performance. Others, however, may be true beginners with little to no experience in the gym. Focusing on the main four lifts for them is enough. As they get stronger and their technique improves, adding in something like a barbell row, lat pull down, or chin-ups makes sense. Hiking, Rucking, & BJJ Niki shares here favorite submission move in BJJ. CJ gives a brief description of his recent rucking event and if it was the hardest thing he's every done. Matt discusses how a supposedly friendly hike became a 7-hour ordeal of terror. Holiday Traditions How do you say the word "pecan?" Do you eat stuffing or dressing? What are their favorite dishes, drinks, and desserts for Thanksgiving. Learn this and more, and share your with us on Instagram.

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